Pregnant by the Maverick Millionaire(11)

"Rory."

So Brodie hadn't misinterpreted Rory's mischievous look after all. Rory  was very brave, or very stupid, and obviously very determined to get  Kade hitched. Pity she hadn't a clue that Brodie and Kade could spark a  wildfire from one kiss.

Damn. She'd just had earth-scorching sex with her client. She'd  unwittingly and unknowingly broken her number-one rule. Brodie took a  sip of coffee and pushed past the surge of jealousy to work out how,  exactly, she was going to do this. Unfortunately there wasn't a manual  dealing with the pesky problem of how to match your one-night stand.

God, this was far too confusing for someone whose blood didn't start to  circulate until she'd had three cups of coffee. Think this through...  Sex, ball for him and sleep for her, sex, client.

Brodie lifted her head to glare at him. Kade had come over to her house  and seduced her again, knowing her views about dating her clients.  Brodie stood up, anger obliterating the last of her sleepiness.

"How dare you! Why didn't you tell me right away that Rory had bid on my  services for you! What the hell, Kade? Did you not think that might  have had an impact on my decision to sleep with you again?"

"Whoa, hold on..." Kade lifted his hands.

"You should've told me! I had a right to know, you manipulative jerk!"                       
       
           



       

"That's not fair."

Brodie brushed past him and tossed her coffee into the sink. "The hell  it's not. You knew about this and you knew I'd back off from sleeping  with you if you told me. So you didn't say a damn word!"

"I thought about telling you." Kade jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants and scowled.

"Thought about it?"

"Yeah! I was going to explain what she'd done, tell you I wasn't going to do it. I was hoping we'd have a laugh about it."

"I'm not finding anything vaguely funny in this."

Kade shoved his hands into his hair, linked his fingers behind his head  and stared at her with hot eyes. "I didn't mean to make you feel used,  or bad. The truth is that when you opened the door the only thing I  could think about was the fact you were nearly naked. I had to have you.  Again. Being set up was the last thing on my mind."

She wanted to tell him she didn't believe him, but she saw the truth in  his eyes. He'd wanted her like she'd wanted him. Impulsively. Wildly.  Crazily. Their need for each other didn't stop to, well, think. And,  damn, it was hot.

And deeply, utterly problematic. She couldn't control her attraction to  him and it seemed Kade was having a similar problem. Such need wasn't  healthy, nor was it easy to resist. She needed to step back, to create  some distance between them, but every time they were in the same room  all they wanted to do was rip off each other's clothes.

They had to stop the madness-this was supposed to be a one-night fling.  They were already on day two-sort of-and Kade was like any other man: he  wasn't going to walk away from fabulous sex.

She didn't want to walk away from it, either, but for her, being with  him felt like it was about more than just the sex. With him she felt  alive and vibrant and animated and she couldn't afford to feel like  that, even if it only happened in the bedroom. She might come to like it  and, worse, get used to it. How would she get that genie back in its  bottle?

So this had to stop now. She liked her life exactly as it was. Bland, safe, predictable.

She needed to walk away, far, far away. But Kade just needed to kiss her and she'd be all yes, please, take me now.

So she was going to match him.

"You're making too big a deal of this, Brodie," Kade stated. "Just tell  Rory we are seeing each other, that there's a conflict of interest. Tell  her to let you match Quinn."

Ha! Right. Kade would get out of the matchmaking, keep sleeping with  Brodie and annoy Quinn in the process. For Kade, it would be a trifecta  win.

But that wasn't going to happen. Brodie shoved aside the heat and the lust and ordered herself to use her brain.

"That would be rude and disrespectful. No, Rory's bid was for you so I will match you."

If she hadn't been feeling so miserable she would've laughed at his horrified face. "What? No!"

Her thinking hat firmly in place, Brodie paced the free area in her  small kitchen. "Wren is a smart cookie and I bet she's already thinking  of ways to spin this to generate PR for you. Mavericks fans will lap it  up. They need a feel-good story, what with the owner's recent death and  the future of the team still up in the air. And you released one of  their favorite players last month. They are not happy with you."

"You seem to know a lot about my business."

Brodie waved away his comment, not feeling the need to tell him that  after he left last night she jumped online to read about him and the  Mavericks.

"I had solid reasons for releasing him," Kade argued. "It didn't matter  that he was the best rookie in the league, a BC native and one of the  first graduates from the Mavericks Ice Hockey Academy. He was  photographed snorting coke, he was underperforming as a player and he  was undisciplined. He had more chances than most, not that the fans care  about that." Kade's tone was flat, his eyes bleak.

It had been a joint decision to boot the player, but as CEO, Kade took  the flak. He led from the front, Brodie realized, and she had to admire  him for that.

Quickly, she returned to the topic at hand. She couldn't afford to get  sidetracked admiring him. "Matching you would be good publicity, for the  Mavericks and for me."

"Not happening."

"Go to the office, see what Wren's working on. I guarantee it's something similar to what I've been thinking."

A muscle jumped in Kade's jaw and he tipped his head back to look at the  ceiling. "I'm going to kill Rory, I really am. Want to help me bury her  body?"                       
       
           



       

At his rueful words the rest of Brodie's anger dissipated. "I'll dig the grave."

Brodie raked her hair back from her face, then grabbed her mug from the  sink and poured coffee back into the cup. She took a couple of sips.  "I'm sure this is the most interesting conversation after a one-night  stand in the history of one-night stands."

Kade rolled his head and Brodie assumed he was trying to work out the  tension in his neck. "It's not exactly the conversation I planned on  having."

Brodie's heart bounced off her ribs. She shouldn't voice the words on  her lips but she had to-it would drive her nuts if she didn't. "What  would you have said?"

Kade stepped closer and curled his hand around her neck. "I would've  said that I had a great time and I would've asked if we could do this  again."

Yeah, that's what she'd thought and that's exactly what she couldn't do.  She'd liked it too much, liked having him around. She needed distance  and a lot of it. Matching him would give her that.

"We can't," Brodie whispered. "It's too complicated. And, if I'm going to be setting you up...too weird."

"That's not confirmed yet. I'll try my damnedest to get out of it."

He'd come around, Brodie realized. It was too good a story to pass up,  too good an opportunity to give the fans something to smile about. And  Kade always, always put the Mavericks first.

Kade pulled her forward so her cheek lay against his chest. "If I do  this, and I'm not saying I will, when it's done, can we...?"

Brodie knew she should just kill this...thing between them but she  simply couldn't. "Let's just play it by ear." She pulled back and looked  up at him, forcing her lips to curve into a smile. "You never know, one  of those women might be the love of your life and another one-night  stand with me will be the last thing on your mind."

"Not freakin' likely," Kade retorted.

Brodie stepped away and folded her arms, trying to remove herself from  him mentally and physically. She had to stop feeling and keep thinking.  "We will have to meet professionally, though. I need information from  you to find out what you are looking for."

Kade glared at her. "You're talking like this is a done deal! If this  happens, be very clear, I'm not looking for anything, with anybody! Find  me three women who are marginally intelligent, someone who I can talk  to for two hours over dinner."

"This is my business, Kade. If we do this, we will do it properly..."

Kade swore and started to roll back his sleeves, revealing the muscles  and raised veins in his forearms. Brodie imagined those hands on another  woman's skin and felt sick. Now she was adding jealousy to her messy  heap of tangled emotions? Wasn't there enough crazy on that pile?

She took a breath. Seeing him with someone else would be good for her.  It would put even more distance between them. And that was what she was  trying to do here.