“I had plenty of faith,” he replied with a smile.

“Liar.” Charlene straightened from the desk. “You were scared.”

Rightfully so. He still wasn’t ready to count his chickens before they hatched.

“I’m going to quote this for our website,” she muttered after snatching the review back up. “By the way, Avery and another lady from the youth center are here. What’s this about a catering job?”

Brody swiveled back and forth in his chair. “Avery’s organizing a fundraiser for the youth center. She mentioned she was having a hard time finding a caterer with suitable food.”

Charlene’s eyebrows shot up her forehead in surprise. “So you volunteered the Golden Glove to feed that many people? You think Anthony can handle that kind of volume?”

“This could be a perfect opportunity to show the town we’re better than what we were. And yeah, I think Anthony can handle it. He’s got a good support staff in the kitchen.”

Charlene stared at him for a moment, then glanced down at the review in her hands. “You’re the boss,” she said with a shake of her head.

“You don’t think it’ll work?” It wasn’t like Charlene to be doubtful.

She lifted her attention back to him. “Have you told your father yet?” she asked, ignoring his question.

He paused before answering. A cloud of uncertainty hovered over her, as though she didn’t agree with his decision. “I’ll deal with him when the time comes.”

“If anyone can calm your father down, it’s you. Oh, when’s the photo shoot been rescheduled for?”

“Elisa’s coming back next Friday.” And the thought of having her here again, of having any sort of excuse to see her, had his heart jackhammering against his ribs.

Charlene nodded and opened the door, then halted before going through. “Are you coming? Avery’s waiting.”


It was only four in the afternoon and Elisa was already ready for bed. At seven a.m. she’d been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at a nearby bakery to snap pictures for their brochure. The whole thing had taken about three hours. Then she’d had to make a trip into Cheyenne to replace about half her supplies, which had barely been covered by the check she’d received from her work that morning. Around lunchtime, she’d gone out to take photos for the sheer pleasure of it. Only there hadn’t been any pleasure in her trip. Her normal iron-clad focus had gone MIA on her and she’d given up after an hour and a half.

On her way home, she’d picked up more dog food for Brinkley and tried coaxing the dog into eating. After that, she’d taken the time to reread her contract with the crooks who’d been stealing from her. The McDermott family lawyer had yet to get back to her on that issue, and her patience was wearing thin. But the damn bundle of papers didn’t make any sense. The clauses had funky language and may as well have been written in Sanskrit. Sometime after three p.m. she’d flung the papers aside in disgust and left her bedroom in a huff. Luckily Tyler hadn’t been there to witness her black mood.

To conclude her last bit of business, Elisa had signed the necessary paperwork for the job in Mongolia and faxed them back to Professor Harper. He’d immediately e-mailed her with a big “thank you” and told her to stay tuned for more instructions. The moment was bittersweet, because it had essentially doomed her relationship with Brody. Strangely enough, she felt as though she’d just lost a piece of herself. But if she didn’t take this opportunity, she knew she’d regret it for the rest of her life. She owed it to herself to see if this trip would spiral into anything more. She’d worked too damn hard to let another offer pass her by.

If that meant walking away from Brody, however heart-wrenching, then so be it.

His earlier brush-off was like a rusty knife in her gut, then twisting it nice and deep. All day she’d racked her brain, trying to think what she’d done or what had happened that she’d missed. The only thing she kept coming back to was their brief conversation about Kelly after their shower.

Was it such a sensitive subject that it would cause him to shut down like that? Elisa thought after making love, they’d be at a point where they could share things like that with each other. Maybe that was just a woman thing and men viewed intimacy differently.

Or maybe there was no real issue at all. Maybe the sex had taken the excitement away and Brody simply wasn’t interested in her like that anymore. The polite “hellos” and chaste kisses on the cheek would certainly point in that direction. Every time she saw him, her pulse went up to unnatural speeds and a funny thing happened in the pit of her stomach, almost like her heart had dropped down to it. Was it possible Brody didn’t have the same reaction to her anymore?

Or the more reasonable explanation—Brody knew she was leaving anyway, so why let himself get close? That would be the smart thing to do. So, why did that create an ache in her chest?

