Hey

Just wanted to thank you all for the reviews, it's great to know people are enjoying it so please keep them coming.

The usual thanks to Jenna for helping me, she is an absolute star :) And also thank you to Laura for working through some ideas with me.

On with the chapter...

"I want to kiss you" Brooke unexpectedly blurted out.

She hadn't meant to say it out loud but clearly she accidently had. She had been staring at him continuously for the last 5 minutes, examining each one of his features, his chiselled jaw, up to his oh so kissable lips, past his nose and onto those icy blue eyes of his.

But his eyes were anything but cold.

In his eyes she could see such warmth, and strangely as she looked into those eyes of his which were now staring back at her she found herself melting, all her fears and insecurities just fading away. Here she was one on one, both of them somewhat drunk, her clearly more than him, but nevertheless here they were. Two former lovers, feelings running deep and neither sure what the night still had in store for them. She had told Lucas on many occasions that his best feature was his eyes but this only caused him to laugh and become embarrassed. Sitting here, facing him she knew she had been right all along. His eyes held so much power; one look could say and do more than words ever could.

"Excuse me?" He stuttered, clearly taken aback by her little outburst. For the last 5 minutes the brunette had hardly broken her gaze from him and he would have been lying had he said he hadn't felt uncomfortable. She had been staring at him as if he had a bit of food on his teeth or a strand of hair out of place, he wasn't sure what it was that had caused her to stare but it had definitely made him feel uneasy. And he had thought that it couldn't get much worse than it was at that moment. And then she had said it.

Normally he would have been happy and jumped at the chance to kiss her; she was after all the girl of his dreams. This however, wasn't a normal situation and certainly wasn't right. Sure he loved her, and yes he wanted to kiss her and to be able to feel her lips touch his once more, but this was all wrong. She was drunk and so was he to a certain extent. It would be wrong to even think about going there. Chances were she would regret it if anything were to happen between them tonight and he just couldn't live with that. Having that feeling that it was all going to be ok and that everything was perfect only for it to be snatched away from him like that, he just couldn't do it, his heart could not take that.

And just with those two words from his lips she realised that her insecurities had never left her at all. "I-uh- I thought that maybe that you might want to……..." She trailed off as her nerves started to get the best of her. "I mean it's not like we haven't kissed before" Brooke said suggestively as she attempted to regain her composure and shifted from her chair onto the couch so they were now side by side, her knee grazing his as she made herself comfortable and stared down at the carpeted floor.

She had never really been good at being rejected, truth was that she hadn't really had much experience at it so it was still rather hard to take on the rare occasion it did happen. But out of the times when she had been rejected this probably felt one of the worse. It was different when it was some random stranger who didn't want to sleep with you, that could have been for any number of reasons or simply because they weren't attracted to her. The main thing was though that in those cases feelings weren't involved, it wasn't like she really cared about any of the strangers, because that was exactly what they were, strangers, and they meant nothing to her. Lucas on the other hand, definitely meant something, and after her the last few days she had been so sure that she felt something still there between them. Clearly she had misread the signs. Brooke Davis the master when it came to reading the signs and body language well and truly had read this one all wrong.

"No… I mean yes, of course I want to kiss you but not like this" He corrected himself as he realised she now thought he wasn't interested which couldn't have been further from the truth.

"I can't believe I asked you that, god! Why I am so stupid?" She said mentally hitting herself. Why the hell did she keep doing this to herself, she planned to take this one slow, wait and see how it all panned out, wait and see how he left and now here she was tasting the bitter taste of rejection, a taste which she had been so determined to avoid. She could put a large amount of her behaviour down to the drink, that was easy, but at some point she was going to start learning from her mistakes and making sure not to keep putting herself through this.

"You are not stupid… just very, very drunk…" He laughed trying his best to lighten the mood. The fact was that she was very drunk. When they had returned to his apartment she had begun to sober up, that was until she insisted on opening another bottle of wine. And despite his best attempts at telling her she had probably had enough and it was best saved for another night, she had simply brushed past him and continued to search for the corkscrew. One thing he knew was that you didn't at the best of times argue with Brooke Davis, especially when she was drunk!

"I'm not that drunk. I know exactly what I'm saying Lucas" Brooke said. She knew she had had a lot to drink but she meant what she had said. She had wanted to kiss him, she still did, but clearly he didn't feel the same way. Maybe she had misread the signs after all. She didn't know many single guys who would turn down a hot leggy blonde who was basically offering herself to him on a plate to stay with a friend that was for sure. And he could have easily called it a night and left when Haley and Nathan had and just like she had suggested, but no, he wanted to stay. And he was the one who had been filling her glass all night and telling her how beautiful she was. Was she losing her touch? She could have sworn he had been doing some serious eye flirting over dinner, maybe she had drunk more than she had thought, maybe Lucas was right.

He decided to pretend that he had not heard her last comment, he would have loved to be able to believe everything she was saying but she has drunk a lot and he wasn't allowing himself to get his hopes up only for them not to be knocked straight back down in the morning. "Look why don't you go to bed, it's been a long night" He said patting her knee hoping to reassure her, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel any sense of embarrassment.

A smile quickly appeared on the brunettes face. "See I knew that was your plan!"

He looked at her truly lost for words but before he had a chance to respond the brunette spoke.

"Joke" She laughed and pointed at him, his face an absolute picture.

"Oh that was so funny" He said rolling his eyes at Brooke's sense of humour.

"I think you are going to have to carry me though" She leaned over so her head was now resting on his shoulder as if she was struggling to keep her head upright as she was so tired. He tried turning to head a little to the left so he could see her face, and sure enough there it was, the classic Brooke Davis take pity on me and do as I say look. And he knew like on all other past occasions that he would be unable to resist and would cave.

