His brows rise. “You were going to let me make love to you, but doing it with the lights on would be too intimate?” His voice rises almost comically. But there’s nothing amusing about it. This is serious. Too serious.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

He puts his bad leg down on the floor and leans forward so that we’re almost nose to nose. “So me putting my dick inside you wouldn’t be as intimate in the dark?” he asks.

My heart flutters.

“Cupcake, now that I know that, I’m damn glad I didn’t fuck you in the dark.”

He’s angry. I can hear it in his voice. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” Tap. Tap.

He tips my chin up. “If I ever got to have you, I’d want to do it with all the lights on. Because I want to see every part of you.” He drags a finger across the upper slope of my breast, and the hairs on my arms stands up. “I want to touch you and see you and feel you and taste you and smell you. And when you make those little noises that come out so much easier than your words do, I want them to be right beside my ear.”

He sniffs the spot where my neck meets my shoulder. “Because you smell so fucking good, and you taste better than anything I’ve ever had in my mouth, and you feel so soft under my fingers.” He grabs my hip and squeezes me in his strong grip. “These hips.” He groans and slides his hand down my thigh. “And these thighs. Oh, my God,” he breathes out. “They’re fucking perfect.”

I snort. I can’t help it.

“You don’t believe me?”

I’d like to. I’d really, really like to.

He grabs my hand and pulls it to his lap. “Feel me, cupcake. Dicks don’t lie.”

I can feel the hard ridge of him behind his zipper, and I press down, because there’s a little part of me that wants to believe him.

“Easy,” he says. “He’s been a little lonely.”

“It’s not like you’re celibate.” I blow out a heavy breath through my lips. I’d be stupid to think that.

“There hasn’t been anyone for me since I kissed you. Long before my accident, cupcake.”

My heart jolts.

Sam sits back quickly when the door opens. Marta calls out, “Dinner’s ready!”

I get up and start toward the door. But Sam doesn’t come with me. “C-c-coming?” I ask.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” he says. He looks down at his lap and chuckles. “Dicks don’t lie, cupcake. Mine likes you. Almost as much as I do.”

I leave him there on the porch and go in the door. “You okay?” Marta asks. I nod my head, and help her put dinner on the table. “You look a little flushed.”

“It w-was c-c-c-cold out th-there.”

“Didn’t look cold to me.” She laughs and pats my cheek. “Looked kind of warm.”

I can’t say anything, because Friday and Emily come into the room. Each one has a baby on her hip, and I reach for the tiny one because I need something to do with my hands. I murmur to him. I can talk to babies, because they don’t judge me. Not like everyone else does.

Sam

I let myself into my empty apartment and toss my keys onto the granite countertop. I can’t get last night off my mind. Sitting there in the dark with her, it was better than any make-out session I’ve ever had, and I didn’t even get to put my mouth on hers.

Peck does things to me that no one has ever done. And she does it without spreading her legs or putting my dick in her mouth. Not that I don’t want to do those things, because I do. But she also challenges me. She makes me want to be more. To be different. To be hers. But she doesn’t want to be mine.

My phone rings and I see Pete’s number pop up.

“Joe’s Ho House,” I say. “You got the dough, we got the ho. What would you like to plow?”

Silence.

I bite back a laugh.

“Dude,” Pete says, “that was so fucked up.”

Now I finally laugh. “What do you want?” I ask. I jerk my shoe off my good foot and get a beer from the fridge.

“I’m at Bounce with Edward. Come and join us.”

“Why?” I take a swallow of beer.

“Because, man. Edward needs a girlfriend. And every man on the prowl needs a wingman.”

“You want me to be Maverick to his Goose?”

“Are you seriously talking Top Gun right now?” He laughs. “And he’s more like a moose than a goose. Have you seen him lately? That son of a bitch is tall.”

When Pete met Edward, he was a gangly youth from the correctional institute. He had bad teeth, a penchant for killing people who harmed his little sister, and he had few prospects. Now he’s had a lot of dental work, grew about a foot, and has a good job as a mechanic at a local vehicle repair shop. He’s made something of a reputation for himself, just by being reliable and hard-working.

I can’t help but ask. “Why can’t you be his wingman?”

“Because Reagan will fucking kill me. Get your ass down here.”

I finish my beer in a few swallows. “Give me a few minutes.” I heave a sigh and get to my feet, hitching my crutches under my armpits. The things I do for my brothers.

“Cody and Garrett are here, too.”

Cody and Garrett are friends of Paul and Friday, and all the rest of us too. Friday was a surrogate for them when they wanted to have a child.