“Sweetheart, I really love the way you negotiate,” he growled before kissing her again. This time when they broke apart, breathless, he must have realized the time and reluctantly released her. “I really need to go, but I’ll see you back here tonight.”
They each quickly moved around gathering their things because Leanna really needed to get going too. They walked out to their cars together where he kissed her goodbye again before she pulled away.
When she walked into the office thirty minutes later with coffees for everyone, she wished they didn’t have to work at all today because she seriously needed some girl time to help her figure out how she could tell Brody she was in love with him without freaking him out. And after the conversation they’d just had this morning and the admission he made, Leanna knew she had to tell him how she felt.
Now.
Okay, maybe not right now, but sooner rather than later.
“No bagels this morning?” Josie asked when Lea put her coffee down.
“You know that started out as just a Monday morning thing, right?”
“Yeah, but…then you did it a little more often and now we’re spoiled.”
Truth.
“Where’s Skylar? Is she feeling okay?”
“Actually, she called a little while ago to let us know she was going to the doctor this morning.”
“Oh no! Is something wrong?”
“Everything’s fine. They’re going for an ultrasound and she didn’t want anyone to know, but…you know she can’t keep a secret.”
“I don’t know about that, but I guess she figured we’d notice when she wasn’t here,” Lea reasoned as she sat down at her desk. “Is she taking the whole day or just coming in late?”
“She’ll definitely be in–if for no other reason than to show off those grainy pictures the doctor gives you and no one can really tell what they’re looking at.”
So it was going to be just the two of them for a little while, she thought. But Josie wasn’t exactly relationship-minded and wouldn’t be quite so sympathetic without Skye there to guide her.
I guess I’m waiting until later to talk…
“What’s going on with you?” Josie asked, sitting down on the corner of Lea’s desk.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve sighed like…three times in the last minute. What’s up?”
“It’s nothing,” she said quickly. Too quickly. Reaching for her planner, she read her notes. “Do we have anyone coming in this morning?”
Josie pulled the planner from her hand and tossed it aside. “You know we don’t have anyone coming in. It’s a Wednesday and it’s always our quietest day. So I’ll ask again–what’s going on? Is it about Brody? Did you guys have a fight?”
Ugh…here we go.
“We didn’t have a fight. If anything, things are good. Really good.” Then she told her about the conversation the two of them had this morning.
“That’s all great stuff, Lea. It sounds like he’s not the alpha jerk we all thought he was in the beginning.”
“I know and that makes me so happy.”
“But…?”
“But…I’m totally crazy about him. Like…in love with him.”
“Okay, and…?”
“And? Aren’t you going to tell me it’s too soon or how I can’t possibly be in love with him? Or…or…how maybe I don’t know how I feel and should keep it to myself? Or that I should wait for him to say it first and how I’ll probably be waiting forever because a guy like Brody King will probably never say ‘I love you’ to anyone or want a serious, long-term relationship? How I’m wasting my time and energy and maybe it’s just the incredible sex making me feel like I’m in love when really it’s just the endorphins from all the orgasms? Not that I would know that because this is the first time in my life that I’ve had so many orgasms and now I don’t know what’s real and what’s not!” Breathless, she paused and noticed the serene smile on Josie’s face. “Well? Say something!”
“I wanted to wait out that little train to crazy town and see where it ended up.” She took a leisurely sip of her coffee. “And I have to admit, it went a lot further than I thought it would. You were really on a roll there.”
Groaning, Leanna slumped down in her chair. “I know. I’m a mess.”
“No, you’re not a mess. You’re in love and it’s the first time and it’s completely overwhelming.” She paused. “Have you told him how you feel?”
She shook her head. “We don’t talk about things like that. And it’s not like it’s a rule; it’s just never come up.”
“O-kay…but what do you think would happen if it did?”
“I have no idea, Josie. That’s why I’m freaking out! What if I blurt it out and he freaks out and asks me to leave? Or breaks up with me? Or…”
“Well, technically, if he asked you to leave because you said you loved him, he’s breaking up with you.”
“Do not throw logic at me right now! Can’t you see I’m having a breakdown?” She groaned again. “When is Skylar getting here?”
“Hey! I take offense to that! Skye’s not the only one who can give relationship advice, you know. I may not know exactly what to say right away, but if you give me a minute or two, I will!”
“Fine. Think about it,” Lea muttered. “I’ll just be sitting here ready to curl up in the fetal position.”
Jumping to her feet, Josie spun and pointed her finger at her. “See? This is why I don’t do relationships! Because of stuff like this!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yeah, you all go on and on about how much you want to be in a relationship and how much you want to meet a great guy. But you know what happens? This! This kind of mess! And before you try to tell me I’m wrong, I’m not. We watched it happen with Skye and my brother; she’d been in love with him for so long and then they finally got together and it wasn’t perfect or even remotely close to it! He broke her heart, Lea!”
“And then he apologized and they worked it out!” she countered. “Now they’re happily married with a baby on the way!”
