by J. A. Dennam
“How far did things go between you and Roger?” he asked.
Her face melted into a knowing smirk. “It didn’t take her long to tell you about that.”
“Brooke didn’t say a damn word. But it really makes me wonder what else you’d do to get one over on her.”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Ethan, I told you—”
“Would you share sensitive information with a client to frame her for sabotage?”
She reared back as if he’d slapped her. “How could you ask me something like that?”
He wasn’t sure anymore. Perhaps the humidity was getting to all of them. “I’m giving you a chance to come clean with me without consequence—one chance. If you lie now and I find out later, you’ll be done at this company.”
Shock turned to hurt. “I love this company. You know that.” He watched her, waiting for her answer. Sure enough, a sliver of defeat entered her eyes. “I didn’t share sensitive information,” she said with conviction.
“But?”
“I—I may have locked you on the roof.”
Her honesty delivered a slap of its own. Ethan’s iron control faltered for a moment. “Why?”
“Because I knew Brooke would try to steal your client. I figured if we could expose her as a cheat, she’d be gone, and this contest wouldn’t matter anymore.”
Ethan swore and grabbed his keys and briefcase.
“You should have never agreed to it, Ethan,” she said in a wobbly voice. “How could you put yourself in such a vulnerable position?”
He kept walking.
“Ethan!” She caught up to him. “Will you tell Ken?”
“I said I wouldn’t,” he growled.
But that didn’t mean he’d throw Brooke under the bus for something she didn’t do.
Ethan slammed into his sister’s condo, threw his crap on the foyer floor, and went straight to the fridge. The moment he twisted the cap off a longneck, Harper entered the kitchen in her swim gear.
“Adrianna’s napping,” she said while he downed half the bottle.
He closed his eyes and let the beer settle. “Sorry.”
Ice rattled as she took a sip from a nearby glass. “You’re home early. Bad day?”
“You could say that.”
“Want to talk about it?”
His twin was the only person he could truly open up to, but Harper had been Shannon’s closest friend since grade school. “Not really,” he answered, staring down at the bottle’s sweating label.
“Is it about this competition between you and Brooke?”
He took another long pull. “You’re on a first-name basis with her now?”
She shrugged. “I hear her name enough from you.”
Until then, Ethan hadn’t realized how much he unloaded on his sister every night. He’d sure miss her when she and Adrianna boarded a plane back to South Dakota in the morning. Ethan’s own voice sounded distant to him. “I think she’s out to get me.”
“What did she do besides poison your candy corn?” Harper asked with a hint of amusement.
“She took advantage of an opportunity. I just don’t know how far she went to do it.” Still, he owed Brooke an apology for one particular accusation he’d made that turned out to be false. The thought burned him up inside and made him want to strangle Shannon more now than ever.
“That’s too bad.” Harper ripped an elastic band from her wet hair and picked up a brush. “You two would make gorgeous babies.”
Ethan choked on the last of his beer. He wiped his mouth, placed the empty bottle in the sink, and went to the fridge for another. “You’re a real fuckin’ hoot, Harper.”
She shrugged as the brush worked through some tangles. “I’m just saying you can tell me if you’re attracted to her. I won’t hold it against you.”
The cap came off another longneck. “How did we get on the subject of attraction?”
She flipped her long hair down and back. “I can sense a little of it between you and Brooke.”
He shifted uncomfortably, pretty sure that she’d picked that up from the many times he’d vehemently complained about the woman.
“I have a confession to make,” Harper said. Ethan looked up and noticed that she’d been watching him. “Before we left the office last Friday, I told her about your accident.”
He’d suspected as much. “Nice going. I was kinda hoping to leave the brain injury jokes back in South Dakota.”
“Has she made any jokes?”
Despite her many opportunities, Brooke had somehow restrained herself. He hoped that it wasn’t out of pity.
“That’s what I thought,” Harper continued with half-lidded eyes. “She doesn’t strike me as the type who’d do that, even to you. In fact, I think she was impressed by your resilience.”
“Doubtful.”
“I’m pretty good at reading people’s expressions, Ethan, and she was definitely battling some feelings for you other than resentment.”
That was before their first time in the darkroom, before the liquor store challenge. “You were wrong,” he said just before tipping the bottle over his lips again.
“Does that mean I’m wrong about you too?”
“Probably.” Bullshit, she was always right about him and vice versa. It was some sort of twin thing they shared.
The same thought was reflected in Harper’s eyes. “So, you don’t have any attraction for Brooke whatsoever,” she pressed.
Ethan’s focus blurred as the image of Brooke in her sexy carwash clothes came to the surface. “Not even a little.”
Saying it out loud helped somewhat, but he couldn’t ignore the fact his thoughts were continually plagued by darkroom memories. His dreams were littered with sensual replays so real that he’d wake to a painful need to have her again. More than once he’d been tempted to just give her that damned corner office and leave Naples altogether just to outrun his tumultuous feelings for her.
But quitting wasn’t in his DNA. Now that Brooke had a real shot at winning, he needed to try one more time to convince her that she wasn’t qualified for the job.
