The Markhams had rented a car after driving back from the airport in her tiny Sunfire. Which suited her just fine. It meant that she could have Grant all to herself by the time they shut the car doors. If she played her cards right, she could have her hands under that sweater of his in a matter of minutes, and then he wouldn’t take much convincing after that.
“Shall we go out to dinner?” Reggie asked as they all departed from the boat. “I’m famished.”
Brenna gave what she hoped was a convincing yawn. “I’m really tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
To her surprise, Grant’s wind-reddened cheeks turned bright pink. Was the man blushing? Over that innocent comment?
“But we were going to go out for a lovely dinner,” Justine protested. “It won’t be the same if you don’t go.”
“Brenna’s exhausted, so I think I’ll just take her home,” Grant said, looping a casual hand around her waist and pulling her close. “We’ll order a pizza.”
The small movement made her body sing with anticipation. Soon, my hormones. Very soon. And she slid her hand into Grant’s back pocket and lightly caressed his ass through the fabric of his slacks, enjoying the way he jerked in response to her touch.
But to her dismay, Elise gave them an expectant look, her hands stuffed into her jacket. “I’ll just hitch a ride back with you guys, then. Pizza sounds fine to me.”
Thwarted by the well-meaning sister. Damn it. They couldn’t exactly turn her down since she was sleeping on the lodge couch.
Grant’s smile was a bit tight at the edges as he nodded at his sister. “That’s fine.”
It was? Brenna’s brows drew together and she studied his crotch. She was pretty sure he was about to break free with a tent in the front of his slacks, so why not tell his sister to buzz off and give them some alone time? She would have done that and paired it with a smile to let Elise know that she didn’t mean anything by it.
But not Grant. Damn him. Now he was just doing this shit on purpose. Did he not want to be alone with her because she didn’t want a relationship? If that was the case, she’d have to be persuasive when she got him alone. Because right now? She was really, really turned on and she wanted him in a bad way. Not the relationship, just the sex.
And what kind of man didn’t want some no-strings-attached sex?
They said their good-byes to Grant’s parents, promising to give them a tour of the survival school in the morning. All the while, Brenna yawned and tried to look fatigued.
And then they got in Brenna’s car. Grant had wanted to drive, but Pop was still stymied by the Audi’s mysterious malfunction the other day and wanted to tinker with the engine a bit more. Grant had shot her a few exasperated looks, but no one had wanted to be the one to tell Pop that most of the items he’d been repairing had been deliberately broken . . . so the Audi remained unusable and they’d driven in her junker.
She jammed the keys in the ignition, irritable with arousal. Elise slid into the backseat, and then Grant got in the passenger side. They waved a polite good-bye to Grant’s parents as Brenna pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the highway, speeding back to Bluebonnet.
The car was silent. No one spoke for long minutes, and the interior was dark and shadowed. Brenna glanced in the rearview mirror. Elise had her head back, eyes closed, and it looked as if she was napping. Brenna looked over at Grant.
He was watching her, his eyes dark behind his wire-rimmed glasses. His hair was still tousled from the lake. That was sexy. When she shifted gears again, instead of putting her hand back on the steering wheel, she moved it casually to his knee to see what he’d say.
He adjusted in his seat, his leg twitching under her grip, but he said nothing. Didn’t push her hand away, didn’t speak and wake up his sister. It was like he was watching and waiting to see what she’d do.
Oh, little did he know. She’d do plenty.
Her hand slid a bit higher up his thigh.
He shifted.
Brenna kept her eyes on the road, but her hand went to cup his cock. Through his trousers, she could feel the stiff length of him, and memories flooded back of just how well equipped he’d been. Grant was the perfect size for her, all thick, blunt-tipped cock and smooth length, just wide enough to rub her in all the right places. She stroked her hand over his length.
His fingers covered hers, and she heard the sharp inhale of his breath.
