Adam cursed when the stubborn oil valve gave way, covering his forearm in the dark, thick liquid. Changing the oil on his truck was child’s play, something he had done dozens of times, but it was hard to concentrate when he was so distracted.

It was Tuesday night, and Holly was out with her friend. Would Liz tell Holly about running into him at the Y? About their shocking and revelatory discussion at the coffee shop?

Yeah, she probably would. Liz had made it no secret that Holly was more like a sister to her than a friend, and sisters definitely shared that kind of shit. At least his sisters did. Growing up, he had overheard a lot more girl talk than he had wanted to. Frank and explicit discussions on everything from makeup to boys and everything in-between.

How would Holly react? Would she be upset with Liz for revealing extremely personal and useful information, or would she understand that Liz had only her best interests at heart? Knowing Holly, it was probably the latter. Holly might be somewhat of a loner, but she was fiercely loyal to those few she had chosen to allow into her inner circle. A circle that now hopefully included him.

Either way, it was probably better for everyone involved if they did talk about it and got it out in the open. He would have done so himself but, like most guys, he wasn’t good at that kind of sharing shit. He preferred to speak more through actions than words.

Undoubtedly, Liz would have a better idea of how to say things to make Holly understand the truth of it. Besides, with his luck, someone might have seen him and Liz together that night and that might somehow make it back to Holly. He didn’t want any more misunderstandings to come between them.

Which brought up the other primary source of his distraction: Eve. He couldn’t get that last phone call out of his head. It had been on his mind all day, wondering exactly what she was up to. He thought he had done a fairly good job of shifting Eve’s focus away from Holly, but one never knew with Eve. She might give the impression of not being very smart, but the woman could be quite cunning when she put her mind to it. The fact that Eve was using the Historical Society to further her own agenda was proof of that.

Even if she didn’t believe Holly was a rival for his attention, Eve knew that Adam had been interested in obtaining the gamekeeper’s cottage at one point. He had mentioned it during their one and only dinner together. Of course, he’d had no idea of what she was capable of then. She had been asking him about his job, and he had casually mentioned that he had a special affinity for doing historical renovations.

It had seemed so unimportant, just a polite, getting-to-know-each-other conversation.

Eve had been thrilled to discover they shared a common interest. She had told him that she had always been fascinated by local history, and that her wealthy, powerful father was on the board of the Covendale Valley Historical Society. They had talked about several local homesteads, and as part of that, he had told her about the cottage, about its history, and his dashed hopes of acquiring it.

How the hell would he have known that bit of seemingly innocuous information would come back to bite him in the ass?

Eve obviously thought the cottage was a way to worm her way back into his life. What she didn’t seem to understand was that nothing she said or did would make that happen. One night had been more than enough, and he was still paying for it.

The question was: what should he do about it? Should he attempt to talk to Eve? That particular route had never been successful in the past; Eve only heard what she wanted to hear. Nevertheless, he felt as if he should be doing something. Left unchecked, the situation had potential disaster written all over it.

His thoughts went back to Holly, which seemed to happen every few minutes or so. Damn, but he had it bad. She was everything he had ever dreamed of in a woman. Smart, sassy, funny, talented, and she brought him close to seeing God every time they had sex. She was capable and fiercely independent, except when it came to him. She willingly let him take the lead, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Christ. The way she melted against him, looked up at him with those big green eyes filled with so much hope and trust and, dare he think it, love.

It seemed too soon to contemplate such a possibility, but there it was. Whether it really was or not remained to be seen, but the potential was there, stronger than it had been in any other relationship he had ever been in.

It was exactly for that reason that he wanted to keep Eve as far away from her as possible. Holly should not have to suffer because he had made some bad choices long before they had ever even met. And, if he was being really honest with himself, he wanted to be the man she thought he was when she looked at him like that. The one who would do anything to protect her and keep her safe from the likes of psychologically unbalanced women like Eve Sanderson.

* * *

BY THURSDAY, ADAM WAS more than ready to spend the rest of the night with Holly. His arms, and various other parts of his anatomy, ached, and not because he had spent the last two days redoing the stonework around a floor-to-ceiling fireplace dating back nearly two hundred years. No, this pain was born solely of the agonizing want and need to drown in the magical touch of one smart-mouthed little brunette.

He gripped the phone in his hand, the words more disappointing than he could have imagined.

“I’m sorry, Adam,” Holly said, sounding as weary as he had ever heard her. “I’m going to have to cancel our dinner tonight.” She explained how she had come out of the grocery store to find not one, but two flat tires. “I got a tow, but they don’t have the right size tires in stock. They are checking some of their other locations right now. I’m going to be stuck here for a while yet.”

It had been three days since he had last seen her. He would be damned if he let it get to four.

“Where are you?”

“Covendale Tire and Auto.”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

“Adam, you don’t have to ...” she started to say, but he disconnected before she could finish. He absolutely did have to. Holly needed him.

Forgoing a shave, Adam jumped in the shower to rinse off the day’s dirt and sweat before pulling on some clean jeans and a shirt. He made it to the garage in record time.

Holly was in the waiting room, worrying her bottom lip and staring blankly at the television mounted on the wall. His heart sped up at the very sight of her. Even in old jeans and a worn college hoodie, she was quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She turned then, and the look on her face when she spotted him took his breath away. No woman had ever looked at him like that. Like he was the sun after a week’s worth of rain. It was an effort not to sprint across the room and crush her to him.

