What You Need(56)
“I guess.”
“I’ve spent my life working in shitty conditions for shitty wages. Where the job I had could’ve been done by anyone, so there was no such thing as job security. Advancement meant moving up from working the graveyard shift. I wasn’t kidding when I told you I love working at LI.” Then I felt like a total tool. He probably thought I wanted something from him.
We were quiet for a long time after that.
Since it was dark out and I had no idea where we were going, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
A hand on my thigh startled me.
“We’re almost there.”
“Where?”
He turned off the main road onto a service road. The headlights flashed on billboards bragging about cabin rentals and year-round fishing excursions. We were in a heavily wooded area with no streetlights and no sign of civilization.
“Seriously, Brady. I’m a little freaked out by all this . . .” Nothingness. “What are we doing here?”
“Going to a cabin in the woods.” He turned onto a paved road that wound through the trees. We reached a big gate that was surrounded by a huge fence. He rolled down the window and punched a code into the machine and the gate opened. He watched in the rearview mirror until it closed behind us. Then he looked at me. “What?”
“I knew you were too good to be true. Smart, gorgeous, sexy and single . . . I should’ve known better.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re a serial killer, aren’t you? Picking me up and no one knows where I’ve gone. I haven’t been able to get cell service and now you’re driving into some secret compound with a security system surrounded by an electric fence.”
He laughed. “You’re funny.”
But I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was about to launch into the other oddities when we came around a corner and a glass-and-brick mansion rose up before us like a modern-day castle. Lights shone through the windows and we headed toward a curved portico that covered the front door. Not a speck of snow was on the driveway or the stone steps. “Holy shit.”
“Welcome to the Lund family’s weekend getaway cabin in the Minnesota North Woods,” he said dryly.
“Cabin? It’s gigantic.”
“Not really. Only about ten thousand square feet.”
Only about ten thousand square feet. Now I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
He parked and shut the car off. When he didn’t move, I teased him. “Are you waiting for the butler to come out and direct the houseboy on which bedroom suite to put our luggage in?”
“No butler, but the caretakers, Bill and Mary, opened up the house, turned the heat up and stocked the refrigerator for us.”
This time I knew he wasn’t joking.
Brady got out of the car and opened the back end. He shouldered both bags while I stood there like a dumbass. “I can carry my own bag.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to.”
At the enormous double doors, at least ten feet high and probably hand carved by artisans, Brady punched in another code and a green light flashed.
He opened the door and stood aside so I could enter first.
I paused for a minute inside the entryway. I’d expected marble, crystal and gilded fixtures, but this place was decorated casually. Wood floors, warm tones on the walls. Plaid and corduroy-covered furniture. I’d wandered halfway down the hallway when I realized Brady wasn’t directly behind me. I saw him leaning against the newel post, watching me with hooded eyes. I walked back and shoved my hands in my coat pockets. “Sorry to just take off like that.”
“No worries.” He erased the distance between us. “I’ll take your coat.”
“Thanks.”
He helped me take it off and then his arms circled me. He placed a soft kiss on the side of my neck.
It occurred to me we were alone in a way we hadn’t been before.
“Please don’t tense up. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted this to be a fun weekend for both of us. No pressure.”
“So we’re not sharing a bed?”
“No.”
Disappointment rolled through me.
“Don’t take that as I don’t want you.” He pressed his groin into my backside. “Just now I had an entire fantasy going about pinning you to the floor and fucking you until you can’t walk. But we talked about this not only being about sex.”
My horny side argued that so far it hadn’t been about sex at all.
“I also knew that if I didn’t leave the city, I would’ve been in the office working.” His breath teased my ear. “This is one of my favorite places and I haven’t been here in ages. I wanted to share this with you.”