He’d called her that morning to tell her he was taking the day off of work, so she wouldn’t see him until tomorrow. According to Tyler, Kelly was supposed to come home next week. Then she and Brody would have no reason to see each other. Maybe all they’d had was a fling and she needed to accept it as such.

The idea created a sick feeling in her stomach.

She’d just picked up her phone to make an appointment with the vet to have Brinkley examined when her doorbell rang. Elisa set the phone back on its base and went to answer the door.

Brody stood on her front porch, his hypnotic eyes hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. Elisa tried to squash down her reaction to him, which was the same as it always was: her cursed stomach turning over on itself.

Beside Brody, Tyler beamed up at her as though she was the best thing he’d seen all day.

“H-hi,” she stammered after finding her tongue.

Tyler launched himself at her and wrapped his skinny arms around her waist. He squeezed so hard, Elisa feared he would crush her ribs. He lifted his head and pinned her with his green eyes. “We came to see Brinkley.”

“Oh,” Elisa responded, slightly deflated that Brody hadn’t come to see her. She stepped back from the boy and led the two of them into the house. Brody still hadn’t said a word to her. “Well, I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you. You really made an impact on him.”

“I missed him.” Tyler bounded on excited feet to where the mutt had draped himself across her carpet. “Mom says we can’t have him but Dad said he’d think about it.”

Elisa risked a glance at him. The sunglasses once covering his eyes were hooked in the front pockets of his jeans. “Well, thinking about it is better than a no,” she said.

One corner of his mouth kicked up in an almost grin.

Oh Lord, his silence was killing her!

“Can I take him for a walk?” Tyler asked from behind them.

Elisa managed to tear her attention away from Brody’s penetrating, borderline-scorching stare and glanced at Tyler. The boy had found the purple leash she’d bought for Brinkley.

“If it’s okay with your dad,” she replied, and risked another peek at him.

If he stared at her any harder, she would melt into a pathetic puddle of hormones right at his feet.

“Go ahead” were the first words out of Brody’s mouth since walking through the door. “Just watch for cars.”

“Sweet!” Tyler looped the leash through the dog’s collar and managed to coax the animal to his feet. Brinkley hobbled to the front door, eventually following Tyler outside.

Oh, good. Now she and Brody were alone. Just the two of them in her empty house. Near the couch where he’d given her the most exquisite orgasm of the century. Completely and utterly alone.

Hadn’t she just been wishing for a moment like this? Now she wanted to crawl out of her skin.

She faced him, took a deep breath, and gave him a piece of her mind. “Look, I don’t know what your problem has been, and I can’t figure out what the heck I did, but you’ve been downright frigid with me. Quite frankly, I don’t like it—”

Her rant was cut off by his hand curling around her neck and his lips molding to hers.

FOURTEEN

ELISA WAS TOO STUNNED TO move. At the same time, Brody’s mouth felt too divine for her to pull away. She wanted this. She wanted him.

His tongue immediately invaded her mouth, swirling around hers in that sensual way of his, as if he’d taken kissing classes and graduated in the top of his class. The kiss was enough to send her comatose, but coupled with his spicy aftershave… what a lethal combination.

He changed the angle without so much as slowing down. His mouth slanted over hers, massaging her lips and threatening to make her black out. Each night her dreams were filled with this, of him kissing her and eventually peeling her clothes off one article at a time. The hand on the back of her neck tightened and his other arm snaked around her waist. The move brought her in full body contact with him, from his thick chest to his feet moving on either side of hers.

Elisa lost her balance and swayed slightly. Brody’s arm tightened on her back, keeping her in contact with him. The floor beneath her feet tilted. Was the room spinning? Good grief, she didn’t even know where she was.

She threaded her fingers through the downy softness of his hair. The strands were short and neatly combed, and she had every intention of messing them up.

His lips left her mouth and she groaned at the loss of contact. They trailed down her jaw and continued on to her throat. He mixed soft kisses with little love bites, allowing his teeth to just barely nick the skin. When he came to her ear, she gasped. His breath was warm and his tongue wet. He used the latter and ran a trail down the column of her throat to her collarbone. Then he came back up again, nipping the soft skin beneath her ear. Elisa tilted her head to the side, letting him know that he could spend as much time there as he wanted. She didn’t want him to leave—ever.