A lamp was lit, providing a soft glow in the room, and Kade glanced my way from where he lay on the couch. His entire body went still.
“I thought I’d check on you,” I said, my voice a little too high. “See if you needed, or wanted, anything.” I cringed inside. That was the best I could do? Yeah, there went my career as a telephone sex operator.
Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, I fiddled with the tie on my robe. The satin was slippery and it loosened and fell away almost immediately.
Even from the distance between us, I saw Kade’s throat move as he swallowed.
“What’re you doing, princess?” he asked, his voice soft and nearly like a touch.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” I replied. I trailed the tips of my fingers from my throat down between my breasts, the satin robe parting, just catching on my nipples. My palm splayed across my stomach, then down farther to my panties. Kade’s eyes were riveted to the path my hand took, which made my nervousness fade to nothing. When he looked at me like that, I felt beautiful, desirable. Wanted.
I took two slow, sultry steps toward him, watching as he sat up on the couch. His shirt was off and the sight of him made my mouth water. A slight shrug and the robe spilled from my shoulders, sliding down and off my arms to drop to the floor in a soft whisper of silk.
Kade groaned, a low, pained noise coming from deep in his throat.
I couldn’t help my satisfied smile. When I reached him, I didn’t hesitate. Settling my knees on either side of his hips, I straddled him. The tips of my breasts brushed his chest and I swear he ground his teeth. His hands automatically gripped my hips.
I leaned forward and tilted my head, allowing my hair to fall to the side and brush his arm as I whispered in his ear.
“What was it about this that was such a bad idea?” I teased. My lips brushed the shell of his ear and I could feel the shudder that went through him.
“I can’t fucking remember,” he rasped. His hand slid from my hip up to tangle in my hair. He closed his hand into a fist, the long strands wrapped around his fingers, which sent a sharp tug to my scalp, pulling my head back.
My pulse was racing as arousal shivered through my veins. His warm skin was against mine, my fingers tracing the contour of muscles in his shoulders. Our eyes locked, his pupils dark and dilated and surrounded by pure blue. His head bent toward me, his lips millimeters away—
A loud knock on the front door startled a shriek from me.
Kade swiftly and unceremoniously dumped me off his lap and onto the couch. Sliding his hand beneath the pillow, he pulled out his gun.
“It’s me!” called a voice through the door.
Blane.
I was cussing a blue streak inside my head as I scrambled to wrap a sheet around me before Kade pulled open the door.
“I thought you weren’t coming back until morning,” Kade said by way of greeting, and I was gratified by his tone that it wasn’t just me who wanted to scream in frustration at the interruption.
“Had a friend of yours show up at my house,” Blane said, stepping inside. “She insisted on coming along.”
I glanced up from where I was trying to cover my exposed thighs and my jaw fell open.
Branna was there.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Branna launched herself at Kade, throwing her arms around his neck and planting her lips on his.
Blane and I watched as the kiss went on for entirely too long, in my opinion. Branna finally pulled back, then shocked me again by taking a step back and giving Kade a sound slap on his cheek.
“You’re such a bastard,” she groused in her lilting Irish accent. “You fall off the grid and don’t even tell me where you’re going. Bloody hell.”
Kade didn’t seem a bit surprised by her actions. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.
“That’s a fine way to greet me,” she retorted. “I’ve been worried sick and here you’ve been”—she glanced around, zeroing in on me sitting on the couch, and it didn’t take a psychic to see the utter contempt in her eyes—“screwing the bartender in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Fucking-Indiana.”
That got my dander up pretty darn quick. “Listen, you—”
“Yeah, we gotta talk,” Kade said, cutting me off. Grabbing Branna’s arm, he hauled her toward the kitchen and out of earshot.
Blane sat down next to me on the couch. “I take it you know her?” he asked.
I glanced at him, noticed his gaze was traveling from where I clutched the sheet to my naked breasts and down to where way too much of my thighs was showing. “Um, yeah. We’ve met,” I replied. My mom had always taught me: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. So that’s where I left it.
“Nice shoes.”
Shit. This had turned from a good idea into a mortifying disaster. I stood, wanting to make a quick exit, but was caught up short by the rest of the sheet trapped underneath Blane.
“Um, you’re on my sheet,” I said, blushing furiously.
Blane looked singularly unrepentant. Grasping the fabric in one hand, he stood and slowly wrapped the sheet around me, getting way too close to do so and tucking the tail in the valley between my breasts.
“Looks like our arrival interrupted something,” he said softly. “Can’t say I’m sorry about that.”
I swallowed. Nice. Branna was kissing Kade while Blane was touching me way too intimately and bragging about cock-blocking Kade. Well, this had all turned to shit pretty damn fast. Yeah, let’s all three of us go on a road trip! Whose fucktastic idea had that been?
My ears were straining to listen to Branna and Kade in the kitchen, but I didn’t hear anything. Were they kissing again?
“I’d better go get some clothes on,” I said, avoiding Blane’s eyes. He didn’t try to stop me as I hurried down the hall, my ridiculous high heels click-clacking on the floor.
Once I got to my bedroom, I hurriedly dropped the sheet, then bent to undo the stilettos strapped to my feet.
“You forgot this.”
I let out a startled cry, spinning around to see Blane standing in the doorway, my black robe in his outstretched hand. His eyes burned a path down my body.
“Blane!” I cried, making a grab for the discarded sheet and holding it in front of me. “You could’ve knocked!”
“Then I’d have missed the view,” he said, a wicked gleam in his eyes and a tilt to his lips. Before I could retort, he was gone, closing the door behind him.
I sat heavily on the edge of the bed, wondering how things had gotten so complicated so fast.
Grabbing a pair of yoga pants, I pulled them on then yanked a T-shirt over my head. In moments, I was back down the hall and found all three of them together again in the living room.
Branna was glaring at me as though she wanted to slap me the way she had Kade, or even harder. I returned the sentiment.
“We all need to get some sleep before we leave in the morning,” Kade said.
“Wait,” I interrupted. “Who’s ‘we’?” If he so much as hinted that Branna was coming along—
“All four of us,” he replied evenly.
“Oh no,” I said, shaking my head. “She is definitely not coming along.”
“Afraid I’ll kick your ass again, sweetie?” Branna asked, venom coating her words.
My anger wasn’t far under the surface and it sprang to life, fueled in no small part by jealousy. I shot her a glare. “Just try it, you little Irish bitch,” I hissed.
“With pleasure, hillbilly whore.”
Branna came at me and I eagerly went for her, my fingers curling into claws. I couldn’t wait to inflict some damage on her perfect, sneering face . . .