Her heart fluttered. She nodded and whispered back, taking his face in her hands.
“Not as much as I love hearing it from your lips.”
He blinked slowly and smiled. They were both grinning so hard now they could barely stop. Happy tears filled her eyes.
“How are you?” Brody asked in a hushed tone, then laughed softly and let his head drop back. “Listen to me, talking to you like this. It’s weird, but not weird. Do you know what I mean? I sound like an idiot.”
“No, no, you don’t. I know exactly what you mean. It’s not like either of us have done this before–”
“First and only time,” Brody nodded. “But really, tell me how you are. I know from your body, you’re not exactly…feeling yourself or something…but I want to see how the words match up.”
Ellie let out a quick breath.
“I’m lost. I’m home, but I don’t belong.” Ellie couldn’t help blushing at the truth of the statement. “I didn’t even want to go on this assignment and now look at me!” Ellie hoped Cooper wasn’t listening on the other side of the door. She could just imagine his smug expression. She wondered briefly if he’d known all along he might lose his best reporter to the country life.
Brody shook his head like he’d missed a close call.
“Well I can’t imagine you not having been there, Elsie Durham. And by the way I feel lost too and it’s not because I’m standing in a closet, trapped in an even bigger closet, with my feet a quarter mile off the ground. It’s because I let you down.”
Ellie started to speak, then steadied herself as Brody placed a finger to her lips.
“We were a team out there, you know?” he whispered.
“I know,” she sighed.
Ellie sent him off each night cloaked in her scent, her affections and adoration. Brody’s hands began to roam over her body, feeling and talking at the same time, weaving this new way of communicating into the one they knew and cherished.
“Look, I know what teamwork is. I do it every damn day on the ranch. But when I’d get on the road, ridin’ bulls, it was always me alone. My own win, nobody else’s name on it. I prided myself on that.”
“You needed it.” She held steady, not knowing where this was going.
“Yes. Exactly.” Brody kissed her, eyes flashing. “Exactly. But this thing between us, it’s not you and not me, but what we are together. It steadies me.” His voice dropped. “We coulda done it.”
“We tried,” she offered. “We can try again.” Like a preacher with the healing touch, her gentle fingers grasped his forearms and quickly soothed the disappointment which had torn a hole inside him two weeks before. Despite herself, she’d checked the standings. Brody hadn’t ridden a single bull since she left.
Brody shook his head.
“You were there in our spot, waiting on me. I know you were.”
“I was.” Of course she was.
“I’m sorry for whatever that felt like. It couldn’t have been good.”
“It wasn’t, Brody. I don’t think I realized until then how much of myself I had been giving you–how much I wanted you to have. I would have kept on giving too, but you were done.”
“I was like a person who thinks they don’t need their medication anymore so they stop taking it, then they have a relapse,” Brody gave her a half smile. “I was a jackass. But you forgive me. I know you do.” He kissed her, then kissed her again, inhaling deeply as he pulled away, fingers tangled in her hair. He released her and ran his hands up and down her arms again.
“Do you always do this? Tell a person they forgive you rather than waiting for them to accept your apology?”
Brody flashed her a grin which had probably worked on a thousand girls before Ellie, but not this time.
“It don’t work that way with me,” she said with a twang.
“It don’t?” he grinned.
“No. You need to keep apologizing. With your hands. I’ll let you know when you’re forgiven.”
“Aw, Jeez. My dad said a New York girl was only going to give me trouble.”
“He did?” Having met Hank Cameron, she could imagine it.
“Yeah. But Gavin said you were just what I needed.”
Ellie swallowed hard as his voice faded into a slow rain of kisses down her neck.
“Ellie?” He nuzzled her.
“Hm.”
“I know what you do for me, but…” As Brody trailed off, Ellie fought her usual instinct and waited, curious to see how he found his words, rather than filling in the blanks for him. “What do you need?”
A tough–ass bull rider who isn’t afraid to be vulnerable, was the first thing that came to mind. But that was about him, not her. It didn’t answer the question. Taking a deep breath, she decided to be vulnerable too.
“Security. Independence. Familiarity. Mystery.”
Brody laughed out loud, grasping his chest, relief shaking his shoulders.
“Gavin, man, my brother was right. You are going to keep me on my toes for the rest of my life. I hope you come with a dictionary.”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you think I ventured this far out of God’s country to go home empty handed? No, ma’am. I want you. A whole lifetime of whatever this is. I want it. I love you, sugar lips. No doubt.”
“Sugar lips!”
“Oh, yeah…that’s what I’ve been calling you. My sugar lips.” He gave her a big juicy kiss on the mouth, while sliding his hand up her inner thigh. Ellie clamped his hand between her legs and wriggled.
“Can we keep it between us?”
“Too late. It’s already between me and Rico and a couple–nope, I’m not gonna lie–all of my brothers.”
“Oy.”
“That’s a New York word, isn’t it?”
“Kind of,” she laughed.
“See, we’re good for each other already.”
They stared a while, holding tight, until a slow, crooked smile crept across Brody’s face.