“Adam, you didn’t have to come all the way down here.” At least, that’s what her mouth said. Her eyes told a completely different story.

“I wanted to,” he said sincerely, surprised at how normal his voice sounded. “I promised you a dinner, remember?”

“Actually, I promised to cook dinner for you,” she corrected with an embarrassed smile. “Except, here I am, and your dinner is being held in a refrigerated storage room at the grocery store.”

He shrugged. She could hand him a bag of chips from the vending machine and he would be happy. “So? We’ll eat out tonight.”

She pouted. “I really wanted to cook for you.”

Damn, she was so adorable. He was going to eat her. That was what he was really hungry for. He eyed the vinyl and chrome chairs, imagining Holly on one of them, head back, him kneeling on the floor between her spread legs ...

“You will, I promise. But, since you’ve had a pretty rough day, I’m treating you.”

She gave him a smile that made his chest and his balls ache at the same time. “My hero,” she murmured.

Fuck. She really had to stop looking at him like that or that waiting room fantasy was going to happen. Since there were other people around, one of them a seventy-something grandma eyeing them both with blatant interest, that probably wasn’t the best idea.

“Let me talk to the mechanic, then you can tell me all about it over dinner.”

* * *

“I THINK THIS IS QUITE possibly the best burger I’ve ever had,” Holly said later, between mouthfuls. “I can’t believe I’ve never eaten here before.”

“Yeah, no place better for burgers than Lou’s,” he agreed.

The mechanic’s words were still buzzing around in his head. Both tires had nails in them. Holly could have picked them up anywhere over the last several days. There had been no blatant sign of tampering, but Adam’s gut wasn’t convinced.

He kept his voice casual when he asked, “So, tell me; how has the rest of your week been going?”

* * *

HOLLY FINISHED CHEWING and swallowed, then stalled a bit longer by taking a sip of the heavenly old-fashioned vanilla Coke. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him about the visit from Swedish Barbie, but she didn’t. Liz had been right when she said it wasn’t Adam’s fault that Eve had a Fatal Attraction thing going on.

What Holly hadn’t agreed with was Liz’s suggestion to tell Adam about Eve’s visit. Telling Adam at this point could be counterproductive. First, she really didn’t want to come off as the whiny, needy type who needed her man—her man!—to fight her battles for her. As unpleasant as Eve was, Holly had no doubt she could handle her.

Second, there was a slim chance that Eve was there for exactly the reason she had said—the Historical Society had a bug up its collective ass about Holly’s refusal to involve them in anything to do with the cottage. If that was the case, then involving Adam was pointless. There was nothing he could do about it, and getting him anywhere near Eve unnecessarily was the last thing Holly wanted to do.

“Not too bad.” She picked up a french fry, dragging it through the blob of ketchup. “I had a bit of a scare with Max yesterday. He must have gotten into something he shouldn’t have and was throwing up all day.”

Adam froze with the soft drink in his hand. “How’s Max now? Do you need to get home?”

Holly’s heart just about melted when that was the first thing Adam said.

“He’s doing much better, thanks for asking. Whatever it was, he seems to have gotten it out of his system. I woke up every hour on the hour to check on him, which is why I probably look like roadkill today.”

“You look beautiful, Holly.”

She blushed, feeling the warmth blossom from somewhere behind her ribcage. No man had ever called her beautiful and sounded like he meant it. Even if he was lying through his teeth, it sounded sincere.

“I’m sorry you had to drive all the way down here.”

“No problem. You can always call me. Any time, for any reason. I’m there if you need me. Promise me, Holly. I ... worry about you.”

She could tell that the admission wasn’t easy for him. As much as she appreciated it, she was not about to become one of those women by bothering him over every little thing. She was a big girl.

“You have enough on your mind, Adam. You don’t need to worry about me, too.”

“Maybe I want to.”

Holly looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity there. “You know, Adam, I think that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you.”

If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn her rugged alpha male blushed, causing her heart to stutter-step over a few beats.

She reached out and put her hand over his. “But, just so you know, I’m not the Penelope Pitstop damsel-in-distress type.”

The corners of his lips quirked. “I know. But a guy likes to feel needed.”

Holly’s gentle smile grew into a wicked grin. “Well, it just so happens there is something I could use your help with.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

Holly crooked her finger to draw him closer. “First,” she whispered, “you can give me a ride home. Then”—she paused, running her tongue along her bottom lip sensuously—“you can give me a ride.”

Oh, hell yes! Holly thought as Adam immediately signaled for the waitress, scraped the remains of the burgers and fries into a take-home box for Max, and practically dragged Holly out of the diner. They made it as far as his truck before he pushed her up against it and claimed her mouth in a womb-clenching kiss.

“Do you have any idea what your dirty little mouth does to me?” he ground out as he pressed the hard proof of his arousal into her soft belly.

“Dirty little mouth?” She chuckled seductively. “Baby, I write erotic romance for a living. I can do a hell of a lot better than that.” She pulled Adam down then whispered dialogue from a scene she had been writing only that morning.

Because she was a firm believer that talk alone was cheap, she then slid her hand down between them and discreetly cupped him as she whispered, feeling him grow even longer and thicker beneath her palm.

Adam shuddered and made a kind of strangled sound in his throat. Then he unceremoniously unlocked the truck and all but tossed her up into the seat.

“Woman, you have no idea what you have just done.”

Neither one of them noticed the dark BMW sedan parked in the shadows.