Gray groans. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“You know,” I say, as the woman’s arm sticks across the doorway and slides through a sweatshirt. “Hollywood really gives breaking and entering a bad reputation. Not all heroes wear capes, but not all felons wear ski masks. Sometimes they wear lace and?—”
“Brooks—”
“—if I’m lucky?—”
“Brooks,dammit. Stop talking.” He inhales a deep breath. “You’re at my house? Right now?”
“Yup. And I’d say that you’re welcome, but I have a suspicion that it’ll be me thanking you before the end of the night.” I scratch the top of my head. “It usually winds up that way, though, doesn’t it? That’s kind of bullshit.”
He groans again. Deeper this time. “Stop right there. Who is breaking into my house?”
“I don’t know her name,” I say, fixing my cock so the tip isn’t threatening to poke out of the towel at my navel. “She’s the hottest little bandit that I’ve ever seen, though. Great tits. I haven’t seen her ass yet, but?—”
“Nope.”
My brows pull together. “Nope?What do you mean,nope?”
“She’s not your type.”
“You apparently don’t know my type.”
He sighs as if this conversation is killing him. I’m sure he has better things to do than talk to me, but this does concernhishouse, and I am spendingmyprecious time and energy getting involved. The least he could do is be a decent wingman. God knows how many times I’ve played the role for him.
“That bandit is Audrey Van,” Gray says. “Astrid’s best friend.”
He knows her?This creates a wrinkle in my theory—and not one I love.
“She asked if she could stay there for a while and sort some shit out,” Gray says. “I promised her that she’d be safe.”
“So wear a condom?”
“I’m telling you that she’s not your type,” he says sternly before blowing out a hasty breath. “She’s a good girl, Brooks. Sweet. Innocent as hell. She doesn’t swear, doesn’t drink—nothing. Get the picture?”
“Oh, I get the picture, all right,” I say, smirking.
“Unless that picture is you leaving my cabin, which, by the way,what the fuck are you doing there, then that picture is skewed.”
I sigh. “You used to be so much fun.”
Audrey peeks her head around the corner before stepping back into the bedroom. Baggy sweatpants and an oversized green sweatshirt hang off her delicate frame. The only glimpse of her body is her hard nipples poking against her top. Somehow, I think that might be even sexier than the lingerie.
She watches me with her big blue eyes, and everything that Gray said about her makes sense. It also explains why she’s here, which, sadly, doesn’t have anything to do with me.Yet.But if I know anything better than how to throw a right cross, it’s women. And my experience says that there’s more to this particular woman than virtue and innocence, and my glutton for punishment is too curious for my own good.
“Gray?” I punch the speakerphone button. “Say something so she stops looking at me like I’m the one at fault here.”
“You are,” Gray says with a little more enthusiasm than I appreciate.
“Excuse me?” I make a face like he’s ridiculous, which gets a tiny smile out of her. “I’m here, helping your brother put up a fence in the fucking sleet?—”
“Which has nothing to do with my cabin,” Gray says.
I scoff. “So you’d rather me freeze my nuts off before I swing by your place—my best friend’s cabin—and take a hot shower? What a nice guy you are.”
The rigidity hugging her shoulders melts away.
“Fuck off, Dempsey,” Gray says, sighing. “Audrey? You there?”
