Kade nodded. “I can eat.”
Brodie ordered two cheeseburgers with everything and when Jan left, Brodie smiled at Kade. “Her burgers are really good.” She reached into her bag, pulled out her reading glasses and slid them onto her face. “Shall we get started?”
* * *
Kade had never considered glasses to be sexy but Brodie’s black-rimmed frames turned her green eyes, already mesmerizing, to a deep emerald. He loved her eyes, he thought as he answered questions about his date of birth, his height, his weight. Then again, he also loved her high cheekbones, her stubborn chin, her small but very firm breasts and those long, slim legs.
He liked everything about her and he wished he could blow off lunch and take her to bed. When this stupidity was over, he promised himself. When it was done, he’d kidnap Brodie for the weekend, take her somewhere private and keep her naked in his bed until he’d burned this craving for her out of his system.
He was hardly sleeping and when he did, his dreams were erotic, with Brodie taking the starring role. He thought about her at the most inappropriate times. Memories from the night they shared obliterated his concentration. It was torture trying to negotiate when he recalled the way Brodie fell apart under his touch.
Brodie pinching his wrist pulled him back to their conversation. “What?”
“I asked...siblings?”
“None.” He’d always wanted a brother, someone to take the edge off the loneliness growing up. Someone to stand by his side as he entered the hallway of a new school or joined a new team. Someone who could help him recall the towns they’d lived in and in what order.
“Parents?”
“My father lives in the city, my mother died when I was ten.” He snapped the words out. He rubbed a hand over his jaw. God, he didn’t want to do this. He never discussed his childhood, his past, his on-off relationship with his socially inept, now reclusive father. “You don’t need information about my past so move along.”
He saw the furrow appear between Brodie’s eyebrows. Well, tough. His childhood was over. He finally had his brothers in Mac and Quinn and he was content. Sometimes he was even happy.
Kade leaned back in his seat. If he had to answer personal questions, then so did she. “And your parents? Where are they?”
“Dead.” Brodie didn’t lift her head. “I was twenty.”
“I’m sorry, Brodes.”
“Thanks. Moving on...what characteristic in a woman is most important to you? Looks, empathy, humor, intelligence?”
“All of them,” Kade flippantly answered, wishing he could ask how her parents died, but he could tell the subject was firmly off-limits. “Do you have siblings?”
“No.” Brodie tapped her fingernail against the screen of her tablet. “I’m asking the questions, Webb, not you.”
“Quid pro quo,” Kade replied. “Were you close to your parents?”
He saw the answer in her eyes. Sadness, regret, sheer, unrelenting pain. A glimmer suggesting tears was ruthlessly blinked away. Oh, yeah...they might’ve passed many years ago, but Brodie was still dealing with losing them.
He was fascinated by this softer, emotional Brodie. She was fiercely intelligent, sexy and independent, but beneath her tough shell she made his protective instincts stand up and pay attention. He wanted to dig deeper, uncover more of those hidden depths.
“Tell me about them, Brodie.”
“Where is our food?” Brodie demanded, looking around. “I could eat a horse.”
“Why won’t you talk about them?” Kade persisted. And why couldn’t he move off the topic? He never pushed this hard, was normally not this interested. Maybe he was getting sick? He was definitely sick of this matchmaking crap and he hadn’t even started with the dates yet. He just wanted to take Brodie home and make love to her again. Was that too much to ask?
Apparently it was.
Brodie finally, finally looked at him and when she did, her face was pale and bleak. “Because it hurts too damn much! Satisfied?”
Dammit, he hadn’t meant to hurt her. Brodie flung herself backward and stared out the window to watch the busy traffic.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured.
“Me, too.” Brodie, reluctantly, met his eyes. “Please don’t pry, Kade. I don’t talk about my past.”
Maybe she should. Someone, he realized, needed to hear her story and she definitely needed to tell it. It was a shock to realize he wanted to be the one to hear her tale. He wanted to be her friend, to offer comfort. To find out what made her tick.
Jan approached them with two loaded plates. She set the first one down on the table in front of Brodie and then put a plate in front of him. If the burger tasted as good as it smelled, then he was in for a treat, he thought, as he snagged a crispy fry and shoved it into his mouth.