God.

I didn’t know what kind of madness had taken over, but damn this woman had sent my mind into overdrive.

She sent me spinning over a cliff and into some dimension where all I wanted was her. I couldn’t think of anything else. I didn’t want to, and that was bad.

I’d already stayed out longer than I’d planned.

The hint of a streak in the sky told me the sun was on the verge of making an appearance, and there we were still consuming each other.

We hadn’t slept. We’d indulged in each other’s body all night.

I’d had her five times, and from the look on her face, I sensed the sixth session on the horizon.

Madness—that was what it was. I craved her body like nothing else, and still I wanted more. It was like being charmed into some enchantment, and I couldn’t break free of the trance. I didn’t want to, and definitely not when she was kissing her way down my stomach and heading straight to my cock.

I was sitting with my back against the headboard while she teased me with the perfection of her.

“Ryan 101: your cock tastes delicious and Brooke wants more.” She glanced up at me with those beautiful eyes that cast her spell on me.

Beautiful was only the beginning of how I would describe her, and not just her body. It was her. Her words would always drive me insane.

“Have more, baby. Take whatever you want from me.” She could.

I scraped my palms over her tight little nipples, which I decided reminded me of strawberries, too, just like her pussy.

With that gorgeous mass of golden hair lying to one side and her gorgeous tits on display, she looked like a mermaid, like a very erotic picture of a mermaid without shells covering her breasts—and it was all for me.

That mouth of hers pressed into a sexy pout.

Miss Mouth. I had been right when I’d called her that, but my reason was twofold. I loved her smart mouth, and I loved everything else she did with that mouth.

Like this. She leaned down to kiss the head of my cock and licked over the tip with her tongue. She wrapped one slender hand around the shaft, and I immediately hardened at her touch.

She looked amazed at the thickness once again and licked down the length anxiously. Her hands went up and down, rubbing me into action until my cock strained upward in a thick curve. Her smile widened when she saw that, and I groaned, wanting her all over again. I didn’t know how I could want her again so quickly, but she seemed to be all my body needed.

She licked me like a cat and lingered on the tip then made a show of closing those full lips over the head and taking me deep into her mouth. I reached forward and ran my hands over her head as she sucked hard. My fingers knotted in her hair, working with her rhythm as she slid up and down my shaft, taking me deeper.

A hungry groan rumbled deep in my chest. I wanted her to continue so I could finish in her mouth, but I also wanted to be inside her again.

I allowed her to enjoy me and held back as much as I could.

Then I couldn’t take any more. I was on the verge of release and I couldn’t control myself.

“Brooke I…” I reached for her and pulled her up onto me. I kissed her roughly then flipped her over so she was on her hands and knees.

We’d only done this position once so far, and I wanted to do it again.

One last time.

I knew I’d have to leave after that. I’d been gone all night, and if Aria woke up and didn’t see me in the house, it would be weird, especially since my car was there. My bike was locked away so if she did ask me, I could say I’d taken it out, but I didn’t want to lie.

At the moment, I didn’t want to think. I just wanted Brooke.

She moaned as I ran my hand down the length of her back, the skin smooth and delicious like warm honey. I lowered my head to kiss her there but quickly—too quickly—I could feel my cock straining. I grabbed another condom and practically shoved the thing on then moved to the sweet ass I loved and took hold of her hips to guide myself into her.

I plunged into her hot, wet heat, and we both groaned from the intensity, just like before, and just like before, she was deliciously tight. I began to move inside her. This time I couldn’t give her the slow, controlled pumps we both seemed to enjoy. I couldn’t do it. The position felt too good, and I just wanted to fuck her.

Every cell in my body erupted with need, and the sounds of pleasure that fell from her lips fed my desire for her. Her hunger and need matched mine. I pounded into her as she moaned loudly and cried out my name, and soon there were no more words, just the sounds of passion with the echo of our bodies slapping together. We gasped, moaned, and writhed against each other within the lock of our mad embrace.

I gritted my teeth against the oncoming sensation, not wanting to come. I just wanted to hold on for a little bit longer, just a little bit, but I couldn’t. She was too much. It was too much, and damn she’d had me all fucking night.

The need to explode built up within me, up to a rising crescendo. Then my desire for her took on a life of its own and I jackhammered toward a desperate climax.

I came with a growl, crying out in pleasure, and she did too, sharing the fireball of ecstasy that raged over us.

We both collapsed into a heap. I pulled her into my arms, holding her against my chest, and she closed her hand over mine. It was such a simple gesture in comparison to how we’d been just seconds before, but it did something to me. I took a few seconds to enjoy it then I moved to go take care of the condom in the bathroom, which was soaked from the leak. I’d come back later and fix that.

I held her again when I returned, lying next to her, enjoying the feel of her in my arms.

