I watered the garden, and then Bo and I went into my cabin where he laid in front of the cold fireplace while I feverishly typed an email to Max. The fastest way to get Max’s attention was to put a financial opportunity in the subject line.

I explained that Colton was looking for investors. Twenty-five thousand acres would be used to produce clean energy, and there were a limited number of ground floor opportunities for the right people.

I sat at the kitchen table and moved my computer around. When three bars appeared, I pressed send.

Max was a thinker. He’d sit on this for a day or so before he acted. That would give me time to work on brochures and business cards. What Colton needed was a little Hollywood glitz and glamor, and I was the girl to give it to him.

Hours later, Bo was pawing at my leg. Poor dog must be starving. If he were going to slum it at my cabin, I needed to get him food, so I headed toward the big house.

I raised my hand to knock but stopped when I heard Colton’s voice. “Damn it, Dad. I’m not pump jacks and rigs.”

I was just about ready to turn around when Bo nosed the unlocked door open and exposed my presence. Colton’s eyes shifted to me.

“Sorry,” I whispered, and turned around taking two steps at a time down the porch stairs.

“Wait,” he called out.

I whipped my head toward him.

He held up a finger and crooked it toward him. I turned and followed him inside.

His voice normally robust and powerful was filled with resignation. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, and then he hung up. He looked down at his phone and tossed it across the room. It bounced like a skipping rock on water across the couch and landed softly on the white sheepskin rug below.

My shoulders rolled forward, and my head dipped too. “Sorry, I was just coming to see if I could get some food for Bo.”

Colton ran his hands through his hair pulling his unruly bangs from his eyes. Dark shadows marred their brightness. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl from the oak cabinet. I glanced around his place. It was neat and tidy and all put together, unlike the man who stood in front of me with the weight of the world on his shoulders. This was a side of Colton Becket I hadn’t seen. This man was beaten down and exhausted.

I rushed forward and pulled the bowl from his hands. Dog food had to be around the kitchen somewhere. I found a big bag of kibble in the pantry. He followed me in and pulled the scoop from the bag then tossed in three level cups. “I got this. Go sit down.” He turned without a word and walked to the couch where he plopped heavily on the cushions.

Once Bo was taken care of, I scanned the kitchen again. A corked bottle of red wine sat on the counter. I rummaged through the cabinet and found two glasses. Without asking, I uncorked the bottle and poured us both a glass.

“You look like you need this.” He took the offered glass and brought it to his mouth. I watched him, trying to gauge his mood. Was he angry? Sad? Confused? No … he looked defeated. I didn’t like that look on him.

“Thanks, Nik. Sorry to saddle you with Bo.” He looked at the dog settled by his fireplace. “He’s taken a liking to you.”

Not enjoying the distance between us, I scooted in until our thighs touched. “I’ve taken a liking to him … and you. What can I do to help you, Colton?” With my legs curled next to me, I leaned against his arm and laid my head on his shoulder

He adjusted our bodies, so his arm embraced me and my head fell to his chest. “Do you want to invest in an energy farm?”

“I wish I could. I’m in as good of shape financially as you.” I sipped the wine and relaxed against him. His heart beat in my ear matching the pace of mine.

Ta tum, ta tum, ta tum.

He gripped me tighter. “Stay with me for a while. When I’m alone, my brain is like a swarm of angry bees—active and out of control. It’s too much noise. But when you’re around, it all quiets down. I need a little quiet.”

His wine glass was nearly empty.

“Drink up.” I pressed the glass to his lips until the red liquid inside was gone, then I put both our glasses on the coffee table and straddled his lap. “Don’t think. Lie back and feel.” His head fell back against the soft chenille of the couch. His steady gaze bore into me with silent expectation.

“We started this once today, darlin’, so don’t go here if you aren’t going to finish.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips between the open buttons of my shirt. Fire raced down my chest and straight to my aching core.

“If I remember correctly, it was your dog that ruined the moment.”

Nimble fingers undid the buttons of my shirt. When it fell open, it revealed the pale pink of my lace bra. “Not my dog.” His hands ran down my sides. “He’s adopted you.” Callous roughened fingers danced over my skin. Soft touch–rough skin, every nerve ending tingled.

I needed this man like I needed my morning Pop Tart. A mixture of arousal and nerves caught in my throat. “I want this Colton, but I need to be able to trust you. No pictures, okay.”

His hands dropped from my body. “Nik, you gotta know, I would have never sold that picture. I was stupid and selfish and childish. I wanted a piece of you for myself even if it was only a picture.”

Sincerity showed in his eyes. I undid the front hook of my bra and let my breasts loose. “I’ll give you something better than a picture.” My hands reached for his hands, and I guided them to my breasts.

The look on his face was pure ecstasy. “Fucking perfect.” He cupped them and rolled my nipples between two fingers.

Pure passion pulsed through me. My eyes closed and my hips began to rock to their rhythm. His hard cock pressed against the place I needed him the most.

Too much separated us. I fisted his shirt and pulled it above his head. Hard abs, ripped muscles, and a dusting of dark hair greeted me. He was magnificent. I scanned every inch of him from his collarbone to the dark line of his happy trail.

“Come here.” With splayed fingers, he gripped my back and pulled me forward until his lips covered my breast. Searing heat spread through me. I shook with pent up tension. It didn’t matter where he touched me I was one big nerve ending that started and stopped at the juncture between my thighs. I arched into him wanting to give him everything. Wanting to take everything in return.

