Make It a Double

Page 12

  “I want to kiss you,” she says, her eyes going to my lips again.

  “Not a good idea,” I warn her, but I make no move to pull back.

  “Why?” she asks, genuinely curious.

  “Because you’re drunk,” I remind her.

  “Not drunk. Buzzed. ”

  “Fine. Buzzed. Inhibitions lowered. ” All the argument I need.

  “I’d still want to kiss you even without the alcohol,” she says firmly, lowering her thumb to graze along my bottom lip. “And I’m thinking the fact you haven’t pulled away yet, means you want to kiss me too. ”

  Fuck, but this woman has my insides twisted. I want her to kiss me, but I don’t. I want to f**k her hard and all night, but I can’t. I want her to tell me other things she sees about me, but I’m afraid of what I might hear.

  “Come on, Brody. What do you have to lose? Worst-case scenario, it’s terrible and we’ll both laugh about it tomorrow. ”

  Truly? We can kiss, I can get her out of my system, and we can laugh about it tomorrow? Now the idea suddenly has merit, even though Brody Markham doesn’t really laugh.

  Before I can even give it another thought, I lean all the way in, bringing my mouth down on hers. It’s not hard, but it’s not soft.

  It is assured.

  Assured because despite all the doubts I have raging through me, I am assured that this kiss is going to be f**king awesome.

  Alyssa is slightly surprised by my move, but after her initial flinch, both of her arms wrap around my neck and she opens up fully underneath me. My tongue starts to slide in her mouth and it’s met by hers, waiting to welcome me in. There is nothing tentative in our exploration. It’s as if we know that this is our one shot, to make this kiss as good as we can. I guess so we don’t have to laugh too hard tomorrow.

  It’s deep, hot, and it hits me hard in my chest. When Alyssa lets out a low moan across my tongue, a bolt of lust seizes through me and my head swims. In just another moment or so, I’m going to pass the point where I don’t think I can stop so, with an amazing amount of effort, I pull back from her, all the way, until I’m sitting straight in my seat.

  Alyssa blinks hard at me. I take in the way her br**sts are heaving against the low-cut dress, her lips are swollen, and her eyes are glazed with desire. I actually curl my fingers inward, digging my nails in the skin of my palm, so as not to reach out to her again.

  “That wasn’t anything to laugh about,” Alyssa murmurs as she places her fingertips against her lips.

  “Definitely not laughing,” I agree, turning away from her to grab ahold of the steering wheel.

  I start to put the car in drive, but Alyssa’s hand reaches out and touches my forearm. Turning toward her, I see a starry-eyed look on her face.

  “That was amazing,” she says softly.

  “That was a one-time thing,” I say, squashing the stars right out of her eyes.

  “But—” she starts to say, so I dislodge her hand by putting the vehicle in drive and stepping on the gas, a little too forcefully as my car shoots out of the lot and onto the highway.

  “No buts,” I tell her. “Sleep it off tonight, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me in the morning. Now, where do you live?”

  Alyssa gives me directions to her house, and then stares out the window the rest of the way. Like a good girl with common sense, she doesn’t try to argue with me. I take her silence to mean she agrees with me about this.

  Chapter 10

  Alyssa

  I’ll gladly take the pounding headache I woke up with this morning as my penance for kissing Brody.

  And let me say, it was so worth it.

  I was completely buzzed, just as I had told him, and in no way drunk, just to be clear. Yes, my inhibitions were lowered and yes, we would have never kissed had I not been in that exact position at that exact time with that exact amount of alcohol flowing in my veins.

  But holy hell… it was beyond incredible. It couldn’t have lasted longer than ten seconds, but they were ten incomparable seconds. Ten seconds of sizzling pleasure that left not a doubt in my mind that based on just the way he kissed, Brody would make a phenomenal lover.

  Now, why I’m thinking along those lines is beyond me. Brody made it clear that it was a one-time kiss, and it wasn’t going to happen again. This saddens me and actually hurts my feelings, because there’s nothing flattering at all about a man telling you that little tidbit seconds after curling your toes with a kiss.

  Either the kiss was really, really bad to Brody, or he just really doesn’t like me.

  Either way, it sucks for me.

  However, with all that said, I’m not going to let that get me down. I have too much happening in my life to let a tiny crush I might have on a hot ex-con get me diverted. So, after downing two aspirin and three cups of coffee, I make my way to The Haven because the work is not going to get done unless I do it.

  Grabbing my phone and keys, I head out the door. As I walk to my truck, I turn my phone on and check for messages. I’m not happy to see a slew of texts from Chad, all sent late last night. It’s more of the same “I miss you, baby” and “We can make this work” stuff, but one in particular chills me.

  Came by your house. Wondering where you are.

  That text was sent at one AM, and I cannot control the hair that stands up on the back of my neck or the twisting of my stomach into a knot. I tap out a quick text back.

  Don’t contact me again, or I will go to the police for harassment.

  I hope that does the trick but if it doesn’t, Chad is not going to like me pushing back at him. I’ve had enough of his stalker ways, and I have too many other things on my plate to let this take up any of my time or energy.

