me Brody is one of the most eligible bachelors in the country. Women fall over themselves trying to get to him.
“What?” The car swerves as he accidentally yanks the steering wheel to the right when his whole body turns toward me. A horn honks at us and he yanks us back into our lane. “That’s not what I meant.” He reaches across and places his hand on my leg, just above my knee. His fingers curl inward as his jaw clenches.
“Brody, you’re hurting me.”
“Shit.” He releases my leg and runs a shaky hand through his hair. “I love you, Grace.” His gaze darts to me, then shifts back to the crowded freeway. After that swerve, he slows down to seventy-five, and now all the cars whiz past us going eighty or more. “I want you to stay, and I’ve been thinking about nothing else since your mother’s death, but I’m scared you don’t want to stay. I’m terrified you’ll leave me.”
“You’re scared I’ll leave you?”
“Yes.” He tucks his chin to his chest.
“The indomitable Brody La Rouge?”
“It’s all I can think about.”
“Is that why you’ve been hands-off?”
“I’ve been hands-off out of respect.” His words rumble out of him in a growl. “Because I’m a gentleman who’s worried sick about his girlfriend.”
Girlfriend?
My heart skips a beat and a tiny thrill runs through me. I know what I want.
“I was thinking we could go out for dinner, spend the weekend doing silly tourist things, but I think you need to take me back to your place.”
“And why’s that?” His fingers curl over the steering wheel, tightening and releasing as his breaths deepen.
“Because…” Hesitation overcomes me.
Telling him what I need—what I want—places me in a delicate position, but really? Who am I kidding?
It’s time to bring back the heat between us.
He brings up a lot of good points, talking about my dreams, my future, and the things I want. When I think about it, my heart steps in and reminds me to feel.
Brody loves me, and I’m pretty damn sure I love him too. Even when I hated him, my unrequited love simmered in the background. No way around it, I need Brody in my life. I need him just as much as I need air to breathe.
“Use your words, Grace.” The change in his voice to that low throaty rumble turns my insides to mush and highjacks my senses, sending them on an adrenaline-fueled rush of wanton lust and heady desire. Somehow, he flicks a switch in my brain.
Immediately, I’m aware of him in a way I wasn’t moments before. His body takes up more space. His muscles appear more pronounced, more powerful, more dominating. He’s in control. The rasp of his breath proclaims he’s all male.
An aroused, virile, male.
“What do you want?” He turns his steely gaze on me, and there’s no sign of any gentleman in there. The atmosphere between us shifts, turning primal and heating up with every breath.
I need the Brody who makes my mind come to a stop. The man who flips the switch inside my head. I need the man who lets me ignore the rest of the world and allows me to do nothing other than feel.
Right now, I need to feel him.
He says nothing for a long moment, and the way he taps his finger on the steering wheel drives me insane. What is he thinking? Are we on the same page? Or is he still going to shelter and protect me, too concerned that my grief will overwhelm me and force him to be that gentleman?
But he seems to make a decision. Brody glances over at me, capturing my gaze. Fire burns in those amazing green eyes of his. Lust rolls outward with his desire to take and claim.
“What’s your word, Grace?” He takes in a deep breath.
I bite my lower lip and drop my gaze. Folding my hands in his lap, I fiddle with my fingers, twisting them together as the entire atmosphere between us shifts to something heady and potent, sensual and sex-fueled. He intoxicates me.
“Look at me.”
My gaze travels the long path to his face, lingering over the growing evidence of his arousal, which tents his pants. From there, my gaze climbs up his hardened physique, where I finally reach the determined set of his jaw. It’s there where I land on the simmering heat of his gaze.
“What’s your word?”
My entire body trembles, growing more excited by the second. I need this. I need to fall apart in his hands.
“Red. My