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“I can’t believe you’re here,” she murmured, her hands wrapping around his powerful biceps as if she needed solid proof that he wasn’t a figment of her imagination. “Why are you here?”
“I missed you.”
She blinked, her mind quickly calculating the hours. “But it has only been—”
His mouth claimed hers, momentarily silencing the internal calculations.
Brody drew back, his forehead touching hers. “I missed you, Kat.”
“So you flew across the country?” The disbelief seeped back in as the shock faded. “Just to see me? How long are you staying?”
Lowering his mouth, he glided his tongue over her, tasting her. “I don’t know yet. A few nights. I couldn’t escape the thought of you here alone.”
Her body stiffened, her back pressing against the door. “You flew across the country to save me from being lonely?”
Brody stepped back, offering space as if he could sense her old fears rushing in from all sides. But he kept his gaze fixed on hers. “After you left, I got called out to rescue a hiker with a sprained ankle. The entire time I was out there doing the work I love, carrying that woman down the trail, I thought of you.”
Kat crossed her arms in front of her chest, wishing she’d told the doorman to keep Brody downstairs while she put on pants. She wanted to tell him that she hadn’t been wallowing in loneliness. But that would be a lie.
“You don’t need to save me, Brody.” And that was the truth. She would have found a way through on her own. She always did.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I didn’t drop everything and race to the airport as soon as the hiker was on her way to the hospital because I thought you needed someone. I came because I love you, Kat. And I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to you.”
You’re here. Kat pressed her lips together. She wished she could say that was enoug
h. But she’d spent years building her defenses. Even if she wanted to let him in, even if she wanted to love him, she couldn’t tear the walls down just like that.
“I’m glad you came,” she said, lowering her arms and taking a step back.
Brody smiled. “Straight from one helluva long hike. I drew a few stares when I landed in New York wearing muddy work boots and dirty jeans.”
She let out a laugh, allowing the weighed emotions, the ones that pushed her toward panic and a flashing, neon exit sign, to fade into the background. For now. “It wasn’t your boots, Brody. It’s you. But before I take you out and show you the sights, I know just what you need.”
He closed the space between them, placing one hand on either side of her head. “Tell me.”
“Right now I’m picturing you in my shower, water rushing down your back as I wash every inch of you.” Kat ducked under his arm and headed for the hall. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled back at him. “Does that line up with you mental image?”
“No, Kat,” he said, his voice a low growl. “It’s better.”
BRODY TRIED NEVER to make the same mistake twice. And walking away from a naked woman he’d fallen in love with, a second time, was flat out dumb. He had a plan to prove his feelings for her. As far as he was concerned, it started here, in her shower.
Stripping off his clothes and dropping them beside the panties and shirt she’d abandoned the minute they’d walked into the bathroom, Brody pulled aside the curtain. Little Miss Perfect stood under the shower’s warm spray, her head tipped back. Long wet blond hair ran down her back. Her hands moved over her body leaving a trail of bubbles over her breasts. The blood abandoned his brain, racing to his lower body. But he remembered his questions.
“Before I get in, I need to know your favorite color,” he said.
Kat stepped out from under the water and wiped her eyes, blinking them open. Her gaze roamed over his naked body, her lips curling up in a soft smile.
Keep looking, Kat. I’m yours, today, tomorrow, and the day after that.
“Pink,” she said, her voice teasing his senses, tempting him to reach out and touch her.
Brody climbed in, drawing the shower curtain closed behind him. Wrapping his arms around her, he backed her up against the shower’s marble wall, the water rushing over them. He pressed one leg between hers, pinning her in place.
“What about my favorite food?” she asked, her hands moving over his back, drifting up to his shoulders.
“That can wait.”
He captured her lips, kissing her, exploring her mouth until she arched. She pressed her breasts against him as if she needed to feel her body against his. Her hands moved to his hair, grabbing on as if she might fight for control. Holding her against the shower wall with his body, careful not to push her against the hot and cold knobs, he wrapped his hands around her wrists and drew them away.