“But don’t you get it? Relationships are not guaranteed to be smooth sailing. There are always going to be issues–bumps in the road, misunderstandings, and whatnot!”
“I get that, but…”
“No! No buts! You can keep going exactly as you are with Brody right now for a while–weeks, months, hell, you can probably keep the status quo for years. But eventually, you are going to have to have this talk. And wouldn’t you rather know now that it’s not going to end the way you want than invest weeks, months, or years before finding out? You say you want to get married and have kids someday, but if that’s something that Brody is never going to want, why are you wasting your time?”
Why indeed?
When she didn’t respond, Josie moved back and sat down on the corner of the desk. “I get that you’re in love with him and you’re hoping he’s going to feel the same,” she said softly. “And believe me, I hope he does too. But if it were me, I’d want to know sooner rather than later. If he’s never going to give you what you want, then you need to move on.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know it yet because it’s been too soon,” she offered weakly.
“Or maybe he just wants to have his cake and eat it too.”
“Wrong metaphor, but I get what you’re saying. Dang it.”
“Look, only you know when the time is right to say something. Think about it.”
Leanna had a feeling it was going to be the only thing she thought about today.
It was late.
Much later than he intended and now he felt like a complete jackass for giving Leanna so much grief this morning about being there for him when he got home.
Eleven o’clock.
Muttering a curse, he pulled into the driveway and parked beside her car but noticed the house was mostly dark. Climbing from the car, he could only imagine how annoyed she was going to be with him.
He had texted her that he was leaving at seven. And at the time, he was truly packed up and ready to leave. The legal team at King Hospitality were handling the rest of the call to Japan after Brody spent an hour negotiating everything they wanted. But when he was at the elevator, Donald Prince, the head of their legal team, asked him to come back in to go over a few of the finer points in the contract. It should have only taken an hour, but time got away from him. By the time he pulled out his phone to tell Leanna he was on his way, over three hours had passed.
If their roles were reversed, he knew he’d be pissed.
Stepping into the house, he quietly shut the door. There was one small lamp on in the living room and he saw a small tower of cupcakes on the kitchen island. And even if he didn’t see them, all he had to do was inhale to know she’d been baking.
He put his satchel down on the counter and threw his jacket on top of it. Silently, he walked back toward his bedroom and found Leanna sound asleep in his bed. With a weary sigh, he raked a hand through his hair as he leaned against the doorjamb and simply watched her for a moment. Because of all the glass along the back wall, she was bathed in moonlight and looked both peaceful and beautiful.
And he’d left her here all by herself even after she shared with him how uncomfortable it made her.
God, I’m such a bastard…
He’d seriously been trying to change and he knew he had in so many ways. No one else had ever gotten him to do the things Leanna did, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t screwed this up.
The selfish part of him wanted to strip and crawl into bed and slowly wake her up by kissing his way down her body, but he had a feeling she might not be particularly receptive to that. So he walked over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and turned and left the room. He wasn’t ready to go to sleep and there was no way he wanted to disturb her.
Padding back out to the kitchen, he grabbed himself a bottle of water before searching for something to eat. They had ordered dinner in for the Japan call–ironically, Chinese food–but he’d barely touched his food and now he was hungry. There were leftovers from the last few nights–some Mexican from last night and some barbecue from Monday–but neither were appealing. He had a full refrigerator drawer full of fruit, but that wasn’t what he wanted either. With a sigh, he shut the refrigerator door and started to walk toward the pantry to see what he could find there.
But he never made it.
Cupcakes.
Those damn tempting cupcakes.
Why was he torturing himself? Hell, why was he denying himself? Obviously he had enough self-control that he wasn’t going to eat the entire dozen sitting here in front of him. The last one he ate was two months ago for crying out loud. Surely he could have one and move on, right? Maybe if he just ate one, then he could find something else to eat without being distracted.
So he took the one at the top of the tower. It was yellow cake with chocolate icing and a few sprinkles on top. Nothing too crazy. Nothing so over the top that he felt bad about taking it without asking first.
Carefully, he peeled the paper liner away and took a bite.
Flavor exploded on his tongue; it was so damn good that his knees threatened to buckle and he moaned with pleasure. Dear Lord, they were better than he remembered. They were smaller than he remembered too, because it was gone in two bites.
He looked over his shoulder as if he were afraid Leanna was going to come out and hit him with a rolling pin before grabbing a second one. After the first bite, he went and poured himself a glass of milk because water simply wouldn’t do. Finishing the cupcake, he guzzled the milk and felt like he could relax.
After one more cupcake.
It didn’t occur to him that maybe he was overdoing it–or that maybe she had baked these for a reason–because all he could think about was how nothing else in this house would be nearly as satisfying as these sweet cupcakes.
Well, tasting Leanna would, but that wasn’t an option right now.
Halfway through the fourth cupcake, he heard Leanna clear her throat behind him.
Busted!
