The Bachelor Pact (12 page)

"No, what guys?"

"The security guard caught three men lurking in the bushes at the nudist colony. They were just hiding out, gawking at the guests." Sophie laughed. "Can you believe it? They didn't join in any of the festivities, they only wanted to leer at the ladies."

"Perverts." Maddie frowned, a sudden suspicion gnawing at her. No, her brothers wouldn't be caught dead in a place like the Open Arms. "What happened to them?"

Sophie laughed. "The guard threw them out—
without
their clothes."

Maddie doubled over with laughter. "I wish I could have seen that."

"Me, too." Sophie laughed so hard tears dribbled down her cheeks. "I heard one of the guys stole some of the leaves to cover himself."

"I hope the creep gets poison ivy." Maddie shook her head.

"And one of the others tried to run away but a tree branch hit him in the eye. Gave him a real shiner."

"Serves them right." Maddie laughed. "One thing is for sure, you'd never catch my brothers there."

"Too bad," Sophie said. "I wouldn't mind seeing Lance naked."

Maddie patted her friend's back. "Maybe one day he'll come to his senses."

Sophie climbed out. "Thanks for driving, Mad."

"No problem." Maddie stretched her arms above her head. "This has been the nicest weekend I've had in a long time. And the best part is that my nosy brothers don't know where I've been."

Chapter 8

It was the worst weekend The Terrible Three had ever had. Saturday night they'd driven home butt naked, praying the whole way they wouldn't get stopped by the cops, seen by a group of nuns or accused of being flashers when they'd had to wait at a red light and an old woman had spotted them and started screaming. Even worse, Lance had developed a rash from the leaves he'd used to cover himself. And Chase's eye had swollen and gotten infected so he'd had to visit the emergency room, and now he was wearing a patch. The doctor had said the tree branch must have scratched his cornea.

It was late Sunday, and they still hadn't heard from Maddie. If she didn't call or come home soon, Chase was going to have to commit Lance and Reid to the psychiatric ward.

"When she comes back and I know she's safe, I'm going to kill her," Lance mumbled.

Reid paced the front porch. "And if that guy's with her, I'm going to pulverize him."

Chase stared broodingly at Maddie's empty parking spot, wondering where she was and why she hadn't at least called. Had she stayed at that nudist resort all night, all weekend? Slept with a strange guy after kissing Chase? Had the guy taken advantage of her?

Or had Maddie been willing, hot and passionate, the way she'd been with him?

No, he wouldn't allow himself to think about Maddie and passion... especially with another man. Not that it mattered—he couldn't have her. "Shit."

"What?" Lance asked.

He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud again. "Nothing. I was just thinking that Sophie and Maddie couldn't have gotten into too much trouble together. "Although they were both beautiful women—beautiful, single, desirable women in a town, a resort, filled with testosterone-driven, sexually depraved naked men like... like themselves.

Lance scratched at his crotch. "I have to convince Maddie to stay away from that damned Sophie woman. She's totally corrupting her."

Worry knotted Chase's stomach. Something was bothering his best friend, something more than his rash and his anxiety over Maddie not coming home. Lance really despised Sophie Lane. And Chase couldn't figure out why—Sophie was exactly the kind of woman his friend usually drooled over. He wished he'd confide in him but Lance seemed determined to remain tight-lipped.

The sound of an engine jerked up his head. Red flashed in front of his eyes, the sporty new convertible Maddie had bought sliding into her parking spot.

"Thank God," Reid said.

Lance clawed himself one last time. "Remember, not a word about us going up there."

As if they'd actually brag about their visit.
Chase and Reid nodded. The brothers raced off the porch, practically catapulting themselves at Maddie as she strolled up the sidewalk. Her windswept auburn hair curled wildly about her flushed face, her rosy mouth widening at the sight of her brothers converging on her.

"Where the hell have you been?" Lance bellowed, wriggling his hips as another itching attack began.

"Why didn't you return my calls, Maddie? We've been worried sick," Reid said.

"That's why you left fifty-seven messages," Maddie said with a condemning look.

"We almost phoned the police—"

Maddie silenced her brothers with a wave of her hand, narrowing her eyes at Lance when he couldn't resist and scratched himself. "You two, on the porch now." Chase caught a hint of anger in her voice and saw fire flash in her eyes when she spotted him sitting on the porch swing, then a surprised look as she zeroed in on the black eye patch.

"What happened to you?"

"Just a little accident," he said, squirming. Lance stiffened, and Chase hoped he didn't give them away.

Her eyebrows shot up. "Playing in the woods?"

She couldn't know, could she?

"Uh, no."

"Gives you a pirate image, Chase. Maybe you should keep it."

The image of him dressed in a pirate costume dragging her aboard a ship to make love filled his mind. His stomach twisted again, only this time because he was aroused. And he was so glad to see that she was safe, he didn't give a rat's ass where she'd been. She looked so damn sexy.... On the wheels of that image, another set in. Her date rubbing suntan lotion all over her naked body. On parts no man should touch but... him.

No, he couldn't touch her there either.

And why should it bother him if another man rubbed lotion on her body? He'd never had a steady girlfriend or been jealous of a woman in his life. He stood, ready to leave.

Maddie pointed to the rocking chairs. "Sit, all
three
of you."

Maddie glared at him, and he took the swing again. Did she know they'd been up to the resort—had she seen them get thrown out in such an undignified manner?

"Maddie, we—"

Maddie snapped her fingers, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Chase pushed the swing back and forth, watching in amazement as Lance and Reid did as she said. But he knew his buds well; they folded their arms defensively, their tempers barely in check.

