Page 56 of The Grump I Got Stuck With

I sucked in a deep breath, then nodded to the security guard. He pulled the door open, and I stepped outside, but to my surprise, there was no one there. Not even the paparazzo from before.

“Maybe he had to get home for dinner,” Madison quipped, glancing back and forth down the street.

I snorted, though I couldn’t deny the relief that filled me. The guy clearly hadn’t thought it worthwhile to stick around after the pictures he’d already gotten. Maybe that meant things really had died down in the time we’d been away. Maybe I was now the kind of famous where the paps were happy to get their shot if the opportunity presented itself, but they didn’t care enough to hunt me down anymore.

Madison leaned into my arm. “I’m sorry to say you’ve been demoted from front page news.”

A startled laugh bubbled free. “You know, I think I can live with that.”

“Is Kenna asleep?” Madison asked as I found her in one of the suite’s sitting rooms. She was framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows, nothing but the night sky and a twinkling London behind her.

“She is,” I said. “Snoring like a footy player after a championship.”

Madison laughed lightly. Smiling at me like that, she was striking, and my chest clenched with desire. “I think she’s pretty worn out. She had a power nap in the limo, but it was a really busy day. All that pampering is exhausting.”

“And what about you?” I asked, drawing closer to her. Close enough to be engulfed in the cloud of her perfume. “Are you tuckered out too?”

She gave me a sly grin. “I think I could rally for a while. If there was something you had in mind.”

“I do have some very enticing plans,” I murmured, reaching for her hand. I tugged her to me, catching her around the waist and twirling us in a slow, simple box step.

She tilted her head enough to regard me. “Surprise plans?”

“Mmm…” I hummed. “I think you can probably guess.”

“I think you want to kiss me,” she whispered.

“I think you’re right.” Then I lowered my head, catching those cherry lips in the kiss I’d been dying for all evening. Madison moaned into my mouth, her hands slipping beneath my tux jacket to tug on my dress shirt. We stumbled against a sofa, laughing as we broke apart.

“Bedroom?” she whispered.

“That would probably be more practical,” I whispered back.

I kissed her again, and Madison tugged on one of my trouser loops, leading us in the direction of the door. In the hallway, I pressed her up against the wall, and she gasped, feeling my erection. She arched her back, pressing against me in a way that had me biting down on a groan.

“Problem?” she murmured, grinning in the near darkness.

I growled, nipping at her ear. I needed to get us onto a bed. Now. I took her hand, leading her down the hall. She pulled back, inclining her head in the opposite direction. “My room is further from Kenna’s.”

An excellent point. I kissed her again, and we staggered in the opposite direction, unfastening our clothing as we went. By the time we reached her room, my shirt was fully open, and Madison was fumbling around for the zipper on the back of her dress.

“Let me,” I said, closing the door then darting behind her. Light from the city bled in through the sheer curtains, enough for me to make out the creamy expanse of skin as the material of the dress sagged. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and as I turned her around, I let my thumb drift across her lips, then lower, caressing her breast before flicking over one pert nipple.

Madison gasped into me.

“You’re gorgeous,” I told her.

She vaguely gestured to her head. “It’s this amazing hair and the makeup and⁠—”

I shook my head, catching her face between my hands, making sure she was listening. “You’ve always been gorgeous. I thought so from the moment you crawled through my dog door.”

Madison laughed. “Liar.”

“I mean it.”

“I was a wet mess.”

“A gorgeous wet mess.” I ran my hands down her bare sides, shoving the fabric of that dress down until it pooled on the floor. “But for the record, I don’t mind a wet mess. Prefer it, actually.”