by Joss Wood
Brodie turned slowly and sucked in her breath. Kade naked was a revelation, but Kade in a wrinkled tuxedo wasn’t too shabby, either. Too shabby as in freakin’ damn hot. “Uh...”
Kade walked over to her, lifted the cup to her mouth and tipped it. “Coffee, a magical substance that turns ‘uh’ into ‘good morning, honey.’”
Brodie rolled her eyes as he took her cup and sipped from it. “I’d forgotten you were a morning person. It’s okay to kill happy, cheerful morning people, I checked.”
Kade handed her cup back and walked over to the pot and poured his own. He leaned his butt against her counter and sipped. “You need a shower and six hours of sleep.”
“Eight.” Brodie pulled out a wooden chair from the table and dropped into it. “And you’re the one who woke me up so early so it’s your fault.”
Kade grinned. “I didn’t see you fighting me off. Sorry about your panties, by the way.”
“You owe me a new pair,” Brodie told him, both hands wrapped around her cup. Such a nice tuxedo...and it fitted him beautifully. The bow tie was gone and his face was shaded with blond stubble. Then she sat up straighter, remembering why Kade was wearing a tuxedo. “The ball! I’d forgotten... How did it go? Did you manage to raise any money from my donation?”
“Uh, yeah. It sold.”
“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.” Brodie cocked her head. “Didn’t it make any money at all? I’m so sorry.”
“It made quite a bit of money. That’s not the problem.”
“There’s a problem? How can there be a problem with my gift? The guy comes to me, I set him up on three dates and hopefully there’s a happily-ever-after.”
“It all depends on who the guy is.”
Right, now she was confused. “So who is the guy?”
“Me.”
She knew it was early and she wasn’t a 100 percent awake, but she thought, maybe, Kade had said he was the one she would be working with.
“Please tell me you are joking?” Brodie begged. She knew instinctively that Kade hadn’t had anything to do with her donation. So whose stupid idea was this? “Mac? Quinn?”
“Rory.”
So Brodie hadn’t misinterpreted Rory’s mischievous look after all. Rory was very brave, or very stupid, and obviously very determined to get Kade hitched. Pity she hadn’t a clue that Brodie and Kade could spark a wildfire from one kiss.
Damn. She’d just had earth-scorching sex with her client. She’d unwittingly and unknowingly broken her number-one rule. Brodie took a sip of coffee and pushed past the surge of jealousy to work out how, exactly, she was going to do this. Unfortunately there wasn’t a manual dealing with the pesky problem of how to match your one-night stand.
God, this was far too confusing for someone whose blood didn’t start to circulate until she’d had three cups of coffee. Think this through... Sex, ball for him and sleep for her, sex, client.
Brodie lifted her head to glare at him. Kade had come over to her house and seduced her again, knowing her views about dating her clients. Brodie stood up, anger obliterating the last of her sleepiness.
“How dare you! Why didn’t you tell me right away that Rory had bid on my services for you! What the hell, Kade? Did you not think that might have had an impact on my decision to sleep with you again?”
“Whoa, hold on...” Kade lifted his hands.
“You should’ve told me! I had a right to know, you manipulative jerk!”
“That’s not fair.”
Brodie brushed past him and tossed her coffee into the sink. “The hell it’s not. You knew about this and you knew I’d back off from sleeping with you if you told me. So you didn’t say a damn word!”
“I thought about telling you.” Kade jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants and scowled.
“Thought about it?”
“Yeah! I was going to explain what she’d done, tell you I wasn’t going to do it. I was hoping we’d have a laugh about it.”
“I’m not finding anything vaguely funny in this.”
Kade shoved his hands into his hair, linked his fingers behind his head and stared at her with hot eyes. “I didn’t mean to make you feel used, or bad. The truth is that when you opened the door the only thing I could think about was the fact you were nearly naked. I had to have you. Again. Being set up was the last thing on my mind.”
