Making the Grade Read Free Page A

sensation. Brian pulled her down for another kiss while he ground up into her. Some frantic pumps, then he swore as he shuddered, coming inside her.
    Faith clamped down on him, her orgasm long and powerful. Jesus, she’d never come so hard before. And from so little foreplay.
    He shifted inside her, and she moaned, loving the feel of him. The scent, touch and taste of the man went straight to her head.
    She leaned down to kiss him, thanking him with more than words.
    He kissed her back, and for a few moments she felt nothing but bliss.
    She knew the moment he pulled back. He tensed, then eased her up off him.
    “Let me go take care of this,” he said gruffly, nodding down at his condom.
    She watched him go, dazed and unable to do more than put her shirt back on, sans the bra, and lower her skirt. When he returned from the bathroom, he looked presentable enough. But the flush and replete look in his eyes gave him away.
    “That was amazing,” he said, looking her over.
    She smiled. “It was.” She couldn’t help blushing. From zero to sixty after one kiss. So much for going slow with this new relationship. “Brian, I—”
    “Guess I’ll head out now. I have work early in the morning, unfortunately.” He bent down to kiss her. To take the sting out of his rejection? “I had a wonderful time. We’ll have to do this again, Faith. Happy Valentine’s Day.” He smiled, but the gesture lacked warmth.
    Then he was out the door and gone.
    Confused and not sure what the hell had just happened, Faith went over the night’s events in excruciating detail. He couldn’t have had any problem with the evening or the sex. Not after she’d come seconds before he had. Yet she had the feeling she’d just been tenderly, politely blown off after having had the best sex of her life.
    He didn’t call the next day, or the next. She canceled her weekly therapy appointment, indulged in some superfattening ice cream and worked her ass off at the office. When Brian still hadn’t called by Friday, she knew she’d been right.
    After leaving work for another blah weekend—dateless, angry and hopeless about relationships—Faith pondered what to do. Instead of giving in to the good cry she could feel building inside her, she yanked on her workout clothes and jumped on her tread climber. Half an hour later, she continued to exercise while Snapped played on the television, cursing Brian Goode with every step.
     
    After a miserable week spent analyzing what the hell was so wrong with him that he couldn’t stop thinking about a money-grubbing brunette who’d made him come in two seconds, Brian banged on his sister’s door without regard for time. He didn’t care that it was a Saturday morning, or that it was barely past six. This couldn’t wait.
    Her lover Harper answered the door, wearing a scowl and a pair of boxers. “Brian?”
    “I want to talk to Freddy. Move it, Conan.”
    “Are you fucking kidding me? It’s six a.m.”
    Brian stormed past him. “Is she up?” He knew she wasn’t, but he was pissed and needed to share.
    Dylan Warren, Freddy’s second significant other, appeared in the living room with a concerned expression. “Brian? Is everything all right?”
    “No, everything is not fucking all right. Freddy ,” he yelled. “Get your sorry ass out here. Right. Now.”
    His sister appeared, looking like a discontented fairy. Same blond hair as Brian, but pixie short, standing up in clumps, and she wore a scowl to go with her bloodshot eyes.
    “What the hell, Brian?”
    He grabbed her by the overlarge sleeve of the men’s shirt she wore and dragged her past her startled lovers. “Why the hell did you set me up with Faith?”
    “Um, you made me?”
    “I asked you for her number.”
    “Blackmailed me into it, actually.”
    “Because I wanted a date with a nice woman. Not another money-grubbing witch.” Angered all over again at himself for falling back on bad habits—ignoring how amazing sex with Faith had