There was one thing Brody knew for sure. Whatever had happened with Gwen the night before was none of his business, and his smartest move was to let it go.
Because he had rules about this. He didn’t go after unavailable women. Ever.
But smart seemed to have left the building, because then he was chasing after her as she went into the employee lounge. Following her in so he could… What? Now that he was standing in the small locker-lined room with her, those whiskey eyes watching his while her smile faded to a frown, what the hell was he going to say to her?
“Hey, so how’s it going?”
Definitely the wrong thing. And now Gwen’s frown was more pronounced, and she was shifting uneasily on her feet. Probably wondering again if he was there to fire her.
“It’s going good, Brody.”
He nodded. “Great. Fantastic. That’s what I like to hear, you know, when I check in on all the new employees to make sure that they’re not having any problems. Because you’re not, right?”
Now he was on his game. These were totally reasonable things to say to someone who recently started working for him. Gwen pinched her lips between her teeth and turned back to her locker to hang up her coat. “No problems at all, Brody. Thanks for asking.”
And that was his cue to go. Smile, maybe give her a pat on the back, and let himself out of the room. He could envision himself doing it, practically hear the door closing behind him, but instead, he was actually hearing his own voice, and he was saying the dead last thing he should.
“Hey, you want to stick around for a drink after close?”
And if he’d thought she’d looked uncomfortable before, it was nothing compared to this.
“Think I’ll be pretty shot by closing,” she answered quietly, not meeting his eyes at all.
He rubbed a hand over his face, wishing he could wipe away the last week. Go back to the way it had been before. Him falling for her, yeah, but not having done anything to ruin a friendship that had become as important to him as any he had.
“Get some rest then. Some other time.”
She nodded and, eyes averted, headed back to the floor.
* * *
By Thursday night, Gwen wasn’t sure how much more she could take. Everyone at Belfast was great, going out of their way to make her feel welcome. Never prodding about what had happened between her and Brody, even though they all seemed to know it wasn’t happening anymore. They were wonderful, and she liked almost everything about the job.
But there was one problem, and it was getting worse every day.
Brody.
She could barely look at him, because every time she did, it was like her brain shorted out, and suddenly, all she could think about was that last kiss. The feel of his hand in her hair and on her leg. The heat of his breath against her neck and the way her body had all but ignited under his touch. How real and right it had felt to be in his arms. And how wrong she’d been about what it meant.
And then she’d be blinking back the tears and “accidentally” dropping her pen under a table or misplacing a check or something to save herself from Brody having to see her break down while she was waiting tables in his bar. But the excuses were running thin.
Brody being Brody, he was completely cool about it. Doing what it seemed everyone and their brother had assured her he would do—bending over backward to make sure they were going to stay friends. The thing was, no matter how hard he tried, it wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t act normal, and she couldn’t go back to the way things had been before. Not the way she had with Ted.
Brody was different.
It didn’t make sense. She’d known him for less than a year, but God, it hurt not to step under his arm the minute she saw him. She ached to be able to talk to him. She longed…
She was going to have to find another job.
If she’d been smart, she’d have done it already. But the same screwed-up part of her that had spent twenty years following around one man who didn’t love her seemed to have shifted her attention to yet another man who wasn’t interested.
What the hell did that say about her?
Nothing she wanted to contemplate right then.
She just wanted to do her job. Make her tips. Burn through the hours, and then hopefully through the rest of winter break. Because once winter break was over and school was back in session, they’d be deep in the heart of flu season, with every kind of disgusting bug a girl could wish for floating around. Stomach flu, strep, full-blown influenza. People would have been on airplanes over break, breathing the germs, passing them around, bringing them home. Students weren’t the only ones to get sick. The hand sanitizer would only go so far, and pretty soon, the teachers would be calling in too.
They were going to need substitutes. And every day she could pick up at a school meant a shift she didn’t have to take at Belfast.
But as she thought it, a wave of guilt swept over her. Brody hadn’t given her this job so she could look for ways to avoid doing it.
“Hey, Gwen, you going on break?” Rob asked from behind the bar as she stowed her tray.
“About to, but I can hold off. What do you need?”
“Can you check the stockroom for me? I think the inventory’s off on the Grey Goose. But take your break. There’s no rush.”
Preferring to skip her break altogether, she headed straight back. Anything to keep her mind busy. Anything to keep it off Brody.
Too bad nothing seemed to work.
She pushed through the door to the stockroom and stopped short as Brody looked up from one of the shelves and stared. He was wearing a gray button-down, rolled at the sleeves, with dark-wash jeans and a black belt. His hair was on the loose, hanging wild around the heavy bones of his face.
Her heart started to hammer, and she could feel the air in the room getting thin, her greater brain function starting to cease.
He looked good. Even better when he turned to her and the corner of that criminally skilled mouth curved up. “Hey, Gwen, you looking for me?”
“No,” she answered, barely managing the single word, standing there staring back at him like a fool.
