Between The Sheets - Complete Collection (7 page)

Grabbing the bouquet, he emerged from the vehicle and strode at a brisk pace toward the elevator and soon stood at her door.  He knocked and waited, anticipating the kiss he planned to for the moment he saw her.  Maybe he would wait until they were inside her condo.

Brandi opened the door wide, her sweet smile taking the wind out of his sails.  Her dress, a sexy shirt-dress with geometric designs on it, skimmed her trim figure, the buttons at the top undone, leaving the swells of her breasts and the deep cleavage between them open to view.  It stopped several inches above her knees and the black pumps she wore made her legs appear impossibly longer.

She was so damn beautiful.

He stepped in and kicked the door closed with his foot. He swept her close with one arm around her waist.  She gasped at the sudden movement.  His mouth sealed to hers, taking that gasp and sweetness inside him.  Ravenous.  She made him ravenous for her scent, her taste, her touch.  He wanted it all. She gave it to him and then took what he had to give, as hungry for him as he was for her.

His other arm came around, crushing the flowers against her back.  The scents released and perfumed the air around them.  Brandi placed her hands on his chest and pushed.  With frank reluctance, he allowed her to step back, but his arms remained around her.

“Flowers for me?” she asked, voice husky.

They both breathed fast.  “Yes, for you.”

She tried to look behind her.  “Give them to me, please.”

He chuckled.  “You say ‘please,’ but that sounds like an order.”

Her brows rose.  “So why don’t I have them yet?  Clearly you know nothing of obeying orders.”

“That makes two of us, does it not?”  But he brought them around and presented the bouquet to her.  “Lovely flowers for a lovely lady.”

Her eyes shone.  “They’re beautiful.  Thank you, Geoffrey.”

His chest expanded under her uninhibited gratitude.  “I am glad they please you, Brandi.”

“Oh, they more than please me.”  She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him down while pushing up on her toes to plant a lusty, hot, wet kiss on his lips.  Her tongue explored his mouth with a thoroughness that left him at once weak yet strong with the lust raging through his body.

Just when he thought to sweep her off her feet and carry her to her bedroom, she pulled back.  Gratified that her eyes shone with the same raging fever, he let her go.

“You sit,” she ordered him, “while I put these in a vase and finish cooking our dinner.  Are you hungry?”

“Famished.” His voice came out hoarse.

Brandi glanced back at him, smiling, as she filled a vase with water and set the flowers in it.  “For food, I mean.”

Grinning, he nodded.  “For food, too, yes.  What are we having?”

“Grilled, marinated rib eye steaks, salad and garlic buttered rolls.”

He slapped himself on the forehead.  “Forgive me, Brandi, I forgot the wine.”

She turned from tossing the salad.  “Were you supposed to bring it?”

“A gentleman should always contribute when a lady offers to cook the meal.”

“Don’t worry about it, Geoffrey.  I already have a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon chilling.”

“I tell you what, beautiful.  Next time, I will cook the meal – or have it delivered – at my place and also select the perfect wine to accompany it.”

“Sure.”  She checked the steaks on the stovetop grill.  “How do you like your steak?”

“Medium rare, if you please.  May I open the wine?”

“Of course.  The steaks are almost done, as are the rolls.”

Geoffrey moved to the table on which lay two place settings.  The wine cooled in a stand-alone chiller filled with ice, the corkscrew laying on the table.  Brandi brought the salad, tossed with raspberry vinaigrette, followed by the steaks and rolls.  He had the wine poured into both of their glasses when she sat down.

“Would you say grace?”

He nodded and bowed his head as he gave thanks for their food and added a blessing for the hands that prepared it.  Their eyes met when he finished and a white-hot wave of desire hit him straight in the gut, his erection straining against the zipper of his pants.  His eyes dropped to her breasts, quivering, the nipples peaking against the material of her dress.

“Eat first,” she said, barely above a whisper.  “We’ll both need our strength for after.”

His cock jerked.  Swearing under his breath, he adjusted himself so he wouldn’t castrate himself.  She laughed.

