Unfortunately, tonight was just that. Just this one night. Because a man like Flynn could be habit forming. She’d fallen down that rabbit hole once before, and she’d never allow that to happen again.

   She gently extricated her foot from his grip. “It’s probably a good idea for you to take me home.”

   He gave her a quizzical look. “You don’t want to stay tonight?”

   She wanted to. And that was the problem. She shook her head and slid off the bed to stand.

   “I have a lot of things to do tomorrow. Early.”

   He got up and came over to where she stood, sliding his arms around her. “I get up pretty early.”

   His body was warm and she was tempted to turn around and curl into him, let him coax her back into his big bed.

   But he was dangerous to her mind and her body, and most especially her heart. So she stepped away, turned around and smiled at him. “I had fun tonight. But no. I need to get home.”

   Fortunately, he read her signals and nodded. “Sure. I’ll throw on some clothes and drive you home.”

   She got dressed and grabbed her things. They got into his SUV and he drove her the short distance to her house. When he got out and walked her to her door, for a split second she thought about inviting him in. But that would defeat the purpose of putting an end to their night together.

   She pulled her keys out of her purse, unlocked the door then turned to him. “Tonight was amazing.”

   He pulled her against him. “I thought so, too. I’ll see you soon.”

   Before she could walk inside, he tugged her close and kissed her. She fell into the kiss, making her wish they were still naked and in his bed.

   One time with Flynn was definitely not enough. Her body curved into his and wanted more. So much more. She finally had to break the kiss with her heart and pulse pounding and everything within her trembling with desire.

   “Good night, Flynn.”

   He smiled in that devastating way she could only describe as lethally sexy. “Night, Amelia.”

   She waited while he walked down the steps and got into his SUV. Since he didn’t drive away, she assumed he was waiting for her to get safely inside. Because he was a gentleman, of course. So she went inside and shut and locked the door.

   Then exhaled, because she was still pent up and turned on from his kiss and all that body contact on her doorstep.

   She tossed her bag on the sofa, shrugged out of her sweater, then went into the kitchen and poured herself a tall glass of wine. She picked up her phone and looked at the time.

   It was one in the morning, too late to call Laura so she could talk to her best friend about tonight, which left her alone to dissect her own thoughts.

   She took the wine into the bedroom and laid it on the nightstand. She stripped and climbed into bed.

   She wasn’t remotely tired, so she grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, surfing until she found a movie to watch. She sipped her wine, feeling a hundred times stupid for asking Flynn to take her home.

   She actually had nothing to do early tomorrow, she’d just gotten scared listening to him talk about finding his forever woman. She knew that wasn’t her, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t have some fun together in the interim.

   So now she was alone in her bed watching an old romance movie on TV where the characters were getting a lot more action than she was right now instead of getting some real-life action with the hottest man she’d ever been with.

   She lifted the wineglass and stared at the contents. “Dumbass move, Amelia.”

 

 

TEN

 

   Flynn had a whirlwind week of practices and meetings. Then he’d had to leave town for a Thursday-night road game against Dallas, so he’d barely had time to breathe.

   At least they’d won their game, and winning on the road was always tough. But he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Amelia after their time together, and he’d wanted to do that in person. He wasn’t much of a texting guy—not with women he was sleeping with. He’d called her to tell her he was going to be out of town all week, and he wanted to see her this weekend. She said she and her friend Laura had planned a girl’s weekend to the wine country.

   He remembered her mentioning that when the restaurant had first opened, that she’d need time off for this event. He told her he’d talk to her next week.

   But right now he felt unsettled, as if that great night they’d had together was unfinished. He wanted to see Amelia. But his sister was flying in this week, and that would put a crimp in his plans.

   After practice and the team meeting on Tuesday, Flynn stopped at the restaurant early to take care of some business with Ken, then headed home and cleaned the house. He had a woman who cleaned for him once a week, but he still picked up the kitchen, ran the vacuum, made sure there were extra towels in the guesthouse and stocked the mini fridge for his sister. After, he took a shower and checked his phone. Mia’s flight had touched down about thirty minutes ago. She’d texted him and told him she was on her way to get her rental car and she should be at his house within the hour.

   Since it was before rush hour, she shouldn’t have too much trouble with traffic.

   He’d texted his mom to tell her Mia was on the way. She texted back and asked that Mia call her when she got to the house.

   His sister might be an adult now, but she was still Mom’s baby and Flynn knew it.

   He was glad he had a home game this weekend since Mia was in town. Even better, it was the game against St. Louis, which meant she’d get to watch the game where he’d beat up on Grant. He grinned as he thought about it. He’d get to spend extra time with her, and she could come to the restaurant and to the game.

   He was in the kitchen fixing some snacks when he heard a car pull into the driveway. He washed and dried his hands and headed outside. Mia was pulling her luggage out of the trunk of the rental car. She looked up at him and grinned.

   “Hey,” she said.

   “Hey yourself.” He went over to her and folded her into his arms.

   She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s really good to be here.” She stepped back. “You look good. Been working out?”

   He laughed. “Nah, just beating up on guys on Sundays.”

   “It seems to be working for you.”

   “You look good, too. And you cut your hair.”

   She swept her chin-length brown hair behind her ears. “It was getting in my way a lot so it’s more functional this way.”

   He grabbed her luggage and they headed into the house. “You’re still gorgeous.”

   “Thanks.”

   His sister was beautiful, even more so now that she had cut her long hair. She had the kind of face that made people stop and look twice. It was heart shaped, and she had the sharpest blue eyes in the entire Cassidy family. The fact that she was also the smartest Cassidy didn’t hurt, either.