A few minutes later, Amanda rolled the second huge tray of food to the side of the bed where Brad sat waiting for her. “Did you order the entire menu or what?” she asked incredulously.
“I was hungry.” He positioned her between his splayed legs. “Still am. Just not for food. Not when I know you’ve been walking around without any panties.” His hand snuck beneath her skirt. “Were you thinking about what I was going to do to you when you were talking to the rental agent?”
Not that she’d admit to. “No.” Her breath caught as his hand moved along the crevice of her backside, lower, lower, fingers intimately touching and teasing her sex.
“Liar,” he whispered, leaning forward and claiming her nipple with his teeth right through her clothing. She gasped with the contact, her nipple pebbling with the rough pleasure he delivered. Resting his chin between her breasts, he stared up at her with simmering heat blazing. “You know you were.”
He didn’t give her time to respond, apparently determined to deliver on his promises of pleasure. One minute she was standing, the next she was on her back on the mattress, her legs over Brad’s shoulders, skirt to her waist. The warmth of his mouth closed around her clit. The gentle sucking and teasing sent her into a haze of pure pleasure, just as he’d promised.
A real man of his word. And Amanda liked a man of his word.
***
THE SOUND OF Amanda’s cell phone ringing drew Amanda from a warm, half sleep on top of Brad’s chest. God, what was it about phones tonight? She was exhausted. After Brad had eaten dinner, he made her dessert. Several times.
Amanda glanced at the clock and saw that it was two in the morning. Didn’t late-night calls always deliver bad news? Her heart kicked at the thought of someone being hurt. She crawled across Brad and grabbed her purse from the floor, digging out her cell.
Amanda frowned as she noted the unknown caller ID. She punched the Answer button. “This is Amanda.”
“Amanda.” A sniffling sound. “It’s…” Sniffle. “Laura.”
Laura? Amanda thought a moment before it dawned on her. The groupie who had a thing for Tony. She turned away from Brad, feeling a bit awkward. “Hi, Laura. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just…Tony went home with that other woman.”
The news didn’t surprise Amanda at all. “I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t sure what else to say. From the few conversations they’d had, she got the impression Laura had a distorted perception of her relationship with Tony. She seemed to think there was more to it than sex. From what Amanda had observed, Tony wasn’t encouraging Laura or promising any loyalty to her.
“I’m tired of the way he treats me,” she said. “The things I could tell you, Amanda. Big things. I could hurt him so bad.”
This wasn’t Amanda’s method to get a story. Relying on sources such as this one—ex-lovers with revenge on their mind—often bit a reporter in the ass. “You’re upset. I think you should wait until you calm down a bit. Once you cross certain lines or betray certain confidences, you can’t ever go back.”
“I don’t need to calm down. I know exactly what I’m doing. And if you don’t want to talk to me, there are plenty of other reporters who do.”
Namely, Jack Krass. Amanda thought of him cozying up to Laura earlier tonight and figured he’d been trying to gain her confidence, not get laid. That realization added pressure because it suggested he thought Laura had information to spill. The reporter in Amanda wanted that information before Jack, even as she felt uneasy. Talking to Laura about Tony somehow betrayed him and Brad, who was listening to her side of the conversation. What a mess. This was precisely one of those situations she’d wanted to have a plan for before having sex with Brad.
“Okay,” Amanda said, buying time, trying to think of the best way to handle this. “Why don’t we meet for coffee in the morning?”
“Tonight.”
That one word held enough conviction to give Amanda pause. If she didn’t do this, there was no telling what Laura would do. Still, Brad was here and Amanda barely knew Laura. She could be spouting nonsense, Jack’s interest aside. “Coffee in the morning. Name the time and place.”
Amanda grabbed the notepad and pen on the nightstand and scribbled down the directions. “Now, promise me you won’t do anything until we talk.” After getting Laura’s agreement, Amanda ended the call. She tossed the pen down and stuffed the directions and her cell in her purse.
“Meeting someone in the middle of the night is dangerous.”
Amanda found Brad standing up, already dressing. Regret settled in her stomach and she yanked the covers to her neck. “You heard the arrangements. We’re meeting in the morning.”
He stared at her, his expression hardening. “With Laura. To get a story.”