As night fell, the strand of lights she kept on a timer flickered on, making the fairy lights woven through a tall trellis of greenery twinkle in the growing darkness. The scent of night jasmine wafted in the warm evening air.

A sensory overload shiver rippled across her skin, moving in tandem with the unstoppable quaking of her body.

Jen sensed Ryan’s withdrawal and clung tighter. She wasn’t ready to come back from the clouds.

Savoring the feel of his large body weighing her down, she pressed her lips on whatever skin she could reach. She liked how Ryan Lloyd made her feel. Liked his hot, muscular body. And his big, sturdy hands.

Liked how his thighs had muscle on top of muscle. And she especially liked what remained buried inside her.

Having experienced a connection with him that she’d only ever read about was a game changer. Ryan’s undeniable sexual magnetism and fierce lovemaking shook her up—big time. Joy for all the possibilities filled her with peace.

Jen felt his bold stare focused on her face as he shifted and slid from her body. A reflex pout and groan of denial was all she had when deprived of his intimate possession.

For a moment, she thought tension flickered in his eyes and hardened his body, but then he wrapped his arms underneath her and rolled them until she was sprawled on top.

He held her tight and kissed the top of her head. She snuggled into his chest with a satisfied purr and listened to his heartbeat.

“I have so many questions,” she eventually murmured.

His chest rose and fell with a manly chuckle. “Same here. Starting with, finance and business? Really? Why in the world are you holding my brother’s hand when you could be running the whole damn show?”

She giggled and kissed his chest. Raising her head, she put a fist beneath her chin and smiled into his watchful gaze.

“Just because that’s what my degree says doesn’t mean I was any good at it! Matter of fact, I kind of suck all around, and then there’s the whole part about not liking the business world very much. But I have to support myself, so I just figured the best way to put what I learned to some sort of use was to be a right hand to the first harried CEO I could pull in. Just so happens that John took the bait.”

His blue eyes glittered when he laughed. She smiled bigger.

“Well, I’m glad my socially awkward, type A personality older brother had the good sense to see what you had to offer.”

Jen couldn’t agree more.

“Hey, are we doing twenty questions?”

He chuckled again. “That brain of yours doesn’t stay quiet for long, does it?”

“No, it does not,” she jokingly sneered. “And don’t you forget it, buster. Here’s my first question. Why are you here, Ryan? My place is more than a little out of the way to believe you were just passing by.”

“You mean what brought me to your doorstep and led to us making love on your terrace?”

Ryan’s husky sounding voice and the slightly teasing lilt made her senses spin. In all honesty, she didn’t give a crap how it started. What consumed her now was where they went from here.

“It was that idiot, John, of course,” he said as he filled in the blanks. “That guy could screw up a screw convention.”

An involuntary giggle-snort indicated her agreement.

“Hey, don’t laugh. I’m serious, darlin’. You practically spoon-fed Samantha to him and left him a road map and instructions.”

“Oh, god,” she groaned when it dawned on her that something was up. “What did he do?”

“It’s a little complicated,” he answered. “And in a roundabout way, it involves us.”

“Us?” She rose on her elbows and studied his face. “Explain us. I only ask,” she told him, “because, until the past hour, there was no us.”

“I’m going to make you take that back at some point, but for right now, you get a pass.”

Smirking at him, Jen sat up and tried to gather her freak show mess of tangled hair into a manageable clump. Ryan and his watchful eyes studied every move. He also gave her breasts a naughty and very bold fondle.

Hair managed, she scrubbed her hands up and down her face and cleared her sex-muddled thoughts.

“Okay. I’m listening.”

His response?

“You have beautiful breasts.”

Rolling her nipples right then was so unfair! She covered his hands with hers and had to bite her lip when her action didn’t deter him.

“Ryan. What did John do?”

“What?” he asked with a confused scowl. “Oh, right. Hang on a sec, though. I have to do something.”

With a hand on her back, he pressed between her shoulder blades and urged her forward until his lips captured a nipple and sucked hard.

