Samuel had told her he’d be faxing some paperwork for her to sign. Week after next, she’d have to make a final decision.

Elisa glanced at Tyler as she pulled her car in the parking lot of the Golden Glove. “Do you have a favorite dish here?” The boy had been quiet as usual.

“I usually get chicken fingers and fries. Mom and I used to come here when her and my dad were still married.”

“Your mom doesn’t come here anymore?”

Tyler shifted in his seat and placed a hand on the door handle as Elisa cut the car engine. “Sometimes she and Colin come.”

“Does your mom ever bring you to have a meal with your dad?” Maybe that’s what was missing between father and son, some quality time together.

“Not lately.”

The two of them got out of the car and Elisa let the subject drop. She made sure to grab the proof sheets to show Brody. The afternoon sun beat down on them mercilessly, and with each step she took her stomach dipped lower. When had she ever been so nervous to see a man? She thought of his smoky gray eyes and how they always seemed to touch every part of her. Knots formed in her already-quivering midsection.

They approached the double doors, and Tyler opened one for her.

“What a gentleman. Thank you.”

He graced her with a shy grin and walked in behind her.

Elisa glanced around her and thought for a moment she’d walked into the wrong restaurant. Almost every table was full with people enjoying meals and sharing conversations. Servers bounced from one table to the next, taking orders and refilling drinks.

“Wow, look at this place,” Tyler said next to her.

“I’ll say,” Elisa replied. She’d never seen the Golden Glove so busy. Had word of their new good food finally reached people?

“What’re you two doing here?”

Elisa just about jumped out of her sandals when Brody appeared next to them. His spicy scent surrounded her in a haze of masculinity. And did he always have to look so scrumptious?

“Tyler was hungry and I needed to get out of the house,” she said while trying not to let her eyes drop below his face. “Plus, I have these.” She held up the white envelope for him to see.

“I’ve been looking forward to seeing them,” Brody replied while rubbing his hands together, then accepted the envelope from her. “And I told Anthony he could see them. Then maybe he’d be convinced about how good he really is.”

“Is he still doubting himself?” How could someone with talent like Anthony’s ever doubt himself? Someone needed to smack some sense into that man.

“He’s getting better. Still a long way to go, though.” Brody reached his arm out and wrapped his son in a bear hug. He dug his knuckles into Tyler’s scalp, prompting a groan from the boy.

“Dad,” Tyler complained after freeing himself.

“So, the two of you are hungry?” he asked with a smile still lighting up his handsome face.

“I’m starving,” Tyler announced. “I want a hamburger.”

“I think I can get one of those for you.” Brody winked at Elisa, then placed his hand on her lower back and led them to an empty table. The spot where his hand lingered burned and set her whole body on alert. Zings of excitement shot through her.

Tyler scooted to the end of the booth and Brody settled next to him.

“Looks like things are taking off in here,” Elisa commented after picking up her menu.

“It’s certainly better numbers than we’ve had. But I’m not ready to count my chickens before they hatch.”

Elisa glanced at him over her menu. His midnight black hair was combed to perfection and a smile played at his delicious lips. She tried to focus on her selections while he and Tyler chatted about the boy’s day at school. This was the most she’d seen the two of them speak to each other. Almost from the moment of seeing the two of them together, Elisa sensed a broken connection between them, as though something had been lost. But beneath Tyler’s reserved demeanor was a hero worship for Brody. Elisa felt it whenever she was around them.

The server came by and she and Tyler ordered a meal.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked Brody.

His mouth tilted in a devilish grin. “Anthony set me up with a good lunch.”

“Dad, Elisa’s taking me out to take more pictures,” Tyler said.

“I told him we could go out one day next week if he wanted,” she told Brody.

Brody turned his attention to Tyler. “You really like taking those pictures, huh?”

When Tyler smiled, he was the spitting image of his father. “I like the developing process the best. Watching the picture appear on the paper is really cool.” The kid gasped, as though he’d just been struck by a brilliant idea, and bounced in his seat. “Hey, you could teach my dad how to do it.” Tyler pinned eyes on his father. “Dad, it’s so awesome. You put the paper in this chemical stuff, then use this sponge thingy and your picture just, like, appears. It’s like magic.”