Maddie dropped her purse on the floor of the porch, then planted her small hands on hips encased in a black stretch skirt that hugged her curves, sending his body into arousal again. A dark purple T-shirt molded over her breasts, leading his mind astray with wicked thoughts. He couldn't keep his eye off those long, slender legs. But the sound of her clunky high heels clicking on the wooden slats of the porch brought him back to the moment and the mess they were in.

"I'm sorry I worried you, guys, but I did call and leave a message that I was sleeping over at a friend's."

The three of them simply glared at her.

"I'm a grown woman now, not a little girl, and I can go and do whatever I please."

"The hell—"

"Shut up and listen, Lance."

Chase slowed the swing at the sound of Maddie's husky, angry tone.

"I know you guys care about me, but you're smothering me to death. You don't tell me every time you go off with a woman for the night."

Chase's stomach rolled.

Reid cursed.

Lance's face paled. "You spent the weekend with a guy?"

"I didn't say that!"

Reid and Lance exchanged hopeful looks. "Then who were you with?" Reid asked.

Chase could have sworn he saw steam coming from Maddie's mouth. "That's none of your business. What's important here is that I need some space."

Two male mouths opened to argue but Maddie's quick shush snapped them shut. "I'm not sixteen anymore, I live alone, I make my own money, I'm on my own. I don't have to ask your permission to go out."

"But overnight!" Lance said.

"Without even calling again Saturday," Reid mumbled.

Maddie hitched out her hip and shook her head. "You're impossible."

"We're your brothers!" Lance shouted.

"And we care about you," Reid added.

Maddie's temper faded slightly, but her resolve didn't budge. "Okay, let's set some rules here, boys." She shot Chase a venomous look as if to say he was intruding, but he'd better listen, too. He remembered his comment about her being like a kid sister and figured he deserved her scorn, but he didn't like it any more than Lance. No one had to point out the fact that he wasn't family; the knowledge that no one had wanted him, not even his own mother, had been burned in his brain with his mother's searing parting words. But Maddie and her brothers had always treated him as such and being a part of The Terrible Three had saved his sorry butt more times than he could count. The very reason he had to control his male hormones around Maddie.

Sometimes being a responsible adult sucked.

"I promise to let you know if I'm going out of town again, but you have to promise not to call or drop by unexpectedly and check on me every day like you've been doing the past week. What if I'm entertaining?"

"Just what kind of entertaining do you plan to do?" Lance snapped.

"Yeah, you planning on having a naked orgy?" Reid asked.

Maddie's eyes widened, and Chase's stomach dropped to his toes. Reid was going to give them away.

"That's none of your business," Maddie said in a strained tone.

Reid leaned forward as if to stand. "But—"

"No buts. You're driving me crazy, you can't call every day. And if I do decide to have a naked orgy, I'll have one."

Chase moved to stand. "The—"

Maddie slashed her hand across the air. "Stay out of it, Chase."

Chase's mouth closed into a tight line.

"I am not your little sister at all, Chase, and I'm not your little sister anymore, Lance—"

"You'll always be our little sister," Lance muttered.

Maddie pounded her fist over her chest. "Maybe so, but I'm also a grown woman with a right to make my own decisions, to go out with whomever I please, whenever I please, and I intend to do so, no questions asked." Maddie paused to grab a much-needed breath. "Do you understand?"

Lance and Reid simply glared at her.

Maddie's voice rose an octave. "I said do you understand?"

"Yes," Lance mumbled.

"But we don't like it," Reid added.

"I didn't say you have to like my rules, but you will abide by them." With a stern glare, Maddie shifted sideways to unlock her front door. "So you're just going to have to learn to live with them." With one last determined look, she swung open the door, sauntered inside and left the three of them sitting on the porch.

Lance and Reid immediately turned to Chase. "This is worse than we thought," Lance said.

Reid stood. "Yeah, man, you have to do something."

A splinter jabbed Chase's palm as his hands tightened around the wooden arms of the swing. He'd already gotten in over his head by committing to babysit Maddie on the job. What in the world did they want him to do now? Tag along on her dates?

* * *

Monday morning Maddie was still shaken from her confrontation with her brothers—the next thing she knew they'd be tagging along on her dates. She patted herself on the back for not giving in to temptation and revealing any details about her side trip with Sophie. Although she had a nagging suspicion Chase and Lance and Reid were the three men who'd sneaked into the resort and been thrown out. They'd looked so damn guilty the whole time she'd lectured them. Plus, Lance had scratched himself silly and Chase's eye patch, his little accident, was all too coincidental.

Even if they had been there, they had no idea what she'd been up to. She laughed wickedly.

Let them all wonder what really happened.

She loved her brothers dearly, but she had to assert herself, or they'd suffocate her. Just the thought of Chase Holloway sitting there on her porch with that patronizing attitude infuriated her. Why, they'd probably all three had dates
and
sex Friday night while they expected her to play the good girl. And that patch—fantasies of Chase wearing nothing but that patch, making love to her had haunted her all night.

Damn man.

It wasn't fair Chase saw her as a kid sister when she'd been lusting after him all weekend. Dreaming of him naked and hot and irresistibly aroused. And bigger than both those Italians put together.

Determined to banish Chase from her mind until she was forced to meet him later to discuss the designs for the model homes, she steered her new decorating van into the subdivision on Skidaway Island to meet her first client, mentally ticking off the questions she needed to ask. Armed with carpet, flooring, tile and fabric samples, along with dozens of catalogs of furniture styles, accessories, window treatments and her laptop, which virtually allowed her access to any and everything a customer could possibly want, she felt prepared to deal with whatever arose.

Until she met Nora Ledbetter; her three-year-old terror, Jake; and their Saint Bernard, Lulu.