Love So Hot

by Marquita Valentine

  She nodded again. “Later.” As he stood up and walked away, she added, “Much, much later.”

  “I swear, if Lemon doesn’t take control of those boys, I’m going to go up there myself,” Cherry huffed. She grabbed her phone and shot off a text to her baby sister.

  “Hey, go easy on her. She just broke up with her boyfriend,” Sydney reminded her.

  Cherry’s eyes hardened. “Men aren’t worth getting that upset about.”

  “Maybe not to you, but Lemon thinks so.”

  The strawberry blonde waved a hand in the air. “Another one will come along soon. They always do.”

  “Is that why you’re helping me with Brody?” she asked quietly. “Because another one will just come along.” She snapped her fingers. “Like that?”

  Cherry’s hard look melted. “Oh no. No… I’ve been dying to help you. Ever since I realized—” Her phone buzzed.

  “Ever since you realized what?” Sydney prompted.

  “That the two of you are perfect for each other,” she said, still staring at her screen. Her perfectly arched eyebrows drew together. “Seriously? Tristan is one of the gentlemen tonight. I swear…if he says anything ugly to Lemon, I’ll castrate him.”

  There was the sisterly support she’d expected. Slightly violent, yes, but she’d grown up with a guy for a best friend and he was a whole lot worse when it came to people messing with his family. “Hope I never get on your bad side.”

  “Don’t talk about my little sister and you won’t,” Cherry said succinctly. “Which means you have nothing to worry about. You’re sweet as pie, Sydney. That’s reason number two I want to help you.”

  “Good to know.”

  But Brody didn’t come out with the next name called. Or the next.

  “Is it my turn?” she’d ask Cherry every so often.

  “Not yet,” she’d reply with a little smile, like she was enjoying herself. Although, Cherry didn’t bid on a single man. Sydney’s heart sped up. What if Cherry betrayed her? What if Cherry realized she had a really good thing with Brody? What if—

  “Up next, Fire Captain Brody Lawson,” Lemon finally said and began reading from his card. “Six foot two and eyes of blue for this charmer. Ladies, if you have a fire that needs putting out, or starting up, then this is the gentleman for you.”

  Reaching over her plate, Cherry grabbed Sydney’s hand and squeezed. “This is it. Your moment. I’m so excited!”

  “Me too,” Sydney said weakly. Don’t pass out. Raise your paddle. But not too quickly. Let the anticipation build. Wear your best lingerie while bidding. Everything the McCoy girls had been drilling into her head all week sort of clumped together to form one big stream of thoughts that made no sense. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Don’t you dare make me do it for you. This is your time to shine,” Cherry hissed as she smacked Sydney’s arm.

  “Ow!”

  “Five hundred from Sydney McKnight.”

  Brody gave her a sharp look. She ignored him.

  “No other bids?” Lemon asked.

  Everyone looked at Cherry. She gave them a beatific smile back and said, “One thousand.”

  Sydney’s jaw almost dropped to the floor. She’d betrayed her. Cherry had no plans to let true love conquer all. That little…“Tra—”

  “Two thousand from Sydney,” Lemon shouted.

  “Three thousand,” Cherry said, giving Sydney a cocky smile. Sydney was ready to strangle her. “Five hundred.”

  That witch. She didn’t care who heard her. This was supposed to be her moment. Cherry could go… “F—”

  “Four thousand?” Lemon squealed. “I do believe this breaks Kyle Davidson’s bid. Do I have four thousand five hundred?”

  Cherry winked at Sydney. “I’m out.”

  Sydney was ready to strangle her. “That’s three thousand more than I can afford.”

  “Quit worrying about the money.”

  “I can’t not worry about money.”

  “Sold!” Lemon squealed and clapped. “Four thousand dollars. Winning bid to Sydney McKnight. You can claim your man at the end of the night.”

  Cherry gave her a haughty look as she coolly said, “You win, Miss McKnight. Next time, I won’t underestimate you.” Then she slowly winked at her.

