The Hot Corner Read online

  “I’m consistent.” My voice hitched when his teeth bit down gently. Jesus. I arched my back, giving him more of me, and he took, licking and sucking while kneading my breast gently.

  Brad moved over to give the other breast the same treatment but then paused and grinned. “I like to mix it up.” He kissed between my breasts and nipped at my stomach as he made his way down my body. His thumbs hooked into my panties, and I boosted my hips off the couch to help him guide them down my legs.

  He paused and just looked at me, and I tingled with anticipation. “You got even more beautiful, you know. It shouldn’t have been possible.”

  I shook my head. “Look who’s talking. My boy became a very sexy man.” He grinned and whipped his shirt off. “See?” I said. “Where were all those muscles back in the day? I was cheated.”

  “I don’t remember you complaining.” He leaned down and kissed me hard. “And they’re all yours now, so enjoy.”

  I did. I put my hands on his pecs and traced them down those sexy, defined abs. “Not complaining, per se. Just observing.”

  He laughed and those glorious muscles flexed under my hands.

  “Jesus,” I murmured, and he laughed again.

  “You should be used to them by now.” He kissed my neck before pushing back and settling himself on his knees between my legs. I’d never get used to them, and I’d certainly never stop appreciating them. I was already mourning the loss, but it wasn’t long before his lips were on my hip bone. He bit gently, and I forgot all about muscles when he moved lower and began to work me with his tongue and hands.

  It didn’t take long, it never did, before I was calling his name and tightening around him. He let me come down before standing and taking off the rest of his clothes. He threw them behind him, and I laughed breathlessly.

  “I’m a bad influence on you,” I said. “Neat freak.”

  He grinned as he lowered himself on top of me, our bodies sinking into the cushy black couch. “Totally worth it.” And it was, especially when he shifted and slipped inside me.

  We didn’t talk then, other than the occasional murmur of one another’s names between kisses. I glided my hands down his back, enjoying the feel of those muscles flexing as he moved. He touched my face softly, as if I were made of glass, and I got lost in his green gaze as we made love on the couch. Neither of us was in a hurry. We had all night to be together.

  It was a long, slow build, but eventually I came and he followed shortly after. We lay joined for a while, his head on my shoulder, my hands in his hair, just being.

  “I love this room,” I said.

  Brad laughed and kissed my chin. “It’s my favorite. But now I think I should take you to bed.”

  “Is that so, Mr. Reynolds? Haven’t you had enough?”

  “Never.” He boosted himself before bending to pick me up and carry me into the bedroom. “But I actually meant to sleep so we can get an early start tomorrow. I want to enjoy my day off with you.”

  “I like that.”

  “What?” he asked as he lowered me onto the bed before climbing in next to me and pulling me against his chest.

  “You carrying me around so effortlessly.”

  His laugh rumbled through me. “Gotta put those muscles you’re so fond of to use.”

  “Works for me,” I murmured.

  “Me, too. I love you, Red.”

  “Love you, too.” I closed my eyes and settled into him. Things like tooth brushing and whatnot could wait until later. I wanted to be in Brad’s arms for a while.

  I must have dozed off, because when I woke, the muted glow of sunlight was sneaking through the curtains, and I was in bed alone. I pushed myself up and wandered into the bathroom to relieve myself and brush my teeth. I pulled on my black silk robe and followed the scent of coffee into the kitchen. Brad’s empty cup was already in the sink, so I filled my own and started to wander toward the office, where I thought he’d be, when there was a knock on the door.

  Brad beat me to the door.

  “Bradley, darling, how I’ve missed you.” The heavily accented, very husky female voice had my back up instantly, and I peered around the corner and froze. There was yet another blonde with her arms wrapped around my boyfriend, looking up at him like he was the most incredible guy in the world. Which he was. But he was mine.

