Читать книгу The Complete Red-Hot And Historical Collection - Ким Лоренс, Kelly Hunter - Страница 39

LATER THAT EVENING Chantal and Brodie wandered around The Rocks. To anyone else they might have looked like two people who’d been together forever. Behind the bridge the sun had set, streaking the sky with rich shades of gold, pink and red. Sydney was ready for a night out, glittering and looking its absolute best in the balmy air.

Brodie looked as though he belonged with the glamorous city crowd—as he did with any scene he joined. He had the ability to melt into a group of people no matter who they were. Rich clients, hard-working staff, children—he charmed them all. She’d seen it first hand at Weeping Reef. No wonder he’d done so well with his business.

Women were his forte. He knew exactly what to say to charm them straight out of their panties. Sometimes he could do it without saying a thing. Now she couldn’t help but notice the way other women stared at him as they strolled back to the yacht. And why wouldn’t they?

His hips rolled in a sensuous, languid gait. He had that loose-limbed, laid-back sexiness that was impossible to fake. You either had it or you didn’t. And, boy, did he have it!

What is it about focus that you don’t understand? Hands off, lips off, eyes off… everything off. Ugh, stop thinking about him!

‘You’re quiet,’ he said as they returned to the boat.

The rest of the Weeping Reef crew would be joining them in an hour or so, and Chantal planned to enjoy her night off. The audition played on her mind, but if she thought about it any more she’d surely go crazy. No, tonight would be an opportunity to let her hair down and relax before she had to go back to the bar.

‘My mind isn’t,’ Chantal muttered.

‘Anything in particular bothering you?’

‘Just thinking about work stuff.’

It wasn’t a total lie, and she wasn’t going to encourage him by revealing her inner monologue about his hotness.

‘You can’t be all work and no play.’ He walked to the fridge on deck and pulled out a bottle of champagne, popping the cork and pouring her a glass.

‘I think you have enough play for both of us.’

‘I’d be happy to share it with you.’

He handed her the flute, her fingers grazing his as she grasped the stem. Goosebumps skittered across her skin and she wondered if perhaps her slinky, skin-tight dress had been a dangerous choice. She’d bought the dress after her audition because it was the exact blue-green of the ocean in the Whitsundays—a fitting choice for catching up with the old gang.

But her arms and legs were exposed to the night air, along with a portion of her back beneath the thick bands of fabric criss-crossing their way down her spine.

It would be fine. The others would arrive soon, and she’d make sure that she and Brodie weren’t left alone. Piece of cake.

Yeah, right.

‘So what did you do after you left the reef?’ she asked, sipping her drink.

‘A bit of this and that. There’s not much to tell.’ He shrugged, dropping down into a seat and stretching his long, muscular legs out in front of him. ‘Went to university, dropped out of university, got a job sailing yachts.’

‘That’s it? Come on—I’m sure a lot more happened in eight years.’ She dropped down next to him, resisting the desire to ease against him as he automatically slung his arm along the back of her seat.

‘There was a girl.’

‘Just one?’ she teased, hating herself for the clutch of jealousy deep in her chest.

His eyes darkened, the pale green glowing in the dimming light. ‘One relationship. It didn’t end well and I don’t have any desire to revisit the experience.’

‘Why did you break up?’ Colour her curious, but she’d never known Brodie to have a relationship with anyone. Unless you called repeated booty calls a relationship.

‘It was a combination of things.’ He shook his head, tilting his gaze up to the darkening sky. ‘I was away a lot with work. I had my family to look after. She needed a lot of attention. Nothing more than incompatibility, pure and simple.’

‘You always struck me as the attentive type.’

‘No one is that attentive. She wanted us to be joined at the hip.’ His voice tightened. ‘I don’t do inseparability. I need my space—the open waters and all that.’

‘How did you meet?’

‘She was a friend.’ His mouth twisted into a grimace. ‘I met her at university but we didn’t get together until after I dropped out.’

‘I guess she’s not a friend any more?’

‘No.’

‘Sounds like you made the right call.’

‘The right call would have been not going there in the first place.’ Brodie sighed. ‘Some people aren’t cut out for relationships.’