  “How am I supposed to pay?” She had to pay it. One, it was for charity, and two, everyone knew she had the winning bid. Where she’d get four thousand dollars, she had no flipping clue.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Cherry said through her teeth, “Now hush. You’re ruining your shining moment. Enjoy it.”

  Brody gave her a lingering look before he exited the stage.

  Sydney shivered. She didn’t know if she liked that look. It was either disappointment or anger. She’d never been subjected to either before. They’d always had an easy sort of friendship.

  This is what you’re giving up, she reminded herself. Years of friendship. Years of knowing exactly what to expect from Brody and not letting her expectations get too high.

  But where had that gotten her? And what had it gotten her? It had taken his sort of ex-girlfriend and her sister to make her take a chance on revealing all to him.

  Lord. Brody was going to have a lot to say. He always did when things went off-kilter in his world. She’d listened to him often enough when he complained.

  “And our last gentleman for the night is Dr.—” The cards she held fell to the podium, a few dropping to the floor, as Tristan strolled on stage, looking every bit the romantic poet with his rakishly long hair and bedroom eyes. Only, those bedroom eyes of his were sharp—they missed nothing—as they zeroed in on Lemon.

  “Thank you for your patience,” she said, hands visibly shaking as she picked up the cards. “Give me just a moment to find Tristan’s bio.”

  “One thousand.”

  Lemon’s head jerked up. “I haven’t started the bidding, Veronica.”

  “There’s no need,” the woman purred back. “Tristan knows who’s winning him tonight.”

  Tristan grabbed the mic from Lemon. Her face pinkened. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Whatever I want,” he murmured, but his voice carried over the sound system. “Don’t y’all think tonight’s a little one-sided?”

  A stream of nooo’s filled the room.

  He gave them a devilish grin. “Luckily, our queenly emcee is bound by the same rules as we are. So, let’s get that bidding started.” Looking expectantly into the crowd, he cupped a hand over his ear. “Cat got your tongue, Mark, because I can’t hear you.”

  “Please,” Lemon whispered, but he ignored her.

  When no one answered, he frowned. “I’ll start the bidding at a thousand.”

  Veronica’s outraged gasp filled the room before someone shushed her. Sydney could have heard a pin drop in the eerily quiet room. Slowly the crowd started looking around the room and murmuring.

  Lemon tipped her chin up, a determined look in her eyes as she pasted on a smile. Only, as close as their table was to the front, Sydney could see the tears that made her eyes bright and the way her mouth trembled.

  Couldn’t Tristan see that as well? Or didn’t he care?

  “Hell, man, speak up and bid on your woman. She’s always a little tart to me, but I’ve been told she can be sweet.”

  More than a few people laughed.

  Poor Lemon’s face turned as red as the roses on each table. Sydney barely restrained herself from jumping on stage and punching Tristan’s lights out. Gosh, he could be such an ass sometimes. Okay, so sometimes always applied to Lemon. Everyone else thought he was a complete angel. Fallen and a bit devilish, but still an angel.

  “He’s not here,” she said quietly.

  Tristan jerked his gaze her way. “What?” he barked.

  “Mark’s not here. He won’t be bidding on me or me on him.” She sniffed a little, and Tristan had the grace to blush. She covered the mic with her hand. “If you’d like to bow out, I’l
l make a donation, instead, and we can call it even.”

  His lips twisted. “That won’t be necessary.” He strode to the podium and grabbed the gavel, hitting it once before facing her. “Sold. Five thousand dollars. Winning bid to Tristan Lawson.”

  “Never in my life,” Veronica huffed as she stood up and marched outside.

  The room became louder than a Friday night pep rally, but Sydney couldn’t tear her eyes away from the couple on stage.

  “Why?” Lemon asked, visibly shaking. From anger or embarrassment, she didn’t know.

  “I made a mistake,” he said simply.

  She nodded once. He held out his hand to her. After what seemed like an eternity, she took it and they walked off stage together.

