Free Bidding on Brooks: The Winslow Brothers #1 by Katy Regnery Page B

interests were decidedly masculine, which hadn’t exactly endeared her to the girls she went to school with—she didn’t have a trusted confidant to call as she climbed into her car and sped away from the Ritz Carlton. She had a cousin with whom she was somewhat close, but Tina had small children who were probably in the middle of their bedtime routine. And though she liked several of the wives and girlfriends of Pat’s friends, she didn’t feel comfortable calling them. When she’d glanced down at her phone to find a text from Clay asking about her evening, he suddenly seemed like the perfect person to call.
    “And why on earth are you calling me when you should be enjoying him ?” he finished with a huff of disapproval.
    Skye sucked in a deep breath, navigating the crowded streets of Philadelphia as she headed toward the highway that would take her home. “He’s much taller than me. He smells like fresh air and the sea and hot skin. His tux was black.”
    “Oh,” sighed Clay dramatically. “Then why on God’s green earth are you calling me, girl?”
    The words were like a bomb about to detonate in her head. She had to get them out. “Because he kissed me.”
The line was silent for a moment, as though Clay was waiting for more. “Aaaand…?”
    Skye squirmed in her seat, the memory of the kiss making her stomach flutter and her pulse quicken. “It was…it was…”
    “Spell-binding? Mind-blowing? Toe-curling?”
    All of those things , thought Skye, but she heard herself murmur, “Wrong.”
    “Wrong? Wrong! Honey, you’re going to have to school me on how kissing an ex-Olympic hottie like Brooks Winslow is wrong. I didn’t notice a ring on your finger this afternoon.”
    “Oh, no!” Skye rushed to answer. “I’m not married!”
    “Engaged?”
    “No!”
    “Then I fail to see the issue.”
    “I’m with someone.”
    “But are you engaged or married to him?”
    “No. He’s my boyfriend.”
    “Your boyfriend?” He repeated the word “boyfriend” with hints of exasperation as Skye turned onto the highway and pressed down hard on the gas. “Okay. You ready for today’s truth serum, Miss Skye?”
    “Uh-huh,” she said, not actually sure she was ready at all.
    “If you don’t have a ring on your finger, you’re still looking, you’re still available, and you have every right to keep your options open, girl. You’re still figuring out what you want.”
    “But, I cheated on—”
    “Cheated? Who cheated? Didn’t you say he kissed you ?”
    “Well, yes, but—”
    “And here’s what I need to know…where was this mysterious boyfriend tonight?”
    “Oh, he’s circumnavigating right now.”
    “Circum—what?”
    “Navigating. He’s circling the globe on a catamaran for the next two years.” She told Clay all about how she and Pat had agreed to sail together, but how he’d decided to go alone, and they had approximately twenty more months ahead until Pat made his way home.
    “And what precisely are you supposed to do for two freaking years? Sit at home with your legs locked, acting like a nun? Nuh-uh. Nope.” Clay paused and Skye waited for his voice to fill the silence of her car again. “Tell me this, honey…did you like kissing Brooks?”
    Skye took a deep breath, remembering the firm pressure of his lips on hers, the satin touch of his tongue, the way her nipples had hardened and her skin had ached for more of his touch. “Yes.”
    “Then do it again,” said Clay gently. “You’re not married to Pat. You’re not even engaged.”
    “But we’re in a relationship.”
    “Really? Because it seems to me he left you for two years. Sorry to be the homo harbinger of ghastly news, but that doesn’t scream ‘commitment’ in my book.”
    Skye pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. She had to admit that she’d been having very similar feelings lately where Pat was concerned. It didn’t feel like they had much of a commitment, or much of a relationship, for that