He had his face against Maddie’s throat, which smelled so good he took a lick. He hadn’t found any more piercings or tattoos, which he had to admit surprised him. Unwrapped from the tough girl packaging, his badass Maddie was all warm and sweet on the inside.
“That wasn’t fast,” she said. “If I hadn’t speeded things up, we’d still be at it.”
He lifted his head, feeling pretty damn satisfied with his world, even more so when he saw the look on Maddie’s face.
Her eyes were closed, but she was smiling. Her gorgeous, silky hair rioted all around them on the pillow, her skin dewy and flushed, and honest to God, just looking at her, his heart skipped a beat. “That wasn’t fast enough? How is that possible? I’ve set new records for you.”
Unimpressed, she lifted a shoulder. “Could have been faster.”
He had to laugh. “How about I’ll try harder next time.”
At that, her eyes flickered open, and a set of sharp baby blues landed on his. “Next time?”
“You’re telling me we’re not doing that again?”
She didn’t say anything to that.
How could she not want to do that again? She was still flushed and damp and glowing. She’d enjoyed herself. She’d come. What wasn’t there to repeat? “How could something so good be bad?”
She slanted him a look. “You’re going to be a guy about this, aren’t you?”
“Apparently, yeah.”
With a sigh, she sat up, tugged the sheet from beneath him, and wrapped herself in it, covering up that bod he could happily have draped around him forever. “I’m sorry I lost it earlier in the shower. But that helped a lot.” She paused. “Thanks.”
Thanks?
“It’s been a long time for me. Which is why I…”
Okay, he liked that he’d been the guy she’d let break her dry spell. He liked that a lot. “Why you what?”
“You know. Went off so fast.”
“Wait a minute.” He thought maybe he’d just been insulted, but his brain hadn’t quite gotten back on track, so he wasn’t sure. “Are you saying any guy could have gotten you off that fast?”
Rolling her lips inward, she just looked at him.
“Hell, no.” He shook his head. “You are not going to tell me that.”
“It’s not personal, Brody.”
Hell, yeah, it was. “What just happened in this bed was not something that happens all the time.” He was sure of it.
“My vibrator works its magic in six minutes.” She lifted a shoulder when he stared at her. “Just saying.”
“I was way better than a vibrator.”
She laughed and went to get out of the bed, but her laugh backed up in her throat when he snagged the sheet at the small of her back. “Hey.”
But he didn’t let go, hell, no, leaving her two choices-get out of the bed naked or stay in it.
She stayed.
Craning her neck, she sent him the famous Maddie glare that had sent many people scurrying for cover. Never him, though. A sick part of him liked that look. It made him want to tug the sheet off and see what she would do about it.
So he did.
She squeaked and then rolled, executing a rather impressive dive off the bed to the floor, where she grabbed the forgotten towel, wrapping it around her.
And then, nose in the air, she strutted into the bathroom.
He lay back on the bed, tucked his hands behind his head, and waited. Vibrator, his ass. He was way better than a damn vibrator.
When she came out a few minutes later, wearing some sort of silky-looking pants and top that were shaped like sweats but skimmed and clung to her body in a way that suggested lingerie, her nose was still in the air.
“Going to get a nosebleed,” he noted.
She put her hands on her hips and tossed back her hair. He wondered if she knew her nipples were hard and pressing against the silky fabric. Wondered if she knew that at just the sight, his mouth watered like Pavlov’s damn dog. “You can reign superior all over the place,” he told her. “But admit this at least-you’re not hurting nearly as bad as you let me think.”
“I took a bullet.”
“Yes.” His hands tightened reflexively into fists. He still couldn’t even think about it without rage exploding through his body. “But you’re recovering more than you let on.”
“You wanted me to be weak.”
“I wanted you to be honest.”
“Honesty is not always the best policy. Especially in this case.”
He stared at her, then shook his head. “We’re going to have to agree to disagree there, babe. Now back to the important stuff.”
“I’m done discussing my vibrator.”
“The other important stuff. What exactly does Rick want Leena for so badly that he’s willing to threaten you to get it?”
“You’re like a bulldog. Anyone ever tell you that?”
“All the time. So…?”
“Rick’s my father’s brother.”
“And your father is…”
“Dead. Rick runs the fancy import-export gem company, bringing mostly unrefined jewels into the States. He needs Leena. Leena designs jewelry for those gems. Now if you could go to your room, I could get some sleep.”
“What? No cuddling?”
She crossed her arms and shot him a get-real look, so he decided not to admit that holding her for the rest of the night wouldn’t have been a hardship. “What else does Rick do?”
“Depends on who’s asking. If you’re Uncle Sam or the IRS, then that’s it. If you’re a company who buys unrefined gems to turn into jewelry designed and created on spec, then sometimes there’s other things.”
Ah. Now they were getting somewhere. “Such as?”
“Such as the occasional imitation gem that looks as good as the real thing but is worth a fraction of the promised item.”
“There’s probably good money in the swindle scam business, huh?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“So Leena knew she was working the wrong side of the law?”
She sighed. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Not in the least. But if you’d rather take those pjs off and show me the six-minute vibrator trick…”
The look she shot him threatened his family jewels. “Tell me this, at least. What does all of this have to do with you?”
“Nothing, really. I left Stone Cay when I was sixteen. But Leena recently decided to leave, too, and Rick…objected.”
“Objected how?”
“Most of Leena’s work is legitimate designs and creations.”
“Most but not all.”
She agreed with a slight nod. “Once in a while, he pressures her to do a job that isn’t on the up and up. He needs her to set the gems. Both the real ones and the fakes.”
“Why does she do it?”
“Fear.”
He shook his head. “Not good enough.”
“You’ve got a penis,” she pointed out. “You don’t feel fear like a woman can.”
“Come on, Maddie. She has the law on her side.”
Her expression didn’t change, but he got a really bad feeling. “Okay, why doesn’t she have the law on her side?”
“Ten years ago, she had a…” Something flickered across her face then, unhappy memories, and his bad feeling doubled. “…Disagreement with one of Rick’s underlings.”
“What happened?” Whatever it was, it was big.
“Manny came up dead the next day.”
Yeah. Big.
“Rick linked Leena to the guy’s death. He says he’ll bring her up on murder charges if she leaves him.”
“To which she said too bad, so sad and left anyway?”
“To which she caved. She was afraid, Brody.”
Yes, and she wasn’t the only one. Maddie had been afraid, too. Terrified. It was there in her eyes. “What sort of disagreement exactly?”
“Leena dated Manny. Once.”
“What about the dead part? Did she do that, too?”
“No.” Her voice was tight, certain. “No, she didn’t.”
“And so you stopping Leena from working now is going to accomplish what? Allow her to make her great escape while you put yourself at risk for someone who should have walked away years ago? Because she should know Rick isn’t going to turn her in-it’ll expose himself.”