I hold back a sigh and give her a wry smile. “I kinda figured as much.” Reluctantly removing my finger from inside her, I move back up her body to lean over her. I pull a strand of hair away from her face. “This is gonna happen. You know that, right?”

She says nothing. She doesn’t agree, but she doesn’t disagree either, which tells me she knows it, too.

“Just not tonight,” I say, rolling off her and sitting up to run my fingers through my hair. With my back to her, it gives her time to straighten her clothes without me looking on. It gives me time to focus on not getting harder. And not trying to persuade her. Which I could do.

I know if I pressed her, I could get her to give in. But I won’t. When we do this, I want her body and her mind begging for it. “Tonight, I’m very interested to know how I came home to find you in my bed.”

“Are you complaining?”

I turn around to look at her, to see if she’s kidding. Her expression is unreadable. “Hell no!”

She smiles and draws her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. Even though it’s an innocent gesture, it’s so prim it’s somehow sexy. And it makes me want her all over again.

I stretch out on my side, crossways in front of her, resting my head on my palm. “So, tell me your tale, Goldilocks.”

Laney focuses on her toes as she wiggles them. I don’t say anything else to prompt her. She’ll tell me in her own time. She has to. She’s been sleeping in my bed, for God’s sake.

Finally she speaks. Her voice is quiet. Wounded.

“It won’t make any sense unless I start from the beginning.”

“Okay, then start from the beginning.”

She glances up at me then quickly away, almost like she’s embarrassed. Now I’m more curious than ever to know her deal.

“My whole life, all I’ve ever wanted was to get married and have kids, and find in life what my parents have.” I suppress a groan.

Damn! Why does she have to be that kind of woman?

“I met a guy my freshman year in college. He seemed like the perfect man. He was smart, responsible, ambitious, loving. He had pretty much the same goals as me. And I thought he was trustworthy. Turns out he wasn’t. I found him in bed a couple of months ago. With my best friend.”

“Oh shit! What an asshole!”

Laney nods, still staring at her toes. “I’m sure you know . . . I mean, I doubt it’s any surprise to you that . . .”

When she doesn’t finish, I prompt her. “What? Spit it out? What should I know?”

She struggles with how to phrase whatever she’s getting at. I watch her small, white teeth chew nervously at her bottom lip. It’s distracting as hell. Makes me wish she’d finish her story and then ask me to lick her from head to toe.

Although I doubt that’s likely.

At least not tonight.

Maybe tomorrow night . . . If I can get her to stay . . .

When she still doesn’t speak, I bark, “Damn, woman! Out with it.”

“Look, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that people see you as a . . . a . . . kind of a wild guy.”

“Seems like I’ve heard that a time or two, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

She shrugs. “Well, my parents know that I’m working on your family’s estate, and . . .”

“Ahhh, and they don’t like you associating with the likes of me,” I finish for her.

“It’s not really that. I mean, I told them it was just work, but . . .”

“But what?”

“But they don’t believe me, of course. At least not after Sunday.”

“Why? What happened Sunday?”

“Well, you dropped me off at the curb and I had to walk in wearing a hoochie outfit, carrying my church clothes. It doesn’t make a very convincing argument for professionalism.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Those were hoochie clothes?” I nod. “Good to know.”

“To me they are. To my parents, they definitely are!”

“So the parents think I’m corrupting you?”

She shrugs. “I suppose so. They know I’m not that girl.”

“The kind that wears hoochie clothes,” I say, trying to hide my grin.

“Right. And goes to fun parties and indulges in meaningless flirtation.”

“Maybe they don’t know what kind of girl you are. ’Cause Sunday, you sure seemed like you were okay being ‘that girl.’”

“That’s exactly the problem. They know it’s not like me. So . . .”

“They think it’s me.”

“Right.”

“And the preacher disapproves.”

“Very much so.”

“And this is why you’re in my bed? You’re sticking it to the preacher by making it look like I’m sticking it to you?”

She gives me the stink eye, and I grin.

“No one is sticking anything to anybody.”

“That’s a damn shame, too.”

She looks surprised when she giggles, like she wasn’t expecting it. Couldn’t control it.

When her smile dies, she asks, “Are you gonna let me finish?”

“Of course. You have my full attention,” I say, narrowing my eyes on her. She gives me a dubious look then rolls her eyes and continues.

“Anyway, after my parents and I discussed where I was, who I was with, and why, we got into an argument. You see, they don’t know why Shane and I broke up.”

“Shane’s Mr. Perfect?”

Another withering look.

“Anyway, long story short, they didn’t like that we broke up, they didn’t like that I was with you, and they took it upon themselves to fix it. So after I came here and worked on the estate all day Monday, I went home to find that they’d invited Shane for dinner. Without even asking me. They totally ambushed me. Wanted us to talk so they could all tell me how stupid I’m being and how wrong I am to throw what we had away. So I left. And I haven’t been back since.”

“They brought the guy in behind your back?” She nods solemnly. “Damn, that was a pretty shitty thing for them to do.”

“I thought so, too. It’s like they just can’t understand. Or don’t want to. They see what they want to see, no matter how wrong or biased,” she says bitterly.

“Over the years I’ve learned that most people are judgmental as hell. They may think they’re not. And some probably even try not to be. But most are. It’s human nature.”

“I try really hard not to be like that.”

“And I think you do a good job. The fact that you’re here right now shows that you’re not as bad as most. Especially in this town.”

She raises big, sorrowful, blue eyes to mine. “I’m sorry people have been so unfair to you and your sister.”

