Hers. That’s the word that crossed her mind when she crushed her lips against his.
This man was hers.
He always had been, since the very first moment he’d taken her hand and bowed over it like some lordly duke. If nothing else, they had this.
“Bed?” Flash asked against her mouth, his hands skimming down her back, over her bottom.
“Bed,” she agreed.
She loved the hot, heavy sex against the door, but a window wasn’t quite as reassuring. Besides, she wanted the luxury of limbs twining together, his bare skin against hers.
The next thing she knew, Flash had bent over and swept her legs out from underneath her. “Whoa!” she squeaked, throwing her arms around his neck for balance.
“I’ve got you, babe.” Oh, she’d needed to hear that. “Do you have any idea what I want to do to you?”
She leaned forward and kissed the side of his neck. His pulse beat wildly against her lips. “Tell me.”
“I want to feast on your body and make you scream my name when you come, and then I want to hold you afterwards until you’ve come back down to earth, and then I want to bury myself in your body until you break again, until I can’t take it anymore. I want to lay you out and spend the next two days making love to you,” he growled against her ear. Then he wrapped his lips around her lobe and tugged gently as he carried her back through the suite. “Then I want to do it again.”
Every muscle in her body clenched at his charged words and, given the wolfish grin he shot her, she knew he’d felt it, too. She’d done that once with him, that glorious night in Fort Worth when he’d swept her off her feet.
Once a year wasn’t enough.
Sadly, though, reality wasn’t on their side. “We—oh, Flash,” she moaned as he kissed her neck, “we don’t have that kind of time.” But Lord, it sounded wonderful, didn’t it? A few days to explore how deep this connection went. A few days to selfishly enjoy this man and his tremendous skills.
Because the man had skills.
“Then I’ll take the time I get with you.” He kicked open the door to the bedroom and then kicked it shut, all without missing a single stride.
“Another good line,” she murmured as he set her down on the bed and pulled her hat from her head.
“I’m full of them.” Her hair tumbled wildly around her shoulders, the ponytail a distant memory. He paused, sucking in air. “God, Brooke—do you have any idea what you do to me?”
She leaned forward, stroking a hand over his obvious erection through his jeans. “I’m getting one.”
“You...” He swallowed as she rested her head against his stomach and began to work the buttons on his fly loose.
She shoved his jeans down, then hooked her fingers into the waistband of his blue boxer briefs, which hugged his narrow hips, his ass, his everything. Then she pulled and he sprung free.
“If you don’t want me to taste you, you let me know.”
Flash groaned, his fingers finding her hair as her hands found his hot length. “Please,” he got out through gritted teeth as she stroked him. “I want you to do what you want, Brooke,” he moaned when she gave him a little squeeze. “I won’t tell you what to do.”
“You did last night.”
There was something powerful about this moment. She had him in the palm of her hand—literally—and she could do what she wanted with him. She looked up at him through her eyelashes and then, slowly, pressed her lips to his tip. He shuddered, but before his hips could flex, she’d pulled away and ran the pad of her thumb over the area she’d kissed.
“A mistake. A huge one,” he groaned, his head falling back. “You’re killing me, babe.”
“Don’t mess up again,” she said, knowing it sounded like an order. But it wasn’t, not really. She was all but begging him.
She’d given him a second chance last night when he’d told her he’d sobered up and straightened himself out, only to have him struggle when she told him about Bean. Yeah, that was partly her fault because she’d broken the news in the absolute worst way possible. But she hadn’t forgotten the hard edge to his voice when he’d informed her that they were getting married as soon as possible. And that didn’t even take into account the awful moment when she’d thought he’d been attacking his brother-in-law.
She didn’t need a domineering, immature jerk in her life. She needed a man, one who did right by her and her son, one who stood up for her, not to her.
She needed Flash to be that man.
“You get one more chance,” she told him in all seriousness.
“I won’t fail you again.” His grip on her hair loosened and then was gone entirely as he tilted her head back. “You can count on me, Brooke—now and forever. No matter what we decide, we’re in this together.” Even through the haze of lust, she could see how serious he was.
“I know,” she whispered, emotion clogging up her throat.
He leaned down and kissed her, the kind of kiss that said as much as his words had. It wasn’t a kiss of frenzied passion, but one of heat and something richer, deeper.
Something that might even be love.
No, no—she wasn’t going to let love get hopelessly mixed up with lust. Especially not right now. This time with him right now—this was about satisfaction and then about planning. Neither of those two things had a damn thing to do with love.
