“Yes, baby. Give it to me.”
“I love you, honey.”
“It’s happening…”
At the cataclysm they cried out in rapture together, clinging to each other in the throes of climax like two people set adrift in a stormy sea. Drew nipped at Sidney’s earlobe as he sailed over the edge of the world, soothing the tender flesh with his tongue as the rushing tide of his blood finally began to ebb.
Sidney played with his hair, slowly twining the short strands around her fingertips while her breathing turned from shallow to deep. “Well,” she sighed at last. “How was your day, dear?”
Drew laughed, his chest rumbling against the laughter that billowed in hers. The joy swam with the aftereffects of ecstasy in his head, and he felt like he was flying. Like nothing could spoil this perfect moment.
But several things did.
The shrill ringing of the oven timer shouted into the postcoital bliss. Sidney groaned, “Oh, it’s the chicken.”
The sound punctured the euphoric bubble that surrounded Drew, and the realization crept in that in the midst of passion he’d told Sidney he loved her. Not the first time he’d whispered it, or shouted it, while he had her wrapped in his arms. On each of those occasions, like now, he carefully avoided remarking on the fact she didn’t say it back.
To complete the crash back to earth, there followed a knock on the door. Sidney gasped. “Who could that be?”
Drew swore. Reluctantly he pulled out of Sidney’s body and told her, “That’s Brody.”
Chapter 2
“Brody?” Sidney’s mind blanked at Drew’s answer. “What’s Brody doing here?”
She’d rarely seen Drew appear sheepish, but the word perfectly described the expression that crossed his strongly carved features. “Ah, that’s what I was trying to talk to you about.”
Sidney watched as Drew refastened his jeans, only then remembering to smooth down her dress. She was still dizzy from the aftereffects of the fantastic sex and figured it must be adversely impacting her hearing. “Did you invite Brody here tonight?”
“Yeah. I did. But it’s not what you think.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. If Drew thought beer and poker was in the cards tonight after she’d spent all afternoon cooking, she’d kick him right in his cute behind with her five-inch stripper heels. “You mean you didn’t arrange some kind of boys’ night on our anniversary?”
His laugh held an irony she didn’t understand. “No, definitely not a boys’ night. More of a girl’s night, actually.”
Sidney squinted at him, confused. “Huh?”
The rapping on the door boomed once again and Drew called out impatiently, “Just a sec.” He turned back toward Sidney. “I meant to explain this as soon as I got home, but you looked so damned sexy. And then you started rubbing up against me and the words”—he waved a hand in the air—”disappeared.”
Rubbing up against him! He made her sound like a stray cat. “I swear, Andrew Buchanan, if you don’t start making some sense I’ll…”
She bit off the end of her threat as the knock came again.
“Do you guys want me to get out of here?” The sardonic lilt of that masculine voice confirmed that their visitor was indeed Drew’s best friend. Sidney uttered a frustrated sound. She whirled around and swung open the door. Surely, once Brody got a look at her dress, and the plethora of lit candles she’d placed all around the dining area, he’d get the message that she and Drew were busy.
Brody Nash stood in the hall, almost filling up the rectangular space formed by the open door with his wide shoulders. He carried a bowl of something that looked creamy and decadent tucked under his arm. Brody was one of the best dessert chefs in the business, a skill Sidney considered incongruently delicate for such a hulking bear of a man.
The gaze he raked over her held a wealth of blatant masculine interest. He didn’t bother to hide the fact he was x-ray visioning everything beneath the racy black dress she had donned for Drew’s benefit.
Sidney fought the urge to shuffle her feet as the possibility that Brody may have heard everything assailed her. He’d been in the hallway, right on the other side of the wall she’d demanded Drew fuck her against. His dark brown eyes held a hint of wicked knowledge that seemed to confirm he’d been privy to all that crazy dirty talk she’d screamed because she knew it drove Drew nuts. Not to mention all the banging against the wall she’d been doing while she’d been banging her boyfriend.
