Down & Dirty Page 5

  “Do you know what it does to me?” he asked, his voice raspy. “Hearing you say shit like that?”

  “Like what?” I asked, bending to slip my heels on.

  “That I broke you. That he put you back together. It fucking tears my heart out.”

  “Good,” I said, feeling some small measure of satisfaction. ‘Cause that’s what you did to me.”

  “And tonight was about what… getting even?”

  “No, tonight was about getting off.” I grabbed my purse. “If you finally got a taste of your own medicine, then I guess it’s true what they say. What goes around comes around.” I slammed the door with enough force to wake the dead, but it gave me little satisfaction as I stabbed the button on the elevator.

  Knowing I wasn’t going to see him again after the night we’d just shared left me feeling… hollow.

  Chapter Six

  Olivia

  “I can’t believe you were stupid enough to leave your phone in his hotel room,” Kelly said, leaning against my bedroom door frame. “Why didn’t you just go back for it?”

  I covered my face with my down pillow, wondering whether smothering myself would be an extreme reaction. “I told you, I didn’t realize I didn’t have it until I got home. By then it was too late to go back.”

  “Did you at least call it to see if he’d answer? You don’t have his cell number, right?”

  “No.” Because I hadn’t planned to see him again. In spite of my lust-drunk proclamation of love, I definitely was not in love with that man. Much. “But maybe he’ll leave it at the front desk when he checks out this morning. That way I won’t have to see him again.”

  “You really believe that’s gonna happen?” Kelly rolled her eyes. “Given the night you two had he’s probably itching to see you again.”

  I tossed the pillow aside and propped myself up on my arms. “Speaking of wild nights, you weren’t home when I got here. Where the hell did you go?”

  “Back to Justin’s,” she said, trying to seem nonchalant.

  I may not have thought anything of it except they’d dated last year and I still didn’t think Justin was over my twin. “And? What happened?”

  “We, uh, kinda…”

  “You did not!” I threw the pillow at her. “You slut! Tell me everything.” Here she was making me feel bad for hooking up with my ex when she’d done the same damn thing.

  “There’s nothing to tell. You know him. He’s hot.”

  I suspected Justin and Kelly had a better connection in the sack than we had. I didn’t think it was his fault. I was still reeling from Landon when we first slept together and the kind of chemistry I had with that man was tough to replicate.

  “Does that mean you two are back together?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “God, no. It didn’t work before. Why would it work now?”

  Justin was every woman’s wet dream and I did not get why my sister wasn’t jumping all over that. He was smart. Ambitious. His family was loaded, which was how he’d become my partner when I told him I wanted to start my own clothing line. And he was a really good guy. Sure, he loved women as much as the next guy. Liked to sleep around, but he was always honest and respectful, two qualities I admired.

  “Maybe you’ve matured,” I suggested, laughing at my own joke. Sometimes I didn’t think my sister would ever grow up. She loved to party almost as much as she loved the opposite sex and that got her in more trouble than she’d ever admit to.

  “Shut up! I—”

  The doorbell rang, cutting her off.

  “Shit,” I said, wide-eyed as I scrambled to sit up. “Who could that be?” I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. “It’s only 9:30. Were you expecting anyone?”

  “On a Saturday morning? Get real.”

  “Wait!” I cried when she turned to answer it. “What if that’s Landon returning my phone?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. He probably figured you’d need it. Duh.”

  “Okay, well just take it from him. Tell him I’m not here.” I pushed my matted hair off my face. “He doesn’t know what kind of car I drive.”

  “True,” Kelly said, as the doorbell rang again. “But there are two cars sitting in the driveway, so he can probably figure it out.”

