Breathless (Steel Brothers Saga #10)(23)

I exhaled.

Good. No news was good news.

“I need to get out of here,” Bryce said, standing. “What if the boys see me?”

“What if they do? You’re a family friend. They know that. You being here is no big deal.”

He scanned the room. “Yeah. I suppose. Right.”

I wrapped my robe around my shoulders and secured it with the fabric belt. Then I walked toward a still-naked Bryce—he was magnificent—and touched his upper arm. “Hey. Everything’s fine. Trust me.”

He lowered his gaze, not meeting my eyes. “This… It was… It was great. It was amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so. I agree.”

“But Marjorie—”

I smiled. “You said my name.”

“I know.”

“You didn’t say it at all while we were making love.”

“Because we were supposed to be strangers. And that wasn’t…”

“Wasn’t what? Making love? Just a fuck?”

He still didn’t meet my gaze. “That’s right. It was just a fuck.”





Chapter Sixteen





Bryce





I finally looked up. She stared at me, her lips parted. I had no idea what she might be thinking.

All I knew was that I was the lowest of the low. A pig. A shithead. An asshole douchebag.

I’d fucked my best friend’s baby sister.

And hell, I’d loved it. If I didn’t leave now—right fucking now—I’d do it again. Even in a long matronly bathrobe, her hair a messy disarray, Marjorie Steel was the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes on.

Already my cock had stirred and was at half-mast, a fact that wasn’t lost on her, judging by her gaze.

Marjorie cleared her throat. “Have it your way. I have two boys to take care of.” She slid on a pair of slippers and left the bedroom.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that I wanted her to leave, but now I wouldn’t be ripping the robe off her and throwing her back onto her bed.

Damn.

She’d been great—everything I’d imagined and more. Her body had been created to sheathe mine, and she was so responsive to my every touch. Her kisses made me feel like a teenager in the back of my old truck again.

She’d been a baby when I was a teenager…

Yeah, that still got to me some, but the real problem was me.

Just me.

I was fucked up, and a woman like Marjorie Steel deserved so much better.

But as fucked up as I was, my cock was full-on hard just thinking about her. I sighed, gathered my clothes from the floor, piled them onto a chair, and then went into her attached bathroom.

Time for a shower.

And not a warm one.





I was dressed in the same clothes I’d worn the night before. No big deal. Only Marjorie had seen me. I texted Joe quickly to see if our meeting was still on this morning. He said yes, it was, and that he’d checked in with Talon, who’d said Jade was doing fine and that the rest of us should go ahead and have the meeting without him. Marjorie hadn’t been back to her bedroom, which I thought was odd. Finally, I opened the door to her room quietly and eased out at about eight thirty a.m.

No sign of the boys. No sign of Marjorie either. Perhaps she had driven them to school. I remembered how well Joe and his brothers had liked riding the bus all the way from the ranch. Meaning, they hadn’t.

I couldn’t avoid her forever, and I certainly didn’t have time before my meeting at nine to go home and change.

But how would it look, when Joe and Ryan arrived, finding me already here?

I jerked when I heard bustling at the door. I walked out of the kitchen, and there was Marjorie, obviously coming back from… Where? If she’d taken the boys all the way into town to school, she wouldn’t be back yet. She wore a fleece jacket and sweat pants, her feet clad in old sneakers.

She shed the jacket and hung it on the coatrack in the hallway.

“You still here?” she said, not meeting my gaze.

“Yeah. I have a meeting with your brothers here at nine. Remember?”

“I heard from Talon,” she said. “Jade is going to be okay, and they’ll be home later today.”

“Yeah, me too. Joe and Ryan decided to still have the meeting with me.”

“I’ll make you guys some breakfast.”

“Joe and Ryan probably already ate.”

She laughed softly, not really smiling. “Trust me. I know my brothers. They’re bottomless pits. They’ll want breakfast. You want coffee?” She walked into the kitchen.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans, shuffling my feet on the area rug between the hallway and the kitchen.

Marjorie laughed—sort of. “I get it. You want to go outside and sit in your car and then come back in once Joe and Ryan have arrived so it doesn’t look like you’ve been here all night.” Her tone was sardonic and a little hurt.

I cleared my throat. “No, that’s not what I was thinking.”

“It’s written all over your face, Bryce. You do know as soon as they drive up, they’ll see your car, right?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but she quieted me with a gesture.