Braydon (27 page)

But he didn’t mention it. Not yet.

“I just don’t want to come between the two of you. We’ve got a history and—”

Braydon purposely cut her off before she could finish. “The last thing you need to worry about is coming between us.”

“Easier said than done,” she mumbled.

“I get it. But we’re not gonna worry about that today, Jess.”

There was an awkward silence that descended briefly. Braydon ran through various things he wanted to say, but before he could put his thoughts into words, Jessie spoke.

“One day at a time.”

“I’d like that,” he told her, glancing over at her again. “This is backwards, Jess. I know that.”

“Backwards how?”

He looked at her again. She was staring back at him. “Do I need to explain it?”

“I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

Braydon didn’t know what to say. He had his own reasons why they seemed to be working from the opposite direction in establishing this relationship. But telling Jessie again that he loved her probably wasn’t going to go over all that well. She hadn’t so much as blinked when he had told her the first time, and he wasn’t all that interested in getting another brush-off when he repeated the most heartfelt words he’d ever said to anyone before.

“Forget it.” Jessie exhaled sharply.

“I don’t want to forget it, Jess. I don’t know how to explain it.” Braydon kept his eyes on the road as he continued. “It’s as though we broke up, although we were never actually together. And in the same regard, it’s like we’ve been apart for years and I want to make up for lost time.”

Jessie didn’t say anything, and he could feel her frustration.

“We don’t have to dissect this, you know. Can we just enjoy it for now?” He knew that probably wasn’t the right thing to say, but he didn’t know how else to get his point across. Braydon had never been the smooth talker that Brendon was. That was one of the reasons Brendon usually ended up with the women and Braydon usually ended up as the tagalong. It had never bothered him before now.

“Fine.”

They were pulling into her driveway when Braydon noticed Jessie reaching for the door handle as though she were going to jump out while the truck was still moving.

“Don’t you dare,” he ordered. “Sit your ass right there until I come around. Understand?”

Braydon put the truck in Park and looked over at her. Her eyes were wide as she stared back at him. At least she was still in the truck.

“If I didn’t stink so damn bad, I’d pull your shorts off and fuck you right here in this truck.”

Holy hell, where had that come from?

Braydon had been thinking it, but he hadn’t expected the words to come out of his mouth.

But there they were.

He was watching Jessie intently, so he noticed that her breathing had grown labored. She liked that; he could see it in the flush on her face. She liked when he took control.

Not that it changed anything at the moment, because he did stink. He needed a shower. “Stay right there.”

He hurried out of the truck and around to her side. When he opened the door, she slowly moved to get out, her eyes raking over him as she did.

Braydon surprised them both when he walked her to the door and stopped before coming inside.

“I’m gonna head home and shower. I’ll be back in thirty minutes to pick you up. Find a movie that we can go see. Pick a place and a time. We can either go eat before or after. Your choice. But be ready when I get back.”

Jessie nodded and Braydon knew he’d surprised her.

He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in the softest of kisses. When he stood back up, he whispered, “Oh, and Jess. Put on a dress, and don’t bother with panties.”

The last thing he noticed as he turned to leave was the sexy smirk on Jessie’s perfect lips.

JESSIE WAS PACING
the floor fifteen minutes after Braydon left. It had taken her five minutes to change clothes, another couple of minutes to put on a little makeup and brush her hair. Now she was just one giant ball of anticipation as she waited for Braydon to return.

Her thoughts wandered back to the moment in the truck right before he came around to let her out. Braydon had shocked her to the roots of her hair with his statement.

If I didn’t stink so damn bad, I’d pull your shorts off and fuck you right here in this truck.

Sweet, laid-back, nonconfrontational Braydon Walker had nearly given her an orgasm with his words alone.

Never had she heard him talk like that.

Brendon, yes. Braydon, no.

It had been unexpected and so fucking hot, she was surprised she hadn’t burst into flames.

That made her think about last night and the way he’d taken control then, too. Jessie had needed it. Not that she didn’t know what to do with Braydon. She did. And she had plenty of ideas about what she wanted to do with him in the future, but for him to take control so easily . . . It made her burn for him.

For some reason, she hadn’t expected it from him.

Braydon was one of those guys that women liked to be friends with. Although he was sexy as hell, he was just so nice. Too nice sometimes. The kind of nice that girls ignored in high school because they were always looking for the bad boy. Jessie had found all the bad boys she cared to find. Braydon was a breath of fresh air.

And then he’d gone and set her blood on fire with this statement.

Like he was the best of both worlds. A gentleman with a salacious side.

Yum.

Clearly she hadn’t known the real Braydon all those months ago. That, or he was just adept at keeping that part of himself locked down.

She liked that he was opening up. It was shocking and intensely sexy.

Although Jessie had given plenty of thought to her relationship with Brendon and Braydon when she’d been with them, she hadn’t spent much time considering the differences in their personalities. For instance, it never dawned on her that Braydon always took a backseat to Brendon because Brendon was so outspoken.

How had she missed it?

Jessie’s thoughts drifted to the weeks right before Braydon disappeared. He hadn’t been himself; she realized that. And yes, she had noticed that in many ways he was acting more and more like his twin in the sense that he was standing up for himself in small ways.

But he never quite made it to the point where he laid it all out there like he had today.

A shudder wracked her body as she thought about the promise she’d seen in his eyes when he made the statement in the truck. And then for him to tell her to forgo panties for the night . . .

Someone rapping on the door broke her from her reverie, and Jessie’s heart pounded like a bass drum in her chest when she saw Braydon standing on the front porch through the window.

