Superb And Sexy

Chapter 23

Too late for panic, Maddie knew, painfully aware of the door creaking open. With her life passing before her eyes, and Brody’s, too, with his hard thighs pressed to the backs of hers, she struggled to look turned on, completely in the moment, because that’s what honeymooners did, right? They had wild animal sex everywhere, never in a bed, so it should seem rational that they’d be down here at her workstation, jumping each other’s bones.

Or so she hoped.

All they had to do was make it look good, real good. Turning her head, she sought Brody’s mouth with hers, sliding her tongue into his open mouth, absorbing his murmur of surprise while arching back against him, rocking her bottom to his crotch.

As the door opened, Brody’s hands dropped from his waist to her hips, squeezing gently before one hand slid to her belly, his fingertips spread so wide they nearly touched the undersides of her breasts.

Not good enough because someone was watching, maybe trying to decide if they should be brought to Rick…

“Here,” she panted, trying to sound sexy in her panic, but sounding more like a porno queen, and a bad one at that. She arched her throat so that the back of her head was cushioned in the meat of his shoulder. The movement arched her back, too, filling his hand with her breast as she ground her bottom into his crotch. “Yeah, oh yeah, just like that…Brody, baby, tell me you have a condom in your pocket.”

Voice low and husky, he nipped at her jaw. “For you, baby, I’ve got anything you want.”

Acting. They were acting. Trying to prove they were so hot for each other that they’d left her bedroom to make it somewhere else, maybe a whole bunch of somewhere elses, just because they could. She knew it, so why did her nipples harden? “This room makes what?” she asked breathlessly. “Room number three?”

“Don’t forget the bathroom.”

Where they hadn’t been acting…“Right. Four. You’re such a stud.”

The sound he made might have been a snort. Turning her head, she nipped his jaw. Don’t make me laugh.

His hands tightened on her. “Maybe the kitchen next,” he murmured. “There are utensils in there for all sorts of things, especially bad girls like yourself.”

Funny. Wasn’t he so funny?

Were they still being watched? She didn’t dare look. “You don’t need utensils. You’ve got all I need, baby.”

“Do I now?”

“Yeah.” And he had all she could ever need now.

His gaze slid briefly to the door, then back to her, filled with such fierce protection and anger that she knew that yeah, they were still being watched. Worse, she knew that if anyone caught that look on his face, they’d know he was capable of being a huge threat, so she hooked an arm around his neck and tugged his face down to hers, taking his mouth with hers to keep his expression hidden.

Anything to keep him safe, even if it meant kissing him, and kissing him…which of course, was no sacrifice at all because man, the guy could kiss…long and deep and hot, and the feel of his tongue dancing to hers was making her wish they were alone, back at her place or anywhere other than here.

How long could they do this? And what would happen if they stopped? Not willing to take the chance, she let the show go on. The Brody and Leena Show. “Here,” she whispered huskily-a tone she didn’t have to fake-and bent forward over the desk, shooting him a come-get-me smile over her shoulder, using the excuse to peek at the door.

Yeah. Still a big, beefy shadow standing there.

Eyes smoldering with temper, and also a heat that stirred her up pretty good, Brody wrapped himself around her, using his free hand to swipe the desk free of the tools in front of her. They clattered to the floor, and as a gesture, even a pretend gesture, it made her knees weak. If only they didn’t have an audience. If only he could unzip his pants, pull down hers, and push into her-

God. It definitely was no hardship pretending to be lost in the throes. Brody had kept her completely covered, but opening his mouth over hers, he let his thumb come up and over her nipple, back and forth.

God, she wanted this to be real. Needed it to be real. “Brody-I can’t stand.” To prove it, her knees buckled.

He slid down to the floor with her, out of sight of the door. Heart pounding in her ears from adrenaline, fear, and a lot more, she gripped onto him and put her mouth to his. “Are we alone?”

He took a peek. “Yeah.” Sinking all the way to the ground, he leaned against a leg of the desk. “Jesus,” he breathed and then again, more softly, shoving his hair back with hands that weren’t quite steady. “Stud?”

“Utensils?”

He managed a smile, but it was fleeting.

Her hands weren’t any steadier than his as she righted her clothes, her body still hot and sweaty and definitely on overdrive. “That was close. And I’m all hot and bothered. I need another shower.”