  “He might think you had someone spend the night.” When she walked into the hall, I whisper-shouted, “Kel, I swear to God if you tell him I’m here—”

  She poked her head back in the door. “Oh, grow up. You probably sucked him off last night. And you can’t even face him this morning? Who’s the slut again?” When I stared at her, slack jawed, she said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  I burrowed my head under the covers like a three year-old afraid of monsters in her closet and tried not to breathe. Of course Kelly hadn’t even had the decency to close my door, which could be seen from the doorway of our small bungalow. The bitch.

  “Oh hey, Landon,” I heard her say.

  I was so gonna kick her ass if she let him in.

  Landon must have held up my phone, though I couldn’t hear him say anything because she responded, “Yeah, you can go on back and give it to her. Her room is at the end of the hall. I’m just gonna grab a shower.”

  My bedroom door slammed and I had no choice but to peek my head out. I realized I must have looked like a turtle popping out of its shell… or like a coward who’d been hiding under the covers so she wouldn’t be seen.

  “Hey,” I said, eyeing the phone in his hand. “Thanks for bringing that by. I was going to call about it later.”

  He tossed it on the bed, where it landed beside me. “I realized you’d forgotten it about thirty seconds after you left. But if I’d chased you down to return it to you then I knew you’d still be too wound up to talk.”

  “How’d you find out where I lived?”

  He frowned as though he suspected I was daft or caffeine deprived. “You’re listed.”

  “Oh.” I’d told my sister we should get an unpublished number. Two women living alone could attract a lot of weirdos. Or one sexy tight end who refused to take no more for an answer. “Well, um, thanks for bringing it over,” I repeated, thinking I’d give a thousand dollars for a toothbrush and hairbrush right about now.

  “That’s it?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “Thanks for bringing it by? Nice catching up? Thanks for the memories? Glad we were able to bury the hatchet?” He threw his hands up in the air. “What the hell, Olivia? You rocked my world last night. And what? I’m just supposed to forget that?”

  “You don’t have to forget it.” I knew I wouldn’t. “Let’s just say we made amends last night and leave it at that.”

  “Then you forgive me for breaking up with you?”

  “Oh hell, no.”

  Did I mention he was wearing faded, artfully torn jeans, a tight black Henley pushed back to the elbow, and black boots. Yeah, like that was fair. Especially when I was looking like Medusa’s strung-out twin.

  “Really?” He walked around the bed, so he was towering over me. “What’s it gonna take then?” He tore the covers off, making me screech. “A little more tongue action.”

  Yes, please. “Fuck you, Landon.”

  “You did.” He had the audacity to grin and wink. “Like a rodeo queen.”

  “I hate you.” I hated him even more for being right. I’d been on a quest last night. For orgasms. And man, did he deliver.

  “No, you don’t.” He ran a tongue over his pearly whites as his eyes scanned my half-naked body. “But you do hate that you want me again.”

  “I don’t want you.”

  “Really?” He grinned and I barely resisted the urge to drop him to his knees. “Must be cold in here then.”

  I folded my arms to hide the over-sized white T-shirt, resenting my puckered nipples for reacting to his mere presence. He hadn’t even touched me, yet my body was responding as though he had. It was pathetic. Shameless. And okay, kinda hot.

  Kelly was walking down the hall whistli
ng, her ponytail swishing behind her.

  “That was the fastest shower in the history of showers!” I shouted. “It usually takes you two hours in there!”

  “I’m taking coffee and breakfast to Sadie’s,” she said, smiling at Landon. “You know how she is after a night of drinking. She can barely drag her sorry ass out of bed.” She waved her hand around in front of her, circling my face. “You, uh, may want to do something about that. You want a brush or—”

  “I want to kill you,” I said, between clenched teeth. “And if you don’t get out of here right now I just might.”

  “Testy, testy,” she said, shaking her hand. “You sure you fucked her hard enough last night, Landon?”

  He coughed behind his hand, wisely trying to conceal his laughter.

  “You better sleep with one eye open tonight, bitch,” I warned her. “Because I’m coming for you.”

