Rock Solid (12 page)

“We’ll see you at seven.”

Jud, appeased, hung up, and Brody stood by the counter, unsure what to do next.

“I think I’m going to call Aiden to see if he wants to work on the car. Since I’ll be away more come November, I want to spend more time with him now, getting it started. Then maybe he can keep tinkering with it when I’m back to the circuit.”

Hannah looked up, smiling. “Sounds wonderful. It’s great how you’re bonding with him. He seems happy.”

Brody nodded, feeling a pang of disappointment. What did he think, that she would beg him to stick around? That she wanted to spend time with him as much as he did with her?

This was all wrong. This wasn’t him, to be so needy. He’d clearly lost perspective, and he wanted to get it back. He had to get some distance, as Hannah had wisely pointed out earlier.

Still, it would have been nice if she had been at least a little reluctant to see him leave.

“We have an event tonight, as well. That was my publicist with the sponsor. They want to meet you, so they’re throwing a cocktail party at a local place. You okay with that?”

“Sure. I know it’s part of the deal. I’ll have to shop, I suppose. I don’t have anything to wear to that kind of thing, and I want to make a good impression, of course.”

Brody crossed the kitchen, tipping her chin up with his fingers as he looked down into her face.

“You could show up in a burlap bag and be perfect,” he said, leaning down to capture her lips in a quick kiss.

But he knew by now that when he was kissing Hannah, quick was never possible. Incredibly, he only seemed to want more of her. He told himself it was the situation, and they were only together a short time. It would wear off eventually, for both of them.

But not right now, he thought as he leaned over her in her chair so he could deepen the kiss. Then he decided Aiden could wait for a while, pulling Hannah to the kitchen floor with him, as she gasped and laughed.

She was sprawled over him, wearing some wisp of a sundress, which he was thankful for, since that made it easy to reach all of the things he wanted.

Looking up, he took in how the sun was now shining through her hair as it fell around her face, her lips parted, eyes bright with anticipation. She was already working the zipper on his jeans, staring at him with all of that lovely intensity she always gave to whatever she was doing.

On this, they were in exactly the same place. Her desire equaled his, and that thrilled him. Hannah didn’t say anything as she lowered herself over him, taking him in completely. For Brody, for that moment, everything in the world was right again.

11

L
ATER
THAT
EVENING
, the world had tipped on its axis, the peaceful time she had been enjoying with Brody evaporating.

Hannah tugged at the hem of her dress as Brody held the door of the Charger open, allowing her to get out. It felt too short, or maybe her heels were too high. Was her lipstick the wrong color? She took one more peek in the rearview mirror before turning her attention to the sprawling, Southern plantation–style mansion in front of them.

A flash blinded her for a moment—another reporter grabbing a picture of her and Brody as he closed the door, his other hand poised protectively at the small of her back. Hannah didn’t mind having her picture taken, but this was getting ridiculous.

She’d had no idea being in the public eye would be so...public. On top of that, her blog had almost crashed, but in a good way, and she was up most of the night posting new content as well as picking out which pictures to send to another magazine that had asked for photos from her.

She’d sent them, on a whim, a few pictures of Brody and his teenage group out by their cars, teaching the young men the ropes. The editor had loved them and wanted more to show her boss. Everything was happening at once, and Hannah could barely balance on these heels, let alone balance everything that was happening around her.

Brody, however, didn’t seem ruffled at all, not even breaking a sweat, though it was a very warm evening. At the moment, his eyes seemed to be glued to her legs as she wobbled slightly and put a hand on his shoulder to get her balance. Why had she let Brandi talk her into these shoes? Hannah never wore more than a one-inch, solid heel, but she supposed the way Brody kept looking at her made every precarious step worth it.

“I may need you to stick close so I don’t end up teetering over and making a fool of myself,” she joked, not quite hiding her nerves as they walked up to the grand entrance.

Brody slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her in closer. That did help, as always.

“You could never do that. You look amazing... Those shoes and that skirt,” he whispered in her ear, “are making me crazy. I don’t know if I’ll last the whole evening until we can get back home and I can peel that off you.”

He nipped her earlobe, making her gasp lightly as he pressed the doorbell, the immediate arousal distracting her from her nerves.

The door opened, and given the lush setting, she almost expected to see women in hoop skirts from
Gone with the Wind
on the other side, but instead a man in his fifties, she estimated, greeted them with a smile. He was handsome, but in a slick, superficial kind of way, Hannah thought. His hands were too smooth when he shook hers.

“Brody, so good to see you. This must be Hannah,” he said, smiling at her while his eyes took her in from head to toe, though not in a lascivious way.

More as if he was assessing her market value.

“Jud, good to see you, too,” Brody said, his hand tightening slightly on Hannah’s waist.