“Too bad. You’re not taking one until we’re out of this fucking Alice in Wonderland nightmare.”

And once they were, she’d be busy finding her sister. Following the grand Plan.

He was watching her carefully. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, there’s something. Spill it. You don’t see us taking this thing back with us to Sky High?”

Yeah. Yeah, she did. That was the problem. But it wasn’t going to happen, unfortunately.

“What was your original plan, before you and your sister got your signals crossed?”

“Brody-”

“Ah, Christ. Tell me you weren’t going to just run away.” He stared at her. “You were.” He pushed to his feet, staring down at her. “You were just going to leave your place, your job, the people in your life. Shayne, Noah…”

Him.

But he didn’t say that; he just shook his head in disbelief. “Come on.” Turning back to the room, he began searching again.

She got to her feet and joined him. They worked in silence, and as they decided a few minutes later, in vain.

Defeated, they left the workroom. Not stopping at the kitchen, utensils or otherwise, they headed straight for Leena’s room.

Maddie had no idea if the surveillance cameras were back up and running, but knowing it was a possibility, she didn’t say a word. Didn’t have any words to say anyway.

But it was nearly dawn now. They could go to meet their charter boat for their ride to Nassau.

“Get your things,” Brody said. “We’re getting out of here.”

When she didn’t respond, he tugged her close, bending a little to look directly into her eyes, his own a little hot, undoubtedly because she’d failed to tell him about her plan. “We’re leaving,” he repeated very softly but with unbendable steel in his voice. “We’ll find another way to deal with what we need to deal with.”

“Brody-”

“No, I mean it. I’ll help you find another way; you’re just going to have to try something new and trust me.”

Trust him. A promise that just might be even more terrifying than anything she’d faced so far, and that was saying something.

Brody didn’t take a deep breath until they’d set foot down on Nassau’s shores. He took Maddie directly to a huge, luxurious five-star resort, not even wincing when he handed over his credit card to be abused because he wanted that look of failure off of her face yesterday.

Then, and only then, could he deal with how furious he was at what she and Leena had planned to do.

Maddie stood in the center of the lobby looking out the huge windows toward the ocean as he waited for their room key, and when he got it, he walked up to her.

“I can’t believe Rick actually let us go,” she said.

Brody either. “At least you’ve given your sister a head start. Rick won’t need her again for a while.”

“Hmm,” she said noncommitally and followed him to the elevator. “Why are we staying here?”

“You said you wanted to take a shower.”

She stared at him. “Are you telling me you just paid nearly a thousand dollars for a five-star suite so that I could take a shower?”

“Yeah.”

She just stared at him some more as if maybe he was the best thing since sliced bread, so he moved in close, lifting a hand to her jaw. With his thumb, he stroked her skin, not liking how pale she seemed or the purple bruises beneath her eyes. “Let’s call it a present. From me to you. Okay?”

“I want to give you a present, too.”

“Yeah? Then abandon your plan. That could be a great present. The best present. The king of all presents ever.”

They got off the elevator to walk to their spacious, gorgeous room. Maddie checked her cell phone for at least the hundredth time, waiting fruitlessly for a call from Leena. Then she looked at Brody.

The despair in her gaze killed him, and he discovered standing there, exhausted himself, feeling more than a little raw and unsettled, he needed to touch more than her face, so he pulled her into his arms.

“I could have gotten you killed,” she whispered.

“But you didn’t. I’m still very much alive and well.”

That she even allowed his hug told him more about her mental state than anything she might have said. She simply wrapped her arms around his waist and set her head against his chest with a long, shuddery sigh. “Brody.” It did something to him, her holding on to him. It cut through all the uncertainty of his feelings for her, the ones he’d simply set aside rather than face, and told him the truth.

He had it bad for her. Caressing her back, he felt her willowy body curl into his like a heat-seeking missile as she let out another long breath.

How could she walk away from this?

“I’m afraid it’s not over,” she whispered.

Yeah. Him, too. He was afraid it’d never be over between them. And he was afraid that was okay. Really okay.

“Rick isn’t going to ever let it go.”

Right. Rick. Not him. Got it. Staring grimly over her head out the picture window that revealed the gorgeous day in the making, the ocean dotted with whitecaps and sailboats, he waited until he could speak evenly. “It’ll be over soon enough.”

He’d see to it.

“I didn’t want you to come here with me.”

