Sex & The Single Girl

The archived footage of Aidan Maddock prowling around Honeymoon Heaven.

Assuring herself she only wanted to look at it for a minute, Brianne flicked the appropriate switches on her control panel until the cupid quarters flashed up on the main screen. The gilded white room was vacant now.

Maybe Aidan had realized Club Paradise was exactly what the new ownership purported—a legitimate business out to recoup the losses of its former incarnation. All the women involved in rejuvenating the scandal-mired resort either wanted a chance to make back the money they’d lost when the Rat Pack left town, or they wanted an opportunity to prove themselves career-wise. Some of them were hoping for a little of both.

Brianne rewound the archived footage until she found the moment Aidan entered the room—only about five minutes before she’d discovered him. She smiled in spite of herself as she watched him in action. Instead of breaking out his fingerprint kit or high-tech phone tap equipment, Agent Maddock had pumped six quarters into the hospitality cabinet to earn himself a Milky Way bar that was probably a year old.

Then, as if testing the mattress, he’d bounced on the heart-shaped bed for a minute before peering into every nook and cranny of the saccharin-sweet accommodations.

Her gaze drank in the sight of his rangy body. He’d been that tall ten years ago, but his frame hadn’t been quite as solid. Muscles filled out his Harley T-shirt now, stretching the well-worn fabric in a way that made Brianne’s mouth water.

No doubt about it. Aidan Maddock still sizzled her from the inside out and no amount of her in-your-face bravado was going to change that.

She just hoped to God Aidan would never realize as much.

No sooner had the thought occurred to her, then the office door swung open behind her. An awful premonition flitted through her mind—a scenario she did not want to contemplate as she stared up at the big-screen version of sexy Aidan Maddock.

Please let it be Giselle with another round of Good Fortune Potions. Or maybe it was Summer ready to yell at her for watching television in the dark again.

Please let it be anyone except…

“Looks like you couldn’t wait to see me again after all.” A far-too-cocky voice filled the studio. A masculine bass that definitely hadn’t originated on her tape.

…Aidan.

2

BRIANNE REACHED FOR the remote to pause the videotape, but Aidan’s hand beat hers to the control.

“I’ll take that.” He swiped the electronic device behind his back, allowing the tape of himself to continue rolling. “I want to see the part where you walk into the room. I’ve never seen anyone make an entrance quite like you, Bri.”

The man could be all charm when the situation warranted. No wonder she’d fallen for him a lifetime ago.

Good thing she knew better now.

“My entrance isn’t until after Daisy’s.” Brianne tried not to notice when the curvy blonde sashayed her way across the television screen in her micro-miniskirt. “But by all means, enjoy the show until then. You wouldn’t want to miss the footage of your lip lock.”

Aidan hit the pause button on the remote, stilling the picture on the television just as Daisy entered Honeymoon Heaven.

“Actually, I’m not here for the show. I’m here to discuss Club Paradise.”

Brianne stiffened, recognizing the FBI-guy tone creeping into Aidan’s voice. “If you want to talk business, maybe you’d better make an appointment.”

“Does that mean if I want to talk personal, you’ll listen to me now?”

Was it her imagination, or had he somehow moved closer? The heat of his body warmed Brianne’s purposely sterile office. If she let him stay in here long enough, she had the feeling he could single-handedly steam all the mirrors and glass.

“I’m saying, make an appointment.” She held out her hand for the remote. “Can I have my equipment back? I’m trying to run a smooth operation here tonight—a fact you seem to be repeatedly forgetting.”

But Aidan was already walking away from her, keeping her remote hostage in the back pocket of his jeans. Damn the man.

Of all the places she wouldn’t touch, he couldn’t have picked anywhere more off-limits.

“You’re pretty interested in technology gadgets, aren’t you, Bri?” He trailed a finger across her master control board, an action that drove techno-types as insane as nails on a chalkboard.

“Touch my buttons and you’re dead, Maddock.”

