Candy Crush (7 page)

Just as many as Brandon had charmed with
his
smile. The thought made him grimace. Then he gritted his
teeth, because
he
planned to ask her to go to the game, he
just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

Gabriella’s smile had a wicked edge when she
responded to Jared. “I would love to.”

Brandon and Jared both stared at her. Jared
recovered first.

“That’s fantastic. The game starts at seven.
Want to grab dinner here at the Hotel first?”

“Sure, that sounds nice.”

“Great. Why don’t you meet me here at
five-thirty?”

“Okay.”

Jared bid them both good bye and as soon as
he ambled away, Brandon rounded on Gabriella.

“What the hell was
that
?” he
demanded.

“I have no idea what you are talking
about.”

“You – acting all – all” – he waved his hand
in an agitated manner. “Sex kitten-ish,” he finally blurted.

“I wasn’t acting…
sex kitten-ish
,”
she said as she blinked slowly, the epitome of innocence.

“Liar. You need to cancel that date. He’ll
eat you alive.”

“I can handle men like him.”

“No, you can’t. He’ll seduce you and take
you home and you won’t even realize it’s happening. He’ll have to
take you to his house, because he’s sure as hell not bringing you
back to mine. And if he can’t figure out a way to kick you out as
soon as the deed is done, he’ll certainly do it first thing in the
morning. And you’ll never hear from him again, and everyone will
know he scored with you.”

Gabriella stared at him in open-mouthed
shock. Finally, she recovered and said, “I’ve been able to resist
you
thus far.”

“I know. You’re a fucking anomaly. I’ve
never worked so hard to get laid in my life.”

“We haven’t even known each other for
twenty-four hours yet!”

“I know. We should be in my bedroom right
now, working on round three. And by round three I mean
today
.” He glared at her until she turned away.

“I can handle myself,” she said
defiantly.

“No you can’t. You aren’t going out with
him.”

“Is this how you normally steal women from
him?”

“No, Sweet Pea. It’s just you. You’re under
my skin and it’s driving me fucking nuts.” He glared at her. “You
are not going to that game with him.”

“My mother always said I had a problem with
authority figures.”

“Your mother should have locked you in the
damn basement.”

“We don’t have basements in Dallas.”

Brandon glared again, and then, without
warning, he cupped a hand around her neck and pulled her to him and
proceeded to ravage her mouth. After a few moments, he broke the
kiss and Gabriella had to grab the front of his shirt because her
knees buckled. He smiled smugly and she let go of his shirt and
smacked him across the face.

He stood there in stunned silence for a
moment before he grabbed her wrist and literally dragged her from
the room. She struggled to keep up with him and when she stumbled
down the stairs, he caught her, stood her upright and walked at a
more sedate pace, still grasping her wrist like a manacle. When
they were outside, he pulled her around to the side of the building
and pushed her back against the brick wall.

“What the hell was that?” he demanded. He
put both hands on the wall, on both sides of her face and glared
down at her.

“I slapped you. You deserved it. That kiss
was purely a possessive act, letting everyone in that room know
that I was off limits. You wanted to kiss me before Jared had the
chance.”

“I don’t know what kind of math they teach
you down in Texas, but that was kiss number two.”

***

Gabriella contemplated slapping him again.
Unfortunately, she knew this entire predicament was partially – if
not entirely – her own fault. Her ridiculous jealousy over the
beautiful women fawning over Brandon spurred her to accept Jared’s
invitation, because she could tell it would irk Brandon. She just
hadn’t expected him to react quite so… thoroughly. Her eyes dropped
to stare at his lips. God help her, she wanted kiss number three.
But she was right when she told him she had a real problem with
authority figures.

“I might save Jared the work and throw
myself at him on Friday.”

Brandon looked aghast. “If you sleep with
him” – He sputtered and couldn’t seem to come up with an
appropriate threat.

“You’ll what?” Gabriella goaded.

“I’ll be first in line to spread the rumor
and by Saturday morning, the whole damn town will know.”