She needed to get out of there. But before she could take a step, Brody had set his tablet on the shelf behind him and crossed his arms.
“Any progress on the Ted front?” His smile was friendly, easygoing, but didn’t seem to make it all the way to his eyes. Or maybe that was just her.
Of course he was asking her about Ted. Putting the reminder out there about how everything they’d been doing for the last month was supposed to have been about him.
It might have started that way, but for her, things had changed.
She owed him an explanation. At least partially.
“No. Nothing new there. The truth is, I think you might have been right about us from the start. We wouldn’t be right for each other.”
He took a step closer, his focus intense.
Probably because this was the first time she’d managed to string more than a handful of words together for him since she’d started. And it was killing her.
“What changed your mind?”
You. Those late nights on the phone, the texts that left me laughing every day, the weight of your arm around my shoulder, and the smell of your cologne. Your eyes, your hair…your mouth.
She cleared her throat, which had gone uncomfortably tight, and searched the corners of a room that felt like it was closing in around her. “Must have finally realized it wasn’t worth wanting a man I had to convince to want me.”
Rubbing that big hand of his over his jaw, Brody let out a long breath.
“That’s good to hear, Gwen. You can do better.” Then raising his palms in offering, he suggested, “How about I take you out to celebrate? It’s a slow night. We could take off—”
“Brody, I can’t.�
�� She couldn’t go with him and pretend everything was fine, that she didn’t want something she couldn’t have. And she couldn’t keep doing this either.
“Of course you can. It’ll be fun. Couple of friends.”
“Friends,” she repeated, feeling the word slice through her.
He wasn’t going to quit.
“That’s the problem, Brody. I know you want to be my friend, but I can’t do that.”
Something she swore was satisfaction flashed through his eyes, and then he was stepping into her space, anger sharpening his words as he demanded, “Why not? Hell, I thought it had to be about that dickhead Ted. If you were together, it would have made sense. He’d be jealous, and you’d respect his feelings, and what the fuck could I really say about it? But if it’s not Ted, then it’s got to be that kiss.”
Her breath caught, and she stepped back, startled but not scared.
She was relieved. Because suddenly, there was nothing easygoing about the man standing in front of her. He wasn’t comfortable or relaxed or unaffected.
“What happened on Christmas Eve, that kiss, it wasn’t about being friends or you doing me a favor,” she admitted, her eyes starting to water as the burden of trying to hide her feelings lifted. Now she and Brody were back to where they’d started. They were being honest, and even if these were the last minutes they had together—because there was no way she would be able to face him again after this—what she was giving him in that moment was real.
“Gwen, I’m sorry. I know I took it too far. It was a mistake, but what we have is good. And that kiss doesn’t have to mean anything—”
“It wasn’t you who took it too far. And it meant something to me.” Turning away, she couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t handle the confusion in his eyes. “I wish it didn’t. I wish I could go back to before this stupid charade with Ted and start from scratch. Be your friend without pretending anything else. Because then maybe…” What, maybe she could have gone on being his friend indefinitely? That’s what she wanted to say, but even as the words jumbled around in her head, she knew they wouldn’t be true. That it would only have been a matter of time before she’d opened her eyes and seen what had been there in front of her face the whole time. Brody. With his wild hair and his big body and his even bigger heart. Brody with his over-the-top compliments and deep, rumbling laugh. His candy-kiss cocktails and mischievous eyes.
Sooner or later, she would’ve fallen. Because with a man like him, how could she not?
“Gwen,” he said, his voice almost pleading.
“I didn’t even know he was there.” The words were barely a whisper, but she knew he heard them. Shaking her head, she started for the door, needing to get out of there. But before she could get past him, his hand was on her arm, his big body cutting in front of her.
“What?”
She closed her eyes “It wasn’t that I got carried away or caught up in the moment. It wasn’t that I let things go too far or that you let things go too far and I didn’t stop you or whatever you’re about to argue next. I don’t know when exactly it happened, only that it had already been a while.” She drew a steadying breath. “I wasn’t waiting for Ted, because I didn’t think he was coming at all.” For this, she needed to see him, to make sure he understood exactly what she was saying. That she was the one who’d made the mistake. “When you looked into my eyes and kissed me, I thought it was real. I wanted it to be real.”
Brody stood stock-still in front of her, not even a breath moving through him. It was safe to say he understood.
Which meant now she could run and hide and get on with never showing her face on this side of the river again. Or she could as soon as Brody let her go.
But that wasn’t what was happening. In fact, the opposite seemed to be true.
He was pulling her closer, his grip firming where he held her arm. And the way he was looking at her, it couldn’t be what she thought. It couldn’t be…except that her every sense and nerve seemed to be firing up like she’d started to let herself believe it was.
“Tell me that’s what you still want.” His voice was low, urgent. Demanding.
She searched his eyes, showing him everything in hers. Trembling, she whispered, “I want you.”
