Hidden Pleasures - Brenda Jackson [43]
In addition to turning his bedroom into a seduction scene, she’d made a pit stop at the grocery store after discovering his pantry bare. Another rule of manners he’d broken. She wasn’t Rachael Ray by any means, but she didn’t do so badly in the kitchen. And just in case the sex thing with her was a total flop, at least she’d have the meal as a consolation prize.
Her ears perked up when she heard the sound of a door closing and figured it was Galen coming out of the garage. She nervously nibbled on her bottom lip knowing at any moment he would be coming up the stairs for her. She knew what happened after that would determine her fate.
Whatever it took—even if it was every ounce of resolve she had—she would get through it. No matter the outcome.
Galen sniffed the air the moment he closed the door from the garage. He had to be at the right house, but couldn’t remember the last time he’d encountered the smell of food cooking.
He walked into his kitchen and glanced around. He’d been living here for four years, and this was probably the first time his stove had earned its keep. And the only thing his refrigerator had been good for was to chill his beer because he ate out one hundred percent of the time. Getting a home-cooked meal at his parents’ place was one of the reasons he actually looked forward to Thursday nights.
He glanced over at his table. It was set for two with elegant china, silverware and glasses. He then glanced back at the stove and saw all stainless-steel pots. He could only assume all this kitchenware belonged to him. Was it a house-warming gift from his mother when he’d first moved in? Now that he thought about it, he was sure of it.
Whatever was in those pots sure smelled good and he couldn’t wait to get into it. But then he frowned. If for one minute Brittany assumed a home-cooked dinner would replace the sex they were to have later, then she had another thought coming. He could get a meal from just about anywhere.
Galen turned toward the stairs, bracing himself for what he figured would be opposition to keeping her side of their agreement. She had been the one who’d tossed the “talk is cheap” challenge out there, and he was so looking forward to hearing her give one hell of an orgasmic scream. He could just imagine his hard body intimately connected to her soft one, her arms wrapped around his neck or her hands gripping his shoulders. All that mattered was getting inside her, thrusting in and out. His penis, which had gotten hard from the moment he’d finished working that day, seemed to have taken on a life of its own. If he didn’t know better he’d suspect it had Brittany’s name written all over it.
He’d never been this hard up for a woman. Each step he took up the stairs, closer to her, made his erection surge in anticipation. The lust that had been eating at him, nipping at his heels, from the first time he’d set eyes on her had overtaken his senses, was devouring his control and intoxicating his mind.
Galen wasn’t sure what he would do if he’d discovered Brittany had reneged. He didn’t expect her to be already naked waiting for him in his bed, but he didn’t expect for her to come kicking and screaming, either.
He moved toward the hall that led to his bedroom, not sure what he would find. It wouldn’t surprise him if he found her sitting with her laptop still working on her e-mails. He knew there hadn’t been any food in the house, which meant she had gone to the grocery store at some point. No doubt she wasn’t happy about doing that.
He placed one foot in front of the other thinking this had to be the longest walk of his life, mainly because what awaited him on the other side could make or break him. He should never have allowed any woman to sink her claws into him this deep. But he’d been a goner the first time she’d frowned at him when he’d hijacked her cab. And he hadn’t been right in the head since.
When he stood in front of the closed double doors to his bedroom,