She wanted to tell him she didn’t believe him, but she saw the truth in his eyes. He’d wanted her like she’d wanted him. Impulsively. Wildly. Crazily. Their need for each other didn’t stop to, well, think. And, damn, it was hot.
And deeply, utterly problematic. She couldn’t control her attraction to him and it seemed Kade was having a similar problem. Such need wasn’t healthy, nor was it easy to resist. She needed to step back, to create some distance between them, but every time they were in the same room all they wanted to do was rip off each other’s clothes.
They had to stop the madness—this was supposed to be a one-night fling. They were already on day two—sort of—and Kade was like any other man: he wasn’t going to walk away from fabulous sex.
She didn’t want to walk away from it, either, but for her, being with him felt like it was about more than just the sex. With him she felt alive and vibrant and animated and she couldn’t afford to feel like that, even if it only happened in the bedroom. She might come to like it and, worse, get used to it. How would she get that genie back in its bottle?
So this had to stop now. She liked her life exactly as it was. Bland, safe, predictable.
She needed to walk away, far, far away. But Kade just needed to kiss her and she’d be all yes, please, take me now.
So she was going to match him.
“You’re making too big a deal of this, Brodie,” Kade stated. “Just tell Rory we are seeing each other, that there’s a conflict of interest. Tell her to let you match Quinn.”
Ha! Right. Kade would get out of the matchmaking, keep sleeping with Brodie and annoy Quinn in the process. For Kade, it would be a trifecta win.
But that wasn’t going to happen. Brodie shoved aside the heat and the lust and ordered herself to use her brain.
“That would be rude and disrespectful. No, Rory’s bid was for you so I will match you.”
If she hadn’t been feeling so miserable she would’ve laughed at his horrified face. “What? No!”
Her thinking hat firmly in place, Brodie paced the free area in her small kitchen. “Wren is a smart cookie and I bet she’s already thinking of ways to spin this to generate PR for you. Mavericks fans will lap it up. They need a feel-good story, what with the owner’s recent death and the future of the team still up in the air. And you released one of their favorite players last month. They are not happy with you.”
“You seem to know a lot about my business.”
Brodie waved away his comment, not feeling the need to tell him that after he left last night she jumped online to read about him and the Mavericks.
“I had solid reasons for releasing him,” Kade argued. “It didn’t matter that he was the best rookie in the league, a BC native and one of the first graduates from the Mavericks Ice Hockey Academy. He was photographed snorting coke, he was underperforming as a player and he was undisciplined. He had more chances than most, not that the fans care about that.” Kade’s tone was flat, his eyes bleak.
It had been a joint decision to boot the player, but as CEO, Kade took the flak. He led from the front, Brodie realized, and she had to admire him for that.
Quickly, she returned to the topic at hand. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked admiring him. “Matching you would be good publicity, for the Mavericks and for me.”
“Not happening.”
“Go to the office, see what Wren’s working on. I guarantee it’s something similar to what
I’ve been thinking.”
A muscle jumped in Kade’s jaw and he tipped his head back to look at the ceiling. “I’m going to kill Rory, I really am. Want to help me bury her body?”
At his rueful words the rest of Brodie’s anger dissipated. “I’ll dig the grave.”
Brodie raked her hair back from her face, then grabbed her mug from the sink and poured coffee back into the cup. She took a couple of sips. “I’m sure this is the most interesting conversation after a one-night stand in the history of one-night stands.”
Kade rolled his head and Brodie assumed he was trying to work out the tension in his neck. “It’s not exactly the conversation I planned on having.”
Brodie’s heart bounced off her ribs. She shouldn’t voice the words on her lips but she had to—it would drive her nuts if she didn’t. “What would you have said?”
Kade stepped closer and curled his hand around her neck. “I would’ve said that I had a great time and I would’ve asked if we could do this again.”
