Instead, here he was, pressing her to the wall, practically inhaling her. And then his mouth was on hers.
She could have stopped him if she wanted to, and for a breath, he waited for her to do just that.
Instead, she let out a surprised, pleasure-filled sigh. She slid an arm up and around his neck, her other hand going to the small of his back as if to hold him in place.
And just like that, he was lost, lost in the feel and taste of her, lost in the sensation of being with her like this after fantasizing about it night and day.
No one could destroy him with a single kiss like she could, no one…
And then she said the word he’d hoped not to hear.
“Stop.”
Damn. With shocking reluctance, he lifted his head.
Mouth wet, she stared up at him, desire and yearning pouring off of her in waves.
He glided his thumb over her full lower lip. “What?”
Her lips parted, but no words came out, just a soft sound, one filled with desire and confusion and frustration.
Leaning forward, he swallowed the next one with his mouth, kissing her again, and then again, his breath catching in an almost painful knot in his throat as he absorbed the gratifying, alluring warmth of her mouth, her hands tightening on him, running over his chest as if she had to touch him or die.
A goner.
He was a complete goner, and he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, falling headfirst into his own seduction. God, it was sweet, sinking into her, feeling her tongue slide alongside his, the scent of her hair teasing him, the feel of her hands gripping him so tight.
Tight was good, tight was fan-fucking-tastic, and going with that, he spread his fingers wide to touch as much of her as he could, knowing that this was a dream, one that he could be deprived of any time, and he wanted to be able to remember this. Wanted to remember every second.
She was tight, toned, but had curves in all the right places, lush, soft curves he wanted to bury himself in, and given the way she arched into him, those whispery pants in his ear, she felt the same. He slid his hand down over her sweet ass and the backs of her thighs, his other skimming beneath her top to the warm, sleek skin of her back, coming around to touch her belly, which was rising and falling with her quick breath.
“Brody.”
He heard it in her voice-she was going to stop him again, and he didn’t want her to. He could tell himself it was because it had been so long since he’d held a woman, but that would be an excuse. It was her.
He couldn’t stop touching her.
He slid his fingers over her ribs and was working his way north as his other hand continued the march on the southern territory, his fingers catching on…
Ah, Christ, yeah, a thong. “God, you feel good, so damn good.” His hands were busy, very busy, and so were hers, under his shirt, too, digging into the muscles of his back…“I want you naked,” he murmured. “Naked and all over me.”
She made a little sound that he decided was agreement, and he actually craned his neck to see where they could do this whole naked and all over him thing. “The desk.”
She followed his line of vision and choked out a laugh, sliding her hands around to his chest. “Oh, no.”
“It’ll hold-”
“No way. Seriously. Don’t even think about it.” But he was thinking and thinking hard. “Brody, listen to me.”
He turned to her. “Oh, I’m all ears. Maddie.”
She gaped at him. “You knew all along?”
“Did you really think I would kiss Leena like that?”
“This isn’t about the kiss.”
“No. It’s about me knowing you. And I do know you. Which is why you need to listen. I’m sticking, okay? Until the bitter end. So you might as well start talking.”
Chapter 8
Leena stood by herself upstairs, staring down at the picture of her and Maddie as little kids. Back then, they’d been equal in strength.
Then, slowly, she’d somehow let her faults run her life-that’s what had happened. And there’d been many. She’d been weak. Selfish. So damned selfish. Yes, she’d stayed with Rick and done his bidding out of habit, and certainly fear.
Lots of fear.
But if she was being honest, then she had to admit all of it. The lifestyle hadn’t hurt-island fun, the gorgeous house, traveling on Rick’s credit card whenever the fancy struck her…all luxuries she’d never have known otherwise.
But there’d been a price for those luxuries, and not just her self-esteem. She’d somehow managed to compartmentalize the bad, but that particular compartment had broken down. She could no longer ignore the facts. She’d screwed up. Made mistakes.
Bad ones.
She’d let herself be bullied into living a life that she never should have lived, and what made it worse was that she had come here to Maddie, expecting her to be willing to pick up and go with a ten-year-old plan, without thinking about what she’d be asking of her twin.
But she was thinking now.
She’d seen how Maddie looked at Brody. Seen, too, the brief hesitation on Maddie’s face when they’d talked about going away together and starting over. It’d been so brief Leena might have imagined it, but she hadn’t.
Maddie would never say so, but she liked the life she’d made for herself, and she deserved that life. She shouldn’t have to give it up.
And suddenly, she recognized and understood the new emotion inside her. Strength. Because maybe Maddie was right. Maybe she was stronger than she’d thought. And maybe…maybe she could do this all on her own so that Maddie didn’t have to give up her life.
Leena could follow The Plan on her own. It could work. Rick couldn’t do anything to Maddie because one, her sister wasn’t a jewelry designer, and two, if he even thought about getting the authorities involved, he’d be implicating himself.
Yeah, Leena really could vanish on her own. She could vanish and let Maddie live her life.
Maddie would never let her do it, of course. Never. Knowing it, knowing there was no better time than now, she grabbed her bag and then at the last moment, took the photo, too, slipping it into her bag next to her cell phone before quietly heading outside.
Maddie’s lips were still tingling. She didn’t take her eyes off Brody as confusion and heat flowed through her veins instead of blood. So much damn heat…
He’d kissed her.
Holy smokes, he’d nearly kissed her right into a spontaneous orgasm. Her pulse couldn’t seem to recover, nor could the rest of her. Her skin felt too tight, her breathing still labored.
Brody hadn’t taken his eyes off her, either. His own breathing didn’t seem any too steady, and when he spoke, his voice was low and rough, his expression as baffled as she imagined hers was.
“I can’t believe you could kiss me like that,” he said. “With all that tongue and heat, and still not tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I thought that you thought that you were kissing Leena.”
“Yeah, well, you thought wrong.”
Okay, so he wasn’t slow. She knew that. He was a pilot, a man with sharp reflexes and a sharp mind.
But she was sharper.
She’d had to be.
All her life, she’d had to be.
Not Brody. Brody flew planes for a living and hung out with friends for a pastime. On weekends, he played basketball like a pro and gravitated toward big, stupid muscle cars. He was kind to old ladies and dogs. He liked pizza and loud music. When he dated, the women were usually warm and sweet, and vanished as fast as they appeared.
He did not, as a rule, worry or stress or angst about his existence, and if his past ever bothered him, he never let on. It certainly did not come back to bite him on his ass. Even thinking about him being a little boy was absurd because he was a man, a big, tall, rough and tumble man who made her hormones stand straight up and tap dance, damn it.
But she could set that aside. She would set that aside. He had no idea what she was going through, and he never would.