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  what kind of men they were dealing with. “On our sixteenth birthday, he brought her wildflowers, and she liked that, so she kissed him. On the cheek. Thinking that was a come-on, he kissed her back. She liked that, too, and that night, she left her bedroom door unlocked so he could come up. She just wanted more kisses, not thinking about the fact that he’d expect more than that.”

  Brody let out a breath. “I’m not going to like the rest of this story, am I?”

  “When Leena said no more, Manny didn’t want to stop.”

  “Yeah, I was right,” he said tightly. “I’m not going to like this story at all.”

  “He got a little rough, so she ran out of her bedroom to the top of the stairs, looking for me. She was crying, and her nightgown was ripped, and I—” Maddie shook her head, remembering it so clearly she could still taste the tropical rain that had been on the air that night, still smell the scent of blood.

  Manny’s blood.

  “He was going to rape her.” She remembered the feel of the kitchen knife in her hand, how easily she’d gripped it, how it had felt watching Manny turn to her when she’d called his name. “I’m not sorry. In fact, I’d do it again if I had to; I’d kill him all over again—”

  “Shh,” Brody said and yanked her close, hugging her tight. “Don’t say it. Not here.”

  In his voice was fear, for her, and she nearly broke right then. “I have to get proof, Brody.”

  “Yeah, we do. Would Leena have kept a laptop in her workshop?”

  “Maybe. I didn’t think to look before.”

  “Let’s look now.”

  Let’s.

  That was a word she hadn’t used often, or accepted, but the sound of it right now was like a balm to her bruised soul. “You should wait here. You don’t have to—” She broke off at the look on his face, fierce yet solid.

  No, he didn’t have to do anything, but he was coming with her regardless.

  “We’ll need a cover in case we’re caught,” she said.

  “We’re on our honeymoon. Honeymooners like to do it in every room.” He accompanied this with an extremely husband-to-wife look that made her knees wobble.

  Pretend. They were pretending to be on their honeymoon.

  They didn’t run into anyone, for which she was grateful, but they did find the workroom locked.

  Maddie pulled a set of keys from her pocket.

  Brody just stared at her. “How did—”

  “Stole them from Rick’s office. I know. I’m going straight to hell.”

  “Are you kidding?” He pressed his mouth to her temple. “You’re an angel.”

  Well, that was a new one. She’d been called many things, but an angel? Never, and it seemed that every minute that they were together was only making it all the harder to remember that they had a good-bye coming, a big one.

  The far wall of the workshop housed a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit filled with things that had given Leena inspiration over the years: books, boxes of cosmetic jewelry, stacks of pictures . . .

  “Your sister’s a pack rat.” Brody came up behind her, his hands settling on her waist. “You doing okay?”

  She nodded even though she wasn’t, not by a long shot.

  He rubbed his jaw to hers. “You’re not breathing again.”

  No. Not breathing. There wasn’t time for breathing. Knowing it, she dropped her forehead to a shelf and absorbed the feeling of him pressing up against her from behind.

  That was nice, very nice, but she still wasn’t going to breathe easy until she got them both out of here—

  A sound came from the other side of the door, and she jerked upright. “Did you hear that?”

  Behind her, Brody went still as stone. “Shh,” he breathed softly.

  It came again.

  Oh, God.

  There was no lock on their side of that door, so they hadn’t been able to generate privacy for this little B&E mission, but Maddie had her own wits for protection, not to mention the knife in her boot and the gun she’d taken from her purse and stuck in her waistband.

  They were a second away from being discovered, which was a hell of a time to realize that Brody’s brilliant idea of saying that they’d taken the honeymoon mobile didn’t seem too brilliant.

  Not when they were both still fully dressed. “Your shirt,” she hissed. “Give me your shirt!”

  While he tugged it over his head, she yanked on the sleeve of her own shirt, revealing a bare shoulder and nearly a breast in her haste to make it look like they were in the throes of passion.

  That was as far as she got before the door handle slowly turned.

  Chapter 23

  Too late for panic, Maddie knew, painfully aware of the door creaking open. With her life passing before her eyes, and Brody’s, too, with his hard thighs pressed to the backs of hers, she struggled to look turned on, completely in the moment, because that’s what honeymooners did, right? They had wild animal sex everywhere, never in a bed, so it should seem rational that they’d be down here at her workstation, jumping each other’s bones.

  Or so she hoped.

  All they had to do was make it look good, real good. Turning her head, she sought Brody’s mouth with hers, sliding her tongue into his open mouth, absorbing his murmur of surprise while arching back against him, rocking her bottom to his crotch.

  As the door opened, Brody’s hands dropped from his waist to her hips, squeezing gently before one hand slid to her belly, his fingertips spread so wide they nearly touched the undersides of her breasts.

  Not good enough, because someone was watching, maybe trying to decide if they should be brought to Rick . . .

  “Here,” she panted, trying to sound sexy in her panic, but sounding more like a porno queen, and a bad one at that. She arched her throat so that the back of her head was cushioned in the meat of his shoulder. The movement arched her back, too, filling his hand with her breast as she ground her bottom into his crotch. “Yeah, oh yeah, just like that . . . Brody, baby, tell me you have a condom in your pocket.”

  Voice low and husky, he nipped at her jaw. “For you, baby, I’ve got anything you want.”

  Acting. They were acting. Trying to prove they were so hot for each other that they’d left her bedroom to make it somewhere else, maybe a whole bunch of somewhere elses, just because they could. She knew it, so why did her nipples harden? “This room makes what?” she asked breathlessly. “Room number three?”

  “Don’t forget the bathroom.”

  Where they hadn’t been acting . . . “Right. Four. You’re such a stud.”

  The sound he made might have been a snort. Turning her head, she nipped his jaw. Don’t make me laugh.

  His hands tightened on her. “Maybe the kitchen next,” he murmured. “There are utensils in there for all sorts of things, especially bad girls like yourself.”

  Funny. Wasn’t he so funny?

  Were they still being watched? She didn’t dare look. “You don’t need utensils. You’ve got all I need, baby.”

  “Do I now?”

  “Yeah.” And he had all she could ever need now.

  His gaze slid briefly to the door, then back to her, filled with such fierce protection and anger that she knew that yeah, they were still being watched. Worse, she knew that if anyone caught that look on his face, they’d know he was capable of being a huge threat, so she hooked an arm around his neck and tugged his face down to hers, taking his mouth with hers to keep his expression hidden.

  Anything to keep him safe, even if it meant kissing him, and kissing him . . . which of course, was no sacrifice at all because man, the guy could kiss . . . long and deep and hot, and the feel of his tongue dancing to hers was making her wish they were alone, back at her place or anywhere other than here.

  How long could they do this? And what would happen if they stopped? Not willing to take the chance, she let the show go on. The Brody and Leena Show. “Here,” she whispered huskily—a tone she didn’t have to fake—and bent fo