She gasped, appalled at his response. He
continued to glare at her, almost challenging her to defy him.

“I’m going back to your house and packing my
stuff and going to a hotel.” She gave him a shove and he stumbled
backwards. She turned and began purposefully striding down the
street. Brandon chased after her.

“You are not going to a hotel,” he said as
he easily caught up with her and began matching her stride. She
ignored him and continued walking down the street.

Two blocks later, he said, “Please don’t
leave,” so softly that she stopped because she wasn’t sure she
heard him correctly. He gave her a disarming, crooked smile and
said it again. He sounded sincere. Gabriella stared at him for
several heartbeats, and then she began jabbing her finger into his
chest as she talked.

“Rule number one: you do
not
tell me
what to do. Rule number two: we are
not
going to sleep
together. If you cannot abide by either of those rules, I am
leaving. Do you understand me?”

Brandon put his hands up, palms out and
said, “I can handle rule number one. But I’m not agreeing to rule
number two.”

“Fine. Goodbye.” She started to turn and he
grabbed her arm.

“Okay, okay, let’s modify it. I will stop
making moves on you. If you decide you can’t resist me, then that’s
fair game.”

She rolled her eyes.

“But only if you cancel your date with
Jared.”

Gabriella crossed her arms and glared at
him. He steadily watched her, until she found herself relaxing,
softening.

“Fine. It’s a deal.” She held out her hand
and he shook it. She resisted the urge to suggest they seal the
pact with a kiss. Hadn’t she just told him she did not want to
sleep with him?

She began walking again and he shrugged out
of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. She accepted it and
they walked in silence for a few blocks. When they were almost to
his house, Gabriella said, “I didn’t really want to go out with him
anyway. He only wants me because you do.”

“Nothing against you, but you’re probably
right. As bad as my reputation is, his is slightly worse, and well
deserved.”

“Are your female relatives trying to marry
him off too?”

“Not so much anymore. I think they believe
he truly is a lost cause. We tend to go after the same women. It’s
a sick game we’ve been playing for way too long.”

“Why is he a lost cause?”

“Because he really is a jerk about women. I
may use them, but at least I’m nice about it, and I always let them
down easy. Jared uses them, promises them the moon and then walks
away without a backwards glance. Rumor has it there are one or two
illegitimate Jared’s running around, but no one is willing to admit
it.”

“You do realize these true confessions are
not helping your cause, right?”

“Sweet Pea, you can ask around, anyone I’ve
ever been with still loves me. I treat them like queens and they
always have a smile on their faces when we part ways.”

“There’s that conceit I’m so fond of.”
Gabriella said, tongue in cheek.

He leaned in and his breath ruffled her
hair, while her breath caught in her throat. “You know you still
want it,” he whispered.

She swallowed convulsively. At least if she
did give in to temptation, the expectations were clearly laid out
ahead of time. That was only a small comfort, however, because
Gabriella was pretty confident that giving in to the temptation
that was Brandon Sarantos could easily result in a broken heart, no
matter how gently he let her down.

It was only six-thirty by the time they
arrived at Brandon’s house. He opened the door and Butter bound
out, her entire body shaking with her enthusiasm at seeing them
again.

“I take it you don’t leave your dog alone
much?” Brandon asked as they sat on the porch and let Butter
relieve herself on the front lawn.

“I used to have a full time job, so she was
alone eight or nine hours a day. But she’d act like this whether we
were gone five minutes or five hours.”

“I guess there’s something to be said for an
enthusiastic welcome every time you came home.”

They sat in companionable silence for a few
minutes. Gabriella wondered what they would do with the rest of the
evening. Yesterday was easy. It was so late when they got home, and
she’d been so exhausted from driving all day, that they’d gone
straight to bed. Today, they still had the entire evening stretched
out before them.

“Are you hungry?” Brandon asked after a
while.

“I could eat,” Gabriella admitted.

“I have some chicken and vegetables in the
fridge. I could throw together a stir fry.”

“That sounds great.”