Was he trying to get her to remove her hand? She shot him another look, but he was watching her. Brenna’s gaze flicked to the backseat, but Elise was still out of it, eyes closed, breathing even. Perfect.
She ignored the palm covering hers and wrapped her fingers around the length of him. She could feel the bulge of his cockhead through his pants and she squeezed it, then ran her hand over the length of him again. Then stroked once more.
The silence in the car was almost oppressive with tension. Brenna could feel her pussy getting slick with excitement, Grant’s flesh hot and practically throbbing under her grip. She shifted in her seat, practically squirming with her own need. Her pulse pounded low in her hips, all her nerve endings lit up, and she had to bite back her own groan when she stroked him again. Grant’s head fell back against the seat’s headrest. His hand still rested over hers, but now it seemed more of a guide than an admonishment. He certainly wasn’t protesting. He could have pulled her hand away at any time.
And just to test that theory, she wrapped her fingers around his length and then didn’t move, waiting.
His response came a moment later, when he realized she wasn’t going to lift her fingers. His hand curled around hers, and he roughly dragged her hand, forcing her up and down his length, the movement made awkward through the fabric. But damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell. He wanted this. She practically purred with her own excitement and began to stroke him again, her hand moving harder and faster, her touch becoming bolder.
Too soon, she saw their turnoff. Damn it. Just when she was starting to have fun. Poor Grant was going to have blue balls, she thought, swallowing her wicked giggle as she carefully removed her hand from his lap and put it on the steering wheel.
His eyes opened then, and he gave her a hot, incredulous look as if to silently say why the fuck did you stop?
She turned on her blinker, the clicking sound overloud in the darkness. “Almost home,” Brenna called out, her voice deliberately cheerful.
Elise started awake and rubbed her eyes. “I always forget how long the drive back to Bluebonnet is,” she said sleepily.
Brenna smiled at her in the rearview mirror and looked over at Grant again. He was staring out the passenger side window, and she noticed he’d carefully adjusted his coat so it covered up his erection. Lucky for him he had that coat.
She pulled into the nearly empty gravel parking lot of the survival school and was surprised to see a motorcycle parked in her usual space.
“Who drives a bike?”
Brenna frowned at Grant’s question. “Don’t know. One of Dane’s friends, maybe? Or Colt’s brothers?”
“Colt’s brothers drive trucks,” Grant answered, his voice strained just a bit. “We might have company.” And he sounded dismayed at the prospect, which pleased her all the more.
Was it weird that she found it arousing to torment him? Probably.
They got out of the car, and she noticed that Grant was careful to keep his hip-length coat buttoned in the front, despite it being a fairly mild night. Her mouth twitched with amusement when he scowled at her, as if somehow needing someone to blame for his problem.
It wasn’t her fault that he’d gotten turned on, now was it?
Well, maybe just a little bit her fault.
Brenna led the way into the main lodge, Grant walking a fair distance behind them. The lights were on, which told her that someone was up and hanging out. The lodge tended to be a bit of a rec
center for all of them, since the cabins were small and didn’t have much room for stretching out. Her own cabin was small, so she could only imagine how Miranda and Dane or Beth Ann and Colt felt in their own tiny cabins. A lot of evenings, she’d slip into the main lodge to make a sandwich and find both couples cuddled up on the couches, watching TV or playing video games. The two women were best friends, and the two men were, too, so it was natural that they all hung out together.
Brenna was a little envious of their clique, but the girls never forgot her when they were having a girls’ night. She’d been dragged to have her hair and nails done by Beth Ann and Miranda more times than she could even think about. It was nice to have girlfriends after years of just hanging out with guys. Shy Elise could do well with some girl time, she suspected, glancing at Grant’s sister. Elise seemed awkward and out of place at all times, unless she was with family. If she wasn’t, she just tried to quietly blend into the background. And that sort of thing was foreign to Brenna.