He narrowed his eyes at her.  “You will pay for this.”

“I sure hope so,” she replied, throatily.

She was having the best time and they hadn’t even got to the best part yet.  Every time she saw the desire that burned between them in his eyes, her womb clenched, blood and moisture flowing to the apex of her thighs.

Geoffrey took a bite of his steak and groaned.  “Delicious and tender as butter.  Woman, you have done the impossible and cooked a steak better than my mother.”

A gentle warmth flowed over her at his sincere praise.  “Thank you.  So how was your day?”

“Busy, but productive.  And you?”

“The same, although I did have an unexpected visitor barge into my office.”

Geoffrey laid his fork and knife on the napkin beside his plate.  “Did you?  May I ask who?”

Brandi gave him a pointed look.  “Eat.  As I mentioned before, I know how to handle my business.”

“I do not doubt your ability, understand?”  But he obliged her and resumed eating.

“Good, because that would seriously anger me.”

“As I have already experienced,” he replied with a wry smile.  “You misunderstood me then, too.  It is my nature to assist in matters that concern those I care for, Brandi.”

Determined to do nothing that would alter the outcome of this evening, she took a moment to consider his words.  “All right, but the reason I became upset is that Nick didn’t leave because of me.  He left because of you.”

“Is it not more important that he left rather than why he left?”

Brandi shook her head, breathing deep to keep the discussion civil.  “Both are equally important.  He doesn’t need to see me as weak, not with the fight we’re having over this condo.”

“How long were you with him?”

“Seven years and before you ask, he ended it.  Not me.  We bought this condo during year four, but I’ve lived alone and paid all expenses for the past year.”

“Were you able to see a lawyer?”

“Yes, so it’s being handled.”  She took a deep breath.  “Listen, on the night that he walked out of my life – our seventh anniversary – I had planned this big romantic scene to propose to him, something we’d already discussed doing.  But he walked in, basically called me a fool because I hadn’t seen it coming, pulled out his already packed suitcases and left without a backward glance.”

Her hands trembled as she relived the humiliation and pain.

“Now you see why I can’t let him win, why I need to be the one he backs down from.  He was unnecessarily cruel to me that night, Geoffrey.”

Brandi glanced up and met his gaze, noticing his tight jaw and thinned lips where he pressed them together.

“I am sorry for your pain.”

A simple statement that meant everything to her.

Geoffrey rose and pulled her to her feet, sweeping her into his arms.  He lowered his head and she met him halfway, their mouths meeting in scorchingly lust-induced passion.  Brandi locked her arms around his neck and pulled herself up into the kiss that had her toes curling, her heart thudding hard and heavy against the walls of her chest.

How does he do this to me?  He’s got me on fire for him!

She grabbed for his tie, but he was already pulling it free.  His shirt, she had to get it off him.  Grasping both sides, she yanked it open, ignoring the buttons popping off and laid her hands on his lightly haired chest.  His hands on both sides of her head, he captured her mouth again as she continued to squeeze his chest. She ran her hands down his firm abs and around to his wide, muscular back.

Brandi broke free of the kiss and, her arms tight around him, her hands curling over his shoulders, she planted an open-mouthed kiss to the middle of his chest.  Geoffrey groaned above her, shuddering as she flicked her tongue over his tight nipples.  She let her arms drop and went for the waistband of his jeans.  Dropping to her knees, she carefully released him, pushing the jeans down to his knees as she nuzzled and licked the long, thick length.  Clasping it around the base, she laved around the head of his cock with her tongue as he gently cupped the back of her head.  She opened her eyes and locked gazes with him. She sucked him into her mouth hard.  A feminine satisfaction filled her as his head fell back in pleasure. 

Her pussy clenched as his arousal heightened hers.  Brandi slid one hand inside her soaked panties and stroked her throbbing clit while she sucked him deep, using her lips, teeth and tongue to intensify his pleasure.