Forcing her feet to get with the program, she moved to the door, wrapped her hand around the doorknob, and took a deep breath.

“Ready?” he asked as soon as she had the door open.

Again she was at a loss for words.

There in front of her was the sexiest cowboy she’d ever met. From the light-colored Stetson on his head to his brown boots, the man made her mouth water.

Dark blue Wranglers, a crisp white polo, and that shiny belt buckle was the sexiest outfit she could ever imagine him in. And that was saying something, because the man could rock a tuxedo like no one’s business.

“Yes,” she whispered, realizing she was just staring at him.

“Come on,” he encouraged her with a grin. In a move she was becoming intimately familiar with, Braydon reached for her hand and linked their fingers together. She loved holding his hand. It felt so . . . romantic. Jessie couldn’t remember the last time a guy she dated held her hand. At least not after the first or second date.

But with Braydon, it was almost as though he needed the physical contact.

Jessie allowed him to lead her down the steps to the truck, but when he detoured beyond the passenger side, she looked up at him.

“I want you close to me,” he said by way of explanation.

He opened the driver’s door and took a step back. “For tonight, I want you in the middle.”

Jessie looked up into the truck, then back at Braydon. The middle, huh?

She wasn’t opposed to the idea, so she just nodded her head.

Doing her best to climb into the jacked-up truck as gracefully as possible—not an easy feat, mind you—not wanting her lightweight dress to fly up and reveal that she, in fact, didn’t have on panties, Jessie finally managed to get in.

Braydon was right behind her, and after he buckled his seat belt and put the truck in gear, he placed his right hand on her thigh.

Jessie stared at his big hand on her leg. He wasn’t doing anything inappropriate, but her mind immediately drifted to all sorts of lascivious thoughts right then and there. He squeezed gently, as though reading her mind, and Jessie tore her eyes off his hand and looked up at him.

“Did you find a movie?”

Crap. She knew she was supposed to do something.

Braydon chuckled as though he had known she wouldn’t be able to think clearly after what had transpired between them in the truck. “No worries. I found one. A couple actually. Your choice. Chick flick or action?”

“Depends,” she said, clearing her throat.

“On?”

“Which one you want to see more.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want.”

“Oh, yes it does,” she said, taking a deep breath as his hand slid a little higher on her thigh.

“Why is that?” he asked, glancing over at her from the corner of his eye.

“Because if you’re gonna be focused on an action movie, I’d rather see a chick flick.”

Braydon’s eyebrows dipped in confusion.

“I kinda like the idea of being able to distract you.”

Braydon’s deep inhale told her that he understood her meaning. That made her smile.

And when his hand inched up even farther on her thigh, Jessie knew just how this night was going to go.

chapter
SIXTEEN

F
oreplay.

Braydon swallowed a laugh as the word popped into his head. Again. Just last night he’d been thinking about it, too. Oh, hell, who was he kidding? He had probably been thinking about foreplay at least once an hour since he was old enough to know what it was.

But today’s brand of foreplay was decidedly different from what Braydon was used to.

It would appear that they were going to make up for all the foreplay that last night lacked during this particular date.

Not that he had a problem with that.

Quite the opposite, actually.

It took incredible concentration to keep his focus on driving and not the smooth, warm skin of Jessie’s thigh beneath his hand. He could feel a slight tremble in her leg, and every time he glanced down, he noticed her hands were balled into fists, her knuckles white.

Yep, she was affected by his nearness.

Who the hell knows what made him so bold all of a sudden. Not that it was a new development for him, but he was pretty astute at keeping his thoughts to himself most of the time. That wasn’t the case when he had informed Jessie that he would’ve fucked her right there in the cab of his truck. When her eyes had lit up, he knew he’d hit a hot button for her. Worse, the temptation had been so damn great, he had almost thrown all caution to the wind and done just that.

The way she’d looked at him, a potent mixture of lust and eagerness in her gaze . . . It had nearly been too much to ignore.

Before the night was out, he hoped to hit plenty more of her hot buttons.

And he wasn’t going to wait until they were back in the privacy of Jessie’s house, either. After her little remark about distracting him, Braydon was thinking of plenty of things he intended to do to her tonight. Especially in the shadowy movie theater.

“So, which is it going to be?” Jessie asked, her hand coming down firmly on his and halting his upward progress. He’d been teasing her, trying to see just how far she’d let him go.

Now he knew.

“Honestly, I don’t give a damn which one we see. I won’t be paying attention to anything other than the fact that you don’t have panties on.”

“How do you know I don’t?” she asked, and for a brief moment, he almost believed that she did. But he knew Jessie. She liked a challenge.

“Move your hand and I’ll find out for myself,” he told her.

“Not a chance,” she teased, her hand squeezing his tightly. “Where are we going anyway?”

“A theater in Austin,” he told her.

“Why so far?”

“This is one of those fancy ones. The kind where you can order food if you want.”

“So it’s dinner and a movie all in one?”

“Yep. The quintessential first date no-no. Since we’re past that particular milestone, I figured I’d pull out all the stops.” He kinda liked the idea. Seeing as they could get back home and get to the naked part of their evening sooner, he was all for consolidating.

The theater was a solid half hour from Coyote Ridge, mainly because it took so long just to get to the main highways. But once they hit the toll road, it was smooth sailing. Jessie questioned some of the landmarks as they passed, and Braydon did his best to give her the knowledge that he had. He’d grown up in the Austin area his entire life, but truth be told, he didn’t venture into the city all that often. He was a small-town boy to his soul, and he preferred his rural stomping grounds to Austin’s big-city heartbeat.