Superb and Sexy (Sky High Air #3)(14)

Facing the door, she eyeballed his arm, taut with strength. The fingers of his hand were spread wide. He had long fingers, scarred from all the planes he’d rebuilt. They were capable fingers, always warm, and the clincher…they knew how to touch. He’d held her face that time she’d kissed him, and if she closed her eyes, she could still feel them on her jaw. She’d spent a lifetime schooling herself against feeling too much, against giving away too much of herself, especially to men. But the men she’d been with didn’t make her nerves sing and her pulse jump by just looking at them.

Brody did.

“Maddie.”

“It was nice of you to visit. But as you can see, now’s not a good time.”

He lifted his hand and traced a finger over the exit wound on the back of her shoulder. “Are you feeling okay?”

She loved his touch. Way too much. “Yes.” Unfortunately, the man was a virtual mule when he wanted to be, unmovable, staunch in his opinions. On her best day, she might have gone toe to toe with him, no problem, using that voice of honey she’d perfected, her smile of ice, and the argumentative skills she’d honed well over the years. She was every bit as stubborn as he, and she would have won—she’d have seen to it.

But this wasn’t her best day, not by far. In fact, it was quickly gearing up to be one of her top three worst ever. “Don’t make me kick your ass out of here.”

“I think I can take you.”

With a sigh, she dropped her forehead to the door and just breathed. Not easy with well over six feet of solid, warm muscle encroaching into the personal space behind her.

And he was encroaching.

Not that her body minded. Nope, it had apparently disengaged from her brain and was making a break for freedom.

But then he did something that made it all the more difficult. He stepped even closer so that she actually felt his thighs brush the backs of hers. His chest did the same to her back, and then, oh God, and then she felt his breath on her temple.

She had to close her eyes. Don’t turn around because then you’ll be in his arms, and you just might be stupid enough to kiss him again, get lost in him…

He slipped an arm around her waist, hard and corded with strength. Adrenaline and something else, something much more dangerous to her well-being, washed through her veins, followed by a high tide of stark desperation.

If she pushed back against that body, she could rub all her good spots to his. No.

Yes.

Her mind continued to war with her hormones, but then he leaned in, just a little, and put his mouth to her ear. “Tell me one thing, at least.”

She swallowed hard because he even smelled good. Sort of woodsy and so very, very male. She could feel her heart racing, which was at complete odds with his, beating slow and sure and smooth. Damn it. She was supposed to be slow and sure and smooth! “What?”

“Where’s Stone Cay?”

Oh, God.

“I can look it up, but I’m going to guess…The Keys?”

“Bahamas. It’s a small private island in the Bahamas.”

“Okay.” He sounded relieved to be getting somewhere, but that relief would be short-lived because he wasn’t going to get any further.

Nope.

“Do you think I can’t see your fear?” he murmured, his mouth still so close to her ear that his lips brushed against her lobe when he spoke. “That I don’t know how unlike you this is?”

His lips brushed her skin again, and her entire body began to hum. “That was Leena’s fear,” she managed. God. He was too close. And he was too raw, too masculine, and far too big for the small hallway.

“But it’s you now. Right here, right now with me. Afraid.” As he spoke, his mouth moved against her, his warmth seeping into her chilled bones and with all that hard strength up against her, and it was too much, making her squirm to free herself.

He merely pressed up against her, fully now, so that he couldn’t take a breath without her knowing it, and vice versa.

“Talk to me, Maddie.”

Impossible. With all that testosterone wrapped in sinew pressing against her, his face so close she could feel the stubble from his jaw brush hers, and that intoxicating scent of frustrated man, she could hardly think. Talking? Forget about it.

“Are you in trouble?”

Truth? Trouble was her new middle name. She bit back her short bark of laughter because it would have come out sounding far too hysterical. Plus, she might not have been able to stop. “No.” And there went another lie. Hope Santa wasn’t listening, but it was for Brody’s own good…

“Jesus, Maddie, come on. It’s all over your face.”

She imagined it was. At some point between Leena showing up and realizing Rick was on her tail looking for blood and then the guy of her secret fantasies arriving in his Camaro-chariot, Maddie had lost her ability to hold it together, much less hide her emotions.

She really needed to get a grip on that pronto. Showing emotion was dangerous, both to her physical well-being and to her heart and soul.

Not that she was worried about her heart and soul. Nope, at the moment, it was mostly her physical being she had concerns about.

And Leena’s.

And if she didn’t shake Brody, his as well. God. Was she in trouble? Hell, yeah. The worst sort of trouble. But she could handle it.