Jill Shalvis - Superb And Sexy

“This isn’t about the kiss.”

“No. It’s about me knowing you. And I do know you. Which is why you need to listen. I’m sticking, okay? Until the bitter end. So you might as well start talking.”

Leena stood by herself upstairs, staring down at the picture of her and Maddie as little kids. Back then, they’d been equal in strength.

Then, slowly, she’d somehow let her faults run her life-that’s what had happened. And there’d been many. She’d been weak. Selfish. So damned selfish. Yes, she’d stayed with Rick and done his bidding out of habit, and certainly fear.

Lots of fear.

But if she was being honest, then she had to admit all of it. The lifestyle hadn’t hurt-island fun, the gorgeous house, traveling on Rick’s credit card whenever the fancy struck her…all luxuries she’d never have known otherwise.

But there’d been a price for those luxuries, and not just her self-esteem. She’d somehow managed to compartmentalize the bad, but that particular compartment had broken down. She could no longer ignore the facts. She’d screwed up. Made mistakes.

Bad ones.

She’d let herself be bullied into living a life that she never should have lived, and what made it worse was that she had come here to Maddie, expecting her to be willing to pick up and go with a ten-year-old plan, without thinking about what she’d be asking of her twin.

But she was thinking now.

She’d seen how Maddie looked at Brody. Seen, too, the brief hesitation on Maddie’s face when they’d talked about going away together and starting over. It’d been so brief Leena might have imagined it, but she hadn’t.

Maddie would never say so, but she liked the life she’d made for herself, and she deserved that life. She shouldn’t have to give it up.

And suddenly, she recognized and understood the new emotion inside her. Strength. Because maybe Maddie was right. Maybe she was stronger than she’d thought. And maybe…maybe she could do this all on her own so that Maddie didn’t have to give up her life.

Leena could follow The Plan on her own. It could work. Rick couldn’t do anything to Maddie because one, her sister wasn’t a jewelry designer, and two, if he even thought about getting the authorities involved, he’d be implicating himself.

Yeah, Leena really could vanish on her own. She could vanish and let Maddie live her life.

Maddie would never let her do it, of course. Never. Knowing it, knowing there was no better time than now, she grabbed her bag and then at the last moment, took the photo, too, slipping it into her bag next to her cell phone before quietly heading outside.

Maddie’s lips were still tingling. She didn’t take her eyes off Brody as confusion and heat flowed through her veins instead of blood. So much damn heat…

He’d kissed her.

Holy smokes, he’d nearly kissed her right into a spontaneous orgasm. Her pulse couldn’t seem to recover, nor could the rest of her. Her skin felt too tight, her breathing still labored.

Brody hadn’t taken his eyes off her, either. His own breathing didn’t seem any too steady, and when he spoke, his voice was low and rough, his expression as baffled as she imagined hers was.

“I can’t believe you could kiss me like that,” he said. “With all that tongue and heat, and still not tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I thought that you thought that you were kissing Leena.”

“Yeah, well, you thought wrong.”

Okay, so he wasn’t slow. She knew that. He was a pilot, a man with sharp reflexes and a sharp mind.

But she was sharper.

She’d had to be.

All her life, she’d had to be.

Not Brody. Brody flew planes for a living and hung out with friends for a pastime. On weekends, he played basketball like a pro and gravitated toward big, stupid muscle cars. He was kind to old ladies and dogs. He liked pizza and loud music. When he dated, the women were usually warm and sweet, and vanished as fast as they appeared.

He did not, as a rule, worry or stress or angst about his existence, and if his past ever bothered him, he never let on. It certainly did not come back to bite him on his ass. Even thinking about him being a little boy was absurd because he was a man, a big, tall, rough and tumble man who made her hormones stand straight up and tap dance, damn it.

But she could set that aside. She would set that aside. He had no idea what she was going through, and he never would.

And yet…

And yet he’d known it was her…

That thought niggled at her, just a bit, because it was a warning, a little flare in her brain cautioning her not to underestimate him again, but at the moment, she had no choice but to believe herself stronger than him.

“If nothing else,” he told her quietly, still a little sleepy-eyed from that kiss, “we’re friends. Friends talk. Friends share.”

