Brody's Vow (Colebrook Siblings Trilogy Book 1) (9 page)

A man like Brody, though, with his security clearance and job as part of the FBI’s most elite hostage rescue and counter terrorism team… Yeah, he tempted her in ways she’d never been tempted before.

Adding to that, he was a damn good cook. The bacon was perfect, no soggy bits and not overdone, the pancakes light and fluffy. She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. “You made these from scratch, or from a box?”

His eyes gleamed with amusement as he looked across the table at her. “Scratch.”

He was serious. “Who taught you to cook?”

“My dad. My mom passed away when we were young. Cancer.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “That must have been hard.”

“Yeah, thanks. It was tough on all of us, but my old man was tougher. He raised us all on his own after that, did the best he could.”

“I think you turned out all right.” Better than all right.

He shrugged those wide shoulders. “I like to think so. What about you? You close to your parents?”

She scooped up a forkful of pancake. “No, I never knew them. My mother left me at an orphanage when I was still a baby.” She wasn’t sure why she’d told him that. Maybe because it was only fair after what she’d already learned about him.

“Oh. So you’re adopted?”

She shook her head, gave a rueful smile to hide that deep ache she’d always felt at never being wanted. “Nope. I was in the foster system for a while after that but nothing ever worked out.” And then she’d been recruited into the Valkyrie program and her life had changed forever.

They finished eating in companionable silence, with Trinity aware of everything about him. It was impossible to ignore the man’s sheer presence, and eating alone with him like this had all her attention attuned to him.

“How’s your head?” he asked her.

“Still holding together, thanks.” She’d been careful when she’d washed her hair not to disturb the adhesive.

The crunch of footsteps on gravel made her glance toward the back door and then Colebrook Senior appeared there, Sarge at his heels. He had a rolled up newspaper in one hand.

Brody stood up as if to go help him but his father waved him off with an irritated expression and clomped over to the table. The way his gaze held hers set off warning bells and made her stomach muscles grab.

“Something you might want to see,” he said, and set the paper down in front of her.

She read the headline while Brody leaned over to look at it.
Wealthy D.C. Magnate Murdered.

Cold spread through her gut as she scanned the story.

The writer reported that Franco Salvatori had been stabbed in the neck with a highly lethal dose of toxin, and his bodyguard reported it had been Eva Gregorivich, the woman Salvatori had been with last night at a local gala. The cops had pulled the car she was reported to have stolen from a lake with the back window shot out. It showed a picture of Eva at a previous function and finished with the police asking for the public’s help in locating her.

Trinity blanched. She’d thought Tino would want to keep this on the down low, since Salvatori had died on his watch. He must be desperate to flush her out if he’d gone to the cops, and she knew damn well he’d likely reached out to a detective he had in his pocket.

“That you?” Senior asked her, indicating the photo of Eva.

She was an expert liar, could lie her way out of damn near anything, but looking into those sharp hazel eyes, she just couldn’t. God, she should never have come here, regretted ever getting into Brody’s truck last night. “Yes,” she murmured.

A beat of taut silence passed as the older man studied her. “I don’t know what’s going on or who you work for, but it looks like you’ve got a serious problem here.”

She pushed to her feet, ignoring the stab of pain in her head, her only thought leaving this place and this family before she brought any harm to them.

“Wait,” Brody said but she ignored him and rushed up the stairs, intent on grabbing the bag she’d packed that held her pistol, extra ammo and a change of clothes.

When she turned around Brody was standing inside the door. She froze, lifted her chin, her heart beating faster at the set look on his face. “I can’t stay here.”

“Yes you can.” He shut the door and advanced on her. “He wasn’t telling you so you’d leave, he was telling you to warn you.”

She backed up a step, and her spine came up against the wall. Her heart hammered against her ribs as he crowded her personal space, not stopping until he stood inches from her.

With slow deliberation he lifted his hands and placed them on either side of her head, caging her in, his eyes on hers. And just like that, her body cried out for him, aching for his touch, the feel of his mouth on hers.