  I started to turn, to run away from this scene yet again, but this time I couldn’t. I remembered the way he’d looked at me last night, the words he’d said about loving me. How he’d maybe never stopped. And how I hadn’t stopped either. No. This time I wasn’t running. This blonde was going down.

  Chapter 23

  I must have made some kind of noise, perhaps a growl at the bitch having her perfectly manicured blood-red nails on my man’s sculpted chest, because they both turned and looked my way before I could even make a move to grab Blondie by her obviously dyed hair and toss her out of the room.

  Instead of looking guilty, like I’d expected or maybe feared, Brad looked amused, his eyes sparkling and his trademark smirk on his face. Blondie was openly looking me up and down and must have found me lacking because her lips curved in what appeared to be a satisfied smile. I needed to knock it off her face.

  “Good morning, Red.” Brad stepped back from the clinging woman and held out a hand for me. “Meet Karina. Karina, this is my girlfriend, Danielle.”

  Weren’t we formal this morning? At least he had the decency to refer to me as his girlfriend. I was feeling slightly mollified. Karina’s smile stayed in place as she nodded at me.

  “Delighted, I’m sure.”

  I couldn’t place her accent. German, maybe? Either way, she was devastatingly gorgeous for it being so ridiculously early in the morning.

  “I’m sorry to wake you. I’m on European time.” That explained it, though it didn’t make her any more welcome in my book.

  “You hardly need to justify being here.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Brad, whose lips twitched. Was he laughing at me? Did he think it was funny to walk into a room and find the person I loved with someone beyond beautiful wrapped in his arms? I could show him just how much fun it wasn’t, if he liked.

  “This is your home, after all.”

  I did a double take, and this time his laugh did break loose. My fingers balled into a fist but he wrapped his fingers around my hand and pulled me into his arms. “Damn, Red, what has you so fired up this morning?”

  I struggled fruitlessly against his hold. “What kind of moronic question is that? I wake up to find you snuggling with some blonde? I don’t share.”

  “Oh dear,” said the blonde. “Where did you find this one, and does she have a sister?”

  Brad was shaking with laughter and Karina’s words penetrated my head. “What?”

  “You have fire. I like that in a woman.”

  Did she just lick her lips? I turned back to Brad, who was watching me with a very pleased smile.

  “Brad, what is this?”

  He looped his arms around my waist and pressed a kiss to my neck. “This, my presumptuous one, is Karina. I sublet this condo from her. I wanted to be in the city during the season, and she’s always circling the globe, so she let me move in and take care of it while she’s gone.”

  Karina smiled and held out her hand to me. I shook it automatically while still trying to process how wrong I’d been.

  “I do apologize,” she said. “I know Bradley gets up early, so I didn’t think I’d be disturbing anyone when I came by.” She took in my tousled appearance and shook her head. “Though I can’t begin to fathom why he’d answer the door at all with you looking like that.”

  Dear God. I felt color flooding my cheeks and realized she was still holding my hand. When I read a situation wrong, I read a situation wrong. She looked like she wanted to eat me alive.

  Brad laughed, seemingly unconcerned that his landlady wanted me. He probably liked it. Pervert. “I was just heading back to wake her up—in a much better way than this—w
hen you appeared at the door. Wonderful timing, as usual.”

  “Don’t let me interrupt. Why don’t you show us just what you had in mind?”

  Dear God. I pulled my hand from her grasp and tugged at the ends of my robe. The damn thing was entirely too short, and Karina was apparently enjoying the view.

  “I think I should go get dressed,” I muttered. Brad chuckled and tightened his grip on me as Karina shook her head.

  “Oh please, not on my account! I really just came by for a moment to pick up a letter that got sent here by mistake. My contract for a catalog I’m to start shooting for in a few days.” So she was a model. Shocker. Though she obviously wasn’t one of Brad’s usual models, since she seemed to have eyes only for me.

  “Stop checking out my girl, Rina. I put the package in the guest bedroom.”