"And what is wrong with using your legs?" He asked determined to at least put up a little fight and not give in to her so soon.

"Well, they are tired and you made me walk up all those steps" She said as she managed to raise her head off of his shoulder, which just so happened to have been extremely comfortable. She gazed longingly at him and fluttered her eyes at him, knowing that by now there was no way he could say no to her. She knew when she had got men right where she wanted him, and Lucas was definitely at that point.

"Yeah you kind of had to unless you wanted to sleep on the sidewalk"

"Please" She pleaded one last time but already knowing he had caved, even if he hadn't actually said so.

"Fine but don't ever say I don't do anything for you" He sighed and rose to his feet so he was able to scoop the petite brunette into his arms.

"Stay with me" Brooke pouted as he laid her on the king size bed.

"Is that another joke?" he smiled as he looked down at the brunette who was stretched out over his bed.

"Please" She tried again, she was far from joking. She was so used to sleeping alone, even Ryan hadn't shared her bed recently, and to tell the truth she was getting sick and tired of being alone. "Just lay with me" It wasn't like she wanted him to sleep with her, all she wanted some company, for one night to not feel so alone.

Every night in the last few months had pretty much been the same, she had turned off the light, curled up in her bed, and every night a deep feeling of loneliness had crept into her, some nights more than others. The minute that light was switched off the feeling often hit her, knowing that she didn't have anyone to cuddle up to, knowing that if she rolled over there would just be an empty space. If it was one think she hated it was being lonely.

"I am not sure that is such a good idea" Lucas said as he made his way back to the door. He really didn't want to do anything he would regret and more importantly anything she would regret. At least at the moment he had her friendship if nothing else and he wasn't about to risk that, not now at least.

"You know how much I hate sleeping alone" She whined. "Look my side, your side, simple" She said as she patted the empty space beside her.

"Are you sure?" He asked hesitantly.

"We're friends right? So unless you have a problem…"

"No… no I just didn't want to make things awkward between us that's all" He explained as he slowly made his way over to his side of the bed, still rather unsure of whether he was crossing the line.

"Good now get in" Brooke said happily as she pulled the sheets over her.

"Aren't you getting undressed?" She asked, even though her eyes were now shut she could feel him getting in and there was no way he had had time to change out of his clothes.

"Actually I'm a little cold" He lied. The main reason for keeping his shirt and the rest of his clothes on had actually been that he was hoping that way it would be a lot harder for anything to happen, as if fully clothed he would be able to control himself and prevent her from getting any ideas while the alcohol was still very much in her blood.

"Suit yourself, but I'm boiling" She huffed, as she bolted up and began to pull her dress up over her head and tossed the garment to the floor.

Although it was dark he could see the outline of her petite frame and having her lying next to him half naked was driving him crazy. He wasn't even sure she had any idea of the effect she was having on him. He tried rolling over onto his side so he was the furthest he could be away from her but all that led to was the brunette following and shifting even closer to him. So much for his side!

---

"Lucas" Karen called as she entered the apartment, she placed the bag of groceries she had bought for him on the counter in the kitchen. She hadn't heard from him since that night when they had argued and he had found out Brooke was coming home. She wasn't sure if he was avoiding her or not, so she had decided to make the first step and had brought groceries as a kind of piece offering. Although he liked to think of himself as independent and for the most part he was, she still worried, that night when he had been standing in her house he looked pale and strained as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. So here she was, doing what mothers do, looking out for her son.

She passed through the rooms wondering where her son was and soon came to his bedroom door. She quietly opened the door being careful not to wake him, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight she was about to see.

Her eyes bulged. "I-uh" She struggled to find her words, to say she was stunned would be an understatement.

Brooke was wrapped up in the duvet and resting on her son's chest. She wasn't sure what had happened or what was going on, right at that moment she didn't even really care, all she knew was she needed to get out of there.

"Mom wait" Lucas said his mother's voice waking up from his sleep. He almost leapt up but soon realised that the weight on his chest was infact the brunettes head. He quickly but gently eased himself from beneath her, careful not to wake her and ran after his mother who by this time was already at the door.

"I think it's best I go" Karen said as her son appeared from the bedroom, right now she couldn't even look at him let alone talk to him and she was not about to have another argument with him.

"It's not what it looks like" He reasoned feeling that he needed to explain as his mother had clearly already formed some sort of judgement on what may or may not have happened last night.

"Lucas I love you I do but don't you dare lie to me. We have been through this all before, I just hope you know what you are doing. Please promise me you are not rushing into anything."

"Mom stop" He said stepping in front of her to prevent her from leaving. "Not that's it's any of your business but we didn't sleep together ok. She just didn't want to be alone"

"Oh" Quickly realising that she had added two plus two and managed to get five.

"Yeah oh, it's nice to know you think so highly of me, and what are you doing here anyway?"

"I wanted to see my son and I thought you were looking a little thin the other day so I brought you these" She said backing away and entering the kitchen to where she placed the bag of groceries

"Well thank you, although you know, I am a big boy now" He smiled feeling slightly bad for somewhat snapping at his mother. He knew she only meant well and given his history with Brooke it probably wasn't surprising that she had thought what she had.

"I know but that doesn't stop me worrying" She said engulfing him into a hug. "I've got to go, got some errands to run and then have to pick up Lily, but say hi to Brooke for me would you, and tell her to stop by if she has time."

Lucas watched as his mom quickly disappeared through the doorway. Her words still lingering in the air.

We have been through this all before, I just hope you know what you are doing.

Did he really know what he was doing? He knew what he wanted, that much he was sure of. But what was he actually doing?

So did you like it? I wasn't sure about the start but I think it works, I hope you agree. Anyway pleazse review and let me know what you think. Thank you x x x