Night with Sole Regret

TEMPT ME XXIII

A loud banging pulled Adam from a deep sleep.

“Get the f**k out of bed,” Shade bellowed from the hallway. “We were supposed to leave an hour ago. Are you even in there?”

Adam reached for Madison’s sleeping body and tucked her against his chest. Nope, he thought. No one’s home.

“You didn’t have another f*****g overdose, did you? If you don’t open this door, I’m calling an ambulance.”

“Go let him know you’re all right,” Madison murmured. “He’s worried about you.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”

He stumbled out of bed, his thighs, buttocks and lower back protesting their strenuous workouts from the night before. He stretched as he crossed the hotel suite, not bothering to find clothes on his way to the door.

He yanked it open. “Did you not see the do not disturb sign?”

“It’s after noon.”

“So?”

“So we’ve all been ready to leave for hours. Everyone is waiting for you. As usual.”

Adam supposed everyone but him was looking forward to spending a night at home in Austin. “Yeah, all right. I’ll be right down.” He closed the door and rubbed his face with both hands. He wasn’t sure what time he’d finally fallen asleep, but he remembered the orange glow of dawn seeping into the room from around the edges of the black-out curtains.

“Did he say it was after noon?” Madison said, bolting upright in the middle of the bed and trying to focus on the clock on the nightstand.

Hair tangled, n*****s red, lips swollen, marks on her chest from his sucking kisses, mascara in dark half-moons beneath each eye, Madison looked positively well-f****d. Adam was seriously considering adding another layer to that look.

“I’m going to be late for work,” she said as she collapsed in an exhausted sprawl on her back. Adam stepped on a half-eaten bag of chips. The wrapper crinkled, and the chips crunched beneath his foot as he returned to the bed.

“I’m not sure how my d**k is even functional this morning, but it would very much like to show you a good morning.”

She groaned and threw a pillow at him. “I don’t think I can open my legs to accept its good morning.”

“I’ll just bend you over the back of the sofa then.”

She cringed. “We have to go.”

He knew she was right, but that didn’t mean he had to accept it was time for his interlude with Madison to end. He climbed onto the bed beside her and drew her against him. “Just let me hold you for a few more minutes,” he whispered into her hair.

She snuggled closer.

His eyes opened and closed lethargically.

A loud banging started Adam awake some time later. “What is taking you so long?” Shade yelled from the hallway. “There are other people on the planet too, you know. The entire world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“We fell asleep again?” Madison said in a slurred voice. “What time is it?”

Adam tilted his head back and squinted at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock. “One oh four.”

“s**t!” Madison struggled out of the tangle of his arms. He helped her free her legs from the knotted sheet and watched her stumble around the room looking for her clothes. He knew the hesitance in her steps was his doing. Rock on.

“Adam, get dressed.” She threw his jeans at his face.

She fought to get her bra in place and then slipped her dress over her head. It gaped open in the back.

“Where are my panties?” she said.

He grinned. Right where he’d put them.

Hands on her hips, challenging glare on her face, she pursed her lips at him. “I can’t wear this dress without panties. All it would take is a gust of wind and . . . ” She lifted her skirt, and he caught a glimpse of her mound.

His c**k twitched to life, drawing her attention.

“Don’t you dare get a hard-on, Adam Taylor. I’m supposed to be at work in forty-five minutes, and the entire band is waiting for you so they can leave.”

“What can I say?” He shrugged. “You’re a worthy distraction.”

The corner of her mouth twitched with the hint of a smile, and her cheeks pinked in a most beguiling blush.

Adam heard the suite’s door unlock.

“Thank you,” Shade said to a harassed-looking maid. “I think he’s dead in here or something.”

“I’m not dead,” he assured the maid, whose eyes widened when she noticed him lounging on the bed sporting a half a hard-on. “Just naked.”

The maid gasped, hurried from the room and shut the door.

“I’m so sorry, Shade,” Madison said, holding the front of her dress against her chest with one hand. “We accidentally fell back asleep.”