“Oh.” Her shocked moan punctuated the dangerous pulses firing off in her body that made her lose her thread of thought awfully damn fast.

Jen panted and tangled her hand in his long hair, encouraging his oral feast with soft pressure on his head. He responded by opening further and taking the end of her breast fully into his mouth. The sight was surprisingly erotic and crazy arousing.

She heard a faint pop when he released her flesh after a ferocious suckling and set her engorged nipple free.

He held her breast in his hand and softly licked the tip. Ryan’s husky groan when he kissed her nipple and sat back wiped her brain of thought.

“As for my brother,” he grumbled. “I think it’s safe to say he was looking forward to the dinner reservation you made for him and Samantha. And then our mother happened. She blew into town, and before he knew what she was up to, he found himself in a command performance dilemma. Two words. Dinner Friday.”

“Hmph,” Jen grunted. “Sounds like her. So what’s the problem?”

“Well, there’s a catch, you see. Mom thinks we’re both seeing people, and she’s not having it. John bitched and told her to clean up the Montgomery mess and to leave me alone. Smelling blood in the water, she pounced, and he caved. Constance Nelson Lloyd has demanded her sons appear with their women. No excuses will be entertained, so none will be given.”

“This is going to make sense soon, right?”

He winced. “Sorry. I know how it sounds. My family. What can I say?”

“So what did John do exactly that prompted him to send you on a fool’s errand? He did explain that screwing with my vacation time voids our contract, yes?”

Ryan frowned. “No, he most certainly did not, the asshole! Is that what you meant by having to quit? You know that’s not gonna happen, right?”

Jen dropped her face into her hands, shook it, and groaned. “Oh, dear lord. Dealing with you Lloyd men is going to make me crazy.” She looked up and pinned him to the spot with an arched brow and a dead-serious expression. “One topic at a time, Ryan. You still haven’t explained what John has done and why you came here.”

He smirked and then tried to replace the expression with something he probably imagined was an innocent look. Boy, was he wrong!

“You’re going to ignore the comment about both of us bringing our women for a motherly inspection tour, aren’t you?”

She gave him a smug grin and asked, “How did men end up in control?”

“Point taken.” He sniggered with a deep chuckle. “You win, lady. Here it is in a linear fashion. Step by step. John panicked when faced with competing expectations for Friday’s date with Samantha. You weren’t there to hold his hand, so he choked and did a stupid. And before you ask, I have no idea what the fuck he was thinking or how he imagined his bonehead solution would help things.”

She grimaced and mock shivered. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” Gasping, she quickly asked, “Oh, my god. He didn’t propose or anything like that, did he?”

“You have something against insta-love?” he joked.

Color and heat shot into her face, and she glanced away. She was naked, sitting outside on a lounger with her boss’s brother. A man she’d just made reckless love to. Insta-love? Yeah, she was already chest-deep in the possibilities.

Ryan stroked the side of her face and leaned in for a sweet kiss. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, love. Now, John. Here’s what he did. Do you know what Space Camp is?”

“Um, yeah. Matter of fact, I do. My brother and his high school science club nerd friends spent a week there on a field trip. Almost two decades later and he still natters on about it as though he helped invent space travel.”

“Yes, well, my brother arranged for Chelsea, who isn’t old enough, by the way, to join a team of nine to eleven-year-olds for a special session.”

“Get out,” she rasped as John’s monumental stupidity came into clearer view.

“Like I said,” Ryan continued with a half shrug, “I have no clue what he hoped to achieve or how Space Camp would fix his Friday dilemma. Doesn’t matter. Not really. Because Samantha was not amused and lit into him rather publicly. I think sexist, pompous, and asshat were operative words in the shouted discussion.”

She sighed heavily. “I believe holy fuckballs is the only thing I can say.”

“He tried to reach you, but apparently, you go off radar for the duration of your vacation. He freaked. Time is running out. Samantha is freezing him out. He did mention coming to your place wasn’t a good idea, but he was by no means forceful about it. I think he knew you’d never quit his sorry ass.”

