by Leanne Banks
Brick thought for a long moment. “I guess I never got mad at you. I was too busy—” He stopped, unwilling to finish.
“Too busy?” she softly prompted.
Too busy falling in love. His heart stopped at the realization. Hell, he would have to deal with that later. “Too busy being happy,” he said instead, and quickly changed the subject. “Time for the flip side of the deal. You gotta tell me one of your secrets.”
Lisa shifted in her seat. “Do I get to pick?”
Brick shook his head. “I want to know who proposed.”
Lisa groaned. “I should have seen this coming. It’s no one you know. And I told both of them no.”
“That’s a relief,” he muttered under his breath. “Who?”
She gave a long-suffering sigh. “One was this friend of a friend of a—”
“I get the picture,” he said dryly.
“He’s a nice insurance salesman. Very religious.”
“And?” he persisted.
“And he wanted some wives. I believe he said six.”
“Six!” Brick shook his head. He couldn’t have heard correctly.
“Yes. Six. He’s involved in this new religious sect, and they’re into polygamy and—”
“He wanted you to be wife number one!” Brick didn’t even try to contain his mirth. “Sounds as if he was one helluva three-star guy.”
“Very funny. And you wonder why I didn’t want to tell you.”
That sobered him up quickly. He inhaled a deep breath and deepened his voice in an effort to wipe away every vestige of amusement. “You said no.”
“Of course,” she said indignantly.
“What about number two?” They were nearing the city limits so Brick eased off the gas pedal a little bit.
“He’s someone I know through my catering business. I guess you’d say he’s a—uh—an entertainer type. One night I finished one of my jobs and I was feeling a little down. He took me out to a bar and—”
“Wait a minute.” Brick frowned and glanced at her. “What were you feeling down about?”
Lisa pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ears. “I don’t know. It was temporary and he—”
“So why didn’t you call me?” He pulled the car to a stop at the traffic light.
Lisa had a blank expression on her face. “I never thought of it.” She shrugged. “I never had before.”
Brick felt a sharp slice of pain as if she’d stabbed him and twisted the knife. It took him a moment to catch his breath. Had he really been so insensitive to her?
Lisa briefly touched his arm. “The light changed.”
Brick resisted the urge to cover her hand with his. He shook his head to clear it. “Yeah.” He mashed down on the accelerator. “Finish your story.”
Lisa gave him a wary glance. “Well, he’s from a different country, and he needs to get a green card, so he thought…”
Brick felt a burning sensation begin in his stomach. He patted his pocket in search of his antacid. “You said no.”
“Right. I said no.” Feeling extremely uncomfortable, Lisa knitted her fingers together. After this conversation, Brick was probably going to think the only kind of men she attracted were weirdos. Focusing her gaze on the road in front of them, she braced herself for a string of “I told you sos.” When Brick remained silent instead, the hollow feeling inside her seemed to intensify.
Lisa slid a glance over to Brick. He appeared lost in thought. She looked at her hands again and restlessly tapped her watch. Catching sight of the time, she recalled her promise to check in with Senada. “Do you mind going by the new Renaissance Hotel? I need to see if Senada’s doing all right with a party.”
Brick nodded and flicked on his turn signal. “No problem.”
Fifteen minutes later, Lisa and Brick were on the elevator rising to the fourth floor of Chattanooga’s brand-new luxury hotel. Between the second and third floors, the car paused and jerked, and for a moment Lisa feared it was stuck. A grinding sound followed, though, and the car began moving again.
Lisa gave a nervous laugh of relief. “This elevator sounds like it needs a little work.”
Brick narrowed his eyes. “Since it’s a new building, they may not have gotten all the kinks out yet. I’ll mention it to the manager on our way out.”
The doors whooshed open. “You really didn’t have to come with me. This will take only a minute.”
Brick followed her down the hall. “I’ve never seen you in action at work.”