Her cheeks grew hot beneath Brody’s lazy scrutiny of her body. But it was the burst of something else unexpectedly heated that made her breath catch in her lungs. As the man’s gaze brushed over her cleavage, Sidney’s nipples pebbled. She was still sensitized from having Drew inside her, and those nerve endings zinged with something that had nothing to do with embarrassment.
The thought that Brody had heard her howling at Drew to make her come actually turned her on.
“Shortcake,” Brody drawled. He always called her shortcake with a derisive slant of his brow and a smile that was a breath away from a sneer. “You look good enough to eat. Are you going to invite me in?”
Sidney gaped as Brody sauntered past her. He didn’t look like a man ready to turn around and leave.
At a loss for what else to do, Sidney closed the door. Brody muttered something under his breath to Drew that she barely managed to make out. “You didn’t tell her I was coming.”
“I didn’t get the chance.”
Sidney’s face flamed further at Brody’s knowing chuckle. “So I heard.”
Drew’s reply was laced with reproach. “There’s wine in the fridge if you want some.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Brody sent Sidney a half smile over his shoulder and disappeared into the kitchen.
Immediately Drew swung around to face her. “Don’t be mad.”
“That’s for me to decide,” she hissed. “What is he doing here?”
“He came for dinner and…” He bit down on what he’d been about to say and changed tack. “I thought you liked Brody.”
“I do like him. For the most part.” She knew that Drew and Brody shared a special bond, formed in childhood. Once, when Drew was eleven and Brody twelve, Drew and some of his friends had been playing in a drain after a storm. Drew’s foot had become wedged in a grate. The rushing water would have drowned him if Brody hadn’t come out of nowhere and dived beneath the torrent, freeing Drew’s foot and saving his life.
For that alone Brody held a special place in Sidney’s heart. And while his manner tended to be aloof, even callous, Sidney forgave him because Drew had also told her a little about his difficult childhood. How his mother left, how his father descended into an alcoholic stupor, how he’d punished Brody both physically and emotionally. After the incident in which Brody had saved Drew’s life, he’d spent so much time at Drew’s house he’d become an honorary Buchanan.
“I just don’t understand what he’s doing here tonight.” Sidney pushed the thoughts of Brody’s past from her mind. Sympathy for him would only weaken her resolve to make sure he left. He lived a solitary existence on a thirty-foot sloop currently moored at the marina, and she sensed a loneliness in him he’d surely never admit to. But that didn’t mean he could move in on her special evening with Drew.
“You would understand if I wasn’t such an idiot.” Drew smiled in that way that managed to be both self-deprecating and sexy, the same smile that had drawn her so easily to this very apartment on the night she’d met him a year ago.
He encircled her wrist and brought her hand up to his lips. He placed a soft, wet kiss against her palm, thawing her icy mood. His tawny hair was still ruffled from her fingers, making Sidney think of what they’d been doing only moments ago. His eyes glittered cobalt in the ambient light. “You see, I meant to tell you that Brody’s your anniversary present.”
His words befuddled her almost as much as the teasing brush of his lips against the pulse point at her wrist. “I don’t u
nderstand.”
“I want to fulfill every single one of your fantasies, Sid. I want to pamper you and make you feel special. Because you are special.”
She heard a whimper and realized she’d made it. Oh, Drew, you perfect, irresistible devil…
“What I’m trying to say is that we’d both like to make you feel like that. Brody and I would like very much to make love to you.”
Sidney figured she must have misheard. Yet her heart slammed to a stop. “I’m sorry…what?”
“I read a couple of your books. I thought it might be something you’d like to try.”
Sidney tried to breathe deeply, but her lungs wouldn’t allow it. She opened her mouth to tell Drew that her books were fiction—fantasy. She’d never thought for a moment she would actually do any of the wild things she’d read about.
Well, at least not all of them. Not this thing.
Instead of rejecting the idea right away, she heard herself stammer with an uncertainty that amazed her. “I-I don’t know.” Perhaps she shouldn’t have drunk that glass of wine while she’d been lying in the bath. She ought to be appalled. Her boyfriend had suggested she participate in a threesome.
