Free Red-Hot Texas Nights by Kimberly Raye

brownies or cookies to earn a little side cash, she’d been a different person.
    Brandy could still remember her mother talking about her childhood as she rolled out a piecrust or whipped up a chocolate ganache. About how she’d wanted so desperately to be the next Betty Crocker. Childish dreams, she’d said, but Brandy hadn’t missed the light in the woman’s eyes. The longing.
    As if Mary Elizabeth wasn’t quite as happy as she professed to be. As if she’d missed out.
    Made the wrong decision.
    While Brandy knew her mother would never have traded her husband and three daughters for a career, she’d known that the woman had still wondered what life might have been like if she’d followed through with her passion. If she hadn’t met and married so young and started having babies right out of the gate.
    If she hadn’t traded her love of baking for that of a good man.
    Brandy wouldn’t make the same mistake. She intended to find out just how far she could go before she settled down. If she settled down. She didn’t want to have unanswered questions years from now. Or regret.
    She wanted to make herself happy now before she felt obliged to make someone else happy.
    An image stirred and she saw Tyler McCall wearing nothing but hard, ripped muscles and a sizable erection. She remembered the heat in his eyes and the wicked slant to his mouth and the pleasure gleaming in his eyes.
    She shifted on the seat and reached for the chocolate shake in the cup holder. She usually steered clear of sweets when she was off duty. She did enough tasting during the day to keep an extra five pounds on each hip. She wasn’t about to indulge after hours and make that ten.
    But for some reason, she hadn’t been able to help herself tonight. Her stomach grumbled and a craving ate away inside of her.
    Because of him.
    Because last night hadn’t been nearly enough after two long years on the wagon. It wasn’t as if she could go around boffing every guy in town. And risk one of them getting hooked on her? Or worse, her getting hooked on him? Someone she would have to see day in, day out. That would just complicate things and distract her from what was really important.
    No, that’s why she kept things going with Tyler. She didn’t have to worry about him hanging around, distracting her, tempting her. He was here today, gone tomorrow, and that made him the perfect sex buddy.
    Sex, and nothing but sex.
    She stuffed her straw into her thick drink. A few sips and she gave up the effort and pulled off the lid. Dipping the straw into the dense chocolate, she scooped a mouthful and closed her eyes as the cold, creamy concoction hit her tongue.
    Rich. Sweet. Ahhh …
    A groan slid past her lips and she went back for another scoop.
    â€œGot a bite for me?” The deep, masculine voice sent a bolt of shock through her. Her head snapped up and just like that, she found herself staring into Mr. Sex Buddy’s familiar aqua-blue eyes.

 
    CHAPTER 10
    â€œI, um…” Brandy scrambled for her voice. Her hand trembled and the shake sloshed. A glob of chocolate dove over the side and slid down the cup, covering her fingers in sticky goodness. “You scared the daylights out of me.” She reached for a napkin and tried to calm the sudden jolt of her heart.
    What the hell was wrong with her? She’d slept with the man, for Pete’s sake, yet here she was acting like a nervous schoolgirl because he was talking to her.
    But then that was the point entirely.
    They didn’t talk. They didn’t socialize. There was no going to the movies or kicking up dust at the local saloon. No running into each other and gabbing like old friends. No picnics or lunches at the Dairy Freeze.
    They hooked up and while they might exchange a few choice words in the heat of the moment, it was all about the sex.
    This … This was different.
    This was out in the open for the