“Since Senada’s covering this party, I won’t really be in on the action. I just thought I should check.” She led the way to a small kitchen where a group of food servers milled around. She pulled one aside and asked for Senada, whom she learned was in the main room.
“You can wait in here if you want,” she said to Brick, and slipped through a door. “I’ll be right back.”
Brick watched the hustle and bustle of the servers as they returned empty dessert plates to the kitchen. From bits of their conversations, he gathered that this was a pre-wedding party for a bride-to-be, and the planned entertainment was the kind that engendered sly looks and snickers.
When he heard the first strains of a tune by Prince, Brick gave in to his curiosity and went into the main room. He scanned the room for Lisa, but the lights were turned down with the exception of a spotlight focused on a gyrating man.
He felt a mild amusement for the dancer until the guy whipped off his tuxedo jacket. His shirt followed next, then Brick shook his head as the man stripped off his pants to the chorus of yells and shouts from the mostly female audience.
Brick had seen a female stripper before. He’d even had a fantasy or two about Lisa baring her body and dancing privately for him. The dance wouldn’t have lasted long, though, because he wouldn’t have been able to keep his hands off of her. The thought made him tug at his collar.
He’d never watched a man strut around in a G-string, sidling up to the women and thrusting his hips first this way and that.
He felt embarrassed. It was silly. Brick didn’t even know the guy, but he felt embarrassed for him. Brick switched his attention to the faces of the women. They seemed transfixed by the sight of the man, eager to touch him and slip money into his G-string. Brick wondered if this was some kind of secret fantasy women had. For all his wild imagination, Brick had never considered prancing around in a bump and grind for a woman’s pleasure. He pictured performing the same kind of sensual dance for Lisa and strangely enough, the notion held some appeal.
Suddenly the stripper moved across the room and tugged a woman into his arms. He whirled her in a quick suggestive tango where his hips slid against hers. Despite his discomfort, Brick felt mildly aroused. The seductive tangle of male against female reminded him of how long he’d been without Lisa.
Folding his arms over his chest, he narrowed his eyes and took a closer look at the woman who seemed to be trying to push the amorous dancer away. Brick blinked, and his discomfort, mild amusement and arousal all burned to cinders. Fury rushed through him.
That slimy sonovabitch was dancing with Lisa.
At the front of the room, Lisa tugged one hand away only to have Henri clasp the other. “Let me go,” Lisa said as she pushed against his shiny, hairless chest. “You’re supposed to be doing this with the guests, not me.”
“But, chérie, you inspire me. You will inspire the crowd too.”
“I don’t want to inspire you,” she managed through gritted teeth as she freed one of her hands and backed slightly away.
“You’re angry,” he said, wearing a hurt expression.
Lisa felt the first tendrils of guilt wrapping around her. Henri was like an overenthusiastic puppy who was prone to mistakes. She hated hurting his feelings. Looking away, she squinted her eyes against the spotlight. “Not really,” she hedged. “Go dance with the bride-to-be and I’ll be much happier.”
Henri nodded. “Your happiness is my greatest reward.” He made one last sinuous move aga
inst her and whispered in her ear, “We must talk again of marriage.”
“I don’t think so,” Lisa muttered, as she finally escaped Henri’s clutches. She hurried over to Senada. “I can only pray that Brick missed this little spectacle.”
Senada shrugged and waved for a server to bring more champagne to one of the tables. “What do you care? You said you’re through with him.”
“Well I am, but—” Lisa’s voice dissolved into a little moan as her gaze fell on a familiar masculine form in the back of the room. Her stomach twisted into a square knot. She felt a wave of defeat. Ever since she’d begun her quest for a husband, it had seemed as if the forces of the universe were conspiring against her.
“What is it?”
Lisa took a deep breath. “You’ve heard the expression that God always answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no.” She started walking toward Brick. “I just got a no.”
It took only a moment to reach the back of the room.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yes,” she replied, noting that he was chewing something. It was probably one of those antacids.
