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Smiling, he took her hand, pulling the bandanna free from her grip. With every touch, her breasts begged to be next, followed by all the parts of her body he planned to cover in whip cream.
“Before we get to dessert, I’m buying you dinner. There is a bistro here called A Taste of Paris that I think you’ll like.” Cupping her cheek with one hand, he leaned over and stole a brief kiss. “I’m going to feed you before I tie you to the bedposts.”
“OK,” she murmured. The sexual need lingered, outpacing hunger. But his tone didn’t leave room for argument. One hand on the car door, she glanced back at him. “Independence Falls, the people there, they don’t have a clue about your wild, dirty mouth, do they?”
“No.” His deep brown eyes stared into hers. “Only you, Kat. I’m only wild with you.”
Chapter 12
BRODY SCANNED THE menu, but it might as well have been written in French. The only thing he wanted was sitting beside him, using every excuse to touch him. A hand on his arm. Her thigh brushing up against his as she accidentally slid too far into the booth.
“Do I need to tie you up for dinner?” he murmured.
“Are you planning to feed me? One french fry at a time?” she teased, leaning close, her shoulder touching his.
“I might.” He looked at her over the top of his menu. Her eyes sparkled as her hand moved to his thigh. Brody sucked a deep breath. Here, in the corner booth of the upscale restaurant, she looked like Kat, the supposed ER doctor he’d met in the airport hotel—daring, welcoming, and intriguing as hell. He realized that she was at home in a room peopled with strangers.
Or she was still turned on from the ride over.
His jaw tightened and he set the menu aside. Blindfolding a woman in the parking lot behind the pizza place, and opening the door to the way he wanted her, what the heck was he thinking?
It was the look in her eyes when Delilah talked about Harvard as if the fancy school had handed Kat the keys to the kingdom. But he could connect the dots. The little girl who’d tried to find a family at the Falls Hotel holding her science project as proof she deserved a home, that kid didn’t show up at an Ivy League school and wait for handouts. She’d fought her way to the top alone. She’d struggled, adapted, and changed.
And he was goddamn crazy about the woman she’d become. He’d blindfolded her and stolen her away from his hometown to remind her who she was now—a beautiful, sexy, smart woman who didn’t need anyone feeling sorry for her.
“Do you feel at home in New York?” he asked after the waiter left with their order.
“Depends on how you define home.”
Kat took a sip of her white wine, drawing his attention to her full lips. On the drive over, he’d stolen glances at her mouth. He’d been tempted to pull over and kiss her. Her lips were like a beacon, calling to his from below the blindfold.
“I feel alive there. And I love the diversity. People from all over the world meeting in one place. They all have different stories, but the focus always seems to be on the now,” she said.
“Your friends in New York look at you and see a doctor and the rest falls away.” Logically, he understood, but the thought of cutting ties with the past felt foreign to him.
“Yes.” She smiled. “Have you ever been? To the city?”
He raised an eyebrow. “There’s more than one city.”
“Not when you live in New York.” Her calf brushed his under the table. It was too damn bad she’d traded in her short skirt for a pair of blue jeans.
“No, I’ve never been to the East Coast. My mother caught the travel bug when we were kids. Claimed she couldn’t stay in one place.”
“She just walked out? On all of you? I knew you lived with your dad in high school, but I didn’t know your mom abandoned you.”
“Yeah, she just up and left one day. After my dad got out of the army. When my sister was still little.”
“There wasn’t anyone else? A reason?”
“It wasn’t my place to ask. My dad was a mess and he needed help. I pitched in with the laundry, made sure everyone got to school, and my dad, well, he took over the trucking company, working alongside my grandfather.”
“Did you ever try to find her?” Kat asked, her wineglass poised at her lips.
“No.” One word offered without a hint of regret.
“I can’t imagine having family out there and not reaching out to them.”
He knew his mother’s abrupt departure from their lives left a lingering wound, more so for his siblings. But for him it was over and done. His job was to make damn sure Chad, Katie, and Josh never felt the pain of someone they loved giving up on them and letting them down again.
