“You don’t play fair,” she complained, but allowed him to continue to kiss her anyway.
Taking her in the shower, against the cool tiles, quickly shot to the top of his list of fantasies. He wanted to lift her, wrap her legs around his hips, and pump hard and fast into her. Then he wanted to swallow her cries of pleasure as he kissed her senseless. Instead of following through with that scenario, Brody stepped back from her. He didn’t have time to drown himself in a sexual fantasy land starring him and Elisa. Tyler was due to get out of school soon, and Brody needed to be on time.
They finished their shower, in between kisses and intimate touches. Whenever he could, he’d run his hands over her breasts, then cup her firm rear end in his hands. Now they stood on the bathroom floor, toweling off.
“Sorry about the whole condom thing. I’m not usually forgetful like that,” Brody said as he wrapped the towel around his waist.
Elisa shot him a glance as she rubbed her hair dry. “It’s fine. But it wasn’t necessary. I told you I take birth control.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the countertop. “So did Kelly.” Oh, hell, had he really said that? Rule number one: Do not bring up your ex-wife after you’ve just been intimate with another woman. Something like that could kill the mood real fast.
Brody risked a glance at Elisa and found her staring at him, paused in the act of towel-drying her hair. A heavy, uncomfortable silence hung between the two of them. Kelly was a subject he rarely touched with other women, especially the circumstances surrounding Tyler. A lot of things happened during his marriage, and the earlier days, that he wasn’t proud of.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m an insensitive asshole. I shouldn’t have said that.” He shifted against the hard counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t like to talk about my divorce.”
“Because it left you scarred?” she asked in that soft voice of hers.
He lifted his gaze from the floor to her deep, brown eyes. Damn that intuition of hers. He wasn’t ready for this. She may want to hear about it, but he wasn’t ready to spill his guts like a freakin’ woman about the demons he carried around.
A small smile, which didn’t quite reach her eyes, graced her lips. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.” She finished towel-drying her hair and grabbed her silk robe off the hook on the back of the bathroom door. “But, you know, accidental pregnancies like that are rare.”
Brody watched with regret as she pulled the robe over her shoulders and secured the sash. “Birth control failed me once before. Because of that I never have sex without a condom.”
“So you don’t want to have any more kids?”
“I don’t want to have any more unplanned kids. Big difference there.”
Elisa nodded but didn’t respond.
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
“What, the condom thing?”
He nodded.
She offered him a reassuring smile, one he wasn’t sure she meant. There was something in her eyes that said otherwise. “No. I respect your choice.”
“Come here.” When she remained rooted in her spot by the door, he crooked a finger at her.
She took a few steps until she stood directly in front of him. He framed her face with both his hands, then combed his fingers through her cool, damp hair. His fingers reached the ends of the strands, then he used his index finger to tilt her chin up.
“I think you love me,” she whispered.
“How do you figure that?” he countered while running the pad of his thumb across her lower lip. Somewhere along the way, Elisa had started to mean something to him. She’d wormed her way inside his heart and had created a nice little home for herself. No woman had accomplished that since Kelly. During the four years since his divorce, Brody had become very selective with whom he’d allowed himself to get close to.
“I just have a feeling.” She touched her lips to his in a tentative kiss, preventing him from responding. Then her tongue darted out, coaxing his lips open. He let her inside and kissed her slow and deep while tunneling one hand through the curtain of her hair.
They kissed for several moments in the silence of the bathroom. The whole time Brody tried to tell himself that she wasn’t right.
“How serious are you about leaving Trouble?” he asked out of the blue.
Elisa visibly stiffened in his arms. She lowered her gaze to the floor and toyed with belt of her robe. “Why?”
Because I don’t want you to leave. “Is it serious, like update-your-passport serious?”
She looked him in the eye and he saw the torment there, the indecision, as though she were wrestling with the important turn of events in her life. “I think so,” she said quietly.
Brody didn’t respond, because the terrible pain in his chest had damn near incapacitated him. The thought of her leaving, when he was just getting to know her… well, wasn’t that shitty timing?
“What do you mean, you can’t help me?” Elisa demanded.
The man in the three-piece pinstripe suit sitting across from her moved his shoulders in a half shrug. He leaned back in his opulent black leather chair and folded his hands on his rounded belly. “Beyond sending them a letter, there really isn’t anything we can do for you.”
Three days after receiving the business card from Brody, Elisa had been able to attain an appointment with the McDermott family lawyer. At first the man’s secretary had been hesitant to allow Elisa time in their office. But after Elisa had tossed Brody’s name around, the woman’s tone changed. She’d been pretty darn accommodating after that. Unfortunately, now Elisa was receiving a too-bad, so-sad response from the lawyer.
Stephen R. Franks, Esquire, rubbed his hand along his cleanly shaven chin. “Do you want to file an official lawsuit against them?”
“If that’s what it’s going to take to get the money they owe me, then yes.”
His sharp blue eyes bore into hers for a moment. “What evidence do you have against them?”
Elisa blinked back at him. “Evidence?” she repeated.
“Yes, you know…” He waved a hand in the air. “Some kind of document that proves this illegal activity they’re performing.”
She gripped her hands tighter in her lap and forced herself not to stomp her feet in frustration. “I don’t have an official document, but—”
“Without anything on paper, there isn’t anything we can do.” He paused, as if in thought. “Look.” He leaned forward in his chair. “You said you have this contact at a magazine who first notified you of this, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Get in touch with her, and find out if she documented the conversation. Anything would be helpfuclass="underline" an e-mail she can print out, phone records, a fax she received. Something that has on paper their intent to illegally sell your photographs for their own profit. Without that, all I can do is send a letter. But in order to do so, I’d need some contact information for them. An address and a name would be good.”
Elisa gnawed her lower lip. “I can give you the guy’s name, but I don’t know if I have their address.”
“Didn’t you once have a contract with them?”
A small amount of relief loosened her tense muscles. “Yes, I did.”
Mr. Franks nodded his head. “Find the contract and fax it to my secretary. I can reference it, and their address should be stated somewhere.”
She picked her purse up off the plush carpeting and settled it in her lap. “I really appreciate the help. I honestly didn’t know where to turn.”
His eyes softened. “What they’re doing isn’t right. I’ll do what I can to help you.” He patted her hand like a father would his child. “And any friend of the McDermotts is a friend of mine.”