  “Wow.” Sydney turned to Cherry. “I’m not sure what happened.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lemon yank her hand out of Tristan’s grasp, say something, and storm away.

  He didn’t go after her.

  “I’m sure the night’s over.” Cherry stood up and smiled. “My work here is done, and now I have to see about gutting a man. Speaking of men, here comes yours.” She blew Sydney a kiss, and then hurried away.

  “Has the entire damn town lost its ever-loving mind?” Brody growled.

  At a loss for words, she could only shrug.

  “But, I’m not interested in the entire town.” He pinned her to her chair with the heat in his gaze. “I’m more interested in why my best friend, the woman I’ve known for years, paid money to be with me tonight. You can be with me any time you want, Syd. For free. So help me understand.”

  Chapter Eight

  ‡

  Brody watched as she held up her hands and attempted to form coherent sentences. She looked terrified, and he hated it. He especially hated it because he’d been the cause of it.

  Perfect. Everything about this night was perfectly confusing.

  He grabbed one of her hands and yanked her up. “Let’s go where we can talk privately.”

  “Yeah… no, I’m good in here. I didn’t finish my dinner and—”

  “We can grab a bite to eat at Yates’ diner.” He pulled her toward the door, keeping one hand on the small of her back as they made their way through the crowd.

  What had she been thinking to bid against Cherry like that? What had Cherry been thinking to allow Sydney to win? Brody knew Cherry didn’t worry about money. She worked at her family’s department store when she felt like it, volunteered when it moved her, and shopped like there was no tomorrow.

  Honestly, he never understood why she had a roommate, unless it was to help the other girl out. Which would be something Cherry would do as well.

  But none of that mattered and none of that concerned him like the woman who was very nearly in his arms. She was shoved against him by the crowd, her full breasts pressing against his jacket so hard that he could feel them. Her floral scent washed over him, and he breathed her in.

  She smelled so good that his mouth watered.

  Once they were safely away from the crowd and by his truck, he let go of her. “Do you think you can explain what happened in there now?” he asked.

  “Women bid on men and the money goes to charity?” she said, so obvious in her hedging that he was torn between laughing and shaking her.

  Instead, he crossed his arms and gave her his best tell-me-something-I-don’t-know look. “Sydney.”

  “That’s my name,” she said.

  He tried another tactic. “You look beautiful tonight.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ve missed you this week.”

  “What does missing me and what I look like tonight have to do with each other?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” Yet, everything. He had missed her. Not seeing her every day was odd. He felt empty without her, like his life was missing the sunshine she brought into each day.

  “Oh-kay.” She looked around the parking lot.

  “What were you thinking in there?” he asked again, determined to get the bottom of her reasoning. He was a man who liked order, and this night had become anything but orderly. “First you bid on Kyle and then me.”

  Panic filled her eyes. “Oh, that. Well, Kyle is sweet on me, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

  Though he didn’t like it, he could understand her reasoning. “Then why did you bid on me?”

  She glanced away. “Does it matter?”

  “Actually, it does.”

  Peering up at him, she twisted her lips, “Why, because I’m not Cherry McCoy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  Of course she had to take it wrong, because that was what this night was about. “I don’t get you right now. In fact, I haven’t gotten you for a while,” he grumbled.

  “You’ve never gotten me,” she pointed out.

  “We’re best friends, Syd. Of course I get you, but lately…” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been weird. We’ve been weird. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “Not really,” she said brightly. So fake. So not her.

  He ran his gaze over her, once more taking in the curve-hugging dress and done-up hair and makeup. “You don’t normally look like this.”

  She snorted. “How would you know? Cherry had to make you compliment me.”

  Guilt knifed him in the gut and twisted the blade. “Maybe that’s because I don’t want to ruin our friendship by having the lines blurred. We have something special—something that a lot of people don’t. You and I have never hooked up, yet we’re as close as any couple.” Closer. He knew everything about her. From how she got the scar on her knee to her favorite horror movie. And she knew the same about him.