“So you came here on your own to ask for my help with John? How do we go from there to sneaking into my apartment with a horticulture delivery?”

“Timing,” he answered with a truthful expression of innocence. “Came prepared to knock and beg but I arrived just as the delivery guys got you on the intercom. I could see right away they had no idea how to get a huge tree up to the third floor, so I intervened. The rest is kismet.”

“Kismet?” She snickered. “Seriously?”

“Fate, destiny, fortune, karma ... take your pick.”

Well, she thought. At least I knew how he got in the door. But would he tell her what caused him to kiss her in the greenhouse with such hunger?

She never got the chance to ask.

“Everything made sense once I saw all this,” he told her with a head motion. “The attraction confused me for the longest time. That’s some act you put on, Jenna.”

She squirmed. He still had no definitive idea, but the minute they went into her apartment, he’d see how right he was.

“And then I opened the greenhouse door, and it was as if a piece of my past slammed into me. My father cultivated orchids,” he told her with emotion quivering in his voice. “He fancied himself a botanist. Plants and the natural world were twin passions. When I smelled the flowers, it all came rushing back, and it felt like he was there with me ... and at that moment inside a moment, I heard his spirit. Encouraging me to trust my feelings.”

He looked at her long and hard.

“So I kissed you, and everything fell into place.”

A smile slowly transformed her face. “Fell into place for you. For me ... you blew my carefully constructed life to hell.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

She heard something in his voice that made Jen pause.

“I’m not.”

“Promise me you’ll hold that thought, okay?”

“Why? What am I missing? Are you secretly married or something?”

“No.” He swiftly snorted. “But I do have a dog. And a house.”

“I like dogs.” She laughed.

Ryan took her hands and kissed both. She knew a serious moment when it came around the corner and unintentionally held her breath.

“Jenna. Um, we have to get married. Right away.”

“Sorry?” Confusion marked her face.

He cleared his throat and kept a hold on her hands. “Will you marry me, Jenna Carlton?”

She shook her head twice. What was he talking about? Thinking he was just fooling around, she tried to make a joke of it.

“What happened to a dinner date with your mom? Cart before the horse, much?”

He hung his head and groaned. “Goddamn, I don’t know how to say this without coming off like a dick.”

His serious frown cut through her teasing offense and made her swallow anxiously.

“Uh, Jen. We, uh, we just had unprotected sex. And unless you are on the pill or something like that, we have a situation.”

The pill? Well, shit. She’d stopped taking it ages ago. No need to pump her body full of hormones and stuff when she wasn’t sexually active and had no intentions of changing that fact.

She glanced at Ryan’s grim expression.

Since she never planned on scratching an itch for the hell of it and because she couldn’t have what she wanted, she … what?

The truth exploded like a grenade in her mind. She’d abstained because she couldn’t have what she wanted? Jenna blushed and bit her lip because what she wanted all along had been him.

Oh, for god’s sake. Could this get any more complicated?

“No,” she mumbled. “Not on the pill. I don’t date, and well, never mind.”

He gently touched her face. “Am I the never mind?”

Should she answer? The leap of faith was huge, but Jenna knew she had to make the effort.

“Yes.”

“How long?” He asked so quietly she wasn’t sure he actually asked.

“Do you remember how we met?”

Ryan laughed. “Fuck, yeah. You thought I was the valet at my mother’s annual party. And you didn’t even have a car.” He chuckled.

“I was new to Lloyd Global and still figuring out how to manage John’s foibles when I was invited to your mom’s semi-formal shindig. What was I supposed to think?” she wailed. “Two hundred people dressed up at a party where champagne was passed around and some guy needing a shave who was wearing the loudest Hawaiian shirt I’d ever seen gave me a ton of shit for no reason.”

She didn’t realize the massive admission she’d made until his knowing grin got bigger and bigger.

“Fancied some bow-chicka-wow-wow with the hired help, huh? Bet that put a wrinkle in your slacks. The thought of slumming it with the hourly help?”

She fought the giggle building inside her chest and gave him a haughty sniff. “No need to be offensive.”