It sounded like a warning. Not that she needed it. She had no intention of getting sucked into Brodie’s sex vortex the way other girls did. She knew he was a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy… It was why she’d stayed away from him in the first place.

But she didn’t exactly want a relationship right now either. Didn’t that make them perfectly compatible for one night?

Heart thudding against her rib cage, she took a long swig of her champagne. Brodie’s arm moved from the seat to her shoulders and his intoxicating coconut-and-sea-air smell made her mouth water.

Would it be so bad to have a little ‘no-strings tension-reliever’, as he’d called it? Surely she could afford to be unfocused for one day… just a night, really. Not even a whole day.

She was only working at the crappy bar tomorrow, so it wasn’t as if she needed to be on her A-game. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt. But could she walk away after a single night? Weeping Reef had taught her that Brodie’s powers of seduction were second to none. What if he wanted more and she couldn’t say no? The last thing she needed was to get sucked into a situation where she had another man trying to overpower her, trying to control her decisions.

She couldn’t let that happen.

‘What about you? Was it all about the dancing after you left?’

‘I stayed a while longer on the resort, actually.’

After watching the Weeping Reef friendships disintegrate she’d wanted to flee. But dance school wouldn’t pay for itself and she’d refused to ask her mother for anything else. It had been her time to prove what she was made of. Prove how determined she was.

‘But it wasn’t the same.’

‘We had a great year together, didn’t we?’

‘We did.’

‘I couldn’t keep my eyes off you.’ His voice was low, rough.

Chantal turned and his arm tightened around her. Her fingers ached to touch him. The now inky sky glittered with city lights. Magical. Surreal. He leant forward, his eyes drinking in every detail.

‘Perv,’ she said.

Her shaky laugh failed to diffuse the tension.

‘I was so jealous of Scott. He had you to himself night after night.’

She tried to shrug his arm away but he held tight. ‘And you had every other girl on the resort.’

‘None of them compared to you, Chantal.’ He brushed his lips against her temple, the soft kiss sending electric sensations through her. ‘They didn’t even come close.’

‘Why didn’t you say anything?’

She asked it so quietly that she couldn’t be sure he’d heard it. Not till his pupils flared and his breath came in short bursts did she dare think about that night. About that dance.

‘It was wrong being so attracted to you when you were Scott’s girl.’ Brodie shook his head, blond hair falling about his face.

‘Is that why you left?’ She reached up and brushed the strands out of his eyes.

His hand caught her wrist, turning it so he could press his lips to the tender skin on the inside. ‘Of course it’s why I left.’

Breathing was a struggle. Thinking was… impossible. Kissing him was all she could focus on.

‘You were everything. All I could think about… all I could dream about.’ He drew her arm around his neck and leaned in, lips at her ear. ‘All I could fantasise about.’

Each word nudged her body temperature higher. Her hand curled in the length of his hair, gripping, tugging. Resisting.

‘Brodie…’

‘I’ve wanted you from the second I saw you at that resort. You were dancing. I’d never seen anyone move like that before.’

‘We shouldn’t do this…’ Should we?

His eyes were engulfed by the onyx of his pupils. ‘Stay with me tonight.’

‘I am staying here.’

‘Stay with me. In my bed.’

‘Brodie…’ His name was a warning on her lips, but temptation spiralled out of control. Where was her resolve? Her focus?

‘Just for tonight. Then tomorrow we can pretend it never happened.’

He stood and turned, waving to the rest of the Weeping Reef gang as they approached the yacht.

Chantal hadn’t heard them. But with Brodie about to kiss her, a bomb might have been dropped and she wouldn’t have noticed a damn thing.

‘You two looked pretty cosy before,’ Scott said.

The boys had separated from the girls and they hung out on the deck, port side. After dancing their feet off—and putting on quite the show—the girls were taking a break in the cabin, a fresh bottle of champagne flowing and peals of laughter piercing the night air.

‘No idea what you’re talking about, mate.’ Brodie put on his best poker face—which, if his track record was anything to go on, was terrible.

‘You’re so full of it.’ Scott laughed.

‘You’re a bit of an open book, aren’t you?’ said Rob Hanson, Willa’s partner, in his distinctive South African accent. He eyed Brodie with an amused smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes.

