“It wouldn’t be if you were with someone you didn’t know.” He smirked. “What? You scared of me now?”
“No.” But the wariness on her face made him think she wasn’t being entirely truthful.
“Good, because I went through the trouble of reserving one of these so that you wouldn’t have to play the role the whole time.”
“So we don’t have to pretend in here?” she asked, her whole demeanor visibly relaxing.
He ushered her into the small living room, unhooked her leash from his belt, and flipped on the lights. “Nope, you can insult me as the need strikes.”
Instead of heading to the other side of the little living room like he expected, she stepped so close he could feel her quick, little breaths on his naked chest. The awareness in his body sparked like she’d touched him with a cattle prod.
What the hell was she doing?
She slipped her hands onto his waist, pressing herself against his lingering erection, and peered up at him with steely resolve in her eyes. “That’s not what I need.”
He didn’t trust himself to touch her. She had to be setting up some kind of joke or she was going to kick him in the balls. “Okay, then what do you need?”
“For you not to ask questions.” She let his borrowed shirt fall to the floor, revealing miles of delicious ivory skin. “And for you not to stop unless I say Texas.”
TWELVE
then
Five days. Five goddamned days of Reid gone on vacation, and it was like Brynn’s world had tilted off its rotation. Man, she was in trouble. She missed him. Really missed him.
She propped her elbows on her desk and pressed the heels of her hands to her brow bone. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was supposed to be a fun fling. Nothing else.
For the past few weeks, she and Reid had kept up their ends of the fun bargain, stealing moments whenever they could to be together. To talk. To laugh. To have hot, sweaty sex in a sundry of places and positions. She’d been having such a good time she’d never let herself pause long enough to think about what could be developing between them. But now that he’d been in Florida with his family for the week, she’d had nothing but time to think. And pine.
Pining. She was pining. Oh, good God.
She peeked over at Reid’s desk—empty—just like it had been since Monday. He hadn’t called much because he was afraid his aunt or uncle would hear him. But she found herself worrying that maybe he really didn’t want to call and was using that as an excuse. Maybe he was having too good of a time without her. They were only a fling anyway, right? There were probably loads of girls hanging around the Jamisons’ sure-to-be-fancy beach house just waiting to take a shot at her guy.
Her guy. Yep, she was screwed.
With a sigh, she scooted from behind her desk and headed through the darkened office to the employee lounge, hoping a change in scenery would get her spiraling thoughts to go away. She needed to focus and get some work done. Everyone else had left for the day, but she’d agreed to stay late to stuff goody bags for the next campaign fund-raiser. Bad idea. Between her racing mind and her lack of sleep, she hadn’t even made a dent in the project. She was going to be here every freaking night for a week at this rate.
Not bothering to flip on the lights, she walked toward the fridge and rummaged around for something with sugar, and preferably caffeine. The people around the office drank coffee like fiends, but she’d never had a taste for the stuff, so she had to rely on soda to get her fix. She saw a glint of red behind all the diet lemon-lime drinks and stretched her arm farther in to reach the cola.
A light squeeze on her ass made her jolt upward, nearly banging her head on the top of the fridge. “What the—”
“Easy, sugar. It’s just me,” Reid said from behind her as he slid his arm around her waist and nuzzled her neck. “I couldn’t resist with you bending over like that.”
She spun around in his grasp, the blasting cold from the refrigerator chilling her backside as his body warmed her front. “Reid! You scared the crap out of me.”
He brushed a hand over her hair. “Sorry about that.”
She tried to catch her breath, not sure if her pounding heart was from being startled or from being so close to him. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be back until tomorrow.”
“I hopped an earlier flight.” He dipped his suntanned face closer and brushed his lips against hers. “I couldn’t stay away from you for another minute. I’ve never hated the beach so much in my life.”
“What? Too many beautiful, bikini-clad girls for you?” She poked his ribs.
“Ooh, jealousy. I like it on you.” His thumb stroked the small of her back, her skin coming alive beneath his touch. “And I didn’t need to check out the other girls. I already have the one
I want.”
She stared into the bottomless blue of his eyes, unable to tell if he was being serious or simply being his charming self. How could she be who he wanted? He couldn’t even take her out in public for fear someone in his circle would see them. She pushed the ugly thought away and tilted her chin up. “Guess I shouldn’t have spent my week working my way through the guys in the office, then. I didn’t realize you were going to have such a strict moral code on your trip.”