Brawn Read online

  Becca held the front door open and her mouth dropped open. Trey brought in three cases of soda. “Were they having a sale?”

  “New Species have a fondness for caffeine.” Trey unloaded it all and leaned against the counter. “So, who are you dating right now?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Do you want to go out to dinner with me?” He smiled.

  She smiled back. “Nope. But thanks for the offer.”

  He winked. “Do you want to at least have awesome, mind-blowing sex?”

  She laughed. “I’ll pass.”

  His smile faded. “Have you gotten past it? It’s been over a year since his death.”

  Her grin died too. “I went out a few weeks ago with a guy I met through work and I had fun. He kissed me but all I could think about was how it wasn’t the way Bradley did it. That kind of killed the moment and I sent him home. I refused a second date. He was a nice guy and I didn’t want to string him along.”

  “I won’t kiss you.” He suddenly grinned again. “I could do you right here.” He pointed to the wall. “I bet that wouldn’t remind you of him. I can’t see him lifting and holding you in place while he screwed you blind.”

  “Go home.” She shook her head at him, laughing. “That kind of talk is probably why you’re still single. Does that work with women?”

  “Sometimes. I’m just trying to help you.”

  “Right. You want to help me right out of my clothes.”

  All humor faded from his intense brown eyes. “It might be the kind of help you need. You have heard that saying that to get over someone, you need to get under someone, haven’t you? It really works. I worry about you, honey.” He reached up and brushed back a lock of her auburn hair. “I’m here any time you want to talk, if you need someone to hold you or just a really great fuck.” He smiled. “My body is at your disposal.”

  “Go home.” She gave him a nod. “But thanks.”

  “Do you want to talk?”

  “Not about that.”

  “Are you sure? It might help.”

  “I appreciate it but I’m doing well. I promise to call you though if that ever changes.”

  “You can call me any time.” He leaned closer to brush a soft kiss on her forehead. “If you change your mind you know my number. I’m not opposed to a two a.m. booty call.”

  Becca laughed. “I bet you aren’t.”

  “I’m good at it.” His hand dropped away from her and he wiggled his eyebrows in a comical way. “At least that’s what I’ve been told. You could take me for a test drive and rate my performance.”

  “Not a chance! Don’t you have somewhere else to be and someone else to annoy? Move it, soldier. You’ve been given your marching orders.”

  He walked away. “I keep trying to move, damn it, but you aren’t letting me show you the motion of the ocean.” He chuckled, waved and closed the door behind him. His truck started a moment later and he drove away.

  Becca put her hands on the counter and stared out the kitchen window toward the large tree, enjoying the sight of birds flittering around the thick branches. She appreciated Trey’s concern, he’d known her for a lot of years, but she would never take him up on his offers of having sex or getting too close to her. He had enough stress in his life without adding her burdens on his broad shoulders.

  “What is a booty call?”

  She grabbed her heart and spun to face her houseguest. “You scared me. I didn’t hear you come down the stairs. They creak a little.”

  Brawn stood in the doorway of the kitchen. His hair was wet, pulled back in a ponytail, and he’d changed clothes. He wore faded, snug jeans with a black, heavy metal band T-shirt. His feet were bare.

  “What is a booty call? I’ve never heard that before.”

  She grinned. “It is a term for calling someone to just come have sex with you and they leave afterward. There’s no attachment or emotional involvement in the sex.”

  He nodded. “I’ll remember. Is that a normal human custom?”

  “For some but not me. He was just joking.”

  “That man who was here is your lover?”

  She shook her head. “He’s my friend. He will be working with you on the task force. He’ll be your team leader if you are replacing Jessie Dupree. You should like him. He’s got a good sense of humor so hopefully you appreciate that in a person. I know I do. Your food and uniforms are here. He also brought you lots of soda.”

  “Thank you. Human friends offer booty calls to each other? I’m trying to learn about human interaction. I’ll be working with them and need to try to understand your customs.”

  “No. Most friends don’t offer booty calls. Trey offers because he is trying to talk me into sleeping with a man again and he’s partly teasing, trying to cheer me up. He thinks if he gets me into bed that I’ll find it easier to do when I go out on a date with someone, that it will result in sex.”

  “He wants to share sex with you so you will have sex with another male? Is the male a good friend of his? I have seen those kind of situations in the pornographic videos but didn’t believe they were real representations of human sexual habits. Is this a common practice amongst human males? I don’t want to make friends if it means they will offer to share their women.” He grimaced. “I don’t mean to offend you but that is disgusting. I don’t want to see another male mount someone. It wouldn’t make me desire her and the last thing I want to see or smell is another male while sharing sex with a female. It would kill my arousal and I don’t want a human woman.”

  Becca laughed hard at his interpretation. It cracked her up and she hugged her stomach.

  “I apologize if I’ve insulted your sexual preferences but I’m Species and it doesn’t take two of our males to satisfy a female’s sex drive. Your males don’t have our stamina during sex. I’m afraid one of your females may be overwhelmed by one of us, if she could even handle the roughness of sharing sex.”

  Those bits of information killed her sense of humor and she sobered. “It’s complicated but don’t believe what you see in the skin flicks. Those are actors with really bad scripts for the most part, not true situations and that’s not his motive. He doesn’t want to talk me into having a threesome with him and one of his friends. I was married but I’m a widow now. I kind of stopped dating after that and Trey thinks I’ll stop being hung up on my husband if he gets me into bed. He thinks if I just have sex with someone—anyone—that I’ll be more likely to get on with my life. You can make friends and they won’t ask you to sleep with their girlfriends or wives.”

  “What is a widow?”

  “My husband had a defective heart. A widow is a woman whose husband died.”

  Brawn leaned against the wall. “I am sorry. Our people were put down too if they were found to be defective physically by Mercile Industries.”

  She felt punched in the gut. “They did that? Those assholes killed anyone with physical defects? Jesus. No. My husband wasn’t murdered. We don’t just end someone’s life if they aren’t healthy. He had a heart defect and died when a large vessel inside his heart ruptured. It happened very quickly. He just grabbed his chest, gasped and passed out. He probably didn’t know what happened before it was over. The doctor I spoke to assured me that he wouldn’t have suffered and death happened within minutes.”

  “The doctors could not fix his defect before his death?”

  “We didn’t know about it. It was a rare defect they only discovered afterward when they performed the autopsy.” She took a deep breath to prevent getting choked up. She usually did that when she remembered Bradley and avoided discussing the grim details. A change in subject was needed to avoid tears. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  “I’ll get out of the kitchen and let you fix your meal. Trey said you needed cast-iron skillets and he put one on the stove for you to use. There are more under that cabinet there.” She pointed. “Make yourself at home.”

  He nodded. “Are you leaving now?”