Wild with You (16 page)

 

Chapter 20

T
WENTY
-­
FOU
R
HOURS LATER
Kat stared at her bedroom ceiling wishing for jet lag. She wanted to disappear into sleep, leaving her empty apartment behind. This space—­her space—­had never felt so lonely.

It's your own fault for picturing Brianna in the spare bedroom
.

Pushing that thought away before the tears started flowing again, she closed her eyes and focused on the familiar sounds outside her window. Taxicabs honked and sirens echoed against the tall buildings. But the noise felt distant, so unlike the warm, bustling feeling of the Summers family farmhouse. There was always someone coming or going, the door slamming behind the siblings as they moved through the large kitchen.

“I don't miss the noise,” she said, throwing back the bedding in disgust. When she'd first moved to this apartment, she had loved the quiet, empty space. And the fact that it was all hers. After sharing other ­people's bedrooms and living in dorms during her long years in school, she'd craved space.

She'd wanted this life. She'd worked so hard to build it.

And now it felt empty.

The wall-­mounted phone in the hall rang, interrupting her pity party. Grateful for the interruption, even if it was the doorman mistakenly calling her apartment to let her know the neighbors' food delivery had arrived, she raced to the hall.

“Dr. Arnold?” the doorman said. “Brody Summers is here.”

“What?” Kat leaned her back against the wall, the phone cord wrapping around her front. “Brody is here?”

“Yes.” The doorman hesitated. “Should I send him up?”

Her back ran against the wall as she sank to the ground, still clutching the phone. It wasn't possible. No one had ever come after her. Foster parents, friends, the men she'd casually dated—­they'd all let her go, allowing her to gather her fears and run away.

Everyone except Brody Summers.

Kat stared at her bare legs in shock. Brody Summers had flown across the country to see her.

“Dr. Arnold?” the doorman said, his tone uneasy. “I can send him away—­”

“No.” Kat scrambled to her feet, picturing her sixty-­something doorman eyeing tall, broad-­shouldered Brody and wondering how he was going to get him out of the building lobby. “Send him up.”

“He's on his way.”

Of course. Brody had probably headed for the elevators the moment her doorman revealed her floor number. Kat dropped the phone and raced to her front door. Hand on the knob, she glanced down at her gray tank top and underwear.

A knock sounded on the door. “Kat?” Brody's deep voice reached through metal barrier. She turned the dead bolt and cracked the door open.

Brody. Seeing him standing in her hall, filling her doorway with his I-­can-­save-­you muscles, her hope rose up, thrusting her fears aside. His intense brown eyes met hers through the narrowing opening.

“You're here,” she said, unable to mask the awe in her voice. “In New York.”

“I took the red-­eye.” He smiled, but the intensity in his brown eyes didn't falter. Not for a second. She saw the wanting, and the relief, as if he'd been counting down the minutes until he could see her again.

He rested one hand on her door frame. The other held a small duffel. “Are you going to let me in?”

“I don't have any pants on,” she said.

“Good,” he said. “I've been picturing you without them for the last six hours. It made the flight damn uncomfortable.”

“I can imagine.”

“Let me in, Kat.”

Stepping back, she opened the door. Brody stepped into her narrow hallway, dropped his duffel on the floor and gathered her in his arms. And just like that the loneliness that had permeated her apartment since she'd arrived home slipped away.

“I can't believe you're here,” she murmured, her hands wrapping around his powerful biceps as if she needed solid proof that he wasn't a figment of her imagination. “Why are you here?”

“I missed you.”

She blinked, her mind quickly calculating the hours. “But it has only been—­”

His mouth claimed hers, momentarily silencing the internal calculations.

Brody drew back, his forehead touching hers. “I missed you, Kat.”

“So you flew across the country?” The disbelief seeped back in as the shock faded. “Just to see me? How long are you staying?”

Lowering his mouth, he glided his tongue over her, tasting her. “I don't know yet. A few nights. I couldn't escape the thought of you here alone.”

