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and be back. Probably take twenty minutes, half an hour.”
    “Later, do you have to get back to your kids?” I asked and his eyes came to me as he buttoned up his shirt.
    “They’re with their mother this weekend.”
    Lucky, lucky me.
    “So is that a no?” I asked quietly and hopefully.
    “Is that an invitation to spend the night?” he asked back, not quietly.
    “Yes,” I answered, also not quietly.
    He finished with his buttons, his hands went to his hips but his eyes didn’t leave me.
    Then it was Mike talking quietly when he stated, “While I’m gone, honey, I need you to think. I came in here bein’ a dick, out of line and I wound you up. You’ve lost Darrin and I know you’re in pain. But what you said earlier, I’ll tell you now, I agree. About two seconds into that kiss, it became somethin’ different for me. Pleased as fuck to hear you felt the same.” He grinned a gentle grin before he went on, “Now, I’m glad you liked what we had in that bed, because, bottom line, I liked it too and when I say that, Angel, I liked it too. And I can walk away after pizza happy I gave you that in the middle of a shitty time for you. But, before I get back, you gotta think about if what you said is true. If this is about working through your pain with me, I gave what I’m gonna give to that. If this is about something else, then I’ll be spending the night.”
    “You really don’t beat around the bush, do you?” I whispered, liking that too.
    A whole lot.
    “Got two kids, a bitch of an ex-wife who made my life a misery and went through somethin’ which meant I lost my shot at a good thing that would make me happy. Since I had a taste of a good thing, I know what I’m lookin’ for. And since I lost that, I’m not a man prone to dickin’ around. Not anymore.”
    There it was. He didn’t beat around the bush.
    Yep, I liked that.
    A whole lot.
    “I’ll search my feelings while you’re gone, Mike,” I told him softly.
    That was when he walked to the bed, reached out, grasped my hips and pulled me toward him. When he had me where he wanted me, he put a hand in the bed on either side of my hips and leaned in so his face was an inch away from mine.
    Then, softly back, he said, “I’d appreciate that, Dusty.”
    All that was hot. Every word he’d said. Every move he’d made.
    And that had nothing to do with me working through pain.
    Not one thing.
    It was just hot.
    “Now,” he ordered, “kiss me.”
    That was hot too so I leaned up and pressed my mouth to his.
    His arm sliced around my back and pulled me up harder so my body was pressed to his and he took my lip touch straight to a hard, deep, wet kiss.
      I liked that a whole lot more.
    “Be back, no later than thirty,” he whispered against my lips when he stopped kissing me.
    I gave a slight nod in the space he allowed and tried to regulate my breathing.
    I watched his eyes smile.
    Then he set me in bed, let me go, sat on the side of the bed and dealt with his socks and shoes.
    “Keycard, nightstand,” I told him when he stood. He looked down at me. Not done giving me Mike Lovin’, he wrapped a hand around the back of my head, leaned in and touched his mouth to mine.
    Then he let me go again, stretched out an arm and nabbed his phone. Then he reached down, grabbed his suit jacket and I watched him move to the nightstand, tag the keycard then I watched him lift a hand, flick out two fingers and shoot me a grin before he left the room.
    The door had just closed behind him when I dropped to my back and stared at the ceiling.
    Moments passed before, my eyes on the ceiling, I asked my brother, “Happy?”
    Darrin didn’t reply but I knew my brother. No way in hell he’d want to leave the wife he loved, the boys who meant the world to him, a father who he respected and taught him how to be a man, the mother who doted on him and taught him how to love or the sisters who worked his nerves but he loved all the same.
    Still, I figured, once he