Oh, God, he could have no idea how she wished she could share with him. “Friends? No. We either snipe at each other or kiss. Not talk or share.”

“At the very least, we’re also boss and employee, and that’s a fact. I’m responsible for you.”

“That’s a stretch, considering how far from Sky High we are.”

“I want an answer to at least one of my questions, Mad.”

“Fine. Ask one.”

“Let’s start with why you have a knife strapped to your thigh.” With lightning speed, he slid his hand up her leg, beneath her skirt and commandeered said knife.

Holy shit, she’d never seen him move so fast. Apparently, when they’d been making out, her mind had shut off.

But his hadn’t. She stared at the knife now in his fingers. “It’s for emergencies.”

“Okay. And since you’re the smartest woman I’ve ever met, you can probably figure out my next question.”

He thought her the smartest woman he’d ever met? Interesting, considering she thought him the most amazing man she’d ever met.

Amazing, frustrating, completely pig-headed, world-class kisser…

He had the knife between his two fingers like it was distasteful, his arm loose at his side, and with her own lightning speed, she grabbed it back, not holding it loosely, but up as if she meant business.

He merely stepped forward so that the blade was only an inch from his chest.

Then, while she debated her next move, he put his mouth to her ear, irritation personified. “Are you mad because you thought I didn’t know you, Mad? Or because I do? Because let’s clear up one thing right now, knife or not, attitude or not, I’ll always know.”

God. She actually let her eyes drift closed at that, but caught herself and flashed her eyes open again to find him watching her intently.

Then he took another step forward, and now the tip of the blade touched his chest, not that he seemed to care. “What’s it going to be, Maddie?”

The fight draining out of her, she turned away, letting the knife fall to her side, both shocked and uncomfortably aroused. He wanted answers, and unfortunately, she had them. “I told you Leena’s in trouble.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to help her out of it.” She didn’t even realize she was rubbing her shoulder until she felt him gently nudging her fingers away, touching her scars, touching her heart.

And other places, too, places that wanted to get back to that whole kissing thing, which would be an even bigger mistake than all her other mistakes combined, and that was saying something.

“How?” he murmured, his mouth brushing her shoulder and then the side of her throat…

Oh, God.

She was going to melt into a boneless puddle of longing right here on the floor. “Don’t.” She said this in a pathetically low, whispery voice, not knowing exactly what she was saying don’t to.

Don’t stop touching me…

Don’t stop any of it…

His fingers continued to work on her, slipping beneath her shirt to touch bare skin now as his jaw slowly rubbed alongside of hers. “Are you going to pretend to be her?”

“No. Brody, stop-”

But he didn’t. Somehow, he knew exactly what muscles were sore, and what to touch, and how to leave her a bowl of jelly. It had to stop. “I mean it.”

But he kept doing.

All of it.

“But you’re going to somehow risk yourself to save her, is that it?”

Close. Too close, and frustrated, hot, God, so hot, she simply reacted. Whipping around, she hooked her leg behind his knee and dropped him to the floor, which he hit with a heavy thud.

Sprawled on his back, he stared up at her. “What was that?”

Not proud of the move, she backed up a step. “I said don’t.”

Wincing, he sat up and rubbed a spot low on his back. “Ouch.”

Okay, so now she’d used her unfair advantage of martial arts against a man who’d done nothing but drive her crazy.

And turn her on. Let’s not forget that part. Guilt-ridden, she bent over him and offered her hand. “I’m sorry-hey-”

That’s all she got out before he grabbed her hand and tugged hard so that she fell right over the top of him. Or would have, but he caught her and rolled.

The next thing she knew, her knife had flown across the room, and she was flat on her back on the floor where he’d just been, held there by well over six feet of frustrated, temperamental, leanly muscled male.

She struggled, oh, how she struggled, but it was all in vain. He deflected every move she made as if he knew martial arts as well as she.

That only infuriated her all the more, and she fought with everything she had, but he held her down effortlessly, subduing her without hurting her, a consideration she hadn’t given him.

“Damn it!” Furious, she tried to knee him, tried anything, everything, but nothing worked.

Finally, he looked at her, expression unreadable. “Give up?” His voice suggested he was bored.

Bored while she’d used every bit of energy she had, and then some. His every move had been precise, calculated, and efficient.