“Magic, huh?” Brody responded with a half smile.

Elisa’s heart flipped over in her chest. Stupid heart. “Tyler could teach you,” she said lamely. “He’d probably be a better teacher than me.”

Tyler shook his head and wiggled in the booth. “Nuh uh. You were a really good teacher to me. And you do it so much better.”

Brody’s clear gaze burned into hers like a couple of heat-seeking missiles. Unspoken but potent tension sizzled between the two of them. The kind of tension that could scorch the clothes right off her back. Not that she’d complain.

“I think I’d rather you teach me anyway,” he said in a husky voice. Then, as though to mask the undertones of his words, he nudged his son’s shoulder. “Besides, this one is a lousy teacher.”

Tyler’s eyes lifted to the ceiling like the preteen he was. “He’s talking about the time I taught him how to play spoons. He can never beat me because I have better reflexes. But he thinks it’s because I’m a bad teacher.”

“It is,” Brody insisted with a narrow-eyed look at the boy.

Elisa bit back a laugh. “Maybe you just can’t handle losing to a kid.”

Tyler nodded, but Brody turned his accusing stare toward her. Only the look he gave her wasn’t the same as the one he gave his son. No, the look he’d given Tyler hadn’t held all sorts of wicked promises and silent dares. But what exactly was he daring her to do? Keep pushing him? Would he push back?

“I think that’s it,” she said to Tyler while keeping her attention on the addictive man sitting across from her. Yeah, it was definitely fun to push him. With each push, his gaze grew darker and her breath came shorter in her lungs.

“I bet I could teach you a game or two,” he practically growled.

“Such as?” she wanted to know.

Tyler looked up at his dad with a furrowed brow. “Yeah, what games to do you know?”

“More than you think,” he answered.

“Okay, but games you make up don’t count.”

This time Elisa did laugh, which earned her a satisfied smile from Tyler and a thunderous look from Brody. Thunderous yet… sexy. Interesting. And fun.

“Something tells me Elisa would like my games,” he muttered.

She shifted in the booth, trying to extinguish the burning in between her thighs. “Only if you let me win. I’m a sore loser.”

His mouth curled up in a devious smile. “These aren’t those type of games. You see, these are more about endurance and stamina. There’s no stopping until everyone’s finished.”

Lord. Have. Mercy.

The man was sneaky and underhanded.

Don’t forget sexy. And mouthwatering.

“I’ve never heard of games like that, Dad,” Tyler said, completely unaware of the weird innuendos and code-talk going on.

“Oh, they’re real,” Brody answered just as his attention dropped down to Elisa’s mouth.

How wrong and sick was it for her to be turned on in front of an eleven-year-old?

Brody’s arm stretched along the back of the booth and then he ruffled Tyler’s hair. “Is everything okay?” he asked Elisa when she’d been silent a moment.

No, everything wasn’t okay. She was falling in love with the man sitting across from her. She was so incredibly turned on that she was about to dump her glass of water over her head. She missed her brother like crazy, and now she had a potential legal mess on her hands.

“I just found out today that an online magazine I sold some pictures to several years ago has been illegally selling my photos to other websites and even magazines.” There, she got it all out. The whole strange scenario still didn’t feel real to her. She’d trusted those people, and they’d essentially been defrauding her for the past couple of years. Since letting her contract with them lapse, she’d been eating through the money she’d made during her modeling years. As it stood, she only had enough to live off for the next few months. Had they been honest with her, she could have been making extra income this entire time.

Brody’s dark brows tugged together. “What do you mean ‘illegally’? Like they’ve been doing it without your knowledge, or something?”

“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. But, basically yes.”

“How’d they manage to do that?”

Elisa glanced at Tyler, who’d pulled his cell phone out and was texting. “About three years ago, I sold about a dozen pictures to them. The agreement I entered into with them gave them one-time use of the photos, for which they paid me a fee. The agreement said that if they wanted to use the photos more than once, they would need to pay me an extra fee. But since I hold the rights to all my own photos, they legally can’t distribute them for monetary gain.”

Brody’s eyebrows pinched in confusion. “So, if they wanted to use your photos again, they’d pay you another fee and be able to use them themselves? What if they sold them and gave you a cut of the money?”