“What about your family? I know the money was important to you.” She didn’t want to come right out and say she knew about the financial burdens they were under.
“Well, I did win enough to put us back to even. It ain’t gonna land us a spread in Modern Luxury, but it’s good enough for us,” he winked. “Thank you for what you did, Ellie. I know you weren’t in on it for the same reasons as me, and I don’t even care if you were doing it to get a story.”
“That’s not why I did it.” He waited as she rooted around for her answer. “I did it to have a chance at…something I’ve always wanted.”
Brody smiled and squeezed her. “Us. We have a passion that’s different. We can go somewhere with it.”
Ellie would have taken at least ten more sentences to explain it–eroticism, surrender, spiritual connection. Brody said it his way, though, and it was perfect.
“Us,” she repeated.
“Yeah, I need us and a lot of it.” He swayed their pressed–together hips. “You like being loved up a lot, in all kinds of ways, and maybe even more than most. So do I. I want to be the man who comforts you that way, okay? Whenever you need it, however you need it. I’ll give it to you. You’ll give it to me. We’ll give it to each other.”
Brody held her jaw and brushed her cheek with his thumb, crouching to look at her.
Ellie giggled as tears sprang to her eyes.
“What’s so funny?”
“Do you always chatter so much?”
“Nah, I’m a little nervous. And I want you to know everything.”
“I like it. I like everything you’ve said. And I like you.”
“That ain’t the word I’m looking for here, I gotta say.”
“I love you, Brody.”
“I love you, sugar lips. And I like you too.” He got quiet for a while, then finally dipped his head and came back up and looked her in the eyes. “So, I got bumped down from the pro circuit. No matter. Just means you have to come with me and I’ll get back up.” He winked.
“I would have known what you meant without the wink.”
“I thought you liked my body language!” He bent his knees to get a better look at her, no doubt checking whether her facial expression matched her words. Now they were speaking and touching in equal parts, Ellie found herself doing the same with him.
“I do! I do!” She pressed up on her toes, circling her arms around his neck.
“Ellie.” Brody became very serious, brushing the hair from her shoulders and massaging them lightly.
“Yes.”
“I like how those words sound on you.”
“Which ones?”
“I do, I do.”
“They sound good on you too, cowboy.”
“Don’t I know it. Do you want to have a ranch wedding? Or we can do it here in New York if you’d rather, baby. The ’where’ doesn’t seem to matter with us,” he laughed.
Ellie nodded, then kissed him, long and sweet before she gave her answer.
“Anywhere with you, Brody Cameron. Anywhere.”
THE END
About Felice Fox:
Felice is a big fan of bluegrass and country music, and a lover of all things woodsy and romantic. She wears bad girl boots and is proud to say she was once mistaken for a roller derby queen. Hold Me Together, the first Cameron Ranch story, was an Amazon #1 bestseller and Hot New Release. It has been described as a “danger to panties everywhere” (Herding Cats & Burning Soup) and “not for the faint of heart” (Fresh Fiction). Her fiction debut, Take Me for Longing, has been an Amazon bestseller since it’s release in 2012 and her second title, It’s Just Sext, became an instant Amazon #1 bestseller. Felice lives, loves and frequently sends out naughty text messages from Silver Lake, California.
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NOW AVAILABLE FROM FELICE FOX
Hold Me Together (Cameron Ranch, Gavin’s Story),/a>
Take Me for Longing
It’s Just Sext
Perfect Sext
Hotter Than Sext
It’s Just Sext Series–Audiobook
COMING SOON
Dark Lashes (Cameron Ranch, Abel’s Story)
Somebody More Like You
Beneath the Pages
Jennifer Kacey
Copyright Jennifer Kacey 2014
All Rights Reserved
Discover more titles by Jennifer Kacey
at www.jenniferkacey.com
Dedication
For my husband. Thank you for making me laugh every day and putting up with me and all the characters in my head. I owe you a dance of joy for being one step closer to our dreams.
Acknowledgements
To Griff, Anya and Amy who spent many more hours on this project than the rest of us – you three are amazing!!
To Mina – that is one badass cover!
To all the #BTHK authors – now we take over the world!
Blurb:
Acacia owns and runs Fame, one of the hottest celebrity magazines in the country. She survives on convincing the rich and famous to reveal things they would normally do anything to keep hidden. She lives, eats and breathes the magazine. Day in and day out. She has no life, nothing to keep in the dark. Nothing but the night she gave herself over to the one man she never should have wanted.
Radigan, the most sought after actor in Hollywood, wants her again, and won’t take no for an answer. He had her for one night. Several hours of the best sex of his entire life, but she was gone the next morning before the sun had fully risen. His attempts to contact her have gone unanswered. Everything he’s tried so far has been a miserable failure. But he finally knows what to do to slip beneath the pages of her heart.
This time he’s playing for keeps and the exclusive rights to her body, heart and soul.
Chapter One
Black satin and lace slid along her body as if it were her lover. When she walked it flowed behind her like a waterfall. Acacia’s dress pooled around her feet and tickled her ankles as she stopped on the second step of her grand staircase to oversee the party.
Acacia wasn’t looking for him.
