"The pleasure's all mine," she said.
"It was about to be," Brooks muttered.
Leah's jaw dropped and Brooks winked at her. Then he went back to glaring at Harrison.
"Kiersten was looking for you," Harrison said to Leah. "I believe she needs help with the guest of honor."
"Of course," Leah said, pulling away from Brooks. Only he wasn't ready to let her go yet. He kept a grip on her hand.
"Excuse us," he said to Harrison. He pulled Leah out of the tent, ignoring her little squeak of surprise. He led her far enough away that they were out of the circle of light, down near the shoreline where the waves lapped gently at the beach.
"Brooks, what-"
He cut off her words with his lips and thank Dionysus or Pan or whatever drunk, frolicking god the ancient Greeks had worshipped, she kissed him back. Good God, did she kiss him back. That delectable little mouth of hers opened beneath his and ravished him, inside and out. He couldn't suck enough air into his lungs, but there was no way in hell he was pulling away from her to breathe. Keeping his lips fused to hers was far more important than some measly need for oxygen.
She broke away first, her chest heaving, eyes wide. Before he could say a word, she wrapped her hands in his lapels and hauled him back to her, kissing him hard and fast. Then she gave him a playful push, grinned like a mischievous child, and ran back into the tent.
Brooks stood staring after her for so long he lost track of time, though it probably wasn't more than a few moments. The tent beckoned, warm light, good food, and the laughter of his friends spilling out into the night. He needed to get his head on straight, though, before he went near the public.
Before he managed to do that, Cole came and found him, staring at him with a furrowed forehead for a minute before finally asking, "What's up?"
Brooks still hadn't taken his eyes off the spot where Leah had disappeared. "Shhh," he said. "I'm having a Disney princess moment."
Cole's eyebrows hit his hairline. "Do I want to know what that means?"
"Probably not."
"You going to tell me anyway?"
Brooks opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, searching for the words to describe what had just happened. And failing. He sighed. "No one has ever kissed me like that before. No one. Ever."
Cole nodded his head, not speaking for a minute. For a brief, glorious moment, Brooks thought he might not get any shit from his friend. As usual, he was wrong.
"So, you talking the whole floating hearts and fireworks going off over your head or the leg-pop thing?" Cole turned sideways and lifted his leg in the perfect imitation of a thoroughly kissed damsel.
"Fuck off," Brooks said with a laugh.
Cole chuckled. "You started it with that Disney princess bullshit."
Brooks sighed. "Yeah. There might have been fireworks, though, but don't tell anyone. My rep would be totally ruined."
"Your secret is safe with me."
Cole watched him a minute longer, then asked, "Fireworks, huh?"
"Yup."
"What are you going to do about it?"
Brooks sighed. "Get blind fucking drunk until the urge to run after her and beg her to spend the rest of her life kissing me has passed."
Cole shrugged. "It might not be all that bad, you know."
For the first time in his life, Brooks agreed. And that thought sent a bolt of terror through him so strong it was all he could do not to jump in the water, swim back to his yacht, and head for the nearest uninhabited island. Brooks wasn't relationship material and he damn well knew it. Hell, he prided himself on it. Leah wasn't just regular relationship material either; she was going to be a mom. Even if he could change enough to be a decent boyfriend, no kid deserved to have him hanging around messing things up.
"She's better off without me," Brooks said, shoving the disappointed twinge those words caused back into the deep, dark box where it belonged.
Cole handed him the champagne flute in his hand. "Then I suppose we should go get you drunk."
Brooks downed the champagne in one gulp and followed Cole back into the tent. Although it was totally useless. There wasn't enough booze in the world to make him forget that kiss. Or the woman who'd given it to him.
Chapter Four
Leah pulled up to the curb in front of the school where she would be teaching. If you could call it a school. The place looked more like a castle someone had dropped on the outskirts of the city, complete with a ten-foot stone wall enclosing the campus.
It had always been her dream to teach at a school like this. All she could do was hope the consequences of the one night she'd decided to be totally crazy wouldn't derail all her plans. She needed the job now more than ever.
"No worries, little peanut," she muttered in the vague direction of her belly. "I'll take care of everything. Everything's going to work out fine."
She would make sure of it.
She sighed and shut off her car, taking a minute to check her phone to see if any messages had come through yet. Nothing from Marcus Cassidy, the man who still didn't know he was going to be a father. She didn't know what else to try. The only reason she knew his full name was because she'd seen his driver's license the night she'd been with him. They hadn't exchanged any info. That had been part of the whole tantalizing night, not knowing each other, keeping it a mystery. At the time, it had been exciting. Now … yeah, not so much.
Finding him on Facebook had been a miracle, but he had everything on his profile set to private. She couldn't see his friends list, any of his posts, nothing. All she could do was keep sending message requests and hope he answered one.
There were no messages from the other man either. Brooks. The goofball prince with more money than God, and more charm than anyone had the right to have, who had kissed her senseless and then disappeared from her life, which was for the best, she knew. The last thing she needed was another complication-and Brooks had complication written all over him.
Still, it was an ego blow to have him pursue her all over the Mediterranean only to drop her like a toad that had peed on his hand the second she gave in. She'd known kissing him was a mistake; she hadn't been able to help herself. And for her, it had been amazing. Beyond amazing. It had been weeks and she still thought about it every damn day and dreamed about it most nights, too. Apparently, he hadn't felt the same way. Maybe she'd had bad breath. Or that last kiss before she'd run off had been too forward. Or running off had given him the wrong impression, even though he'd known she had to go.
"Or maybe I'm way overthinking something that doesn't matter," she said, climbing out of the car before she could get derailed on any more trains of thought.
The campus was quiet this time of day, especially since school hadn't yet begun for the year. She wasn't too concerned about parking against the curb. It wouldn't take her too long to unload and there weren't many people around anyway. A parking lot sat a few feet away, but she had some boxes to haul and every foot closer she could get to her quarters, the better.
Three trips later and she wished she'd driven her damn car right up to her door. She dropped the boxes in her arms onto the counter of her small kitchen and took a second to breathe. Just a few more left. Though, unfortunately, they were the heavy ones. Mostly books, far too many books. She was cheerfully addicted to reading, but even she had to admit it made moving difficult, at least without a few strong men to haul the boxes around.
She took a deep breath and headed back out. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could plop down on the couch with a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and veg out to a chick flick or two.
Leah went back through the old corridor that led to the parking lot. She loved the architecture of this place. It made her feel like she lived in an old monastery or something. Though the building was nowhere near as old as those in Europe, the stone walls and landscaped courtyards still embodied the atmosphere of ancient beauty. What an incredible place to raise her baby.
If they let her keep her job.
The familiar thrum of panic rolled through her system. She couldn't lose this job. She had nowhere to go, no money saved up aside from what Kiersten had insisted on paying her for her help that weekend. Which had been unnecessary and far too generous, but she had to admit, it eased a little of her stress to have something in the bank. She'd have to hope that the headmistress took pity on her. She was a good teacher. Maybe she could make herself so indispensable, her pregnancy wouldn't matter.
She walked through the arched gate in the wall and stopped short. Brooks had pulled up behind her car and stood leaning against it, waiting for her.
"Hey!" he called, one of those heart-tripping smiles he excelled at spreading across his lips.