STEAL (Right Men Series Book 2) Read online

  “We still need to talk.”

  “Look, Bryan,” I started to say but couldn’t seem to keep talking when he was looking at me that way. Full of charm and confidence.

  “I like it more when you call me handsome.” His eyes glittered with mischief, and my body tingled. Tingled!

  “Look, Bryan, I have to work. I’ll be back late tonight. We can catch up tomorrow, or if you’re up, tonight.”

  “Fine.”

  “Great.”

  “Nice meeting your Woody, Blondie.”

  “Her name’s Ruby, and if you so much as lay a finger on her, I will kill you.”

  A deep chuckle behind me made me jump as Garrett’s arm went over my shoulder. What is it with these touchy-feely guys? Did they miss the ‘keep your hands to yourself day’ in kindergarten?

  “I like you, Val. Takes balls to threaten a cop.”

  “Cop?” My face paled. Jesus, Vaughn, what did you do?

  “You can call me Detective Handsome.” I shook my head and started walking over to my bike.

  “Whoa, wait.” Bryan jogged over to me as I grabbed my helmet

  “What?”

  “This is yours?” he asked, clearly surprised. Great. He was one of those guys who didn’t think women could own a motorcycle.

  “Jesus, for a detective you’re not too fast on the uptake. Does your department know that?”

  “Look, I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” he blurted, and I looked at his eyes just as I pulled my helmet over my head.

  “Okay.” He took the wind out of my sails. There was no way I could hold on to being pissed if he was apologizing. “I’m sorry, too. I think if we…” I stopped talking as his hands came up and buckled my chin straps, and just like that, breathing became close to impossible.

  There was something sweet about someone doing that for you. It’d been a very long time since anyone cared about my well-being. His thumb skimmed my cheek, and before I could find my words, he cleared his throat. “See you later, Blondie.”

  “Right.” I stiffened, fighting not to let him see how much I wanted him to keep touching me.

  We stood there, frozen in time, the moment growing longer but in no way awkward, until Garrett called out for him and he shook his head, waving bye at me as he walked away. My eyes roamed his muscular back and firm ass, and I sighed.

  If this was my morning, I wondered what the rest of my day had in store for me.

  BRYAN

  He tried not to stare at her as she straddled her bike, starting it up and leaving way to damn fast.

  But he failed.

  He watched every movement. Fuck. Garrett was wrong when he’d said she was beautiful. She was whatever word meant more than beautiful. Hell, he didn’t even think a fucking word existed in the English language that would adequately describe her. She was gorgeous and sexy, beautiful and really damn cute; all mixed in and sprinkled with fierce sassiness.

  And he was fucked.

  He had to live with her.

  Live with the most irresistible woman he had met. Ever.

  And he’d already fucked up her first impression of him.

  Half-awake, he had stepped into the kitchen and had seen a blond bombshell. No other way to describe the sight that had been laid out in front of him. With nothing on but a tiny white towel, wearing a face of an angel with lips made for sin. Shit. If her face wasn’t enough, then there was her body. Her body was made for him. Like a fucking pin-up doll, with hourglass curves and an ass that had his hands aching to touch.

  If he could have created his dream woman, she would have looked like the woman in his kitchen, and without thinking, his inner asshole had started talking for him. Assuming she was his new roommate’s woman or date from the night before. He had shot for smooth but knew he’d come off sleazy the moment the first word had escaped from his mouth.

  But she hadn’t just let him use her as a doormat. Vulnerable in only a towel with a strange man in her home, she had dished it right back at him. He smiled, trying to ignore the way his cock wanted to harden at the thought of her. He didn’t know if he wanted to high-five her or spank her for it.

  And damn, when she’d tripped and he’d caught her in his arms, he’d gone rock hard in zero to sixty milliseconds. He’d never had a reaction to a woman like that. Not even to his ex-wife when they’d first started to date as teenagers and teenage hormones had run rampant.

  “Val’s fucking cute, man,” Garrett mentioned with way too much appreciation in his voice, and the hairs on Bryan’s neck bristled.

