A part of him expected her to not answer the door. The stubbornness in her that wanted to keep him at arm’s length wouldn’t let her. But he wasn’t about to let her ignore him. He’d brought a few tools just in case.

Quicker than he would have expected, the door opened, and she uttered a resigned sigh. “You again.”

“Your obvious delight at my presence warms me.”

“You’re not going to give up, are you?”

He shook his head. “Nope. My teacher at the academy said I was tenacious.” He held up a dark-glassed, corked bottle. “I come bearing a gift. I opted for a red wine since it is, after all, pasta, and…check it out.” He waggled a package in his other hand. “I had dessert stashed in my freezer.” Dessert being some chocolate snack cakes filled with icing. His weakness because every man had a vice. Calvin now had two, and the second one stood in front of him with pursed lips and crossed arms.

It made a man want to—

“Cal! You’re here.” Zoe came out of the living room and beamed at him. “You can sit beside me.”

“I would be delighted.”

The dinner went better than expected, although he didn’t say much. Calvin mostly found himself absorbing it all. After weeks of observing and skirting around the edges of their lives, he was now part of the dinnertime ritual.

He felt as if he moved about in a strange country as Zoe showed him how to set the table. From explaining how the little fork with the pink rubber grip was hers—but he could borrow it—to showing him where Mommy stashed the plates in a low cabinet so she could help out. “I’m not tall enough yet for the cabinets up there.”

The little girl batted her lashes, and Calvin found himself ready to offer his services to grab things on high places anytime she needed.

Lily brushed past him and whispered, “You are so screwed now.”

Screwed? How about blessed? This was how it should be. A man, a woman, and a child sitting down for dinner. Smiling and talking and laughing.

Family.

This was worth fighting for because the payoff could be bigger than anything he’d ever seen. What happened with Lily could make or break his future.

And a lot of that hinged on one little girl’s acceptance. Two weeks ago, if asked, he would have said he didn’t understand why people had kids. He’d have called them annoying, needy mini-mes, and yet, the more Zoe talked, her very words an exuberant exploration of the world around her, he found himself enthralled.

Especially since she thought he was the cat’s ass.

He made sure to rub it in when he did dishes with Lily—yeah, him doing dishes. Mason would have memed it for sure with something emasculating.

“I think your daughter likes me.”

“She also likes the weather man on channel five.”

“What about the mother?”

“I’ve never met his mother.”

He flicked suds at her. “Don’t make me torture it out of you.”

“Is that another of your skills?”

“Actually, that’s more my buddy’s realm. He knows how to make anyone sing.” They didn’t call him Torment for nothing. If he closeted himself with you in a room, chances were you’d be begging to die before he was done.

“So you don’t work alone, Mr. Assassin? Wait, what did that lowlife call you, Sicaro?”

“Sicarius. It means assassin in Latin.”

“Fancy word. And who else is on your team? Wizard? Archer? Ooh, how about the Warrior?”

“No Wizard, but we do have an archer, Sagittariis.” Declan’s name and specialty. He was handy with a bow and could hunt anyone on the ground.

“And what about that guy who showed up at my place?”

“Latet. He finds things that are hidden.”

A laugh escaped her. “Do you get together on weekends and plan how you’re going to save the city from crime? Maybe roll some dice and do it D&D style while munching on chips and drinking beer?”

“Actually, we usually meet at the office to decide what jobs we’ll take.”

“Don’t you mean what properties you’re going to buy or sell?”

“We do some of that, too, mostly for tax purposes, but the real money is in specialty contracts.”

She paused washing to look at him. “You know you don’t have to keep faking being someone else. I like you just fine as a business guy.”

“You like me.” He smiled.

“A little.”

“She likes me!” He crowed it louder, enough that Zoe wandered in and asked, “Who likes you?”

“Your mommy does.”

At that, Lily splashed him, and he laughed. He laughed a lot with Lily and her daughter. Smiled more than he should, too. He felt so at ease around her.

She, on the other hand, acted like a nervous colt once Zoe was put to bed. Calvin was treated to a hug and a sloppy kiss on his cheek. It made him grin stupidly until Lily emerged several minutes later. She seemed surprised to see him in her living room.

“You’re not gone.”

“Nope.” Although the sound of her voice as she read a story to Zoe had almost put him to sleep.

Lily clasped and unclasped her fingers. Uncertainty plagued her again.

He didn’t harbor any doubts. He knew what he wanted. Who he wanted.

He patted the spot beside him on the couch. “Come here.”

“I should—”

“Come here before I come get you.”

“You can’t order me around,” Lily said, and yet she moved closer, close enough to perch on the very far edge of the sofa.

“Why do you keep fighting it?”

“Fighting what?”