Her body stiffened, her back pressing against the door. “You flew across the country to save me from being lonely?”

Brody stepped back, offering space as if he could sense her old fears rushing in from all sides. But he kept his gaze fixed on hers. “After you left, I got called out to rescue a hiker with a sprained ankle. The entire time I was out there doing the work I love, carrying that woman down the trail, I thought of you.”

Kat crossed her arms in front of her chest, wishing she'd told the doorman to keep Brody downstairs while she put on pants. She wanted to tell him that she hadn't been wallowing in loneliness. But that would be a lie.

“You don't need to save me, Brody.” And that was the truth. She would have found a way through on her own. She always did.

“No, I don't,” he said. “I didn't drop everything and race to the airport as soon as the hiker was on her way to the hospital because I thought you needed someone. I came because I love you, Kat. And I'll do whatever it takes to prove it to you.”

You're here
. Kat pressed her lips together. She wished she could say that was enough. But she'd spent years building her defenses. Even if she wanted to let him in, even if she wanted to love him, she couldn't tear the walls down just like that.

“I'm glad you came,” she said, lowering her arms and taking a step back.

Brody smiled. “Straight from one helluva long hike. I drew a few stares when I landed in New York wearing muddy work boots and dirty jeans.”

She let out a laugh, allowing the weighed emotions, the ones that pushed her toward panic and a flashing, neon exit sign, to fade into the background. For now. “It wasn't your boots, Brody. It's you. But before I take you out and show you the sights, I know just what you need.”

He closed the space between them, placing one hand on either side of her head. “Tell me.”

“Right now I'm picturing you in my shower, water rushing down your back as I wash every inch of you.” Kat ducked under his arm and headed for the hall. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled back at him. “Does that line up with you mental image?”

“No, Kat,” he said, his voice a low growl. “It's better.”

B
RODY
TRI
ED
NEVER
to make the same mistake twice. And walking away from a naked woman he'd fallen in love with, a second time, was flat out dumb. He had a plan to prove his feelings for her. As far as he was concerned, it started here, in her shower.

Stripping off his clothes and dropping them beside the panties and shirt she'd abandoned the minute they'd walked into the bathroom, Brody pulled aside the curtain. Little Miss Perfect stood under the shower's warm spray, her head tipped back. Long wet blond hair ran down her back. Her hands moved over her body leaving a trail of bubbles over her breasts. The blood abandoned his brain, racing to his lower body. But he remembered his questions.

“Before I get in, I need to know your favorite color,” he said.

Kat stepped out from under the water and wiped her eyes, blinking them open. Her gaze roamed over his naked body, her lips curling up in a soft smile.

Keep looking, Kat. I'm yours, today, tomorrow, and the day after that.

“Pink,” she said, her voice teasing his senses, tempting him to reach out and touch her.

Brody climbed in, drawing the shower curtain closed behind him. Wrapping his arms around her, he backed her up against the shower's marble wall, the water rushing over them. He pressed one leg between hers, pinning her in place.

“What about my favorite food?” she asked, her hands moving over his back, drifting up to his shoulders.

“That can wait.”

He captured her lips, kissing her, exploring her mouth until she arched. She pressed her breasts against him as if she needed to feel her body against his. Her hands moved to his hair, grabbing on as if she might fight for control. Holding her against the shower wall with his body, careful not to push her against the hot and cold knobs, he wrapped his hands around her wrists and drew them away.

“Wait for what?” she murmured, breaking the kiss as he pinned her arms to the tiles and held them there.

“My next visit.”

She stilled, every inch of her frozen. “Planning a lot of trips on the red-­eye?”

“Yes. We're not over, Kat.” He drew his thigh up, drawing her legs apart. “I'm not asking you for words or promises. All I'm asking is that you don't shut me out. I'm flying out here every damn weekend if that is what it takes to prove to you that my feelings are real and lasting.”

