Hidden Pleasures - Brenda Jackson [44]
He lifted a brow. Was he imagining things or had he heard a tremble in her voice? Taking another deep breath, he opened the doors. What he saw made him blink and mutter in a shocked tone, “Holy crap.”
Chapter 12
Galen was convinced his heart had stopped beating, his lungs had seized and his penis had doubled in size. He had to literally shake himself just to get his body back to working order.
Brittany stood there with a sexy smile on her gorgeous face, and the “come get whatever you want” invitation he saw in her eyes suddenly made him feel like Adam in the Garden of Eden. Only thing missing was the apple.
“It took you long enough to get up here, Galen.”
He swallowed. If she hadn’t said his name he would have wondered if she was talking to him. Was she saying she’d been waiting for him to make an appearance? What the heck was going on and why did he feel he had gotten caught in some sort of trap?
In his peripheral vision he saw that his room had been transformed into a setting he hadn’t ever seen before. Candles, imparting the scent of vanilla, glowed all around the room, soft music was playing and red rose petals were sprinkled over his bed, giving the room an overall romantic effect. He’d never thought he had a romantic bone in his body—until now.
But what caught his attention and held it more than anything was Brittany herself. How in the hell had she known that a woman in stilettos was his weakness, especially if she had legs like hers? And if that wasn’t bad enough, the stilettos were red.
It was her dress, however, that had his erection throbbing, his tongue feeling thick in his throat. Where in the hell had she gotten something like that from? It was red to match the shoes and it was short. The fabric crisscrossed at the top and tantalized at the bottom with its flirty hem that barely covered her thighs. What was she trying to do? Kill him?
That thought, quite seriously, sent all kinds of questions flying through his mind. But all it took was a whiff of whatever perfume she was wearing to lay them to rest unanswered. His main consideration was getting her out of that dress.
“So how did work go today?”
He blinked, realizing she had spoken, and then what she was asking. While heat drummed through him, he figured that he needed to move his tongue to answer. “I finished my goal for today. Just one or two more pieces to work on this week and I’ll be ready.”
None of what he said was making any real sense. His mouth was saying words that his body didn’t comprehend. Finish what? Ready for whom? His mouth was merely responding to her inquiry when the rest of him wanted to respond in another way. Forget the small talk.
“I didn’t know you were waiting for me,” he said, moving toward her, deciding to dispense with preliminaries and anything keeping him from her. Manners be damned.
“Yes,” she said. “You probably didn’t notice, but I left for a while to do some shopping. Because I’d found your pantry bare, I also stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things to prepare for dinner. Rule number four is to never invite someone to your home as an overnight guest without plans to feed them.”
“I was going to take you out,” he defended.
“For breakfast, lunch and dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you ever cook for yourself?”
“No.”
“That can get kind of pricey,” she pointed out.
“I can afford it,” he said, coming to a stop in front of her. “Is this dress real?”
“Touch it and see,” she challenged.
“I think I will.”
Galen smiled and for one heart-stopping moment, Brittany suddenly realized he wouldn’t stop at touching the dress. He reached out and his hands slowly made their way down the front of her dress, tracing his fingers across the soft material. But as expected, his