Just because Scott and Rob had sorted their love-lives out it didn’t given them licence to have a dig at his. Not that he wanted a love-life—he was happy with a gratifying and varied sex-life, thank you very much.

‘Are you going to get it over with?’ Scott took a swig of his beer.

Brodie rolled his eyes and looked out to the water. ‘Nothing’s going on.’

‘Maybe not yet.’ Rob smirked. ‘But you’re better off getting it out of your system.’

Brodie’s pocket vibrated and he pulled out his phone. Saved by the bell! A text from Jenny—aka twin number one. She’d had a fight with twin number two and wanted a place to crash.

No can do, Jen. I’m in Sydney. Stop giving your sister a hard time.

He toyed with the phone, knowing that there would be an immediate response from his serial-texting younger sister.

‘Family?’ Scott asked with a knowing look. ‘They still driving you crazy?’

‘Are they ever?’ He shook his head. ‘I hope for your sake you and Kate only have boys.’

Brodie’s phone vibrated again.

You always take her side.

I do not.

‘Is your sister a bit of a handful?’ Rob asked.

‘Sisters,’ Brodie corrected. ‘I’ve got four of them—all younger.’

‘Jeez.’ Rob let out a low whistle. ‘Your parents must have been gluttons for punishment.’

‘Not really,’ Scott chipped in. ‘Brodie always did most of the work with them.’

‘Just doing my job.’ Brodie waved off the comment. He’d done what any big brother would have. His father’s absence had left a gaping hole in his sisters’ lives. If he hadn’t looked after them who would have?

‘Family comes first, but you have to find some balance,’ Rob said.

Brodie shrugged. ‘The rest of my life is pretty carefree. I sail when I feel like it, work on my business, cruise around the country. Meet lots of interesting people.’

‘Brodie has never had any trouble meeting interesting people.’ Scott rolled his eyes and turned to Rob. ‘He used to have the girls falling at his feet when we were all at the reef.’

‘It’s the tatts,’ Brodie replied. ‘Something about a little ink makes them go crazy.’

‘What’s that about tattoos?’ Willa wandered over and immediately tucked herself against Rob.

Rob gave her a squeeze and grinned. ‘Apparently girls go gaga for Brodie’s ink. What do you think, Willa?’

‘I don’t think it’s just the ink,’ she said, smirking.

‘Should I be getting jealous?’ There wasn’t a hint of jealousy in Rob’s voice, but Willa shook her head anyway. She only had eyes for Rob, anyone could see that.

The rest of the girls had filtered out of the cabin and now joined the discussion. Rob took the opportunity to make Brodie squirm.

‘What do you think, Chantal? Tatts or no tatts?’ His eyes glittered and he fought back a smile when Brodie shot daggers at him.

‘On the right guy it looks good,’ she responded carefully, her eyes flicking from Brodie to Rob and back again, as though she were trying to work out who’d instigated the suggestive discussion. ‘Though looks aren’t everything.’

‘Aren’t they?’ joked Kate, flipping her long red ponytail over one shoulder as she laughed at Scott’s serious face. ‘Joking!’

This time the group wasn’t crashing on the yacht. Scott and Kate were staying at a hotel for the night, Amy and Jessica were going to continue the festivities at a local bar, and Willa and Rob were retiring back to their newly rented penthouse.

But what about Chantal?

‘Are you sure you don’t want to join us, Brodie?’ Amy asked with a coy smile.

‘I would love to party it up with you lovely ladies, but I have training tomorrow.’ Brodie pulled Amy in for a friendly hug. ‘Literally at the crack of dawn—and you know how much I hate mornings.’

She grinned. ‘How about you, Chantal?’

Brodie held his breath. This was it. If she stayed then he would do everything in his power to make her come—over and over and over.

She shifted on her strappy tan heels and raked a hand through her long, wavy hair.

‘I’ve got work tomorrow.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘I think I’m going to need all my energy for it.’

Amy stifled a smile and nodded.

The crew filtered off the boat, leaving Brodie and Chantal completely alone. She hovered by his side, refusing to look up at him. Not that it mattered where she looked, so long as it was his name on her lips.

‘I hope you weren’t serious about needing energy tomorrow,’ he said as they waved the group off. ‘You’re not getting any sleep tonight.’