But for some reason she couldn’t quite muster appalled. She felt…excited. Her heart rumbled like a theatrical drum roll. Oh yes, definitely excited.
“That’s okay.” Drew moved his mouth up her arm until he swirled his tongue around the sensitive spot at her inner elbow. “I’ve sprung this on you. Why don’t you let Brody stay for dinner? Any time you want him to leave, you say the word.”
“Dinner,” Sidney murmured dumbly. “Oh my goodness, the chicken will be burning.” Seriously, Sid, you’re thinking about chicken?
“I’ll get it. You sit down, have a glass of wine. Relax.”
Relax. Right.
* * * *
Throughout dinner, Sidney thought about telling Brody to leave more times than she could count. Each time she opened her mouth to say the words, something would stop her. A look Brody would cast her, one that seemed to dare her not to. The touch of Drew’s hand on her arm that kept the heat within her simmering. Another sip of wine that worked to relax her inhibitions.
The promise of living out a wicked fantasy.
As she toyed with the remains of her chicken dinner, Sidney surreptitiously studied Brody. He was around six feet with imposing shoulders and thickly muscled arms. Different from Drew, whose frame was long, rangy, and bunched tight in all the right places. While Drew kept his rich walnut-hued hair cut close at his nape, Brody’s was a shiny jet black that curled over the collar of his open necked shirt, the fringe sweeping down to shade his dark eyes. At times those eyes appeared as black as his hair, but tonight Sidney could make out the subtle flecks of amber shooting through the irises in the soft glow of the candlelight.
No question, he was an attractive man. She would have been blind not to notice. And while she’d wondered idly about his love life—his apparent preference for one-night stands with tourists looking for a meaningless holiday fling—she’d never actually thought about going to bed with him. She was with Drew, and she would never do anything to hurt him.
Brody’s gaze lifted from his plate and he caught her staring. Sidney reached for her nearly empty glass of Semillon and downed the remains, a renewed bout of nerves making her heart tumble through her chest.
Drew immediately lifted the bottle and poured her another half glass. Sidney figured she should probably refuse the alcohol. She was already slightly buzzed. But she didn’t. “You had enough, sweetheart?”
Drew’s question made Sidney cut her gaze away from Brody. She flushed with guilt at having been caught ogling another man while her boyfriend sat beside her. Yet Drew’s expression held no censure. His eyes were hooded—from the effect of alcohol or desire she wasn’t sure. Perhaps a little of both. Between the three of them, they’d polished off two bottles of wine, and any time she’d caught Drew’s stare throughout dinner, the air between them crackled with sexual energy.
Her befuddled brain registered his meaning slowly, but at last Sidney glanced down at the food in front of her. “I can’t eat another bite.” She pushed her plate aside and leaned back in her chair.
“Don’t say that,” Brody admonished, that irreverent smile surfacing. “I brought dessert.”
“Brody wouldn’t take well to anyone turning up their nose at his dessert,” Drew teased.
“I wouldn’t know. It’s never happened.”
“Arrogant bastard isn’t he?”
“Yes.” Sidney eyed the man in question over the rim of her wine glass. “He is.”
Drew laughed and Brody slanted his dark brows at her. “Is that a complaint? I don’t usually get them from Drew’s girlfriends.”
“Low blow, bringing that up, Nash.” Despite his words Drew didn’t seem angered by Brody’s remark. Catching the curious look Sidney sent him, Drew explained, “He’s talking about Cheryl Ames. One of my girlfriends who seemed to appreciate his particular brand of charm, such as it is.”
“She had a crush on me.”
“He’s been holding that over me ever since we were twenty-one.”
“What did she do?” Sidney asked. “Leave you for Brody?”
“Don’t sound so incredulous, Shortcake. It’s not a complete impossibility.”
Sidney met the challenge in Brody’s eyes square on. “I guess that depends on the woman.”
“Aw, Sid.” Drew leaned close and nuzzled her neck, making Sidney giggle. “Loyal and sexy. What did I do to deserve you?”