“Seems like I’m already hitting all your buttons.” He gave her a wicked grin and dropped into a black leather chair in front of the control panel. “Seriously, I heard you studied some major technology while you were at film school. I thought you’d always wanted to be a director?”

With his big body sprawled across her office furniture and his thinly disguised nosy questions, Aidan might as well have hung his FBI shingle on her front door. Despite his lazy posture and casual approach, Agent Maddock was clearly at work.

Brianne sighed, sinking into the leather chair beside his. She didn’t stand a chance of getting any work done until she’d answered at least a few of his questions. “I am a director. As I’m sure a professional snoop like you already knows. I just happened to enjoy the engineering aspect quite a bit.”

His gray eyes held hers a second too long, reminding her of the best kiss of her life….

“You always were into electronic contraptions, weren’t you? Remember that remote key finder you gave me?”

Her cheeks warmed. Did he have to remind her of her schoolgirl crush on him?

She frowned, hoping maybe he’d think she gave useless widgets to everyone she met.

“It’s the envy of every Fed in my office,” Aidan continued, oblivious to her discomfiture while he warmed to his topic. “I left my keys in a Chinese restaurant once and that remote led me right to my beeping key chain. Of course, I had to dig through a little chow mein in the back alley to retrieve them, but it beat walking home.”

Brianne blinked, surprised at the genuine appreciation in his voice. “I’ve progressed since then,” she found herself saying before she could question the wisdom of sharing anything about herself with this man. “Now I can program a menu into my refrigerator so that it reminds me what to take out of the freezer every morning.”

“You’re kidding.” He looked at her like she’d just solved one of his cases. “You ought to work for the Bureau, Brianne. Sort of like Q in those James Bond flicks.”

She had to admire his skillful way of bringing the conversation back around to business. Frankly, she welcomed the distancing reminder of their opposite worlds. She’d been enjoying their conversation just a little bit too much. “Joining the Bureau isn’t going to make me start spilling secrets about Melvin Baxter. I have no idea where he is.”

His gaze met hers as she denied it, as if he was subjecting her to some sort of mental lie detector test.

“Do you think your mother has been in contact with him?” Aidan leaned forward in his chair and pulled her remote control out of his back pocket to study it, as if he didn’t place much importance upon her answer.

Brianne saw straight through the act. Aidan took his job seriously and he was on a mission tonight. She couldn’t buy into his cool FBI guy with a Fu Manchu facade this time around. Aidan might look laid-back, but she knew firsthand he tracked down his personal “most wanted” with single-minded focus.

“I don’t know, Aidan. Even if I did, I’m not certain that I’d discuss it with you.” Too much ancient history between them. Too much hormonal short-circuiting if she sat within touching distance. “Now, can I have my remote back? I’ve got work to do.”

He lifted one dark eyebrow, a quirky expression Brianne remembered well. Her eighteen-year-old self had tried for at least half an hour to raise only one eyebrow like that, and she’d ended up with a massive headache.

“And you think you can just snap your fingers and make the FBI disappear?” Aidan pitched the remote from hand to hand, never taking his eyes off her.

While she admired the man’s dexterity—and didn’t that give rise to intriguing questions about what else he did well with his hands?—Brianne couldn’t afford to allow him to distract her with his sleight of hand.

She snatched the device away from him in midair. “I might not be able to make you vanish this minute since I’m working solo tonight.” Besides, he didn’t exactly pose an immediate danger the way a drunken patron could if she took her eyes off the screens. “But I do know I’m entitled to go about my business while you’re here. Either cut to the chase about what you want from me, Aidan, or let me do my job.” She pressed a button on her recaptured electronic controller and flipped through several camera feeds to monitor the action throughout the club.

Of course, she needed to then follow through on her action and swivel in her chair to view the various monitors off to her side. A position which left her staring up at several small televisions along with an oversize, frozen image of Aidan and the cigarette girl, Daisy, on the middle screen.

She had larger-than-life Aidan on camera in front of her, and all-too-real Aidan emanating pheromones behind her.