Page 14 of Brick

CHAPTER FIVE

Liv

A cop was going to pull her over.

Liv eased her foot off the accelerator, slowing the car down. Surely ten miles an hour under the speed limit was better than five. She hit her blinker half a block before her turn, gritting her teeth as some dickhead honked and passed on the left.

It didn’t matter if there were no police in sight. Driving without a license could get her a ticket she couldn’t afford, and for what felt like the hundredth time since Friday night, she cursed her brother under her breath.

Izzy had done her part and had asked Will to hand over her ID at dinner the night before, but he’d conveniently left it at home.

A terse text exchange later and he promised to drop it off this morning. But then he didn’t show up, and she’d had to go to work without it. Now she was back at his construction site to get the damn thing herself.

She jumped out of her car and stalked toward the trailer set up on the side of the property. Robby stood right outside the door, scribbling on his clipboard.

He looked up when her foot crunched into an empty water bottle. “Hey.” The grin spreading across his face quickly died when he caught her expression. He advanced down the three wooden stairs to meet her. “Is everything okay?”

“Is my brother here?” She winced at the hard edge to her voice. It wasn’t Robby’s fault her brother had pissed her off.

“I’m sorry.” He toed over some sawdust on the ground with his suede work-boot. “I sent him to go pick up some supplies. Can I give him a message?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten in her head. “Ask him to drop my license off in my mailbox before he goes home.” She breathed deep. “Please.”

“Sure.” He backed up the steps without turning around. “I’ll go write up a note for him now.”

Great. She’d chased away a perfectly nice guy who had only been trying to help her out. Spinning on her heel, she considered a dozen ways to get her brother back for being a pain in her ass. Putting sugar in his salt shaker. Signing him up to Hair Club for Men. Filling his shampoo bottle with Nair.

Plotting her ideas for her revenge, she didn’t even look right in front of her. Until she stepped into a wall of broad chest and black cotton. The impact almost knocked her back, but two expansive hands wrapped around her upper arms and steadied her.

She recognized Brick without even seeing his face. She had an awareness of him she couldn’t quantify.

Her body softened in his grip.

Those hands. She wanted them everywhere.

Her knees threatened to give out from the nearness of him.

“You’re better off staying far away from me.”

She locked her legs and steeled her spine at the memory of his rebuke at the bar. “You can let me go now.”

The cords of his neck tensed. Then, he released her and stepped back, giving her a full look at the man who’d been plaguing her thoughts for days now. A dusting of stubble shadowed his jaw. His brown eyes searched hers and tightened as if he had found something he didn’t like. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He gave every indication of genuine concern. His hand even reached toward her—for a second, anyway—before he clenched his fist and dropped it to his side.

Here comes trouble.

Because, oh yeah, he wanted to touch her.

A tickle of excitement swept up her spine, and all the irritation she’d carried a moment before dissipated like a flash summer storm giving way to gentle breezes and blue skies. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip before flashing a wicked smile. “I am now.”

Bold as brass, she swept her gaze over his powerful arms and muscular chest. “I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I definitely like what I see.”

Brick’s jaw dropped, and it would have been downright funny if she wasn’t so busy basking in her sass.

Something kept this guy from pursuing her, but it sure as hell wasn’t a lack of chemistry. More convinced than ever, she decided her first read on Brick Barlow had hit the bullseye. The attraction tugging her toward him went both ways.

She winked—WINKED—before gliding past him, her arm brushing his on the way to the car. She had no guarantee he would watch her leave, but she put an extra sway in her step just in case.

---