Freefall to Desire (14 page)

Not that Alex hadn’t already had an unobstructed view of her in the suit. Was there really a need to cover up?

“Brianne?” Alex called. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” she said.

The door opened, and Brianne knew immediately that something was seriously wrong with her. Because seeing Alex, covered up in a T-shirt and athletic pants—made her heart accelerate. Lord, the man was
fine.

Alex’s eyes registered surprise. No doubt, he was shocked to see her in bed. “I fell asleep,” Brianne explained.

“I was thinking we could head out to get a bite to eat. If you’re up to it.”

“I…” Brianne wanted to say no, but not because she wasn’t hungry. In fact, she could probably devour an entire chocolate cake. She wanted to keep her distance from Alex, even though she knew that wasn’t realistic.

Alex stepped into the room, and Brianne held the sheet tighter to her chest. “Brianne, I’m not going to attack you.”

She suddenly felt foolish. But she said, “Are you sure about that?”

“You want me to apologize for kissing you?”

No. Not really.
“Yes.”

“Okay, then. I’m sorry. I think…we’re both a little…stressed.”

Though she had asked for it, Alex’s apology left her feeling empty. It bothered her to think that for him the kiss had simply been a reaction to stress.

“No word from Dean’s friend?”

“Nothing.”

“And Ginny?” Brianne asked, wondering why that question had come from her mouth.

“Yeah, she called.”

Brianne’s heart deflated.

“She wanted to tell me that she was going to try to do a little digging, see what she could find out.”

I’ll bet.
“Well, that’s good,” Brianne said, hoping she
didn’t sound irritated. The truth was, if Alex got involved with Ginny it would be good for her. He wouldn’t be tempted to try and lay any more kisses on her.

You kissed me back.

“I’ll get dressed,” Brianne said. “See you downstairs in a bit.”

Alex nodded and then left the room.

Brianne was craving a triple cheeseburger smothered with mayonnaise and ketchup, with a large side of seasoned fries. But she was determined not to binge on food. She’d been doing such a great job at sticking to a healthy diet and wasn’t about to let her stress over a silly meaningless kiss be her undoing.

It was after three and still sunny outside, but Brianne dressed in a long-sleeve mock turtleneck and jeans. She combed her short hair, not caring that she hadn’t straightened it. And she didn’t bother applying any makeup.

It’s not like she was trying to impress anyone.

As she checked out her reflection, she couldn’t help thinking that she was trying too hard to show that she was inaccessible.

Ready, she retrieved her purse and headed downstairs. Alex was sitting on the wrought-iron bench in the foyer. Seeing him, Brianne’s breath snagged in her throat. He had changed, too. While she had gone for the “cover me up so I don’t look like I’m flirting” look, Alex had done just the opposite. He was wearing a body-hugging white T-shirt that showcased his rippling stomach muscles and bulging arms. His jeans were slung low on his hips in a look that screamed sexy without the effort.

No man had the right to look that good.

His eyes swept over her quickly—nothing overt, like the way she’d noticed him checking her out earlier in her
bikini—but still she felt heat. Maybe she was coming down with something.

Yeah, I’m losing my mind.

“You ready?” Alex asked.

Brianne suddenly wasn’t sure that she was. She had hoped that a few hours of reflection would help her rid her self of any thoughts about Alex. Instead, seeing him again oozing sex appeal, she couldn’t help feeling that she would like
him
for an early dinner.

“You’re dressed kind of warmly,” Alex said as she stepped onto the main level. “This isn’t Buffalo.”

“I don’t mind being a bit warm.” Not a total lie, but not the reason she was wearing a turtleneck. She didn’t look at Alex, just made her way to the door, hoping he wouldn’t point out the hypocrisy in her statement. Earlier today, she’d been prancing around in a bikini. Now she was dressed as if she expected chilly temperatures in Daytona.

The moment she stepped outside, she knew she was over dressed. The sun hung high in the sky, still providing in credible warmth. While it was November and not nearly as hot as in the summer, her top was still overkill for the warm Daytona weather. Beside Alex in his short sleeves, Brianne looked ridiculous.

Just the short walk to the car and she was starting to sweat.

