Not that he really gave a shit. Sam had screwed the pooch in that deal. His dumb ass hadn’t been able to keep it in his pants long enough to realize he’d had a damn good thing.
So, as far as Donovan was concerned, Sam’s loss was his gain.
He decided against telling Sam that, though. Instead, he lied. “Stepped outside to get some air.”
“Oh. You okay?”
“Perfect,” he lied again.
“I was hoping to introduce you to Kora,” Sam said, peering around the room. “But it looks like she left.”
Why would Sam want to introduce Donovan to Kora? After all this time? Not once in the two years that Sam and Kora had been dating had he ever wanted to make those introductions. Seemed strange, but Donovan decided to pretend not to notice.
“She was here?” he asked, praying like hell this wasn’t a trap. If it was, he’d just walked right into it.
“Yeah, but I don’t see her now. I’m sure she had something—or someone—better to do.”
A flash of anger sparked in Donovan’s gut. He didn’t like that Sam was making accusations. Especially since Sam was the one who’d cheated on Kora. Then again, Donovan figured Sam had been living the lie for long enough now, he probably didn’t realize who knew the truth and who didn’t.
Donovan knew the truth. And he honestly thought Sam was a dick.
“I am gonna have to go soon,” Donovan told him now.
“How long’re you in town?” Sam inquired.
“A week.” Donovan had managed to wrangle some time off, though he was only a phone call away if something arose that he needed to handle back in New York. He doubted that would happen. The people in his employ were quite capable of managing for a few days without him, so he had nothing but time on his hands while he hunkered down here in Texas. Time he fully intended to spend with Kora.
“Maybe we can get together one day this week. Have a couple of beers.”
“Sure.” He wanted to ask if Kora would be around, because there was no way Donovan could leave town without seeing her again, but he managed to keep that to himself. His assistant would come through for him. He had to. He had some resources of his own, and he’d give those a shot before he resorted to hitting Sam up for Kora’s address or phone number.
“Thanks for coming,” Sam said, slapping Donovan on the back. “I’m glad you could make it. It really means a lot.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it,” Donovan lied. Again.
At this rate, he feared walking out into the parking lot. It was quite possible—after all the lies he’d just told—lightning would strike him when he did.
Then again, it would be a suitable end to an already stormy day.
Six
KORA HADN’T BEEN HOME long when her cell phone rang, the tone blasting from somewhere deep inside her purse. She knew it was her mother before she even fished it out. She did not want to answer, but she knew if she didn’t, Janet Madison would simply get in her car and drive to her house.
And that was the absolute last thing Kora needed tonight.
With a resigned huff, she hit the button to take the call. “Hello,” she greeted, hoping she sounded sick.
“Kora? Are you okay?” Janet’s voice reflected her concern.
“Not feeling well,” Kora lied.
“Did you go home?”
“Yeah. Figured if I came down with something, y’all wouldn’t want Trina to get it.”
“No, definitely not,” her mother agreed. “Is it a stomach bug?”
“I think so.” It definitely wasn’t her stomach that hurt. This pain was coming from her chest and she had no idea why it was there. She should’ve been walking on a cloud, reveling in the glow of the orgasm that Donovan had invoked.
Donovan Brashwood. The man she’d met less than three hours ago. The man she’d fucked in a storage closet. The man she couldn’t stop thinking about no matter how much she tried.
That wasn’t the way this was supposed to work. She was inexperienced at the whole one-night-stand thing, sure, but she knew that much to be true.
“Do you want me to stop by and check on you when we’re done here?” her mother offered.
Hell no. “No, I’m good, Mom. Thanks.”
There was silence on the other end, and Kora could imagine her mother sitting there, the questions filling her mouth, ready to spill forth and start another fight. It seemed that no matter what, they’d been arguing for months. Ever since Trina had announced that she was pregnant with Sam’s baby.
According to everyone, Kora should’ve been happy for the couple since she’d purposely sabotaged her relationship with Sam by going out with another guy.
If, by other guy, they meant Cody, a guy she worked with—a gay guy she worked with—who had wanted to talk because he’d recently broken up with his boyfriend and wanted Kora’s advice, then sure.
Except no one had seen her with Cody, and only one other person knew she’d had lunch with the guy and that was Sam. Which meant Sam had lied in order to take the heat off himself when Kora had found out he’d been screwing her sister.
“Kora, are—”
“Mom,” Kora kept her tone even, “If you’re going to bring up Sam, don’t. I don’t want to talk about him or Trina or the baby. I don’t want to talk about any of it. I went to the shower, as I promised. Now I just want to move on with my life.”
Kora could hear her mother breathing into the phone, and she wondered if she would question her anyway.
Thankfully, she didn’t.
“Okay, honey. I’ll call you later.”
“’Kay.” Kora hung up the phone before her mother got the nerve to ask her if Sam and Trina had been the reason she’d left.
Although she would’ve been able to honestly tell her no, she wouldn’t be able to tell her the real reason she’d fled the restaurant like her ass had been on fire.