Tomorrow. He’d catch her in the parking lot before work. Maybe then there would be peace in the office. Peace in his soul.
He put the unfinished beer in the sink and strolled toward his bedroom. “I need a shower.”
And then he needed to get the hell out of there. Maybe hit the highway and head toward Fort Myers where he knew of a scheduled street race that was to take place that night. If Harper knew he’d been following the local message boards, her first lecture would be about law enforcement and the big possibility they watched those same message boards.
Don’t get sucked in, Ethan. They throw people in jail down here.
But he didn’t give a fuck. What choice did he have now that the track was off limits? He needed the noise, the rush, and to hang with likeminded people. He needed an outlet or he’d go bat-shit crazy… and nothing else would do the trick.
16
BROOKE SAT ON THE FLOOR BETWEEN THE COFFEE table and couch, staring into the deep plum depths of her wine glass. She turned the stem in her fingers, her thoughts far from where they should be. Shannon was out to get her fired, which was plain to see. As soon as Brooke got home, she’d marched straight up to her studio and spent a dangerous amount of time searching for the evidence to prove it, an act that would surely get her fired if she was discovered hacking Monroe’s server. Her efforts turned up nothing. At this point, if Ethan gave Ken Stevens an ultimatum, there was enough stacked against her for him to win by default.
Neither of them wanted to openly use the darkroom disaster for ammunition, but it was certainly the catalyst for their suspicion of each other…and the building anxiety between them that seemed to trump any progress they made, no matter how small.
She closed her eyes. How could she have let herself go like that? Now she was stuck in an impossible war with the only man her body seemed to want. Even now, her thoughts veered toward a place she
hated to go: his touch, his devouring kisses, their mutual urgency to join.
But that had been with the lights off. Never would she want him with the lights on. Yes, just knowing whom those hands and lips and tongue belonged to would send her libido straight into a nosedive.
“Earth to Brooke…”
Only then did she realize her eyes were still closed. Brooke opened them and blinked at the man who’d been rambling beside her. “I’m sorry, what?”
Sid watched her over his own wine glass. “You’re a million miles away.”
Her friend and liquor store hero had finally called to collect on that drink. She’d just happened to have a hundred-dollar bottle of wine she no longer viewed as a trophy. A half a glass through it, her head was beginning to swim, but the wine had failed to erase her troubles.
“I guess I have a lot on my mind.” She removed her glasses and rubbed at tired eyes. “You were probably expecting better company.”
“Want to talk about it?”
Sid was a good guy. He was much taller than she was and had an okay body, but his strong-yet-playful personality was mostly what made him attractive. They shared some things in common, like the fact they were both gingers with green eyes, they had a mutual interest in software, and they listened to the same music. He was exactly her type and seemed to show some genuine interest in her.
But the most important quality about Sid was that he was far apart from the mess at work. Though he may be able to help her find evidence against Shannon, she had no desire to tie him into something illegal. She smiled. “I’d rather forget about it.”
He tipped his wine glass and took a drink, his eyes never straying from her face. “That may be something I can help you with.”
When his gaze moved down to her mouth, Brooke knew he was going to kiss her. She wanted him to. This was not Roger or Ethan, but a genuinely decent man with no hidden agenda.
He slowly leaned forward. Brooke moved in to meet him halfway. They shared a sensual kiss that was tentative at first and then deepened into something more. His breath smelled good, like rich Napa Valley wine. His lips were firm yet soft. The way he moved told her that he knew how to please a woman.
Despite all that, her heartbeat notably failed to pick up its pace.
The doorbell rang. Brooke wasn’t sure if it was an annoyance or a blessing. She backed out of the kiss, leaving him with an unfocused look that told her he’d enjoyed it way more than she had. “It could only be Mrs. Costa from next door,” she explained as she got to her feet and put her glasses back on. “She always comes over when her computer acts up. I’ll tell her to hold off for now.”
Sid appeared in no hurry to leave his spot on the floor. He drew a knee up, but not before Brooke saw the suspicious bulge in his Bermuda shorts.
When she opened the door, a shockwave of alarm washed through her. Ethan stood there leaning against the doorframe in jeans, a black T-shirt, and an intense focus on the welcome mat. All she could do was stare in abject surprise at a man who couldn’t possibly have sought out her address.
Words escaped her. The silence stretched as he too seemed to wonder what the hell he was doing there. Finally, he looked up. His eyes darted past her and over to the man at her coffee table. Slowly, their blue-gray depths changed into something turbulent.
Her hand slipped from the knob as he stepped over the threshold. He stood so close she could feel his body heat. His voice was rough, barely above a whisper. “We need to talk.”
Now her heart was beating fast enough to power a small locomotive. Dazed and confused, she stepped back and turned to find Sid standing right behind her. “Sid…do you mind if we do this another time?”
The man stepped closer, caressed her back in an intimate way. “Isn’t this the guy you were arguing with the other day?”
“And we’ve done a lot of that since then, haven’t we, Brooke?” Ethan chimed in, sounding dangerous. “Well…not all of it was—”
“Ethan, shut up,” Brooke snapped.
