Braydon(66)

Holy hell, where had that come from?

Braydon had been thinking it, but he hadn’t expected the words to come out of his mouth.

But there they were.

He was watching Jessie intently, so he noticed that her breathing had grown labored. She liked that; he could see it in the flush on her face. She liked when he took control.

Not that it changed anything at the moment, because he did stink. He needed a shower. “Stay right there.”

He hurried out of the truck and around to her side. When he opened the door, she slowly moved to get out, her eyes raking over him as she did.

Braydon surprised them both when he walked her to the door and stopped before coming inside.

“I’m gonna head home and shower. I’ll be back in thirty minutes to pick you up. Find a movie that we can go see. Pick a place and a time. We can either go eat before or after. Your choice. But be ready when I get back.”

Jessie nodded and Braydon knew he’d surprised her.

He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in the softest of kisses. When he stood back up, he whispered, “Oh, and Jess. Put on a dress, and don’t bother with panties.”

The last thing he noticed as he turned to leave was the sexy smirk on Jessie’s perfect lips.



JESSIE WAS PACING the floor fifteen minutes after Braydon left. It had taken her five minutes to change clothes, another couple of minutes to put on a little makeup and brush her hair. Now she was just one giant ball of anticipation as she waited for Braydon to return.

Her thoughts wandered back to the moment in the truck right before he came around to let her out. Braydon had shocked her to the roots of her hair with his statement.

If I didn’t stink so damn bad, I’d pull your shorts off and f*ck you right here in this truck.

Sweet, laid-back, nonconfrontational Braydon Walker had nearly given her an orgasm with his words alone.

Never had she heard him talk like that.

Brendon, yes. Braydon, no.

It had been unexpected and so f*cking hot, she was surprised she hadn’t burst into flames.

That made her think about last night and the way he’d taken control then, too. Jessie had needed it. Not that she didn’t know what to do with Braydon. She did. And she had plenty of ideas about what she wanted to do with him in the future, but for him to take control so easily . . . It made her burn for him.

For some reason, she hadn’t expected it from him.

Braydon was one of those guys that women liked to be friends with. Although he was sexy as hell, he was just so nice. Too nice sometimes. The kind of nice that girls ignored in high school because they were always looking for the bad boy. Jessie had found all the bad boys she cared to find. Braydon was a breath of fresh air.

And then he’d gone and set her blood on fire with this statement.

Like he was the best of both worlds. A gentleman with a salacious side.

Yum.

Clearly she hadn’t known the real Braydon all those months ago. That, or he was just adept at keeping that part of himself locked down.

She liked that he was opening up. It was shocking and intensely sexy.

Although Jessie had given plenty of thought to her relationship with Brendon and Braydon when she’d been with them, she hadn’t spent much time considering the differences in their personalities. For instance, it never dawned on her that Braydon always took a backseat to Brendon because Brendon was so outspoken.

How had she missed it?

Jessie’s thoughts drifted to the weeks right before Braydon disappeared. He hadn’t been himself; she realized that. And yes, she had noticed that in many ways he was acting more and more like his twin in the sense that he was standing up for himself in small ways.

But he never quite made it to the point where he laid it all out there like he had today.

A shudder wracked her body as she thought about the promise she’d seen in his eyes when he made the statement in the truck. And then for him to tell her to forgo panties for the night . . .

Someone rapping on the door broke her from her reverie, and Jessie’s heart pounded like a bass drum in her chest when she saw Braydon standing on the front porch through the window.

Forcing her feet to get with the program, she moved to the door, wrapped her hand around the doorknob, and took a deep breath.

“Ready?” he asked as soon as she had the door open.

Again she was at a loss for words.

There in front of her was the sexiest cowboy she’d ever met. From the light-colored Stetson on his head to his brown boots, the man made her mouth water.

Dark blue Wranglers, a crisp white polo, and that shiny belt buckle was the sexiest outfit she could ever imagine him in. And that was saying something, because the man could rock a tuxedo like no one’s business.

“Yes,” she whispered, realizing she was just staring at him.

“Come on,” he encouraged her with a grin. In a move she was becoming intimately familiar with, Braydon reached for her hand and linked their fingers together. She loved holding his hand. It felt so . . . romantic. Jessie couldn’t remember the last time a guy she dated held her hand. At least not after the first or second date.

But with Braydon, it was almost as though he needed the physical contact.

Jessie allowed him to lead her down the steps to the truck, but when he detoured beyond the passenger side, she looked up at him.

“I want you close to me,” he said by way of explanation.