Yeah, that’s what she’d thought and that’s exactly what she couldn’t do. She’d liked it too much, liked having him around. She needed distance and a lot of it. Matching him would give her that.
“We can’t,” Brodie whispered. “It’s too complicated. And, if I’m going to be setting you up...too weird.”
“That’s not confirmed yet. I’ll try my damnedest to get out of it.”
He’d come around, Brodie realized. It was too good a story to pass up, too good an opportunity to give the fans something to smile about. And Kade always, always put the Mavericks first.
Kade pulled her forward so her cheek lay against his chest. “If I do this, and I’m not saying I will, when it’s done, can we...?”
Brodie knew she should just kill this...thing between them but she simply couldn’t. “Let’s just play it by ear.” She pulled back and looked up at him, forcing her lips to curve into a smile. “You never know, one of those women might be the love of your life and another one-night stand with me will be the last thing on your mind.”
“Not freakin’ likely,” Kade retorted.
Brodie stepped away and folded her arms, trying to remove herself from him mentally and physically. She had to stop feeling and keep thinking. “We will have to meet professionally, though. I need information from you to find out what you are looking for.”
Kade glared at her. “You’re talking like this is a done deal! If this happens, be very clear, I’m not looking for anything, with anybody! Find me three women who are marginally intelligent, someone who I can talk to for two hours over dinner.”
“This is my business, Kade. If we do this, we will do it properly...”
Kade swore and started to roll back his sleeves, revealing the muscles and raised veins in his forearms. Brodie imagined those hands on another woman’s skin and felt sick. Now she was adding jealousy to her messy heap of tangled emotions? Wasn’t there enough crazy on that pile?
She took a breath. Seeing him with someone else would be good for her. It would put even more distance between them. And that was what she was trying to do here.
“That’s the way I work, Kade. It’s not up for negotiation.”
“Dammit, crap, hell,” Kade muttered another string of swearwords under his breath as he finished rolling up his other sleeve. When he was done, he placed his hands on either side of Brodie’s face, gave her a hard kiss and picked up his jacket. “We’ll talk about this again.”
Brodie touched her lips as he walked out of her kitchen, leaving as quickly as he’d arrived.
So that was that. Well, then.
She was now Kade’s matchmaker.
Five
Three weeks later Brodie sat in her usual seat at Jan’s waiting for Kade, her trusty tablet on the table in front of her. How was she supposed to ask Kade all these intensely personal questions knowing he’d touched, caressed and kissed every inch of her body?
What had she done to piss off the karma fairy?
Brodie placed her cheek in her hand and swallowed down her nausea. Her stomach roiled and she tasted bile in the back of her throat every time she thought about this upcoming interview. She’d had twenty-one days, thanks to Kade’s insane schedule and Wren wanting maximum publicity, to feel this way. Three weeks of restless sleep, of feeling on edge, miserable.
Angry.
Once you’ve done this interview and you’ve entered the relevant data into the program, you can find his three dates and get on with your life.
Her donation to the auction only included three matches. She wouldn’t have to set him up again if none of those woman suited. One batch, she decided, was enough.
And then, when it was done, she’d walk away for good and Kade Webb would be a memory of the best sex she’d ever experienced.
As she’d predicted, Wren had made a charming PR story of Rory’s matchmaking gift. Every few weeks, depending on Kade’s schedule, a new “date” for Kade would be introduced to the public. Their likes and dislikes would be posted on the Mavericks’ website with their photos. Pictures and short video clips of their date would be uploaded and the public could comment. Once all three women had been on a date with Kade, the public would vote on their favorite match.
Such fun and games, Brodie thought. Brodie slipped out of her lightweight cardigan and draped it over her bag. It was hot in the coffee shop, something she’d never experienced before. Usually the air-conditioning made her feel chilly. She also had a headache; damn, she hoped she wasn’t getting sick again. That was all she needed.
