Read Online McCallum Quintuplets by Kasey Michaels - Free Book Online

stick-on bow, then ran a fingernail beneath the tape holding the paper on the box. Slowly, while Ian fought the urge to grab the box from her, offer her a really cool telescope in exchange, Madeline removed the paper until she was holding the slim velvet-covered box in front of her with both hands.
    â€œHere goes,” she said, drawing in her breath, opening the box. “Oh! Oh…oh, Ian! ” She touched the bracelet with one hand, stroking its length, not taking it out of the box. “Oh, Ian, I…I…oh, Ian!”
    â€œThey call them tennis bracelets, for reasons the salesman couldn’t give me,” he said, clearing his throat halfway through the explanation, because something was stuck there, constricting his airway. “He also said all women like diamonds. You do like diamonds, don’t you, Maddie?”
    He’d been speaking to her bowed head, as she kept stroking the length of diamonds set in gold. And then she lifted her head, looked at him, her huge brown eyes bright with tears. “I can’t believe this. Your birthday’s in two weeks. How am I going to top this, Ian? Do you even want your own yacht?”
    He relaxed, just a little. Smiled, just a little. “So you like it?”
    â€œI love it,” she told him as he took the box from her, freed the bracelet from the small elastic bands that held it in place. She put out her right arm, and he slipped thebracelet around her wrist, fastened the clasp. Lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it.
    Hey, anything Blake Ritter did, he could do—and better.
    â€œThank you, Ian,” Madeline said, using the tip of her left index finger to stroke the diamonds, watching as the bracelet slipped round and round her wrist. “I’m never going to take it off. Never.”
    And then she leaned forward, laid her hands on his shoulders and kissed him square on the mouth.
    Not that she meant it to be anything more than a friendly kiss. A thank-you kiss. A kiss between friends.
    Right?
    And who cared? It was a kiss. It was on the mouth. Her hands were on his shoulders.
    And his brain went on Stun.
    Ian slid his arms around Madeline’s back as he drew her closer so that she was kneeling on the cushions, then falling forward, sprawling on top of him as he angled backward until his head was on one arm of the couch.
    He pulled back slightly, angled his head as he caught her mouth once more, caught it as she opened her lips, probably to tell him to let her go. He couldn’t let her tell him to let her go.
    With the tip of his tongue, he traced her lips, skimmed over her teeth…plunged into her mouth. He moved his arms so that his hands gripped her on either side of her waist, tensed as she moved so that she now lay completely on top of him, her right leg slipping between his thighs.
    She had to feel him, be aware of how aroused he was, how much this definitely was not a kiss between friends, old pals. Buddies.
    He let his hands find the hem of her blouse, that softest silk blouse that could be burlap once compared with Maddie’s silken skin. His fingertips burned as he stroked her sides, skimmed his hands higher, found his way across her back to the hooks holding her bra shut.
    With a dexterity born of long practice—not that he wanted Maddie thinking about that right now—he opened the hooks. One, two, three. He moved his hands again, wishing he didn’t feel so nervous, like a sixteen-year-old in the back seat of his dad’s Oldsmobile.
    His right hand closed over Maddie’s breast, and he swallowed the sigh she breathed into him.
    Could this be happening? He and Maddie, together? He and Maddie, about to make love? After all these years…
    â€œWhat the hell?” Ian tensed, feeling the tingle against his stomach.
    Maddie pushed herself away from him, straddling him as she sat up, reached under her blouse, pulled out the vibrating pager she’d clipped to her waistband.
    â€œA