Chapter Twenty-Five

Brad

I wasn’t sure what Mia’s game was, but the woman had me in knots. I hadn’t been able to eat or sleep for days. She’d sent me that dirty little number and then disappeared off the face of the earth. I had thought we’d turned a corner and things were looking up, but I was beginning to think it had been a game. Like she’d wanted to be the dumper and not the dumpee. I could almost understand that game—twenty years ago. But we were too damn old to be playing that bullshit game now.

My show was going well. My listeners were sympathetic to my plight. One woman asked a very good question: Didn’t Mia listen to the show? Didn’t she know how badly I wanted her?

I assumed the answer was no. If she had listened, she would have known how serious I was. She wouldn’t have stopped talking. I didn’t think, anyway. There was a slim chance she was pissed I was talking about our love life on the radio. Though it wasn’t like I used her real name.

“That went really well. Who knew Damien would be so cool?” Jaxon said, flopping down on the small leather couch in my office.

“Make yourself at home,” I muttered.

“I think we may have found a new shtick for you. The audience and the celebrities you are interviewing are eating up this poor-guy routine.”

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“That’s probably why it’s working so well. People love this stuff. You sound like you are being completely serious,” he said, stretching out on the couch, his feet dangling over the edge.

“I am serious. Where have you been the last month?”

He chuckled. “I know, I know, but I don’t understand how this girl keeps turning you down. You did flowers, chocolate, and flew across the country to see her. You even bought her a ring. What more does she want?”

I shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. A guarantee maybe?”

He laughed. “Women. You can’t live with them and there is no way in hell you can live without them.”

I rolled my eyes at what had to be one of the oldest clichés I had ever heard. I fired up my laptop to check my email. I still hadn’t heard back from the station I had applied to. But I was a fucking rock star. They should be jumping at the chance to get me on their station. Instead, they were ignoring me. Maybe they couldn’t afford me.

“What’s wrong?” Jaxon asked, reading the shitty look on my face.

I shook my head. “I can’t get a damn job in New York. What the hell? Don’t they know how hot I am right now?”

He made a strangled sound. “My God, you are so fucking arrogant.”

“You know what I mean. I have a following, and it’s only getting bigger. They should want me. Why don’t they want me?”

“Now you sound like a teenage girl pining after a boy. It takes time.”

“It’s been over a week. It doesn’t take that much effort to Google my name and see who I am. You need to get me on more stations. Clearly, my star isn’t bright enough yet.”

“Why would I talk you up and sell your show when you’re trying to pull up stakes and ditch us?” he asked a little irritably.

I thought about it for a second. “Good point. But, if I end up staying here, I want to go bigger.”

“Then you better figure out if you want to be the next Ryan Seacrest or if you want the woman and babies. You don’t get both,” he said, sitting up on the couch. “Speaking of babies, I need to go. Got a date with a hot coed.”

“You know, that’s probably illegal,” I said dryly.

He shrugged. “She’s twenty-one—perfectly legal.”

I didn’t even bother telling him he was a snake. He knew it and seemed to like it. To each his own.

Slapping the laptop closed, I headed home for another hard, lonely night. In the back of my mind, I had to believe she wasn’t talking to me because she was taking a page from my book. She had said she was coming, so I’d assumed on the weekend. I hoped that was what the whole ignoring-me thing was about. I wasn’t quite sure what I would do if she didn’t show up Friday or Saturday. I’d probably find myself on a plane heading to her with that lacy thing in my carry-on. I didn’t care if the TSA guy searched my bag and saw it or not.

I was hoping the guy at the front desk would tell me I had a package. No such luck. Defeated, I pushed the button for the elevator.

“I knew I recognized you,” a woman said, stepping into the elevator with me.

I smiled, trying to be polite, but I was in no mood for small talk. “You do, huh? Do you live in the building?”

She shook her head. “No. My mom lives here. You’re Brad, the radio guy?”

I nodded. “That’s me.”

“Cheer up. I think she’ll come around. Give her some time. Her time table isn’t the same as yours. It sounds to me as if she is a smart lady. Smart women think about their actions. They don’t jump in with both feet and hope for the best. That’s more of a guy thing,” she said with a smile.

“Thanks. I hope so. It feels like her time table is very slow.”

She giggled. “Of course it feels that way. That’s a good thing.” The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. “This is me. I think it’s going to work out. If it doesn’t, I have a friend who would be willing to soothe your broken heart.”

I didn’t know what came over me, but the old Brad showed up. “What about you? You don’t want to soothe my broken heart?”

