by Renee Wynn
She could feel him. She shivered.
The ballroom was crowded and she hadn’t seen him, but she knew he was there—watching. She wrapped her arms around her body.
“Are you cold, sweetheart?”
She smiled at Jon. “No, I’m fine.” She looked around the room. “It’s a huge turnout.”
“Yeah. It keeps getting bigger every year.”
“You’ve been before?”
He smiled and brought her hand to his lips. “I’ve been coming for the last five years. The Champagne Ball is a great charity. I lend my support.”
“Oh, you’re a sponsor?”
“Yes. But I would love for you—”
“Good evening, Danielle.”
She looked up at Brody. She hadn’t seen him since the day he had lunch at Callahan’s with Ashton, and that had been a week ago. He was more than handsome tonight, he was gorgeous, standing there in a black designer tux, looking as if he had just stepped off a Paris runway. He would put any male model she knew to shame. His long black hair was slicked back into a fashionable ponytail. It lay like a coiled snake down his back.
“Hello Brody,” she said
“Mind if I steal your date for a dance?” he asked Jon without looking his way.
“We just got here. Maybe—”
Before she knew it, Brody had assisted her out of her seat. With his hand in the small of her back, he escorted her onto the dance floor.
She looked back and saw Jon watching them with a deep scowl. She would have some explaining to do but at that moment, Brody was wrapping his muscled arms around her waist and pulling her close. Very close. The closer they got, the more grateful Danielle was that it was a slow number making it such that being molded together didn’t seem strange.
The song, “If I Had You for Just One Night” floated across the room. If she didn’t know better she would’ve sworn that Brody had requested the band to play the song.
“I’ve never heard this song before,” she said.
He leaned back, looked at her, and then pulled her back into his arms without saying a word.
After a long silence, his lips grazed the side of her temple with a kiss. It was done so gently that she almost missed the warmth of his breath against her skin.
“You’re beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s not a pick up line.”
“I didn’t think it was. Besides it’s not your style.”
“Really? Then what is my style, beautiful lady?”
She looked up at him. “Direct. No chaser.”
“Wow. I’m impressed. You have me figured out…in what? Two encounters?”
The tension between them was making her uncomfortable. “What do you want?”
“You.”
She didn’t pretend not to understand. “I’m dating someone.”
“Not important.”
She laughed at his arrogance “You have it bad.”
He squinted. “What?”
“Arrogance.”
“What do you want Danielle?”
She held his gaze but made no reply. She managed to remain calm without giving him any evidence of how much he affected her.
His icy glare ran over her. “Your eyes are saying it, but I want to hear it from your lips.” She pushed at his chest. He held her very close. “The dance isn’t over yet.”
“It is for me.”
“You’re afraid of me.”
Danielle opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. Tension radiated from him.
He swore under his breath. “Damn. You are afraid me.” The words were harsh, more like an accusation.
“I won’t be one of your women. Not ever.”
“I don’t have any women.”
“I beg to differ.”
He glared at her. “I don’t lie.”
“I don’t know you well enough to differentiate if you are lying or not.”
“You will know me.”
“No.”
“Ask Sally about me,” he persisted. “She’ll give you the full report. Faults and all.”
“As far as Sally is concerned, you don’t have any faults. You are her hero.”
“Ah, so I have been discussed.”
He moved them from the view of her table. Once he had done so, he took her hand and guided her toward the patio doors. Opening them, he stepped back and let her go through first. It was a warm night so she didn’t need a shawl but she wrapped her arms around her waist. She could hear the music when it changed to a soft tempo. She moved away to the shadowy corner of the balcony that offered not only more privacy but also a clear view of downtown Dallas night life. They were hidden in the dark. If someone was actively looking for them, they could find their hiding place. Otherwise they wouldn’t be discovered. Moon beams hovered on the balcony.
Danielle stood looking at the moon. She thought to herself, she let him bring her out to the balcony. Why?
It was reckless.
It was dangerous.
It was exciting.
She cared and then she didn’t care. Tonight, she felt alive for the first time in her life.
No longer would she wallow in the mistakes of her past but start enjoying the present.
The music washed over her, connecting her heart and soul to the beat. Eyes closed, she swayed with the rhythm. She tensed when she felt him stand close behind her. He didn’t touch her.
She turned to face him.
The intensity of his gaze made her take a tiny step back. Her back touched the marble bannister. The warm breeze of the night air shifted at the back of her neck but a chill slithered across her spine. It wasn’t fear—but excitement.
“I don’t play games, Danielle. I don’t have the patience. I want you. No catch phrases. No tricks. You’re beyond beautiful but I’m sure you already know that. Beauty comes and goes but there is something about you but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m intrigued and confused. I don’t like it. I hate puzzles and you, my beautiful lady, are a puzzle.”
“I guess you can’t get any more upfront than that.”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants. I don’t make excuses for it.”