They’d had so little time together that she hardly knew what this man looked like nude. One night together and a few stolen moments—plus several hard, awkward conversations.
“Take these all the way off,” she demanded, releasing her grip on him. “I want you naked.”
“God, yes.” He stumbled back, kicking out of his pants and yanking his shirt over his head. “I’ll always give you what you want. You know that, right?”
She nodded as she did away with what was left of her ponytail and started to pull her shirt off. Flash stopped her. “Just be honest with me, Brooke. Not just about sex—about everything. Be honest with yourself.”
Then he grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her head. She’d gone with the pretty teal bra today, one of the only non-nursing bras she owned that still fit. Her boobs looked huge in it.
“Okay to touch?” he asked, stroking a finger down her chest.
She started to nod but then stopped. Last night had been about reclaiming a part of the girl she’d been before she’d become a mother. But this?
This was the first time Brooke felt like she was having sex as the woman she was now. And he had said he expected complete honesty, so... “Not right now. Let’s leave the bra on.”
Flash grinned widely as his hands skimmed up her skin and came to a rest on her shoulders, where he kneaded at the tight muscles there. Clearly, the request didn’t bother him in the least. “Can do.”
She reached for him again, gripping him firmly as she slid her tongue over his tip and took him into her mouth.
He groaned, a noise of pure desire that traveled down her body to where they were connected. She stroked him with her hands, licked him with her tongue. Suddenly, he pulled away.
“Nope,” he growled as he pushed her over.
“Nope?” She flung her hands out for balance as she rolled. His hands pressed between her shoulder blades, firm but not hard. “Did I do something wrong?”
He laughed, a noise that sounded almost unhinged as he gently pushed her onto her stomach. “Wrong? Hell, woman. I’ve never felt anything so right in my life. But you’re about to break me and I’m not going down like that. Not until...”
He stripped her shorts and panties off and Brooke let him. She grabbed handfuls of bedding as he nudged her legs apart and then his hands were between her legs, opening her.
“Woman,” he growled again, palming her bottom.
She propped herself up on her elbows and looked back at him. “Not until what?”
“Not until you come first.” He trailed his hands over the small of her back, but instead of reaching for that space between her legs that was already hot and heavy for him, he knelt on the bed and rested his hands on her shoulders. His strong hands began to massage her shoulders and she let her head drop as her muscles began to relax. “How much time do we have?”
“An hour, maybe.” Bean would wake up from his nap and he’d be hungry and she’d need to nurse him. And then there was dealing with Mom...
“Then we’ll make that hour count. Don’t think, babe,” he said, working at a particularly painful knot. “Just let me take care of you.”
His hands moved lower, smoothing over her ribs even as he skipped right over her bra strap. The calluses on his hands chafed at her skin, heightening the sensations, making her more and more aware of his every move, his every touch. She stiffened when he ran his hands over her hips. But then he said, “You are so beautiful,” in a voice that didn’t contain a trace of mockery or teasing in it.
“I’m not back to where I was before,” she said, cringing as he traced the stretch marks she’d earned with Bean.
“So?”
She half rolled and shot him a look. “Seriously? Do you know how many people tell me I need to get back to my prebaby weight? My mother, the record execs—they all say the same thing.” Her voice cracked a little on the end.
Flash’s eyes—well, they flashed. “Let’s get one thing straight,” he said, rolling her on to her back and pinning her to the bed. “I loved your body last year. I love your body now. But if you think all you are to me is your body and that any variation in your appearance is going to send me running, then you have sorely misjudged how much I need you. All of you.”
God, he really was going to make her cry. She tried to wiggle free, but he held her fast.
“So you’re not the same person you were then?” he went on, his erection hot and heavy against her thigh, “Well I’m not, either. We’ve both grown the hell up, Brooke. And, I think, we’ve both gotten better.” Then he released her wrists and moved lower until she felt his lips pressing against those stretch marks, reverently kissing each and every stripe. “You are beautiful,” he repeated.
Brooke was glad he wasn’t staring into her eyes anymore because it wasn’t just the compliments. This wasn’t Flash being smooth or charming. This was Flash being fierce and proud—of her. This was the man she wanted in her corner, by her side, when record execs tried to railroad her. This was a man who’d fight for her, for their son, for their family.
How had she failed to realize that romance wasn’t just pretty words or a sweet song? Because this was romance. It was strong and determined and intense. Just like Flash.