“Your brothers and sister,” she gasped as he rocked his thigh against her. She adjusted her feet, spreading her legs farther and offering him access. “And your job. What about the trucks? The search and rescue squad?”

“The trucks will survive. And my siblings can live without me for a weekend. Probably longer at this point.” His leg stopped moving as he looked down into her green eyes, wanting her to hear his words. “Chad has Lena now. Katie is marrying Liam. Josh has regained his memory, and I think Megan will be around for a while too. I've been so focused on taking care of them, I didn't think to step back and ask if they really need me.”

“They're your family,” she said, her eyes wide despite the water falling over them, warming their bodies.

“I'm not cutting them out of my life, Kat. But now that they've moved out and we've sold the business, they don't need me there, holding everything together. I can visit you without my family or my job falling apart. And there are plenty of guys on the search and rescue squad to handle the calls.”

“But you love it,” she said. “Saving ­people.”

“It's not the only thing I love,” he said, hoping like the hell she wouldn't leap out of the shower when that word crossed his lips.

“Brody,” she said, her body drawing away from him in spite of his intimate hold on her.

“I want you, Kat. Please don't shut me out. I swear I want you. Just you.” Brody drew his thigh away, shifting closer. “And right now, I want to make you scream my name.”

K
AT
CLOSED
HER
eyes, losing herself in the feel of his lips on her wet skin, kissing her neck. His hands held her wrists above her head, demanding control. With the water rushing over her skin, falling between them, she let him take her. She wanted Brody just the way he was.

Giving.

Caring.

And hard. His hips rocked forward, his cock gliding over her wet skin.

“Condom,” she murmured, his lips moving lower, his tongue licking a path across the top of her breasts.

He shifted, capturing both of her wrists in one hand. His free arm shot out, pushing aside the curtain and grabbing a packet from beside the sink.

“You thought ahead.”

“I'm not going to lie, Kat.” He released her wrists. The intensity of his gaze demanded that she keep her arms against the wall. And she obeyed. “I've stood in the shower dreaming about you, wanting you here with me.”

“Tell me,” she challenged. “Tell me what you imagined in your daydreams.”

He stepped back, placing the length of the tub between them. Standing out of the shower's spray, he tore open the condom and tossed the wrapper onto the floor outside the curtain. One hand wrapped about his hard length, drawing her gaze to the part of his body that she wanted inside her . . .

She gasped as he stroked up and down, her legs threatening to give out beneath her.

“I pictured lifting you up,” he said. The rough raw edge in his voice left no doubt that he was coming for her. “Wrapping your legs around me, holding you against the wall while I slid inside. “Just for a moment,” he added, his hand moving faster now, up and down, his hips thrusting into his touch.

“And then?”

“I'd release you.” He rolled the condom on but remained on the far side of the tub. “I'd tell you to turn around and place your palms against the tiles.”

She lowered her arms and followed his instructions, her nipples touching the shower wall, her hands flat. Glancing over her shoulder, she murmured, “Like this?”

He stepped forward, reaching for her hips, his fingers pressing into her skin. Her feet shifted, adjusting her stance as he pulled her toward him. Water rushed over her back, pooling on the center of the flat surface before running over her sides.

“Like this,” he said, his fingers touching her, testing her before he slid inside.

Brody groaned and she closed her eyes as he began to thrust against her.

Possessive
. She wanted him just like this, taking what he wanted and offering her a sinfully delicious reward.

“Take me, Brody.” She screamed the words over and over as he filled her again and again. Holding her hip with one hand, the other slid around her body, his thumb pressing her there, right where she needed him, and pushing her over the edge.

“You're mine,” he said as the orgasm took everything she had.

He thrust into her one last time and his hips stilled, holding there, his breath ragged. Slowly, he slid out of her, his hands moving up her body, drawing her back to his front. He wrapped his arms around her, one powerful forearm covering her breasts and the other holding her waist. Warm water washed over her front as his lips brushed her ear.