Apparently deciding to ignore the most important point of their conversation—the client was actually happier with the new meeting time—Bob plowed on. “Why can’t you rent a car so that you can…this meeting?”
A click sounded from across the table, and Kady looked up to find that Colton had closed his laptop and sat staring at her. No, scowling. And clearly listening in.
Ugh. She’d been so intent on handling Bob that she’d momentarily forgotten she wasn’t having this conversation in private. She got up from the chair, crossed the room, and closed herself in the bathroom. The last impression she ever wanted Colton Brooks to have of her was that she couldn’t hold her own in this field—in any and every manner.
What part of “terrible storm” don’t you understand? she thought, as she fought to hang on to her composure. “I wish I could,” she said in a tone you might use with a pouty toddler. “But there’s literally nothing here. The nearest car rental is at the airport, which I can’t get to.”
“Something you have to learn when you’re a program manager is how to manage competing time commitments. If you can’t, I’ll reassign Carson’s project,” he said. Click.
“Asshole!” she whispered as she braced her hands on the counter. She forced a deep breath. “He doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Because you’ll get the contract and then you’ll be out from under him.” She nodded, the pep talk releasing some of the tension in her shoulders.
Facing the door, Kady straightened her spine and relaxed her expression. She didn’t want Colton to think the call had ruffled her feathers in the least. Flicking the light switch off, she opened the door and smacked face-first into six foot two inches of hard masculine flesh.
Chapter Three
Hands braced on either side of the doorjamb, Colton stared down at Kady. God, she was a little thing. But lush, with sexy, feminine curves—the feeling of which was now emblazoned all down the front of his body from where she’d just walked into him.
“What was that about?” he asked, the heat of anger stirring in his gut. Someone had been hassling her.
“Oh,” she said with a shrug that was supposed to come off as nonchalant. “Just work, you know.”
“No, Kady. I don’t know, which is why I’m asking.” He was well aware that she had to deal with a lot of bullshit from the men she worked with and competed against. The whole computer field—from programming to security to games—was male-dominated and somewhat proudly chauvinistic. Colton didn’t agree with it in the slightest, but that didn’t make it any less true. And for someone like her? Who was not only brilliant at the work but feminine and beautiful and sharp-tongued? Yeah, she dealt with more than her fair share of it.
“Bob was just worried about a meeting I had scheduled tomorrow, that’s all,” she said.
And now Colton was getting pissed for a new reason. Kady was lying to him. “Bob Chase is a tool,” he said. “And he was hassling you about something over which you have no control, cutting you off, and generally, from what I could hear of your side of the conversation, being a pretentious, overbearing blowhard.”
She shrugged again. “Pretty much. No biggie.”
Except that wasn’t true, either. Colton had known this woman for more than fifteen years. He knew her facial expressions, intonations, and body language—though, admittedly, not as well as he wished he could. And right now, the cast of her eyes, furrow of her brow, and curl of her shoulders all read that the call had upset her. And that combined with the fact that she wasn’t being straight with him made him a little crazy. “Why did you go in the bathroom to finish the call?”
“Just trying not to disturb you,” she said.
He stepped closer, so close they were almost touching. “You are so full of crap right now. You know that?”
Blowing out a breath, she retreated into the darkness of the small room and leaned her butt against the counter. Crossing her arms, she said, “Wow. You might want to brush up on how to win friends and influence people, Colton.”
He hit the light and followed her into the space. “Don’t deflect.”
Her green eyes flashed at him. “Why are you pushing me on this right now?”
“Because I don’t like to see someone I care about getting treated like shit, especially not by someone in a position of seniority at their job.” It sure as shit would never happen in my firm. When she dropped her gaze to the floor, he bent down enough to force their eyes to meet. “How bad is it?”
“It’s the same old BS. And nothing I can’t handle.” She looked to the side.
He caught her chin in his fingers and tilted her head to force her to look at him. “I know you can handle it, Kady. I just hate that you’re in the position of having to in the first place.” Maybe he could help. But how? A quick array of emotions flashed through her eyes. Colton frowned. “But why are you hiding it from me?”
“I’m not—”
He arched a brow, calling bullshit on her response before she’d fully voiced it. And the fact that she’d eaten the words proved he was right.
She gently wrapped her hand around his, gave it a squeeze, and pulled it away from her face. For a moment, Colton reveled in the warmth of her skin touching his even as his body registered the gentleness and was once again reminded of just why he could never have her the way he wanted. But if he couldn’t have her in his bed and under his body, then he’d sure as hell do right by her and his best friend and protect her. Defend her. Stand up for her. Not because she needed him to do it. Not because she wasn’t capable of doing it herself. But because it was the right thing to do.
And something deep down inside demanded it of him, too.
She dropped his hand and hugged herself again. “Look, I’m going to say this, and you’re not going to let it make things weird. Okay?”
A sliver of dread snaked around his spine. He nodded.
