Fate (Steel Brothers Saga #13) - Helen Hardt Page 0,8

wrong,” I said. “I wanted that kiss as much as you did.”

“Then what happened?”

“I got scared, is all.”

He nodded. “You’re what…eighteen?”

“Yeah.”

“Not very experienced.”

“Not exactly. Just not any experience that’s good.”

He stroked my cheek, and I turned into his warm palm.

“We’ll go slowly, then.”

I widened my eyes. “You mean you want to…try again?”

“We already have a date tomorrow,” he said. “You’re not getting out of that. You promised me the world’s best pizza.”

Without thinking, I pressed my lips into his palm. “I never break my promises.”

Chapter Six

Brad

The chaste kiss I gave Daphne when I saw her to her dorm room door was better than third base with Wendy or anyone else.

I smiled as I walked to my car. Smiled as I drove home. Smiled as I parked the car in the garage and unlocked the door.

Murph and I lived in a condo my father owned just off campus. It was a sweet two-bedroom. I had the master, of course, and Murph the second bedroom. We had two sleeper sofas where our friends crashed pretty often.

Yeah, it was kind of a party house. But Murph and I both had 4.0 grade point averages. We got our work done before we partied.

I opened the door from our garage into the kitchen and yelled, “Murph?” before I switched on the light.

“Not home yet,” said a female voice I knew well.

Shit. Not tonight. Not fucking tonight.

I switched the light on and walked toward the voice.

Wendy Madigan sat in the living room in my leather recliner—stark naked.

“For God’s sake, Wendy, Murph could walk in any time.”

“And I’m sure he’d scream if he saw anything he hadn’t seen before.” She stood and walked seductively toward me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Getting laid, I hope.” She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hard kiss on the mouth.

I pushed her away. “You told me to fuck off the last time I saw you.”

“I’ve had a change of heart,” she said. “Right now I definitely want you to fuck on.”

Wendy Madigan had been my kryptonite for six years. She had mesmerizing blue eyes and a killer body, but the real attraction was her mind. She had a ridiculously high IQ with just a touch of cuckoo. A lethal and seductive combination.

I looked at her standing naked, her pussy shaved the way she knew I liked it. Her nipples were hard, and her breasts fell gently against her chest.

If this were any other night, we’d be heating up the sheets by now.

But I wasn’t in the mood.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be in the mood again. At least not for Wendy. Or any other woman who wasn’t Daphne Wade.

I did have a giant hard-on, though. One kiss from Daphne and I was a fucking rock. Wendy was already wet for me. I could smell her own brand of musk.

“Get on the bed, bitch,” I said through clenched teeth.

Wendy liked it rough. Rough and turbulent. She let me do anything I wanted, and what I wanted right now was to tie her up, put a blindfold over her, and pretend she was Daphne Wade.

Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe a good fuck with Wendy would erase Daphne from my mind. As high maintenance as Wendy was, I had a sinking feeling Daphne might be even more so. Maybe I should strip her from my mind right now…

…before she edged into my heart.

I wasn’t in love with Wendy. Not anymore, at least. We had a physical connection, one that wasn’t good for either of us. I’d been thinking about that a lot lately. This was my senior year of college, and maybe it would be best to end things with Wendy once and for all.

I’d loved her once—as much as a seventeen-year-old boy was capable of love. We’d fallen out of love long ago, but we always seemed to find our way back to each other. Our chemistry was addictive.

Despite the chemistry, though, we were horribly bad for each other. Our personalities clashed, and her temper was notorious.

The sex was pretty damned good, however.

I stalked into the bedroom. Wendy had taken her place on my queen-size bed, grasping two of the rungs of my headboard. I riffled through my top drawer and found the leather bindings I hid under my boxers. I held them for a moment, letting my fingers trace the roughness of the leather, the smooth chill of the silver chains.

Yeah, I was still hard. Fucking hard.

I was still fully clothed as I walked to the bed and