“You and I are attracted to each other.” Before she could open her mouth to deny it, he shook his head. “Don’t make me prove you wrong. Then again…” He smiled, a slow, stretched, masculine grin. “Go ahead. I think we’d both enjoy me showing you what we both want.”

“Wanting isn’t enough. I’m not in the right place to get involved with someone.”

“Who said we had to do anything serious? We can just have sex.” He loved how she couldn’t hide the heat. Color rushed to her cheeks.

“We can’t just have sex.” She said it so primly.

It made him want to kiss her even more than before. “Why not? This isn’t the Dark Ages. You’re a woman. I’m a man. We both have needs.”

“You don’t understand. Things are complicated right now.”

“Don’t care.” He didn’t. He’d make it work.

Before she could make another silly protest, he moved, sliding across the couch, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her onto his lap.

“We shouldn’t.” Words softly spoken.

“Shouldn’t makes it more fun,” was his reply before he slanted his mouth over hers.

She didn’t shove him away.

Tugging at her lower lip, he sucked it and could have groaned as her breath hitched. He shifted her on his lap so that she sat squarely across his thighs. Confined in his jeans, his cock pushed and strained, urging him to turn her even more so that she straddled him.

Take it slow. He didn’t want to frighten her. Not when he finally had her softly sighing into his mouth. Her hands crept up until they rested on his shoulders, clutching at him, her mouth clinging.

He didn’t worry about getting interrupted. Not this time. Since the attack on his neighborhood, he’d taken steps. With the help of his partners, he’d expanded his watching network.

Cameras monitored the entrance to the neighborhood. Alarms would notify him if scanned vehicle plates came up as stolen. Even rentals would cause a ping. And while Lily didn’t know it, her house now had a few weapons stashed—just in case.

But, right now, he wasn’t thinking about the gun he’d slipped in between the mattresses of her bed or the garrote he’d hung off the curtain pole, hiding it behind the panel. At this moment, all he was thinking of was how good and right she felt in his arms. How perfect she tasted. And how much he needed her.

His hands shoved at her shirt, pushing it up over her silky skin so that his hands might touch without impediment, all the while his lips forged a scorching path down the smooth column of her neck.

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” The words emerged in between pants. Excitement mixed with nervousness.

“We should have been doing this a long time ago.” From the first moment they’d met, his attraction to her had only grown. Now, it raged—a wild and lusty beast that needed satisfaction.

“But—”

He kissed her.

She still mumbled, “Zoe.”

That one word reminded him that they weren’t exactly alone. The child could wander from her room and find them. They needed to move to a bedroom with a door. A door with no lock, but at least he could close it, and he pulled back the covers on the bed before laying Lily on the clean white sheets.

She stared up at him, her eyelids heavy with passion, her lips plump from the kisses.

He stripped off his shirt and couldn’t help but flex at the appreciation in her gaze. He unbuttoned the top of his jeans but left them on. He didn’t want to move too fast. Even though she no longer protested, theirs was a fragile beginning that he didn’t want to end.

He covered her body with his and found her mouth for another kiss. Her lips parted at his tongue’s insistence, and there was nothing tenuous about the way she sucked on it.

Groan. How sweet she tasted. He needed more. His hands once again tugged at the fabric of her shirt. He leaned off her enough to move it up and past her head, leaving her bared to his gaze.

Perfection. A handful of breasts, yet full enough he could cup and squeeze, the tips topped with dark nipples. Fat nipples that begged for him to suck.

How could he refuse the invitation?

At the first touch of his mouth on her berries, she arched and cried out, a soft cry and then a muffled moan as she fought to restrain her fervor.

The nipple between his lips tightened into a hard nub. He sucked at it, pulling on that taut peak. She made such sweet noises. He let the nipple pop long enough to once again plant a kiss on her lips, capturing her soft sighs. But the lure of her body drew him, so he abandoned her mouth to trail soft kisses along her cheek. He traveled down her neck, pausing over the fluttering pulse, a rapid stutter that matched his racing heart. He couldn’t help but nip at her skin, a primal urge filling him, one that wanted him to leave a mark. He sucked at the skin before moving down again.

The valley between her breasts beckoned, and he nuzzled his face in that soft space. Her fingers clasped his hair, tugging. He kissed the skin before moving enough to capture the nipple he’d yet to meet, pulling it into his mouth.

The bud tightened as he suckled, and her fingers left his hair to dig into his shoulders. Her body arched against him, pushing more of her breast against his face. Her passion evoked a groan of satisfaction. He was bringing her this pleasure. She responded so sweetly to his touch.

And she made the most delicious noise when he bit down on a nub.

Need engorged him. His cock strained behind the confines of his jeans, and much as he wanted to keep playing with her breasts, he needed more.