She didn’t know what to say. Brody assessed her with an assurance she found titillating. Surreptitiously, she returned his assessment.
His head descended toward her lips. She didn’t try to stop it—quickly realizing she wanted him to kiss her, desperately.
A clearing of the throat stopped the progression. Danielle glanced around Brody’s shoulder. Jon stood within a couple of feet of them, glaring. Feeling guilty for what almost happened, she moved away from Brody and walked to her date. Jon wrapped an arm around her waist. There was a smile on his face but the stiffening of his mouth showed it was forced.
“Sweetheart, you should’ve told me you wanted to come out to the terrace,” Jon said.
“It was a little warm inside. I’m fine now. Brody and I were talking.”
“I didn’t realize you knew him like that.”
“He’s Sally’s brother.”
“I see.” He studied Brody for a long moment. “Are you ready to go in?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said. The heat of Brody’s eyes seared the bare skin of her back. Forcing herself not to turn back, she let Jon propel her through the French doors and back into the ballroom.
Jon stopped in the middle of the floor. “Darling, you go ahead to the table. I see an associate I need to talk to.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
###
Brody rested his forearms on the wall of the balcony railing. His thoughts were full of Danielle. Why had she invaded his mind? She had taken up residence without permission. He drew hard on the cheroot cigar he’d just lit, inhaling the silky smoke into his lungs and then released it slowly through his mouth.
He felt the man’s presence as soon as he’d opened the doors to the balcony. Not turning around, he waited for him to speak.
�
�Stay away from Danielle,” Jon uttered in fury.
Brody took his time to finish his cigar, distinguished the fire and placed it in the cigarette disposal to his right. He turned toward Danielle’s date, straightened to his full height, and folded his arms across his chest, but he didn’t say anything.
“You want her,” Jon sneered. “But I’ll be damned if I’ll let you have her. I haven’t spent the last month priming her to have you swoop in and take what belongs to me. I know your kind.” His lips curled into a nasty bend. “Filthy rich. You see a beautiful woman and you decide she’s yours. Well, not this time. Danielle is going to be my wife.”
Brody narrowed his eyes. “Does she know that?”
“She will soon enough.”
Brody moved closer into Jon’s face. “It will never happen.”
Jon snorted. “Don’t get in my way, Beaumont.” he sneered. “You won’t like the results.”
Chapter Four
Brody removed the pale feminine hand from around his waist and slid from the bed. He retrieved his briefs and slacks from the chair beside the bed and slipped them on. His white starched shirt was half buttoned before he heard movement from the bed.
“Why don’t you stay?” she said.
He didn’t answer but grabbed his shoes, sat in a chair across from the bed and slipped them on. After completing the task, he rested his arms on his thighs, hands dangling between his parted legs and looked at the woman. She stared at him with a hunger he ignored. In her unabashed nakedness, she was a beautiful woman. He waited for the immediate hardness that attacked his penis when he had a gorgeous woman before him but it didn’t come. His sex drive was strong, some women would probably say it was in over-drive, but something had happened to him. His normal penchant for sex was still there but there was no enjoyment. It was not a change he understood or tried to decipher. He knew one thing for damn sure he didn’t like it.
“Not tonight,” he said standing to his feet. He picked up his suit jacket and put the tie had on earlier in his pocket.
She pouted prettily. “You never stay.”
“Then why do you ask?”
Her smile was sad. “A girl can hope, can’t she?”
He stopped and stared at her. Carly Jamison was a well-renowned socialite. She was his type, blonde, tall and gorgeous. They had met two months ago at a party in Paris. He was there for business and she was jet setting with friends. There had been an immediate attraction, which ended with them spending a few lustful hours in bed together. Before leaving her hotel room, she’d told him her family own property in Dallas, but she lived in New York. Brody had casually told her if she was ever in Dallas to look him up. This was her second trip to Dallas within a month, which irked him. The fallacy of sleeping with her each time she’d visited was a huge mistake. One that he was going to have to rectify.
“I don’t do sleep-overs, Carly.”
She laughed and threw her long blond tresses over her shoulder, letting the sheet slide down further, exposing her large breasts. She pumped the pillows behind her, sat up straighter, and ran her hands through her hair.
“Are you sure? I could make it worth your while,” she purred, now stretching like a feline cat in heat, causing her breasts to stand at attention.
“I’m positive you could, but not tonight.” He leaned toward her, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
He walked out the door and shut it quietly behind him.
When he reached his car, he slid into the Porsche and pulled out onto the street. He had slept with her out of frustration and boredom. Damn. He’d broken his long-standing rule, never to visit a woman’s bed repeatedly. He didn’t want any ideas of a relationship or permanency to form.
But he knew why he ended up in Carly’s bed. He’d hoped being with someone familiar, instead of the faceless women that he’d bedded, would erase Danielle Evans from his mind. It hadn’t. Damn. A woman never bothered him before. What the hell was happening to him?