“Let’s go to bed.” I brushed my lips across the scruff of his chin and ran my tongue to the shell of his ear. “I need more.”

“Are you certain?”

“Hell yeah.” Everything else in my life was full of uncertainty, but this thing between us … I was certain it needed to be tamed, and the only way to do that was to fuck it out of our system, even if it took the eighty-three days I had left here.

Colton stood up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He looked down at the dog. “Stay,” he said in an alpha dog manner that made Bo cover his head.

“Take me to bed. Now.”

He gripped my ass and pulled me closer to him. The full effect of our conversation was evident by the bulge in his jeans. He thrust his hips forward and ground into me. “The minute my dick comes out of my pants, darlin’, it’s not going back in until I get my fill.”

“We need this, Colton. No thinking, just feeling.”

He walked with me in his arms down the hallway and kicked open a door. His scent was everywhere—citrus and pure male.

His pace quickened all the way to his bed. Then everything slowed to a stop. “Close your eyes.” His voice was whiskey slow and two pack a day sexy. The promise of pleasure oozed from his command, and I did as he said. I closed my eyes and let the sensuality of his touch take me away.

First to go was my bra and shirt, which had hung limply from my body. He climbed my body and worshiped my breast like they were an offering to an unknown god.

“I love your tits. So fucking perfect.” He nibbled and plucked at my nipples until my body began to shake.

“I’m so close.” I’d never been able to come from nipple action. I love it, but it never gets me there, and now I wasn’t so sure a light breeze wouldn’t take me over the edge. “I have to open my eyes. I want to see you.”

Colton rose from my body. “Look all you want, baby.” He stood in front of me and unbuttoned his jeans and let them fall to the floor.

“Holy shit.” The man had the length and girth of a stallion. I was enthralled. I was impressed. I was in trouble. “Go easy on me, I still have a garden to tend to.”

The way he smiled made my heart tumble. That little bite to his lip. The way his eyes ate me with a look.

“No guarantees I’ll go easy. Just a guarantee I’ll keep going until you’re satisfied.” In seconds, he had me stripped bare and exposed me in a way I’d never been with any other man. This was all me. Well, except for the boob job, the nose job, and the veneers. Other than that, I was letting him see the real me.

I leaned up on my elbows and watched him pull a condom from his wallet. He laid it on the bed then began kissing my body starting at my ankles. He made his way up my calves, my knees, and my thighs. My legs fell open, and he peppered my bare sex with light kisses. There was no delving or nibbling or spreading. It was a flyby that went by too quickly.

He licked a hot trail up my stomach and was back at my breasts where he spent several minutes driving me crazy. Not wanting to take and not give. I pressed all one hundred and ten pounds of me up and pushed him to the side and onto his back where I reciprocated. But instead of a hit and run at his straining cock. I slipped my mouth around him and pulled him deep inside where my tongue did wicked things to make him squirm and groan beneath me. There was nothing better than knowing you had a man by the balls or the cock.

“Shit, Nik, where did you learn to do that?” I rolled my tongue around his length and licked up the bead of saltiness building at the tip.

I licked my swollen lips. “I have a thing for bomb pops. There’s nothing better on a hot day than a big, fat, popsicle.” I sank my mouth over his length and let him ease into my throat.

“Fuck.”

One minute I deep throated him, and the next I was beneath him with his face firmly between my thighs. He spread me wide and tongued me while I shook beneath him. Slick, hot and wet. He stroked me and sucked my clit causing me to rise off the mattress. Just when I started to shake and shudder and fall over the edge, he brought me back to earth—back to the place where I wanted more—to the place where I begged for it. And I did, I begged him with pained words of passion.

“Colton, please.” I pulled at his hair. I tugged at his shoulders. I reached my hips to his tongue.

He lifted his glistening face. “Fucking delicious.” Then he went back to torture me more. Shaking and quivering, I waited for the disappointment—for him to pull away. For him to abandon my need and pull me back to earth again. But he didn’t. He pressed a finger deep inside me and curled it hook-like into that one spot that made me soar over the edge.

It started as a heated flutter in my sex and spread like a wildfire throughout my body. I split like an atom into millions of exploding pieces. My body shook and shuttered. I had nothing left to give him.

My bones had turned soft, and I sunk into the mattress. I was no longer a woman with needs. I was a woman who for the first time in her life felt complete.

He hovered over my body, wrapped and ready. I looked into his eyes and saw happiness. This moment was perfect.

He nudged into me until our hipbones met. My lungs emptied and my chest twisted. This was what it felt like to be happy, and it only took me twenty-five years to find it.

We moved together like a hand in a glove. Slow and steady we built each other up. That familiar burn rose inside me. I gripped my heels to his ass and pulled him deep. A quiver started to pulse through me. Slow and steady it rose, and gripped, and throbbed around his length. He stilled and emptied himself into me. His weight covered me, and we both sank into the mattress.

“Wow.” In one swift motion, he reached down and pulled the covers over us.

“Are we done?” I had no idea if I had it in me to go again anytime soon, but I was curious if one time would satisfy his need. I hoped not. I was looking forward to the next eighty-three days.

“Done? Not on your life darlin’. I was just getting you warmed up for round two. Rest is for pussies.”

Colton Becket was unlike any man I’d ever met. In fact I wondered if I’d ever met a real man. The guys I knew spent as much time at the spa as I did. Anatomically they were male but inside they were girls with cocks.