I need to sink into her. Claim her as a man claims a woman.

He leaned back as he straddled her thighs, noting how beautiful she looked with passion heating her features.

Her breasts taunted him, the nipples begging for attention. But he was after another treasure.

His fingers tickled down her torso, stroking her skin, watching her shiver as they reached the waistband of her pants. Yoga pants with an elastic top and lots of give. He tugged, pulled them down from her waist over a belly that rounded slightly. She watched as he kept pulling, teasing them over her hips, dragging the cotton panties she wore with them.

When he’d skimmed them off, he tossed them to the side and was treated to a view of her, naked and flushed.

“You are so fucking beautiful.”

She licked her lips. “If you say so.”

“I do say so. Isn’t this proof?” He indicated the bulge and couldn’t help but swell as her gaze went to it and stayed.

The damned jeans hurt, so he tugged at his zipper, his briefs not made to contain his erection. It sprang forth, and her eyes widened.

He almost came right then and there. Almost spread her legs to thrust into her.

He held back.

Barely.

Instead, he knelt between her thighs and leaned forward so he could cup her mound. The heat of it scorched, and the proof of her arousal wetted.

Dipping down, he closed his eyes and inhaled the sweetness of her scent. There was something powerful about knowing how he affected her. A good thing, given how much she affected him. Kneeling between her legs, he maneuvered himself so that they hung over his shoulders and brought his face level with her sex. He nuzzled the moist flesh, and she trembled.

Her hands grasped at his hair as soon as he gave her that first lick.

Mmmm. Honey.

Another lick, then another. He couldn’t get enough of her, parting her nether lips with his tongue, probing her for more. The fingers tangled in his hair grasped tighter, pulling him close that he might keep feasting on her flesh. The taste of her made him ache. The need to sink into her and feel her sex clamping around his cock almost made him stop.

But that would mean he wouldn’t feel her come on his tongue.

And I want her to come for me.

He licked at her clit, stroking it until she quivered, before latching on to it with his lips.

“Cal!” She said his name on a high-pitched cry, and it spurred him into sucking at her button, teasing it and stimulating her. Her hips rocked and trembled, almost throwing him off. He held fast and kept working her sweet spot with his tongue, circling the clit before sucking it.

Her body tensed, and he knew she was close. So close to coming for him. He wiggled enough to get a hand up close and slid a finger into her moist sex. He groaned at the tightness, the sound of it vibrating against her clit. In response, her sex squeezed his finger, clutched to the point that his cock felt jealousy.

A second finger inserted into her silky sex had her bucking and then thrashing. He finger fucked her, slick digits slipping in and out as he lapped at her clit. Faster and faster until she arched off the bed, body taut and bowed.

She came, the bliss of her climax rolling through her body, causing her channel to clamp down on his fingers.

It was glorious.

But he didn’t stop. Even as she still shook from her orgasm, he kept fingering her, thrusting into her and licking, building her back up, loving how she mewled and thrashed. He shoved down his pants to give himself more room.

He had to pause, though, to rip open the condom package. To his shock, and pleasure, her hands helped ease the latex over his shaft, her fingers rolling it and then gripping him.

She held him and stroked, tugging his covered cock toward her.

The tip of him pressed at the opening of her sex, and the thick head rubbed against her clit before sliding in.

He pushed in slowly, holding himself over her on arms that threatened to tremble so great did he have to control himself. He wanted to just plunge to the hilt. Drive his cock deep.

But he went slowly.

Inch by inch. Feeling her squeeze around him.

Oh, dear fucking hell, she squeezed him tight.

She reached for him and drew him down for a kiss. A sweet mesh of lips as he buried himself deep inside her.

He began to move, in and out, short thrusts at first, then longer ones, pulling almost completely out before slamming back in. Each slap of flesh against flesh drawing a soft cry from her and eliciting a squeeze of her channel.

Faster. Thrust. Pump. Retreat. Thrust again.

Their breaths grew ragged and mixed together. Her legs wrapped around his hips, but not so firmly he couldn’t move. Under his cock, his balls drew tight, and he had to hold on. He wanted to draw out this intense moment of pleasure.

Fingers dug into his back as she hugged him close, the painful prick of her nails making him rear his head and utter a low, guttural groan. Once more their lips clashed together for a hungry kiss. Her body rocked in time to his thrusts. Her breathing grew short, her body tensed, and she came, came again in squeezing waves that milked his cock.

He could contain himself no longer. With one final thrust, a hard one that took him in to the hilt, he came and collapsed atop her.

They lay like that for several moments, gathering their breaths, basking in the afterglow.

When she finally stirred under him, he was prepared to counter any argument or regret she had.

To his surprise, she asked, “Please tell me you brought more than one condom.”

He had. They put them to good use.