He didn’t give an inch and needled her in every way he could.

“So Ms. Carlton. Was this a legs-on-my-shoulders fuckfest? Were there lots of grunting and slurping noises? Or maybe panties around your ankles and slam fucked from behind on the hood of a fancy car?”

Oh, man. He was so playing with the wrong wordsmith if he thought she’d shrink from some lurid comments.

“Truth be told”—she smirked with all the hooded eye shade she could muster—“I envisioned something way nastier.”

“Nasty, is it?” he asked with a cheeky eye wag. “How nasty? Be warned, though, my preschool teacher said I refused to share with others. Nothing has changed in the time since.”

“Yeah, about that.” She snickered. “I’ll pass on group activities. Never was much of a joiner.”

Ryan pinched a nipple and chomped his teeth together a couple of times. “I’m going to need another feeding soon, so you might want to explain your take on nasty before I show you how I think it’s done.”

“Have you ever been blindfolded and used for your cock?”

His laughter was so loud she was sure it bounced off the nearby buildings. “Can’t say that I have.”

“Which part?” she drawled. “The blindfold or the other?”

“Uh, definitely the blindfold. No comment on the other.”

“Well then,” she crowed. “There you go.”

His shocked silence gave her a false sense of having taken the upper hand before she realized he was messing with her.

“Let me see if I have this right. That first time we met when you had your snotty act in full swing, you imagined blindfolding me and having yourself a ride on the wonder stick?”

She might have to surrender her wordsmith black belt because he was good. Damn good.

“Okay, okay. Don’t you dare laugh at me. I gave you the admission you wanted. Yes, from that first day. Satisfied?”

“Actually, baby ... the real question is, were you satisfied?”

“You know I was,” she replied.

He winked. “I know you were a couple of times.”

The fire in her cheeks burned her skin.

Ryan chuckled. “A first? My cock thanks you.”

Thinking about his big, hard cock inside Jenna made her tingly all over.

The temperature changed incredibly fast, and the teasing stopped. He was blunt and demanding when he spoke next.

“This time, we fuck.”

“Wh-what?”

He moved the hand that had been in his lap and revealed an erection. Her heart thumped wildly, and without thinking, she licked her lips as she stared at his thickening cock.

Ryan took her chin in his hand and forced her eyes to his. “Next time you can suck me dry, baby. This time, on your knees, ass up high.”

“Oh, um, really?”

He chuckled and traced her lips with his thumb. “Which part makes you wet? Sucking my cock or being fucked from behind?”

“Full disclosure,” she mumbled. “I’m not all that good with the oral thing and to be honest, ass up? Um, no.”

“Show me your tongue,” he growled.

She opened her mouth. He put his thumb on her tongue and said, “Suck.”

Swirling her tongue round and round, Jen moaned and sucked until a surprising jolt of sexual need made her core tighten.

He grabbed her chin again and replaced his thumb with lips and tongue, kissing her into quivering submission.

“Still questioning if you have what it takes?”

She did but her head shook.

“On your knees, Jenna.”

He stood next to the chaise lounge with his cock pointing in her direction. While he deftly fondled his sex, she rolled onto her stomach and got on her hands and knees.

“No,” he growled.

His hand pushed her head down until she was bent in half, arms wide, with her face on the cushion. The position made her feel exposed and very turned on.

He took hold of her bottom and moved her around until she was in the right position. His hands parted her, and he kissed her vulnerable opening.

“For future reference, this is how we do it. First, we make love. Then I fuck your brains out. You good with that?”

Jen wiggled her ass. “Please,” she murmured. “Do it now, Ryan.”

She was ready when his cock rubbed around her pussy. No need for any buildup. Shockingly, she realized she wanted it rough and hard.

When he plunged, a great many crude words were groaned, grunted, sighed, and shouted.

Transported to carnal paradise where every atom in her body was primed to give and receive pleasure, she held on and gloried in his possession.

Their passion made sounds of filthy perfection.

As the peak came into view, he roughly asked if she wanted him to come inside her. Her passage tightened and throbbed without mercy.