His stance widened, his hips thrusting forward in short bursts.  She wouldn’t come, not until he did, the tension coiling in her body, tighter and tighter like she felt it in him.  His groans became more guttural, his hand clenching on the back of her head.  She went down on him faster, meeting his thrusts as she simultaneously stroked and twisted with her hand at the base of his cock.  Faster and faster, she stroked her clit, the intimate spasms quivering as she hovered on the cusp of her climax.  Just when she thought she wasn’t going to make it, Geoffrey threw back his head with a mighty roar and came hard, ejaculating down her throat.  With a muffled scream, Brandi came apart, those intimate muscles clenching hard in her pussy.  With force of will, the same indomitable will with which she’d achieved much, refusing to be stopped, she sucked Geoffrey clean.

He dropped to his knees, pulling her tight into his body, as they collapsed on the floor, trying to catch their breaths.

The doorbell rang, startling her.

Who?  Oh, hell, no.  That’d better not be Nick.

Between The Sheets Book 3

“Aren’t you going to get that?”

Geoffrey’s mild tone belied the tension in his body as he held her where they lay on the floor, trying to catch their breaths, after their mutual orgasms.

Brandi shook her head.  “No.”

The knock came again, more forceful this time.

“Answer the door.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  Surely he wasn’t trying to give her orders.

“Come on, Brandi.  It could be important.”

“Or it could be Nick.”

“Do you not have a peephole?  If it is indeed him you can tell him to go to hell.  If it is not, then what do you have to lose?”
Pushing out of his arms, Brandi rose, straightening her clothes as she went and peered through the peephole.  It wasn’t Nick, nor was it someone she knew.  Maybe they had the wrong address.

“Yes?” she called without opening the door.

“Ms. Brandi Rafferty?”

Now he had piqued her curiosity.  “Yes.”

“I have a delivery for you.”

Frowning, she glanced back at Geoffrey, who now stood by the dining table, his pants up, his shirt hanging open to show that magnificent chest of his.  He just shrugged.

Brandi unlocked the door and opened it to a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, maybe college age.  He held out an envelope to her.  She felt a sinking in her stomach as she stared at the envelope.  Her lawyer’s words came to her.

Do not be surprised if you are served with orders to allow Mr. Everett access to the property.  If that happens, Ms. Rafferty, until the case is resolved in court, you must comply.

She half-turned back to Geoffrey and glared. 
It was his fault for telling her to open the door and her own fault for listening to him.

“Here, ma’am, you’ve already opened the door.”  The sympathy in his voice only pissed her off more.  Tightlipped, she turned back to him and took the envelope.  “You’ve been served.”

Turning on his heel, he left. She stood there staring at the envelope in her hand.

Geoffrey’s hand landing on her shoulder stirred her.  Curving an arm around her, he closed and locked the door before leading her to the sofa.  He pulled her down to sit beside him.

“Open it.”

“I don’t need to,” she told him, voice hard.  “I know what this is.”

He studied her for a long moment.  “What do you think it is?”

“I don’t
think
.  I
know.
”

“Okay, then what is it?”

Brandi moved away from him to the other end of the sofa.  Opening the envelope, she pulled out the document and read it in silence.  It was her worst fear.  She had to grant Nick access to the property or pay his lodging expenses until the issue was resolved.

“Damn it!”  She slammed the paper down onto her sofa table and rose, the movement jerky, pacing back and forth.  “Damn him.  It wasn’t enough that he callously broke my heart without any consideration for the seven years we were together.  Oh, no.  He just had to come back and screw me over again.”

“Brandi, this should not come as a surprise.  You told me your lawyer warned you this may happen.”

She stopped and faced him, hands on hips.  “It didn’t have to happen tonight,” she snapped, not for a moment did she consider adjusting her tone.  “But no.  I just had to listen to you.  See, this is what happens when I allow someone else to make my decisions.  I get screwed!”

His jaw tight, Geoffrey rose and came to stand in front of her.  “Do not put me in the same category as your ex, Brandi.  That is not fair.”

