Brett was prepared to rip the damn thing out of his truck right then and there, but then he remembered that she’d just been on a date with another man. Damn it. Talk about a mood killer.

He was so confused that he didn’t know what to do. He thought she had moved on with her life and gotten over him. After all, in the past few days, she’d refused his help, told him they were just friends, and gone out with another guy. What else was he supposed to think? Yet now she was kissing him and trying to take off his clothes.

She almost had his belt completely unbuckled, and he knew that if her hand went anywhere inside his pants, it was all over. There was no way he could—or would—stop things at that point.

He put his hand on top of hers and pulled his mouth back slightly. “Sid, wait.”

“Why? Do you want to get into the backseat first?”

Holy hell. He closed his eyes. Be strong, man. You can do this.

“No. I think we need to talk first.”

She trailed her tongue over his lips. “No, we don’t. Let’s not ruin anything by talking.”

He licked his lips, tasting her on them. “I’m serious, Sid. What is this?”

“It’s called sex,” she said, blowing out an aggravated breath. “But I’m pretty sure you already knew that.”

“Look, things have changed between us, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I think we should slow this down before that happens.”

The stunned look on her face made him feel bad, but she hadn’t said anything about them getting back together, and the last thing he wanted was a meaningless one-night stand with her. Sidney had never been that kind of woman, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to treat her that way.

Yeah, he’d slept with her before. Sure, he would probably kick himself in the ass later for not allowing himself to have her. But she’d just been out with another man, for goodness’ sake. So at this point, he needed to make sure she was all in. Because he definitely was.

He’d lost her once and didn’t want that to happen again. If that meant taking things slow and showing her that she could trust him to be the man she needed—the only one she needed—then that was exactly what he was going to do.

He gave her an encouraging smile. “Why don’t we go out to dinner tomorrow night so we can spend some time together? It’s been a while since we did that.”

“Uh, okay. I guess so.”

Brett nodded. “Great. I’ll pick the place.”

Because it was going to have to be somewhere public where he wouldn’t be tempted to rip her damn clothes off and slide her under him.

*  *  *