“It’s your turn to strip,” she murmured, her voice all husky from her tears and barely audible over the sound of the storm raging outside.
Strip. He knew it was such a bad idea, but was getting caught up on the why. He had a reputation for being big and bad, but mostly, that was all attitude, and despite what women always said, they really didn’t tend to fall for big and bad.
At least they hadn’t been falling for him.
He’d had several relationships that had lasted longer than a few dates, but nothing in a long time, especially not this past year when he’d done little but work night and day to get Sky High Air off the ground.
So it’d been a while since he’d been naked, but he remembered how to get there. What he didn’t remember, ever, was having a woman be so desperate for him that she was trying to climb into his skin, and it was just odd enough-especially for Maddie-to make him put his hands on her arms and pull back to look into her face. “You are Maddie, right?”
She went utterly still for one beat, then turned back into the wild woman with superhuman strength, but she was done catching him off guard, thank you very much. Pinning her to the bed, he stretched out over the top of her to hold her down. “Okay, it’s you. I’m sorry, I-”
But she wasn’t listening; she was busy trying to kill him again, so he threw a leg over hers, drawing her hands up over her head to get a better grip on her.
Which she absolutely did not appreciate. “Get off me or I’ll-”
“Kick my ass?”
“I mean it!”
“A minute ago, you were kissing me like your life depended on it, and now you want to kick my ass?”
“A minute ago, you hadn’t stopped to chat and then confused me with my twin sister!”
“I’ll never make that mistake again,” he promised and leaned in again so that their mouths were only a fraction of an inch apart. His initial shock at finding her in the shower had faded so that now he could go back to appreciating the situation.
That being him, fully dressed, drenched to the skin, plastered to her, also drenched and not dressed. He pressed his face to her neck, which was warm and soft, and inhaled, letting the scent of her fill his head.
“Kiss me again, damn it,” she demanded.
She’d kissed him before, but now probably wasn’t the time to point that out. Not with her wrapped around him, not with her voice still thick from the tears that had taken them both by surprise.
He wasn’t a complete idiot. He recognized that she was most definitely back to distracting him, and you know what? Mission accomplished. At least for the moment, with her mouth racing across his jaw, her fingers working the buttons on his wet material, getting only halfway before she gave up trying and tugged. Buttons flew, and she yanked the shirt off his shoulders.
“I need to get there,” she said. “To the kissing and then…”
He liked the sound of the “and then.” She was soft and wet, and he was primed and ready to go, and had been for too long to count. She couldn’t get his zipper down, so she ran her fingers over him, then tried to slip her hands into his pants, which he wanted her to be able to do, so he gave her a little room and then could still hardly breathe for what she did to him.
“Help me,” she whispered.
“Whatever you want.”
“Hurry.”
Except that. “Is there a fire?”
“I like it fast.”
Yes, and if she kept outlining him with her fingers, fast would be no problem. But he didn’t want fast. Nope, he wanted slow and deliberate, so he could remember every little detail for the fantasies he was going to have about this for the rest of his life. So he grabbed her hand in his, brought it to his mouth to slow her down a minute.
Or two.
Or for an hour.
“That’s not fast,” she pointed out.
Normally, impatient would work for him, really it would, but not now, not with her. He rocked against her, pressing her back against the mattress, again burying his face in her neck, pressing his mouth to her skin, taking a little lick because he wanted a taste. He made his way up her throat to her jaw, then headed toward her ear because he needed a bit of that, too-
“Brody, damn it.”
“Mmm-hmmm.” He loved her ear. Small and delicate with all those sexy silver hoops.
She slid her fingers into his hair and he nearly purred, but then she tightened her grip, painfully so, and tugged. “Kiss me!”
“I was.”
“Here! Like this!” And still holding his head by the ears, she tugged him up and locked her mouth on his. She used her tongue, which he also liked very much, and then, as if she needed to ensure he stayed with her, she arched up and wrapped her legs around his waist.
A move that pretty much guaran-ass-teed he wasn’t going anywhere.
Ever.
This, Maddie thought with a helpless pleasure-filled sigh, this was what she needed. She needed it to keep Brody from thinking, from asking questions, from taking matters out of her hands, but more than anything, she needed it for herself, to forget, at least for a few minutes. She needed his mouth on hers, his hands on her body, needed it to even breathe.
Because he was her air. She’d die before admitting it, but fact was fact. In a world gone a little mad, he was her axis.
If she was being honest, he’d always been.
He knew how to kiss. Oh, God, he really knew how to kiss. She’d wanted him so desperately for so long that she was almost surprised that she didn’t just burst into spontaneous flames from the feel of his mouth and hands on her, and when he stopped kissing her to murmur her name in a low, husky, sexy voice, she died a little.
More. She needed more.
He kissed her again, and she murmured in pleasure, feeling all her bones melt away. Oh, yeah, more of that, and she was willing to risk all to get it.
Her past.
Her present.
Her future.
Even her heart. Especially her heart. And she was risking her heart. Even knowing it didn’t stop her. Nothing could. She was on empty here, on a rare low, with only fear and anxiety filling her tank, and he could make it all go away, at least for a few minutes.
Again, he said her name in that voice she loved, the one that said that every wild, crazy thing she was feeling, he felt, too. God, it’d been so long since a man had touched even a part of her poor, damaged heart. Too long.
Now, now, now…she slid her hand down his still damp chest between their bodies, going for the point of no return. This time, she was able to get a hold of his zipper, and the rasp of metal on metal filled the storm-ravaged silence around them. In the dimly lit room, their gazes met, his dark and heated, and she knew.
Oh, God, she knew.
No matter what happened to her here, no matter the outcome, she was going to have this moment with him. She was going to let herself be loved, and even more terrifying, she was going to let herself love him. “Hurry, Brody.”
Instead, he latched on to her throat and sucked a little patch of her skin into his mouth, and as if her body was on a string, it arched up to him.
“I’ve been dreaming about this too long to hurry,” he said. “Even for you.”
“You’ve been dreaming of this?” Hands in his hair, she lifted his head to look into his eyes. “So why do you avoid me at work?”
“I don’t mix work and pleasure.” He slid his hand down her belly. “But we’re not working now…”
No. No, they weren’t, and she let him kiss his way along her throat, his magical hands and talented mouth doing their thing, and his body, oh, God, his hard, toned body…
“No, we’re not at work.” Her eyes were crossed with lust. “But unless you hurry up…” She broke off when his mouth skimmed down her throat, over her shoulder, and directly toward a breast. “Oh, God.”