Chapter 23
MAVERICK
My brothers were the biggest bunch of cockblockers. I was a minute away from sinking inside a sated, uninhibited Bridget and they rang the fucking doorbell.
I should be thankful for Bradley’s diligence at his job and concern for my well-being, but sending Silas, Dex, and Theo? That was a little much. I was thirty-seven years old, not seventeen.
If I wanted to look on the bright side, he didn’t send our mother.
But he knew that would have been a fireable offense because she meddled enough trying to get grandchildren out of us.
She’d divorced our asshole father years ago and had lived well off the revenge-money she’d gotten out of the settlement.
Where he’d been a selfish prick, our mother was a saint.
After pushing Theo and Dex into the first two bedrooms I found, I turned around and headed back downstairs.
I wanted to introduce Bridget to them, to show her off like Scout was proud of the dog bone.
They’d like her, find her as unique and amazing as I did.
Except she was mine and they could find their own brilliant, sexy woman.
They’d meet her. Dressed, would be good.
Her clothes were all over the place by the couch.
That had me thinking of stripping her bare and I was pissed all over again.
My dick wasn’t all too happy either.
Silas stood by the windows looking out at the view. “Um… I just handed a very pretty, very young woman her bra.”
I narrowed my eyes and glared. He held Bridget’s bra? Meaning she hadn’t been in it when he met her? “What the fuck?”
He raised his hands. “Whoa, just saying.”
I spun in a circle, took in the fact that Bridget’s clothes were missing, then headed toward the downstairs bedroom to tell her what was going on.
That our little Saturday afternoon fuckfest was postponed and, while my balls were going to be fucking blue, I was eager to show her off.
I’d spoken briefly to Silas about her the day before right after meeting at the coffee shop, but so much had happened since then.
“She’s not in there,” Silas called.
I stopped, turned around again. He was pointing out the window.
“I think we may have scared her off.” Then he winced. “Naked.”
The idea of Silas seeing Bridget’s perfect body had me losing my shit.
“What the fuck?” I said again, this time a few decibels louder.
I stormed over to the window and caught sight of Bridget sprinting across the open field to a pocket of ponderosa pines. A white sheet was wrapped around her and flowed out behind her like the hem of a long dress.
“Jesus Christ, Si. Why didn’t you stop her?” I opened the door and ran after her. “Bridget!”
For a little thing, she was fucking fast and disappeared into the greenery.
I followed, grabbing one of her socks that she’d dropped on the way.
“Bridget,” I called again, weaving through the grove of trees. Branches were low to the ground so once surrounded by them, I could barely see the field or the house. I followed the rustling and found her with her shorts on and working her bra straps over her shoulders.
She wasn’t crying, but she was freaked. Bright spots of red were on her cheeks. Her skin was dotted with sweat and her eyes were angry and wild. For running so fast, she wasn’t breathing all too hard.
I was.
“Baby, stop.”
Ignoring me, she fought with her bra even more at my words, finally getting it to clasp.
Earlier, I’d barely had time to take in her long hair, but like this, it was wild and dark over her shoulders. Her chest rose with her ragged breaths.
“Where are your glasses?” I asked. While I was riled, I tried to keep my voice calm.
Her shoulders slumped and she ran a hand over her face. “They’re by the couch. Shit.”
I grabbed the t-shirt off the ground at her feet, turned it right-side out and handed it to her. I loved seeing her in that peekaboo bra, but now wasn’t the time. I wanted her covered and safe. Reassured because she’d been spooked enough to bolt. “Why did you run?”
“Why did I– Are you serious right now?” she shouted, staring at me as if I asked her if she thought the earth was round.
A bird squawked overhead. In the shade of the tall trees, it was cooler, but I was sweating.
“I want you to meet my brothers. They showed up unexpectedly.”
She shook her head. “No way. I’m going home.”
“I’ll take you home, but I want you to meet them first.”
“Why?” she snapped, but the hurt look in her eyes said she was more wounded than angry. “So they can laugh at me since they know my sex secrets? So they can do your assistant’s work and tell you to steer clear of a woman who sends a guy a sex quiz?”
Fuck. She’d overheard. Me talking with three men she didn’t know. While she was naked.
It had boys-will-be-boys overtones of Jimenez from the stupid meeting the day before, where she’d left the room and he’d talked about how fine her ass was. Laughing as he did so.
I clenched my molars together, angry that not only had Bradley read her quiz, but my brothers knew about it.
No, worse. Shit.
They’d said they read it and it was TMI. Too much information.
No wonder she’d run off. Shame wrapped around her more thoroughly than the sheet had. It was a repeat of the night before, but so much worse. I understood now, could see how cruel it was and how the words hurt her.
I was so fucking big and it hadn’t been my size that scared her off.
“Baby,” I whispered, taking a careful step toward her.
“You should have just fired me,” she admitted. “HR at least would have been diplomatic. Your brothers are here because they think I’m a stalker or sex crazed woman who wants you for your body and came to Montana to get me as far away from you as possible.”
“You’re not fired,” I said. “We won’t go over that one again. As for my brothers, I promise you that if they think you’re a sex crazed woman who wants me for my body, they’ll leave and let us get back to it.”
A stick snapped beneath my heel as I closed the distance between us.
She was skittish but held still.
“That is not funny,” she countered. “I took my bra from one of them and I was in just a sheet!”
“You already used me for your body,” I reminded her. “You rode my fingers. Wiggled your pussy all over my mouth and you were about to use me for my dick.”
She rolled her eyes and her cheeks flushed the same color pink as her nipples.
“As for you being sex crazed,” I pushed on, “as long as you’re sex crazed with me, I’m fucking fine with that.”
I got close enough to wrap her in my arms, to feel her shaking. I cupped the back of her head, held her against my chest. This felt so fucking right, having her in my arms, trying to soothe her. Yet I hated that she was so upset.
I thought my attempt at wit and self-deprecation would make her feel better, but her next words slayed me. “Your brothers read my sex quiz. Nothing you say is going to make that better.”
Fuck. She was right. I didn’t give a shit what my brothers thought. It was what they knew.
I told her I would fix this, me getting her email and what it meant to others.
I had. Or I thought I had.
Then I went and blew it all over again.