“Fair?  You’re worrying about me being fair to you?”  Her voice rose.  “This is not about you, Geoffrey.  This is
my
life that’s been taken out of my control.”

She paced away and turned to face him, arms crossed over her chest.  “I cannot believe you have the audacity to make this about you.”

He took a deep breath, looked up at her ceiling and shook his head before meeting her gaze again.  “So what are you going to do?”
Brandi released a humorless laugh.  “What do you think?  My hands are tied here.  I have to let him in because I sure as hell refuse to pay his lodging expenses.”

“Then until the matter is resolved, you come and stay with me at my hotel.  It is a two-bedroom suite, so you will have your own space.”

Geoffrey knew at once that he had said the wrong thing.

A harsh scoff burst from her almost before the last word left his mouth.  The woman drew herself up, straightened her shoulders and somehow managed to stare down her nose at him despite his greater height.  “You can’t really expect me to move out of my home.”

Still, he persisted.  The idea of her residing here with her ex, to whom she might be vulnerable, did not sit well with him.  “You expect to be at peace living here with him?”

“This is my home.”  Flat. Uncompromising.  But not really an answer, so he tried a different tack.  “Do you expect me to be okay with this?”

“I expect you to trust me to handle my own business.”

“Trust?  You speak to me about trust when you do not trust me to have your best interests at heart?”

A dismissing hand slicing through the air, Brandi turned away from him and took a seat at the head of her dining table.  “This isn’t about you and me, Geoffrey.  Nick is declaring war against
me
.  Not us.  I’m not about to let him win.  Moving out just because I have to allow him to live here would be like surrendering.  That’s so
not
going to happen.”

“Even in war, the legal ultimatum you have received would just be a small skirmish.  For you to move out while he stays here would be a strategic retreat on your part, not surrender. You will continue to fight the legal battle without the threat of a physical encounter with the man.”

Brandi blew out a small breath.  “Hold up, wait a minute.  What exactly are you saying?  Are you worried that Nick will harm me physically?  Or is your concern that of a man who feels threatened that another man will take what he considers his?  Because, frankly, either of those concerns insult me.  You clearly do not trust me to have enough sense to protect myself nor do you trust my feelings if you think I can easily be seduced by someone who hurt me so badly.”

Geoffrey stood and came toward her, but she rose and backed away until the table stood between them.  He stopped and met her unblinking gaze.  So beautiful, so stubborn, she stood there with a straight back, chin up, yet so clueless.  It was evident that nothing he could say would change her mind.

Looking around, he spotted his keys on the breakfast bar even as he ran a hand through his hair, leaving the strands sticking up every which way.  He walked over, grabbed the keys, and went to the door.

Hand on the knob, he gave her one last glance.  “You will do what you want, no matter what I say.  I thought I had made it obvious how much I care for you.  Evidently, I do not matter to you as you do to me.”

“Don’t even try it,” she stated, not tempering the harshness of her tone.  “Emotional blackmail is beneath you, Geoffrey.  You’re not even trying to understand my viewpoint.”

He sighed heavily.  “And you do not want to hear what I see in this situation.”

“What, Geoffrey?  What do you see?  Just say it.”

“You are allowing Nick to drag you into an emotional battlefield that is, basically, an extension of what happened when you broke up.  He is controlling you, Brandi.  He has known you longer than I have, so he knows exactly which buttons to push, so that you do what he wants you to do. The thing you cannot see is that this is not about this condo at all.  He does not want to see another man in your life.  He will do whatever he can to ensure things do not work out between us.  Do you think he does not know that there is not a male in the world who would be comfortable with his woman residing with an ex-lover?”

Brandi shook her head.  “Even if Nick is trying to sabotage our relationship, you should know that, for me, this is about so much more.  I don’t want Nick back, Geoffrey.  When he left, I saw the type of man he was and it wasn’t pretty, believe me.”

“Yet you are willing to remain here in this place you call home…with him.”

“It’s what I feel I have to do.  I wish you’d respect that, even if you don’t understand it.”

“Why should I when you are dismissing my feelings on this situation?”

