“Mandy, I have needs!”

Oh, God, she followed me into the main hall of the country club.

Why would she follow me?

I covered my eyes, stumbling anywhere I could hide from what I just witnessed.

I had my pick of traumas—emotional, mental, social, existential…

Pretty sure I lost my faith too, somewhere around the time Mom thanked Jesus for the man’s personal endowments.

I crashed into the fountain, stumbled, and would have tumbled into the water if Nate hadn’t caught me. I wish he let me fall into the water, then I might have washed that discovery off of me, but I probably needed acetone or another industrial solvent for that. Holy water. A priest.

An exorcist.

Lindsey was not at all amused. She stomped her feet and squealed.

“What in the world is going on?”

“No words,” I whispered.

I blinked, forcing the Lovecraftian image out of my head. That horror remained in my sight, like I’d stared straight into the sun. Oh, to be one of the lucky bastards who had the foresight to sear out their retinas.

Mom stormed into the ballroom. Thankfully she had put on clothes, but I think she left her bra somewhere in the bathroom.

Her words repeated in my mind.

Give it to Momma.

Her steps stopped before me. When we were little, Mom insisted Lindsey and I look at her when we were being punished. Not today. Never again.

I was certain she didn’t have time to wash the fingers she pointed at me.

“Don’t you dare lecture me!” Mom scowled. “What you saw was an adult thing.”

I didn’t know what I saw. I didn’t want to remember what I saw.

I had just caught my mother sneaking into a public restroom to have sex with a stranger…

Because I was about to do it too!

Although Nate wasn’t a stranger.

…And neither was the man who ran after her.

Nate had stayed quiet until now, but he swore in shock once he recognized Mom’s chosen partner.

“Holy shit.”

Marcus Washington jogged after Mom. He said nothing, but rejoined his equally perplexed wife.

Oh my God.

Mom was having an affair with the groom’s dad?

Mom crossed her arms. That helped to reduce the wiggle of her unsecured chest, but it couldn’t undo the damage. All I envisioned was the absolute earthquakes that were her mamma-jammas lopping this way and that as she pile-drived her chosen conquest.

“What the hell is going on?” Lindsey demanded. “Stop embarrassing me!”

“It’s perfectly natural, Mandy!” Mom wasn’t letting this go. “I will not have you shaming me.”

“I…I didn’t shame,” I said. God, she was angry. Then again, I would be too if I had been interrupted before I…ugh. “I will never, ever talk about it again, Mom.”

Lindsey groaned. “What happened?”

Mom’s voice rose. “I had hoped you were mature enough to understand that sometimes a woman needs to be pleasured.”

Lindsey’s mouth dropped open. Nate shuddered.

The entire country club staff and its guests stopped to stare.

Hiding in a hole wouldn’t do it. I planned to rent some machinery and dig a pit large enough to bury my entire family from regular society.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said. “Let’s just drop it.”

“We are all sexual beings! There is nothing wrong with two consenting adults exploring their desires.”

Nate nudged me. “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

I gritted my teeth. “So not the time!”

“I mean…if you have questions…” Mom shook her head. “Lord knows you haven’t found a man yet. I never needed to worry about this conversation with you.”

Done. That was it. I was done.

“It’s fine, Mom.” I stepped back. “Look, you guys have the venue stuff handled. I’m going to…go. And I might be back for the wedding.”

I bolted for the exit as my sister lost her mind.

Nate followed, and I was too shocked to shoo him. He led me to his car and helped me into the passenger seat. We sat in silence as we contemplated ways to purge the memory from our minds.

“So…” He started the car, but he didn’t drive. “That was your mom…”

“Who was the man she was…?”

Riding?

Gag.

“Gotta tell you, baby, I don’t make a habit of recognizing men based on their…meat, mid-grind.”

“I think it was Bryce’s dad.” I bit my lip. “Marcus ran into the hall after her.”

Nate laughed. “Great. This is a special kind of fucked up.”

“Take me home?”

He agreed, though just as the heebies shook out of me, the jeebies smacked me full force. I recognized the SUV in the corner of the parking lot.

“Oh no.” My stomach dropped. “Dad’s here? He’s gonna walk into the middle of all of this. What if he finds out that Mom is…”

Nate shrugged. “Doing what? They’re separated. Didn’t they sign the divorce papers?”

“It’s not final.”