“Yeah. You’ve mentioned that a time or two.”

“I didn’t want you to see any of my past.”

He understood that, too. What he didn’t understand was how such an amazing woman had come out of those circumstances, and at age sixteen. She hadn’t said; she’d been careful not to say, but he could only imagine what it had been like for her growing up under the care of Rick Stone.

It had to have been pure hell. Knowing it, picturing it made him want to go back there and do something about it. Even thinking about doing it gave him a rush of satisfaction that faded when Maddie let out another of those sighs that seemed to reach right in and grab him by the throat and not let go.

“I want Leena to be safe,” she said. “But I don’t think she is. I just feel like she’s in danger.”

“We’ll find her. Back at Sky High, we’ll use all our resources, and we’ll find her.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

She’d made plans to walk away… He was still having a helluva time processing that. But they’d been together now, both in bed and out of it, and things had changed. At least for him. Just standing there holding her, feeling her face burrow into the crook of his neck so that her lips were touching his skin, made him ache.

And also hard.

Nice show of self-control. But when it came to her, he had none. Knowing it, he let his mouth brush her temple. He told himself he was offering comfort and nothing more and managed to keep his hands light and easy on her back to prove it. That was him. Light and soothing.

But then she slid her hands beneath his shirt, putting her chilled fingers against his heated flesh, digging into the muscles of his back as if he was her anchor.

Feeling distinctly unsoothed, he got a little harder.

Clearly feeling his reaction, she pressed more fully against him, her breasts to his chest, her thighs to his, going for more of that comfort he told himself he was offering. God knew, she probably needed it. Hell, after the past twenty-four hours, he needed it, the simple comfort of knowing she was okay and safe and out of harm’s way.

This hug, that would do it. Yes sirree, that was all he was going to do. Keep hugging her.

“Brody,” she whispered in a sort of breathy tone, shooting his comforting theory all to hell.

“Yeah?”

“You’re…strange.”

“Um, thanks?”

“No. I mean…” She hesitated. “This is strange.”

“Actually, it happens every time you touch me.”

“I don’t mean that-” She actually laughed. “I like that.”

Okay, good. That was good.

“I mean you make me feel…soft.”

He stroked her skin. “You are soft.”

“Yeah, only with you.” She said this with marvel. “Brody?”

“Yeah?”

“Is that shower in there big enough for two?”

“For a grand, it sure as hell better be.”

That choked another laugh out of her, chasing more of that haunted misery from her eyes, and he smiled in relief, in affection, in…hell, so goddamn much he couldn’t even begin to name all the emotions coursing through him.

She couldn’t possibly walk away, not now…

“Do we really have time before we fly back to Sky High?” Her hands came around his sides, his ribs, sliding up to his chest, bringing his shirt with them. “I know how you are about time.” When she got the hem of his shirt up past his pecs, she leaned in and pressed her lips over his heart.

Killing him…

“Brody?”

“We have time,” he managed as she opened her mouth and flicked her tongue over his nipple. “When getting naked with the woman of your dreams is on the table, there’s always time.”

Her breath huffed against his skin. “I’m the woman of your dreams?”

“Dreams. Nightmares. Pick one.”

She laughed again, and the sound was so sweet he buried his face in her hair. “Listen, I’ve never really been much for worrying about other people’s feelings…”

“No,” she agreed, still kissing his chest, making her way over his collarbone.

“But you’ve had a rough night and-”

“Yeah.” Lifting her head, she locked gazes with him. “So?”

“So maybe this isn’t what you need.”

“It’s exactly what I need.” She pushed him until his hands fell from her. Another push had the back of his legs hitting the high mattress of the bed, piled with that luxurious thousand-dollar-a-night bedding.

One last push, and he fell back, and then she was crawling up his body and he couldn’t remember what he’d been about to say, not when she pulled off her clothes and then his and not when she straddled him.

Gripping her hips, he thrust up into her, his body already so tight he knew it was going to be over before they started if he didn’t slow her down. “Maddie-”

“If you say you want to go slow, I’m going to hurt you.”

He let out a half laugh, half groan, but it backed up in his throat at the look on her face. Stark need, and a good amount of desperation. She needed to lose herself, if only for a minute.

A fast minute, apparently.

She needed him. He’d never been needed by anyone a day in his entire life, and he realized something else-he liked it.

