out breathy and tight, and the space between her legs felt warm and liquid with want because she hadn’t had a man in her bed since him and she missed him.
No, no—she missed sex. Which was normal. She’d been cleared to resume her nonexistent sex life from the private OB/GYN—who her mother had made sign a nondisclosure form, HIPAA be damned—six weeks ago, as long as she used reliable birth control, and it had taken everything Brooke had not to laugh in the woman’s face.
So she didn’t necessarily miss this man. She just missed men in general.
Right.
“Ginger ale. In a beer glass.” Then he brushed his lips against hers, and she was powerless to do anything but open her mouth for him. When he licked inside her, she tasted sugar and ginger, not beer.
Pop shouldn’t be so seductive, but this was crazy. How did he know that was exactly what she needed to hear? How could he taste so good?
How could she still want him so damned much?
Because she did.
He broke the kiss but he didn’t pull away. Somehow, they were closer now and she could feel the heat of his erection pulsing against her belly. She could feel her pulse matching his, beat for beat.
“I want to see you again,” he murmured against her lips. Then his mouth was trailing over her cheek, toward her ear. “I need more than just one night, Brooke. But I won’t ask you for anything else.”
“Yes.” The word slipped out before she could think better of it, before the logistics of another night in Flash’s arms could rear their ugly head. She needed more from him, too.
“Where? Say the word and I’m there, babe. I’m anywhere you need me.” As he spoke, he pressed his knee between her legs, putting pressure right where she needed it. She couldn’t fight down the moan. God, it’d been so long since another person had touched her for pleasure. Her pleasure. “Just tell me you need me.”
“My house. I need...”
But reality reared its head.
Her mother was at her house, babysitting her son. Mom didn’t live with Brooke and Bean, but she did live in what the real estate agent had described as the mother-in-law house on the property, a completely separate building almost 250 yards away from the main house—close enough for baby emergencies, but not under the same roof.
However, if Brooke waltzed in with Flash on her arm, they’d never get to the bed. Mom and Flash—that was a scene Brooke wasn’t ready to face tonight. Maybe not ever.
“I need half an hour before you come over.” She could get Mom out of the house and give herself a chance to change her mind. Or at least make sure she had some condoms because she wasn’t going to make the exact same mistake again.
A honking horn tore through the night. Flash and Brooke jerked apart just as Kyle Morgan emerged from the back of the Bluebird. Guiltily Brooke glanced at the car, where Alex glared at her, then at Flash, then back at her.
Right. They had an audience and Flash had just kissed her, and she’d probably been about twenty seconds from completely throwing herself at him.
“Hey, Brooke—everything okay?” Kyle asked, sounding meaner than she’d ever heard him. “Where’s Alex?”
Flash took another step back. He looked at Brooke like he was waiting for her to lead here.
“In the car.” Kyle stopped next to her, eyeing Flash with a healthy dose of warning. “This is a friend of mine.”
“Great set tonight,” Flash said, cutting through the awkwardness and stretching his hand toward Kyle. “Flash Lawrence. Sounds like you had some big hits waiting to happen in there. Eric Church, maybe? He could bring down stadiums with that one song about rebels.”
Kyle glanced warily at Brooke before returning Flash’s handshake. “Thanks. Toby Keith was also eyeing ‘My One, Her Only’ for his next album.”
Flash whistled appreciatively and Brooke felt Kyle relax. How did he do that? Flash Lawrence could charm his way into any situation. She’d fallen for that charm once.
She couldn’t afford to fall again.
As Flash and Kyle made small talk about country singles and Flash offered his opinion on what played well at the rodeos, Brooke had to accept that somehow, Flash had known exactly what she needed to hear—that he wasn’t the same man he’d been when he’d made all those awful headlines. He’d worked on being a better man.
Had he become the kind of man she’d want around her son?
Except she wasn’t just a single mother thinking about dating again, and Bean wasn’t just her son. He was Flash’s son, too, and she couldn’t keep his baby away from him, no matter what. She knew what it was like to grow up without a father. She couldn’t do that to Bean. Not if Flash was willing to step up.
Was he?
“Well, it was great meeting you, Morgan,” Flash said, shaking Kyle’s hand again. “Looking forward to hearing your next big hit.”
Kyle actually blushed at that. “Always great to hear from a fan. Will we be seeing you again soon?” He held out his hand to Flash.
Brooke didn’t miss that we.
Flash heard it, too. He cut a glance at her as he shook Kyle’s hand again. “That depends on Brooke.”
Kyle leveled an intimidating look at Flash and didn’t let go of his hand. Instead, he pulled Flash off balance. “You’re damn right it does. Alex isn’t the only one you’ll have to go through if you hurt her.” Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, the threat of violence dissipated into the night air.
Surprise registered on Flash’s face but, after a beat, he broke out that smile Brooke saw every time Bean grinned at her. “Trust me, hurting Brooke is the last thing I’d ever want to do.”
Then both men turned to her.
So this was the moment when she had to make a decision. Was letting Flash back into her life and her son’s life a good idea, or was it another mistake waiting to happen?
Knowing her luck, both.
Just like Bean had been both the biggest mistake of her life and the best thing that had ever happened to her.
“Let me give you my info,” she told Flash, holding out her hand for his phone. She would have preferred not to do this with Kyle standing right next to her, but this was still better than having Kyle catch them kissing.
Flash unlocked his phone and handed it to her. Her heart going a mile a minute, she put in her address and number and added the note, “half an hour” to give her enough time to get Mom out of the house and...and decide how she was going to handle Flash.
She was not bringing Flash home to have wild, crazy, great sex with him again. Absolutely not. This was about Bean. Her world began and ended with him now. That’s all there was to it because a boy needed his father. Even if that boy was only three months old.
She