“Sorry about the short notice,” Jud said as he stepped back, motioning for them to come in, “but we couldn’t let your announcement go without some kind of celebration. This certainly happened out of the blue, but I can see why you’d want to snap up Hannah before she got away.”

“It was a spontaneous thing,” Brody agreed coolly.

Jud closed the door and faced them. “Most of the higher-ups in the company and other guests are in the garden room, and we expect a few more guests shortly. The media have been invited as well, as you can see. They are allowed to circulate freely—the more exposure the better for this. Come on in and say hello.”

Jud led the way, and they followed. Hannah caught her breath as they moved into the next room. The garden room was a gorgeous solarium that allowed the dappled sunlight that made its way through the trees and gardens outside the room to reach all of the tropical plants that filled the inside, as well.

“Oh, this is lovely,” Hannah couldn’t help but comment, and Jud faced her, smiling.

“Thank you. It’s one of our company’s favorite properties. The place was quite a mess when we picked it up. In fact, it was set for demolition. We bought it and renovated it as a historic landmark for the area and use as it an executive vacation home, as well as for special events, like this one.”

“That’s very generous of you. Many corporations wouldn’t care about something like that.”

Jud smiled, and eyed Brody. “I guess you could say we’re always interested in saving things we think are worth the effort.”

Brody stiffened slightly, and Hannah grabbed his hand, squeezing it as they walked to a long white table at the front of the room. Hannah felt all eyes turn in their direction. She supposed she was going to have to get used to that, at least for a while.

“I don’t know how you’ve done it,” she said to Brody in a low tone.

“What’s that?”

“Lived in the public eye for so long. It’s disconcerting. At the diner, here...everywhere.”

“You get used to it,” he said. “The next few days will be busy, but after that, it will quiet down again.”

“Until you return to the track, of course,” Jud said quietly, obviously overhearing their conversation. “I assume you know about that?” he asked Hannah in the same hushed tone.

She nodded. Brody had already told Jud this, but apparently he felt the need to confirm. Jud hadn’t been happy about it, apparently, but Brody hadn’t given him a choice. That was the reason for this get-together, she figured. Not to celebrate, but to size her up and make sure she knew the score.

“Of course, you understand no one else can know anything about this,” he said to her unnecessarily.

“Of course,” Hannah echoed coolly.

Jud didn’t know their marriage was not a real one, though she didn’t think he’d care, either. The guy was not made of sincerity. If this worked for Brody’s image, that was all that mattered.

Someone handed her a glass of champagne, and she smiled a thank-you, though drinking was probably not a wise option, especially since she hadn’t had dinner yet.

As she took the glass, Jud’s eyes went to her hand.

“No ring yet?”

It was all Hannah could do not to roll her eyes. The topic of the missing engagement ring had come up constantly. There were actual debates online about it on the racing fan boards.

“I really didn’t want one,” she said. “We’ll have gold bands, and that’s enough for me.”

“A ring would play better in the press, and in the pictures,” Jud said, mostly to Brody.

“I’m not marrying the press,” Brody said, smiling at Jud, but there was a warning in his eyes.

“Well, then, I suppose we should spin it as Hannah being an independent, modern woman who isn’t attached to material things, but some of your fans might not be impressed by that,” he said.

“I don’t really give a damn,” Brody said, almost making Hannah laugh out loud, given her earlier thoughts about the Margaret Mitchell setting.

She bit back the laugh, coughing instead, and both men turned to her.

“Excuse me, I guess this went down the wrong way,” she said, smiling sweetly as she took a small sip from her glass. The double entendre was clear, and she saw the publicist’s lips tighten in disapproval while Brody’s grin stretched wide.

“Let’s make some introductions, and then we can have a toast, as I think most of the press are here,” Jud said. Hannah was pretty sure that he wanted this over with as much as she did. Then he said, “Oh, and we also need to talk about your blog, Hannah. And how we can leverage that to help get positive exposure for Brody. You’re getting a great response, but we have to be careful about what we post there. Certain pictures might not convey the right...direction. It needs a better title for one thing, and a press page.”

Hannah was stunned silent, as was Brody.

“Hannah’s blog is not part of my PR campaign, Jud. It’s off-limits. She does what she wants there,” Brody said plainly.

“She’s going to be your wife. Everything she does, especially if it includes publishing pictures of you with kids involved in illegal racing or getting involved in fights, reflects on you,” Jud responded, and then cut the conversation short as someone approached and he pasted on his smile, introducing them to some corporate clone.

They made the rounds of the room and smiled for the cameras, which got exhausting pretty quickly. But Hannah did her best—this was the deal, helping Brody with his public image while seeking out new adventures for herself.

Not that this was all that adventurous. It was actually deadly boring.