“Well, your mom was one good bounce away from drying the ink on her signature.”

I gasped. “How can you say that?”

“Baby, they’re adults. They can do what they want.”

I guessed that included hurting each other and destroying thirty years of a life together.

But Mom had sex with the groom’s father!

This wasn’t just going to tear the family apart; it’d ruin the Washingtons and decimate the entire neighborhood. Our families were friends. We grew up together, helped each other, married each other.

Was no one happy anymore?

Hell, Lindsey and Bryce were fighting more and more, especially once he learned about the first “Dirty Dance” he’d have with his bride. Mom and Dad couldn’t be in the same room together. Now Marcus and Darla had infidelity problems.

Damn. The only person who had it right was Nate. He kept out of relationships and commitments, and he was happier for it.

Maybe he knew best.

I didn’t want to think why it comforted me that he drove me home and walked me to my door, but Nate knew how to make me smile. Laugh.

Melt.

I let him inside my apartment, and it wasn’t even against my better judgment. I just…

Wanted him there.

He had been to my apartment before…the first time we fooled around. Sure, it wasn’t his classy bar or his beautifully renovated apartment on its second floor, but I liked my place. It was tiny, but it got me away from home during college and kept me away once I graduated. Dad’s advertising company did well, but I didn’t have enough saved for a better place.

Besides, I had planned to find a home once I met the man of my dreams. We’d save for a house, have a small wedding, and then start a family.

Happily ever after, right?

My life was just a little out-of-order.

“You okay?” Nate asked.

He eyed the bed in the corner—miraculously made this morning without laundry stacked over the comforter.

“I can run to the bar, get us a six pack if you want to drink it away.”

The closer we got to the wedding, the harder it was to refuse a drink. Apparently, the only way people survived the last few weeks of planning was to write the toasts while toasted.

“I’ll survive.” I plunked onto the couch. “I just didn’t expect to walk in on that.”

“Front row show too.”

I gave an awkward laugh. “At least it wasn’t a role reversal. Had we been in there a couple minutes earlier—”

“I don’t know what you saw, but from my angle it looked like they had been going for a while.”

“Oh gross!” I smacked him with a throw pillow. Nate grinned, seizing it from me to retaliate. I ducked away. “Haven’t I suffered enough?”

He shrugged. “The ladies’ room was occupied. Nothing stopped us from using the men’s.”

“Do I look that depraved?”

“Like mother, like daughter.”

I huffed, grabbing the rest of the pillows on the couch to pitch at his head. Nate laughed, blocking the shots. He smiled, and that damn grin fluttered me into quiet confusion. It was sexy enough to make sneaking into bathrooms in public places seem…fun.

Something about Nate made me wild, but even at his most wicked, he seemed so gentle and passionate and so easy to…

I sucked in a breath.

Well, that was a trap I set for myself, and I nearly fell in head first.

If I wasn’t careful, I’d keep tumbling around Nate, perpetually off-balance and trembling and aching to touch him.

I tugged a pillow back and clutched it to my chest. It wasn’t the best defense against him, but I wanted to be cautious. If Nate hadn’t noticed a difference in my body at the cabin, I doubted he’d randomly guess about the baby now.

His baby.

I liked the sound of it.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

Nate smirked. “About what? Dangerous question, baby. You might want to be more specific.”

True. I had too many questions and not enough courage to ask them.

What do you want to do about the baby? How do we handle having a child? Would you like to be involved? Do you think it’s okay that we aren’t together?

...Should we get together?

Like that wouldn’t create a mess of complications. I’d stick to the stickiest issue at the moment.

“What do we do about my mom and Bryce’s dad?”

Nate answered immediately with a decisive wave of his hand. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Not our problem.”

“But he’s married—”

“You can’t save everyone’s relationship,” Nate said. “Hell, most people can’t save their own. He knew what he did, and so did your mom.”

I squeezed the pillow. “Just feels…crummy.”

“It shouldn’t. You’re too fixated on everyone else’s relationships.”

He stretched out against the couch, arms on the back as if baiting me to scooch close and snuggle against his chest. That was the type of thinking that got me in trouble in the beginning.

“Hell, you’re too obsessed with relationships in general,” he said.

“At least I’m giving them some thought, unlike you who runs at the first sign of commitment.”

“I’m not afraid of commitment.”

“Then why haven’t you found someone yet?”

“Who says I haven’t?”

