Page 25 of Reckless

Maddie’s father, Vaughan Hurley, had been quite the pretty boy rockstar in his day and had ended up divorced and alone for several years until he’d finally gotten over himself and put in the work to win his family back.

And Miles’s father, too, had been one of those pretty boy rockstars, though he’d generally been able to keep himself under control with the help of Miles’s aunt Erin and his uncle Brody. The Browns were tight. United. But they wouldn’t hesitate to call one another out.

Maddie said, “So we waited until the thing between you and whatsherface burned down and were there when you needed us to kick your butt into shape. Harlow is a different thing entirely. She’s a real deal, could bethe onetype of person. You gotta earn that. Get to know her. Learn her, and won’t it be wonderful if it works out past the tour and you two end up together? Try not to forget that people like to take pictures of you because you’re Miles Brown, rock and roll royalty. And Harlow Martin is a similar version of that. The two of you together will sell laundry detergent and pizza pockets for any gossip site. But she’s going to get twice the scrutiny you do because that’s how it goes when you’re a woman in this industry so don’t make being with you harder than being without you is.”

She was really smart. “Thanks for saying stuff even when it’s not comfortable and I take it wrong.”

“That’s what family does. Like right now I see Omar flirting really hard with that dude near the dessert table. He’s married and I doubt O knows it or he wouldn’t be flirting. So, I’m just going to cruise over to say hello. Do the same to Harlow, why don’t you?”

He hugged her to his side, kissing the top of her head. “Okay. Night, Maddie.”

She headed toward Omar and he shifted his attention back to where she’d been standing but she wasn’t there any longer and neither were Nora and Brian.

Miles tried to look nonchalant as he scanned the room but didn’t find her. He texted asking if she was still at the party.

I’m about to leave. Nora and Brian are walking me to the car. I’ll see you tomorrow. You were great tonight.

He texted one word as he headed out the back door.Wait.

CHAPTERNINE

“Ihave to have you,” he mumbled while dropping hot kisses to her cheek, temple and down her neck.

Harlow made an inarticulate sound, a moan, an entreaty for more, agreement that she wanted him to have her as well. There weren’t words for it all and they didn’t need them anyway.

Their hands said it. His mouth on her skin said it. The way he hesitated here and there to give her a chance to stop, to be sure she was still with him was searingly hot. The whole thing between them felt so out of control, all action driven by desire and an intense need to connect. But each time he hesitated she knew it took his control. He did it on purpose because it mattered to him that she was there, pinned against the wall by his body, as enthusiastically as he was.

At her back, he managed, one handed, to get the keycard pressed to the right part of the door and it opened, sending them tumbling into the foyer. He saved them from crashing to the marble floor and spun her, still holding her waist, his mouth finding hers.

Stealing her breath.

She grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it up, only breaking the kiss when she had to get it over his head.

Even wanting him so much her pulse beat in her eardrums wasn’t enough to forego the slow examination of his upper body. Wide shoulders she already knew about. But all the ink she’d uncovered was striking and sexy.

A long lick over the head of the dragon coiled up over his chest made them both gasp. Black and gray in what appeared to be a Celtic design. She’d ask about the ink later when the blood flow was back to her brain instead of her nipples and clit.

He hadn’t done anything to the hair on his chest—her last lover had his waxed regularly—or the line leading from his belly button down into the waist of his jeans. She traced a circle around his navel and then followed that downy soft arrow south to the waistband and stopped. Teasing. Delighting in the intake of breath in response.

“Now you,” he said, flicking open the top two buttons of her blouse.

“God yes, now me,” she echoed with a solemn nod.

He laughed and bent his head to lick over the curve of breast swelled above the line of her bra and it was her turn to suck in a breath at the heat of it.

“So glad I wore the pretty bra for the party instead of the grungy super comfortable one,” she said as he artfully and quickly popped the last three buttons and the material slid to her sides, exposing her upper body.

“Better than I imagined.” He traced over the visible lines of the clematis tattoo from her side leaving goosepimples in his wake. “You’ll tell me about this. After.”

“After.”

He indicated she stay where she was while he put the do not disturb hanger on the door and locked everything up tight. “I’d go to jail if someone came in to disturb us and I had to punch them for it.”

Miles stalked back toward her, the pale light from a single lamp in the main living area drew him in shadows and angles as she held her breath, watching.

One corner of his mouth slid up very slowly and she couldn’t wait to find out if he had that sort of muscle discipline with other things he did with his mouth.

She had to squeeze her thighs together to ease the ache.

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