  With my thoughts still mired in the creepiness of Chad, I get in my truck and take off for The Haven. I have no clue why Chad is even still here in the Outer Banks. He’s like me… from not-so-old money, born and raised in an affluent Connecticut suburb, while his dad toiled away in the financial district earning millions. Chad graduated from Yale with a political science degree but never did anything else with his life other than party and drive fancy cars. He and I had gone out a few times when his family was vacationing here, and he just started spending more and more time down here at his family’s home.

  Why was I dating him?

  Fuck if I know. He was good looking, charming at first, I’d known him forever through our families’ social connections, and I was lonely. While he had no direction in life and was professionally immature, he was active in several philanthropic activities and I respected him for that. He even donated money to The Haven and while we were dating, he helped me out there almost every day. Chad isn’t one of those rich types that minds getting dirty, so there was some appeal to him.

  The relationship started to fall apart when I realized that Chad was never going to be much more than an entitled, playboy millionaire, and that he wanted someone to be his trophy girlfriend who he could show off at parties. He never did quite get that I wasn’t that type of person, becoming possessive and jealous of the time I would spend away from him. He wasn’t happy that I would decline going to fancy parties and expensive dinners. When I finally had to tell him it was time to part ways, I explained rationally that we just wanted different things in life.

  He took offense to that notion, as evidenced by the fact he put his hand around my throat, backed me into a wall, and threatened me. The hard squeezing motion that cut off my air supply had me seeing stars, but he immediately released me in a flurry of apologies and self-loathing. I didn’t accept either and left, officially ending our relationship.

  Chad, unfortunately, refuses to accept we are at an end. At first, I thought maybe he was just stubborn, maybe a little over-infatuated. But he’s no dummy… he has to know he’s crossing some creepy lines. Therefore, that leads me to believe that there may be a mental issue involved, which frankly scares me. <
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  If he contacts me again, I know I’ll need to involve the police and I should probably talk to my friend, Wyatt Banks, who is a detective on the local police force in Nags Head. He’ll be able to tell me the best course of action.

  It’s almost eight AM when I pull into The Haven, almost two hours later than when I normally get in.

  Hangovers suck.

  I’m surprised to see Brody’s car there and when I pull around back, he’s casually leaning against the door that leads into the main kennel. He pushes away from it as I kill my engine and get out of the truck. Even though I feel like crap from my hangover, I can’t help the quickening of my pulse and flutter in my belly when I see him, the memory of our kiss last night returning to me vividly. It’s not fair that someone should be so handsome that they cause physical reactions in other people.

  “How long have you been here?” I ask as I head toward the door to unlock it.

  “A while now. I’m an early riser. ”

  “You didn’t get to bed until past three AM though,” I remind him, wondering if this is the point where we are able to laugh about our kiss.

  “What can I say? I have an internal clock set to five AM. ”

  I unlock the door and push it open. Turning to Brody, I say, “That’s not a lot of sleep. Maybe you should head home. I can handle everything today. ”

  “I don’t mind,” Brody says gruffly as he steps past me into the kennel. “Got to get my service hours in. Although, you should give me a key… I could have at least started feeding the animals. ”

  Following behind him, I tuck my keys back into my jeans pocket. “That’s a good idea. I’ve got a spare in my office I’ll get for you. ”

  “Great,” he says, and it doesn’t escape my notice that his voice is a little aloof.

  Yeah, we’re definitely not going to be laughing about that awkward moment of a kiss we had.

  “Listen, why don’t you get started clearing the brush out on the other side of the barn I showed you yesterday? I’ll handle the animals. ”

  Brody stares at me just a moment, like he’s trying to figure out something about me. I try not to blink or look away, wondering if he’ll reveal his thoughts. Then he just says, “Sure thing, boss. ”

  He turns away quickly, heading back out the door.

  I busy myself the rest of the morning doing my normal slew of duties. Feed and water the dogs and cats, clean their cages, let the socialized dogs do group play, take the unsocialized dogs on leash walks, order supplies, field phone calls from other rescue organizations and city shelters seeking to transfer an animal that is set to be euthanized, culling through adoption applications, coordinating medical care with volunteer vets, and those are only the top priorities of the day. I still have to get some bills paid and do my monthly bank reconciliations, but I’ll save that for later this afternoon.

  For now, it’s driving me nuts this thing between Brody and me. It’s a thing, right? I mean, we kissed. He said it was one time only, yet I’m obsessing about it, because it was so freaking good. He acts completely unmoved, yet I know last night… for those ten unbelievable seconds… he was all in. He was enjoying it as much as I was.

  I can’t stand it anymore and I want to either get the awkward laugh out of the way, or see if I can induce him to kiss me again. Worst-case scenario… he confirms he hated it, and it’s not going to happen again.

  Grabbing two bottles of water from my office fridge, I head out toward the barn, striding with purpose. The mid-morning sun is riding high, and it’s going to be a scorcher today. I can already feel a trickle of sweat roll down in between my br**sts from the muggy heat.

  As I round the southwest corner of the barn, I come to a stop with my breath caught in my throat. The image of Brody is almost too much to behold. He’s taken his shirt off, revealing a body that I only guessed might have existed under his clothing. Sharp, defined muscles slash across his arms, his shoulders… holy hell, his stomach is washboard cut. Shorts ride low on his hips, showing a peek of the waistband of his underwear and the v-shaped muscles at the bottom of his torso, which tauntingly point down to something that is surely just as wondrous under his fly.