“I know what you’re thinking.” She sighed, avoiding his gaze as they walked from the plane.
He held her hand, his fingers laced through hers. “No, you don’t,” Brody said.
“You think I’m…naive. Spineless. And maybe I am-or was. But I’m not that way anymore.”
He pulled her to a stop, forcing her to face him. “Are you under the impression that this has changed the way I feel about you?” Brody asked.
“It hasn’t?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
They took a cab from the airport to Brody’s apartment. Payton was curious about what she’d find on the other side of the front door. The building was luxurious, with its richly appointed lobby and thickly carpeted hallways. Brody hadn’t told her much about his life off the station. What she knew had come from Teague-a career in football, the accident that had ruined his knee and a retreat back to the station.
He reached for the front door, then paused. “I don’t remember what it looks like inside,” he said, forcing a smile. “It’s been a while since I’ve been home and I had to let my cleaning lady go.” He shoved the key into the lock. “Maybe I should just check it out.”
“It’s all right,” Payton said. “I’ve been working in a stable. Unless you have a dozen horses in there, nothing is going to freak me out.”
Brody chuckled. “All right.” The door swung open and he stepped aside to let her enter first. She walked inside slowly, taking in the details of the interior.
It was a beautiful apartment, sleek and modern. A wall of windows overlooked the water and filled the apartment with light. It was furnished sparsely yet fashionably.
Payton wandered over to the windows and took in the view of a wide river and the city on the other side. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “So different from the station.”
“One of the guys on the team gave me the name of his decorator. I didn’t pick this stuff out myself. I would have been content with a couch and telly and a bed.”
She stared up at a painting hanging on the wall above the sofa. “Very nice. So, is this what football buys?”
Brody smiled. “That’s what football bought. Footy doesn’t buy anything anymore.”
“It’s difficult to imagine you doing that. Dressed in all that gear.”
“Aussie rules is not like American football,” he said. “We don’t wear anything but a shirt, shorts and shoes. It’s more like rugby than what you think of as football.” He paused. “So you know how I found out about your wedding. How did you find out about my busted career?”
“Your brother Teague. He said you were good, but that your motorcycle accident ended your career.”
Brody nodded. “I was. I was the top scorer on our team. But that doesn’t really matter anymore. Now some other bloke is the top scorer on the team. And I’m just a guy who spends his time working a cattle station in Queensland.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” she said.
“It’s not the same as being famous.”
Payton ran her hands through her hair. “I’m still dirty from work. Can I take a shower?”
Brody took her bag off his shoulder. “The bathroom is through the bedroom,” he said, pointing to a door in the far wall. “I’ll show you.”
She followed him into the bedroom and he set her bag on the bed, then turned and helped her out of her jacket. He smoothed his hands over her shoulders and nuzzled his nose in her hair. “It’s nice to have you here,” he said. “All to myself.”
Payton leaned back against his chest and drew his arms around her. “It is funny how things work out. We’ve both lived such different lives, and then they touched for a moment in that jail cell. If you hadn’t drunk so much beer or I’d paid for my meal, we would never have met. Gemma thinks it was fate.”
“Maybe it was.”
Payton turned in his arms and then pushed up on her toes and kissed him. She slipped her arms around his neck and drew him more deeply into the kiss, loving the way he tasted, the way his mouth fit so perfectly with hers. Just a simple kiss was all it took to ignite her desire.
She reached up and tugged his jacket down over his arms, then moved to work on the buttons of his shirt. They’d undressed each other so many times that it had become second nature to them. There was no longer any hesitation or embarrassment. They felt more comfortable out of their clothes than in them.
When they were both naked, he took her hand and led her into the bathroom. The shower was surrounded by glass block from floor to ceiling. He opened a door and stepped inside, turning the water on and then helping her inside when it was the proper temperature.
It was a shower made for a man who came home with bruises and sore muscles: a variety of showerheads angled in all different directions. The door kept the steam inside and before long, the moisture created a fog around them both.
His hands smoothed over her body and she closed her eyes and enjoyed his caress. He turned her around and pulled her against him, his growing erection pressing against her backside. His palms slowly ran the length of her torso, from her breasts to her belly and then to the juncture of her thighs.
He delved between the soft folds of her sex and when he found the spot, began to touch her in a way he knew so well. Payton arched back, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling him into another kiss.
But he wasn’t content to just touch her. His mouth moved over her shoulder, his tongue tracing a path to the curve of her neck. Brody gently urged her to sit on the low bench at the center of the shower. And then he knelt in front of her, spreading her legs and continuing the seduction with his tongue.
Payton had always felt this was the most intimate expression of desire and until now, they’d both been satisfied with other things. But Payton let go of the last shred of inhibition, surrendering to Brody, the shudders rocking her body. And as she surrendered to him, she realized that this was no longer just physical. She’d grown to need him in so many other ways.
She felt tears press at the corners of her eyes, but when he met her gaze she forced a smile. How could she ever consider living without him? He’d become part of her life, the new life that she’d found in Australia.
But was she really ready to walk away from her past, from her family and everything she’d known, to stay here with him? Payton reached up and brushed his wet hair from his eyes. She didn’t need to tell him how she felt. It was understood between them, communicated by smiles and sighs and soft kisses in the dark.
Brody drew her slowly to her feet and then led her out of the shower. Her release only made her exhaustion more acute and when he wrapped her in a thick cotton towel, Payton closed her eyes and leaned against him for support.
They ended up on the bed, Brody stretched out beside her, his fingers gently stroking her cheek. “Tell me about him,” he said softly. “Why did you love him?”
“That’s a question,” she said. “I’m not sure I have an answer.”
“Try,” he said. “Please?”
“I thought he was right for me. And I knew my parents would love him. I always tried to do what I thought they wanted me to. I was a very good girl.”
“But there must have been something about this guy,” Brody said.
“We were together so long, I guess I forgot what it was that attracted me in the first place. He was supposed to be perfect for me.”
Brody was silent for a long moment, then drew a deep breath. “Do you still love him?”
“I’m not sure I ever did,” Payton said. “At least not the way a woman should love the man she marries.”
He seemed to take comfort in that answer. But did it make a difference? She was here, with him, running away from all her problems. She hadn’t thought about how this might end between them. It was so simple to believe they would just continue, without any difficulties. They were living off the high of their infatuation. Real life hadn’t intruded yet. But it would soon enough.