  She laughed as she wandered down the hall, snatching her purse from the hook by the door. “All bark, no bite. Oh, and remember what I said, Landon. You hurt her and I’ll hurt you.”

  “Got it, boss,” he replied, smiling at me.

  And that was why I could never stay mad at my sister. One minute she made me want to kill her and the next she was threatening bodily harm on my behalf. “She really threatened you?” I asked Landon.

  “Yeah, and she wasn’t playing.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his expression serious as he fixed me with those damn gray eyes. “I’m not playing either, Olivia. I’m as serious as a goddamn heart attack about you.”

  He was going to give me a heart attack if he kept surprising me with shit like that. “You suck,” I muttered, reaching for my phone and scrolling the new messages. Not because I was particularly interested in retrieving messages, but because I needed something to do with my hands. Because resisting this guy was about as hard as resisting a box of chocolate truffles the week before period.

  “Not as well as you do.”

  I punched him in the thigh, but the freakin’ Adonis didn’t even flinch. “Don’t you have a photo shoot or something, pretty boy?”

  “Nope,” he said, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “I’m yours for the whole day.”

  “What if I don’t want you?”

  His hand slipped under the waistband of the cotton panties I’d pulled on before bed. I wasn’t just wet, I was drenched. Don’t ask me how. It’s not like he’d been talking dirty to me. Much.

  “This says otherwise, angel.”

  I slapped his wrist when he started that little swirling action that made me lose brain cells. “If you think you’re getting an encore performance, think again, buddy.”

  He withdrew his hand with a sexy smirk, but not before sucking on his digit. “Mm, you taste so good.”

  “You’re…” Sexy as hell. “Offensive and rude. And you have a foul mouth.”

  He laughed. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?”

  “The only time I ever swear is when you’re around,” I lied.

  Truthfully, I swore when the fabric I ordered didn’t come in on time or when a supplier raised their prices. I swore when a model fidgeted while I was making last minute adjustments to her outfit before a fashion show. I swore when my sister pissed me off or a guy got too clingy after one date. Okay, maybe he was right. I, too, had a foul mouth.

  “Why don’t you grab a shower and I’ll take you out to breakfast?”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I knew I was acting like a petulant child, but a girl had to stand her ground sometimes and this was one of those times.

  “Fine. You got any food in the house? I can make you breakfast. If not, I can run out and grab what—”

  “Hold up a minute,” I said, raising my hand. “You cook?”

  “Sure, I cook.” He patted his six-pack. “You think I got this eating greasy take-out?”

  “No, I assumed you had a personal chef. And a maid. A personal masseuse—”

  “A masseuse?” His lips twitched. “I don’t think they’re called that anymore. I think they prefer massage therapist.”

  “How about someone to give you a rub and tug?” I asked, wryly. “Does that work for you?” I hated to admit it, but I’d missed our banter. Landon was the only guy I’d ever known who wasn’t afraid to give as good as he got.

  “It works for me, but I haven’t found anyone who does it as well as you do. You want a job?”

  “What I want is to kick your ass.” But given the hundred pounds he had on me, that wasn’t likely to happen, so I settled for kicking him as I swung my legs over the side of my double bed. “Now get out.”

  “I’ll get the coffee going. I remember it took at least one cup before you started acting human.”

  Coffee and a homemade breakfast did sound good, especially since I was used to a pre-packaged bar on my way out the door every morning. “Fine, feed me if you must. But you can’t hang around all day. I’ve got work to do.” I didn’t really, but I couldn’t trust myself alone with him too long. Once we’d finished eating the food I was afraid I’d beg him to eat… me.

  “You’re still an ornery little thing, aren’t you?” he asked, slapping my ass when I climbed out of bed.

  “You!” Just soaked my panties. Spank me again. “Are an ass. Old men are ornery. I am... maybe a little grumpy. But only because you broke into my bedroom and started making all these ridiculous demands.”