Kady heaved a deep breath, like she was bolstering her resolve. Then she met his eye. “You have looked at me as a little kid my whole life. And I get it. For a part of that time, I was a little kid. I’m six years younger and your best friend’s little sister. When you were graduating college and entering the army, I was just learning to drive. By the time I was graduating college, you had a career and had fought in wars.” She rubbed her hands over her biceps as if she were trying to warm herself. Colton jammed his hands in his pockets to keep from helping.
Between his ears, the horrible foot-in-mouth things he’d said to her that night in the pool house rattled around—words he’d said because he’d freaked out about the very things she was talking about right now. But the dismissive and insensitive load he’d dumped all over her that night had just been a pack of lies. Fact was, Colton had seen her go in the pool house moments before. He’d sought her out. And he’d known she’d had a crush on him for pretty much ever.
Thing was, by the time she’d hit her junior year of high school, he’d been crushing a little bit himself. His head saw the age difference, but his heart only saw someone who shared his interests, who could teach him things, and who made him feel. And the attraction only grew as he’d come home on leave and seen her, each time growing more and more into a woman. At his welcome-home party, she’d been beautiful and confident and so damn sexy that every rationale Colton had ever had for keeping his damn hands off had flown right out the window.
In truth, when he’d retreated from her that night after Tyler had interrupted what had been one of the hottest make-out sessions of his life—mostly because it involved the woman standing in front of him—Colton had been the one deflecting. Big time. Because his only other option was to give in to what he wanted.
Kady sighed. “I’m not that little kid anymore, Colton—”
“I know.”
“Do you?” she asked, peering up at him. She blinked away and shook her head. “Our age difference isn’t as meaningful as it was when we were younger, so I need you to see me as your peer, as your equal. Not as a little kid or a little sister who n
eeds to be coddled or protected. I don’t need you to worry about me or intercede in anything professional for me. In fact, if you ever did, it would just make things worse. In this field, I have to work twice as hard and be twice as creative to get half the respect. So I keep my complaints to myself and ignore as much of the bullshit as I can because otherwise it’ll make me crazy and distract me from what’s important, which is the work. Which I love. And I’m damn good at it, too.”
“Yes, you are,” he said without thinking. But some things were so true they didn’t require thought. They just were. Anybody would be lucky to have Kady Dresco on their team, so Bob— His thoughts froze midstream. Anybody would be lucky to have Kady on their team…including him.
That thought was like a revelation, opening doors and windows inside his mind and making him wonder why the hell he’d never had this thought before. Because Kady would be an amazing partner—competent, brilliant, skilled, creative. She’d be the kind of person you could count on to get her shit done without needing oversight and to collaborate and brainstorm in a way that made everyone’s work better. Exactly what he needed. Though, for sure, the idea of working with her wasn’t without its complications.
Forcing away that question, Colton released a long breath. Not only was she right in this situation, she’d been right three years ago, too. He hadn’t seen the real her. He hadn’t seen a strong, independent woman. He did now, though. In spades. Damn if it didn’t make her even more appealing.
“Okay. You’re right. Though my gut instinct is to beat down any asshole who harasses you, I know you’re tough enough to handle it and I’d never want to make things worse. But if you ever want my help—with anything—all you have to do is ask. And if you ever want to blow off steam, I’m here to listen.” He pressed his lips into a line, hoping she wouldn’t turn this into a joke per their norm, because this was important to him.
She stared at him as if evaluating his offer, and the seriousness in her expression mirrored what he felt in his gut. The pounding drumbeat of the rain on the roof above them drowned out all other sound, giving the moment an almost suspended quality. “Okay. I’ll try,” she finally said. “But I’m used to holding all this in, so it’s not easy. I don’t like to be seen as weak or incompetent.”
Satisfaction roared through him at her serious reply. He felt like something important was happening here, something real, something—for once—not hidden behind layers of snark and humor. Colton didn’t have anything real or even particularly meaningful with a woman—nor had he ever before. And that made what was happening between them right now stand out.
Not that he didn’t have plenty of opportunities for casual encounters with women interested in dabbling in the rougher stuff with him, but none that made him want something more, something deeper, something real. Mostly, that was a good thing, because his parents’ miserable marriage had seriously damaged his belief in the institution. His mother excelled in passive-aggressiveness and guilt trips, while his father was a master of actual aggression and yelling. Most of the time, they’d directed their venom at each other, but he and his sister Sophie had gotten caught in the cross fire plenty of times. Even after his parents had divorced and his father had moved to Tennessee, Colton had continued to get trapped in the middle of their disputes during the summers he spent there. If it hadn’t been for his good friends Reed and Brock, those summers in Tennessee would’ve been miserable. So, Colton hadn’t even been eighteen before he vowed he’d never spend even a minute as an adult putting himself in the situation he’d been forced to live through as a kid.
His gaze scanned over Kady’s beautiful face. The woman standing in front of him was the only woman who’d ever inspired Colton to consider anything more than a one-night stand or being fuck buddies, and that made Kady both incredibly dangerous to his world order and one of the most important people in it.
“I don’t see you that way. Not even a little,” he said. Allowing himself the pleasure of her skin, he brushed his knuckles down her cheek. So fucking soft.
Her head tilted into his hand and she smirked up at him, one eyebrow arched.
