Superb and Sexy (Sky High Air #3)(20)

Yeah, Leena really could vanish on her own. She could vanish and let Maddie live her life.

Maddie would never let her do it, of course. Never. Knowing it, knowing there was no better time than now, she grabbed her bag and then at the last moment, took the photo, too, slipping it into her bag next to her cell phone before quietly heading outside.



Maddie’s lips were still tingling. She didn’t take her eyes off Brody as confusion and heat flowed through her veins instead of blood. So much damn heat…

He’d kissed her.

Holy smokes, he’d nearly kissed her right into a spontaneous orgasm. Her pulse couldn’t seem to recover, nor could the rest of her. Her skin felt too tight, her breathing still labored.

Brody hadn’t taken his eyes off her, either. His own breathing didn’t seem any too steady, and when he spoke, his voice was low and rough, his expression as baffled as she imagined hers was.

“I can’t believe you could kiss me like that,” he said. “With all that tongue and heat, and still not tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I thought that you thought that you were kissing Leena.”

“Yeah, well, you thought wrong.”

Okay, so he wasn’t slow. She knew that. He was a pilot, a man with sharp reflexes and a sharp mind.

But she was sharper.

She’d had to be.

All her life, she’d had to be.

Not Brody. Brody flew planes for a living and hung out with friends for a pastime. On weekends, he played basketball like a pro and gravitated toward big, stupid muscle cars. He was kind to old ladies and dogs. He liked pizza and loud music. When he dated, the women were usually warm and sweet, and vanished as fast as they appeared.

He did not, as a rule, worry or stress or angst about his existence, and if his past ever bothered him, he never let on. It certainly did not come back to bite him on his ass. Even thinking about him being a little boy was absurd because he was a man, a big, tall, rough and tumble man who made her hormones stand straight up and tap dance, damn it.

But she could set that aside. She would set that aside. He had no idea what she was going through, and he never would.

And yet…

And yet he’d known it was her…

That thought niggled at her, just a bit, because it was a warning, a little flare in her brain cautioning her not to underestimate him again, but at the moment, she had no choice but to believe herself stronger than him.

“If nothing else,” he told her quietly, still a little sleepy-eyed from that kiss, “we’re friends. Friends talk. Friends share.”

Oh, God, he could have no idea how she wished she could share with him. “Friends? No. We either snipe at each other or kiss. Not talk or share.”

“At the very least, we’re also boss and employee, and that’s a fact. I’m responsible for you.”

“That’s a stretch, considering how far from Sky High we are.”

“I want an answer to at least one of my questions, Mad.”

“Fine. Ask one.”

“Let’s start with why you have a knife strapped to your thigh.” With lightning speed, he slid his hand up her leg, beneath her skirt and commandeered said knife.

Holy shit, she’d never seen him move so fast. Apparently, when they’d been making out, her mind had shut off.

But his hadn’t. She stared at the knife now in his fingers. “It’s for emergencies.”

“Okay. And since you’re the smartest woman I’ve ever met, you can probably figure out my next question.”

He thought her the smartest woman he’d ever met? Interesting, considering she thought him the most amazing man she’d ever met.

Amazing, frustrating, completely pig-headed, world-class kisser…

He had the knife between his two fingers like it was distasteful, his arm loose at his side, and with her own lightning speed, she grabbed it back, not holding it loosely, but up as if she meant business.

He merely stepped forward so that the blade was only an inch from his chest.

Then, while she debated her next move, he put his mouth to her ear, irritation personified. “Are you mad because you thought I didn’t know you, Mad? Or because I do? Because let’s clear up one thing right now, knife or not, attitude or not, I’ll always know.”

God. She actually let her eyes drift closed at that, but caught herself and flashed her eyes open again to find him watching her intently.

Then he took another step forward, and now the tip of the blade touched his chest, not that he seemed to care. “What’s it going to be, Maddie?”

The fight draining out of her, she turned away, letting the knife fall to her side, both shocked and uncomfortably aroused. He wanted answers, and unfortunately, she had them. “I told you Leena’s in trouble.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to help her out of it.” She didn’t even realize she was rubbing her shoulder until she felt him gently nudging her fingers away, touching her scars, touching her heart.

And other places, too, places that wanted to get back to that whole kissing thing, which would be an even bigger mistake than all her other mistakes combined, and that was saying something.

“How?” he murmured, his mouth brushing her shoulder and then the side of her throat…

Oh, God.