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Sean laughed, his harsh face softening a little. “In my business, soft gets you spread like paste.”
Sean had been her family’s investment banker for the last ten years and he’d helped turn Value Shop Supermarkets into a nationwide chain. Her relationship with him, though, wasn’t based on what he could do for her portfolio. She loved and trusted him more than she did her immediate relatives.
It was ironic. Usually she avoided men who looked like him because they reminded her of her late father and very-much-alive half brother. Sean had a real slick, glossy image. Dolled up in his fancy Savile Row suit and his silk tie, he seemed like your typical Wall Street money man. Except he wasn’t. He’d grown up in South Boston, in a tough neighborhood, and he’d never forgotten the lessons he’d learned on the street.
Which meant he was also a little scary. And gave her only more reason to love him.
“Listen, Mad, we need to talk.”
She cringed. “I can tell by the sound of your voice—”
“It’s about your half brother.”
Her eyes left his. “I’m not going to see Richard, but you can give him a message for me. Tell him to stop calling. He’s using up my voice mail space.”
“Mad, this is important—”
Up ahead, the door to the penthouse opened.
And Mad flushed from her earlobes to her toenails.
Spike was wearing a black leather jacket, a black button-down and a pair of black slacks. His jet-black hair was sticking straight up off his head in all directions, but instead of looking unkempt, the jagged peaks emphasized the hard lines of his beautiful face. His big body filled the doorway. The hall. The whole apartment as far as she was concerned.
Oh, God, his eyes…Those incredible, impossibly yellow eyes were still hidden under heavy lids and thick lashes. And the tattoos…On either side of his neck, two elegant, curving designs marked his skin. In his left ear, he had a thick, silver piercing.
Mad swallowed. It was not possible for a man to be sexier. Otherwise the laws of physics would collapse and the earth would implode into a black hole.
And no, she didn’t think that scenario was an exaggeration.
“Holy Moses,” Sean said under his breath. “You’ve been looking for Spike, haven’t you! How long’s this been going on? When did you meet him? And why the hell don’t I know about this?”
Mad took a sip of her Chardonnay and tasted nothing whatsoever. “Shut up, Sean.”
Spike had just about had it with the world as he walked into Sean’s apartment. He’d been okay with the stream of bad luck until he’d faced off with the lobby tsar downstairs. Now he was spanking pissed as well as embarrassed about being late. And he was hungry.
So heaven help the next person who screwed with him.
He pulled off his jacket, put it in the hall closet and immediately searched for Sean’s dark head in the crowd.
It took a second and a half to find his buddy. And as he saw who was standing next to the guy, Spike’s heart pole-vaulted into his throat.
Oh, good Lord. She was here. Madeline Maguire was here. Standing right across the room. Breathing the same air he was.
Or rather, breathing what he would have been inhaling if his lungs hadn’t frozen solid.
But he should have known she’d come. She was Alex’s navigator, or had been before the man stopped captaining America’s Cup boats. So of course she would be at the guy’s engagement party.
He just wished he could have gotten himself ready. Prepared. Controlled.
Although that would have required a sedative. And a blindfold.
As far as he was concerned, Madeline Maguire defined female perfection. She was confident and smart and tall enough to nearly meet him in the eye. Her no-nonsense warmth was a total turn-on and the rest of her was just as enticing. She had thick, dark hair that fell to the middle of her back. Her sapphire-blue eyes were bright enough to qualify as spotlights. And her smile had enough voltage to shock him right into an idiot-coma.
Tonight, she was wearing a black knit dress with a high neck and her body was…
Yeah, it was still perfect.
And he knew exactly what her curves looked like. He’d seen them, up close and personal. The first time he’d met her, she’d come out of a bathroom wearing nothing but a sports bra and a pair of black panties. She’d walked up to him, like she wasn’t the most gorgeous thing on the planet, and expected him to shake hands as if Amazonian goddesses talked to him every day.
Then she’d asked to see his tattoos. He’d just about passed out.
In fact, he was feeling light-headed right about now, too.
But maybe that was just hypoglycemia, he thought with optimism. The last time he’d eaten had been six hours ago.
Spike hitched up his slacks, tucked in his shirt and walked over to her and Sean, keeping a tight rein on his face. If he didn’t watch it, he was liable to start grinning like an imbecile. And shuffling his feet.
Man, where the hell was his game when he needed it?
“Hey, big guy,” he said to Sean. “Damn sorry about the slow-up. Did you get my message?”
As he and Sean clapped palms, he knew instantly something was up. His buddy’s eyes were twinkling.
And Sean O’Banyon, better known to most as SOB, was not a twinkler.
Sean glanced to his left. “No problem. You’ve met Madeline Maguire, right?”
Sure have, Spike thought. Saw her last night in my dreams.
As he nodded, he allowed his eyes one quick glance in her direction. Oh…wow. Those lips of hers were so pink. And she wasn’t wearing any makeup at all.
“Hi, Spike,” she said.
That voice. Low, husky. As sexy as he remembered it. His skin tingled.
“Nice to see you, Madeline.”
She didn’t offer him her hand and he was glad. He’d already tried out the whole puddle thing in the middle of 71st Street and hadn’t found the experience all that enriching. So melting in front of her wasn’t something he needed to do for a variety of reasons.
“What’s doing with the speeches?” he asked Sean. “Have I missed them entirely?”
“Sorry, buddy. Time’s come and gone.”
“I better go make my apologies. Know where the happy couple is?”
“In my study, I think. Alex insisted that Cass get off her feet and I think he installed her in a chair and ottoman back there. He says the doc’s probably going to put her on bed rest until she delivers the baby. Have you eaten yet?”