“Yes,” she grunted. “Oh fuck, yes.”

The admission sent her flying. He tickled her clit until she shook and then sent her over the edge into a free-falling whole body orgasm that started in her soul, wound through her heart, and exploded in her dripping pussy.

His shout of satisfaction when she came echoed in her ears. When he bent over her and grunted like a wild animal, she relished the sound of his body slapping against hers as he came with a jolt of thundering passion.

She liked this position. Maybe too much if her wildly trembling legs and howling grunts were any indication.

What in the goddamn hell was he doing?

Bent over Jen’s shaking body, he got in touch with his animal side and reverted to a primitive being with a bit more ferocity than he intended or knew he was capable of.

Holy mother of god.

The Herculean thrusts stole Ryan’s sanity and sent him hurtling into a lust-fueled abyss where the only thing that mattered was taking complete possession of this woman.

Each flex of his hips spelled out the words. She. Was. His.

Earthy, savage sounds came from his throat when his cock exploded inside her. Something that seared on his brain as he imagined his life force melding with hers. It was primal, erotic, and deeply, deeply satisfying.

They collapsed when the storm passed. He covered her body with his, and only the worry that he’d crush her made him move. Her shaking body felt so warm when he gathered her close. Kissing her shoulders after moving her hair aside, he let the feeling of rightness have its way.

It was inevitable that one or both of them would pass out from exhaustion. Had he slept? Ryan wasn’t sure. Everything was sort of blurry, and it was already dark when they started that second time, so it was anybody’s guess what time it was.

Jen was on her side with her knees up as he spooned her close. It felt amazing to have her in his arms. She was incredible, and he would be a fool to run away from the fact he was already seriously in love with the enigmatic sorceress who played with his emotions as a cold, controlled bitch and then robbed him of his senses with her inner sex nymph.

“Thanks, Dad,” he murmured. Kissing her shoulder, he breathed her in and let all the feelings he was experiencing have free rein.

This, right here, was some good shit.

She was out cold, and he needed to get up. The bathroom was calling to him.

Carefully disengaging so he didn’t disturb her, Ryan slithered off the chaise lounge and stood, looking down at her sleeping form. He’d run inside, find the bathroom, take care of business, and then locate a throw blanket to cover her.

Reasonable plan, right?

Ryan glanced around, saw his leather cord necklace, and put it on. Then he found his clothes and gathered them in his arms on his way inside. Having zero recollection of taking off his boots, he found them next to the French doors and grabbed them too.

The very second he stepped into the apartment, he had a sensation of falling through the looking glass into a completely upside down, inside out alternate world because it turned out that neat, tidy, uptight, OCD driven Jenna Carlton was anything but.

His jaw dropped open at his first glimpse of her real life.

Stuff was everywhere. Literal stuff. Everywhere.

But not in a hoarding, dirty way. There was ... evidence of order and a weird scheme to things but still. Jenna was either a pack rat or had really shitty organizational skills.

As he looked around, he marveled at the lack of available wall space because something was hanging every foot or so. A grouping of pictures here. A framed painting there. A colorful box-framed quilt hung above the sectional. More throw pillows than one person could use in a lifetime piled on the chairs and sofa. The coffee table was a book and magazine repository. A basket overflowing with pens and markers sat on top of a stack of coloring books.

He walked naked around the living room taking it all in. Her bookcase was jammed with romances and Oprah Book Club shit. He had to laugh when he noticed a row of books about Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt.

How had he missed what was such a big part of who Jenna Carlton really was?

He found the bathroom and another surprise. She might be a slob, but her bathroom was health inspection ready. Evidence of her quirky habits was apparent in the shower stall where the bottles and tubes of hair and body products sat in a line, tallest to shortest.

Washing up and quickly dressing, Ryan left the bathroom and peeked into her bedroom—the door was open, so he didn’t feel bad—and almost burst out laughing.

The biggest bed he’d ever seen dominated the large room. Made from ornately carved wood, he suspected it was a family heirloom. One side of the bed was a cluttered mess. Books piled on the nightstand along with a couple of water bottles and a gigantic pump bottle of lotion.