Grabbing his hands in hers, she entwined their fingers and bent over him. “No.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“No to anything but this.”

Yeah, he was okay with that. Arching up, he caught her mouth with his. He let her take him fast and hard, and only when she’d burst beautifully all over him, did he make his move.

“What are you doing?” she gasped as he rolled.

Still inside her, he tucked her beneath him. “Guess.”

She gripped him tight. “Again?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, God.” Her breath caught in her throat with an audible click. “Brody…”

He loved the way she said his name. He really did. Loved the way she looked at him as if he was doing it for her, as if he was the only one who could do it for her.

“What do you suppose it says about us that the only place we get along is in the sack?” she asked breathlessly.

“It says that we should stay in the sack.”

She let out a short laugh and arched into him. “Okay, but-”

“If you say you want to go fast, I’m going to hurt you…”

“You won’t. You won’t ever hurt me.”

And wasn’t that the bottom line, and his own truth. His lips a breath from hers, he shook his head, then kissed her softly. “No, I won’t. I’ll never hurt you, Maddie.”

She opened her mouth to say something to that, maybe something sharp and just a little mean as she tended to do when he got beneath her skin, but he kissed her again and began to move with a slow, achingly perfect rhythm until they were both breathless, panting for air, gazes locked on each other with a blistering intensity such as he’d never known…

“I can’t believe…” She sounded so sincerely baffled. “I don’t get it…”

Neither did he. He wasn’t a repeater, and he knew damn well she wasn’t either, and yet here they were, repeating and repeating…

One of these times, any minute maybe, they’d get it out of their system, but for now-

“God,” she breathed, her hips moving faster, then faster still. “Brody…I’m going to-”

“Do it. Come-”

Her muscles contracted before he’d finished the word, milking him as she went over, and as he’d discovered about himself, about them in general, he could do nothing else but helplessly follow.

A few minutes later, when his toes had uncurled, Brody managed to summon enough energy to nuzzle at Maddie’s neck. “Hi.”

Looking dewy and sated, she opened her eyes. “Hi.”

“So we’ve come to an understanding about the fast thing,” he said. “Slow is better.”

“Actually, I’m still not sure.”

When he opened his mouth to protest, she kissed him quiet. “We might have to keep working at it. You know, until we come to a compromise.”

Liking the sound of that, he stroked a finger along her jaw, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Compromise has never been my strong suit.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Hello, Ms. Pot, you might recognize me. I’m Mr. Kettle.”

“Hey, I compromise plenty.”

“How is vanishing a compromise?” he asked.

She rolled away to her back and stared at the ceiling. “It was never about you. It was before you, in fact.”

“It was two days ago.”

“Before this.” She gestured to their naked bodies. “Before we knew each other.”

“Well, at least you get that much about us.”

Her gaze swiveled back to his.

“I do know you,” he said quietly. “I get why you’re so tough, for instance. And resilient. And…”

Her eyes narrowed. “And…?”

“Strong. Capable.”

“I thought maybe you were going to go in another direction and say stubborn and unbending and selfish.”

“Stubborn and unbending, yes. Not selfish. Never selfish.”

She swallowed hard, as if moved by his words when she didn’t want to be. Not his stubborn-ass Maddie. She didn’t want to be moved by him at all.

Join my club, babe. He didn’t want to be moved by her either, and yet she broke his heart with every breath. “You know what I think?”

“You can think after what we just did? Because I’m pretty sure I blew most of my brain cells.”

“I think,” he said again, “that you’ve never had anyone in your corner before.”

She just looked at him.

“Am I right?”

“I’ve never needed anyone in my corner.” She rolled off the bed. “And you did not pay a fortune for this room to lie here and talk. Let’s check out that shower.”

“After you tell me your new plan. There’s a new plan, right?”

She sighed.

“Christ. What is the plan, Maddie?”

Now she tightened her mouth.

“Are you kidding me?”

“And you call me stubborn.”

“I’m still in your corner,” he said. “I’m here, and I’m sticking.”

“No one asked you to.”

“I know.” He slipped out of bed and lifted her in his arms, heading toward the thousand-dollar shower. “It’s part of your charming personality.”

She slid her arms around his neck. “What is?”

“Your undeniable inability to ask for anything.”

She stared up at him for a beat, then set her head on his shoulder. “You say the nicest things.”