Brody shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth and quickly chewed it before turning to face her. “Sorry, did I wake you?”
Her hair was tousled, her movements were a little slow, and her eyes were half closed, but somehow even in the dim light of the kitchen, she managed to come close and brush all of the crumbs off of him.
And there were a lot.
Placing a hand over hers, he held it over his heart. “Hey,” he said softly before leaning in and kissing her. “I’m sorry I was so late.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, yawning. “I got worried that something happened to you–you know, before you texted that last time. I was tired and figured I’d just rest my eyes for a little bit and the next thing I knew…” she shrugged.
“You should be asleep. It’s late and I know you have an early day tomorrow.” He remembered Leanna saying how Thursday mornings were usually her earliest of the week because that’s when all the preparations for the weekend events really kicked into gear.
“I’m glad I’m not,” she said, pulling back slightly with a sleepy smile.
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” She reached up and wiped away something else from his face as her smile grew. “If I were still asleep, I would have missed this.” Holding up her thumb, she showed him the dollop of frosting she just took off of his face. “You have no idea how happy this makes me.”
His laughter was out before he could stop it. “Seriously? Frosting on my face makes you happy?”
“Well, that and the fact that you were actually eating the cupcakes!” she started to laugh with him. “I couldn’t believe after all the stuff I baked here last weekend that you never ate any of it! I’ve never met anyone with that kind of willpower!”
“Yeah, well…obviously I’m not as strong as I think I am.”
Leanna glanced over Brody’s shoulder at the plate of cupcakes. “Four? You ate four of them?” she asked even as she continued to laugh.
“I probably would have had a fifth if you hadn’t come out here, so…”
“Brody! That’s insane! You’ll make yourself sick!”
“Somehow I doubt it. They’re tiny. Four of them were the equivalent to a decent piece of cake. I’ll be fine.”
“Oh, my God…if I ate four cupcakes, I would not feel well at all. And certainly not at this time of night.”
He hadn’t considered that.
Having that much sugar when he really needed to get some sleep wasn’t the smartest decision he could have made.
And yet he didn’t regret a thing.
Okay, that wasn’t completely true. He regretted missing out on a night with Leanna. Right now they should be tangled up together in his bed, under the blankets, slightly exhausted from making love. And instead, they were in his kitchen with him covered in crumbs and frosting after he worked way too late.
Leanna yawned again and he knew he needed to get her back to bed.
“Come on,” he said, gently taking her by the shoulders and turning her around. “It’s late, you’re tired, and you should be sleeping.”
“You’re coming with me, right?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him as she started to walk away.
Even though he wasn’t really ready to go to sleep, he wouldn’t deny her this. “Of course. Let me turn off the living room light and we’ll head back to our room.” The words were out without him even thinking about it and they completely stopped him for the barest of moments. Hopefully Leanna didn’t notice and he walked over and turned out the light before facing her. By then, it was fairly dark–the only light coming in from the outside–and he couldn’t read her expression.
Thankfully.
Walking into the bedroom first, Leanna turned on one of the bedside lamps before crawling onto the bed. That’s when Brody first noticed what she was wearing–it was a deep plum color with tiny straps and it barely covered her bottom. A
nd when she crawled onto the bed, he saw she had nothing on underneath–no thong, no panties.
Her name came out as a hoarse plea and she grinned at him as she lay down.
“I did promise to change into something sexy to greet you at the door, but you were late.” She shrugged and one delicate strap slid off her shoulder. “And when I went to greet you in the kitchen, you were busy eating way too many cupcakes.”
“They weren’t too many…”
“I was beginning to think I bought this nightie for nothing,” she said with a dramatic sigh.
Tugging his tie off, he tossed it onto the floor. Next came his shoes and belt. Stepping closer to the bed, he watched as she toyed with the fallen strap. “Personally, I’m very grateful for it. I’d love to buy you one in every color because it looks spectacular on you.”
Looking very pleased with herself, she pushed up onto her knees and made her way back toward the edge of the bed. “Why thank you.” Her hands smoothed up over his stomach and chest before she began unbuttoning his shirt. “I did have a whole welcome home thing I had worked on all day, but I promise to show it to you another time.”
He moaned when she parted his shirt and ran her hands over his bare chest. “You have no idea how sorry I am.”
“I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me somehow.” And with a sexy grin, she pushed his shirt from his shoulders.
“Whatever you want, it’s yours,” he said gruffly, flinging his shirt to the floor before quickly stripping off his trousers and boxers.
Her smile grew. “I just want you in this bed with me. Anything other than that is completely up to you.” She lay back down and looked like his every fantasy, the tiny scrap of silk she was wearing rode high enough up to tease and tempt him.
Reaching out, Brody skimmed one hand up her leg from ankle to thigh. “I told myself I was going to let you sleep, that I wouldn’t bother you. When I came in here earlier, all I wanted to do was climb into bed and kiss my way down your body.”
With This Cake: A Meet Me At The Altar Novel Page 16