“This is top-of-the-line,” Victoria whispered when she shut her door.
“Yeah,” Liz said with a shrug.
“No. I mean, my dad was looking at these things and this has all the gadgets he wanted. I bet this is over a hundred thousand easily,” Victoria said appreciatively.
Liz shrugged again. Money didn’t matter. She had never really thought about it with Brady. She knew he had a house in Raleigh, a lake house, a Lexus, and that he had flown her to Hilton Head and put her up at a resort on a whim. She knew his parents had a mansion and a house in Hilton Head, Savannah drove a BMW, and Clay drove a Porsche. Yeah, she knew they were all wealthy, but she had never cared. She still didn’t.
It was just Brady.
“All ready?” Brady asked once he sat in the driver’s seat. He revved the engine and soon they were leaving the airport behind.
This trip to D.C. was already a sharp contrast to when she had come up here to visit Hayden. She had always enjoyed D.C. with him. It had been the first time he had admitted his feelings, the first time they had kissed, the weekend that had triggered Liz wanting more from Brady. Then there had been New Year’s with Hayden, hanging with his sister, Jamie, and her husband, James, going to Jamie’s art galleries.
So many memories washed over her at once. She hated thinking about them right now.
She glanced out the window as she collected herself. It was so easy to remember everything that had happened with Hayden. It hadn’t been that long ago that they had been together and happy, and then everything had spiraled out of control. She had no interest in going back to that, but it was so fresh, like an open wound. She knew Hayden had been in the wrong by putting her relationship with Brady in the paper, and she didn’t want to feel guilt about cheating and jumping right to Brady, but it crept over her with all the old memories.
“Liz?” Brady asked.
“Hmm?” she muttered, realizing she had been out of the conversation.
“We were just seeing if Italian was all right with you?”
Italian. Another Hayden memory hit her of going out to eat after that very first press conference. God, she didn’t need this right now while she was with Brady. That was where her heart was . . . where it had always been.
Time to make new memories.
“Sounds good to me.”
Brady dropped Victoria and Daniel off at a hotel on the Johns Hopkins campus that the university had reserved for them for the weekend visit. They would be coming with Liz and Brady to the banquet tomorrow night, but for now, she and Brady had the night free and to themselves. And they both desperately needed some privacy.
The trip back into the city took longer than expected due to traffic, and by the time they reached Brady’s building the air was thick with sexual tension. He parked in his designated space in an underground garage and they took the elevator up to the top floor. The doors had barely closed before Brady had her pressed back into the wall and his mouth was on hers hot and heavy.
Three weeks had been too damn long without him. Now that she had him back she never wanted to go this long again. He brought her down to earth and reminded her with just one glance exactly why she was going through all of this . . . why it was all worth it. Because Brady was worth everything.
What had happened to her career—or lack thereof at this point—might have been the exact opposite of everything she had wanted, but after spending the week talking with Professor Mires, she felt a little better about losing her position at the New York Times. Now with Brady’s lips on her, she was letting that get pushed further and further out of her mind.
His hands slid down her sides to grasp her hips and she squirmed suggestively against him. “God, I’ve missed you,” he groaned against her lips. “Do you know how long I’ve been dreaming about these hips straddling me again?”
“How long, Mr. Congressman?” she teased.
“Years, baby.”
“Is that all you’ve been dreaming about me doing?”
“You think my mind is that clean?” he growled, pulling her bottom lip into his mouth and sucking it in. She moaned and her eyes fluttered closed. “I’ve been dreaming about the noises you make when you come, the soft pants as I get you closer, the way your body flushes, the feel of your heated skin against mine.”
The elevator dinged open and Liz was left panting just as he had said, as he stepped backward. “I’m thinking after that show, we should just stay in the elevator,” Liz suggested.
A smirk appeared on his face and he stepped back inside the elevator. He slid a card into the slot at the top and pressed a button. The doors closed, but the elevator didn’t move. Locked.
Liz’s heart rate picked up, and she could feel her core pulse at the thought of what was going through his head right now. He just stared at her for a second, his eyes traveling from the top of her head down to her chest, over the curves of the navy dress, to her legs and then back to her face.
He crossed his arms and that damn smirk stayed in place. “Take off your panties.”
“What?” she asked, even though she knew exactly what he was asking.
“Do it. Now.”
Liz swallowed. Adrenaline kicked into high gear and she felt her whole body respond to being told what to do in a public place where they could so easily get caught. Without thinking more about it, Liz reached up and grasped the edge of the black lacy cheeksters she had worn specifically for him to see; then she dragged them down her legs. He watched with idle curiosity until she held them in her hand.
Brady stuffed them into his pocket, and then walked her until her back was pressed into the wall. His hand dipped beneath her dress until he found her most sensitive area hot, wet, and ready for him at the slightest of touches. He jerked her leg up around his hip and then started swirling his fingers through her wetness and then circling her clit until she was jerking in his grip.
“Brady,” she groaned. “We . . . could get . . . caught.”
“Just suggesting that makes your pussy clench,” he whispered huskily into her ear. “I think you like it.”
She really couldn’t deny that, because the way he was working her with his fingers had her trembling and already close to coming. And he didn’t let up, he kept his thumbs working circles around her clit all the while delving two fingers in and out of her until she dropped her head back and felt the first wave of her orgasm so close.
“Oh, God,” she murmured.
“Come for me, baby. You’re right there. I want to see you come,” he encouraged.