“Yeah? Like what?”
“Can’t tell. Hairdresser code of ethics and all that.”
He dropped his head back against the rest and laughed. “I bet you hear a lot of shit.”
“See a lot of it, too. You know I run a full service salon, right?”
He shot her a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Put it this way—the ladies in Cameron County sure like their jewelry.”
Eyes wide, he asked, “You do piercings, too?”
“No.” This time she laughed. “I don’t do them, but I see them. A lot of them. While I’m waxing.”
Brody launched forward in the seat, his inner teenage boy coming out in full force. “Are you kidding me? You wax other chicks?”
She giggled again. “It’s not as exciting as it sounds. Believe me.”
His eyes darkened and he groaned. “Not gonna lie, Jenn, that’s a fucking hot image.”
“Somehow I knew you’d say that.” She rolled her eyes and nodded toward her front door. “Walk me in?”
They barely made it to the porch before he pulled her close and buried his face in her hair. Likewise, she wrapped her arms around his waist and burrowed into his hoodie. Sucking in a deep breath, she held it, locking his now-familiar scent into memory.
“Text when you get home?” she asked, her voice muffled.
“Yes, ma’am. It’ll be late though. You okay with that?”
“More than okay. I want to know you made it safely.”
“You don’t need to worry about me, sugar.” He rocked them from side to side and she closed her eyes, savoring his big arms around her.
“It’s my thing. The consummate caregiver.”
“Let me guess—if waxing beavers didn’t work out, you’d have been a nurse.”
She laughed until her knees went weak and Brody had to hold her tighter yet, though he wasn’t much help because he shook with laughter, too.
“I should’ve never told you,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “You’ll never take my job seriously again.”
“Oh, you’ve got it all wrong, sugar—I have a whole new appreciation for what you do.” His hands slid from her lower back to her ass, pulling her hips against his. Unless he had a stick of dynamite in his jeans, he wasn’t lying.
Mmm, so tempting. Her pulse picked up and everything that made her feminine began to warm in response. Her hips rolled of their volition and he pushed back, the thick, taunting length of his erection pressing into her belly.
“Brody,” she moaned, her fingers winding tight into his sweatshirt. God, how she wanted him stay. “You should really go.”
“I know.” His breath was hot against the side of her face, as his lips brushed from hers to her ear, and then to the spot behind her jaw that always made her lose her mind. “Just making sure you don’t forget me.”
“I won’t.” God help me, I won’t. She clung to him harder, coming up on her toes to give him better access, despite her warning. She felt his smile against her skin before the hot, wet flick of his tongue sent shivers racing down her spine. He played, licked, and nuzzled until she turned into a panting, groping pile of jelly in his arms.
Would it be so bad to give into him just one time? What if she never saw him again?
“When you go to bed tonight,” he rasped, “I want you to think about all the things I’d do to you if I stayed. I want you to touch yourself like I would, loving every last inch of your body until you can’t take it a second longer. Make it my face between your thighs, sugar, and be sure it’s my name on your tongue when you cry out into the night, because one day soon I’m gonna want to hear it for myself. When that time comes, I want to know it’s me you’re thinking about, not some selfish prick who never deserved you in the first place.”
Before she could conjure up a coherent thought that didn’t include fuck me now, he brushed one last kiss across her lips and was gone.
She stood on the porch watching him leave, with her silly heart hammering in her chest and her greedy sex pulsing with arousal. She was wet. So, so wet from just his words that it wouldn’t take more than a minute to find the release he’d taunted her with.
But it wasn’t his wicked tongue that fueled the fires of her needy soul—it was the promise that he’d be back.
Chapter Nine
“Mark’s got his money on Vegas, but I say it happened in the fall when he came to town for Josh’s discharge party.”
Polish brush in hand, Jenny shifted her focus from the foot in her lap to her best friend’s waggling eyebrows. No matter how cute and innocent Ally looked with her burgeoning baby bump and cheery, pregnancy glow, the statement still stung.
“I’ve done a lot of questionable things in my life, but seeing two guys at once isn’t one of them.” Assuming, of course, that seeing meant dating and not screwing, because unfortunately she had done that. In one night. At the same time. With some not so reputable guys. Shudder.
Ally’s face fell as she realized what her wager implied. “That’s not...I didn’t...shit. Sweetie, I know you’d never do that. My inner bitch, however...I think she might’ve been trying to concoct some kind of revenge on Reed.”
Now that was funny. “And just like that you’re forgiven.” She wiggled one of Ally’s toes and went to work finishing the polish.
“Thank God, because I’ve been dying for the details since Nicole texted me this picture on Friday night.” Ally turned her phone around and an image of Jenny and Brody standing in Josh’s driveway filled the screen. His hands in her hair and her tongue in his mouth left little question about what they were doing, though she supposed she owed her long-time friend an explanation since the last she’d shared about her love life had been her departure from Reed.
“One, I can’t believe Nicole spied on us. She comes off so sweet and unassuming, but she’s really just as evil as you.” Leaning back quickly, Jenny dodged a hard nudge from Ally’s already-dry foot.
“Just for that, you should know that it wasn’t just Nicole—all of them watched. Even Reed.”
Ugh. “Yeah, I know. We shared a few words about it afterward.”
“So was it Vegas then? Mark said something about seeing Brody there.”
Nodding, Jenny put the finishing touches on the last toe and rehashed the story about meeting him at the bar and then him ending up in her room.
“But you didn’t sleep with him,” Ally reiterated, her eyes narrow, like she couldn’t quite believe what she’d heard.
“Nope. Well, wait—I guess technically we did sleep together, but we didn’t have sex. Or even kiss, for that matter.” She shrugged and capped the polish.
“This is the guy who gave Tony condoms for his birthday, right? The totally hot jokester?”
Hot was an understatement. “Yep, and underneath all the funny, he’s actually a pretty intense guy.”
“That’s usually how it goes. So did you nail him on Sunday, then? Please, God, say yes. My second trimester hormones are kicking in and all I think about is sex.”
Jenny laughed. “Sorry, but you’ll have to get your fix from your husband. Brody and I just talked. It was...nice.” Really, really nice.
“So you’re telling me that all you did was chit-chat in a fishing shanty. In the butt-ass cold. On a frozen disc of ice that could have given way at any time.” Ally blinked disbelievingly.
“That pretty much sums it up, yes.”
Her oldest friend shook her head, her red ponytail swinging. “I don’t believe it.”
“What don’t you believe? That I’ve kept up my resolution this long?” Jenny laughed like it was no big deal that even her best friend didn’t have faith in her. Much safer to erect her defenses than give into the ball of emotion gathering in her throat. “Yeah, I’m surprised, too. I mean, you’ve seen Brody, right? Totally fuckable. Maybe next time I see him.”