Free Superb and Sexy.3 by Jill Shalvis

asking of her twin.
    But she was thinking now.
    She’d seen how Maddie looked at Brody. Seen, too, the brief hesitation on Maddie’s face when they’d talked about going away together and starting over. It’d been so brief Leena might have imagined it, but she hadn’t.
    Maddie would never say so, but she liked the life she’d made for herself, and she deserved that life. She shouldn’t have to give it up.
    And suddenly, she recognized and understood the new emotion inside her. Strength. Because maybe Maddie was right. Maybe she was stronger than she’d thought. And maybe…maybe she could do this all on her own so that Maddie didn’t have to give up her life.
    Leena could follow The Plan on her own. It could work. Rick couldn’t do anything to Maddie because one, her sister wasn’t a jewelry designer, and two, if he even thought about getting the authorities involved, he’d be implicating himself.
    Yeah, Leena really could vanish on her own. She could vanish and let Maddie live her life.
    Maddie would never let her do it, of course. Never. Knowing it, knowing there was no better time than now, she grabbed her bag and then at the last moment, took the photo, too, slipping it into her bag next to her cell phone before quietly heading outside.
     
    Maddie’s lips were still tingling. She didn’t take her eyes off Brody as confusion and heat flowed through her veins instead of blood. So much damn heat…
    He’d kissed her.
    Holy smokes, he’d nearly kissed her right into a spontaneous orgasm. Her pulse couldn’t seem to recover, nor could the rest of her. Her skin felt too tight, her breathing still labored.
    Brody hadn’t taken his eyes off her, either. His own breathing didn’t seem any too steady, and when he spoke, his voice was low and rough, his expression as baffled as she imagined hers was.
    “I can’t believe you could kiss me like that,” he said. “With all that tongue and heat, and still not tell me what the hell is going on.”
    “I thought that you thought that you were kissing Leena.”
    “Yeah, well, you thought wrong.”
    Okay, so he wasn’t slow. She knew that. He was a pilot, a man with sharp reflexes and a sharp mind.
    But she was sharper.
    She’d had to be.
    All her life, she’d had to be.
    Not Brody. Brody flew planes for a living and hung out with friends for a pastime. On weekends, he played basketball like a pro and gravitated toward big, stupid muscle cars. He was kind to old ladies and dogs. He liked pizza and loud music. When he dated, the women were usually warm and sweet, and vanished as fast as they appeared.
    He did not, as a rule, worry or stress or angst about his existence, and if his past ever bothered him, he never let on. It certainly did not come back to bite him on his ass. Even thinking about him being a little boy was absurd because he was a man, a big, tall, rough and tumble man who made her hormones stand straight up and tap dance, damn it.
    But she could set that aside. She would set that aside. He had no idea what she was going through, and he never would.
    And yet…
    And yet he’d known it was her…
    That thought niggled at her, just a bit, because it was a warning, a little flare in her brain cautioning her not to underestimate him again, but at the moment, she had no choice but to believe herself stronger than him.
    “If nothing else,” he told her quietly, still a little sleepy-eyed from that kiss, “we’re friends. Friends talk. Friends share.”
    Oh, God, he could have no idea how she wished she could share with him. “Friends? No. We either snipe at each other or kiss. Not talk or share.”
    “At the very least, we’re also boss and employee, and that’s a fact. I’m responsible for you.”
    “That’s a stretch, considering how far from Sky High we are.”
    “I want an answer to at least one of my questions, Mad.”
    “Fine. Ask one.”
    “Let’s start with why you have a knife strapped to your thigh.” With lightning speed, he slid