On the Record (Record #2)(63)

She didn’t even bother contradicting him. She didn’t trust herself alone with Brady for an entire night. Not in his condo, where there were probably beds and couches and doors . . . and other things they’d had sex on last summer. But clearly telling him to take her home was out of the question. He had thrown her over his shoulder earlier just because she wouldn’t get into his car. She had a feeling tonight was on his terms . . . as most things with Brady were.

Ten minutes later, he pulled into the winding entrance to a new complex on the outskirts of town. The buildings were in various stages of construction. Some were only partially built, others just had the frames, and some were complete but missing windows. Only one building had the entire brick framing with all the other fixtures and landscaping complete. Liz thought that was odd.

“Is this the right place? It doesn’t even look finished,” she said, peering out the windshield.

“It’s not. It’s still in development. But it’s owned by a division of Maxwell Industries, and so I have access to it.”

Huh. Liz knew how Brady’s family had earned their fortune over the generations. It started out with large tracts of land and had developed into an immense real estate venture coupled with the political side. She hadn’t known about this particular project, though. Granted, she hadn’t been following his career as closely as she had before.

Brady parked the car in front of the one building that looked finished and killed the engine. “We have a fully furnished open house for potential buyers,” he explained when she just stared at him quizzically. “There aren’t any cameras on the premises.”

“Oh,” she whispered. Brady, always thinking ahead about who could see them together. This felt all too familiar and made her voice come out harsher than she intended. “Why didn’t you just take me to a hotel?”

He popped the door open and answered without a backward glance. “Because I like to f**k you in different places.”

Liz’s mouth dropped open at the comment. He had to be joking. She sputtered and tried to collect herself, but it wasn’t working.

He chuckled softly when he saw she was still staring up at him slack-jawed. “Come on, Liz. Don’t make me come get you.”

She scrambled out of the car. Holy shit! This was not happening. She was not following him up the stairs and into a condo when she knew that he had every intention of f**king her. She wasn’t that person. No matter how angry she was . . . she couldn’t go through with something like that.

Brady slid a key into the door and turned the knob, letting it swing inward. His hand on the small of her back sent warmth radiating throughout her entire body and she wondered if she even stood a chance at resisting.

She stumbled into the condo and Brady flicked the lights on. It was a nice-looking place, clearly decorated by someone with taste, but from a corporate angle. No imagination. There were stairs right off of the entrance and a kitchen hidden off of the living room. That was all she got to see of first floor before Brady shut the door and started up the stairs without a word.

Here goes nothing.

Even though Liz knew she shouldn’t follow him, she did. She was drawn to him. No matter how much she tried to convince herself, she always had been.

There were two rooms, and Liz walked into the bigger of the two, where Brady was standing with his arms crossed, staring at the giant king-size bed that took up the majority of the room.

At the sight of it, Liz deflated. Her emotions were all over the place tonight. She was a wreck. The ups and downs had taken a toll on her, and she kind of wished that she could just go to sleep. She couldn’t add another roller coaster to the equation.

“Brady,” she whispered, her voice taking on an edge of desperation.

He didn’t move for a solid minute. Just stood there and stared at the bed. She had no clue what he was thinking at that point.

Finally, he turned around and stared at her. She could see that whatever mask he had been wearing before had completely dropped away. He looked like her Brady—in control, but somehow still vulnerable. She hadn’t really thought about it like that before, but when she looked at him now after all that time apart, she knew that that look of desire that so often crossed his face was a vulnerability to her. He still felt very strongly toward her. It was all over his face, and it made her heart melt.

“Come here,” he said, crooking his finger.

She licked her lips before walking over and standing in front of him. She didn’t even play around by standing at a distance. She knew that he was in control, and she knew what he wanted. She planted herself directly in front of him and tilted her chin up to look at him.

Brady’s strong hands threaded back through her hair. Her eyes fluttered closed at the softest of touches. He ran his hands backward and swept it off of her shoulders. She nearly groaned as his fingers brushed against her ears, neck, and collarbones. But she didn’t move or say anything until he cupped her face in his hands, and then she opened her eyes to stare up into his handsome face.

Her breathing was already ragged and irregular. How often had she fantasized about this moment—about him coming back for her?

“What happened, Liz?” he whispered.

His words seemed to break the floodgates again as they reminded her of her argument with Hayden tonight. Tears welled in her eyes as she started babbling. “Hayden surprised me at the newspaper. I’d been in New York for my internship and I hadn’t gotten through a lot of my work. He saw it and flipped his shit. He basically said I was irresponsible and should give up the paper because I was running it into the ground. Then I saw him smoking and . . .”