  “What?” He felt his face turn into a fixed scowl. He didn’t like the easy way she had smiled at his oldest brother.

  “Your roommate,” Garrett pointed out, and Bryan felt the jealousy start to bubble up. What is his problem? He wasn’t the possessive or jealous kind.

  “What about her?” he asked, turning, trying to sound like he could give a shit.

  “She’s fucking cute,” Garrett repeated, and he breathed in deep trying to act like she wasn’t anything to write home about.

  “Eh.” He shrugged looking up at Garrett. The asshole was the tallest of the Wright brothers. GI-freaking-Joe body even after getting out of the service.

  “Right, B,” Garrett scoffed, looking too amused.

  “What?”

  “Let’s keep pretending you didn’t notice.”

  “I don’t know what—“

  “You wanna act like you didn’t notice how hot she is, that’s on you. She is pretty freaking gorgeous.”

  “She’s alright,” he mumbled, carrying a box toward the far end of the garage, looking at the sweet badass car in the garage.

  “Right.” He could hear Garrett’s eyes rolling. “That’s why you weren’t drooling over her.”

  “I don’t drool over any woman,” he stated, and Garrett’s obnoxious laughter, a sound he wasn’t used to hearing from his brother, rang in the air. And even if it was at his expense, Bryan enjoyed the sound.

  “I was around when you first met Court.”

  “No shit. I met Courtney when we were kids,” he huffed, not in the mood to talk about his ex-wife.

  “What I’m saying is, I think you like your new little roomie.”

  “Want me to braid your hair next? Afterwards, we can give each other a pedicure?” he asked like an asshole.

  “So, you’re saying you didn’t notice your roommate is fucking hot? Like pin-up-model hot?”

  “In those scrubs and those glasses?” He shrugged, trying to get a way to end this fucking conversation.

  “Man, even in those scrubs she looked like a pin-up. And her voice. Holy fuck,” Garrett kept going, and he was done listening to his brother talk about his little blonde that way.

  His blonde?

  “She’s okay. A little too frumpy Plain Jane for me,” he said, not meaning it at all, just needing the conversation to end.

  A quiet gasp and Garrett’s hushed curse hit his ears before silence fell all around the driveway, making him stop in his tracks. Turning around, a box in his hands, he locked his eyes with her pretty, jade-green ones. He watched hurt dissolve into indifference pretty quickly, but he had hurt her, and for that his gut roiled.

  “I forgot to tell you to take out the trash. The truck comes by in the mornings. It was Vaughn’s job. Since you’re subletting, it’s now yours,” she clipped, heading back to her bike.

  This time, he didn’t fight the urge to stand there and watch her. He stood, watching her full hips sway back and forth, as if on purpose. Her voluptuous ass hugging the back of her ugly scrubs. Without a second look at him, she rode away. A weird sensation hit his chest, almost like heartburn but duller, making him rub over his heart.

  Yup. He’d totally fucked up.

  But it’s better this way, he remined himself. Even if he could taste the sweet, minty freshness of her mouth and his hands felt like they’d memorized what she had felt like under them. It was better if she thought he was an uninterested dick.
/>   He wasn’t looking for a happily ever after. He couldn’t give that to anyone. And everything about the blond goddess screamed she deserved one. He didn’t know how he knew that; he just did. One look at her, and any man in his right mind would want to tie her to him and never fucking let go.

  Been there, done that, burned the fucking commemorative T-shirt.

  He didn’t have what it took to give a woman a happily ever after that included a white picket fence and the two point five kids it went with.

  He never would.

  No matter how much he wanted it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  BRYAN

  The day is too fucking hot for being this early in the morning, he thought as he unlocked the front door of the house.

  Like a wuss, he had taken up his future sister-in-law’s dinner invitation in hopes to avoid his pretty little roommate. After a game of Monopoly with his niece that went on for way too long, he took up Grace’s offer of staying in the spare room of her home.