“I don’t want you to go.” She spoke against my chest and planted a kiss just above my right pec.

“I don’t want to go either.”

“But you have to,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

I did have to. “I’ll be back later.”

She lifted her head up and gazed at me. “Later?”

“Well, that pipe needs to be fixed, and I suspect you’re going to need the whole system replaced.”

She sat up and gave me a cunning look. “It could take days to do such a thing.”

The minute she said that, the perfect excuse formed in my mind.

Yes, pipes could take days.

“Weeks, even. I should make sure it gets all the attention it deserves.”

“Don’t make me jealous of the pipes.” She giggled.

“Believe me, I won’t.” God, I wanted her again. I looked at her gorgeous body and the wicked sexual look in her eyes, wanting her all over again.

Damn, I was even getting hard—again.

I pulled her into my lap and she slipped her arms around me.

“I want you again. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“Take me then go in ten minutes,” she cooed.

“What the fuck have you done to me, Brooke?”

“Ryan 101: you can’t say no to Brooke.” She giggled, planting a line of kisses down my neck.

“Brooke 101: she’s damn irresistible. No man on earth could say no to her.”

Aria was saying something to me, but I didn’t know what it was.

I caught the tail end, something about lip gloss.

Now she was holding up two wands of gloss. The first was a burnt umber color, the second a nude peach. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say though.

Was she asking which one I liked or which she should get, or something else?

I’d been like this all day, zoning in and out of conversation.

Vanessa had been with us earlier, and I’d accidentally called her Ryan twice throughout the day. After the second time, I got the feeling she suspected I had a man on the brain.

A man. Just one specific one I hadn’t been able to get out of my head.

It had only been that morning that I’d been with him, just hours earlier, and I couldn’t wait to see him again.

“Brooke.” Aria started laughing at me.

I blinked and focused on her. “I’m so sorry. What again?”

“You are so funny. You’ve been like this all day, and I doubt you even actually watched the play.”

I almost asked what play, but then it came to me. As I’d suspected, Vanessa wasn’t into plays or musicals, so she’d left us a few hours ago. Aria and I had gone to see The Taming of the Shrew, and then we’d gone back to the store after dinner to get lip gloss.

“My mind is somewhere else,” I confessed, not wanting to lie.

It was bad enough that I felt like I was sneaking around with her father behind her back. I was being serious when I said she was my little friend, and it felt wrong to keep that from her.

But it had to be kept. Ryan and I were just fooling around, and if she found out then we’d both look like hypocrites.

“Where is it?” Aria cooed, looking me over with suspicion.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re thinking about a guy.” She giggled, her cheeks tinged pink, and my poor face flushed with embarrassment.

“No, no. I’m thinking about work.” I nodded.

“Really?” She narrowed her eyes and gave me a look of suspicion.

“Yes. I’m meeting with Sally on Monday and I want everything to go perfectly.” That part was at least true.

I’d met with Sally very briefly yesterday to go over the plans for the coming week. She’d said she felt inspired to still do the marathon in January and wanted to do a few charity events in the meantime. She’d also agreed to my ideas for the website updates, which I was excited about.

It was all good.

“Okay, well I’m sure it will. So, which do you think will go well with my dress?” She held up the glosses again.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “The peach, but you need something much brighter on your lips for that dress.”

Aria had worked things out with Brad, so prom was back on schedule. We’d purchased the dress earlier and bought so many things I had to get a taxi to send it all home.

Vanessa had been a massive help because she had a personal shopper onsite at Neiman Marcus ready to help us. The prom dress hadn’t been part of the plan for the day’s activities, but we’d just thought we’d get it since we were out.

I’d enjoyed it, and it had been fun. It was a break for my Ryan-filled brain to embrace the happiness I saw in Aria as she tried on one beautiful dress after another.

I sincerely hoped like hell Ryan wouldn’t mind that I’d bought the dress for her. The one she wanted and got was to die for. It looked like a mini wedding dress fit for a princess, and it just so happened to be part of the Vera Wang Collection. I couldn’t even remember how much it had cost, but when I’d seen Aria in it, I knew I had to get it for her. She had cried as I’d handed it over.

“Brooke, I can’t believe you bought me that dress. It cost over a grand. I’ve never had anything that expensive.”

“Hey, how about we just think about how beautiful it looked on you.” I tweaked her nose playfully.

“Thank you, thank you.”

I took both wands of lip gloss from her and headed to the cashier with her arm locked in mine.

“How about some hot chocolate and we’ll call it a night?” It was nearly eight, and I knew we probably should have called it a night hours ago because it was a long drive back to Wilmington.

“I’d love that.”

I paid for the gloss and we made our way to the coffeehouse on the main street. They would be open for another hour. I figured we could leave in half an hour and get home by about midnight.