“Okay, ‘little’ was a bad choice of words, wasn’t it?” he said, cupping her cheekbone in his palm and running his fingers into the edge of her hair.
She nodded, but the smile that played around her mouth made it clear she’d understood his intent. Licking her lips, she stared up at him.
Arousal shot like an arrow through Colton’s body, spiking his pulse and sending blood south. As if Kady picked up on the shift in his mood, her lips parted and her skin flushed where he still held her. The air suddenly crackled with heat and tension and promise.
Colton’s gaze zeroed in on her mouth, and an urgent need had him wanting—no, needing—to taste her. To claim her. To devour her. Without telling his body to move, he leaned down and his fingers slid into the silk of her hair. He met her gaze and he nearly roared in victory when she tilted her head back to receive him. Closer. And closer yet.
Her fingers fell on his lips. Her eyes bored into his, the beautiful green filled with desire and something else. Challenge? Determination?
“Don’t do this unless you mean it, Colton,” she said in a voice so low the beat of the rain nearly drowned it out.
The words pierced through his desire and kick-started the thinking part of his brain. Unless you mean it. Colton froze. What would “meaning it” mean to Kady? Something intentional. Something that might go somewhere. Something serious.
Regret and longing settled like an anvil on his shoulders. He slowly dropped his hand from her hair and pulled back. Need throbbed through his body, but his heart protested the lost promise of this moment even louder. Because he knew with Kady, sex would never just be about bodies and actions, it would be about feeling, connecting, sharing.
Kady was tough and brilliant, and she was also a happily-ever-after, two-point-four-kids, white-picket-fence kind of woman. Unlike his, her parents’ marriage had been fantastic, and the Dresco house had served as a home away from home more than once for him and his sister Sophie. So Colton totally got why Kady would want the same. More than that, she deserved it. Which meant she deserved more than him.
“Like I said”—Kady’s voice jolted him from his thoughts—“let’s not let this conversation make things weird. Okay? I just needed to say that stuff.”
He nodded. “Right. Of course,” he said. Did she hear the grit in his voice? And what would she think it meant if she did?
She gave him a small smile and stepped around him, opening a clear path between him and his reflection.
Colton looked himself in the eye. Could you give a relationship a meaningful try for her? he asked his mirror image.
His gut gave a squeeze of alarm at the thought, not because of the idea of being with her, but because nothing he’d seen growing up had taught him how to be a good half of a whole. And he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he gave her anything less than the happy future she deserved.
And that wasn’t the only question worth considering.
Could you dial the roughness down for her?
Another squeeze. Not really. He’d had “regular” sex before, and it could get him off. But no way he could only have regular sex. Something in him required the release of aggression that rough sex gave him. And for him, it was so much more…exciting, satisfying, fulfilling.
He couldn’t change. Not this. And trying probably wouldn’t serve his cause, either—instead, it was likely to create the same kind of tension and conflict that had cracked the foundation of his parents’ marriage and slowly but surely rotted everything from the inside out.
If you couldn’t be your true self with the person you planned to spend your whole life with, you shouldn’t be with them in the first place.
Problem was, he cared about Kady Dresco—about what she needed and what she thought of him—too damn much to put their relationship at risk.
…
Kady busied herself with
the ten new emails that had come in while she’d dealt with Bob and then Colton.
Colton. Who had almost kissed her.
Why the hell had he almost kissed her?
More importantly, why had she stopped him?
Kady’s fingers pounded harder against the keyboard than perhaps was strictly necessary.
She knew exactly what she’d just missed. Colton Brooks kissed in an all-consuming way that stole her breath, demanded her surrender, and blocked everything else out until the only thing she saw or heard or felt or knew was his lips, his tongue, his hands, his body. Him. After all this time, she could still remember the almost aggressive way he kissed, claiming her with his mouth, his harsh grip, the hard press of his chest and hips and thighs against hers. Just the memory of it made her heart flutter.
And she’d just turned him down.
No, he’d just withdrawn. Again. Though, she respected him for being honest, at least, even if that led him to a different decision than the one she wanted. Much better than him taking advantage of her interest and willingness and putting them back in that awkward place they’d had to navigate after their ill-fated encounter at the party.
Which was exactly why she’d turned him down—or at least, made it clear what proceeding meant to her. Because as much as she’d seriously consider selling a kidney for one night of no-strings-attached sex with him—just one—she knew she wouldn’t be able to weather the blow if he did anything that communicated that the fact he was with her wasn’t important. And she suspected her ego might never recover if he pulled away midstream like he had the last time. It had taken Kady a lot of phone calls with Julie, who was hands-down the best listener among all her sorority sisters, long talks with her roommate Christine, quite a few pints of Ben & Jerry’s, and therefore, lots of trips to the gym to make up for said emotional eating, to realize that what had happened between them that night had absolutely nothing to do with her.
But having worked so hard to achieve that insight, she wasn’t putting it at risk again unless Colton actually saw her, actually wanted her, and actually intended to follow through. If she could put a check mark next to all three of those boxes, she would sign up for that ride in a heartbeat—and get on and off as many times as she could. Heh.