###
Two weeks later, Brody showed up at Ashton’s house for a party. He’d just arrived back in Dallas from a business trip to Saudi Arabia. Exhaustion plagued him. Sally had begged him to come and he had told her ‘no.’
Disappointment wasn’t something he liked to give when it came to his sister. She was the one constant in his life. He trusted and loved her explicitly, which he didn’t give to anyone else.
He decided to make this little impromptu trip to Ashton and Nicole’s party to surprise her. His sister was his Achilles heel. He would do anything for her. His problem was not letting her know it. The little red-haired squirt had enough power over him already. If it was for Sally’s hold over him, he wouldn’t have shown up but rather headed home to bed.
Although he was a Texan, he hated barbecues. It just wasn’t his thing to sit around and to eat and talk nonsense with people he didn’t want to be bothered with. It didn’t matter if he knew them or not. It irritated the hell out him. Sally called him anti-social, which was probably an accurate description, one in which he made no excuses for.
Laughter echoed through the air and he followed the sound around to the side of house. People were mingling, sunbathing and swimming in the oversized in-ground pool. Scanning the group of people gathered at the barbecue he found Ashton among them, but not before his eyes fell on Danielle. The woman who’d caused him sleepless nights was stepping from the pool in a fluorescent pink bikini. The color accentuated the smoothness of her chocolate skin. She looked delectable.
Since the ball, he’d tried to obliterate her from his mind with other women, but nothing had helped. She was still was the woman he wanted, but who was unattainable. He’d heed Ashton’s warning not to pursue her.
The erratic beat to his heart caused him to stop his approach. Blood rushed to a part of him he hoped wasn’t noticeable to the rest of the guests. She hadn’t seen him yet so he could observe her unnoticed. She grabbed a sarong off the lounge chair and wrapped it around her waist. She walked to the water bar and lifted a glass of fruit juice already prepared from a tray.
A man approached her and began to talk. Brody looked around for Jon and didn’t see him. That was good but it wouldn’t have mattered to him if he were there or not. He strolled toward her.
She giggled at something the man said and shook her head. He moved closer. The man rested his hand on the small of her back. Brody frowned at the intimate gesture.
“Hello Danielle.”
She swung around. Her eyes widened with surprise for a brief moment before quickly disappearing.
“Brody,” she said in an even and calm tone.
“I thought you left to go back to New York,” The words came out harsher than he intended.
“I went to Milan…I had a shoot.”
“When did you get back?”
“A few days ago.”
“How long are you staying?”
“Humph.” The man cleared his throat. “I’m Silas.”
Brody frowned at the outstretched hand. He ignored him.
Brody placed his hand in the small of Danielle’s back. “I need to talk to you Danielle.”
“Excuse us, please,” Danielle said to the man.
The stranger threw Brody a hard look and walked away.
“That was rude,” Danielle whispered,
“It could’ve been worse. Do you know him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have to warn him to stay away from you.”
She laughed and he decided he liked hearing the sound.
“You’re full of yourself. We don’t have a relationship, Brody. We’re not even friends. How many times do I need to tell you, I don’t know you? I don’t want to know you. It’s safer if I don’t.”
“You’re friends with my sister. So, we know each other.”
She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t remember me when I was a teenager. All you want to do is sleep with me.”
He lifted h
is brows. “I can guarantee we won’t be sleeping.”
She planted her hands firmly on her hips. “You’re one arrogant, pig-headed, ass—”
He ignored her rant. “Are you still dating Hillman?”
“That’s none of your business.”
He glared. “Have you had sex with him?”
Danielle took deep breaths to keep from cursing. “Really? Did you just ask me about my sex life? Who does that? You’ve gone too far.”
“Answer the question.” His patience were on thin ice.
“Who the hell do you think you are? I’ll tell you again, it’s none of your damn business.”
Her beautiful brown eyes turned darker with fury and it fueled his desire. In her anger, she was breathtaking, so much so, he became hard as a rock. He shifted on his feet to relieve the pressure.
Brody grabbed her hand and pulled her along the marble walkway towards the house.
“What the hell—”
He stopped and whispered in her ear. “We’re going to have a conversation Danielle and I would prefer that it’s done in private and not out here.” He nodded to a couple of people he knew along the way.
“Get your hands off of me. I’ll not be man-handled,” she hissed in low tones.
He stepped back, studied the woman at his side, but didn’t let go of her hand. She was beautiful and amazing. What was it about her that he couldn’t get out of his mind?
“Will you come with me…please?” he said.
She hesitated.
“No games, Danielle. I promise.”
She moved toward the house.
He opened the door to the study and stepped back to let her enter first. He cringed when she made sure she didn’t touch him went she moved through the doorway.
Brody’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“Prove it.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Prove you’re not scared of me.”
“You’re talking foolish. You haven’t done anything to make me afraid.”