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  I thrust into her and clamped my teeth down on the skin at her neck before I felt her pussy come undone around me. She moaned and clutched my hair as pleasure pulsed through her, transferring to me, and milking my own release from my body. I pumped again and then stilled, my eyes tightly closed as I poured into her. I groaned into her ear as the intense orgasm poured out from my spine and throughout my body. I smelled her own arousal on her skin, the arousal I’d just put there, and the sweet musky scent had my orgasm intensifying.

  My heart thudded wildly in my chest as my orgasm waned. Her body held against me just by hips pinning her to the wall as her limbs went limp.

  “Fuck, baby,” I murmured before pulling out of her slowly. I dropped my head against her forehead and we sucked in heaving pants of shared air. The smell of our sex surrounding us in the small space, heavy pants passing between us, damp skin pressed against damp skin.

  “Yeah,” she moaned and her fingers threaded in my hair. She always did this after we fucked and I loved it. It was always so comforting. I’d come to crave her touch after I came inside her.

  I swallowed the painful lump that had formed in my throat before I dragged out of her. She whimpered softly, as if she didn’t want me to leave, before I eased her back down to the floor.

  I didn’t know what to say so I said nothing as I pulled my pants up my legs and zipped them. I ran a hand through my hair as she righted her dress and smoothed her soft waves.

  Suddenly I remembered where we were, what she was going back to. “Enjoy your date, Sugar.” I slapped the cockiest grin I had on my face and ran my thumb along the seam of her pink lips.

  Her eyes flashed with confusion, hurt, anger, I wasn’t sure, before they narrowed and turned into a glare.

  “I will.” She shoved past me and headed out the door of the small closet and back to her date.

  I followed behind her, a relaxed smile tilting my lips. I shot the good doctor the cockiest grin I could muster.

  Guy code.

  The look on my face screamed that I’d just fucked her five ways to Sunday and I wanted every man in a five-block radius to know it.

  The following morning and I couldn’t get last night out of my head. I’d lain in bed, wide a-fucking-wake, imagining his hands on her, his lips on her skin, her fingers fisted in his hair as he watched her come. I wanted to punch something. Annihilate something. I couldn’t stand the thought.

  I didn’t know where things stood between us, but I had a feeling she hadn’t taken too well to my caveman fuck at the restaurant.

  So here I was, walking over to the library the next morning, prepared to grovel if need be.

  Her car was parked on the other side of the building; no wonder I hadn’t seen it all week. She’d been hiding from me. I stepped through the door, setting the chime off. Her beautiful strawberry hair swirled around her face as she looked up from her desk.

  “Hey, Sugar.” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face at the sight of her. She only glared at me. Oh shit, this was not looking good. I stepped over and leaned my forearms on the desk. “Can I take you to lunch?” I drank in her features like I was a starved man. The soft swells of her breasts under her fitted shirt, the dusting of freckles along her nose, dark-rimmed eyes, and long eyelashes.

  “I already ate,” she murmured without looking up at me.

  “Can’t even look me in the face, Sugar?” My irritation flared, but then died when I realized she was too sad to be angry at. “Everything all right?” I reached over and tipped her chin up to meet my eyes.

  “I’m fine.” She jerked her chin out of my hands. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, I’d never really seen her so resentful. We’d sparred before—it was our thing and I fucking loved it—but this cut straight to the core.

  “Can I take you to dinner, then?”

  “No.”

  I heaved an exasperated sigh.

  “Gonna have to level with me here. I’m trying to ask you out and you’re givin’ me nothing. Look, sweetheart, I’ve been inside that sweet body a few times now, is it so wrong that a guy wants to spend some time talkin’ to you?”

  “I said don’t call me that. I’m not another one of your whores,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Jesus, Sugar. What crawled up your ass?” I threaded my fingers through my hair.

  “Don’t worry about it, Lane.” She flipped a page in her magazine.

  “Look, babe. If this is about last night, I’m sorry. I really fucking am, but seeing you with him drove me fucking insane.”