Inside the vehicle, she turned the air-conditioning control on her side of the car on high.

“If you want to change…”

“No, I’m fine. I expect the restaurant to be pretty cold, so I’m good.”

“Suit yourself,” Alex mumbled.

Brianne didn’t respond. Nor did she look at him.

“Any idea what you want to eat?” Alex asked.

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind pancakes,” Brianne said.
She needed something sweet. Not too much. She wouldn’t binge. But she hoped that eating something sweet would satisfy the undeniable craving she had for Alex Thorpe.

“There’s a pancake house on the main strip. They serve breakfast all day.”

“Sounds good.”

Alex eyed Brianne surreptitiously as he steered the car out of his driveway. She sat with her back ramrod straight and her gaze straight ahead, as if she feared that by looking at him she would turn to stone. Actually, she was doing a very good impression of a stone sculpture as it was….

“Are you planning to talk to me again?” he asked.

“Of course I am,” Brianne said, her gaze still straight ahead.

“Then are you ever planning to look at me again?”

“I—” She stopped abruptly. Slowly, she faced him—but she didn’t hold his gaze for more than a beat. “There. I looked at you.”

“Do I make you uncomfortable?” Alex asked.

Brianne’s mouth fell open, but whatever she was about to say, she thought better of. Instead she paused, inhaled a deep breath, then spoke. “You’re being a tad overdramatic, don’t ya think?”

“Before I kissed you, you didn’t have a problem making eye contact. Now it’s like you’re afraid if you look at me you’ll be struck by lightning.”

“Definitely being overdramatic,” she said and forced a laugh. But she still didn’t meet his gaze.

Alex had apologized for kissing her, more as a way to put her at ease. But now he was getting a pretty good idea that the kiss had affected her far more than she likely wanted to admit.

He pulled the car to the side of the road and killed the engine. Now Brianne faced him. “What are you doing?”

“Stopping the car so we can talk.”

“Oh, for crying out loud.”

Now Brianne sounded angry. “What is your problem?” Alex asked. “Is it because I kissed you?”

“You think that kiss changed my world? Well, it didn’t.”

The words hurt. “Then why do you suddenly seem so angry with me?”

“There’s nothing sudden about it,” Brianne retorted.

Alex stared at her in disbelief. “What?”

Brianne’s chest was heaving. She
was
angry, and she didn’t really know why. She only knew that calling on the anger was all she had right now to keep her from thinking about the thoughts she’d been having regarding Alex since he had kissed her earlier.

“You want the truth? I am angry with you. I have been for a long time.”

“Ah, so you want to have it out with me. All right then. Go ahead. Have at it.”

“Okay,” Brianne said, and paused. “Sure we’re here now trying to find Carter and right a wrong, but if it hadn’t been for you, he might never have gone missing in the first place.”

“
What?
You blame me for Carter going missing?”

“Yes, I blame you,” she snapped, frustrated. “You were the one he always ran off with on those crazy adventures. Base jumping off of mountains and buildings. Extreme skiing. I mean, who in their right mind goes extreme skiing? Who would put themselves in harm’s way when they’ve got a loved one waiting at home? Oh, yeah. Carter. And you.”

“And you blame me for that?”

“You knew how much I hated all of your crazy extreme
sports, yet you never said, ‘Gosh, Carter is engaged now, maybe we shouldn’t do this.’”

“You think I could have stopped Carter? He was a big boy and would have done whatever he wanted, with or without me.”

“Then it should have been without you. You enabled him.”

Alex nodded slowly, acknowledging that he heard her comment. And Brianne felt a smidgen of guilt. The truth was, she couldn’t truly blame Alex. It simply felt good to unleash her emotions via anger—instead of kissing him senseless.

“What happened that day?” Brianne asked. “That day on the mountain? How did you and Carter get separated?”

“We just did, Brianne,” Alex answered. “I was looking for wood, and he went ahead, and the next thing I knew the snow was coming down heavily and I couldn’t find him.”

It was the same answer Alex had given her before, but like the other times she had heard it, Brianne didn’t believe him. He was keeping something from her—that much she knew. But what?

“You think it doesn’t eat me up that I got off the mountain alive and Carter didn’t?” Alex asked. “I was racked with guilt—until the day I saw him on television.”

