by Cathryn Fox
As she watched him stalk to his door and slam it behind him, she once again wondered if the brothers had had a fight. She stepped away from the window and walked around his sparse apartment, thinking how desolate the place looked. It occurred to her that Jonah traveled just as much as Brad, but he at least added some personal touches to the bedroom he rented from her. Brad didn’t just live like a bachelor, he lived like a nomad. With no commitments or attachments, he was ready to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice.
Madison gave a sad shake of her head, understanding his ex-fiancée had done one hell of a number on him. Too bad really, because Brad was a great guy who deserved a house full of kids and happily ever after, considering there was a time when he wanted that. And she couldn’t forget he had that big old Victorian house just waiting for him, yet he preferred to live in a one-bedroom rental. Madison’s heart grew heavy. What would it take for him to get over his ex’s betrayal and move on? Of course, for all she knew, he could be pining for Jocelyn, hoping she’d come back to him.
Brad returned, clutching what looked like a welding torch, just as Jonah stepped from the steamy bathroom.
Jonah raked his hand through his wet hair, tossed his bag over his shoulder and gave Madison one last look before he made his way to the door. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You still look flushed.”
She stifled a yawn, exhaustion from the cold once again pulling at her. “I just need a shower,” she assured him.
He pointed toward the bedroom. “And maybe a nap.”
At the mention of Brad’s bed and his offer to share it with her, need gathered in the pit of her stomach and her sex clenched with want.
Once again a strange noise crawled out of her throat and Jonah eyed her with uncertainty before he slapped his brother on the back. “Promise me you’ll take care of her while I’m gone?”
Brad turned, averting his brother’s gaze. “Yeah, sure. I promise.” Then he looked at Madison just as a sneeze wracked her body. Something in his face softened when he said, “I’ll lock up on my way out. There are clean towels in the closet. Go get a shower. You know where the bedroom is if you want to lie down. I’ll be back after I get your plumbing fixed.”
She glanced at the clock. “I have an eleven o’clock appointment at the country club. I have cake samples made back at the bakery and need to bring them to the bridal party.”
Brad gave an understanding nod. “Okay, then. I’ll come back and get you before I head to your place.”
Madison watched them go and after she heard the lock click into place, she walked into the steamy bathroom. She stripped off her clothes and folded them neatly, then wiped the mirror, hardly able to believe one of her fantasies was about to come true. Of course, in her fantasies, when she climbed into Brad’s shower, he was always in there with her.
She turned on the hot spray and stepped into the stall. After locating a bar of soap on the ledge, she picked it up and ran it over her body. Her eyes drifted shut, imagining it was Brad’s hands on her, slicking over her breasts and toying with her hard nipples. She ran the soap lower, until it was between her quivering legs. She brushed it over her engorged clit and shivered, her skin tingling all over as she indulged in her erotic fantasy for an extra moment.
When the water started to turn cold, she yelped, quickly rinsed off and climbed out. She searched her bag for deodorant. “Shoot,” she mumbled, then glanced at Brad’s medicine cabinet.
She did a quick shoulder check, even though she knew she was alone in the bathroom, but couldn’t help feeling like she was invading his privacy as she inched open the mirror. She peeked inside, and her knees weakened when she found a box of condoms. Madison gulped and picked up the box. It gave her an odd sense of satisfaction to find it unopened. It was silly really. Of course Brad had sex. Hell, so did she! Well, not recently, but still…
She put the box back and nosed around in his cabinet a bit more. She gave a small spray of his cologne, then grabbed his stick of deodorant. She uncapped it and drew in the scent. Brad… She applied it to her underarms, recapped it and put it back in his cabinet. Making sure she had everything back in its place, Madison closed the mirror and dressed for her eleven o’clock meeting. Turning her attention to her tangled hair, she took out her blow dryer and flat iron. Once she fought her wayward curls into submission, she slipped in her contacts, presenting Made-Up Madison to the world, instead of “Fatty Maddy”.
Even though she was more comfortable dressed in her loose-fitting clothes and glasses, with her hair tied back in a ponytail, she reserved that look for home, or for when she was elbow deep in pastry dough at the back of the bakery. When she was out on deliveries or showcasing her product to potential clients, she presented a different side of herself, even though she wasn’t all that comfortable in form-fitting clothes. But she was a businesswoman and had to present herself as one, which meant sweats were out.
Feeling more like her old self after showering and dressing, she padded around Brad’s small apartment. She stepped over his laundry basket of clean, neatly folded clothes, honing in on a pair of boxer briefs lying on top of the pile. She resisted the urge to pick them up. With the way her day was going, Brad would likely catch her in the act, or worse, think she was some kind of underwear perv. Instead she gifted herself with a moment to visualize him in them and nothing else, and as a warm whisper curled around her thighs, she plopped down on the sofa, where she grabbed her phone from her purse in search of a distraction. As she scrolled through emails, she heard the key in the lock.
Nervous anticipation welled up inside her and she worked to tamp it down. Good God, she’d known Brad her entire life, and it was damn well time she stopped acting like a love-struck schoolgirl around him. She took a centering breath and squared her shoulders.
