I didn't see this coming. I didn't think that Brady would ever be serious enough with a woman to threaten my inheritance. He loves living the playboy lifestyle. Loves to party. Loves beautiful women. And he takes nothing seriously. Ever.
Which makes the fact that he has a mystery woman – that nobody knew a thing about – on his arm more than a touch disturbing. His affairs are always public and always very brief. Making the situation even more worrisome for me is that he had his son with them in the picture.
Brady is a lot of things, but one thing I do know – and the only thing I'll give him credit for – is that he is a devoted father. Certainly, more so than his own dirtbag of a father. And I know that Brady would not stand for shuttling strange women in and out of Nicholas' life. The fact that he rented out the zoo for the three of them to spend a day together is – troubling.
Mr. Haas' failure to see this situation coming – and even more disturbingly, to know nothing about this woman – is causing me more than a little stress. I can see the threads of all of the plans I've made, of the groundwork I've laid, dangling out there. All Brady needs to do is pull one of those threads and the entire tapestry will unravel.
And I can't let that happen.
I don't have faith that Mr. Haas is going to deliver. If this woman is as big of a mystery as he says, I fear that he might not be able to dig up anything I can use. Which means that I need to implement my contingency plan.
I didn't want to have use my nuclear option, but I don't see that I have much choice. If Brady is as serious with this Amanda Johnston as it seems, then I'm going to need to blow things up sooner, rather than later. I cannot afford to let them get married or I'm going to lose everything that's owed to me.
I take my phone out of my purse and dial my PI's number. He answers on the first ring.
“Ackles,” he says in his, thick, gruff Texas drawl.
“Mr. Ackles,” I say. “Tiffany Greene.”
“Yes ma'am,” he replies. “What can I do for ya?”
“The contingency plan we discussed,” I say. “I need to begin implementing it.”
He chuckles softly. “Saw the paper this mornin',” he says. “Thought I might be gettin' a call from you today.”
“You thought correctly then,” I reply. “Can you do it?”
“Course,” he says. “Just gimmie a little time.”
“Of course,” I say. “But please be aware that time is not our greatest ally right now.”
“Roger that,” he says. “I'm on it.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ackles.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Brady
The sunlight is streaming through the windows when I open my eyes and find Amanda looking back at me, a warm smile on her face.
“Well, good mornin' darlin',” I say. “Sorry – Amanda. Good mornin' Amanda.”
She laughs softly. “That's a habit I'm not going to be able to break you of, is it?”
I shrug. “Not sure. It's just a –”
“Texas thing, I got it,” she laughs.
“It most definitely is a Texas thing.”
“Just don't get carried away with it,” she says.
“Yes ma'am, I'll do my best.”
She laughs and nuzzles herself closer to me, planting a soft kiss on my chest. Yesterday had been about the most perfect day I could have ever imagined. We had a great time, she and Nicholas seemed to hit it off incredibly well. Everything about it was just – perfect. And of course, how Amanda and I ended the evening made it all the better.
I went into this thinking that we could do this. That we could have a mutually beneficial working relationship. A partnership. But as we spent more time together and I got to know her better, I found a truly remarkable woman. Unlike anybody I'd ever met before.
No, she's not like the typical woman I tend to date – but that's probably a good thing. I never realized it, but maybe I do need something different in my life. Somebody different. It scares me to even think about things like that, but those thoughts are runnin' through my head all the same.
I started this as a business proposition, but as I look into Amanda's eyes, I'm just not sure what it is anymore.
“I could stay here all day,” she murmurs.
“You and me both,” I say. “This – this feels like heaven.”
She looks up at me and I can see that something is on her mind. But then she closes it again without speaking. I plant a soft kiss on her forehead. There's no rush to define what it is between us. Hell, maybe it's best we don't for a while. Maybe we'd be better off just letting it play out and see where things go.
And that's the most unexpected thing for me – my desire to see where things go.
“But,” I say, “if we don't get up and get ourselves presentable, I fear that Miss Delia is going to send a search party up here for us.”
“Yeah, probably,” she sighs.
“How about a shower?”
“I can definitely use one.”
We stumble out of bed and make our way into the bathroom. The light comes on when we pass through the doorway and Amanda stops, gawking at the bathroom.
“Wow,” she says.
I look around and shrug. “It's a bathroom.”
“It's the most amazing bathroom I've ever seen.”
I laugh and shake my head. One of the things I love about her is that she makes me see things through her eyes. The things I take for granted, she sees as amazing. And because of her, and how she sees the world around her, it's giving me my own sense of wonder back.
“Just wait until you see the shower then,” I say.
It's a walk-in shower with a soft, cascading feature that's a lot like a waterfall. When I turn it on and get the temperature just right, Amanda squeals with delight and splashes around in it like a child. It's incredibly endearing.
“This is incredible,” she says, letting the water run over her.
I find myself admiring her body as the water rushes down over her. She's a beautiful woman and takes my breath away. She turns and looks at me, giving me a small smile.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothin',” I say and smile back at her. “Nothin' at all.”
She saunters over to me and wraps her arms around my neck, looking up at me. “You are one sexy man, Brady Keating,” she says.
“And you are one beautiful woman, Amanda Johnston.”
I lean down and kiss her deeply. Passionately. I push her up against the wall, letting the steam billow around us as the water cascades down over our bodies. Feeling her body, wet and slick, grinding against mine gets me hard in an instant. She takes hold of my cock, stroking it with a firm grip, all the while, biting her bottom lip and giving me a flirty little look.
I moan when she squeezes me tighter, and strokes me faster. I watch her as Amanda drops to her knees in front of me, tracing the tip of her tongue around the head of my cock. She flicks her tongue across the head, making me gasp, before taking it into her mouth.
With her mouth on the head of my cock, she flicks her tongue around it while still stroking me at the same time. And then she slides her mouth down, taking more of me into her. She starts moving her head up and down, working her mouth and her hand simultaneously. I throw my head back, moaning loudly as she works my cock, sucking and stroking, hard and fast.
“Jesus, darlin',” I gasp. “Thought you said you didn't know if you remembered how to do any of this.”
She looks up at me, her smile wide. “Turns out, it's like riding a bike,” she says. “I guess you don't forget some things.”
Amanda laughs and then slides her mouth down, taking all of my cock into her throat. She's cupping and squeezing my balls as she licks and sucks on my hard prick, moving her head up and down on it. My hands are in her hair, wrapping it around my fingers and pulling it as I moan and she makes my entire body shudder.
With the way she's working my shaft, I know that she's going to get me off sooner, rather than later. And I'm just not ready for it yet. I want to take a little more time and enjoy her body. I reach down and stand her up. She looks a little disappointed, but I kiss her – making her feel all of my desire and passion for her in that kiss.
My cock is so hard and the way she's stroking it is driving me crazy. I give her an apologetic smile and hold up a finger.