Adam took a breath. ‘Anything else?’
There was another moment of silence and then a mumbled, ‘You really couldn’t be any different from Jake if you tried…’
She might not have meant it with quite the same level of contempt his father had any time he’d used similar words, but they had the same effect. Adam felt the echo of adolescent anger roll in on him like a tsunami—destroying any sense of reason or tolerance in its wake the same way it always had. He’d heard the words a million times; said with impatience or frustration or resentment or in disappointment. But the result was always the same. Jake had been the son their father wanted. Adam had fallen short of the mark.
Well, not any more. Maybe Roane Elliott should be the first of them to understand that.
Adam turned his head, dropping his gaze to look her over at his leisure. He heard her sharp intake of breath when he watched the rise and fall of her breasts long enough to see two distinct beads appear against the soft material of her blouse. Then he smiled a slow smile as he looked up at her parted lips, at the flush on her cheeks and finally into the darkened blue of her eyes. Only then did he quirk his brows, his voice a low rumble in the headsets.
‘Ready to find out just how different, little girl?’ He angled his head a little and studied the way her honey-blonde hair curled against her cheek. ‘I saw how you looked at me on the beach last night. Manners and IQ weren’t high on the list of things you were interested in then, were they?’
When she stared at him with widened eyes he leaned a little closer, deliberately looking down the ‘V’of her blouse at the rapid rise and fall of creamy half-circle breasts above the lace of her bra. He watched the beating pulse on one side of her elegant neck, the way she damped her parted lips before sucking in a shaky breath. Then his gaze locked firmly with hers again. ‘You’re right. It is about control with me. But you want to lose it, don’t you? In a way you obviously don’t with my brother or you wouldn’t react to me the way you do. You know I’d take you the way you want to be taken. Hard. And slow. For hours on end…’
There was a brief narrowing of her eyes before he continued, ‘Maybe you should make sure you chose the right Bryant, little girl…’
Roane’s breath caught, she swallowed hard and then her eyes sparkled with a mixture of outrage and desire. ‘I’m not some little girl you can intimidate.’ Her chin lifted defiantly, the husky edge of her voice giving away her physical reaction to his words as much as her body already had. ‘Let go of the stick. Please.’
Adam frowned. ‘Wh—?’
Without warning her knee jerked, and the plane veered violently to the left, throwing Adam away from her. He released the stick as if he’d been burned, his stomach lurching and a violent expletive leaving his mouth. When the plane eased smoothly onto an even keel again he glared angrily at her.
‘What did you do?’
Roane was facing forwards, both hands on the stick and her fine-boned jaw-line set with determination. ‘I’m sorry. My foot must have slipped.’
Meaning she’d kicked the rudder, right? Adam would have laughed at her audacity if she hadn’t just taken a year off his life. His brother had gone and got himself quite the little firecracker.
‘Clever.’
The compliment didn’t earn him any brownie points. ‘Feel free to take your lack of conversational skills to the extreme from here to New York. Or I can give you a demonstration of just what this plane is capable of if you’d prefer…’
Adam knew she wasn’t just referring to the plane. She’d clearly told him not to mess with her. It was a nice try, he’d give her that. It would have worked better if she’d denied anything he’d said about wanting to be taken hard and slow and for hours on end…
The knowledge did several things to Adam.
But what it did most was bring out the primal strand to his DNA code. One that now felt a deep seated need to tame her…
Adam had never backed down from a battle of wills. It had been half his problem for most of his life. So she might have got the upper hand on him this time, but she wouldn’t do it again. She should understand who she was dealing with. All of them should.
She’d just get a more pleasurable version of the lesson…
CHAPTER THREE
‘DO I HAVE TO?’
Jake’s brows rose, ‘You don’t like him much, do you? I thought you liked everyone.’
Under normal circumstances she did. Roane was a glass-half-full kinda gal. Not till Adam had she met anyone who made her believe irredeemable people existed. Feeling that way and being so physically attracted to him at the same time only made her dislike him more than she already did…
But he’d basically called her a gold-digger!
More than that—she was an unfaithful gold-digger who would stoop to having hot, sweaty, emotionless sex with her supposed boyfriend’s brother! He was slime. No. He was lower than that. She scowled harder. ‘He’s not nice.’
Jake stifled a smile, but not convincingly. ‘Okay. You got me. What happened on the way down here?’
Ooh…now where to start with that one…?
Idly swinging the office chair back and forth, she searched the air for something safe to say. ‘He thought I thought he was an idiot…’
Yes, she was pretty sure it started there. No—hang on—maybe sooner. He hadn’t been happy with her knowing he was afraid of flying. ‘By the way—did you know he’s not good with planes?’
Jake shrugged, flicking through a file on his desk. ‘It’s not surprising. Hitting the ground harder than normal when you’re in one would do it.’
Roane’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’
‘Charter flight, if I remember it right; Adam and his mother were flying in from a week in the Hamptons when Adam was three or four—Dad had visitation rights. It was a rough landing.’ He shrugged. ‘No one got hurt but it was edge-of-the-seat stuff.’
To a child it must have been a nightmare. No wonder he wasn’t a good flier. Would it have killed Adam to possibly mention that? ‘Jake, it didn’t occur to you he mightn’t be that good a flier when you suggested he fly down here?’
‘He should’ve said if it was such a big problem.’
‘Does he strike you as the kind of man who would confess to a weakness like that in front of a brother he hasn’t seen in twelve years? Between the two of you there was enough testosterone in that kitchen this morning to sink a schooner.’ There was no way she was getting caught in the middle of that battle of wills so if Jake thought—
He looked up at her. ‘Now you’re defending him? Thought you didn’t like him.’
‘I don’t.’ She fought the need to pout.
‘Well, calling him an idiot wasn’t one of your better moves. What did he say to that?’
‘I
