She closed her eyes, took a deep breath.
“I got what I wanted, too,” she admitted, unable to deny that he’d given her a great deal of pleasure. With his hands. His mouth. His entire body.
Mouth twisted, eyes unreadable, he sat in silence. He watched as she dug in her pants leg, found her underwear, and dressed.
Which wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as taking them off had been.
“Then we should both be happy.” He didn’t sound happy. He sounded irritated. She was the cause of that irritation.
Well, fine. She was irritated too. Irritated at her own stupidity. Irritated that her heart ached a bit too much, a bit too sincerely.
“Should be.”
But neither of them was smiling as they gathered up their picnic supplies and drove away in silence.
Madison felt so miserable inside she was pretty sure she’d never smile again.
Levi pulled into the hospital parking garage and a silent Madison got out, heading straight for her car. He hated this. Hated it that he’d put Madison in this position. Hated it that their evening had turned into something ugly. All because he’d lost control.
But mostly he hated how much he felt like his father’s son at the moment.
A chip off the ole block. How could he ever deny it again? When push came to shove, genetics won out and he’d shown his true Fielding colors.
His actions disgusted him. Couldn’t he even date a woman more than a few times without ending up in her pants? Obviously not.
And if he was this much like his father when he didn’t want to be, how could he ever risk that he might be like him in other ways?
No, Levi couldn’t imagine himself ever hitting a woman. Ever putting himself in that type of situation. Then again, he hadn’t imagined he’d make love to Madison tonight either. He’d planned to continue wooing her, to continue ensconcing himself into her life, to make her a part of his life.
Look what had happened. He’d ensconced himself all right.
All because he hadn’t been strong enough to control his urges.
All because he was like his father.
Nausea churned in his belly.
As Madison pulled out of the space next to him, he caught sight of her face and motioned for her to stop, but she didn’t. Just kept going as if she hadn’t seen him.
But she had.
Just as he’d seen her.
Tears had been streaming down her lovely face.
Tears he’d caused.
Hell, he really was no better than his father.
Madison hadn’t been sure whether to go to the Margaret House meeting or not. A lot had changed in the twenty-four hours since she’d last met with the woman she’d promised to help.
But a promise was a promise and Madison kept her promises. If she was no longer wanted, someone could ask her to leave.
Someone being Levi of course.
Only he wasn’t at the meeting. Later, she heard someone say that he’d gone with his father to meet with a local television station regarding media coverage for the event.
Each night Madison volunteered, helped in whatever way was asked of her. She even met Levi’s father, seeing where Levi had gotten his looks and his charm. Jonathan Fielding was an incurable flirt and every woman in the vicinity buzzed to his attention when he stopped by to check on progress. Each night Levi had already come and gone or found a reason to work far from wherever she was. He also found a reason to interrupt any time his father came near her. Was he afraid she’d make moves on his father? As if.