The other side of the bed was unused. He pictured himself propped up against the grand headboard enjoying the shit out of watching Jen smooth that lotion head to toe every single night.

A sound startled him, and he turned around as footsteps came thundering toward him. It was Jenna, and she looked like she’d seen a ghost.

Oh, and she was completely naked.

“I thought you left,” she cried a second before throwing herself on him. He caught her as she slammed into his body. Her distress touched his heart.

“Hey, hey,” he said soothingly. “It’s okay, baby. Bathroom call. Was about to come back with a blanket so you didn’t catch a cold.”

She clung to him with her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry,” she murmured into his skin. “I don’t know what came over me. When I woke up and you weren’t there ... your clothes all gone ... I panicked.”

“Newsflash, it’s not going to be that easy to get rid of me.”

She reared back and searched his face. “Really?”

“We both seem to be dancing around the L word, and that’s okay. Going from park to Mach 3 takes some adjusting. I get that this is the weirdest timing ever, but who’s to say how anything happens?”

She kissed his face over and over.

“Thank you.”

He heard her stomach growl and squeezed her with a laugh. “Why don’t you freshen up, get dressed, and prepare to be amazed by the best hand-thrown pizza this side of the Mississippi.”

She laughed. “So there’s crazy animal sex on the patio and then we have our first date?”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes at her smart mouth.

“Be a good girl, Ms. Carlton, and run along before I change my mind and teach you a thing or two about my dick that may come in handy later.”

Her naughty smirk sent his pulse racing. Again.

“Are you saying class will be in session?”

He swatted her bare butt.

“Yes. And today’s class includes an oral exam.”

“Oh, goody.” She giggled, clapped her hands, and hopped on her toes. The sight of her tits bouncing and the wicked pleasure he found in her eyes almost did him in.

“Hurry, baby.”

His phone buzzed. They both went silent. He pulled it from his pocket and sighed. “It’s John. He’s probably freaking.”

She patted his arm. “Go ahead and take it. I’ll jump in the shower and get dressed. Please tell me jeans are okay. I’m not in the mood for business attire.”

He answered the call, growled, “Hold the fuck on,” and then gave her nakedness a long, thorough once-over.

“I like this version of Jenna. Don’t keep her from me again.”

She kissed him and ran off while he enjoyed watching her sexy ass.

“What?” he snarled into the phone.

John’s instant retort was, “Fuck you, Ryan. It’s been hours. What the hell?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. “Dammit. You’re right. Sorry. Look,” he drawled as calmly as he could. “You really shoulda warned me before I walked into a trap that stepping on Jenna’s vacation time was a contract destroyer.”

“Oh, shit. She told you that?”

“Yes, she told me,” he shouted. “John, Jesus Christ!”

“How mad is she?”

Ryan thought about the question for a moment, glanced at the shut bathroom door, and made a calculated decision. If John thought Jen was having an employee meltdown, that’d buy him some time. Time to get their relationship on firm footing before they had to deal with his brother’s fuck up.

“Well, I’ve convinced her not to cause me any bodily harm, so we can go to Freddy’s and scarf down a pizza. Maybe some food will make her less scary.”

“Do you think she’ll help? With Samantha?”

“I think she wants to smack you upside your damn head for being a monumental putz.”

“Oh, good.” John chuckled. “So everything’s normal.”

Ryan had to snicker. “Brother, you are one fucked-up unit.”

“Convince her, Ry. This is important. I’m in love with Samantha. I know I fucked up, but I’ve never been in this situation before.”

“You and me both,” Ryan mumbled.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” he said. “Look, I’d better go. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“And John?”

“Yeah?”

“Not to state the obvious or anything, but have you considered telling Samantha how you feel? You know, dude, a mea culpa phone call might go a long way, and while you’re at it, cut the crap and tell her.”

Silence.

“I’ll consider it,” he finally mumbled.

“Great. Okay. I’m out. Later, bro.”