  “Ironic, then, isn’t it? Considering I caught you with your dick in someone’s mouth just a few days before.”

  “Right.” Fuck, I’d royally fucked this up. Shame and regret ate at me. I was foolish to try and fuck her out of my system. She didn’t deserve that, and the thin thread we’d had that connected us was now severed and the thought made me sick. “I want to take you out. We can talk. Worried about you, babe.” I tipped her chin up to hold my gaze again.

  “Don’t be. I told you, I don’t do relationships. I don’t need connections. We fucked a few times; that’s it. Didn’t know you were such a clinger. When Harry took me back to his place last night—”

  “You went home with him?” Red seeped into my vision as my blood pulsed through my veins. I clenched my fists at my sides.

  “You didn’t think I would?” She arched one beautiful eyebrow. “He said he couldn’t explain it but that I smelled intoxicating,” she purred. I gritted my teeth together, my nostrils flaring. She’d smelled intoxicating because I’d rubbed her come all over her. Fucking backfire.

  “You fucked him, Kat—I’ll fucking kill him.” I ground my teeth together painfully trying to restrain myself from stomping out the door and paying a visit to the good doctor. “This ends now.” I stomped round the desk and crouched in front of her, pushed her thighs open with my hands, and pulled the chair toward me so I was between her legs, right where I liked being. She glared at me and her body went rigid beneath my hands. Kat was ready for a fight.

  “Stop fucking with me, babe. Did you fuck him?” I gazed into her eyes, pleading with her to tell me the truth. She only watched me. Anger burning through her mossy green eyes. She wasn’t going to answer. She was going to leave me twisting in the wind, wondering if he’d had his hands on her.

  “Fuck,” I thrust one hand through my hair. “I’m always up for a quick fuck.” I rubbed along her thigh with the pad of my thumb. “But I want to talk to you too. I like sparring with you, Sugar. Keeps me on my toes.” I grinned at her. “So pull whatever’s up your ass out and say you’ll have dinner with me tonight. If you don’t agree to meet me somewhere, I’ll bring it to you. And I told you, friends can’t fuck.” I wrapped a palm around her neck and pressed her lips to mine in a quick kiss. “But I want to try.” I stood and sauntered out the door, refusing to give her the chance to turn me down again.

  I didn’t know what I’d left behind in there, whether she was angrier than ever or I’d managed to get my point across, but I missed the friendship we’d shared before, and I was determined to get it back. She was the first woman I’d grown accustomed to in a long time, the first that’d called me Lane since Mia, without my actually minding it so much, and I wasn’t about to let that slip away so easily.

  “Pizza, okay, babe?” I called as I walked into her little cabin. I didn’t bother knocking; we were past that. Besides, if I had the luck to walk in on her naked, I would consider myself the luckiest man on earth, so I wasn’t worried.

  “Can’t believe you actually came.” She stepped into the living room, arms crossed.

  “I’m a man of my word.” I set the pizza box and six-pack of beer on the counter. “Gotta say, I half-expected to find a new coat of paint on the outside too.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me as I grinned like a lovesick puppy back at her. “I’ll take one.” She nodded toward the beer as she pulled out paper plates and napkins. I opened two beers, then followed her to the cou
ch, where we set up the pizza. She flipped on the TV and we watched the local news silently for a while.

  “Storm coming in the next few days. Think you’re ready for it?”

  “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Storms up here get pretty nasty, especially since you’re so open to the elements out here. Furnace been okay?”

  “I think so. Sometimes, I think the thermostat acts up, but it always kicks on, so I think it’s okay.”

  “I’ll check it before I go.”

  “Thanks.” She nodded and took another bite of her pizza.

  We sat for a few more awkward moments. I was concerned that the easiness that had existed between us was gone. I wanted to work at getting it back, but wasn’t sure how.

  “So what have you been up to this week?”

  “Look, Lane.”

  It still knocked me around a little when she used my real name. It was a sore spot for me, dredged up old memories that I didn’t like dredged up, but there was a little piece of me that sort of liked it.