Radigan.
She didn’t care if he came, even if he had RSVP’d.
Really.
Making sure everything ran smoothly, that was her only goal.
The sweeping neckline of her dress hung off her narrow shoulders, revealing skin she normally kept covered. Only the very top of her cleavage peaked out, showing a preview of the body she always kept hidden.
She ran her fingertips over her exposed collarbones and nonchalantly gripped the back of her neck. Through the evening she’d tried unsuccessfully to smooth away the tension clawing at the base of her skull. The surreptitious massages weren’t helping.
Insanity–repeating the same action again and again expecting a different outcome.
She tightened her hold on her tense muscles one more time and then clasped her hands in front of her ball gown to watch the guests.
Her party.
It was in full swing. The voices were loud in the ballroom, and the sound of posturing disguised as hobnobbing was quickly getting under her skin.
It’s going to be a long night.
Someone approached, so she tried to hide her exasperation and soothe herself by running her fingers through her shoulder–length brown hair. Her straight locks fell through her fingers and framed her lovely face, accentuating her slim nose and high cheekbones.
“Ms. Blair, would you like some champagne?” A wide–eyed waiter in a rented tux held a tray of fluted crystal glasses in front of her. It shook just a little and she couldn’t help giving him a bit of a hard time.
“John, you wouldn’t have a Diet Dr. Pepper on that tray would you?”
“Um, well, I don’t think…” he stammered, looking down at the tray, probably willing a Dr. Pepper to appear.
Acacia tried to hide her laugh, covering her mouth as she patted his arm. “I’m just giving you a hard time. Champagne would be lovely, thank you.”
He blew out a nervous breath and handed her one of the fragile glasses filled with bubbly liquid. Trying to smile didn’t exactly work and it came out more of a grimace.
She knew why he was anxious, and squeezed his arm before releasing it. “Don’t be nervous. You’ve worked at the magazine for a while now. All of the people in this room are just that. People. They eat, sleep, and breathe just like you do.”
“True. But they eat food cooked by their private chefs, sleep in one of the fifteen bedrooms in any of their three houses, and breathe air on their private jets on the way to Cabo on a whim.”
“Okay, you got me there,” she agreed with a sigh and took a sip of her champagne.
He straightened his shoulders and headed back into the throng of people.
Acacia took another sip and enjoyed the feel of the liquid sliding down her throat. Alcohol wasn’t exactly good for her mental state. It made her want things that she didn’t have time for.
Her gaze went back over the crowd. It was a Fortune 100 kind of party that reeked of Hollywood and old money. The richest of the rich stood around comparing their wealth and their fame. At the ripe old age of thirty–three she’d long since tired of the game, but knew she had to play along if she wanted the magazine to continue to thrive. Her father had taught her well and she wanted to make him proud.
After another sip of champagne to settle her nerves, she stepped down into the throng of people and mingled with her guests.
“Mr. Pitt, how is your family?”
“Sean, how’s the new fashion label coming along?”
“Jennifer, call me. We’ll make a date to put you on the cover of one of the summer issues.”
She was one of them. Had grown up in the spotlight with a famous pa
rent and had been in front of the camera earlier in her life.
For the last eight years she’d been behind the camera or, more accurately, beside it, working hand–in–hand with her father to build Fame into one of the hottest magazines available on newsstands to date.
She was the sole heiress to the entire estate the partygoers all enjoyed. All two hundred acres of it.
And she’d give it all away to have her father back.
He’d unexpectedly died two years prior from a massive heart attack. Her parents had divorced right after she was born and she hadn’t seen her mother since. She had only one living relative, and was pretty sure he more closely resembled the snakes found on the grounds than her.
Growing up at the magazine had influenced her. Being dedicated to her job and the magazine itself was just a part of who she was. Her fierce loyalty to all of her employees had people from all over the world contacting her for a position when one became available, not to mention swarming her to grace its pages.
Fame showcased the most famous people in movies, TV, music, and the world in general, and she had grown up with people all around her that other people just stared at with slack jaws.
It had been commonplace to have Oscar award winners over for Sunday brunch, or the CEO of a major conglomerate go with them to a baseball game.
She had loved her life, under the watchful, doting eye of her father, but having to continue on without him was grating on her already frayed nerves.
Acacia made her way over to the bar.
“Are you hiding, Ms. Blair?” a friendly, deep voice asked from behind the solid mahogany. “And at your own party? The scandal.”
“Me? Hide?” she asked with false sweetness, as she took a seat at the edge of the room and let out an exasperated breath. She set her champagne aside, knowing any more alcohol would be a really bad idea if the person she totally wasn’t thinking about made an appearance.
“I must have been thinking of my other boss. My mistake.” The bartender chuckled, as he filled a glass.
“Frank, can you get me a–”
He set a glass of a dark bubbly soft drink down in front of her.
“I love you. You know that right?”
He pushed a cute curly straw into her drink and patted her hand, and then her cheek. “Just because I keep you in Diet Dr. Pepper? I’ve known the way to your heart for years now.”
Brought to His Knees-Tough Guys Laid Low By Love Page 54