She aimed to fix that, and when they had a break, she took Brody’s hand, leading him away down a hall when no one was looking. In the middle of all of this fakery, she needed something honest. She needed Brody.

“Where are we going?”

She smiled at him. “I thought it might be nice to go outside for a breath of fresh air.”

He heard her loud and clear, and smiled back. “Yeah, these guys do suck the air out of a room, don’t they? I didn’t think Jud would be coming on this strong,” he said apologetically. “He’s being a real jerk tonight. Don’t take anything he says about your blog seriously.”

Not that Hannah intended to let anyone dictate what her work would be—she’d had more than enough of that for years—but she appreciated Brody’s support and intended to show him how much. They emerged into the elaborate gardens and walked more slowly, losing themselves amid the winding paths. It was humid, but there was a pleasant, evening breeze. Tree frogs were chirping, and they discovered a screened gazebo at the end of one path, far away from the house and surrounded by dense vegetation. Completely out of view.

Exactly what she wanted.

“Hannah, are you okay?” he asked in reply to her silence. “I know Jud’s comments about your blog were out of line. I can’t believe he actually thought—”

She kissed him then, stopping his words. Hannah didn’t want to talk about Jud or anyone else. She wanted to be with Brody and to remind herself, and him, why they were in the middle of this situation anyway.

It didn’t take more than a second for Brody to respond in kind, walking her back against a post, where he took over the kiss, which Hannah didn’t mind at all.

“You taste like champagne,” he whispered. “So this is why you wanted to get away?”

“I wanted something...real,” she said, kissing him again and reaching down to take his hand, sliding it up under the hem of her dress.

Hannah, in another daring moment—they were becoming more frequent for her, definitely—had worn the dress with nothing underneath.

She was going to tell Brody before they went in the house, but had forgotten, and now she helped him discover her secret for himself.

“Oh, darlin’... Oh, yeah,” he growled against her mouth at the discovery, his hand slipping around to cup the curve of her bare backside, pulling her against his hardness. “That’s real, for sure.”

Hannah gave herself over, wrapping her arms around his neck, wanting to forget everything but how Brody felt and how he made her feel.

His fingers stroked between her legs, drawing whimpers from her, and he kissed her to help silence them, swallowing her moans as she came apart in his arms. While she tried to catch her breath, he did it again, and Hannah could only hold on tight.

But as her mind cleared, she found the zipper on his slacks, opened it and slid her fingers inside.

“You’re so hard,” she sighed. “I love touching you.”

“The feeling’s mutual, sweetheart,” he managed, his breathing reflecting how turned on he was.

Hannah loved how he surged against her, pushing into her hand, all hot, tense and full of need. Need that she planned on sating, as he had hers.

Dropping down, she braced her back against the post for balance and took him in her mouth before he could argue. Once she did, he couldn’t say anything but her name.

Hannah loved undoing him like this; it made her feel powerful, purely female. She kissed and touched him with tenderness as a desperate need welled inside of her to please him, to give him whatever she could.

“Hannah, sweetheart, you need to... I’m going to...”

She answered by taking him deeper, knowing what he was trying to say and only wanting him to let go completely for her the way she had for him. He had no choice—a second later he came, shuddering in her arms.

Hannah didn’t want this to end; she wanted as much of him as she could have, but when he tipped her face up, she smiled against his shoulder.

“You are the most incredible woman in the world,” he said, sounding very emotional.

“I know,” she said cheekily, trying to lighten the mood, enjoying how his chest rumbled with laughter in response.

“I have to say, while the fake retirement is a pain, and I can’t wait until it’s over and I’m back on the track, being with you, Hannah... Marrying you... It doesn’t feel fake at all. You said you wanted something real, but everything with you is real. I know we agreed our arrangement would be temporary until I resumed racing, but—”

Hannah’s heart was heavy as she wondered what he was about to say when a group of people rounded the corner, chatting and laughing, making Brody turn. He frowned, and with a sigh, didn’t finish what he was going to tell her.

“Time to act the happily engaged couple for a while longer, and then get the heck out of here?”

“Sure, let’s go,” she said brightly, but her happiness dimmed at his words, chilling some of the warmth they’d shared. But as they reentered the party, she put on a smile, like he did, and played her part.

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
, Brody walked down to the stables to get the horses out, since he hadn’t slept a wink. Hannah had eventually passed out, and he’d let her sleep. She’d been quiet on the drive home from the party, though when he asked her if she was okay, she’d reassured him she was.

Brody’s instincts were telling him something else was bothering her, but if she didn’t want to talk about it, he was okay with that, too.

The horses were calm in the cool, early morning, happy to be out in the pasture. Even Zip went along with him easily, as if knowing Brody had enough on his mind.