  “Surely you can’t blame me. You can’t stop touching her. You have marvelous skin, darling. What products do you use?”

  I had no ability to wrap my head around this conversation this early in the morning, but I told her about my favorite brands of lotions and soaps. She smiled. “Not bad, but I can get you better. I’m the face of the Nu-Revolution line. I’ll get a case sent here for you.” I started to protest but she shook her head. “No, no, skin this lovely must be taken care of.” She traced a finger over my forearm. “Are you sure you don’t have a twin sister who likes experimentation? I’d ask you, but I think Bradley would whisk you away from me.”

  “Damn right I would. Hands off my woman. Come on. Let’s get your package while Dani gets in the shower. We have plans.”

  Right. I’d forgotten all about that when I’d come upon the two of them in the doorway. They chatted while I turned off into the bedroom and got in the shower. While I was washing, I went over the place my head had immediately gone when I’d seen them—back to Omaha and Blond Bailey and heartache. I’d been wrong this time. I might have been wrong that time. At least Brad seemed amused by my reaction. I didn’t think he’d be so amused when I told him about Omaha.

  After I showered, I stepped into the bedroom to find Brad sitting on the bed. He raised an eyebrow as I walked to the dresser and pondered what to wear. “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself?”

  There was an edge to his tone. I didn’t have a defense for my reaction, so I dropped my towel and hoped that would distract him. “I don’t know what to wear. Will you help me?”

  I heard him moving, and I smiled as he pressed up against me from behind. “Do you think I don’t know what you’re doing?” he asked softly, nipping my ear.

  I turned in his arms and slid my hands around his neck. “I thought you’d enjoy my distraction techniques.”

  He smirked before reaching up and breaking my hold on him. “I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to fall for them.” He pulled out a bra and panties and handed them to me before grabbing a T-shirt and shorts. “That’ll do.”

  Well, fine then. I bent over in front of him and slowly pulled the panties up my legs, smiling when I heard him sigh behind me. “It’s not going to work.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh, but I stopped teasing and pulled on the rest of my clothes. “Ready. Where are we going?”

  “Nowhere until you tell me what that was all about.” I whirled around and saw that Brad was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking anything but relaxed.

  “Nothing. I misinterpreted the situation, is all.”

  “No shit you did. Why? Don’t you trust me?”

  The million-dollar question. I wanted to, so badly. But I needed to get up the balls to ask him about Omaha, and I was so afraid of his answer.

  “You have to admit it was a pretty damning sight,” I said. If there was an award for avoidance of the big issue, I’d win hands down.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Me, hugging a friend?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You, wrapped around a beautiful blonde, which we both know was your type, before and after me.”

  “Well, as you can see, you’re much more Karina’s type than I am.”

  I wrinkled my nose and Brad laughed.

  “You should have seen your face when you realized she was hot for you. It was priceless.”

  “Yeah, well, you could have clued me in before she violated me with her eyes.”

  “No, I think you had it coming for assuming you were part of my, what was it? Harem.” He didn’t sound amused now.

  “I’m sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction.”

  The heat from his glare was enough to give me a sunburn. “So your default reaction is to assume I’m cheating on you? Or was I cheating on her with you? Do I have one in every city, Dani? I thought we’d gotten beyond this.”

  If it had been just anger in his words, I could have dealt with it. The hurt, though, broke me. I put my hands on his handsome face.

  “I’m sorry, Brad. I’m trying to let it all go. It’s hard. I came here thinking I knew what I would find, and it’s all turning out differently than I expected. In a good way.” I moved my thumb along his jaw, trying to soothe out the tension I felt there.

  “Is my past going to keep getting in the way? I can’t take it back, no matter how much I wish I could.”

  “I don’t expect you to. And that’s not it. At least, not all of it. It’s my past and our past, too. Everything gets mixed up in my head and I jump to conclusions. That’s on me, not on you.”

