“I do,” I said, and it felt strange, like making a vow. Like maybe a bigger vow than you’d make at the altar in a white dress. Because I promised to have his back and look out for him, that he could trust me no matter how bad things got.
“You know I got you,” he said, looking at me in some soft way, where his eyes melted me right there in my seat. I nodded because I didn’t know what to say to that. Because answering in words wasn’t perfect for me then.
Brody drained his beer and I pushed mine toward him, “I only took a couple sips. Have mine if you’re not afraid of my germs. I’ll drive you back,” I offered.
He took the bottle and drank from it, eyes on mine. “I’m not afraid of your germs, Laura. I’m not afraid of anything about you.”
I felt blocks fall in my chest, a tower kicked over just like that. I had felt what he said. Right through the heart, like a clean shot from his sidearm, only deadlier if that was possible. My breath sawed in and out as if I were stumbling over the finish after a 5K. I got to my feet.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, and headed for the bathroom.
I had to get myself together. A crush had been bad enough. Lust had been worse. But feelings? I was catching feelings for my boss. After I used the bathroom, I scrubbed my hands and then stared in the mirror. My eyes were bright and my cheeks flushed. As I dried my hands off, I stared at them like they’d betrayed me. My steady hands were shaking. The same hands I used to teach game management guys a marksmanship refresher now trembled like I wasn’t much of a badass at all. I wanted him, plain and not simple at all.
Stalking out of the bathroom, remembering who I was, why I’d moved home and that being a cop was the only important in my life besides my family, I was ready to drive my boss back to the station and head home for the day. So I pulled up short when he was right there in the hall outside the bathroom. Too tall, too big, too close. I nearly rammed right into his wall of a chest. He was leaning against the paneled wall, all hot eyes and broad shoulders.
“Were you waiting on me?” I said.
“I figured I’d go to the bathroom before we leave, and then I came out and waited right here. Might as well have held your purse for you,” he said wryly.
I made to answer, some smartass comment, when before I knew how or when it happened, I was in his arms and we were kissing. Brody Peters had his hot mouth all over me. Our lips met, a clash of teeth and tongues, urgent.
“God, I’ve been dying for this,” he muttered and then slid his tongue along the roof of my mouth. I rose on tiptoe, my heart threatening to beat out of my ribcage. My greedy hands were all over his chest. He swamped me with his size, his muscles, the sheer power of his body. He bent my head back over his arm and plundered my mouth deep and long, that kiss the most sexual thing I’d ever experienced, a hot ripple thrilling in my blood. I was loose in his arms, every inhibition burned away. My arms reached for his neck, my hands in his hair, and I let him know with my body how good this felt. He ate at my lips like a starving man, sending a bolt of searing pleasure coiling low in my belly.
I managed to gasp out, “You don’t know how I’ve wanted this with you.”
“You have?” He drew back an inch, met my eyes with his hot dark ones that felt like a lick along my bare skin. “How long?”
“When you shook my hand,” I said sheepishly.
“You’ve had me so damn hard all week,” he groaned, his mouth going to my jaw.
14
Brody
I woke up sprawled facedown across my bed. It couldn’t have happened. Just another feverish dream about my employee and best friend’s sister. A dirty dream didn’t hurt anyone, didn’t make anyone, say, have to resign their employment because their boss damn near fucked them outside a bar bathroom. But there it was, all the hot shame rushing back as I recalled it.
I’d waited outside the door for her. I’d seized her—seized was the word for it. I had her in my arms, had my tongue in her mouth as she sucked it so sweet and true. I’d gone up in white-hot flames then, spun her around and pinned her to the wall with my mouth. I had her wrist against the wood, my hand circling it, trapping it. The other arm she had thrown around my neck and held on tightly. Her curves, her movements were all driving me higher out of my mind. She rode my knee that I pushed between her warm thighs, cradling her hot core. She rocked into it, getting the pressure she wanted. I had leaned over, my body sheltering her, covering her. I wasn’t going to let anyone see her, would probably have beat the hell out of anyone who approached us. The seething desire stole all my inhibitions. I was riding pure instinct, my tongue tangled with hers and the delicious roll of her hips as she gripped my thigh with her legs. Sweet and hot and making me desperate to be inside her.