  Unfazed by my rebuke, he said, “First of all, I didn’t break in. Your sister let me in. And I didn’t make any demands. I made an offer. To feed you. Is that so terrible?”

  I knew I was being a bitch, but if I wasn’t he’d slip past my defenses and into my panties faster than I could call a time-out. “I’m going to take a shower,” I muttered, slinking out of the room.

  Chapter Seven

  Landon

  She looked so damn cute climbing up on that stool at the breakfast bar. She was wearing black yoga capris and a black tank, sans make-up, with her long blond hair fastened in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. Without even trying she was the hottest woman I’d ever seen. And I was determined to make her mine again.

  I knew we couldn’t jump back into bed. As much I wanted her, I had to convince her I’d changed. That I was finally ready to put her first. And that meant taking it slow. Not gonna lie, I usually moved through life at breakneck speed, but this girl was skittish. With good reason. And I had to take my time. Pull out all the stops. Romance her. Make her fall in love with me all over again.

  “This looks good,” she said, eyeing the ham and cheese omelet with suspicion. “You sure you made it?”

  I rolled my eyes as I pushed a mug of black coffee in front of her. “No, I dialed 1-800-Omelete. They deliver now.”

  “I suspect when you have enough money, you can get anyone to do just about anything.”

  “Not true,” I said, setting my plate beside hers as I rounded the small island. “There are some things money can’t buy.” Like another chance with you.

  “Name one thing you want that don’t have,” she said, testing her coffee to make sure I’d added one level teaspoon of sugar, just the way she liked it.

  It was a little thing, remembering the way she took her coffee, but I wanted to prove to her that I remembered every little thing about her because she was that special to me. “That’s a loaded question,” I said, looking at her out of the corner of my eye as she bit into the buttered toast I had placed on the side of her plate.

  “Maybe I don’t want to know,” she muttered, cutting into her omelet with her fork. She popped a bite into her mouth and moaned appreciatively. “Oh my God, this is so good. How did you learn to cook like this?”

  I shrugged, trying to play it off. “The off-season can get pretty long. I need hobbies to keep me from going crazy.” I could feel her watching me when I brought the coffee mug to my lips, but I didn’t so much as blink. This was just another facet of me and there was a part of me that enjoyed shocking her. She knew
me, but she didn’t. She’d known the boy I used to be. Now it was time for her to get to know the man I’d become.

  “Cooking is one of your hobbies?” she asked, slack-jawed. “What else do you do for fun?”

  I nudged her shoulder gently with mine. “Last night was pretty fun, no?”

  “I’m not talking about that,” she said, sounding disgusted. “Obviously sex is one of your favorite hobbies. Always has been.”

  “Hey,” I said, recognizing my mistake immediately. “Liv, I don’t care what you’ve heard about me. I don’t sleep around.”

  Professional athletes had a bad reputation, for good reason sometimes, and I was far from an angel, but I wasn’t a man-whore either. Maybe early on in my career when I’d been trying to obliterate the memory of the sexy little blonde at my side I had been, but those days were long gone.

  “Whatever you say,” she said, sounding unimpressed as she dug into her breakfast with enthusiasm.

  “Are you saying you don’t think I have it in me to be faithful?”

  I needed her to believe I could be loyal to her. Denver was an hour and a half from Breckenridge, which meant I couldn’t be with her all the time during the season. I needed her to know when we weren’t together that I had the restraint to keep it in my pants. ‘Cause I’d learned the hard way… life without this woman kinda sucked. Okay, maybe it didn’t suck. I had a pretty great life by most people’s standards, but having Olivia would take my life from good to fan-freaking-tastic and I’d never been one to settle for good enough.

  “I don’t know.” She reached for the glass of juice I’d poured. “I don’t even know you anymore.”

  “Okay, let me ask you this. You think I was faithful to you while we were together?”

  “Sure, but that was different,” she said, swallowing a mouthful of omelet. “We were together all the time back then. Now you’re in Denver and I’m here.”