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Chapter 13
Brody stood on the porch, his hand raised as he watched Lainey and Phoebe drive away. After dropping the girl off at the library to work with her friend Ashley on her backlog of homework, Lainey was heading to her house to clean up the mess her intruder had left behind.
As Lainey’s car slowed at the gate, then drove through and disappeared in the direction of Helena, Brody returned to the house, irritation and pride making him slam the door harder than necessary. He’d wanted to go with Lainey to help her clean up her house, but she’d declined. Firmly.
“It’s a Saturday morning,” she’d said. “Not the middle of the night. People in my neighborhood will be doing chores. Working in their yards. They’ll be around. My prowler won’t show his face. I’ll be perfectly safe. And I know you have things to do here.”
He did, but that wasn’t the point. He wanted to go with Lainey, just in case she ran into trouble.
Or even if she didn’t. He wanted to spend his time with Lainey, instead of spending Saturday morning reviewing receipts and ordering feed for the next two weeks.
And that was a problem.
She was messing with his mind. Distracting him from his business. He’d spent far too much time daydreaming about their sexy encounter in the living room a couple of days ago. Hoping to repeat it.
But Lainey had gone out of her way to avoid being alone with him.
He understood -- she wasn’t ready for more. After she’d come in his lap as he’d swallowed her sexy cries, he’d seen the shock in her expression when she recovered. The realization that she’d gone much farther than she’d intended.
It was probably the reason she’d been creative with reasons to avoid him. They both knew that if they were alone, they’d be tempted to take more.
Sighing, he closed his eyes. Tilted his head back. Then forced his attention to the paperwork that was a constant deluge. He’d neglected it for a few days, and it had already begun piling up.
He shoved away from his desk and walked into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee. Then he settled down at his desk and forced thoughts of Lainey out of his head. Stared at his feed order, blinked, and began to write.
Two hours later, Brody heard a car approach the house. He tensed until he recognized the sound of Lainey’s car. Exactly the distraction he needed.
Tossing his pencil onto his desk, he stood and hurried to the porch. Lainey was stepping out of her car, and she looked over at him. Smiled, but he could see the strain.
“What happened?” he called, stepping onto the driveway and hurrying over to her. He grabbed her hands and held them tightly in his. “What’s wrong?”
She stared up at him, and for a moment he saw longing in her expression. Desire in her eyes. Then she squeezed his hands and let him go. “Nothing’s wrong,” she finally said. “Just a long couple of hours.”
“Want to tell me about it over lunch?” He gestured toward the house. “Vi told me there was leftover pizza.”
“Sounds great,” she said. “I didn’t take time to eat in town. I was in a hurry to…” She stopped abruptly.
“In a hurry to what, Lainey?” he asked, lowering his voice. It sounded far too intimate, too needy, and he cursed himself.
That was exactly what Lainey didn’t want.
“To get back to… to the ranch,” she said, after stumbling on the words.
He hoped she meant she was in a hurry to get back to him. But he wasn’t going to ask. Better to imagine that’s what she’d meant, than to ask and make her uncomfortable. “I’m glad you did,” he said instead. “Wasn’t looking forward to lunch by myself.”
“Really?” She narrowed her eyes at him, and it was easy to read her skepticism. “You’re constantly surrounded by people. And you weren’t savoring a couple of hours by yourself? I sure would be.”
He opened the door and ushered her inside, then slid his fingers between hers as he steered her toward the kitchen. “I did enjoy the quiet, but it would have been more fun with you here to enjoy it with me.”
Lainey sucked in a breath, but she didn’t tug her hand away from him. “Well, I’m here now,” she said, her voice low and sexy in the quiet house. “So let’s have some pizza while you tell me what you did this morning.”
Brody reached into the refrigerator and pulled out the two pizzas that Vi had wrapped up. “Pepperoni or veggie?” he asked.
“Veggie for me. Just a couple of slices, please.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “I stopped at the Sweet Spot and got coffee and a muffin after I dropped Phoebe at the library.”
Brody lifted one eyebrow as he tried to control his grin. “Looking for some gossip about me?”
“I don’t gossip,” she said, although her cheeks stained pink. He wanted to kiss those hot cheeks and whisper that she didn’t need to pay attention to the gossip. That the only woman he was interested in was standing in front of him.