Adam’s gaze drifted to the tops of Madison’s thighs and the hint of her luscious bare ass peeking just beneath the hem of her skirt. She was right about needing her panties.

He supposed he could no longer avoid the inevitable. He had to say goodbye to the spot of radiance in his dark existence, find out what the f**k Shade’s problem was once and for all and bribe his father into moving to Amsterdam. Or maybe he’d just sleep on the tour bus tonight and continue to practice avoidance.

Adam tugged the pair of lavender, satin panties from the pocket of his jeans.

He held them up with one finger. “Looking for these, Madi?”

She turned in his direction, her eyes widening when she saw what he was offering her. Blushing furiously, she snatched the tiny garment from his hand and rushed into the bathroom.

“You know, the only reason we even stayed in Dallas last night instead of going straight to Austin is because we all knew how much you need to see that woman,” Shade said.

Adam’s face fell. They knew? How could they know? “So you should have just left me here to find my own way home.”

Shade nodded. “Yeah, I realize that now. I keep hoping you’ll learn some consideration for others, but you’re a lost cause.”

Adam didn’t care what Shade thought of him. “I don’t need a sermon. Thanks.”

“Julie’s birthday is today. I missed her party because of you,” Shade said.

Adam’s heart sank into the pit of his stomach. He knew how much Julie meant to Shade.

“I didn’t realize,” Adam said.

Shade didn’t say anything. He just left Adam sitting in the center of the crumpled bed, feeling like the most self-centered asshole on the planet.

Adam was sorry. So sorry. Why hadn’t he told Shade he was sorry before Shade had turned his back on him again?

Hands trembling, Adam got dressed. He recognized the craving crawling along his skin. He knew this feeling. This gnawing hunger. This need for something to numb his pain, his troubles, his worries. His father would have any mind-altering substance he wanted waiting for him at home. All he had to do was ask. Take. And he could create the illusion that everything was right in his world.

It would be so easy. So familiar.

Adam took a deep, steadying breath and sat on the edge of the bed. He clenched his still shaking hands together and struggled to find air. He recalled the allure of that illusion so well. Living in a world without problems.

“Adam?” Madison called from the bathroom. “Will you zip me?”

A world without light.

He had something better than illusion now. He remembered the way Madison had looked as she told him she loved him last night. As she climaxed with him and for him. As she slept trustingly in the circle of his arms. As he’d loved her. That had been no illusion.

Adam rose from the bed and headed for the bathroom. Madison stood at the mirror with her back exposed. He paused in the doorway and watched his world scowl at the smudge under her eye. She licked her finger and rubbed at it to no avail. Peace settled over him, spreading out from his chest in soothing warmth. This feeling wasn’t found in a pill or a powder or a needle. This feeling was all Madison’s doing.

She noticed him standing there and smiled at him over her shoulder. Heart in his throat, he smiled back.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

He stepped up behind her and slowly zipped her dress. “Yeah, baby. I’ve got this.”

She met his eyes in the mirror and, for a second, he thought she was going to call him a liar and point out how easily his resolve could crumble. How easily life could break him into a thousand jagged pieces and toss him back into the pit of despair he knew so well. She smiled instead. “I know you do.”

Her belief in him gave him strength. He would make amends with Shade and he would deal with his father and he didn’t need drugs to get him through tough times. They were no longer necessary to numb his pain. Not when he already had bliss. Madison Fairbanks was in his life. Not an illusion. His reality. Everything was right in his world as long as he had her.

“You’d better hope my car wasn’t towed last night,” she said. “If I’m late, I’m going to be fired.”

He hugged her from behind and splayed his hands over her belly. “You could quit that job and go on tour with me as my personal s*x slave.”

She laughed. “Don’t tempt me, Adam Taylor. I might just take you up on that offer.”

He grinned. Now there was a challenge he was up for. So, how did he tempt the master temptress? He’d think of something before he saw her again. After all, New Orleans was six very long days away.