She winked. “I don’t like guys with baggage. Besides, I have a man.”

I laughed at her blunt rejection. I could always appreciate an honest woman.

The doors slid shut, and I rode the elevator up a few more floors before stepping into the hall. I was already thinking about what I would text her. I was going to make it hot and bossy. I had felt how she got when I told her exactly what I wanted her to do. I could see some leather in our future—assuming she let us have a future.

I stuck my key in the lock but realized it wasn’t locked.

A shiver of apprehension trickled down my spine. I lived in a building with a watchman. It was a fairly upscale place. Despite how safe it was, I always locked my door. With my hand on the knob, I tried to remember what I’d been doing when I’d walked out the door that morning. I had been slightly distracted, but I always locked the door. It was a habit I didn’t have to think about.

Turning the knob, I walked into my apartment. I immediately looked at my big screen. Still there. I breathed a sigh of relief. Stealing a man’s television was not cool. I walked around the living room and saw that everything was in it’s place. It was the same story with the kitchen.

“Idiot,” I mumbled, realizing I had left my door unlocked like a dumbass.

I walked into my room, ready to strip into a pair of comfortable basketball shorts before chilling out and watching a little baseball.

“What the hell?” I muttered, freezing in the doorway. “Son of a bitch.”

Mia was curled up on top of the covers of my bed. She was wearing the black lace number and appeared to be sound asleep. I smiled as I took in the sight of her. After checking my watch, I saw it was after midnight her time. I briefly wondered how long she’d been waiting for me.

I looked at the chair in the corner of my room and saw her suitcase. She was staying for a while judging by the size of the thing. That was a good sign.

My gaze returned to the nearly naked woman on my bed. “Fuck me,” I whispered as I looked at her.

She was sexy as hell, a real-life sleeping beauty on my bed. Judging by what she was wearing, or rather not wearing, I knew I was about to get very lucky. I just had to move. I shook my head when I realized I was still standing in the doorway like an idiot.

I kicked off my sneakers and walked across the plush carpeting in my room. I didn’t want to scare her. I reached out and gently pushed back one of the long waves of hair that was across her cheek. She didn’t budge. The poor woman was obviously exhausted. I hesitated for a second, thinking I should let her sleep.

I looked down at the recently spray-tanned skin and realized she hadn’t put on the lace lingerie to sleep in. She wanted me to fuck her. Who was I to deny the woman?

After kissing her gently on the cheek, I moved to her lips. She moaned, but she didn’t move. I hoped she was dreaming of me. When she didn’t kiss me back, I moved lower. I kissed her chin and then her delicate collarbone before kissing the top of one of her rather exposed breasts. The only thing truly hidden from view was her nipple, and I could see it puckered beneath the black lace.

“Hey,” she breathed out, my kiss to her tit having succeeded in finally stirring her from her slumber.

“Hey yourself. You came.”

She grinned and rolled onto her back, gazing up at me. “Not yet I haven’t.”

Her words hit me like a freight train. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted you every day since I left. Hell, the day I left, it took everything I had to walk out of your house without bending you over that couch one last time.”

Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted. “I’ve been dreaming about you.”

I grinned before giving her a quick kiss on her lips. “Did you get a nice nap?”

“What time is it?”

“After nine.”

She smiled. “I slept enough.”

“Good, because I’m about to make you a very happy, very satisfied, and extremely tired woman.”

She giggled. “You think so? Maybe it’s going to be the other way around.”

I shook my head, staring into her eyes. “I’ll have you crying uncle before this night is done.”

She blushed. “I don’t know about that. Do you really have it in you?” she whispered.

The woman had no idea what she was doing. I wasn’t a toy to be played with. I was going to fuck her until she was begging me for mercy. Her body was mine, and I needed her to know it. I had to dominate her in every way possible to prove to her how much she wanted me, how much she needed me in her bed.

“Baby, you are going to be screaming with every orgasm I give you. This little bit of lace you sent me has had me beating off every night. That has only made it worse, so I’m so fucking hot for you, I’m almost afraid of what I might do to your body.”

She shuddered beneath me before stretching both her arms up. “I’m yours to do with as you please. Fuck me, Brad. Dominate me. Make me scream for mercy. I dare you.”

I pressed my lips against hers. She pulled my body against her own. I willingly collapsed on top of her before rolling onto my back, taking her with me to sprawl on top of me. I wanted to cherish every moment. Looking into her eyes, I took a brief second to thank my very lucky stars that she was here and in my bed.