It’s my turn to shrug. “Nah, don’t be. We’ve earned most of it. I’ve pissed off enough people in this town to get that ‘trouble’ label fair and square.”

“Is that all you did? Piss people off?”

I reach out to glide my fingertips up one of her smooth calves. “There might’ve been a few corrupted daughters and compromised wives in the mix. I can’t remember just now.”

“Compromised wives?” she balks.

“Hey, I was young. And they were . . . needy.”

“Oh my gosh! You really are a bad boy.”

“Don’t wilt on me now. You were so close.”

“Close to what?”

“Coming to the dark side.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were. You can sense how much fun it is to stop worrying about what other people think, to just enjoy life as much as you can. We only have a handful of short, sometimes painful days on this earth. You’ve gotta take your pleasure where you can get it.”

“Is that what you’re offering me? Pleasure?”

I sit up and lean toward Laney. She doesn’t back away, just watches me. I can hear as much as feel that she’s holding her breath. “Isn’t that enough?”

I edge in closer and lick over her bottom lip with my tongue.

“I don’t know,” she says softly.

“It can be. You just have to let it. You just have to realize that you’re better off without love. It makes people weak. It makes people lose their common sense and they end up hurting each other. Listen to you! Love has brought you nothing but pain and suffering. But I can make all that go away. I can take your mind off the hurt. Make you feel better than you’ve ever felt before. You just have to let me.”

“I don’t know if I can just jump right in like this,” she whispers.

“That’s okay. Jumping can be fun, but so can . . . exploring. As long as we’re on the same page, with the same expectations, we can’t go wrong,” I assure her, reaching forward to circle my fingers around her upper arm and tease the curve of her breast with my thumb.

“So where do we go from here?”

As much as I’d like to go straight to banging her head against my headboard, I know that’s not the smart move right now. So, I bite back my frustrated sigh and opt for a long kiss instead. When she feels a little more relaxed, a little more pliant under my hands, I lean back.

“We go to bed,” I declare, biting her chin and giving her thigh a teasing slap. She yelps playfully and I wink at her. “And we see what we can get into tomorrow.”

“So just fun? No pressure, no promises?”

“Just fun. Lots and lots of fun.” I scoot to my place in the bed and lift an arm, waiting for her to curl up against me, which she does. When she snuggles in and I hear her contented sigh, I smile.

And lots and lots of sex.

That’s my last thought as I drift off to sleep.

ELEVEN: Laney

I growl at the skillet and pull it off the heat. The other one is already in the sink, sitting in hot water.

Laney, what were you thinking?

What started out as an attempt at cooking breakfast has morphed into a nightmare. First, I should’ve checked to make sure I could find everything I needed before actually beginning to cook anything. The kitchen looks like a demilitarized zone, and I’m pretty sure the house will smell like burnt bacon forever.

Coughing draws my attention toward the doorway. Jake is standing there in jeans that hang perfectly on his hips, a bemused grin on his face and not a scrap of anything else. His hair is sticking up at weird angles and I’m positive I’ve never seen anything more mouthwatering.

“There are easier and much more pleasant ways to wake me up than trying to smoke me out of the bedroom.”

“You said you’re a fireman. I’m testing your skills. You passed,” I say with a cough, my eyes watering so badly I can hardly see.

Jake walks around the island and props open the back door. Einstein, his giant, white-haired dog that I met last week, is sitting on the back porch, whining.

“Quick! Grab a Milk-Bone from the jar on the counter. You’ve deeply offended Einie’s delicate sense of smell,” Jake says. “You must make amends.”

I can’t help but grin as I grab the treat and head for the door. I step outside, give the dog his bone, and drag in a gulp of fresh air. Jake follows. Puffs of thick gray smoke are wafting out the door.

“Sorry about your bacon.”

“Is that what that is?”

“Part of it. It began as an omelet, toast, and bacon, but it quickly deteriorated when I realized that I had no idea where anything was in your house.”

“Like what? The off switch on the stove?”

“Ha. Ha. No, I mean like spatulas.”

“Spatulas? Likely story.”

“No, really. Everything was coming along just fine until I realized I had no way to flip the omelet.”

“And then . . . chaos!”

“Exactly. Once the eggs started burning as I scrambled around looking for the spatula, they got all my attention for a few minutes. At that point, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t save the bacon.”

“Okay, first of all, burnt eggs, scrambling around, saving bacon—I can’t be expected to ignore any more clichés, so consider yourself warned. Secondly, why the big, elaborate breakfast?”

I shrug. “I thought it was the least I could do since you weren’t mad that I hijacked your bed for a couple of nights.”

“How could any man in his right mind be mad about that?”

“Because it’s so rude! It’s not like I asked or anything, which I should have. I was just so mad! And then, once I left my parents’ house, I realized I had nowhere else to go. If I’d gone to the Sleep Inn, they’d have found me for sure. I mean, it is the only hotel in town.”

“Well, now you have a place to stay, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t impose on you like that.”

“It’s not an imposition. It’s an opportunity.”

His grin is devilish.

“Dare I ask what kind of opportunity?”

“I don’t know. Do you dare? Are you up for it? Are you really ready to take a walk on the wild side?”

“I . . . I . . . I guess that depends on what all is involved.”

As if sensing my hesitation with where the conversation is going, Jake shifts into a lighter form of attack. Lighter, but no less effective. I can feel him wearing down my defenses with every passing second.

“Well, considering we just survived a nearly fatal breakfast,” he begins.