Flashpoint Read online

  Arson.

  Brooke.

  Restlessness…

  He was surrounded by the life he’d chosen, a life both exhilarating and challenging. He loved it. And yet there was no denying he’d shut himself off from the very thing that people would say mattered most.

  Love.

  Had he really done that because of losing his family so long ago? Or had it just been an excuse, a handy reason not to let himself get hurt? If so, that had backfired, because he’d gotten hurt, anyway. Whether he was ever with Brooke again almost didn’t matter—his emotions were involved.

  She hadn’t come to him tonight, either. That left him two choices: be alone, or go to her.

  Easy enough choice. He went inside and grabbed his keys, and then whipped open the door—to find Brooke standing there, hand raised to knock.

  12

  BROOKE STOOD on Zach’s front steps, having gotten his address courtesy of Dustin. One minute she’d been at her grandmother’s, absorbing the sensation of feeling at home inside a house for the first time in…well, ever, and the next, she hadn’t been able to stop her mind from wandering to Zach. She had no reason for being here. None.

  Okay, that was a lie. She knew. And her body’s reaction to the sight of him, all big, bad and slightly attitude-ridden, cemented it.

  She was here to, what had he said? Take it as far as they could.

  He wore a T-shirt and jeans, no shoes, no socks. Simple clothes.

  Not such a simple man. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi.” He let out a breath and hooked his hand around her elbow, pulling her up the last step and closer to him. In the dim light he was all lean lines and angles and hard muscle as he jangled his keys in his other hand. “I was just coming to see you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat or two. “You were?”

  “Yeah. I got tired of waiting for you to finish thinking.” He moved aside so she could come in, but she hesitated.

  “Give me a second,” she murmured.

  “Okay. For what?”

  “For my brain to catch up with the rest of me.” She smiled nervously. “It’s my body that brought me here, you see. For some of that letting loose we’re so good at.”

  He smiled, and her body began to tingle.

  “Maybe you should let your body lead on this one,” he suggested in a very naughty, silky tone.

  “You think?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Just sort of let my brain take a rest?”

  “Exactly.” Gently crowding her in the doorway, he put his hands on her hips and his mouth to her ear. “So, are you going to come inside?”

  “That was going to be my question to you.”

  His soft laugh stirred the hair at her temple and all her good spots. Then he slid his arms around her and gave her a hug, and along with the lust came such a rush of affection that her heart hurt. She buried her face in his throat and held on tight. “Okay,” she said. “Maybe I’ll come in for a little while.”

  “Great idea. We could—”

  “Let loose?”

  “Anything you want,” he murmured, pulling back to look into her eyes. “I wanted to see you tonight.”

  Her breath caught. “You’re seeing me.”

  “Yeah. I am. I see you, Brooke. The real you.”

  “With lines like that, you’re awfully hard to resist.”

  “I’m trying to be.” Pushing the door shut, Zach kissed her and, turning them both, backed her to the door. This freed up his hands, which he used to cup her face, a touch that turned her on more than any other. “I needed this connection tonight.”

  “With me?”

  “Only with you.” He kissed her again, his mouth making its way over her jaw to her throat.

  “Zach?”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Zach.”

  “Right here.” His hands slipped beneath her shirt and her eyes crossed with lust.

  “I don’t have a condom this time. I forgot to put a new one in my purse.”

  He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out…

  “Three.” Her knees wobbled as she let out a shaky laugh. “Think we can use them all in one night?”

  “I have more in my nightstand.”

  “Oh,” she breathed, staring at him.

  At her expression, he let out a shaky laugh. “God, Brooke. I don’t know what the hell it is about you, but you always make me…”

  “What?” She needed to know. “I make you what?”

  “Well, it’s a bit of a problem.” He pressed against her, and she could feel that he did have a problem. A big one.

  “Oh my. I see.”

  “Do you?” His voice was a rough whisper against her ear. “Any ideas?”

  “Uh, well, I do have a few. You know, all in the name of assisting a friend in need.”

  Against her skin, he grinned. “Is that what you’re going to do, give me some assistance?”

  “I’m a giver, Zach.”

  He was still laughing when he kissed her this time, and so was she, but his tongue sliding against hers had all that good humor fading away. Pulling up his shirt, Brooke put her hands on his chest, his hard, warm chest, while he lifted her, sandwiching her between his body and the door, rocking into her, and at the sensation, she thunked her head back against the wood, a needy moan escaping her lips as his mouth latched on her neck.

  “Love that sound.”

  So she repeated it, and with a groan, he peeled off her shirt. Beneath she wore only a camisole. He slid the straps off her shoulders, then tugged it to her belly, exposing her breasts. “Look at you,” he whispered in awe, leaning in, running his tongue over a nipple then sucking it into his mouth.

  She found her fingers in his hair, and tightened her grip, arching up into his mouth. “Now, Zach. Please, now.”

  Now must have worked for him. He went directly to the button on her shorts while she yanked at his jeans. Somehow, he managed to tear open one of the condoms, and then with their clothes still half on and half off, he slid into her.

  Time slowed.

  Or stopped.

  Or something.

  It just felt so right, having him inside her, filling her. It was the only thing that made sense in her unsettled life, the only thing…and she didn’t want it to end.

  “Brooke.” That was all, just her name, as if he felt everything she did. Then he was kissing her, moving within her. Her vision burst into a kaleidoscope of colors, and her blood rushed through her head, roared in her ears. She barely heard herself cry out as she came, or the answering low, strained groan from him as he followed her over.

  Lifting his head, he slapped a hand on the door to keep them from hitting the floor. His eyes were dark and sexily sleepy as he looked into her face.

  “How was that for some letting go?” she asked, still breathless.

  His eyes were still scorching. “If I were to say it wasn’t quite enough…?”

  “I’d have no choice but to make use of those two other condoms you’re carrying.”

  “Because you’re a giver.”

  “That’s right.”

  They made it to his shower, where Zach smiled down at her in a way that said he was rough and ready, all tough sinew wrapped around enough testosterone to leave her weak in the knees.

  His hands were all over her, up and down her back, smoothing her wet hair from her face, skimming her breasts, her hips, her bottom, her thighs, between them…making her groan softly in his mouth, because yeah, his fingers knew her, knew exactly what to do to make her gasp. “Zach—”

  “God, you’re wet.”

  She managed a laugh, though it backed up in her throat when he slid a finger into her. “That’s because I’m in the shower.”

  He played that finger inside her, in and then out. “This isn’t from the shower.”

  Before she could respond, he dropped to his knees, pressed her back against the tiled wall and slid his hands up her thighs. “This is from me. You’re we