Brodie heard the tinkle of the chimes announcing a new arrival into the coffee shop. She looked toward the door and immediately sighed. Kade embodied business casual in his dark gold chinos, steel-gray jacket and checked shirt under a sweater the color of berries. Successful and urbane. Too sexy for words.
And she wasn’t the only one reacting to his arrival. She felt the collective intake of female breath and knew many sets of ovaries were shivering in delight. Kade pushed his sunglasses onto the top of his head and looked around. He smiled when he saw her and her heart stumbled. Stupid organ.
Kade bent down and brushed his lips across her cheek, and she inhaled his cologne. Sandalwood and spice and something all Kade. She felt her nipples prickle and cursed. Yep, the attraction hadn’t lessened one damn bit.
Annoyed she couldn’t control her reaction to this man, she frowned at him. “You’re late.”
“Two minutes and hello to you, too,” Kade replied as he sat down. He leaned forward and gripped her chin. “Why are you looking tired? And pale?”
So nice to know she was looking her best, Brodie thought. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“I had a chest infection shortly before the auction, maybe it’s coming back.”
“Are you coughing? Short of breath? Should you see a doctor?”
“I’m fine, Webb. Jeez, stop fussing.” She pulled her tablet toward her, hitting the power button. “Shall we get started?”
“Tired and pale and grumpy. Can I order some coffee first?” Kade tapped her hand with his finger and waited until she met his eyes. “This situation is crazy enough without us snapping at each other.”
She heard the rebuke in his voice and blushed. She was acting like a child. Okay, it wasn’t the ideal situation, but she shouldn’t be taking her bad mood out on him. He didn’t want to be set up any more than she wanted to set him up and he was right, it would be a lot easier if she acted like an adult, even better if she could be friendly.
Pull yourself together, Stewart.
Brodie straightened her shoulders and sent him an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Hi...how are you?”
Kade nodded. “Good. Sorry we haven’t been able to meet before this but I’ve been swamped.”
Brodie had real
ized that. If the papers weren’t talking about his upcoming dates, then they were discussing the Mavericks’ purchase of Josh Logan, superstar wing, the negotiations to buy the franchise and the legal action against the Mavericks for unfair dismissal by the former star rookie. “What do your lawyers say?”
“About the dismissal?” Kade asked to clarify. He shrugged. “He’s wasting his time, and mine, but we all know that. He doesn’t have a leg to stand on. It’s just a pain in my ass, to be frank.” Kade scowled at her tablet. “As are these stupid dates. Seriously, Brodie, I don’t want to answer your questions...just choose three women and let’s get it over with. Nobody will know but us.”
She wished she could but it went against her nature to cut corners. Besides, her questionnaire revealed a lot about her clients and she was curious about Kade.
Not professional, but what the hell? They’d never date and this was the only way she’d be able to assuage her curiosity. “I can’t enter the data until I have the answers and I can’t match you until I have the data.”
“How long does it take?” Kade demanded as Jan approached their table.
“An hour for the long version, half hour if you only answer the compulsory questions.” Brodie looked at Jan. “Kade, this is my friend Jan. Jan, Kade Webb.”
“I figured.” Jan shook his hand. “What can I get you, Kade? Brodie here usually has a coffee milk shake.”
Brodie shuddered. She couldn’t stomach it today. Too rich...
“Not today, Jan. I’ll just have a glass of water.”
Jan frowned at her. “You okay?”
“I’m feeling a little flu-ey,” Brodie reluctantly admitted. “Hot, a little dizzy and I have a headache.” Jan put her hand on her forehead and Brodie slapped it away. “I don’t have a temperature and I’ll see a doctor if I start coughing, okay?”
“When did you last eat?” Jan demanded.
Maybe that was what was wrong with her. She’d had soup for supper last night and she’d skipped breakfast. She was, she realized, starving. A hamburger would chase away her malaise. “I am hungry.” She turned to Kade. “Jan’s hamburgers can cure anything from depression to smallpox. Do you want one?”