Her stomach was churning so much that she was tempted to ask if she could have one too. When she saw the taut, displeased look on his face, however, she changed her mind. She’d never seen him this way before. His dark mood was so intense, Lisa could practically see it hanging around him like a heavy curtain. There was something inherently primitive and masculine in his attitude. If she’d thought it was motivated by possessiveness, Lisa would have been secretly flattered. She suspected, though, that Brick disapproved of her actions, her goals, her needs. Her. And it hurt. Lisa told herself not to care.
The brief trip to the elevator was conducted in complete silence. Brick pushed the button for the ground floor.
The interior of the elevator was gorgeous, with polished wood and mirrors all around. It provided her with a multifaceted opportunity to view Brick’s impressive body and expression of disapproval no matter where she looked. Extremely uncomfortable, she stared up at the numbers and heard the distinct cracking of his knuckles. She squeezed her eyes together for a second, then opened them. She couldn’t bear the silence anymore. “This is crazy. You—”
The elevator ground to a stop. She quickly looked at the numbers again. Both 2 and 3 were lit up.
Brick swore and pushed the button. He tried all of them, but nothing happened. Giving a heavy sigh, he finally looked at Lisa, his face the picture of frustration. “We’re stuck.”
Five minutes later, after they’d flicked the switch for the alarm and felt reasonably sure that someone was trying to fix the elevator, Lisa sank to the floor, covering her eyes with her hands. “I can’t believe this night. First Henri, now this.”
“Henri was the nearly naked guy who attached himself to you like a leech.”
Lisa’s heart sank to her feet. Oh, no. Here it comes. “I’m not sure I’d call him a leech,” she managed. “He’s from another country, and he hasn’t really adapted to the American view on—on—public displays of affection.”
There was a long pause. “Is Henri the green-card guy?”
Lisa heard the disbelief in his voice and kept her hands firmly over her heated face. She peeked out from between her fingers. “Yes,” she whispered.
“You went out with a stripper?”
“He was dressed at the time.”
“Thank God for small favors.” Brick looked up at the ceiling in search of help. He shook his head. “Listen, Lisa, I know you’re serious about finding a husband, but this desperation—”
The D word galvanized her into action. She ripped her hands away from her face and sprang to her feet. “I am not desperate! That’s part of the reason I’m going through this now, so I won’t be desperate when I’m getting closer to forty.”
Brick saw the furious glitter in her eyes and backed off. “Okay, you’re not desperate, but I’m worried about you. So far, you’ve gotten involved with a polygamist and a stripper.”
“I wouldn’t call one date getting involved.”
He felt his own anger return in a rush. “Darlin’, during the first full month that we dated,” he began in a low, deliberate voice, “I didn’t get as close to you as that human version of Pepé Le Pew did during a single chorus of Prince’s ‘Cream.’”
She lifted her chin in challenge. “Well, you certainly made up for it during the last six months, wouldn’t you say?”
He noted the rise and fall of her breasts through her cotton blouse and remembered what she felt like in his hands, in his mouth, pressed intimately against him. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to make love to her until they were both delirious from it. This time he would pay better attention to her needs. Although he knew what she liked, he craved the knowledge of what would drive her to the edge of pleasure. He wanted to know her inside and out. But he couldn’t, and his frustration rose with the same force as his ardor. “That six months was only the beginning. There was plenty more I wanted to do with you. We may have been finished in your book, but we were far from it in mine.”
He saw a quick, heady shot of desire darken her eyes and watched her nipples bead before Lisa swung away from him. “This discussion is ridiculous,” she said in an unsteady voice.
Through the reflection of the mirror, he saw her wrap her arms around her chest, as if she were instinctively easing the ache of arousal. Brick might have sympathized with her if he wasn’t dealing with his own throbbing need. Just to hold her would be heaven. He was perilously close to saying to hell with this friendship thing.
