She was allowed to share some amazing sex with someone who knew what he was doing, her usually quiet wild child insisted. She was twenty-nine, mostly normal but terribly sexually frustrated.
You had this argument with yourself earlier. He’s single. You’re single. You don’t need anyone’s permission...
Kade didn’t need to use charm, or to say anything at all. She was doing a fine job of talking herself into his bed all on her own.
“Brodie?” Kade stepped back and bent his knees so he could look her in the eye. “What do you say? Do you want to take this to its very natural conclusion?”
Brodie gripped his big biceps, or as much of it as she could get into her hand. He felt harder, more muscular than she remembered. How was that possible? She wanted to undo the buttons on his shirt, push aside the fabric and see what other wonders lay under his expensive clothes. Was his chest bigger? His shoulders broader? His thighs stronger?
“Are you going to put me out of my misery sometime soon?” Kade asked. He sounded like sleeping with her was neither here nor there. Then she took another look at his expression, read the emotion in his eyes.
There was frustration, a whole lot of desire and a hint of panic. Because he thought she might say no? He looked a little off-kilter and not as suave and as confident as she’d first suspected. His hint of insecurity made her feel steadier. That their chemistry had rocked him allowed her to regain her mental and emotional balance.
“God, woman, you’re killing me.”
She knew if she said yes, there would be no going back. She couldn’t get cold feet, couldn’t retreat this time.
She was a little scared—and she should be. She’d laid out all the arguments in the ladies’ room. But she could no more stop a freight train than miss this second chance to find out if he was as good as her imagination insisted.
Time to put them both out of their misery. Brodie slowly nodded. “Yeah, let’s revisit the past. One night, not a big deal?”
“You sure?”
She knew he was asking for some reassurance she wouldn’t change her mind midway through, so she placed her hand on his cheek and nodded. “Very sure. On the understanding this is a one-time thing and it stays between us.”
Relief flashed across Kade’s face and she felt his fingers flexing on her back. “I never kiss and tell. But are you sure we’ll be able to stop after one night?”
Brodie shrugged. Probably not. “We can give it our best shot.”
Kade stepped back and ran a hand around the back of his neck. “Interesting,” he said.
Brodie frowned. “What is?”
“You have a very...businesslike approach to life. And sex.”
She supposed she did, but life had taught her to put emotion away from daily life. If she allowed emotion to rule, she would’ve crawled into a cave after the accident and never come out. She turned her back on her feelings because they were so big, so overwhelming. Before the tragedy, she’d loved hard...wildly, uninhibitedly. She’d engaged every one of her senses and she’d been the most emotional creature imaginable.
A car accident had taken her family, but emotion had hung around and nearly killed her, too. To survive she’d had to box it up and push it away...because she couldn’t feel happy without feeling sad. No joy without pain. No love without heartbreak.
It was easier just to skate.
Brodie lifted her chin and sent Kade a cool smile. Time to get the conversation back on track. “So, when and where?”
Kade lifted his eyebrows in surprise and Brodie sent him a look, daring him to make another comment about her frankness. He looked like he wanted to and Brodie prayed he wouldn’t. Kade seemed to have the ability to look beyond her shell to the mess inside...
She didn’t need anyone upsetting her mental apple cart.
Kade looked at his watch and thought for a minute. “I have meetings this afternoon or else I’d whisk you back to my place right now.”
That was something her old self would’ve done, Brodie mused. Breakfast at midnight, dancing in the rain, unplanned road trips and afternoon sex. The Brodie she was today didn’t do wild anymore.
“And tonight is the ball. Are you coming?” Kade placed his hand flat on the wall behind her head and she had to resist the urge to rest her temple on his forearm.
Brodie shook her head. “No. Besides the tickets are sold out.”
The corners of Kade’s mouth tipped up. “I’m sure I know someone who can slip you inside.”
It was tempting, Brodie thought, but no. Attending the ball with Kade would make it seem like a date and she didn’t date.
“Why don’t you give me a call in a day or two?” she suggested.
“I don’t know if I can last that long,” Kade said, his tone rueful. He jammed his hands into his suit pockets and Brodie couldn’t help her urge to straighten his tie. “But...okay.”
“Lipstick on my face?” he asked.
“No, you’re fine.”
Kade nodded. “Give me your cell number. And your address.”
Brodie put the info in his phone. Kade nodded his thanks.
Kade’s eyes warmed to the color of rough cocoa. “Do you work from home?”
“No, I share an office with my friend and associate downtown. He’s also a matchmaker.”
Kade scratched his chin. “I am still wrapping my head around the fact you set people up and they pay you for it. It’s...weird.”
She couldn’t take offense. Frequently she thought it was a very odd way to earn money—especially for someone who’d once specialized in international banking and who intended to remain single for the rest of her life. But she was curious as to why he thought her business was weird so she asked him.
Kade rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess it’s because I’ve never had a problem finding dates.’
It was such a common misconception. “Neither do most of my clients. They aren’t looking to date, they are looking to settle down.” She saw him wince and she had to smile. “So I guess you’re not going to be a client anytime soon?”
“Or ever.”
Kade pushed all thoughts of her career out of her head when he lifted his hands to cradle her face. She shivered with a mixture of lust and longing. Her hands drifted across his chest and skimmed his flat, ridged belly.
“I can’t wait to spend some time with you.” He bent to kiss the sensitive spot between her shoulder and neck. He lifted his head and gave her a hard stare. “Soon, I promise.”
Brodie swallowed in an attempt to put some saliva back into her mouth.
Keeping his hands on her face, Kade twisted his wrist to check the time and softly cursed. “I’ve got to get back to the office, I am so late.” The pad of his thumb brushed her bottom lip. “Please don’t talk yourself out of this, Brodie.”
She wanted to protest, wanted to reassure him, but she didn’t. “See you.”
Kade nodded abruptly, dropped a hard, openmouthed kiss on her lips, then whipped around and headed back to the restaurant.
“You’d better make it very soon, Kade Webb.”
* * *
She’d run ten kilometers and had a cold shower, and despite it being four hours later, she could still taste Kade on her lips. Her lady parts were buzzing; her heart