My throat closed. “Have you?”

“There you go again.” Nate teased. “Always thinking of other people’s love lives instead of your own.”

“Believe me, I’m focused on mine.”

“Are you?”

I answered honestly. “Why do you think I keep pushing you away?”

“I’d love to know.”

He curled a finger for me to come closer, but there was only one way that game would end. I shook my head and dug into my side of the couch.

That only baited him.

I should have stopped him.

I should have pushed him away.

Nate crawled over me, pinning me in the corner with a hand on the couch’s arm and back. The pillow was a good choice. It kept a solid four inches between us, enough room that I’d have to lean forward to take a kiss.

And that was a dangerous and foolish thing to do.

“You were saying, baby?” Nate shifted, knocking my legs open so he could get even closer. “Why do you keep pushing me away?”

I was doing a really lousy job of it now. “Because you’re bad for me.”

“Am I?” He leaned a little closer, and his hoppy, masculine scent dizzied my head. “Be honest.”

“You’re the only man I’ve ever let this close.”

“That doesn’t make me bad for you.”

“It doesn’t make you good.”

“I think you’re scared.”

I smirked. “I’ve already had sex with you, Nate. A couple times. I can’t be scared of that anymore.”

“Maybe you’re scared because you like it.”

“I think you know I do.”

“Sure, I’ve figured it out.” He dropped closer to me. Was he always this warm? I stared at his lips as he whispered. “But you’re worried about admitting it.”

“Okay. I admit it. I like having sex with you.” I shook my head. “Now what?”

“We do it again. And again. And again.” His lips touched mine, the tiniest graze. “And you’ll like it more and more each time.”

“This is why you’re dangerous to me. You make sex sound so…easy.”

He smiled. “It is.”

“And good.”

His voice rumbled. “It’s very good.”

“And simple.”

“I’m a simple man, baby. I gotta have air to breathe, food to eat, and you for everything else.”

His kiss was as sweet as his words.

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” I said.

“Why not?”

“I might start believing you.”

His hand caressed my cheek. “You should. I’m telling you the truth. When I say I want you…” He kissed me again, his tongue flicking mine. “I want you. When I say you’re beautiful.” He brushed the hair from my face. “I mean you’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. And when I say I can’t stop thinking about you…”

His hand drifted along my hip. I imagined him touching low on my belly, where the baby rested.

I wished he might have done it.

“It means you’re the only girl I’ve wanted since I took you that first time.” His eyes flashed a deep and genuine green. “Mandy, I haven’t fucked anyone else since we hooked up two months ago. No one else could compare.”

Oh.

I wasn’t ready for that. For him. For his kiss or his touch or his honesty. He pulled the pillow away, or maybe I tossed it to the side. It didn’t matter. My arms circled his neck, and I surrendered to him.

His hands tickled my sides, aiming for my jeans. I didn’t protest as his zipper tugged down or my pants came off, but I searched him for any hint, any indication of what he expected.

Or what I expected.

“What happens after this?” I whispered. “When we’ve had each other again?”

“There you go, worrying about the future.” His touch silenced me, brushing his fingers along the warmth pooling between my legs. “I’m going to make sure you focus on right now. Don’t worry about what happens later.”

“It’s important.”

“Not as important as this.”

I gasped as his hardness pressed against my core. The slickness should have shamed me, but we were beyond embarrassment or surprise at our reaction for the other.

I wanted him. He wanted me.

And maybe I should have thought only of that moment.

Just of me and him.

Together.

He thrust inside me, and my delighted cry echoed with his determined grunt. The strength of his body ached me with such a perfect and wonderful power, something that built and swayed and controlled me with the demands of his movement.

It was a bad idea to let him get this close. Every thrust heated me beyond control, and every wave of pleasure teased me with the thought of more than just this short time with him.

I envisioned a dozen moments leading to a handful of days then a span of weeks and finally the joy that could be the rest of our lives.

I don’t know when it happened, but my feelings for him grew until they were no longer a simple crush. Every time I welcomed him deep within me, my addiction to him strengthened. He was the wrong man who might have given me the right things. I couldn’t risk losing his touch, his kiss, this amazingly full feeling.

So I didn’t think of the future. Nothing of the baby or the wedding or even what I’d say after I gave myself to him again.

I welcomed the simplicity and wove myself deeper into the knot I cast.

And I wondered if I’d ever be able to unravel it.