She shifted, and Brick heard something between a gasp and a muffled snicker.
“Pepé Le Pew?”
The deep dissatisfaction inside him eased a little at the humor he heard in her voice. He let out a long breath of air. “You gotta admit. It fits, skunk and all.”
“Brick,” she chided sternly. But the effect was lost when she giggled. She held up a hand. “Don’t say it. I’ll never be able to look at that poor man again without laughing. Think of what that will do to his ego.”
He leaned against the elevator wall. “I imagine his ego can handle it,” he said dryly. “But seeing the way all those women reacted to him did raise a few questions in my mind.”
“Such as…?”
Wondering if she was going to think he was a pervert, he paused a fraction of a moment. “Is that some kind of secret fantasy women have?”
Lisa blinked. “Fantasy?”
Brick watched her carefully. “Having a man strip and dance naked in front of you.”
“You mean like Henri?”
His gaze was locked on to hers. “Henri…or a man who was important to you.”
Lisa felt an illicit heat flow through her veins. “A man who was physically and emotionally important?”
“Yeah.”
“Would this be a—uh—private performance?”
Brick nodded slowly.
Lisa sucked in a deep breath. She felt the sudden urge to fan her face. “I—uh—” She cleared her throat. “I hadn’t really ever thought about it.”
Brick’s face was suddenly incredulous. “Really? I have. Not about a man,” he said quickly. “But a woman. As a matter of fact, I fantasized about you.”
Lisa decided it was time to change the subject.
“Brick—”
He held up a hand. “No. Wait a minute. It was natural for me to fantasize about you when we were seeing each other. When we were apart, I thought about you all the time. And there were plenty of times that I went out of town. I had lots of fantasies about you. During that last trip, I fantasized that you stripped for me.” He leaned closer to her. “I imagined you wearing one of your business suits and taking off the jacket, then slipping out of your blouse. Then you’d step out of your skirt and you’d be wearing one of those little one-piece lace things.”
“A teddy,” Lisa said over a very dry throat.
&nbs
p; His eyes darkened. “Yeah, a teddy. Then I imagined reaching for you, but you would laugh and pull away. You wanted to tease, and I wanted you so much, I could barely stand it. You’d step out of these sexy high heels and undo your garters—”
“I don’t wear garters,” Lisa said, trying to inject a note of much-needed reality.
He gave a masculine shrug that was entirely too appealing and tossed her a killer grin. “It was my fantasy. When you bent to unfasten those garters,” he confided, “the straps of that teddy would fall down low enough so I could see a hint of your nipples. And, Lisa, you know how much I always loved your nipples.”
Lisa felt the tips of her breasts harden in response. She felt a heady, dizzying need. It made her heart pound against her rib cage, her pulse race at all her pressure points, her temples, her throat, the inside of her wrists and between her thighs where she felt the beginning of warmth and moistness. Somewhere in her brain, however, the voice of reason rang faintly. Lisa bit her lip against a moan. Sanity, where was her sanity? “Brick,” she managed, “I don’t—”
“It’s almost over,” he coaxed in a rough tone that brought back vivid memories and sensations of when he’d been closer than close. “Babe, by that time I was begging.”
Chapter Five
“You always seemed to want me as much as I wanted you.”
Lisa closed her eyes against the tide of emotions that swept over her. His words were too intimate, but he was too far away. Her hands clenched with the need to touch him.
“The fantasy was close to real life. You kissed me and touched me and I came undone. I couldn’t get enough of feeling your skin next to mine or hearing your breath hitch in your throat or watching your eyes go dark.” His voice lowered. “I couldn’t get enough of being inside you, Lisa. While we were together I fooled myself into believing I was the one making love to you, but now I see it was you making love to me. You—”
Lisa couldn’t stand it any longer. She felt aroused, yet torn up inside. She opened her eyes, dismayed to feel tears threaten. “No! It wasn’t that way. You—”