Chapter 22
brIDGET
When Maverick didn’t come back right away–which to me, bare-assed naked was thirty seconds or less–I ripped the bedding apart and wrapped the top sheet around me. Going to the door, I opened it a few inches.
Maverick was talking to someone. In the house from the sound of it.
“Bradley called me last night,” the man who rang the doorbell said. I knew this because it wasn’t Mav’s voice. “Recommended I fly up here and see what the fuck was up.”
“He said that?” Maverick asked.
“He left fuck out, but yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s worse than a virgin’s chaperone all up in your business.”
“I didn’t mean why he didn’t say fuck,” Maverick snapped. “Why are you here?”
“Farrah called him. Told me to tell you to call her.”
“You’re not here because of that.”
“No, but I wanted to tell you before I forgot. He sent us because of some email.”
Maverick swore long and thoroughly.
I didn’t know who Farrah was, but I couldn’t linger on that. An email? Every bit of orgasmic satisfaction was worn off and apprehension was kicking in.
“Hey, who’s this guy? Hey, buddy.”
A loud bark from Scout was followed by laughing.
“That’s Scout, my new dog,” Maverick explained.
“What?”
“You got a dog?”
That was two different guys asking questions. Not one, but two men had been at the door.
“Yes,” Maverick replied.
“What the hell’s up with his short legs? I thought Border Collies were taller than this.”
“I think his father had an affair with a Corgi,” Maverick explained.
More laughter.
“You got a dog and Bradley sent us up here because of an email? What the hell, Mav?” That was another male voice, so there were three of them. None of them sounded like they were selling something or planned to leave.
“Bradley is too efficient. He went through my inbox,” Maverick told them.
Oh. My. God. Even though I was naked, I started to sweat. Bradley was his assistant and he read his work emails. That meant–
“So?”
“So he… wait. What the hell are you doing here?” Maverick shouted at one of them.
“Me? I’m your brother, too. Clearly you need us here if you got a dog. Hey, Scout. Who’s a good boy?”
The third male voice that went from sarcastic to sweet. It seemed all three of them loved dogs.
“You work eighty hours a week in an operating room,” Maverick countered. “Since when do you have time off?”
“Since Silas called me,” countered the one who was obviously a doctor.
“Don’t look my way.” It sounded like the third brother and I pictured him holding his hands up in front of him. “You know it’s the off season. The boys want to head to Montana to see our fucked up brother? I’m in.”
No, there were four of them out there. From their banter, they were familiar with each other. I had to assume they were his brothers. The James brothers, the ones from the laptop photo Mallory drooled over.
“I got a dog. How is that fucked up?”
“Not the dog. He’s pretty cool. It’s the fact that your assistant thought you needed an intervention.”
“Where the fuck’s your shirt?” one of them asked.
“I was getting undressed when you rang the doorbell. Over and over,” Maverick countered and I felt my cheeks flame.
He hadn’t mentioned that he had a woman here, but why would he now?
They were here because Maverick’s assistant read his work emails.
Clearly, it was part of his job to maybe screen them for Maverick.
Answer less important ones for him, delete unnecessary ones.
Read some for crazy women trying to sexually harass him.
I turned and leaned against the wall while holding the sheet around my chest. Had the assistant read my email?
Of course he had. It was the biggest red flag for a CEO and clearly found it–me–a problem. Enough to call in the second-in-command at the company to look into it personally.
I closed my eyes.
This… thing wasn’t me and Maverick now. It wasn’t our little secret. He’d said he’d fix it and he had, by sending me his own sex quiz, but that had been when it was only the two of us involved. Obviously, mine wasn’t private any longer.
“Fine, you’re all here,” Maverick snapped. “Because Bradley does his job too well. You saw the email then.”
Maverick sounded grim, nothing like how he talked to me.
“Fuck, dude. That’s serious shit.”
I had no idea which brother spoke, but it didn’t matter, not when I heard a whistle of agreement from someone else.
They knew about the sex quiz! They’d read it. Thought it was serious shit. I thought the mortification last night was bad, but this was worse, which I thought wasn’t even possible.
I was naked.
In Maverick’s house.
Once they saw me, the brothers were going to find me and think I was a slut, or worse, a power hungry gold digger.
“It’s none of your fucking business,” Maverick growled.
“Not going to argue with you there. That was TMI,” another brother said. “Look, I got off an overnight on-call shift and flew up here. I need a shower, then some golf. A hike. Something outside since I don’t think I remember what fresh air feels like.”
The doctor brother, I assumed.
“Fine. Follow me. You can crash in bedrooms upstairs.”
Four big men were heavy and loud, so it was easy to follow their path up the steps and moving around upstairs.
Now was my chance. I had to get the hell out of here before they saw me.
It was one thing to read a sex email from a random, faceless woman. It was another to find her naked in their brother’s house. If that wasn’t enough… shit! My clothes were in the other room.
If they saw them, they wouldn’t think I had stripped them off to take a shower. Not in front of the couch and tossed randomly about. It would be obvious what we’d been up to.
His three brothers were here to make sure Maverick didn’t get involved with me because it seemed not only did they care about him, but his assistant was ruthlessly protective to send them all this way.
I opened the bedroom door and tiptoed down the hall, then dashed to the couch with the sheet whipping around my ankles and started picking up my clothes. Shorts, t-shirt, sock, sneaker.
A throat cleared and I leapt in the air. Stifled a scream. Then froze.
Shit. Shit!
Sitting in a leather chair by the fireplace was one of the men from Maverick’s laptop background photo.
This one wasn’t Theo, if Mallory’s obsession and his attractiveness from the photo was correct.
It was the one who looked the most like Maverick.
Same dark hair and eyes, but he had a neatly trimmed beard.
His elbow was on the arm rest and dangling from his finger was my bra.
The grin made me hate him. The fucker was enjoying himself. If the others came back…
Whipping my head around, I glanced up the stairs.
No sign of Maverick or the other two. I ran over to the brother, snagged the bra, then bolted.
I wasn’t staying here a second longer to get dressed.
I could do it behind a pine tree or something where I was alone.
If a neighbor saw me–which I doubted since the multimillion-dollar price tag on the house ensured privacy–it wouldn’t be any more mortifying than being caught by one of his brothers.
Maverick drove and I had no way of getting home, but I was a runner.
The distance back to town was less than what I did for my workout earlier this morning.
I opened one of the glass doors out onto a stone patio and took off, holding my clothes close to my chest with one hand and the bottom of the sheet up off the ground with the other.