  Hell, she gave him his worse scar. It had been from a hook that had gotten caught in the top of his ear when they went surf fishing and she’d cast the line. She’d yanked the hook and a hunk of his ear, throwing both into the ocean.

  “I know,” she said miserably and shook her head. Her pale hair glimmered in the moonlight, and not for the first time, he fought the urge to touch it. To see if it felt like silk. “I shouldn’t have come tonight.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you don’t look happy at all about me winning your time.”

  His heart slammed against his chest. His time. What exactly did she want with his time? It had to be more than the usual things they did. “I’m not unhappy.” He was confused and hopeful, but mostly confused because he wouldn’t allow himself to hope for anything more.

  “What are you, then?”

  “Confused. Shocked more than anything,” he said honestly, finally giving in to brush a stray lock of hair from her face. Searching her gorgeous face, he waited for her to be as honest. “You can tell me anything, Sydney. Anything. I won’t think of you any differently.”

  Of course he wouldn’t. Why would he think of her any differently? He had expected and wanted Cherry to bid on him, but Sydney had ruined that. If she let things get carried away, then she could ruin a lot more.

  Unable to withstand Brody’s blue gaze, she looked away. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard that it actually hurt. This hurt. “Obviously, I bid on the wrong guy. Anyone with half a brain can see you’re disappointed.”

  He gently lifted her chin. “I said shocked, not disappointed.”

  “Shocked and disappointed aren’t too far off from each other.”

  Letting go, he gave her an amused look. “Really?”

  She nodded, becoming more and more uncomfortable by the minute. What had she been thinking? Oh right, the weeklong pep talk from Lemon and Cherry combined with strawberry daiquiris had thought for her. Day in and day out talks about shocking and then aweing Brody. They even had a Plan B.

  A plan Sydney didn’t know exactly how to implement unless she absolutely had to. Unless she walked away from this, from him… from the possibility of them.

  Brody dusted his thumb across her bottom lip, and she froze. “I think there’s a big difference between the two.” />
  “You do?” She sounded breathless. She felt winded. She was going to pass out. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

  He dipped his head, and she forgot to remind herself to breathe again. “Let me show you,” he murmured in that deep voice of his.

  She couldn’t even close her eyes as his lips softly pressed against hers, as he teased the seam of her mouth and sucked in her top lip. Fire raced through her, all the way to her toes, making them curl in her too-tight heels. All she could think was that Brody was kissing her. The man of her dreams was kissing her.

  And sweet Lord, the man knew what he was doing.

  Pulling away, he searched her face, his sexy lips wet from kissing her. She wanted to kiss him again, to learn more about what he liked, how he tasted, and if she could make his knees weak.

  “How did that feel?” he asked, pressing another kiss to her temple. “Shocking, disgusting, or nothing at all?”

  She felt…hot and bothered, and all the things she assumed kissing him would do to her. It was now or never. She had to tell him the truth.

  “Brody, I—” she began and then stopped. Completely and totally stopped. The words wouldn’t come out. This was her chance, and she was blowing it.

  How freaking hard could it be to say I love you? A strangled noise came from her throat. Apparently, pretty freaking hard.

  He rubbed his thumb across the corner of his mouth. The mouth that had just been pressed against hers. “Nothing, huh?” He visibly swallowed. “That’s good because you and I… yeah, we’re friends and should stay that way. There’s a line, a zone if you will, and we should stay in our zone. Like in sports. Stay in the zone.”

  Crushed, she fought back tears of humiliation. There was no way she could admit her feelings for him, not now.

  Maybe not ever.

  While she thought their kiss had been all fireworks and super novas, he felt absolutely nothing. Still, was she ready to give up?

  His gaze left her face and searched the parking lot. “Stay in the zone,” he repeated. “In the zone.”

  He was probably looking for Cherry. Suddenly, the conversation she’d had last night with Cherry hit her. They had met for diner at Yates’ diner, sitting in a private booth in the back.