Page 28 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
Chapter Five
Brody slept longer than he’d intended. Longer and more deeply. When he woke, the sun was shining from the west. A glance at the clock on the nightstand showed it was late afternoon.
‘Shit,’ he said, throwing back the covers.
He headed for the bathroom. He should have set the alarm or just stayed up. But he did feel like a new man…His body wasn’t dragging, and the fog had left his head. He hit the shower and was reminded of at least one reason why he’d zonked out so completely.Damn. He bowed his head under the spray of water. The last time he’d been so horny jacking off, he’d been a teenager. Even then, he hadn’t had a red-hot redhead running around his house practically naked. What other choice had he had?
Other than to do something about it for real.
On cue, his cock started to stir. Cursing, he turned down the temperature of the water. The icy rain made him shudder, but it did the trick. He hurriedly cleaned up. He skipped the shave, threw on some clothes and went in search of a television or computer. If he’d missed something—He skidded to a stop in the living room.
He never would have forgiven himself.
He stared out the window into the back yard and his iced-out hard-on came back with a vengeance. Genieve was outdoors in a tank-top and Daisy Duke shorts that were short enough to give him heart palpitations. Was he going to have to expect that every time he turned a corner now?
He stared helplessly. She’d somehow found gloves and a trowel. He watched as she squatted down to pat the earth around a flower she’d just planted. She was doing his gardening for him – outside where anyone could see.
He hurried to the sliding glass door. ‘Jenny!’
A big grin was on her face when she lifted her chin. ‘You’re up. Did you sleep well?’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ He waved at her. ‘Get inside.’
She looked at the plastic seedling tray by her feet. ‘I’ve just got one more to plant.’
‘I’ll get it. Come on.’
She brushed the dirt off the gloves and peeled them off. Standing, she pressed her fists into the small of her back and stretched. The pose lifted her breasts in a way that made his brain seize.
‘Hurry,’ he said.
‘Keep your pants on,’ she grumbled as she walked towards him.
She had a walk that broke men’s necks on most days, but add the short shorts and Brody could barely stand it. He slid the door open all the way and hooked an arm around her waist to usher her in.
Instead of passing by, she turned into him. She settled her hands on his chest and looked him over. ‘Speaking of pants, you own jeans.’
‘Yeah,’ he said uncertainly. What about it?
‘All I’ve ever seen you wear are those stuffy suits. They’re sexy, but this…’ Her green gaze slowly browsed over him. He wasn’t wearing a tiny nightie, but Brody got the definite feeling he was being ogled. He shifted uncomfortably. She’d better not look too closely at those jeans.
Her eyelids were heavy as she ran her hand over the Guns N Roses T-shirt he’d grabbed on the run. ‘It’s a good look on you.’
Right. He got it now. Payback was a bitch. He’d objectified her; she was objectifying him.
Settling his hands on her waist, he moved her away from the open doorway. ‘You can’t be outside like that. People are going to be looking for you.’
She arched an eyebrow. ‘That’s why I wore the hat.’
He’d turned her loose in his house, and she’d obviously taken him up on the offer. He didn’t know where she’d found the Nationals baseball cap. It looked cute as hell on her, but he took it off, careful not to tug loose the ponytail of red hair that hung out of the back.
‘You should wear that to protect your skin anyway,’ he said. He tossed it onto the coffee table. She had the fair skin that went with being a redhead, and it looked as if it had been a sunny spring day. From the little he’d seen of it, anyway. How long had she been out there? Had anyone seen her?
‘What were you doing?’ he asked.
‘I found those flowers outside, and they needed to be put in the ground. They were shrivelling up and dying.’
Brody scowled. That was his bad. He’d bought them with every intent of planting them himself, but work priorities had gotten in the way. He’d meant to hire someone to do it for him, but he’d never gotten around to it.