  “I’m not really interested in small talk. I’m really not interested in getting to know you more than I already have. My life is complicated; I can’t introduce anything else, honestly.”

  “I’m not here to complicate, Sugar, and I can appreciate that you have a lot going on, but enjoying pizza and beer now and again shouldn’t be a complication.”

  “It’s never just pizza and beer,” she mumbled.

  “No, but what’re a few orgasms between friends?” I chuckled before throwing the last bite of pizza in my mouth and draining the rest of my beer.

  “A lot, apparently.”

  “I disagree. You’re worried about feelings? I have feelings for you, Kat, purely platonic ones. There are no worries about this becoming something more than you want it to be, not on my end, at least.” I couldn’t explain it, but the thought of not having her in my life was too painful, so I was willing to tell her whatever she needed to hear to keep her from pushing me away again.

  She hummed in response, avoiding my gaze.

  I leaned back against the couch, my arm thrown over the back behind her. “If you just want to be friends, I can respect that. But don’t think I still don’t want inside that body at every moment.” I trailed a finger across her shoulder.

  “Do you have to be so . . .” she struggled to find the words.

  “Straightforward?”

  “I was thinking ‘vulgar,’” she huffed before throwing back the beer bottle and taking a drink.

  “It’s the way I am, Kat. Do you have to be so closed off?” I continued trailing fingertips across her shoulder.

  “It’s not your business.” She shrugged away from me.

  “No, but we’re friends, so I’m concerned. Keepin’ what you have locked up inside you isn’t good for anyone, Sugar.”

  “And what do I have locked up inside?” She turned and arched a challenging eyebrow at me.

  “Not sure, but it’s painful whatever it is. A secret. Something that has you hiding from everybody.”

  She rolled her eyes at me, but I refused to back down. “I’m not askin’ you to tell me. Just know that we can talk if you want.”

  Her eyes held mine for long moments before she nodded softly and turned away. “Do you want another beer?” She stood and made her way to the kitchen.

  “Sure,” I called after her and flicked the channels on the TV until I landed on a rerun of I Love Lucy.

  “Seriously?” She nodded, indicating the TV, when she sat down and handed me the beer.

  “Um, seriously not?” I tipped my head at her. “Who doesn’t like a little Lucy and Ricky? They have the perfect relationship. She stays home and cleans all day while he does the showbiz thing. Comes home to a hot meal every night . . .”

  “That’s your ideal marriage?”

  “First, I’m not interested in marriage, and secondly, they seem to have a pretty good situation.” I grinned at her as Lucy and Ethel pulled some shit on TV.

  “And the sleeping in separate beds? You’re down with that too?”

  “Ugh, don’t go that far, babe. I just like how she’s always wearing that little apron. Only thing better would be coming home to a girl in just an apron.” I winked at her.

  “God, you can never be a gentlemen for long, can you?” She laughed.

  “Not in my DNA, babe.” I winked and pulled her back into my body. She curled into the crook of my shoulder and settled herself as I turned up the volume and we breezed through a few episodes of the old show.

  My teeth chattered as I wrapped the comforter tighter around my body. Socks on, bundled in a cable knit sweater, hat complete with earflaps on my head. I was fucking freezing. I’d woken in the middle of the night cold as ice and tromped to the thermostat to find it in the forties.

  In the fucking house.

  I was cursing Maine and the early snowstorm that’d blown in. I don’t know what had possessed me to move way up north on the coast, and I was kicking myself for not demanding Barton take care of the furnace when I knew there were problems.

  Lane had checked the furnace a few days ago before he left after our impromptu pizza and beer night. He hadn’t seen a problem, but promised he’d look into the piece of shit thermostat. Unfortunately, the snow hadn’t been willing to wait.

