“We’re on our honeymoon. Honeymooners like to do it in every room.” He accompanied this with an extremely husband-to-wife look that made her knees wobble.
Pretend. They were pretending to be on their honeymoon.
They didn’t run into anyone, for which she was grateful, but they did find the workroom locked.
Maddie pulled a set of keys from her pocket.
Brody just stared at her. “How did-”
“Stole them from Rick’s office. I know. I’m going straight to hell.”
“Are you kidding?” He pressed his mouth to her temple. “You’re an angel.”
Well, that was a new one. She’d been called many things, but an angel? Never, and it seemed that every minute that they were together was only making it all the harder to remember that they had a good-bye coming, a big one.
The far wall of the workshop housed a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit filled with things that had given Leena inspiration over the years: books, boxes of cosmetic jewelry, stacks of pictures…
“Your sister’s a pack rat.” Brody came up behind her, his hands settling on her waist. “You doing okay?”
She nodded even though she wasn’t, not by a long shot.
He rubbed his jaw to hers. “You’re not breathing again.”
No. Not breathing. There wasn’t time for breathing. Knowing it, she dropped her forehead to a shelf and absorbed the feeling of him pressing up against her from behind.
That was nice, very nice, but she still wasn’t going to breathe easy until she got them both out of here-
A sound came from the other side of the door, and she jerked upright. “Did you hear that?”
Behind her, Brody went still as stone. “Shh,” he breathed softly.
It came again.
Oh, God.
There was no lock on their side of that door, so they hadn’t been able to generate privacy for this little B &E mission, but Maddie had her own wits for protection, not to mention the knife in her boot and the gun she’d taken from her purse and stuck in her waistband.
They were a second away from being discovered, which was a hell of a time to realize that Brody’s brilliant idea of saying that they’d taken the honeymoon mobile didn’t seem too brilliant.
Not when they were both still fully dressed. “Your shirt,” she hissed. “Give me your shirt!”
While he tugged it over his head, she yanked on the sleeve of her own shirt, revealing a bare shoulder and nearly a breast in her haste to make it look like they were in the throes of passion.
That was as far as she got before the door handle slowly turned.
Chapter 23
Too late for panic, Maddie knew, painfully aware of the door creaking open. With her life passing before her eyes, and Brody’s, too, with his hard thighs pressed to the backs of hers, she struggled to look turned on, completely in the moment, because that’s what honeymooners did, right? They had wild animal sex everywhere, never in a bed, so it should seem rational that they’d be down here at her workstation, jumping each other’s bones.
Or so she hoped.
All they had to do was make it look good, real good. Turning her head, she sought Brody’s mouth with hers, sliding her tongue into his open mouth, absorbing his murmur of surprise while arching back against him, rocking her bottom to his crotch.
As the door opened, Brody’s hands dropped from his waist to her hips, squeezing gently before one hand slid to her belly, his fingertips spread so wide they nearly touched the undersides of her breasts.
Not good enough because someone was watching, maybe trying to decide if they should be brought to Rick…
“Here,” she panted, trying to sound sexy in her panic, but sounding more like a porno queen, and a bad one at that. She arched her throat so that the back of her head was cushioned in the meat of his shoulder. The movement arched her back, too, filling his hand with her breast as she ground her bottom into his crotch. “Yeah, oh yeah, just like that…Brody, baby, tell me you have a condom in your pocket.”
Voice low and husky, he nipped at her jaw. “For you, baby, I’ve got anything you want.”
Acting. They were acting. Trying to prove they were so hot for each other that they’d left her bedroom to make it somewhere else, maybe a whole bunch of somewhere elses, just because they could. She knew it, so why did her nipples harden? “This room makes what?” she asked breathlessly. “Room number three?”
“Don’t forget the bathroom.”
Where they hadn’t been acting…“Right. Four. You’re such a stud.”
The sound he made might have been a snort. Turning her head, she nipped his jaw. Don’t make me laugh.
His hands tightened on her. “Maybe the kitchen next,” he murmured. “There are utensils in there for all sorts of things, especially bad girls like yourself.”
Funny. Wasn’t he so funny?
Were they still being watched? She didn’t dare look. “You don’t need utensils. You’ve got all I need, baby.”
“Do I now?”
“Yeah.” And he had all she could ever need now.
His gaze slid briefly to the door, then back to her, filled with such fierce protection and anger that she knew that yeah, they were still being watched. Worse, she knew that if anyone caught that look on his face, they’d know he was capable of being a huge threat, so she hooked an arm around his neck and tugged his face down to hers, taking his mouth with hers to keep his expression hidden.
Anything to keep him safe, even if it meant kissing him, and kissing him…which of course, was no sacrifice at all because man, the guy could kiss…long and deep and hot, and the feel of his tongue dancing to hers was making her wish they were alone, back at her place or anywhere other than here.
How long could they do this? And what would happen if they stopped? Not willing to take the chance, she let the show go on. The Brody and Leena Show. “Here,” she whispered huskily-a tone she didn’t have to fake-and bent forward over the desk, shooting him a come-get-me smile over her shoulder, using the excuse to peek at the door.
Yeah. Still a big, beefy shadow standing there.
Eyes smoldering with temper, and also a heat that stirred her up pretty good, Brody wrapped himself around her, using his free hand to swipe the desk free of the tools in front of her. They clattered to the floor, and as a gesture, even a pretend gesture, it made her knees weak. If only they didn’t have an audience. If only he could unzip his pants, pull down hers, and push into her-
God. It definitely was no hardship pretending to be lost in the throes. Brody had kept her completely covered, but opening his mouth over hers, he let his thumb come up and over her nipple, back and forth.
God, she wanted this to be real. Needed it to be real. “Brody-I can’t stand.” To prove it, her knees buckled.
He slid down to the floor with her, out of sight of the door. Heart pounding in her ears from adrenaline, fear, and a lot more, she gripped onto him and put her mouth to his. “Are we alone?”
He took a peek. “Yeah.” Sinking all the way to the ground, he leaned against a leg of the desk. “Jesus,” he breathed and then again, more softly, shoving his hair back with hands that weren’t quite steady. “Stud?”
“Utensils?”
He managed a smile, but it was fleeting.
Her hands weren’t any steadier than his as she righted her clothes, her body still hot and sweaty and definitely on overdrive. “That was close. And I’m all hot and bothered. I need another shower.”
“Too bad. You’re not taking one until we’re out of this fucking Alice in Wonderland nightmare.”
And once they were, she’d be busy finding her sister. Following the grand Plan.
He was watching her carefully. “What?”
“Nothing.”
