Superb And Sexy

Chapter 10

Brody stared at Maddie lying in the bed, looking wan and helpless, and very unlike herself. If he hadn’t kissed her, he might really wonder if he, indeed, had the right twin. Slowly, he repeated the important part of her statement because it bore repeating. “You need help undressing.”

“Yes.” She tossed back the blanket, reminding him of how little she was wearing. “But don’t worry. Leena’ll help me undress and make me hot tea for the pain meds while you go to the post office.”

Uh-huh. Except…yeah. She sounded just a little too eager for him to go.

Big surprise.

He took in her teeny tiny little miniskirt, something he’d been doing his damnedest not to. It had crept up so high on her silky smooth, creamy thighs that he could just see a barely there hint of silk between. Her top, that lacy number, fit her like a glove and had risen too, revealing a strip of belly and that sparkly piercing twinkling at him like a beacon.

Jesus.

Sliding her fingers up her body until they rested low on her abs, her thumb playing with the hem of the shirt. “I’m not sure I can get this off by myself.”

As if to prove it, she tried, using her good hand, pulling the material up to just beneath her breasts, squirming as she strained to get her arm out. With some work, she did get the one arm out, and then she was caught halfway in, halfway out, her head beneath the stretchy material.

Beneath the lace, she had silk. Tiger-striped silk in the form of a demi bra cut so low that all her wriggling and squirming threatened her coverage.

Not to mention, shot his distance theory all to hell.

“Uh-oh.” She bounced up and down. Yeah, like that was going to do anything except maybe give him a heart attack because her breasts were bouncing too, shimmying and shaking, and he actually felt a coronary coming on-

And then it happened.

A nipple popped right out of her bra, a sweet rose-colored nipple.

Riveted to the spot, he stood there, heart pounding, blood roaring like a white water rapid as it rushed through his body to pool between his legs.

“Damn it, I’m stuck. Can you get Leena?” Her voice was muffled through the shirt. She had her bad arm pinned to her side, her good arm straight up over her head, her top still half on and half off.

And a nipplegate situation going on.

He had to clear his throat to talk and even then managed only a barely audible “I said I’d do it.”

Because he was stupid. Very, very stupid.

For her part, she kept valiantly trying to free herself, which involved more bouncing. He tried to move, but in reality, he could do nothing but stare at her breast, the tip puckering up tight right before his eyes, making his mouth water.

“Brody? You out there?”

He nodded, then realized she couldn’t see him. “Yeah,” he managed hoarsely.

She tugged again and then let out a low cry of pain, which pretty much galvanized him into reluctant action. Setting a knee on the bed, he leaned over her. Christ, where to put his hands? “Be still,” he demanded, but the woman never listened. She kept moving, moving, moving, and her bared breast kept bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. “Seriously. Sit still.”

He held her raised arm with one hand and ordering himself not to look, grabbed the hem of her shirt to try to get the thing off her, all the while taking care of her bad arm.

And not looking.

He succeeded at the first and failed miserably at the second. The shirt snagged on her elbow, and once he fixed that, he was nearly home free until he caught the material on her earring.

“Ouch.”

“Don’t move!”

“I’m not!”

Not earring. Earrings. She had four silver hoops in her ear, and he had no idea why, other than the tiny hoops made a sweet little tinkling sound when she moved, and for some reason, the sight of them made him want to nibble there.

But there were lots of places he wanted to nibble at the moment. With Herculean effort, he finally dragged her free of the shirt and tossed it aside.

In unison, they looked down at her exposed breast. “Whoops,” she said and tucked her nipple back into the cup of her bra.

He’d carried her through the house and up the stairs without breaking a sweat, but he was sweating now. “Okay, then. I’ll just…” Dream about your body, and that nipple, for the rest of my life. “…get you that tea.”

“But I’m not all the way undressed.”

He eyed her skirt. The smallest skirt in the history of skirts. “Right. I guess that has to come off.”

“The zipper’s in the back,” she said helpfully.

And then she all but stopped his heart by rolling to her belly, exposing the smooth, sweet skin of her slim back, broken only by the strap of her bra and that scrap of material masquerading as a skirt, which revealed her tattoo and emphasized the sweetest ass he’d ever seen, not to mention the two tightly toned legs that could take him weeks and weeks to explore.

“Do you see the zipper?” she asked, her face pressed into the bed.

The one that ran a whole whopping two inches from the small of her back just below her small tattoo to halfway down the already aforementioned sweet ass? Yeah, he saw it.

“Brody?”

“On it.” His palms itched. His fingers twitched. Everything twitched. He should have gone to the damn post office. With a knee still on the bed, he leaned over her and grabbed the zipper tab.

Then pulled.

She wriggled, widening the gap, and if he’d thought her skirt tiny, it had nothing on her thong panties, a matching tiger-striped, narrow strip bisecting the most amazing, mouthwatering ass he’d ever seen.

