Brodie placed her hands on his pecs and tried to regulate her breathing. Where was an oxygen tank when she needed one? She felt Kade’s fingers on her cheekbone, tracing her jaw. “Brodie? You okay?”
Fine. Just trying to get my brain to restart. Brodie placed her forehead on his sternum and pulled in some much needed air.
“Dammit, Kade,” she eventually muttered.
“Yep, we’re a fire hazard,” Kade agreed, resting his chin on the top of her head. “What are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing?” Brodie suggested.
“Yeah...not an option.” She heard the determination in his voice. She knew he would do what it took to get what he wanted.
What she wanted. He wouldn’t need to do much persuading—she was halfway to following him to hell and back for an orgasm or two.
She was allowed to share some amazing sex with someone who knew what he was doing, her usually quiet wild child insisted. She was twenty-nine, mostly normal but terribly sexually frustrated.
You had this argument with yourself earlier. He’s single. You’re single. You don’t need anyone’s permission...
Kade didn’t need to use charm, or to say anything at all. She was doing a fine job of talking herself into his bed all on her own.
“Brodie?” Kade stepped back and bent his knees so he could look her in the eye. “What do you say? Do you want to take this to its very natural conclusion?”
Brodie gripped his big biceps, or as much of it as she could get into her hand. He felt harder, more muscular than she remembered. How was that possible? She wanted to undo the buttons on his shirt, push aside the fabric and see what other wonders lay under his expensive clothes. Was his chest bigger? His shoulders broader? His thighs stronger?
“Are you going to put me out of my misery sometime soon?” Kade asked. He sounded like sleeping with her was neither here nor there. Then she took another look at his expression, read the emotion in his eyes.
There was frustration, a whole lot of desire and a hint of panic. Because he thought she might say no? He looked a little off-kilter and not as suave and as confident as she’d first suspected. His hint of insecurity made her feel steadier. That their chemistry had rocked him allowed her to regain her mental and emotional balance.
“God, woman, you’re killing me.”
She knew if she said yes, there would be no going back. She couldn’t get cold feet, couldn’t retreat this time.
She was a little scared—and she should be. She’d laid out all the arguments in the ladies’ room. But she could no more stop a freight train than miss this second chance to find out if he was as good as her imagination insisted.
Time to put them both out of their misery. Brodie slowly nodded. “Yeah, let’s revisit the past. One night, not a big deal?”
“You sure?”
She knew he was asking for some reassurance she wouldn’t change her mind midway through, so she placed her hand on his cheek and nodded. “Very sure. On the understanding this is a one-time thing and it stays between us.”
Relief flashed across Kade’s face and she felt his fingers flexing on her back. “I never kiss and tell. But are you sure we’ll be able to stop after one night?”
Brodie shrugged. Probably not. “We can give it our best shot.”
Kade stepped back and ran a hand around the back of his neck. “Interesting,” he said.
Brodie frowned. “What is?”
“You have a very...businesslike approach to life. And sex.”
She supposed she did, but life had taught her to put emotion away from daily life. If she allowed emotion to rule, she would’ve crawled into a cave after the accident and never come out. She turned her back on her feelings because they were so big, so overwhelming. Before the tragedy, she’d loved hard...wildly, uninhibitedly. She’d engaged every one of her senses and she’d been the most emotional creature imaginable.
A car accident had taken her family, but emotion had hung around and nearly killed her, too. To survive she’d had to box it up and push it away...because she couldn’t feel happy without feeling sad. No joy without pain. No love without heartbreak.
It was easier just to skate.
Brodie lifted her chin and sent Kade a cool smile. Time to get the conversation back on track. “So, when and where?”
Kade lifted his eyebrows in surprise and Brodie sent him a look, daring him to make another comment about her frankness. He looked like he wanted to and Brodie prayed he wouldn’t. Kade seemed to have the ability to look beyond her shell to the mess inside...
She didn’t need anyone upsetting her mental apple cart.
Kade looked at his watch and thought for a minute. “I have meetings this afternoon or else I’d whisk you back to my place right now.”