“So racked with guilt that you gave up on him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The police called off the search and you just accepted that we’d never find him again,” Brianne explained. “Maybe if you hadn’t given up on him, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Alex’s jaw tightened, and Brianne instantly regretted her words. “I’m sorry,” she quickly said. “That wasn’t fair.”

“No, I can see why you feel that way. But what you don’t know is that I didn’t give up on Carter. The authorities
called off the search, but I hired a team of searchers to comb the mountains after that. Before that first memorial, actually. Then again, three months later when the weather had gotten better.”

Brianne’s lips parted in surprise. “You…you never said anything.”

“You weren’t exactly happy to talk to me on the occasions we were in touch. Besides, I had no news.”

“Alex, I’m sorry. I just went off on you like you never cared for Carter, and that was so wrong of me. Please forgive me.”

Alex started the car again. “Don’t sweat it. We’re both stressed. The situation is getting to both of us.”

“Yeah,” Brianne said softly. “You’re right.”

They drove the rest of the way to the pancake house in silence. Every time Brianne glanced at Alex, his eyes were on the road.

He was probably upset with her. And she wouldn’t blame him. Though she had been mad at him in the past, she wasn’t currently mad at him for any of the reasons she had spewed.

In fact, she wasn’t mad at him at all.

She was mad at herself.

Mad that she seemed powerless to fight the undeniable attraction she was feeling for Alex.

Why was she having these feelings now? At a time when there was finally hope of her greatest wish coming true?

Because if things went as planned, she would be reunited with Carter in a few days.

So she had better get over whatever it was she was feeling for Alex.

And fast.

Chapter 13

W
hat happened on the mountain?

It was a question Brianne had asked him more than once, and more than once he had lied to her.

He had lied to her to protect her. How could he tell her a truth he knew would crush her? At least at the time, when she’d been so utterly fragile?

As Alex lay on the bed in his room, his mind went back to that fateful day in British Columbia. It was right about then that he had started to see that the man he’d considered his best friend had a heart of stone. He had been gloating about the fact that he was seeing another woman, one of Brianne’s friends who had moved to Florida. Carter had already been making a plan to see this other woman when they got back home and wanted Alex’s cooperation in creating a cover story he could spoon-feed Brianne.

“What the hell are you doing?” Alex had asked. “You’re engaged, bro. Why are you stringing some other woman along?”

“Who says I’m stringing her along?”

“You’re getting married, right?”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t have a little something on the side,” Carter had said, playfully elbowing Alex.

Instead of joining his friend in a laugh about something that wasn’t in the least bit funny, Alex had gotten mad. “Are you serious?”

“Hell yeah, I’m serious.”

“Do you love Brianne or not?”

“Brianne will make a great wife. A great mother. But a guy needs a woman who can take a walk on the wild side. Satisfy his other needs, ya know?”

Alex’s blood began to boil. “So you’re gonna marry her and not even plan to be faithful to her?”

“What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is you’re being a big jerk. Brianne doesn’t deserve that. She loves you. God only knows why.”

“What was that?”

“You heard me,” Alex spat out. “Do the right thing. Either dump this other woman, or dump Brianne.”

“Or what?”

Alex didn’t answer. He was done speaking on the subject. He started marching past Carter on the trail.

Only Carter grabbed him by his parka and whirled him around. “You’ve still got a thing for her, don’t you?”

Alex said nothing.

“You’re acting all high and mighty, but the real deal is you’re jealous. You wanted a piece of her, but I got to her first.”

“I did not want a
piece
of her.”

Carter laughed in his face. “Yeah, right. I bet it’s killing you. This one chose me.”

“You’re still harping on that girl from two years ago?” A couple of years earlier, a woman Carter had been interested
in had made a play for Alex. He’d shot her down—and told Carter the deal.

“She was trash,” Carter said.

“And Brianne isn’t. So do right by her. If that means letting her down easy—”

“So you can have my sloppy seconds?”

Alex couldn’t help himself. He punched Carter in the face. His friend’s head jerked backward, and he stumbled. But when Carter caught his footing and stood upright again, Alex had seen the blood pouring from his nose.