  Marcus, the middle of the Wright brothers and Hollywood actor, was on set in Canada, and Bryan knew he liked knowing his brothers popped in to make sure his girls were safe and sound.

  He was happy to do it. It wasn’t like he had much going on, and if he had to admit it, he had a great time over there when he went to visit.

  Grace and Lexi, Grace’s daughter from a previous relationship, spoiled Bryan, Garrett, and their childhood friend, Donnie, when they visited. They were pretty awesome. Funny, smart, and beautiful. His brother was a lucky man to have made himself a part of their family. Luckily for the three of them, Grace and Lexi had taken in the rest of Marc’s brothers as well.

  Walking into the quiet house, he stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes pinned to the beautiful creature, sound asleep, he felt like he had swallowed his tongue.

  There she was.

  Sprawled out, her hair stood out against the darkness of the upholstery of the couch. Her golden tresses covered most of her face, her pink lush lips stood out, parted slightly. Loose and long, her hair looked like a silky cascade of dark gold, and all he wanted to do was touch it. Feel the brilliant strands slip through his fingers like water, and a need to bury his face in her hair to smell her scent washed through him. She moved, shifting her body slightly, and his went on full alert, blood immediately rushing south. The tight white tank top she was wearing shifted upward, revealing a soft patch of creamy skin, exposing the bottom half of her belly button. His cock hardened behind his jeans. All because of half a damn belly button? What the fuck was his problem? He needed to get himself in check, and it was getting too close to impossible to do so.

  He should walk away.

  He should head straight into his bedroom and shut the door.

  But he knew what would happen the second he locked his bedroom door. He would waste about five minutes trying to wash out the sight of her. Even now, standing, watching her, knowing what her kisses taste like, how she had felt in his arms, almost half-naked in that lucky-as-hell towel she had been wearing, he was losing his fight at being turned on.

  Shit. What the fuck? He was a grown man, not some walking hormone-laced pubescent teen. If he walked into his room, he was going to jerk himself off, come all over his hand, and if he were a betting man, he’d still be left hard and hungry for her.

  He should get the hell out of there before she woke up to him staring at her like some creepy perv, but he couldn’t get himself to move.

  Nailed to the spot beneath his feet, he looked at her. Pretty, pink lips, white tank top that held her braless breasts, black cotton shorts so short they showed off the curve of her hips and plump ass, making his eyes roam down her sexy-as-hell legs. He swallowed hard looking at the endless tan skin on long, toned legs. His lips quirked upward as he looked at the ugly as fuck socks covering her feet.

  He should walk away. He should go into his room. But he couldn’t get himself to do either. She is so fucking beautiful.

  He watched her eyes flutter open, and his heart stopped.

  For a moment, he wondered if she could feel his eyes on her. He also wondered what she was thinking. For a long, quiet moment, time stood still; neither of them said a word. He wondered if she was going to yell at him for gawking at her like some pervert. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, she beat him to the punch, which was okay. Hell, just gawking at her, observing her sit up, her body moving, made him lose track of what he was going to say anyhow.

  “You didn’t come home,” she whispered, and he frowned.

  Home. He hadn’t had that in a while.

  Home.

  A woman waiting for him. He didn’t like how good it felt her calling it that.

  “You waited?” he asked incredulously. She didn’t even know him and she had waited?

  “You wanted to talk.” She sighed, giving him a small shrug before rolling her eyes. When she stood to her full height, he watched her adjust and lower her shorts. She was taller than he’d realized. The top of her head reached his lips. He suddenly wanted to pull her close, kiss her forehead, and breathe in the scent of her hair.

  But he didn’t.

  “Look, you said you paid for three months, yeah?” she asked, and he could tell by the sudden sharpness in her tone that he wasn’t going to like wherever she was going to take this conversation.

  “Right,” he answered cautiously.

  “I’m a nurse. I work twelves and sometimes doubles. I’ll keep to myself, and you do the same. With my schedule, I’m hardly home to begin with, and I’m sure cops do what, like twelves?”

