“You’re quiet this morning,” he murmured against the top of her head.
She quickly blinked back tears. God, she had gotten so attached to that voice this weekend. Whereas once a statement like that from him would have pissed her off, now it just made her sad. She wished the plane ride were longer. Here, pressed against his warmth, was where she wanted to stay. Should she just put her feelings out there? The worst that could happen was that he didn’t feel the same way. “I’m . . . um . . . just tired from last night, I guess.” Shit! She couldn’t force the words that she wanted to say past her lips. She just couldn’t bear to have it end yet. For the next two hours, he was still hers and, right now, that was something she wasn’t willing to risk. “Speaking of last night, where did you get those dance moves? I never would have believed you had it in you.” She smiled as he chuckled.
“Some television and a lot of improvising. It helped that everyone was too drunk to notice the times I almost tripped over my own feet. I really enjoyed your friends. Well, with the exception of Jill. She’s not easily deterred.”
Emma pulled back, looking up into his smiling eyes. “That was a different Jill from the one I knew in school. Madison said she has been going through a divorce and I believe she was a bit desperate to prove that she’s still got it. In her defense, you looked pretty hot last night.”
Brant gave her a surprised but pleased look. “I . . . really?” It was obvious that he wasn’t used to compliments, and she felt a guilty pang that he had certainly not received any from her in the time they had known each other. Most of her comments to him were negative and critical. That he enjoyed finally being on the receiving end of something positive was apparent. Why oh why couldn’t they have met under different circumstances? At work they had rubbed each other wrong almost from the start. Would things have been different if they had met somewhere else? He had been so caring, attentive, funny and affectionate all weekend. It was hard to believe that it was all an act. Somewhere inside of him, that man had to exist. Maybe if there hadn’t been an underlying attraction between them from the beginning, things would never have escalated to the love/hate, well, mostly hate, relationship that they had. It was never too late to try to change things, was it?
Giving his hand a squeeze, she said, “Oh yeah, you knocked my friends for a loop. Even David couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”
Pulling their clasped hands to his lips, he kissed her knuckles. “No one held a candle to you. I was the envy of every man there.” Emma felt herself doing something she rarely did: blushing. There was no doubting the sincerity of his words. She almost told him how she felt then and there, but the flight attendant picked that moment to start the beverage service and the moment was lost. Instead, she curled against him as much as the small space would allow and enjoyed feeling the steady beat of his heart against her ear as the last moments of the flight passed so much faster than she wanted.
Brant pulled the last of their bags from the baggage carousel and wondered to himself, What now? Emma was standing beside him awkwardly. “Did you drive to the airport?” he asked.
“No, root canal, remember? I was too high to attempt that.” They both laughed for a moment, remembering all that had taken place after her out-of-it plane ride to Miami. He was secretly relieved to have an excuse to extend their time together. He wanted nothing more than to ask her to come home with him, but he wasn’t sure how she would feel about it.
He took her carry-on bag from her. “Come on, baby, I’ll give you a ride.” Damn, was it okay to call her baby now? Should he have just said Emma? She didn’t seem uncomfortable over his slip, so he decided to relax and stop overthinking everything. If she jumped out of the car at her apartment without looking back, he would know that she wasn’t feeling what he was. Simple, right? Fuck, except why did it feel anything but?
Emma came to an abrupt halt when they reached his car. He popped the trunk of his Mercedes SL550 and stored their luggage inside. She gave him an incredulous look. “You drive a sports car?”
He paused in the act of opening her door. “Why is that a surprise?”
“This is one sexy car, Brant. I always had you figured for more of a car and driver or maybe a Volvo.”
He couldn’t help it. Rather than take offense, he burst out laughing. “I know there’s an insult in there. I find it hard to believe you’ve never seen my car in all this time since we work at the same place.”
Putting her hands on her hips, she smirked up at him. “Honey, there is a bit of distance between the executive parking and the rest of the Danvers staff parking. You guys probably have some kind of protective cover pulled over your vehicles during the day.”
“It doesn’t get that good. You didn’t notice it when you were invading my beach area a few weeks ago?”
“Um . . . no,” Emma said. “I was too busy trying to get away from you to peek in your garage.” Opening the car door herself, she jumped inside. “I’m not complaining; this car is off the charts!” Brant whistled as he walked around the car to open the driver’s door. At least he knew there was one thing of his that impressed her. Maybe he would keep her in the car for the rest of the night. The way she was purring against the leather seats, she probably wouldn’t complain.
She gave him her address and it took him a moment to figure out why it sounded familiar. “Isn’t that the complex that Nick and Beth live in?”
Nodding, Emma said, “It used to be. They bought a house closer to Suzy a few months ago.”
Brant shuddered. “That’s one scary lady.”
Emma asked, “Suzy?”
“Yeah, Suzy. Don’t look so surprised. All of you women may love her, but she makes most of the men at Danvers want to cover their balls and run.”
“Oh, come on!” Emma defended her friend. “What has she ever done to you?”
Cringing, Brant said, “It’s not what she’s done to me; it’s how she looks at me. Sort of like I’m a cross between a toad and a cockroach. I feel like I’ve really disappointed her at some point, but I have no idea when.”
Putting her fingers up to form quotation marks, Emma teased, “She thinks you’re ‘prime man candy,’ which is a major compliment.”
Brant smirked back at her. “I believe you mentioned something along those lines when you were intoxicated on the plane. If my memory serves me correctly, you also agreed with her.” Before she could answer, he added, “Now, I found that very flattering but also a bit disturbing that I was the subject of such an . . . intimate conversation.”