Flash looked up from where he was between her legs. “I wanted you a year ago when we were wild kids looking for a good time,” he told her. “I want you now when you’ve had my son and made me a father. A year from now, five years from now, you won’t be the same person you are at this exact moment and I’ll still want you.”
Oh, Jesus, that was a hell of a good line, one that fit right into Don’t say something romantic. He rolled her over again, and this time she let herself relax into his touch. Then one hand slid between her legs, stroking over her sensitive flesh, and the lyrics fell away, only the melody drifting through her mind.
“Yeah, just like that,” he said, his voice husky as he touched her, rubbed her, kissed her back. “Don’t think. Just feel what I do to you.” With his other hand, he pushed her hair to the side and then gripped her neck, gently holding her down while he nipped at her shoulder with his teeth, his stubble scraping over her skin.
Then one finger was inside her and she shuddered at the touch. “Yeah, babe,” he breathed in her ear as he worked her body with more patience than she’d ever imagined. Until right now, every time with Flash had been hot and heavy, and neither of them had ever been able to hold back.
But now? Now he was holding himself back, overwhelming her senses and demanding her full attention. She gave it willingly. There was no room for PR plans or redemption stories or albums or should haves, could haves, would haves. There was only him and her and the music that wove their lives together.
Because she’d swear Flash could hear the song, too. With two fingers now, he thrust inside of her in rhythm with the melody as he bit into the skin between her shoulder and her neck. The orgasm began to build and she tried to reach back for him, but he didn’t let her go. “You want more?” he growled in her ear, and she heard the raw desire in his voice, felt it in the way his body covered hers, the way her body covered his.
Whimpering, she nodded, and then his hand was gone from her neck, his fingers pulled free of her body. “One sec, babe. Do you have any idea what you do to me?” She peered over her shoulder to see him rolling on the condom. Then he lifted her by the hips and she scooted forward on the bed. “This okay?” he asked, kneeling back on the bed and running his hands over her bottom. “Because I’ve got to tell you, the view is amazing.”
She laughed and widened her pose, bracing herself on her elbows. “I seem to recall this was better than okay a year ago.” Actually, she remembered the shattering orgasm that had hit her so hard it’d knocked her completely off her knees. She’d been unable to do anything but shake while he’d held her for long, glorious minutes.
No one else had ever made her feel the way Flash did. There were reasons she needed to be careful about him—good reasons, no doubt—but right now, as he fit himself against her, his body strong, she couldn’t remember what those reasons were. All she knew was that he was going to make her feel wonderful.
“God, woman,” he said, giving her backside a light smack before he thrust into her.
“Oh,” she moaned in sheer pleasure as he filled her. Even now, she could feel her orgasm straining against him.
“God, I missed you,” he murmured, withdrawing and thrusting back in.
“Yes,” she got out, dropping her head onto her forearms on the bed, which gave Flash even more access. He squeezed her bottom and teased her delicate flesh with the softest of touches while he drove into her and she lost herself to the rhythm of their bodies. He’d always been so damn good at this, at making her body react at his mere touch. This was why she couldn’t keep her hands off him, couldn’t kick him to the curb. She simply needed him too much.
He shifted, reaching around and rubbing her in time with his thrusts, and the pressure built and built, and then he wrapped her hair around his fist and pulled her into him until he could bite down on her shoulder.
The climax hit and crescendoed, her body tightening around his as a cry of satisfaction ripped itself from her chest.
“That’s it,” he murmured against her skin. “Come for me, babe. Just like... Oh, God.”
He reared back, grabbing her hips and thrusting with such force that she couldn’t keep her knees underneath her as the sensations completely overwhelmed her. The orgasm went on, strengthening until she cried out again.
Seconds later, Flash made a noise of raw lust and collapsed onto her back, driving her into the bed. He managed to roll off to one side, his arm and leg still draped over her. She didn’t know how long they lay there, panting, but soon enough the heat from their bodies dissipated and she shivered.
“Oh, babe,” Flash sighed, wrapping himself around her and holding on tight. “I...”
She didn’t know how he was going to finish that sentence. Say something romantic. This time, her brain modulated the key up to A.
No, no—she didn’t want him to say something romantic. She didn’t want him to make her fall for him all over again, didn’t want him to propose when she was weak for him because, after sex like that, she might just say yes.
She just wanted to enjoy him while she could, which she had. Now she needed to focus on reality.
She rolled away from him and out of bed. “I’m still not marrying you,” she tossed over her shoulder as she walked—okay, hurried—to the bathroom.
She shut the door before he could answer.