“You might not trust anyone, but you’re on my turf now. Nobody puts my family in danger, so cut the bullshit and tell me exactly what’s going on.” He paused a beat, his eyes searching hers. “Who do you work for?”

It wouldn’t cost her anything to tell him that much. “I was hired as a contract agent for the hit by a government agency.”

“Which agency?” His voice was hard, authoritative.

“I can’t tell you that.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Why did they want Salvatori dead?”

“Because he was an evil piece of shit doing illegal arms trades and sex trafficking. And because he was putting undercover agents at risk by selling information to the enemy here.” Sleeper cell members who would love nothing more than to unleash hell on American soil.

“What’s a Valkyrie?”

No way she was answering that. Time was ticking. She’d told him enough, wanted to stop him from asking any more questions. He was so close, the heat from his body sank into hers…

Desire burned in his gaze along with the anger. A desire she could use to her advantage, though that seemed distasteful now.

Trinity set her hands on his shoulders. Those hard, warm muscles bunched beneath her palms, setting off a burst of heat inside her. She looked down at his mouth, deliberately parted her lips in a practiced move designed to draw his attention there.

His dark gaze heated, dipped to her mouth. A tendril of longing spread through her belly. The urge to thread her hands into his dark hair and kiss him was intense; the need to distract him even stronger. Brody hadn’t moved, but she could feel the silent tension thrumming inside him, the desire he couldn’t hide.

With her back still touching the wall she leaned her head forward to brush her lips over his. He stiffened for a moment but didn’t pull away, his breath warm on her face.

He was a challenge she couldn’t resist.

That he didn’t give in right away, that he was making her wait, made this even hotter. She didn’t understand the attraction between them and certainly didn’t trust it, but it was there whether she wanted it to be or not. She allowed her eyes to drift close, her body to sway more fully against his as she opened her lips under his.

To her surprise, Brody wrenched his head back. Her eyes flew open and his dark gaze hardened with anger. “I’m not a mark for you to seduce. Don’t play with me.”

For a moment Trinity was too shocked to respond. She was so used to men turning into putty in her hand. When she turned on the seductress routine and made a move, none of them ever stood a chance. Yet Brody had seen right through it. Granted, she looked like hell right now, but God, maybe she really was losing her appeal.

He felt good pressed up against her like this. Edgy, a little dangerous even, but not in a threatening way. He would never hurt her physically. He wasn’t built that way.

He released her and stepped back, but it was clear from the heated look he gave her that things weren’t finished between them, and that scared the hell out of her.

Let’s see him walk away from this.

Pride stinging, not about to let him have the last word, she grabbed his head and fused her mouth to his, putting her entire body into this kiss.

Brody knew exactly what she was doing.

He’d pissed her off by calling her out on the attempt to distract him and she wanted to get back at him. Wanted to prove she still had the upper hand in this, but he’d be damned if he’d give in, no matter how good the kiss was.

He refused to let her win this battle of wills, didn’t matter how much he wanted her or how much she made his head spin. She seduced men for a living and wouldn’t respect him unless he proved a worthy adversary. He hated that, hated that she sold her body that way. It was just damn hard to remember all that when all he wanted to do was lose himself in her.

Instead he slowed things down, seizing control of the kiss.

Sliding one hand into her hair to cradle the back of her head, he brought the other up to cup the uninjured side of her face. Her eyes flew open and he caught the flare of surprise there before he closed his and sank into the kiss.

He held her head in a firm but careful grip and stroked his tongue against hers gently, teasing, then withdrew to suck at her lower lip. She tasted sweet, like maple syrup.

Brody licked along her lower lip, a light graze of his tongue to make her crave more. A heady surge of triumph washed through him when she let out a tiny gasp and pushed closer yet, her fingers digging into his scalp in a clear demand for more.