A quick look confirmed that Sid was following along just fine. As he nodded at his adversary, the pulse at his freckled temple began to thrum. “I get it.” He turned to Brooke. “Are you sure you want me to leave?”
She took one of his hands and gave it an apologetic squeeze. “Yes, I’m sure. Another time would be better, when I’m all here.”
Sid hesitated a moment and then pursed his lips as he began to leave. When Ethan moved aside to give him clear access to the doorway, Sid stopped, leaned over, and deposited a tender kiss on her temple.
“I’m only a phone call away,” he said, his voice laden with meaning.
She closed the door behind him, swimming in mixed emotions. Why the hell had she just done that? And why the hell was Ethan Wolf standing in her living room? Brooke cleared the uncertainty from her throat. “I don’t want our problems inside my home,” she said.
When she turned to confront him, he was taking a good long pull from the open bottle of cabernet. Her anger rose to a fever pitch as she realized he’d just swallowed about twenty bucks worth of wine in one shot, no doubt to make a point. She moved toward him and was about to tell him to leave when he set the bottle down on the coffee table, turned, and immediately drew her into his arms.
Suddenly she was fully involved in a scorching kiss that completely rendered her senseless. It was not tender or sweet, but rough and demanding. All of her irritation melted away along with her reasons for not wanting him here. She’d been geared up to welcome Sid’s touch. Surely that’s why her body was thrumming with a need so strong, she clung to Ethan as if he were the only thing keeping her upright.
“You drive me insane,” he hissed against her mouth, closing his eyes against the inner struggle she understood all too well.
Brooke dropped her head in a desperate attempt to find sanity. This wasn’t possible. How could he turn her insides into molten lava like that when the mere sight of him pissed her off so badly? When she backed away, he let go of her waist and did the same. A moment of silence followed. “You said you wanted to talk,” she said finally.
Ethan turned his back and jammed a hand through his hair. “Give me a second.”
“Why should I?”
“Look.” When he faced her again, aggravation laced his words. “I don’t want to be here either. In fact I’m still trying to figure out why I’m not in Fort Myers.”
“Because you’d rather harass me, apparently.”
“Because no matter how hard I try with you, I can’t get my bearings—which scares the hell out of me. We’ve been taking one step forward and two steps back since the start of this competition, and for what? Because we hate each other?”
“Yes!” she threw out in a desperate attempt to believe it.
His brow smoothed out with a look of wonder. “Really? Why, Brooke? What makes you want to skin me alive and me want to shake the living shit out of you?”
“You, for one,” Brooke said with pointed finger, her chest heaving with emotion, “have looked down on me from the moment we laid eyes on each other.”
“What?”
“I was a total stranger to you. I was wet and miserable and vulnerable and you took that opportunity to laugh in my face. So, yes, after Ken introduced us, I knew I couldn’t work under a man of such poor character.”
A choked sound escaped his throat. Then he was laughing. “You set out to upend my entire life because your feelings were hurt?”
His words mocked, but his eyes held genuine amusement. Brooke waved away his accusation. “Don’t be absurd.”
The more he laughed, the more he tried to control it, shaking his head as he moved to the alcove of windows. “The absurd part is, you got it all backward. When you entered that restaurant, I wasn’t laughing at you. I was flirting with you.”
“Oh, please.” Like he wasn’t laughing at her now?
“You see…,” his amusement finally waning, he turned toward her again and propped himself against the windowsill. “
You were no stranger to me. I’d already been in your office. I’d seen your pictures. I was glad I didn’t have to wait until Monday morning to meet you. That lasted all of two seconds before you stuck that entitled little nose up in the air.”
Brooke thought back, struggling to remember their first encounter word for word. Surely, he was blowing smoke, telling her what she wanted to hear. “If you expect me to believe you were attracted to me—”
“No.” His interruption was accompanied by a blank, soulless look. “It’s way too late for that, isn’t it? We’re stuck in this war you started, and I’m not sure we’ll ever trust each other enough to get past it.”
The air surrounding them grew heavy with the truth. “That’s why you came, isn’t it?” she asked quietly. “To throw more accusations at me?”
“I came to talk some sense into you.” He stood up and approached her. “If you’re doing what I think you are, the only way you’ll survive is if you forfeit. Because if you try and ride it out…you’ll get caught and you’ll be fired.”
She forced a bitter laugh. “Wouldn’t that fit right into your plans?”
He kept his voice low as he reached out and took her by the shoulders. “You’re missing something here, Brooke. I don’t want you fired. I think you’ve been dealt some pretty shitty cards, and I can understand the desire to play a dirty hand in order to win. I get it. I sympathize with it. But if you follow through with that desire, I won’t let it be at my expense.”
She lifted her chin. “And if we find out Shannon’s the one behind the leaks?”
“She isn’t.”
Damn. Of all the things Brooke had thought him guilty of, being blind wasn’t one of them. “Unbelievable,” she mumbled.
He gave her a little shake. “I know her, Brooke. Shannon may have pulled some childish pranks, but she’s no criminal. Selling bids is a serious offense, and she’s equally suspicious of you. All she’s trying to do is flush you out.”