“Nothing but sheer dumb luck, I reckon.” Brody’s teasing seemed good natured on the surface, but something in the lilt of his voice set Sidney’s hackles rising.
She made her point by turning and treating Drew to a thoroughly seductive kiss. When she at last pulled back she said, “No luck involved. It was all his devastating charm.”
“You hear that, Nash?” Drew didn’t take his eyes off Sidney’s. “My charm is devastating.”
“Yeah, I got the message loud and clear. You two are like a couple of lovebirds, joined at the wing.” Sidney turned at Brody’s mocking tone and found him looking at her with a steady gaze. “You think I want to mess with that, Shortcake?”
“I don’t know what you want.”
Brody’s smile was shrewd. “You’re smarter than that.”
He’d practically pronounced that he wanted her while Drew’s arm was still looped over her shoulders. His brashness sent a tingle of awareness dancing over her skin. Her nipples drew tight against the lace of her dress. Brody’s gaze dropped, as though he somehow sensed her reaction and Sidney felt her cheeks heat.
“If my being here is so off-putting,” Brody continued. “Why haven’t you asked me to leave?”
A good question which Sidney had difficulty answering. She stood abruptly and began clearing the table. “Perhaps you should.”
The clash of cutlery and crockery sounded piercingly loud in the silence that closed in behind her as she carted her load to the kitchen. She was rinsing the plates, using the time alone to catch her breath when she glanced up and saw Brody in the entryway. All efforts she’d made to calm her rapid heartbeat were ruined at the sight of him, his bulky arms crossed over his chest, the black clothes making him seem even more mysterious than usual. His gaze trailed over her, from her ridiculously high heels to her flushed cheeks. He made no attempt to pretend disinterest in anything in between.
Desire clutched at Sidney, burning a hole in her stomach. Her nipples thrust against the lace that barely covered them and moisture gathered between her thighs. She shouldn’t be feeling this way about any man except Drew. But God help her, she was lusting after Brody.
Sidney reminded herself that Drew had given her permission to lust. He’d arranged this. If she wanted to indulge in a long-cherished fantasy, now was the time.
Brody unfolded his big body from the doorjamb and wandered into the kitchen. He leaned a hip against the sink and watched
her. “Need help?”
Sidney continued to do the dishes in a vain attempt to ignore his presence. “No. Thanks.”
“My being here is making you nervous.”
His droll observation made her cut her gaze sideways at him. She wanted to deny it, but instead admitted, “A little.”
He raised a dark brow. “Only nervous?” He dropped his attention to the rapid rise and fall of her chest in a knowing assessment.
“What do you want me to say, Brody? That I’m sinfully turned on?”
His quiet laugh possessed a harsh edge that scraped against Sidney’s nerves. “That would be a start.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You think every woman you meet wants to go to bed with you.” Sidney shoved a dinner plate into the dish rack with a clunk. “Just because most of them seem to, doesn’t mean you’re a shoe-in with me.”
“You’ve been keeping tabs on me,” he remarked. “Is that what’s bothering you? You think I’m easy?”
His terminology made her laugh despite her annoyance. “Brody, easy is not a word I’d use to describe anything about you. You are most definitely hard.” Realizing what she’d said, Sidney fought to control another blush. “I didn’t mean…”
“Maybe not.” He took a step closer, moving around so he stood behind her. Heat emanated from the body pressed against her back. “But if you want to talk about how hard I am, I’m more than willing.”
“Brody…”
He rested his hands on her bare shoulders, his touch an electric burn on her skin. “You can trust me. Despite my reputation I’m not irresponsible. I always suit up for the occasion.”
Sidney released a derisive laugh. “I have no doubt you do. No way would you risk getting some poor girl pregnant and tying yourself down in the process. Besides, if Drew thought there was the slightest risk you’d pass on something unpleasant there’s no way he would have suggested this.”
“So what are you afraid of? That you’ll like it too much? That you’ll prefer me to Drew?”
Anger lashed through her. Sidney whirled around to face him, shooting fire from her eyes. “You son of a—”
The Good Girl In My Bed (Dangerous Desire Book 2) Page 12