“Shower,” she said aloud as she headed for her bathroom, stripping off her clothes along the way. The only thing she wanted to do was get beneath the hot spray and wash the scent of Donovan from her skin. Maybe then she’d be able to stop thinking about him.
While she scrubbed her body, she tried not to think about what it would feel like to have Donovan’s hands on her naked skin. She should’ve known she wasn’t the type who could have a one-night quickie with a guy and be able to not think about him. Especially with a man like Donovan Brashwood.
“You don’t even know him,” she reminded herself as she turned off the water and grabbed a towel, quickly drying, then wringing the water from her hair.
Her house was cold, but she didn’t even care. She was hot, and her skin felt too tight for her body, so she kept the towel wrapped around her naked body as she made her way to the kitchen in search of food. The buzz from the alcohol had long since faded—dissolving almost entirely when she’d paced the parking lot waiting for a cab because driving drunk hadn’t been on her agenda. And though she was tempted to drown herself in more booze just to forget what had happened, she didn’t think it would help, so why bother?
She opened the refrigerator, peered at the contents, then sighed.
Maybe she wasn’t hungry.
Not for food, anyway.
Kora grabbed the container of orange juice, then twisted off the cap, taking a swig right from the bottle. While she contemplated adding a little vodka, her cell phone rang. She glanced down at it sitting on the bar, narrowing her eyes when she saw who it was.
“No fucking way,” she mumbled to herself.
There was no way he had the fucking balls to call her on the same day as his baby shower.
No. Fucking. Way.
THE INSTANT HE HEARD her voice, Donovan smiled.
“What the fuck do you want, Sam?”
Yep, just as he’d thought, she didn’t want to talk to her back-stabbing ex. But since he wasn’t Sam, he hoped she wouldn’t be angry for too long.
“Not Sam.”
He was met with silence. It lingered
for several seconds, and he didn’t say a word as he made his way out to the front porch. When the baby shower had wound down, Donovan had decided to go back to Sam’s for a little while. And under the guise that his cell phone battery had died, he’d asked Sam to borrow his. Just as he’d suspected, Kora’s phone number had still been in his contact list.
“What do you want?” Kora asked, her voice still firm but not quite as deadly as before.
“Your address,” he told her bluntly. No sense beating around the bush. He had every intention of talking to her, but he wasn’t planning to do it on the phone.
“What? Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Donovan didn’t want to play games with her; he wanted to get in his car and drive to her house, strip her naked, bury himself inside her, and make her scream his name. And when they were sweaty and sated, then they could talk. About anything. About everything. About why the sky was blue or how babies were made. He didn’t care, just as long as he could get his hands on her again.
Not once in his life had he found himself this consumed by a woman. Since she’d snuck out of the restaurant, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her. He didn’t think he would be able to until he saw her, touched her, tasted her.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kora mumbled.
“I think it’s a fucking fantastic idea,” he told her, keeping his tone firm.
He didn’t know much about Kora Madison, but he suspected she was used to making the rules. And though Sam was the type to let someone railroad him, Donovan had never been that guy. Control was something he craved, something he refused to let go of. Even now.
Especially now.
“Donovan…”
“Yes?” he asked, glancing at his car. In a few minutes, he fully intended to be in that car, driving to her house.
“We can’t.”
“We can, Kora. And we will. I’m only asking one more time. What’s your address?”
More silence, and for a second, Donovan thought she wouldn’t give it to him. He hadn’t thought things through completely, because he wasn’t ready to give up, but luckily that didn’t matter.
Because, although she sounded reluctant, Kora rattled off her address and then hung up on him.
Donovan stared at the phone, grinning like a fool.
Seven
AFTER HANGING UP ON Donovan, Kora stared around her house, wondering what she needed to do. He obviously wasn’t going to listen to reason, which meant he was probably already on his way, so she felt as though she should be doing something other than standing there.
Unfortunately for her, the house was clean, so she had nothing to do there. Which left her to look at herself, and that was when she realized she was still wearing a towel.
“Lovely,” she muttered, making her way to her bedroom.
She didn’t want to get dressed up, but only because she was too lazy to do so. When she’d showered, she had washed off all her makeup, and without it, she looked like a twelve-year-old kid, not a twenty-six-year-old woman, so maybe he wouldn’t be interested. Not that she gave a shit. She really didn’t want Donovan coming over. For some inexplicable reason, Kora knew she would be weak when it came to him. After only an hour in his company, she was craving him in a way she’d never experienced before.
She definitely needed to get her shit together. Her emotions were out of whack, and she knew he somehow played a role in that, even if he didn’t realize it.
She glanced back at her phone, tempted to call him back and give him some lame excuse. Only he’d used Sam’s phone to call her, and she definitely wasn’t going to risk having to talk to that asshole, so it looked as though she was shit out of luck.
Fine. She would get dressed, but she definitely wasn’t putting on makeup. Feeling remotely better, she stomped toward her closet. Maybe she should find something that would cover her from head to toe. That wouldn’t be all that appealing, right?
Since she’d spent the past two years in a relationship with Sam, Kora had grown accustomed to not caring what she looked like. In the beginning, their relationship had been all sparks and flames, and she’d spent more than her fair share of time trying to make herself look good for the man, but that had fizzled out after only three months.
