Wanted Brenna.
And she’d totally blown him off. Wasn’t interested. Was she willing to go so far to harass him that she’d have hot, uninhibited sex just to f**k with him? It didn’t make sense.
Then again, not much that Brenna did made sense to him. He glanced over at Elise and saw her watching him with a curious look. “She drives me crazy,” he told her, only half lying.
“More like you’re crazy for her,” Elise said, elbowing him teasingly.
“No, seriously. She drives me crazy,” he told her, edging as close to the truth as he could. “Did you know that she does stuff deliberately to get under my skin? Like deleting reports that she knows I’m looking for. Or sprinkling flour all over the interior of my car. Jamming the other side of the door when I’m in the storage room. Unplugging my computer when I leave the room. She literally drives me crazy.”
Hell, just thinking about all the stupid stunts that she pulled time and time again was making him a little hot under the collar. And aroused. Who’d have thought he’d be the type to get an angry hard-on?
“I think it’s cute,” Elise said cheerfully, her eyes sparkling. She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging her windbreaker close to her body. “She’s just trying to shake you up a little. Maybe it’s a passive-aggressive way of getting your attention?”
“I think she’s just doing it to crawl under my skin sometimes.”
Elise shook her head, still smiling. “It’s a wonder you two got together, then. Though I’m sure you give as good as you get and crawl under her skin, too.”
And that gave him a brilliant idea. Maybe he could end up giving as good as he got. And wouldn’t that drive Brenna mad?
But first, he had to get a life jacket on her.
• • •
Brenna hated to say it, but Grant had been right. Not that she’d admit such things aloud, of course.
It was cold on the water. Maybe it was the balmy November air that wasn’t more than fifty-five degrees and pleasant in the sun. But combine that with the breeze from the boat and the wind over the water? She was chilled. Darn chilled. She rubbed her arms and moved back into the cabin, even though she hated to do so. The water looked so nice in the sunshine that she wanted to be out on deck, soaking in the atmosphere. At least on deck, she’d feel like there was a point to wearing the stupid life jacket that Grant had shoved her way as soon as they left the dock. She’d tried to protest wearing it, only to have him refuse to listen and jam the thing over her head.
The man had a safety fetish.
“Come on, Brenna,” Reggie was saying to her with a smile. “Let’s do some fishing.”
Out on deck, Elise and Grant mock-groaned in unison, which made her laugh anew. The two siblings were close. She liked that. Elise was great, too. She had a mind to take her out on the town one night, get her to hang out with Miranda and Beth Ann. The four of them would have such fun. “I’m coming,” she told Reggie, giving her arms one last rub and then bravely facing the wind again.
“Sweetie, your lips are blue,” Justine told her as she came back out on deck. “Grant, don’t we have another jacket somewhere?”
“I’ll take care of her,” Grant said, and moved to Brenna’s side. Before she could even question what he was doing, he stuck his hands in his pockets and opened his jacket, then wrapped his arms around her. It cocooned her against his chest and under his clothes.
And it was heaven. She almost moaned in bliss at the warmth of cuddling up against him.
He leaned in from behind and pressed his cheek against hers. “Better?” he murmured.
“Much,” she told him, oddly pleased at his impulsive move. It felt so good to be pressed up against his body, and she was reminded of last night. Last night had rocked. She’d had such a good time in bed with him. It was a shame he’d had to ruin it this morning by trying to get all possessive.
Of course, his grasp right now was possessive . . . yet she didn’t feel the need to run away. Mostly because he felt like a furnace and she was appreciating that at the moment.
Reggie grinned at them. “Y’all wait here and I’ll get the fishing poles from below.”
“We won’t move,” Grant said, leaning in and nipping at her ear in a way that made her entire body rock with shivers.
“This is me, not moving,” Brenna chimed in. She glanced over her shoulder at Grant’s face, so close to her own. “I didn’t bring a pole with me.”
He shrugged and she could feel the ripple of his muscles. His voice was a low murmur in her ear. “I guess you could hold my pole.”
Had he just made a joke? A joke filled with innuendo? Stiff, proper Grant? She couldn’t resist a response. “Won’t your mother be scandalized?”
“Only if you don’t catch something.”
“Huh?”
Reggie returned at that moment, holding four fishing rods. “I’ve only got four on the boat. Brenna, you can use Grant’s.”
Ah. His pole. Her brain must have been frozen.
“That’s fine. My hands are full at the moment anyhow.” Grant’s voice sounded easier than she’d ever heard it. Relaxed, even. And she could have sworn that he’d lightly tickled her through the pockets of his jacket.
This was not normal for Grant. Not in the slightest. A bit weirded out, Brenna reached an arm out of the jacket and took the pole that Reggie offered her. “I don’t know how to fish.”
One of Grant’s hands wrapped around hers over the pole. Brenna blinked as she realized how big his hands were, and how warm. Not that she hadn’t noticed last night. But she was really, really noticing it right now.
“Here,” he murmured in her ear, and that small sound shot her body full of hot, wet longings. “Let me show you how to grip that.”
And just like that, her mind went to dirty, dirty places.
He was doing it on purpose; she knew that. It was obvious that Grant was determined to make her suffer since her scheme had gotten him into this, and since she’d declined to be his little woman. So he was clearly intending on showing her what she was missing.
Normally she’d just smirk and go right on with her life, enjoying perverse pleasure of thwarting his wishes more than anything else. Normally. Except right now? Right now she wanted to crawl back into his bed and play games with him.
If he wanted to fool around? She’d show him that two could play this game. Brenna leaned back against Grant, feeling his warm arms around her. She sighed and wiggled her bottom, circling her h*ps in a subtle motion that wouldn’t be noticed by anyone but the man she was pressed up against, and then leaned forward to cast the line, making sure her ass pressed up along his best parts.