“Come on, you’re cold.”

***

Gabriella went upstairs to change into more
comfortable, warmer clothes. Brandon walked into the kitchen, and
stopped to turn on the furnace on the way.

When she padded into the kitchen wearing
pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt, she asked, “Did I just hear the
furnace kick on?”

Brandon glanced at her and was dismayed to
see that she looked fabulous even in a baggy sweatshirt and pajama
bottoms. He had been half-hoping her version of changing into
something more comfortable involved silk and satin and lace, so it
was disconcerting to find himself attracted to her when she wasn’t
even trying to look good.

“Yeah. It’ll probably take a minute to warm
up. It’s the first time I’ve turned it on since last spring.”

“You didn’t have to do that for me,” she
protested.

He ignored her protest.

“I can help,” she said, and so he set her to
work cutting vegetables, while he cut up and then sautéed chunks of
chicken breast. He tossed rice and water into the steamer and added
Gabriella’s freshly chopped vegetables to the chicken. While he did
that, Gabriella set the table with plates, forks and napkins.

“There’s a bottle of chardonnay in the
fridge,” Brandon commented, so Gabriella added two glasses of wine
to her table setting.

When they sat down and began eating, Brandon
surprised himself by saying, “That was fun.”

“What, cooking?”

“Cooking with you. I don’t think I’ve ever
cooked side by side with someone else before, except my mother or
my grandmother. And all they do is bitch at me because I’m not
doing it their way.”

“We hardly cooked together,” Gabriella
pointed out. “All I did was cut up a few vegetables and set the
table.”

“Trying to be nice here, and you aren’t
really working with me.”

Gabriella smiled and said, “Okay, sorry.
Yes, it was fun.” She paused and then asked a question she’d been
curious about all day. “Do you pick up all women the same way?”

Brandon looked surprised by the question.
“No. It depends on their personality, or their expectations.
Why?”

“I was just wondering why you are using the
ploy you’ve been using on me.”

Brandon chuckled. “I don’t know if I’d call
it a ploy just yet. I haven’t quite figured out what makes you
tick. Although I can tell that you are attracted to bad boys. You
have this smooth and innocent southern belle demeanor, but I bet
you like a man who’s just a little bit dangerous. Everything else
in your life was probably so damn perfect and right, the only way
you could get a little excitement was by dating the wrong men.
Probably drove your parents nuts.”

Brandon watched her as he took a sip of
wine. She took a fair amount of time collecting her thoughts before
replying. “I suppose there is some truth to your statement.” Her
words were slow, deliberate. She was thinking about a specific
situation or a specific man. He wanted to ask but instinctively
knew she would not be forthcoming with information.

“But I think I may be changing my
perspective a little. The last
bad boy
was a tad too
dangerous for me,” she added after another moment’s pause.

“Did he hurt you?” He finally asked, because
he really wanted to know. And then he’d hunt down and kill the
bastard if he had.

Gabriella stared off into space for a long
time. Finally, she said, “No, not physically, although the threat
was certainly there, especially at the end. He was dangerous in
other ways. And it took me a long time to build up the courage to
leave him. Towards the end, I think he was getting suspicious, and
desperate, and I really did begin to worry that he would physically
hurt me. But I left before he had a chance.”

“You make it sound like you were a
prisoner.”

Gabriella nodded and absently sipped her
wine. “I felt like I was. I guess I kind of was. It was not a
relationship I could simply walk away from. I had to have a plan in
place, and I had to be sure he would never be able to find me.” She
glanced up and saw that Brandon was watching her intently.

“What’s his name?”

“Why?”

“So if someone by that name comes to town, I
can head him off at the pass, so he can’t get to you.”

“Miguel,” she said softly. “Miguel
Martinez.”

Brandon nodded and committed the name to
memory.

After dinner, they cleaned the kitchen
together, and then sat down on the couch to watch television. They
argued over what to watch, and finally settled on an old sitcom,
and soon, they were both laughing and joking along with the
television. It was companionable and comfortable.