Page 29 of Mad Rivals (The Bradley Legacy #1)

Lock and Key

Well, I’ve never done that before. I’ve never just shown up at a guy’s hotel room and sucked his dick the second I walked into the room.

I guess I’m experiencing a lot of firsts with Madden Bradley.

He’s making me want to experience so much more with him, and maybe we can do whatever we want here in San Diego. We can be whoever we want since we don’t have the threat of our fathers hanging over us out here.

Maybe we could even go on a date. We don’t have to be secretive here the way we do back home.

And if we’re caught and exposed? We’re working on the SCS project together. We have that excuse, at least…not that my father would necessarily buy that. And Madden is a celebrity. He could be recognized. Maybe a date is a bad idea.

Still, we have the entire weekend ahead of us, and we’ve never had the promise of this amount of time together.

Between his brother crashing at his place and both of our busy schedules this week, I’ve relied on our text conversations for the last few nights.

But it’s nothing compared to being in the same room as him .

It’s a little terrifying, but I think it might be time to make the admission that I’m more than just a little interested in him. I’m pretty sure this is falling.

I can’t recognize it for sure since it’s never happened to me before, but it sure as hell feels like that’s what it is.

I’m standing by the balcony doors looking out over a gorgeous view of palm trees with water in the distance when Madden walks into place beside me. He’s dressed now, and he slips his arm around my shoulders. I lean into him. It’s easy, and it feels right. It feels good .

“Are you hungry?” he asks softly, and he leans over and presses his lips to my temple.

I rest my head on his shoulder as I nod. “Yeah, I could eat.”

“Want me to order something in?”

“That sounds great. Let’s get seafood since we’re by the ocean,” I say.

“Fish tacos?”

I nod. “Perfect.”

He chuckles. “God, you’re so…I don’t know. It’s easy with you. I always avoided this kind of thing because women were always so complicated. You’re not like that.”

“Avoided what kind of thing?” I ask, clinging onto that statement because I need the reassurance that whatever it is that I’m feeling isn’t just me.

He clears his throat and keeps his eyes trained on the view. “Relationships.” He stiffens at the word. “Whatever the hell this is.”

I lean in and slip my arm around his waist, and I squeeze him in a side hug because it’s my instinct to make him feel more comfortable. “It’s okay if we don’t define it right now.”

He pulls out of my arms and turns to look at me. “What if I want to?”

“What would you call it? Two business rivals messing around?” I lift a shoulder .

His jaw clenches, and I see those muscles working back and forth the way they sometimes do. “Is that what you’d call it?”

I shake my head and avert my gaze to the ground, suddenly vulnerable. His fingertips come under my chin to tilt it up so I’m forced to look him in the eye.

“Listen to me, Kennedy. Whatever it is…it’s different for me, okay? I’m thirty-five, and I’ve never done this. Some might call that baggage and run scared, and if that’s what you want, it’ll be easier to walk away now.”

My voice is a whisper when I say, “I’m not going anywhere.”

His forehead drops to mine. “Good. Because I’m not, either.”

I tip my chin to catch his lips with mine, and it’s an important moment for us where it feels like something shifts.

We’re no longer just two business rivals messing around. Maybe we didn’t exactly define it, and maybe he darted around the topic by saying he’s never done this . I don’t know what this is, but I also know I’ve never done it before, either.

He orders our fish tacos from room service and adds margaritas for each of us, and he lets me know our food will be here in a half hour.

“Mm, a half hour? Sounds like just the right amount of time,” I hint, and I wrap my arms around him.

He chuckles. “For what?”

I pull back out of his arms, and I’m not here to play games. I lift my shirt over my head and drop it to the floor, and I unhook my bra and drop it on top. “For this.”

His mouth curls into a sly smile as his eyes zero in on my tits. “Fuck, I love these,” he murmurs.

I freeze a little at his use of the word. He didn’t say he loves me , but my tits are a part of me, and he loves those.

I’ve never heard those words from a man before. In fact, I’ve rarely heard them at all in my life.

He moves in. His eyes are still on mine, and he wraps one arm around me until my tits are crushed against his chest. His eyes move to my lips, and his palm moves toward my neck. He drops his mouth to mine, and as he kisses me, I feel it.

We’re not there. We’re not ready to say the words. Not by a long shot.

But I think I can get there…and fast when it comes to him.

He kisses me with all the pent-up emotion we’ve both been scared to unleash on the other, and I hope he feels it back.

He pulls back only to peel my jeans and panties off, and he lifts me into his arms. He carries me to the bed, and he kneels between my legs.

He dips his tongue inside me, humming into me as he tastes me again, sucking my clit between his lips and pelting me with pleasure. He’s quiet, his usual dirty talk and commanding directions tamed in this moment as I let go and let him do whatever he wants to me.

I’m nearly tipping over the edge. He doesn’t let me crest over it just yet, though. He’s already learned my body in this short time we’ve been together, and he stops short of giving me a climax.

He rolls on a condom and climbs over me. He hovers on top of me, his eyes on mine as he pushes inside me.

And then he makes love to me. I can feel his emotions through his actions, and I cling to him as he drives into me, pushing both of us to heights our bodies have never seen since they’ve never had this emotional connection before in a moment like this.

My stomach clenches as the need to come pulls over me. I squeeze my eyes shut as I feel the start of it climbing over me, and a series of moans escape me as it plows into me out of nowhere. I cry out his name as I hit my peak, and my body squeezes him inside as I hear him grunt, “I’m coming.”

We ride out the wave together, two sated bodies pulling pleasure from the other, and he drops his mouth to mine as we each start to relax at the same time.

He kisses me slowly and tenderly for a few glorious seconds, and then he pulls back and trails his lips toward my ear. “Your body was made for mine.”

His words send a shudder through me.

It’s supposed to be forbidden. Wrong. But nothing about being with him feels wrong.

Instead, it feels an awful lot like his words are exactly right. Maybe I was put on this earth to find him. Maybe I’m the lock, he’s the key, and we’ll fit together to unlock the mysteries of our family legacies.