  “Well, can you try to work on it? I swear to you that I won’t ever—”

  I kissed him. I didn’t want oaths and promises. I didn’t need them. I just needed him to know I was in the wrong and, no matter what, I was going to trust him from here on out. We weren’t the same people we’d been back then. I needed to remember that.

  “I’m sorry,” I said when we broke apart. “It won’t happen again.”

  A slight smile stole over his lips. “Are you sure? I thought you were going to punch Karina in the face for a minute there. If you had, you might have been sued by several companies that use her for their ads.”

  “It was close for a few seconds, but I decided it’d be more fun to hit you.”

  “Is that so, champ?” Brad brought my knuckles to his lips and kissed them. “I have to admit, you almost got me.”

  “I do have you.”

  His smile flashed then. “That you do, Red. And I have you. Which is how I knew you were going to try to hit me.”

  “Why is that? I’ve never hit you before. I’ve thought about it, but I’ve never done it.”

  “Because if I came across you in some random dude’s arms, the first thing I’d do would be to hit the bastard.”

  That jerk. “So you give me shit for assuming just like you would?”

  He laughed. “No. I know you wouldn’t cheat on me. Didn’t mean the guy could touch you.”

  “Possessive much?”

  Brad’s hands moved around my waist and he squeezed my ass. “Yes, and I’m not remotely ashamed of it.”

  “You know, all of this could have been avoided had you just told me this wasn’t your house and you borrowed it from a supermodel.”

  His wicked grin flashed. “Really? That’s all it would have taken?”

  He had a point. “All right, maybe you could have told me her name and showed me a picture or something.”

  “You still would have assumed I’d banged her.”

  Again, true. “And then you would have corrected me and had fun lording it over me for a while.”

  He kissed my nose and I smiled. “Which I’ll be doing now instead.”

  “You know, you could be a humble winner.”

  Brad’s laughter was back and it made me happy. I never wanted to see him doubting us. I didn’t want to doubt us. We felt so real and so right, even when we were giving each other shit. Or maybe because we were.

  “Where’s the fun in that? Winning is about being the best and lording it over everyone.”

  I ruffled his hair, laugh
ing at the utter bafflement in his tone. “You’re going to be insufferable if you win the World Series, aren’t you?”

  “We’ll find out in six months, won’t we?”

  His confidence was sexy. “Thirty-one other teams are thinking they have as good a chance as you do.”

  He smirked. “But they don’t have me. Or my secret weapon.”

  “Steroids?” I asked with a giggle.

  He scowled. “No, Red, I’m talking about you. My good-luck charm.”

  “I am not.”

  He tilted his head and smiled at me. “How am I doing so far this season?”

  I didn’t even have to think about it. “You’re batting .388, flirting with .400, and the pundits think you might actually have a shot at it the way you’re swinging the bat. You’re second in the league with five homeruns and leading in on-base percentage and RBIs. You’re a lock for National League Player of the Month and early leader for MVP.”

  Brad’s lips were on mine the moment I finished. We were both breathless when we broke apart.

  “Well,” I said, pretty sure the top of my head had blown off from the heat of our kisses.

  “Do you know how hot it is when you spout baseball terminology? Especially when it’s my stats?”

  I felt the back of my head just to make sure it was there. “I’m beginning to get the picture.”

  He laughed. “I’ll probably have you naked by the time I get to page five or so of your book. Just so you know.”

  Imagining him reading my book with me in the room left me feeling both nervous and excited. I’d always imagined him reading it while I was all the way across the country, safely ensconced in my apartment. Then again, I’d imagined the story I was going to write to be very different from the one I found myself a part of now.

  “I’ll look forward to that.”

  He smiled. “Me, too. Anyway, before I got sidetracked by your sexy stat spouting . . .” We both laughed. “I was pointing out that I’m off to a hotter start than I’ve ever been before. I haven’t played at this level since college. What was the common denominator then and now?”