  I rolled over in the blanket and rubbed my icicle feet together as the wind howled through the cracks of the old cabin. I tucked my nose into the pillow before a banging hit the front door. My heart thudded wildly in my chest. Who the fuck would be here before dawn in a snowstorm? Should I open it? Should I be worried? The possibilities raged in my head before I realized someone may have broken down on the road and had searched out the nearest house. Bad luck on their part—they wouldn’t be getting much warmth in here.

  I leaped out of bed as the pounding grew louder. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and hustled to the front door. Suddenly, I wished desperately for a peephole like I’d had in the city. Or a gun.

  My entire body quacked with fear as I debated opening the door or searching for my phone to call the police.

  “Kat, open the door!” a familiar voice echoed off the wood.

  Lane.

  “Jesus, what are you doing?” I threw the door open and saw his big body hunched in an oversized coat on my doorstep.

  “I tried calling your cell, but no answer. Jesus, did the fucking furnace go out? This is bullshit.” He tramped into the house and headed for the thermostat. “Why didn’t you light a fire?” He gestured toward the fireplace.

  “Shit. I . . . it didn’t cross my mind. I don’t even know if I have wood . . .” Suddenly, I felt like the biggest moron on the planet. I was that hopeless fucking girl, stubborn enough to move into a house on the coast, but not smart enough to know how to survive when things got tough.

  “There’s a wood pile on the side of the house,” Lane barked before tramping back out the door. I narrowed my eyes before heading to the fireplace, clearing the few items that sat there, and opening the firebox. Lane burst through the door and kicked it closed with one booted foot, a bundle of wood in his arms.

  He kneeled and stacked the logs in the fireplace, starting with a small pile of kindling at the base. He added a few strips of newspaper and started it. He blew on it a few times until the fire crackled and lit the interior of the house.

  “Can you keep this going while I bring in some more for us?” His eyes finally landed on me. I sniffed my nose and nodded as I thrust my hands toward the crackling heat. “I’ll be right back.” He placed a hand on my head for a moment, leaning in to press a kiss to my hair. “Glad you’re okay, Sugar.” His voice softened before he pulled away and headed back outside.

  Lane brought in a few more armfuls of firewood and stacked them by the door. When I finally warmed up enough to peel off my gloves, I went to the window and stared out at the soft light of the pre-dawn. Dusky pink was just starting to peek over the horizon of the grey-blue ocean. Maine had the be
st sunrises. The first place the sun touched land at the start of a new day and I was privy to the gorgeous art show each and every morning.

  Lane stepped up behind me, wrapping me in his arms and tucking his head against my shoulder, burying his nose in my hair, something I knew he loved to do. He inhaled deeply and a soft groan escaped his throat. “Really fucking glad you’re okay, Sugar.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” I tensed and turned to look at him.

  “It’s been snowing for two days, sweetheart. When I hadn’t heard from you, I was worried. I’ve been trying to call. Have you been out?”

  “No.” I shook my head with a frown. I also hadn’t gotten any calls.

  “When the storm picked up a few hours ago, I couldn’t help but think of you out here alone on this isolated stretch. Not a place for a woman to be by herself.” He stood beside me, one thumb looped in his pocket, another at my neck, rubbing the tension away.

  “I must have lost my signal with the storm. I didn’t even realize.” It only just occurred to me at that moment that I hadn’t had a single phone call in days.

  “The whole town’s shut down. Nothing in or out.”

  “So how did you get out here?”

  “Dropped my plow to get to you. No stoppin’ a man determined.”

  “How charming.” I smiled at him before shrugging off my puffy coat. The cabin was finally starting to warm up—thank God Lane had shown up. Anger rolled in my stomach that I’d been stupid enough not to think of starting the fire. Not that I exactly knew how, but how hard could it be?

  “You want coffee?” I turned and looked up at him. I took him in for the first time this morning. Big hands red with cold, a charcoal gray winter coat bulking up his already sturdy form, a dark red knit hat pulled low over his forehead, a lock of dark hair peaking out, his blue eyes shining with the wind-whipped cold.

  He was devastating.

  Completely devastating and here with me.

  “Sounds perfect.”