Knowing he needed to leave her wanting more, or at least crack that impenetrable, cool mask she hid behind, he slowed the kiss even further. Soft, lazy movements of lips and tongue that made his heart pound and his already rigid cock ache. It was so goddamn erotic, hotter than the last sex he’d had, with someone whose name he couldn’t even remember at the moment.

To his surprise Trinity made a quiet sound of yearning in the back of her throat and slowed to match his languid pace, her full, ripe curves seeming to melt into him. She was such an enigma. Composed and aloof one moment, then full of fire and passion the next.

He couldn’t know for sure but something told him she’d been hurt by a man in the past, maybe even sexually. The idea made him furious but it also made him want to soothe and comfort her, to show her not all men were evil assholes bent on using their strength against her. She was used to using her body and sexual skill as a weapon but his gut said that initial burst of surprise from her was real. Another wave of lust blasted through him.

She was into this. Into him. And he had to be careful not to let her know how bad he wanted that.

But then his plan to turn the tables on her backfired.

The way she responded, the way her body molded to his made it impossible to think straight. The tiny catch in her breathing when he once again explored her mouth with his tongue had him itching to start peeling off her clothes so he could touch and taste her delicate skin. Build her need so high that she’d forget about the power struggle and surrender to the pleasure he was more than willing to give her.

Trinity made an impatient sound in the back of her throat and nipped at his lower lip but he resisted the challenge, keeping things slow and soft. He slid the hand in her hair down to cradle her nape, squeezed his fingers around the back of her neck.

She froze, a surprised moan of pleasure-pain spilling from her. Brody did it again, a little harder, and she pulled her mouth free, groaning in relief as he kneaded her sore, tight muscles. “Oh God,” she whispered, leaning into his touch, her expression somewhere between pain and ecstasy.

Stifling a chuckle, he bent to feather kisses over the corner of her mouth. “Feel good?”

“God, yes. Don’t stop…”

An entirely different image of her begging like that burst into his mind. He imagined them both naked. He was on top of her, sucking at one of her luscious breasts as he pumped his hips and drove his rock hard cock in and out of her slick heat. He almost groaned aloud, he wanted that so badly.

But not if she was giving in just to play him.

He raised his head, studied her face and squeezed with his fingers once more. She appeared to be seriously loving what he was doing. Her eyes were still closed and her head now resting back against the wall.

Knowing he was making her feel good and easing her pain filled him with tenderness. He moved his other hand from her face and down to the top of her shoulder, squeezed the taut edge of her upper trapezius muscle. A long, liquid moan of bliss escaped her.

This time he couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Come here,” he murmured, drawing her close once more.

She went willingly, without an ounce of resistance. Brody cradled her head to his chest and kept massaging her sore muscles as he maneuvered them both backward to the queen-size bed behind him.

He stretched out on his side and drew her down next to him. When she didn’t protest, just followed him down with her eyes still closed, he pulled her into his body and resumed the massage, starting at the top of her neck and working his way down to the middle of her back.

Her hands crept up his ribs, fingers flexing gently, exploring him. He wished they were both naked but it was probably better that they weren’t because he didn’t think he’d be able to stop until he was buried inside her. And the only way he was willing to let things go that far was if it was a mutual sharing of pleasure.

She nestled against him, burying her face in the curve of his shoulder, and his heart squeezed at the gesture. “Too hard?” he murmured into her hair.

“No. Perfect,” she mumbled, then made a soft humming noise that drove him nuts. There was no way she could miss the feel of his erection shoved against her but she didn’t seem to mind and she felt so goddamn good cuddled up to him like this…

Brody closed his eyes and kept up the rhythmic motion of his hands, digging his fingers into the places that made her moan and wriggle against him. It was torture, but the best kind and he was in no hurry to see it end. The back door opened and shut downstairs—his dad was giving them more time alone in the house.

He didn’t know how long they spent that way while he rubbed and squeezed her tight muscles, giving extra attention and pressure where she needed it most, imagining the sounds she’d make for him if he rolled her to her back, peeled her jeans off and buried his mouth between her legs.