“Hey,” he said. Despite the fact that she’d just lectured herself on keeping her cool around him, the second she set eyes on him her knees went weak.
She climbed from the sofa, walked around his laundry basket and tried for normal. “Were you able to get the parts?”
“Yeah,” he answered, then he angled his head, his eyes clouding with something that resembled desire as his gaze trailed the length of her body. His throat worked as he swallowed and, if she wasn’t mistaken, she thought she spotted hunger in his baby blues as he looked at her form-fitting dress clothes. But she had to be mistaken. Brad had never looked at her as anything more than his kid brother’s friend. Then again, she’d only started wearing professional outfits after opening her bakery last year, which meant that until today, until this very moment, he’d never seen her dressed in anything but unflattering sweats that hid her body before. Had never seen her dress like one of the put-together, brazen women he’d normally go for. And from the way he was currently staring at her, interesting flickering in the back of his eyes, it seemed like he was actually noticing her.
Still, she had to be mistaken, right?
Laid out on his side on Madison’s wet, tiled bathroom floor, Brad finished cutting the wall away to give him better access to the pipes, but how he was supposed to concentrate with Madison prancing around in those high heels of hers was beyond him.
She stopped by the bathroom door for the umpteenth time. “You sure you don’t need anything before I go?”
Oh, he needed something all right.
“I’m good.”
She pointed to her medicine cabinet and he watched the way her blouse tightened on her breasts. “I just have to brush my teeth, then I’ll be out of your way.”
“Yeah, okay,” he managed around a tongue gone thick. She went up on her toes, and he shifted restlessly at the sight of her curvy ass in that tight pencil skirt, her high heels giving her lush cheeks a sexy lift.
“Fuck,” he murmured under his breath as he assessed the pipes.
“What?”
“Nothing. There’s just some water still leaking so I have to drain the system.”
“Oh, did you want me to do that for you?
”
“Not dressed like that I don’t.”
An almost uncomfortable look came over her face as she gave herself a once over. “My meeting—” she started to explain, but he climbed to his feet and cut her off.
“I’ve got it,” he said, his cock needing a reprieve from the sexy yet professional clothes draping her body before he did permanent damage to himself. Honestly, it didn’t matter what she wore. Even dressed in sweats she rubbed him the wrong way, or the right way…or…fuck…if only she’d rub him.
He took the stairs two at a time until he reached the basement. He found the water tank and went to work on draining the system. Once complete he hurried back upstairs. He stepped back into the bathroom, and his feet splashed on the water still pooling on the tile. The hurried sound of Madison’s high heels clicking on the stairs behind him had him spinning around.
Her voice sounded rushed when she rounded the corner and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you… Whoa!”
She hurried into the bathroom so fast, her body crashed with his. His feet slipped on the floor, and he tried to grab on to something to right himself, but the impact had him faltering backward.
“Shit,” he yelled, knowing he was going down for the count and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
His boots went out from underneath him and he fell backward with an undignified oomph, Madison crashing to the floor right along with him.
His head connected with something unforgiving on the way down, but he couldn’t concentrate on the pain shooting down his arm, not when Madison’s floral hair fell over his face in a tumbled mess, and her soft body landed on top of his in the most erotic ways.
“Sorry,” she squeaked out. “I didn’t expect you to be standing there.”
His hands slipped around her waist and settled on the small of her back. He sucked in a breath. “What…uh…what was it you forgot to tell me?” he asked.
She pushed her hair off her face, her mouth only inches from his. “Oh, I just wanted to let you know I made you a sandwich in case you got hungry. It’s in the pastry fridge.”
Her lush warm body felt so good on top of his…so fucking good…his cock grew an inch. She squirmed, like she was about to slide off, but he held her tight.
He pinned her to him and groaned. “Stop squirming.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice sounding breathless.
“Because you don’t want to get wet.”
Her eyes widened and her lips inched open. “Wet?” she asked, her breathing becoming a little harsher, more erratic. “Why…why would I get wet?” Everything in the way she said wet sounded so sinful, and he couldn’t help but wonder how wet he could make her, if given the chance.
He jerked his head to the side. “The floor. It’s still wet. If you slide off, you’ll get your clothes wet. You won’t be able to go to your meeting if your clothes are all wet.”
Christ, how many times could he say wet in one sentence?
“Right. Right. I knew that was what you meant.” She frowned. “How am I supposed to get up?”
“Hold on to me.”
With her body molded to his, he wrapped one arm around her waist while he pushed himself up off the floor with the other. She snaked her arms around his shoulders and held tight as he climbed to his feet.
Once upright, his head began spinning. Feeling dizzy, the room tumbling out of control around him, he stumbled, slamming her against the wall as he tried to regain his balance. Shit, maybe he’d hit his head harder than he first thought.
