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She could lie to herself so incredibly well. A true talent.
“I drove by and saw your car out front. Your car is the only one in the lot.”
There was a note of censure in his voice. As usual. There was an exceedingly long list of things in her life that Brady frowned upon. Like when she’d been sixteen and he’d thought her homecoming dress was too short and too tight and he’dloudlyproclaimed his opinion to everyone who would listen. Or like his opinion on her last four boyfriends—he’d definitely frowned upon them. Four perfectly nice men that Brady had deemed to be losers. Or like her car. Her precious, precious convertible. Brady said the car was a death trap.
The man made his living fighting in war zones.And he wanted to talk to her about death traps?
“You went somewhere,” Brady murmured. “And you left me behind. Want to come back?”
She’d zoned out, just because she was thinking of all the ways he disapproved of her. And because she wasn’t quite in control of herself, Noelle blurted, “You’re the one who left me.”Oh, damn.This night could not get worse.
But, her statement had been the truth. Brady had been the one to leave. To walk away and vanish on his top secret missions and not look back. Meanwhile, she’d spent far too much time looking for him to come home.
Not ever again.Those days were done. She’d moved on. “Put me down,” Noelle ordered.
His head angled to the right. “If that’s what you want.”
Hadn’t she just said it was what she wanted?
“But I can’t let you cut those cute toes.” He carried her a few feet and then eased her down his body. Slowly. As in…inch by inch until he’d put her on the edge of the big desk that waited in the reception area. “You stay here, and I’ll get your shoes for you.”
Fine. She’d stay seated on the desk, her legs swinging a little, because there was a ton of broken glass on the floor. The area was such a mess. So much for having a beautiful tree ready for everyone.
I’ll just fix it. I’ll clean everything up. I’ll get new ornaments and lights and the tree will be great.
“Here you go.”
She reached for the high heels.
But…Brady was reaching for her right foot. His fingers closed around her ankle, and she almost yelped—almost, thankfully and not an actual yelp because how undignified would that have been?—as he slid the shoe on her foot.
“You’ve got the cutest damn toes,” he muttered.
“I had no idea you had a foot fetish.” She also had no idea why his fingers sent a stroke of electricity through her when he was just touching herankle.Clearly, she needed to get out more. Date more. Have more sex. Because she should not be getting turned on from a man just touching her ankle. Someone was hard up.That someone is me.
“Don’t have a foot fetish.” Brady slid the second shoe into place. “Just have a Noelle fetish.”
Her breath caught. “That’s not funny.”
“Again, am I laughing?”
No, he wasn’t, but he was clearly playing some game. Her chin notched up. “How did you get inside?” She’d been sure she locked the door. Sure because she’d triple checked the locks. Part of her new routine now that things in her life had altered.
Because I’m scared.
“I have a key,” Brady informed her. “Your brother gave it to me.”
“What?” Elliott had better not have—
“He wanted me to take a look at security while I was in town for the holidays, so he gave me an all-access pass to the building.”
She got a super bad feeling in her gut. Noelle wanted to hop off the desk, but there was a six-foot-four, two-hundred-pound male in her path. Very close in her path. So close that he seemed to cage her. “Why would Elliott be so concerned about security?” Her voice had notched a little too high.
Brady leaned toward her. His hands flattened on either side of her body, pressing to the wood of the desk. “Oh, I don’t know…”
Good. That’s good. Because you don’t need to—
“Maybe it has to do with the fact that you were almost attacked less than a week ago?” Anger burned in his voice and glittered in his eyes. Icy blue eyes. Whenever Brady got mad, his eyes always seemed to go extra cold.