She opened the cabin door and headed inside, surprised to see Pop sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, their new employee Rome sitting nearby. Uh-oh. “Hey, Rome,” she called out cheerfully, waving at him. She shot a glance at Grant. “I thought I told you to come by in the morning?”
“In the morning? Is he the carpenter?” Grant looked at Brenna curiously.
“He might be,” she said quickly, giving Rome a meaningful look.
Rome stood up, all black T-shirt and arms covered in tattoos. Even his neck was covered in tattoos, and he had gauges in his ears. His face was pensive as he watched her and the others as they entered the cabin behind her. “I’m sorry. Am I intruding?”
Brenna shrugged. “Can’t really intrude. This cabin isn’t private.” She headed over and gave Pop a kiss on his leathery cheek. “How’s it hanging, Pop? You fix Grant’s car yet?”
“Not yet,” he told her mildly. “Been working on that toilet all day. You’re bad luck, missy.” But he patted her arm affectionately.
“I must be,” she said, winking at Elise’s red face. “Things always seem to break when I’m around. I must have walked under a ladder or something.”
Grant was frowning at Rome as if something wasn’t adding together, and Elise looked uncomfortable as hell. Oops. There went her plan for not telling Grant that she’d already hired someone. Well, she’d fix that in the morning. She didn’t feel like talking about it right now.
“Pop,” Brenna said, heading toward Grant’s sister. “You met Elise earlier, right?”
A noise came out of Elise’s throat that might have been a whimper, or might have been a really, really quiet hello.
Brenna ignored it. “Everyone, that guy over there with the fierce tats is Rome.”
Rome’s gaze was darting back and forth, and he had stiffened, almost as if he expected to be tossed out. “Pop mentioned I could stay here overnight, but if it’s going to be a problem—”
“Not a problem,” Brenna said, waving a hand. “Help yourself.”
“Elise is staying here,” Grant cut in. “I’m not letting my sister sleep in the lodge with a stranger here.”
“She’s not,” Brenna said quickly. “She can stay in Pop’s cabin and Pop can sleep out here on the couch, and Rome can stay in my cabin.”
“Your cabin?” Elise asked, brows furrowing.
“Before I moved in with Grant,” she said quickly, covering the lie. “The empty one.”
“There’s no blankets or a bed,” Elise interjected, her voice so small it was barely audible.
“I don’t need them,” Rome said. “No big deal.”
“Empty cabin?” Pop scratched his head. “I’m not sure—”
Brenna decided it was time to end this conversation before things escalated. “Grant and I are going to bed.” She moved to Grant’s side and dug her hands into the front of his jacket, dragging his face down to hers. She kissed the frown off his face, ignoring how stiff he was. Surprised, most likely.
Pop chuckled. “Well now.”
Brenna swiped her tongue across Grant’s tightly pressed mouth and was pleased to feel him soften under her grasp. The desire she’d been fighting all night was turning quickly into an inferno, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She broke the kiss and glanced at the others. “I’ve been dying to get my hands on this man all day, so you guys will have to excuse us. I need to strip him naked and do dirty things to him.”
“Brenna,” Grant began.
She placed a finger over his lips to quiet him and looked over at Pop. “Can you order pizza for everyone? Grant’s business credit card is in my desk. Leave us a few slices and we’ll sneak out to get them later.” She winked at the two men and the awkward, terrified face of Elise. The girl was in good hands with Pop, and Rome was cute as could be. She’d be fine.
Hell, Brenna didn’t care if she was fine or not. She just wanted to get Grant alone and sate the itch she’d been feeling for hours. She glanced up at him and he looked as if he was about to protest again, so she leaned in and kissed him, then bit down gently on his lower lip, tugging on it.
“Come on, Grant,” she whispered when she let him go. “You know you want to.”
His gaze was dark with desire when he focused back on her face, and when she pulled on his collar, he allowed her to lead him away.