Madison gasped, and when her sweet, minty breath wafted before his nostrils all coherent thought fled. Her lush body fit so perfectly next to his, and her soft breasts were so hot against his chest that all he could think about was kissing her, having his way with her right here against the wall. Christ, what could one little taste hurt? One tiny fucking nibble…
As the bathroom faded in and out of existence, her voice sounded as if it were thousand miles away. He pushed against her, caging her with his body. Knowing he wasn’t thinking straight, he dipped his head, and even though she was speaking, saying something to him, he couldn’t hear her, not when his entire focus was on that sweet mouth of hers.
Before he could get his shit together, he closed his mouth over hers, and when he heard a heated groan, he wasn’t sure whether it was his or hers. He sank into her mouth, reveling in the delicious taste of her. With little finesse, he pushed his tongue inside to play with hers. So fucking sweet. Greed urged him on and his tongue slashed against her mouth, his cock aching to sink inside her wet heat and stay there for the rest of the day. Jesus, her mouth tasted like mint, cherry and sugar all rolled into one—the best thing he’d ever tasted.
Some part of his brain registered that her hands were on his body, touching, tugging at his shirt, pulling on his shoulders. Jesus, did this mean she wanted him as much as he wanted her? But when she raked her fingers through his hair and pain zinged through him, reality crashed over him like the cold water from her broken pipe.
He inched back and stared at her. When he saw the way he’d smudged her lipstick and mussed her hair, and noted the almost frightened look in her eyes, his heart raced. Okay, so apparently her hands were all over him because she was trying to push him away, not because she was eager to touch him. What the fuck was he thinking?
“Jesus, Madison. I didn’t mean—”
“Brad.” She carefully smoothed her hand over the back of his head. “I think you have a concussion.”
His hand went to this head, and when her fingers moved aside he found an egg-sized lump and winced. “Shit.”
“You must have hit your head when you fell.”
“Yeah, I…uh.” His glance went to her mouth again. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re just not in your right frame of mind right now. I don’t think you even knew what you were doing.”
Oh, he knew all right.
“You need to sit,” she said, her beautiful breasts rising and falling as she stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I’m fine,” he murmured, inching back.
“You’re not fine. Come with me.” She grabbed his hand and took him to her bedroom. She sat and patted the mattress beside her. “I think I’d better cancel my eleven o’clock.”
In a bid to appease her, Brad dropped down next to her on the bed. “You’re not canceling anything.”
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
“Madison, I’m fine.” She frowned and he suspected there was only one way to get her to leave. He pushed his index finger into her sheets. “If I promise to stay here until you get back, will you go?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Brad. I was just born yesterday.”
He grinned. “You know me too well.”
“What I know is how stubborn you are.” She tugged at his T-shirt. “At least get out of these wet clothes.”
There was that word wet again. He shouldn’t tease her, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from responding with, “So what you’re saying is you want me naked and in your bed.”
Her dark eyes widened and she opened her mouth and closed it again. “I just don’t want… You have a cold…”
“Fine. If I grab something of Jonah’s to wear and promise to take it easy, will you go?”
She glanced at her clock and climbed from the bed. “Okay, but I’m getting you ice first and if you need me, call my cell.”
Twenty minutes later, Brad listened to the sound of her car leaving the driveway. He dropped the ice-filled cloth into her bathroom sink and checked the copper pipes to see if they were dry enough to solder.
Satisfied that they were, he grabbed his gear from his toolbox and lost track of time as he went to work on fixing her faulty plumbing. Before he knew it the afternoon was upon them and Madison was back from her appointment. Her heels clicked on the stairs as she came to check on him.
“Brad,” she called out as she cautiously turned the corner, walking slowly like she was tr
ying to avoid another run-in with him. And who could blame her, considering how he’d ravished her, damn near taking what wasn’t his to take.
Sitting on the edge of her tub, Brad turned off his soldering gun, and said, “I’m here.”
She stepped into the bathroom and looked at the gaping hole in her wall. She crinkled her nose when her glance went back to him. “You didn’t change your clothes.”
He shrugged. “They were only going to get wet anyway.”
For a moment she looked like she was going to give him a lecture, but then she looked beyond his shoulders and asked, “How’s it going?”
“Almost done. You’ll have running water in no time at all. Then I’ll see about fixing this wall.”
She shook her head. “You’ve done enough already. And don’t think I forgot about that bang to the head.”
He ignored her protest. “How did you make out at the country club?”
She smiled. “I got the contract. Which means I really need to get to work.”
“Almost there,” he assured her. “I’ll give you a shout when I’m done.”
“I’ll leave you to it then.” She clicked her way down the hall, his focus locked on her curvy ass the whole way. When she reached her bedroom, he shifted his position for a better view and damn near swallowed his tongue when she kicked off her heels and tore off her blouse, clearly forgetting that he had direct line of sight from the bathroom. She probably never expected him to be sneaking a peak. After all, they’d been friends for years and she was dating his brother.
A gorgeous lace bra covered her ample breasts, and his gaze latched on to the creamiest cleavage he’d ever had the pleasure of viewing. His cock tightened and his nostrils flared, heat careening through his blood at dangerous speeds. He wet his mouth as the need to taste her set his body on fire. He was so goddamn hot, burning from the inside out, he was sure he could smell smoke. He inhaled then jerked back with a start.