The Mighty Quinns: Dermot-Dex. Kate Hoffmann

in San Diego on tour and I walked out into the hall of my hotel and locked myself out of my suite. My mother was still inside, so she let me back in. Which was a lucky thing, because I was stark naked.” She paused. “You don’t mind that we missed our train, do you?”

      He looked at her for a long moment, then smiled. “No. I guess an extra day in this hotel isn’t going to kill us.”

      Maddie crawled on top of him, stretching her body out over the length of his. He groaned softly as the friction of their hips teased at his morning erection. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she teased. “You’ve never spent a day in bed with me.”

      “And just what do you have planned?” he asked, his hands smoothing over her waist to rest on her naked backside.

      Maddie reached for the buttons of his shirt and slowly undid them, one by one. “I think maybe we should get you out of this shirt.” With every inch of chest she exposed, Maddie kissed his warm skin. A soft dusting of hair ran from his collarbone to a spot beneath the waistband of his jeans.

      He had the most incredible body, Maddie mused as she skimmed her palms over his chest. He was slender, yet muscular, the body of a man who enjoyed physical activity but probably never set foot in a gym. He was a real man, not one of those strange celebrity hybrids who merely looked like the ideal.

      “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.

      “I don’t know,” she replied. “What are we going to do?”

      “Mess around?”

      “Don’t you want to?” she asked.

      He reached up and ran his fingers through her hair, pulling her close to meet his gaze. “Maddie, there’s nothing I want to do more then spend the day making love to you. Let’s get that clear right off the bat. But I don’t want you to think that I’m expecting it or that it’s not going to mean anything.”

      “You’re getting all serious on me,” she said. “I thought we were having fun.”

      “I don’t want to be just one of those candy bars you buy. After you get a taste, you toss me aside and move on.”

      Maddie frowned. “What exactly do you expect from me?”

      “I want you to consider the fact that once we do this, it might change everything. We might just discover that there’s something more to this than we imagined.”

      “I might want to eat the entire candy bar?”

      He chuckled. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

      Maddie shook her head. “There you go again. You constantly overthink things. You need to learn to stop worrying and just react.”

      She ran her hand down his belly, dipping beneath the waistband of his jeans before retreating. “How does that feel?”

      “Tempting,” he said.

      She bent over and kissed his nipple, her tongue lingering for a long moment. “How about that?”

      “That’s very nice,” he said.

      “Now, you try it.” She watched as he drew his hand along her hip before gently cupping her breast in his palm. Maddie closed her eyes as delicious sensations coursed through her body. He brought her nipple to a hard peak, rubbing gently with his thumb through the soft fabric of the T-shirt.

      “What were you thinking?” she asked.

      He grabbed her waist and rolled her over, then slowly tugged the T-shirt up to reveal her belly. He pressed his mouth to her warm skin, moving higher until he found her breast. Slowly, he teased her with his tongue. Maddie felt every nerve in her body come alive. Desire surged through her veins like a river of fire.

      “I was thinking you might just be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever touched.”

      A soft rap sounded at the door and Maddie sighed. “I ordered breakfast. Could you eat? Because I’m really hungry.” She crawled off the bed and headed to the door, pulling his T-shirt down over her backside.

      Kieran sat up in bed and watched as the waiter rolled the cart into the room and handed Maddie the check. She quickly signed it and gave it back to him, then shut the door after he stepped into the hall.

      The cart was loaded down with food and she pushed it over to the bed, then poured him a cup of coffee. “I love this,” she said.

      “Breakfast?”

      “No, breakfast with you. It’s such a nice way to start the day.”

      Maddie set the plates of food in the center of the bed, then removed the covers, revealing her choices for breakfast. She dragged her finger through the hollandaise sauce from the eggs Benedict and put it in her mouth. “Umm, that’s going to be good.”

      “What am I going to eat?” he teased.

      Maddie plucked a fresh strawberry off the plate of waffles and held it out for him. “Stop complaining.”

      He dug into the Denver omelet, setting the plate on his lap and balancing the coffee cup on a nearby pillow. “So, what’s the plan for today? I’d really like to get out and take a walk if the weather is decent. I feel like I’ve spent the last week sitting on my ass.”

      “I kind of thought we could spend the day in bed,” she said.

      “Breakfast, walk, then back to bed,” he said.

      “All right. But before we go out again, you have to help me do my hair.”

      “I know nothing about hair.” He reached out and slipped his fingers through the curls around her face. “Are you sure you want to cut this?”

      Maddie nodded her head. “Sorry. But I’m ready for a change.”

      “Me, too,” he said.

      “What are you going to do?”

      “I don’t know. Maybe I should get a tattoo. Or I could get my ear pierced.”

      “I could pierce your ear. I just need a needle and some alcohol.” She pulled one of the diamond studs out of her ear. “You could wear this. And after we pierce your ear, we can do our nails and talk about boys.” Maddie clapped. “We are going to have fun.”

      With a low growl, he pulled her down next to him and grabbed her forkful of eggs Benedict. He popped it in his mouth. “That does taste good,” he murmured.

      “Maybe I should order a pitcher of hollandaise sauce and pour it all over my naked body.”

      “Now, that would be fun,” Kieran said. “And a completely new culinary experience for me.”

      THE WEATHER IN Topeka was stifling, hot and humid. Dark clouds rumbled in the distance and it looked like the afternoon would be punctuated with storms. They walked out of the hotel into a blast of warm air and Kieran was almost tempted to turn them both around and return to the air-conditioned comfort of their room.

      But it felt so good to get out and move around. He slipped his arm around Maddie’s waist and pulled her close. They managed to do her hair, coloring it a slightly darker tone and cutting it off at the shoulder. If it was possible, she looked more beautiful than she had before. The wavy strands tumbled around her face in a way that made it look like she’d just crawled out of bed. She wore her sunglasses and between the hair and the glasses and the discount-store dress, she definitely looked different from the rumpled runaway he’d met in the bus station the other morning, not to mention the glamorous star on the covers of her CDs.

      There wasn’t a lot to see around the hotel, but they started down the wide boulevard, toward a cluster of stores and restaurants, holding hands and strolling without any purpose.

      “I should have bought a swimming suit last night,” she said. “The hotel has a pool.” She looked up at the sky. “I was supposed to go into the recording studio next week to start my new album.” A