He said nothing until they got outside and headed toward his cabin. “I can’t believe you,” he told her, the harsh words tempered by the sexy rasp in his voice. “Now Pop’s going to think we’re sleeping together.”
“We are sleeping together,” she pointed out. “Your sister has my blankets, remember?”
“And now someone else is sleeping over, and I have no clue who he is,” Grant began. “And how the hell did you get my business credit card? And—”
They got to the front door of his cabin and she pushed it open, dragging him inside even as he talked. And then Brenna leaned in and gave his mouth a full-on, lingering lick that silenced him. “You going to keep talking or are we going to have some raunchy sex?”
“Are you trying to distract me?” His brows knitted.
She shrugged and moved away a step or two. “I mostly wanted to get laid, but if you’re not interested—”
He grabbed her arm before she could dance out of his reach, and he dragged her back toward him. “Oh no you don’t, you little tease.” Brenna felt a wicked thrill when he pulled her back up against him, and his hands cupped her ass. “You’ve been rubbing up against me all day, and that move in the car was just dirty.”
“Delightfully dirty, wasn’t it?” Brenna trailed a finger down his front. “You liked it. I could tell.” She leaned in and nipped at his chin with her teeth. “You were so hard in my grip.”
He groaned, his hands clenching her ass. “My sister was in the backseat, Brenna.”
“She wasn’t looking,” Brenna said, skating her hand down his flat belly and back toward his cock. “She was napping. I could have jerked you off and she wouldn’t have noticed.”
His breath sucked in when her hand slid back around his cock. “I noticed.”
“Mmm. Then I guess you saw how horny it made me?” She clenched her thighs together in memory. “I was so wet just from touching you.”
Grant stared down at her face with dark, tortured eyes. “So you want more meaningless sex with me? Is that what you’re looking for?”
She sighed, dropping her hands. “Why does it have to be more? Why can’t it just be sex because I want to fuck you and you want to fuck me?”
“Because that’s not how I’m made, Brenna.”
“Really?” She reached between his legs and grasped him again, caressing his rock-hard cock. “Sure feels like you’re made that way to me.”
“You want me to just use you?” he rasped, and dragged his wire-rimmed glasses off his face in a move that made her get wet with n
eed all over again. “No emotions, just sex?”
“Exactly,” she said enthusiastically. “One hundred percent just sex.”
“Like we’re strangers?”
She shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”
Brenna was surprised when, in the next moment, he grasped the back of her neck and hauled her toward him in a fierce kiss. She melted when his tongue plunged into her mouth in a hard, dominating stroke. When the man gave in, he really, really gave in. Responding to his kiss, Brenna clung to the front of his shirt as he slowly stroked against her tongue, working her simmering desire to a fever pitch.
She barely noticed when he dragged their twined bodies over a few steps, until the backs of her thighs hit his couch. And then, to her surprise, he broke the kiss, staring down at her. “Just sex, right?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice to not wobble. Her legs were doing enough wobbling as it was.
With his hand still on the back of her neck, he pulled away and turned her around toward the couch, facing away from him.
Curious, Brenna let him lead her, not protesting. But her breath sucked in when he pressed down on her neck, indicating that she should bend over the couch.
She did so, and her ass went up into the air. And it made her wet all over again. This was so not like Grant. Or maybe it was. He loved control in the office, and in this, he was definitely in control.
Behind her, she felt him looming, and his hips pressed against her ass. She gave a small shimmy, bucking back against him, even as his hand continued to pin her to the couch. She could see nothing but fluffy, dark green pillows in front of her, and her imagination was making her wild, imagining what he was doing behind her.
His hand went to the front of her jeans and he pushed at the button of her fly, trying to open them. She helped him out, undoing the fastenings and then dragging the zipper down. As soon as she did, his hand went to the waistband of her pants, ripping them down her legs and letting them pool at her knees. And then he cursed. “Where the hell are your panties?”
“Didn’t wear any,” she told him breathlessly. “I’m out.”