  “Some do, yeah…”

  “Then we’re good. We will hardly see one another.” Yup. He wasn’t going to like what she had to say. He should be happy with what she was saying. He had no business being around a woman as tempting as Valerie Duncan. “Okay, then,” she repeated as if to herself, taking a step forward when he did the same.

  With hardly any distance between them, he could smell the fruitiness of her shampoo, and his cock stirred. Had she taken a shower before falling asleep on the couch? What would it be like to fall asleep with that scent next to him all night? Hell, better yet, that curvy, perfect body next to him.

  Shit. What is my problem?

  He moved right when she moved left, and again they found themselves in each other’s space. They both stopped, and his hand found itself on her hip. He heard her sharp intake of air and couldn’t help enjoying her reaction to his touch. His eyes grazed her tits, and his mouth watered at the sight of the small, sharp-pebbled peaks. Oh, yeah, she was just as attracted to him as he was to her.

  “I got a question,” he announced. She looked up, her eyes meeting his own, her gaze leaving his lips.

  “What?” she asked huskily.

  “This what you wear to bed?” he asked, and she frowned, little lines forming on her brow questioningly, like she didn’t understand him. “Like, on a normal basis, this or something like this, is it what you wear to sleep?”

  “Sometimes, why?”

  “And you parade around in a towel? Normally?”

  “I…” Her cheeks flushed, and he didn’t think she even realized that she moved closer into his body. “I didn’t know you were here. I mean, I didn’t know you lived here and…” She was flustered. He could work with that.

  “That might be a problem, Blondie,” he told her honestly. Confusion filled her eyes.

  He pressed his body closer to hers to show her exactly how hard his problem was. He had wanted to scare her off, have her be the one to push him away. Instead, his plan backfired. The curvy goddess in front of him rubbed up against him as if by instinct. He watched as heat ignited behind the light green pools of her eyes.

  He hadn’t expected that from her at all.

  “I like this kind of problem,” she rebutted, and he breathed in through his nose, trying to control himself. But just breathing around her fucked with his head. Her soft scent filled every one of his senses; his self-control snapped.

  “
Shit, baby…” His hands slid to cup her ass—her flesh fit in his hands perfectly—and he squeezed the soft beauty he held. He walked her backwards, their lips hovering over one another’s. Anticipation snapped and crackled between them, thick sexual tension like a fog covering only them.

  “Bryan.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! A soft whimper made his hands clench deeper into the soft flesh of her ass cheeks fitting in his big hands perfectly.

  “Tell me to put you down,” he ordered. Half of him prayed she would, while the other prayed she wouldn’t.

  Her soft almost mint-green eyes dilated, and he watched her lick her lower lip a second before she answered his prayer. “No.”

  “Blondie, if I don’t, and I keep you in my arms—“ he started to warn.

  “What? What will you do?” she asked but didn’t let him answer. She licked his upper lip, and the string of control started to loosen. She was teasing him, and he needed a taste. He kissed her. Hard. Demanding. Trying to keep his shit together was going to be impossible.

  “I’m gonna take you against the wall,” he breathed heavily, still nipping and pulling on her lips.

  “Why?” she asked, half dazed.

  “Why not?” he retorted, giving her a peck on her lips, his mind going wild with how he was going to pound into her all the while making sure the few frames on the walls shook. She surprised him again by grabbing his face with both hands, pulling at him so they would be eye to eye.

  “Between the two of us, we have two perfectly good queen-sized beds,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she was messing with him.

  “If you give me the green light, I don’t think I will be strong enough to get us to either of our rooms.”

  “You could put me down and we could walk there,” she told him like it made sense, and he frowned wondering if she’d ever even had sex against a wall. If she’d ever felt the passion they felt now, because he knew he’d never come close to this, not even when he was married. He knew in his gut he would never feel this with anyone ever again.

  “Why would I ever put you down?”

  “You said I was too heavy.”

  “That’s not what I said,” he growled. Why do women twist things?