Strong And Sexy

Brody came down the hall, commandeered Shayne’s soda, and drank deeply.

“Hey.”

He slapped the now-empty soda can back to the counter. “What are you girls gossiping about?”

Shayne searched his pockets for more change, but came up empty. “Damn it, Brod.”

Noah put a hand on Shayne’s shoulder. “We’re discussing why the laid-back surfer dude is as uptight as a guy who hasn’t gotten off in a year.”

“He got laid last night.” Brody eyeballed Shayne. “So that means…huh.”

“What huh?” Noah asked curiously, eyeing Shayne like a bug on a slide.

“He must have gotten dumped. Again. Jesus, you’re on a roll, huh?”

“I did not get dumped again,” Shayne said, shoving free of Noah and glaring at Brody. “Go buy me a fucking soda.”

“Yeah, he got dumped again,” Noah said, nodding. “Was it the crazy chick?”

“She’s not crazy.”

“Yeah, it was the crazy chick,” Brody decided, watching Shayne carefully. “Go figure.”

Damn it. So he’d spent most of his life fighting off women and wasn’t used to having to talk a woman into wanting him. Whatever. He’d live.

Maddie came out of the storage room wearing a leather miniskirt and two lace tops layered over each other, looking sizzling hot. She moved around the counter to sit in her chair, pulling out her keyboard, her fingers typing away.

Sizzling and effective.

“Don’t you boys have work to do?” she asked without looking up from her work. “Planes to fly? Clients to kiss up to?”

When they didn’t answer, she did glance up.

“Don’t you ever dress like a secretary?” Brody asked.

Maddie arched a brow while Noah and Shayne inwardly winced. “No need, since I’m not a secretary,” she said with glaciers in her voice.

“Shayne got dumped,” Noah said, clearly trying to change the subject so Maddie didn’t kill Brody with her eyes.

“Can’t get dumped when you weren’t available in the first place,” Maddie noted, and when all three men blinked in confused unison, she sighed as if they were idiots. “Look, Shayne was never really available to her, right? He’s never been available to any woman.”

“And why is that?” Noah asked. “Seeing as you’re the resident female expert?”

Maddie smiled. She liked the title. “Because he’s the screwup.”

“Hey,” Shayne said.

“I mean that’s what you’ve been told all your life.” She stopped typing to squeeze his hand before going back to clicking the keyboard with dizzying speed. “You’re the black sheep, the youngest, the fuckup in a large family of overachievers. You were always told you were never going to amount to anything.” She shrugged. “So you decided to live up to that reputation, yadda yadda.”

“Which is why you got yourself kicked out of all those schools before you met us,” Noah said, ever so helpfully.

“And why you became a pilot instead of a brain surgeon or a big-shot attorney or detective,” Brody added, also ever so helpfully.

Shayne stared at them. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane.”

“Look, long story short,” Maddie went on. “You’re a commitment-phobe, hiding behind the free spirit, easygoing, laid-back bullshit persona.”

“Bullshit persona?”

Maddie smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry, boss. I have a bullshit persona too.” She gestured to her own magenta- tipped blond hair. To her eyebrow piercing. Then, turning her back, she peeled down her already extremely low-rise leather skirt to reveal the small tattoo of a Chinese symbol, high on a first-class ass cheek.

Shayne stared, and Brody slapped him upside the head. “Don’t look!”

“She said to look. And ow.”

Maddie straightened her skirt. “It means dream big. Be whoever you want.” She looked at Shayne. “Even when you’re told you can’t. Don’t let your shortsighted family dictate your life.”

“They aren’t.” But as he stared down at the cell phone in his hand, he shook his head. They were. Unbelievably, he was still letting what they thought of him matter enough to pretend it didn’t bother him.

“See,” Maddie said very gently. “The problem with being the black sheep just to spite them is that when the right woman does come along, you’re not going to be able to snag her up. Because you’ll be busy doing that whole no-commitment thing. You know, to prove that what your family thinks of you is true.”

Noah was nodding. “Exactly. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“You’re all fucked up, man,” Brody said.

“Bite me.”

Noah took Shayne’s cell phone and flipped it open.

“Hey!”

Brody leaned over Noah’s shoulder as they accessed his dialed calls. “Yeah, look at that. He’s tried calling her six times. Dude.”

Shayne snatched his phone back and shoved it in his pocket. “It’s nothing. This is nothing.”

“It’s definitely something,” Noah said. “It’s all over your face.”

Shayne grabbed the schedule. He needed a flight. Now. And perfect, Brody had a flight to San Luis Obispo. It would get him out of here for four hours minimum. “I’m taking your flight.”

“No, you’re not.”

“So maybe she’ll call back while you’re gone,” Noah said.

“No. She’s…working. She’s busy.”

Noah, Brody and Maddie exchanged a look of pity.

“Goddamnit, she is.” Shayne tossed the schedule back to the desk. “That, or…” Hell. “Or she’s in trouble.”

“Trouble, as in…” Brody mimed the action of hanging a noose around his neck and jerking on the end, complete with tongue and eyes bulging out.

Maddie smacked him upside the head. “Don’t you make fun of mental illness.”

Shayne pivoted on a heel and walked away. It was that or kill Noah and Brody, and their investors might balk at that. On the way to the Learjet, he made one more attempt to reach Dani, but couldn’t. “Fuck it,” he said, and whipped around, heading back inside-

Only to plow into Brody.

“You want me to take my flight back,” Brody guessed.

“I’m not taking the easy way out on this one.”

“I can see that.”

“She’s in danger, Brody. And she’s not calling back. That could just be because I’m a stupid prick, but it could also be more.”

“So you’re going to go find her because she might be in danger.”

“No, I’m going because this is the new me. The new me who sticks.”

Brody sighed again. “Go then. Go stick.”

“I will.” But it didn’t escape him that for the first time in his life, he was choosing a woman over a flight.

Dani recorded elephant behavior all day, and afterward, ran into Reena in the employee locker room.

“Saw you’re getting Saturdays off now,” Reena said, changing back to her street clothes. “Doesn’t suck to be head keeper, does it?”

“I could probably get you a few Saturdays off too.”

Reena shut her locker and shook her head. “I don’t want any favors.”

“But-”

“Seriously. Don’t.”

Dani began to change, hating the unaccustomed distance between them. “I have the new Depp DVD. Do you want to-”