“Look where that got you,” she said as she opened her closet door.
She’d tried to tell herself that was the way relationships worked, only she knew deep down that wasn’t the case. Sam had never fanned the flames hot enough to ensure they wouldn’t burn out. Nor had she, so she couldn’t put all the blame on him. Maybe she had known all along that Sam wasn’t the right guy for her. It made sense in a warped sort of way. She had certainly never felt the sort of heat she’d felt with Donovan.
When it came to Donovan, there was a banked fire deep inside her, one that he could stoke to a conflagration with a simple look. The proof was in the fact that she’d fucked him in a storage room after knowing him for only five minutes. However, she didn’t have any regrets and that worried her.
Was she losing her mind? Or was Donovan just that good?
For some reason, she didn’t think that flame would be all that easy to blow out, even if things progressed between them.
Only they wouldn’t.
This was the end of the line for them. There was no other option.
After grabbing panties and a bra out of her drawer and yanking them on, Kora snagged a long-sleeved button-up shirt from her closet, a pair of leggings, and dressed in minutes. She ran a comb through her hair, brushed her teeth, and stared at herself in the mirror for longer than was necessary.
She looked tired.
Then again, she was.
Today, though she thought she’d done a damn good job of hiding it, had been emotionally draining. Being at the baby shower, watching Trina and Sam as they greeted their friends and family, celebrating the life they were bringing into the world, Kora had felt the ache of loneliness and resentment settle in her gut.
She didn’t hate her sister, wasn’t sure she ever could, but she didn’t particularly like her. As for Sam the Prick—oh, she hated him, all right. With a passion. The mere thought of him pissed her off.
A knock sounded on her door, pulling her from her thoughts.
She slowly crossed the living room, then stepped into the foyer. Although she knew who was there, she still checked the security hole, using that as more of a stalling tactic than anything else.
Her hand shook as she turned the knob and opened the door, her eyes slamming into the sexy man darkening her doorstep.
The first thing she noticed about Donovan was that he’d changed. Gone was the suit, and in its place a forest-green Henley that made his eyes glow, along with a pair of dark, well-worn jeans, boots, and a black Stetson. He’d gone from executive to cowboy in a matter of minutes.
“You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the boy,” she muttered, taking a step back.
“You don’t know how true that is,” Donovan said, his eyes slowly raking over her as he stepped inside.
Kora closed the door, took a deep breath, and prayed like hell she would not do something stupid. Like take this sexy man to bed.
Because, heaven help her, she already wanted to, and he hadn’t been there ten seconds.
FROM THE MOMENT THE door opened and those wary gray eyes stared back at him, Donovan knew tonight wasn’t going to go as well as today had. Then again, he’d spent several hours at a baby shower, so he wasn’t sure he could call it a good day.
Except for the part when he’d been buried balls deep inside of Kora. That had been fucking spectacular.
Remembering where he was and who was standing in front of him, Donovan took a quick look around. Kora’s house was nice. Clean. But something just didn’t fit. There were no pictures on the wall, no knickknacks on the shelves, nothing to show that she actually occupied the space. “How long have you lived here?”
“Six weeks.”
Then he re
membered, Kora had lived with Sam before they’d broken up, and from what Sam had said, she’d moved in with her parents for a short time just to get away from him.
“You okay?” he asked, following Kora when she swept past him into a sparsely furnished living room.
“Perfect.” Kora’s clipped tone told him that she was anything but. “Want a drink?”
“Yes,” he said, keeping his voice even, firm.
Kora spun around so fast her hair flew around and brushed over her face.
“That was blunt,” she stated, her forehead creased.
“You asked. I answered. That’s the way it works, right?”
“What happened to polite?” she snapped.
“I tend to tell it like it is, Kora. I’m not the man who talks just to hear himself talk.”
Donovan could feel her tension and he knew it didn’t have anything to do with him. But he knew he needed to defuse it if at all possible. Closing the gap between them in a matter of seconds, he came to stand directly in front of her, his hands going to her hips as he pulled her up against his body.
She was warm and she smelled good. Something light and floral. Since her hair was wet, he assumed it was her shampoo.
“I know you’re not pissed at me,” Donovan told her. “If you were, you wouldn’t have given me your address. So what’s the problem?”
“You. You’re my problem.” she retorted. “You just bulldoze your way in here like I’m supposed to welcome you with open arms.”
“I’m not the problem, Kora.”
Her mouth pursed and her eyes lit with her anger. “And how can you be so sure of that?”
“Because…” Donovan leaned down, his mouth dangerously close to hers. “You wouldn’t let me do this if I were.”
He swallowed her sharp exhale when he slanted his mouth over hers, his tongue slowly sliding past her lips. He kept it gentle, simple. Nothing like the inferno that had consumed them in that storage closet, but this was nice, too.
Kora’s hands were on his chest, but she wasn’t pushing him away, and Donovan took that as a good sign. He pulled back, then curled his hand around the nape of her neck as he locked his eyes with hers. “Today must’ve been hard.”
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