“Do you think she needs to go to a doctor or the police?”

“She’ll refuse to see either.”

He nodded. “Okay, then why don’t we get her somewhere she can rest and sleep it off?”

Brynn sighed and stood. She gave her mother’s shoulder a soft squeeze. “Ma, I’m going to help you get up and walk to your bedroom, okay?”

Her mother reached up and patted Brynn’s hand. “Thanks, baby.”

Reid went around the opposite side from Brynn and gently grabbed her mother’s upper arm to help her to her feet. She stumbled a bit, but managed to stand with their assistance. With slow, steady steps they led her out of the kitchen and down the narrow hallway. Brynn bumped open one of the doors with her elbow.

The room was barely bigger than the closet in Reid’s own bedroom and looked way too neat to belong to a woman who was clearly out of control. He wondered if Brynn had led him to her own bedroom to protect herself from more embarrassment.

Brynn pulled back the sheets, and the two of them helped her mother to sit on the edge of the bed. She bent down and slipped off her mom’s heels, then placed them on a rack in the closet. Reid frowned. This wasn’t Brynn’s room, but apparently she played maid to her mother along with everything else.

“Who the hell are you?” said a slurred voice.

Reid turned to see her mother squinting at him with her uninjured eye.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Your daughter’s boyfriend.”

She snorted. “Right.”

Brynn hurried to her mother’s side and shot him a withering look. “Come on, Ma, let’s get you into your nightgown.”

“He’ll only break your heart,” she said. “Cheating bastards—all of ’em. Believe you me. They all do it eventually. I’d be broke otherwise.”

“You are broke,” Brynn muttered, and glanced at Reid. “I’m going to get her changed. I’ll be out in a minute.”

He nodded and stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. As he made his way back to the living room, his heart broke for the girl who had quickly become the sole focus of his days. No wonder she didn’t have time for a burger. She was taking care of everyone around her. He sank into the well-worn couch and ran a hand over his face.

After his last date with Brynn, he’d thought she might be the girl he could share his secret with, but now he knew he had to keep his lips sewn shut. The last thing she needed was to hear about his sordid fantasies. Her opinion of men had already been warped enough.

No, what Brynn needed was a hero—a guy who would treat her with the respect no one showed her mother. The only question was, did he have enough self-control to be that guy?

Brynn clicked her mother’s door shut and took a moment to gather herself before facing Reid. She didn’t want to discuss what had happened, but she couldn’t just kick the guy out with no explanation after he’d been decent enough to help. She smoothed the creases in her black pants, straightened her shoulders, and walked toward the living room.

Reid was sitting forward on the couch, forearms on knees, and his mouth in a grim line. His black tailored shirt and expensive jeans looked out of place against the faded flower pattern of their secondhand furniture. He looked up when she sank into the love seat. “Got her in bed okay?”

Brynn kicked off her heels and tucked her legs beneath her. “Yeah, she’s already out. Thanks for helping me get her to her room. I’m beyond embarrassed that you saw all of this.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s fine.”

She scoffed, the sound holding no humor. “Fine? Yeah, I’m sure this is exactly how you spend your evenings—cleaning up an alcoholic after one of her dates decides she didn’t do enough to earn her money.”

Deep frown lines etched his face. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Why did you tell her you were my boyfriend?”

He shrugged. “It just came out. I guess it’s because I’d like to be.”

Brynn groaned. “You must be a masochist. Look around, Reid. This is my life. I’m not like the other girls at the office. I have a lot going on and hopefully am leaving for college in a few months.”

His brows dipped. “Leaving?”

“I told you that on our first date.”

“I know, but how are you going to do that with all that’s going on here?”

She shrugged. “That’s why I’m busting my ass with overtime at work. I’m going to get an apartment and take Kelsey with me—file for guardianship.”

He blew out a breath. “Wow.”

“Yeah, see what I mean? You need to go find some chick like Molly or Krista who can go and do all the fun things people our age are supposed to be doing. I’m not that girl.”

“Oh, right, ’cause those airheads at the office are awesome.”

“No, I’m serious. I mean, look, one evening with me and I bet I’ve completely messed up your plans. Isn’t Thursday college night at all the bars?”

“Come ’ere,” he said, motioning for her. Reluctantly, she rose and stepped closer to him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down to his lap before she could protest. “I don’t want some chick. I want you. Get over it.”

She sighed. The thought of having Reid, of affording herself that little luxury for a few months, was so tempting. But their worlds existed on different orbits. “I like you, Reid. I just don’t know how anything between us could work. You have political mixers and frat parties, I have a household to run and now, apparently, crime scene cleanup. There’s no way—”

“Shh,” he said, smoothing her hair. “Stop overanalyzing everything. Don’t you ever shut off that busy brain and let yourself feel what you feel?”

“No.”

He laughed. “What about that night in my truck? You seemed like you were able to let go a bit. Weren’t you acting on feelings then?”