He swore, the sound deep and guttural, and in the next second, his mouth met hers in a searing crush. And then he wasn’t holding her by her arms. He was holding her entire body, gathering her closer with those powerful arms and lifting her clear off the ground.
“Brody,” she gasped against his mouth, her arms twining around his neck. She needed to hold him. Couldn’t do it tight enough.
Burying his forehead in her neck, he bunched his hands in her hair and the stretchy fabric of her skirt.
“Gwen, I’m so sorry, baby. I should have told you while we were still standing in the snow. I didn’t know he was there either, and the only reason I kissed you was because I couldn’t stand not to. And then he was there and I felt like I betrayed you in the worst way, because you wanted Ted, and all I wanted was you.”
She choked on a sob. It had been real. “You did?”
“I should have told you the truth, but I thought if I did, I wouldn’t just lose you to the guy who didn’t deserve you, I’d lose you as my friend too. And Gwen, I couldn’t take both. Except that’s what happened anyway, and I’ve been going out of my mind.”
This time, her fingers were in his hair, burrowing deep, closing around the untamed waves and then releasing, only to close again. Pulling his head down to hers so she could take the kiss she was starving for. The one she didn’t need to feel like she’d stolen. Brody’s arms were around her, supporting her as he bowed her back with his body. His tongue thrust past her lips, and she moaned around the taste of him. Gasped at the sound of his deep, rumbling growl and the feel of it rolling through her. God, she loved that sound.
“I missed you,” she whispered, her hand moving over the sides of his face and down his neck. She needed to touch him, feel that this was real.
“Baby, you can’t even imagine.”
Their eyes held an instant longer, and then whatever restraint had been holding Brody back must have snapped, because he was kissing her again, taking her mouth in a possessive claim that had her clutching at him tighter. He lifted her off the floor, and her legs wrapped around him. Her shoulders met the door, and he rocked into her.
Her eyes shot wide. “Brody.”
She could feel him against her center, that thick, hard ridge running the length of her sex. It was like lightning shooting through her.
His hold on her thighs tightened, driving her wild.
“Your hands,” she panted, meeting the motion of his hips with her own.
“Too hard?” he asked, immediately loosening his hold.
She shook her head. “No… So good… More.”
He swore, rocking into her again, this time gripping in time with the motion, and she started to shake. Her inner muscles clenched and squeezed, and her breath nearly stalled in her chest.
“Like this?” he growled, rocking against that needy spot again and again. Then harder when she nodded, desperately clutching at his shoulders, his neck, those amazing arms and then back to his shoulders.
“Don’t stop,” she begged a second before he was back at her mouth, filling her with his tongue, his thrusts deep and hard, mirroring his hips.
She couldn’t take it, couldn’t get enough, couldn’t keep going without… “Brody!”
Everything inside her seized as her climax slammed through her in hard pulsing waves that went on and on until she was boneless, limp against the door with Brody pressing his forehead to hers. She cupped his face in her palms, smoothing her thumbs over his heavy cheekbones. “I really missed you.”
He closed his eyes, nodding once. “You too. More than you can imagine.”
Knock, knock, knock…
Eyes blinking wide, Brody spun them around so he was the one with his back against the door that one of his employees was standing outside of. Knocking on.
Gwen could barely stand. Her knees felt like jelly, and the rest of her way too good for what had just happened not to be glaringly obvious.
“What are we going to do?” she hissed, looking around the stockroom for some magical back exit.
Brody grinned. And yeah, like that smile didn’t have “guilty” written all over it. God, he was sexy.
“We’re going to fix your skirt,” he said, eyes hot as he ran his hands over her hips and thighs, returning the garment to order.
He kissed her again, a lingering press of his lips against hers, and she felt the tightening band of his arm around her back as he drew her in as close as possible. She was smiling by the time he released her, that giddy sense of elation bubbling up in her chest.
This was real.
Eyes still locked with hers, Brody stepped over to the shelves and yelled, “It’s open. Come on in.”
Eric pushed through the door, tentatively looking into the space Gwen and Brody had been steaming up with their kisses minutes before. She was surprised the single window on the far wall wasn’t fogged over. This was so embarrassing. There was no way someone would have knocked and then waited if he hadn’t known what they were up to.
“And that’s where we keep the mixers,” Brody stated as if he’d been giving her some kind of grand tour.
Eric already had what he’d come for and was on his way out when Jill walked in.
Her brows shot up as she darted a look back and forth between Brody and Gwen. “Hey, guys,” she said, looking more than a little amused. “Gwen, I was going to tell you to go ahead and take your break.”
This was the stuff of nightmares. Four days on the job, and already she’d been busted with the boss.
Something told Gwen she’d be hearing about this for a while.
So why couldn’t she stop smiling?
Brody was nodding, stepping toward the door. “So, you’re good, Gwen?” he asked as if she was supposed to have any idea what he was talking about. “You know, with where everything is in here?”
Decoy Date Page 11