“Nah. I’m starved.”
“Say, Mad, why don’t you show our boy where the eats are?”
“That’s okay,” Spike said quickly. “I’ll find the food. Oh, listen, do you mind if I crash here tonight?”
Sean popped a grin, a big, wide one that pulled out his dimple.
Man, this was such trouble, Spike thought. SOB’s hazel eyes had that whole oh, goody thing going on. What was he up to?
Sean clapped him on the shoulder. “I think that would be a great idea, Spike. Absolutely perfect. Don’t you, Mad?”
For some reason, Madeline was eyeing the guy like she wanted to nail him in the shin.
Spike frowned, wondering how close they were. And in what manner of closeness it might be. He thought about what little he knew of the woman. She came from big money, supermarket money. So maybe O’Banyon was an advisor to her or something.
Sean winked at Mad.
Yeah, or maybe it was something more personal.
From out of nowhere, a mighty testosterone surge knocked out Spike’s frontal lobe and higher reasoning. He was struck by an urgent need to push his body in between them. And maybe drag that handsome, dimple-sporting, eye-twinkling Sean O’Banyon into the hall closet.
He’d look just perfect hanging next to Spike’s biker jacket. In the dark. Away from Madeline. Winking at himself. The bastard.
With a groan, Spike threw a leash on his inner gorilla, pointing out that Sean was a friend. FRIEND.
But then Mad looked at the man like the two shared a secret. And Spike’s core primate started to thump its chest.
Sean is lunch, the thing said. LUNCH.
Okay, it was now retreat time. If he stayed much longer, his personalities were going to start arguing with each other. Out loud.
“Excuse us,” he murmured, turning away. “I mean, me.”
Chapter Two
Mad watched Spike work his way through the crowd. People stepped aside for him, eyeing his looks with curiosity and a hint of wariness.
And in the case of the women, a good shot of blatant sensual appraisal.
But then he was the kind of man who made you think about making love. The way his big body moved with such power and grace told you he knew how to use those muscles and bones of his. In all kinds of different ways.
“So, Mad, what is going on with Spike? I’ve never seen you this entranced.”
She glanced at Sean and dodged the question. “I thought I was staying here tonight?”
“You are.”
“You have one guest room.”
“With two beds in it. And you guys are grown-ups, at least in theory. Shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Sean’s grin got wider, if that was possible. “And, you know, if you get cold at night, I’m sure Spike would—ow!”
Mad hesitated, and then gave him a second nuggie, in case the first one hadn’t made a big enough impression.
“Don’t you dare throw me at that man,” she said tightly.
Sean kept smiling, even as he rubbed his upper arm. “Who’s throwing? I’m not throwing. He needs a place to stay, so do you. Copious amounts of no throwing.”
She closed her eyes, feeling as if her heart had turned into a fist. “Sean…I’m serious. I can’t—Please don’t embarrass me.”
There was a pause and then a heavy arm came around her shoulders. “Hell, honey, I’m sorry. I’d never do that. Come here.”
She let herself get pulled up against Sean’s chest. As she took a deep breath, her eyes focused on the doorway Spike had disappeared through.
Sean stroked her back. “It’s just…I’d like to see you with someone like him. He’s a good man. I know him well. He comes down here all the time and we hang together.”
“Yeah, well, in case you haven’t noticed, he didn’t even look in my direction. He has no interest in me whatsoever.”
“That can change.”
“Not with me, it can’t.”
Sean cursed. “That stuff with Amelia and your boyfriend, it doesn’t mean—”
“I don’t want to talk about my half sister. And it wasn’t boyfriend, it was boyfriends. She slept with two of them.”
Another curse. “Do you want me to tell Spike to go somewhere else?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine spending the night in the same room with him. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he decides to leave. Now, look, you need to get back to your guests, okay?”
“Why don’t you come with me and have some food?”
“I’m not hungry,” she replied, which was her automatic response whenever anyone asked her to eat. “But thanks. Go on…I’m just fine.”
After Sean left, and for the rest of the party, Mad kept to herself. And watched Spike.
He’d struck her as a quiet person when she’d met him up at the lake, but tonight, he was a real charismatic crowd pleaser. He and Sean started trading stories in the living room and soon there was a crew of people around them. A crew with a lot of women in it.
Which made sense. Sean had always been a lady-killer and Spike evidently was one, too. He had this half-cocked grin he sported whenever he let a good one-liner fly, and like the other women, Mad felt her heart kick up a notch every time that wry smile came out.
As the knot of people around him laughed once again, she shook her head. Boy, she’d read him wrong. He wasn’t an introvert at all.
He was also very secure in himself. He seemed singularly unimpressed by the guests at the party and there were some pretty famous people around. It wasn’t that he was unfriendly, though. He smiled and talked, shook hands and clapped shoulders. He just didn’t kiss up. No matter who was standing in front of him, he never lost the slightly aloof, mocking confidence that drew people to him.
And speaking of magnetic, two women in particular had cozied up to him. Both were blond and aristocratic-looking, and pretty soon, one had her arm around him while the other tried to sit in his lap.
Mad shook her head, telling herself she had no right to be jealous.
Abruptly, Spike roared with laughter, the sound rich and very male. And then his eyes shifted across the room. As he caught her staring, his face tightened and the smile dropped off his lips. When the blonde sitting beside him playfully swatted at his chest, he recovered quickly and grinned down at the woman.
Yup, this was it in a nutshell, Mad thought. The story of my life.