She smirked. “Well, yeah. I don’t get half-naked for guys as a personal hobby. Of course I felt something.”

“So what was different?”

She thought back to that night—the confident way he had touched her, the dirty talk, the way his kiss had made her senseless. She shifted in his lap, suddenly very aware of how close they were, and dropped her focus to her hands. “I don’t know. You took control, I guess. I didn’t have to make any decisions for a change, and it was kind of a relief.”

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face toward him. “So why don’t we try that again? You stop worrying, we’ll order pizza and hang out tonight. You won’t have to decide on anything except meat lovers or vegetarian. Although, if you pick vegetarian, I may rethink this whole wanting to be your boyfriend thing.”

“No, I’m sure you had plans tonight. I don’t need a pity parade.”

He curled a lock of her hair around his finger. “This isn’t about pity. I want to be with you and it’s you who keeps coming up with excuses to get rid of me. I’m going to develop a complex.”

“Uh-huh. You look crushed.”

“I am. Shattered, really. So to help me recover, you’re going to get on that phone and order us a pizza. Then we’re going to relax, forget the previous few hours, and watch some horrible made-for-TV movie.”

She laughed, unable to maintain her foul mood around him. “So now I’m the pizza wench?”

He pointed at the phone sitting on the side table. “Yes, woman. I’m wasting away here.”

She rolled her eyes, but climbed off his lap and grabbed the phone.

Two hours and an entire pizza later, Brynn curled into the crook of Reid’s arm, feeling more content than she had in a long time. Despite the crazy evening, cuddling with six feet of yummy male made it hard to hold on to stress. And the more time she spent with him, the more her resistance to trying something with him crumbled.

Yes, they were far apart in the social stratosphere, but did that mean they couldn’t enjoy each other’s company for a little while? She’d hopefully leave for Austin at the end of the summer, he’d return to law school. With all that she had to deal with, a summer fling could be the one treat she allowed herself.

She craned her neck to look up at Reid. “So is this, like, your pitch to date me?”

He gave a low chuckle. “Only if it’s working.”

She sniffed. “You’re doing an okay job, I guess. It’s a very extensive interview process, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, really? What areas do I need to work on?”

She chewed her lip, then decided if she was going to go for it with Reid, she may as well do it with gusto. She scooted from under his arm and shifted around so she could straddle his lap, earning a raised eyebrow from him. “Well, you haven’t even tried to kiss me tonight.”

The playful expression on his face dissolved. “I know. I’m trying to make up for the mistakes I made on our first date.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

He sighed and rubbed her upper arms. “I took things too fast, and I should’ve never talked to you the way I did. I don’t know what I was thinking. I got caught up in the moment.”

The corner of her mouth tilted up. “I wasn’t exactly stopping you. I think we both lost our heads a bit.”

He pushed her hair back over her shoulders. “Why don’t we start over? Take things slower?”

A small twinge of disappointment gnawed at her belly. Yes, she had let things go too far that night, but part of her had enjoyed the rawness of it, the abandon. She nodded. “Sounds like a plan. As long as kissing is still part of the agenda.”

“Oh, definitely. Item number one, in fact.”

He curled his palm around the nape of her neck, drawing her closer, then brushed his mouth against hers. The move was sweet, a simple whisper of his lips against hers, but her body shuddered in response. She’d spent so much time the last few weeks keeping a careful distance from him and trying to forget the night in his truck that even the minute contact sent her nerve endings alight.

His fingers threaded in her hair, gently tugging her head back, allowing him access to her neck. The tender force behind the movement caused an odd thrill to rush through her. They had agreed they both wanted to take things slow, but the tension in his grasp made her think he was fighting the urge to charge forward. He kissed the tender skin behind her ear, then her jawline, leaving goose bumps trailing along her skin. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she relished the delicious decadence of his touch. By the time his mouth found its way back to hers, her whole body had flushed with heat.

His hands moved down to her waist, then braced against the tops of her legs, his thumbs making circles on her inner thighs while his tongue explored her mouth. His fingers bit into the soft flesh of her legs through the cotton of her pants. Unraveling restraint, that’s what it felt like. Like he was riding the edge of his control and if she made one wrong move, he was going to throw her down on the coffee table and rip off her clothes—an idea that frankly sounded all kinds of enticing at the moment.

Even though she told herself they were simply going to kiss, her body refused to believe it. Slick moisture flooded her sex and desire, sharp and wicked, clouded her thoughts. Unconsciously, she spread her legs wider, and Reid’s growing erection brushed against her. A low murmur of pleasure escaped her, but was quickly swallowed by his kiss.

Reid pulled back, his breathing heavy. “God, I can’t even kiss you.”

She blinked at the sudden break in contact. “What do you mean?”

He tilted his head back and raked his hands through his hair. “I think you know.”

She moved her hand to his crotch, his cock as hard as steel against the denim of his jeans. She ran her nails along the scratchy material, loving the fact that she could turn him on so quickly. “It’s okay. Apparently, we’re not so good at slow and easy.”