Reaching down with her good hand, she shoved the skirt off one hip and then wriggled-Jesus H. Christ-wriggled to try to lower the other side as well. She did have a small birthmark on the back of her right thigh, and at the thought, a strangled sound of lust tumbled from his lips.

Craning her neck, she blinked at him. “You okay?”

No. No, he wasn’t. All of the blood in his body, every single drop, had left his brain for parts south.

“I can’t-” She struggled some more, those sweet cheeks lifting off the bed, and he found himself actually leaning in as if to kiss them.

Or take a bite out of them.

“A hand?”

Yeah, a hand. How about both hands? He could cup and squeeze-

“Brody?”

“Yeah.”

You are so fucked, he told himself and slipped his fingers into the waistband of her skirt to tug. Shrink-wrapped to her skin, the skirt only gave an inch. But that inch…more sweet flesh, more of the thong…holy mother of God, he wasn’t going to recover from this. He really wasn’t.

Another tug, and the skirt slid to her upper thighs, exposing her in full, including the line of the thong as it narrowed and vanished between her legs. And then she scissor kicked the skirt off her legs, giving him an all too quick, tantalizing view of the barely covered treasure in between.

“Brody?”

He blinked and realized she’d turned back over and was waiting for him in nothing but tiger stripes. “Huh?”

“Blanket?”

“Right.” He yanked it over her and swiped his forehead. “It’s hot in here. Is it hot in here?”

Her eyes were already drifting shut. “It’s just perfect. Thanks for your help…”

Okay, then. He strode to the door as fast as he could, needing out, needing air, needing…well, what he needed didn’t bear thinking about.

The minute Brody left the room, Maddie slapped her forehead. Asinine. Her great plan had totally and completely backfired on her because now she was shaking. Shaking and quivery and so turned on she could hardly stand it. She shoved the covers back off and took a deep breath.

He’d wanted her.

By the look in his eyes, he’d wanted all of her, fast and wild and maybe a little dirty. Whew. Fanning her face, she got out of the bed, then went looking for Leena.

They had to go. Like yesterday.

Only Leena was already gone. Her bag, her suitcase…gone.

Oh, God. Maddie stood in the center of the spare bedroom, the spare empty bedroom, and then ran to the window. Leena’s car was gone.

Damn it! She’d decided to execute The Plan on her own.

But Maddie couldn’t let her do it. Stupid plan or not, they were stronger together than apart, and she was going after her to prove it.

Leena bought the last ticket on a plane bound for New Orleans and hoped to be at Ben’s art gallery by dawn.

Assuming her courage caught up with her.

She let out a long breath and walked past the airport bar. The kind of drink she could use about now would only cost her four bucks, but she’d given up alcohol along with the cigarettes and everything else that she missed.

She thought of Maddie and wondered how much her sister would mind that Leena had accidentally grabbed Maddie’s cell phone instead of her own, since apparently they still thought alike and had bought identical phone covers.

Or that Leena had abused the mini credit card she’d found in the back of Maddie’s leather cell phone cover to buy her airline ticket.

Oh, boy. She distracted herself by thinking of Ben. She’d designed a series of exquisite original pieces for his gallery, and by the time she’d finished his job, she’d left a part of her heart and soul there. Because of her art, certainly, but it went deeper than that.

Ben had been in on the design. Not in corroboration so much, but just watching and experiencing her process. It’d been part of the deal, his deal, because he loved to be involved in the artistry of the pieces he collected and sold.

Leena had flown to his gallery several times with the designs, and once she’d begun work on the pieces, Ben had flown to Stone Cay to watch her work.

She’d expected him to be old, stuffy, maybe fat, and definitely snooty. Rick’s people were always snooty. Men with too much money and too much power were spoiled and used to getting their own way. Knowing it, she’d been braced to hate him.

And then she’d entered his gallery.

It was a wide open space with splashes of color that had caused the oddest reaction. Leena had immediately felt invigorated, vibrant…happy. That first day he’d come out from the back in well-worn jeans faded white in the stress points, a white T-shirt, work boots, all splattered in paint. He’d held out his hand for her to shake but had then caught a glimpse of the paint on his skin and laughed, pulling it back before he could get anything on her. “Sorry,” he’d said in a rugged voice tinged with Irish. “I’m in the middle.”

She’d blinked, a little surprised by the fact that he hadn’t been old, stuffy, or anywhere close to fat. In fact, he was maybe thirty, and tall and lanky lean. He was an artist, too, from his paint-splattered boots to the deep soul shining out of his warm chocolate eyes…

He’d liked her. He’d liked her a lot and had wanted to explore that between them, but she’d been there for business only.

Rick’s business.

And yet she’d found a way to wrangle several trips to New Orleans, citing design problems, which had only been an excuse to look at Ben some more.