Brandi rolled her eyes, shaking her head.  “Like I said, Geoffrey, this is not about you.”

He was wasting his time.  She would not be dissuaded from her chosen course, no matter what he said.  “Good night, Brandi.”

He unlocked and opened the door, closing it behind him quietly.  The soft click of the lock engaging behind him felt like the last shot to their fledging relationship.

She would not cry.
Not over another man.  Not over Geoffrey Rasmussen, no matter how perfect he seemed to be for her.

Brandi engaged the lock and surveyed her home.  Their unfinished meals still sat on the table, the food cold by now.  The bottle of wine still sat in the chiller that held more cold water than ice.  She looked down and there was one of the buttons from his shirt just lying there.  Mocking her with the dream of what could have been.

If he truly cared, he would have understood or, at the very least, attempted to.  He should have trusted me.

Well, she couldn’t worry about him now.  The fight of her life stood before her, a fight she would win at all costs.  Her eyes narrowed as she considered all her options.  While she weighed them, she cleaned the kitchen, put away the food and wine, swept the floor, saving the buttons she found, and straightened the dining and living room.

Okay.  If she had to share the condo with Nick – although she intended to see her lawyer incase there was another option, other than paying his expenses – she needed to make sure he understood they were just two roommates.

First, she needed to de-personalize the second bedroom.  She’d made it into a guestroom and office. She’d be damned if she would give Nick that kind of space.

Changing into comfortable yoga pants and a tank top, she stripped the bed of the comforter set, the eight hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, the pillows and even the mattress cover.  If she could’ve done it and gotten away with it, she would have removed the bed itself.  But she and Nick had bought the bed together, along with the king-sized one she slept in. 

Next, she tackled the desk, tugging and pushing until she managed to get it into her room.  Good thing she had more than enough room for it.  The rug, drapes, even the luxurious towels she’d purchased, all went into her room, along with the extra sheet sets.  None of these were the ones she and Nick had picked out together.  Wanting to remove any evidence that Nick had ever lived there, she’d replaced everything but the furniture itself.

Brandi looked around for her phone.  It was nowhere to be seen.  Frowning, she went into her bedroom and checked her purse.

Relieved to find it, she made a note to herself to check with the finance company they’d opened an account with to finance the purchases.  That done, she returned to the task of turning the condo from her own special retreat to a roommate situation.  Nothing that Nick might need, and that she had no intention of letting him use, escaped her notice.

Once she organized her bedroom in to some semblance of order, she returned to the kitchen and made space for whatever Nick might have because her stuff was hers alone.  She didn’t want him to so much as
think
it was okay to use her things.  Dividing things so he’d be left with the exact number of cabinets and drawers she herself had, she reorganized her dishes, pots, utensils and flatware.

Brandi checked the second bathroom, removing the décor, towels and rugs.  She even emptied the cabinet so that nothing remained.  Done, she went through her condo again to make sure nothing had escaped her notice.

Satisfied, she went to her own adjoining bathroom and took a long, soothing shower.  Afterwards, she applied lotion all over, slipped on a t-shirt and panties and went to bed.

Sleep eluded her as the evening with Geoffrey played in her mind over and over again.  The ache in her heart made itself known.  She sniffed, only just noticing the tears wetting her pillow.  Pressure built in her chest.  A sob burst from her.  Harsh, broken sobs that hurt her chest and her head kept coming, on and on and on.

___

The endless night passed and her alarm shrilled.  Brandi winced at the sound, her head pounding, and slapped her hand on the “off” button without looking.  Heart heavy, although she tried to ignore it, she went into her bathroom and stared at her tear-ravaged face.  A headache, stuffy nose and puffy eyes.

She refused to go to work looking like this. No one needed to see her pain, to even guess that she might
be
in pain.

She called the office and left a message for her assistant.  “Antonia, this is Brandi.  I’m going to be late getting to the office.  According to my calendar, I don’t have any appointments this morning, but call me if you have something different.  I should be there around noon.”