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She broke away from the kiss, panting. “Wait. Stop.”
Pike blinked, his eyes as lust-drunk and hazy as hers probably were. “What’s wrong?”
She shimmied out of his hold. “We can’t. My job.”
Full sentences wouldn’t come to her, but he got the message. Awareness came back into his eyes, and he jerked back. He glanced toward the door and ran a hand over his face. “Shit. That—it wasn’t supposed to—”
She smoothed her shirt, her hands shaking, and bent down to swipe her keys out of the puddle they’d fallen into. “It’s okay. I—that was my fault. I need to go.”
“Oakley.”
“Get back to the kids. I’ll see you in a few.”
Pike frowned but didn’t make a move to stop her. “Right. Yeah. The kids.”
“Great.” She climbed in her car and didn’t take a breath until he’d headed back inside. When the door shut behind him, she rested her head against the steering wheel and screamed in frustration.
Her lips were tingling, her body pulsing, and her brain blitzed. What the hell was she doing?
Of all the impulsive, stupid, ill-advised things …
And she couldn’t even blame Pike. She’d kissed him!
The move had been hers. She’d been a minute away from finding a way to get it on in the parking lot. She was no better than one of his groupies looking for a quickie backstage.
She stabbed the key into the ignition and turned it. She had twenty minutes to get herself back together.
Twenty minutes.
It would never be enough.
FIFTEEN
Pike had to look twice when Oakley came back into the music room because at first he’d mistaken her for another teenager. She had her hair pulled into a haphazard knot and wore a Bluebonnet Place T-shirt and gym shorts, her long legs bared. Damn. All that skin conjured some really inappropriate thoughts.
He dragged his gaze back up to her face and frowned when he noticed how drawn she looked. Pissed, he’d been expecting. The kiss in the parking lot had freaked her out. Shit, it’d freaked him out—how easily he’d lost control, how quickly it had gotten out of hand. How much he’d wanted to take her over and carry her off. But he hadn’t expected her to look so downtrodden.
He got up from the circle he’d been sitting in with the kids and walked over to her. “Everything all right, mama?”
“Don’t call me that here.”
He lifted a brow. Not here. But maybe somewhere else. Good to know. “You were gone awhile. We’re about to wrap up.”
“Sorry.” She sighed and flicked a stray hair away from her face. “My street is flooded. They’ve blocked the roads.”
“Shit.”
“The cops told me all the houses on the street are fine. But they’re not letting anyone through because there are a few downed power lines close by and they have to secure the area.” She spread her hands out. “Hence the makeshift outfit. Tessa had to lend me clothes.”
“Damn. Did they tell you when you could go back?”
“Probably not tonight. And even if I could, the lack of electricity would freak Reagan out too much.”
“You’ve got somewhere to go?”
“My brother’s. But he’s hosting business associates for dinner tonight and I don’t want to interrupt. He’ll probably be done by nine.”
Pike glanced over at Reagan, who had finally joined the group in the last half hour. He’d been happy to have her back in the circle, but her normal spark definitely wasn’t there. “How’s Reagan going to deal with all that?”