She was certain he’d seen right through her, but he’d never been anything but sweet and kind, melting her every which way but Sunday with that low, Irish-tinted voice of his…

In spite of dragging it out as long as possible, eventually, she’d finished the jewelry for his gallery, and the job had come to an end. Rick himself had delivered the jewelry, with the priceless precious gems switched out for fakes, of course.

As for Leena, she’d been paid for a job well done and hadn’t seen Ben since.

He’d called several times, and she was so ashamed and terrified of the part she’d played in his being ripped off, she’d not returned a single one.

Just one more thing to hate Rick for.

And herself.

But she was on her way to fixing her wrong in the only way she knew how.

Brody stood in the kitchen waiting for the damn water to boil. He’d never understood the appeal of hot tea. It smelled like old ladies and tasted like flowers.

But whatever. It kept his hands busy. And they needed to be busy. He’d bring the tea to Maddie, who was hopefully still covered with her quilt up to her chin. Because chins weren’t sexy. Chins didn’t make him ache.

In the meantime, hopefully, his body would calm down, but he had a feeling he could brew all the tea in China and his body wouldn’t calm down, not after that little episode upstairs.

His fingers were trembling. He was trembling. And still hard.

He found a mug in the cabinet and checked the water for the hundredth time.

Still not boiling.

He looked at the boxes of tea lined up on the counter. Seven. Earl Grey, Black Cherry, Lemon Mint, Chamomile, green tea, black tea, white tea… Who needed seven different kinds of tea? A dull ache throbbed between his eyes, so he closed them and snatched a box blind.

Lemon mint. Whatever. The water still wasn’t boiling. “Work with me here,” he told the pot, which finally began to bubble, and he decided he should probably bring her something to eat, too, since she’d lost a little weight. So he shoved a few pieces of bread into the toaster.

Look at him, all domestic.

When he finally had the tea and toast ready, he made his way back up the stairs, eyeing the rooms as he went because the silence suddenly got to him. It was a big silence. A you’re-screwed sort of silence, and his spidey sense quivered.

Then he stepped into Maddie’s bedroom. Maddie’s empty bedroom, and the doubt became something bigger. One quick look out the window told him the truth. Maddie’s Jeep was gone, and so was the rental car.

She’d ditched him; they both had.

And didn’t that just top off his damn day. Suddenly he hoped that they were triplets, or quadruplets, or better yet, quints. Because being had by only two women seemed just too ridiculous.

Maddie’s purse was gone. It’d been sitting on her dresser, a black and silver number with lots of buckles and pockets. Next to it had been her cell phone, also gone. For shits and giggles, he pulled out his own cell and called hers, not surprised in the least when it went straight to voice mail.

Goddamnit.

With no compunction at all, he opened a dresser drawer, looking for clues to where she might have gone, but he ended up staring down at the pile of silky stuff. Hooking a satiny black number on his finger, he lifted it up. Panties barely the size of his palm.

He tossed the thing back into the drawer, then frowned at something else there, a box, and he nudged aside some more silk to expose…bullets.

And this time when his heart kicked, it kicked hard enough to nearly crack a rib.

She’d had a gun in here as well, a gun that was now gone. He was chewing on that when Shayne called him.

“Lost her, huh?”

“How do you know?”

“Because she’s on her way here.”

“What?” Brody took off running for the door. “What’s she doing there?”

“Sneaking away from you apparently.”

“Fuck. Tell me she’s going there to work and not to get on a plane.”

“Sorry, no can do.”

“Let me guess.” He stopped outside his car, slapping his pockets for his keys. “She wants a plane?”

“Give the man a prize. She called ahead. How did you know?”

His keys weren’t in his pockets. He was not a man who lost his damn keys ever. “Just stop her.”

“Yeah, I’m on that. What’s going on, Brody?”

“Hell if I know, except that she has a sister. A twin sister. And she’s in trouble.”

“She’s never mentioned a twin sister.”

Where the hell were his keys? “Trust me, Leena is alive and well. At least at the moment. But she’s involved in something, and they’re both in way over their head. They had a threatening phone call from someone they knew.”

“Maddie went to Dani for help.” Shayne sounded as unhappy as Brody felt that Maddie hadn’t trusted them. “She asked her for a flight under an assumed name. She wanted to keep it secret. Why the hell would she need to keep anything secret from us?”

Brody had a couple of ideas, but none that appealed. “Is Dani planning on stalling her?”

“Yes, and if she finds out I’m a narc, I’m never going to get to have sex again.”

This from the man who only a year ago, would have gotten hives at the thought of having sex with the same woman for the rest of his life. “Just stall her when she gets there.” Brody shoved his phone back in his pocket and stared at the car he was locked out of.

He had no idea what was going on, but it was more than that. Maddie hadn’t trusted him. It was unbelievable to him that she hadn’t. She’d kissed him like he’d been better than air. She’d let him strip her, let him make her goddamn tea, but she hadn’t trusted him with this, and on top of that, she’d stolen his keys, and that sucked.