We got two big mugs of steaming hot chocolate decked out with everything from whipped cream to marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles, the sight of which chilled me out. Aria smiled when the waitress brought them over to us.

“Thanks so much for hanging out with me today.” Aria beamed, her smile getting wider. “And for everything—the dress, the makeup, the everything.” She giggled.

“You are very welcome.” I raised my mug and moved to clink it with hers.

We both laughed like a pair of giggly twins.

She took a sip of her drink and gave me a quizzical stare that immediately brought my nerves to attention. It was her suspicious look. I’d seen it before and wondered if maybe she suspected there was something up between Ryan and me.

God, how would I explain that? I couldn’t very well tell her I was addicted to her father’s body and wanted more and more of him.

No, no, no.

“Brooke.”

“Yes.” I answered just a little too quickly.

“I know you are very career focused and driven to excel, but you haven’t mentioned a boyfriend or anything like that. I’m sure someone like you can have any man you choose. Don’t you want a boyfriend?”

Grrr.

The answer was simple: no. I’d been there and done that, and the bad experinece of my last relationship left me wanting to head for the hills at the first sign of love. I couldn’t tell her that though. It would be wrong.

Aria, however, was an impressionable young lady who I knew saw me as an example to her. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. I also didn’t want to project my internal issues on her or tell her something that would make her see love in any other way than it should be seen.

“I don’t mind a boyfriend,” that was a lie. “But I think I am focused on my career, like you said. It’s my mission now to get a senior features job. Whether that’s with People or somewhere else is not relevant. I just want to do what makes me happy.”

Although she smiled, she got that starry-eyed look on her pretty little face.

“What about love?”

Love…

“It’s a beautiful thing.” It’s just not for me.

“It is. How do you know when you’re in love?”

Oh Jesus. What the hell was I supposed to say to that?

“You just know. It starts with a tingle and then it swells. You look forward to seeing that person every day and you can’t see your future without them.”

She pressed her hand to her heart and beamed at me. “Yes. I think that’s true. I feel like that about Brad. I felt it more after our talk, and more when he understood what I wanted.”

That was sweet.

“Wonderful.”

To my surprise, she reached over and took hold of my hand. “I want that for you too, when you get your new job and have time for a guy. You’re an amazing person who has changed my world in so many ways, so I want you to have everything amazing.”

I gave her hand a gentle squeeze, unable to restrain the look of awe I now gave her. Ryan was certainly raising a beautiful girl, inside and out.

“Thank you. Now finish your chocolate—we have to get home in time to get enough beauty sleep.”

She nodded, agreeing completely.

I drank mine and got lost in my thoughts again. This time I wasn’t thinking about Ryan per se.

Talking about relationships just got me thinking. I wondered what my life would have been like if Craig and I had simply just broken up. I thought that maybe I would have been okay. Sure I would have moved on like I did, but perhaps I wouldn’t have been so bitter.

What got me the most was the striking similarities my relationship had to my parents.

I literally watched love destroy my father. Craig broke my trust. Mom broke Dad’s trust. Craig cheated, Mom cheated. Criag probably never loved me and I knew without a shadow of doubt that Mom never loved Dad. She couldn’t have if she treated him like that.

There was a time in my life when I was determined to not allow my parents lives to influnec my own, but the one time I took a risk and a chance on love disaster struck.

Disaster struck and opened up old wounds, highlighting the deep loss I’d experienced growing up. For some reason it became one and the same in my head.

The crux of the matter was I was afraid of love. Afriad to put myself in that vulnerable state again with the risk that things could be as disasterous as before.

It was hard for me to fall in love and open my heart, open it to the possibility of hurt like that, me, the girl whose mother left her because she decided she didn’t want to be my mother anymore.

Me, the girl whose father was killed and taken away just like that.

Me, the girl who’d watched her father love her mother with everything he had and it still wasn’t enough

Me, the girl who took a risk on love after she experienced all of that and was made to feel like I was inadequate.

I couldn’t let that happen to me again. It wasn’t worth it.

The thought left a bad taste in my mouth for the whole journey back, but when

I saw Ryan, all worries and everything left my mind, swept clean by the gorgeous man who’d fixed my pipes and came to see me after I dropped Aria off.

He was the only guy I knew who could make a simple black long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of slacks look as good as if he were wearing a suit.

He came in when I opened the door and leaned against the wall in the archway.

“Thanks for fixing the pipes.” I couldn’t help the little smile that escaped and made its way over my lips then washed over my entire body.

He was just so damn gorgeous, and he was here in my house.

When he reached up and brushed the edge of my chin with his thumb, tingles danced over my skin and sparked across my heart.

“Shhh. The pipes aren’t fixed, remember? It’s going to take a long time to get it all worked out in that special way only I know.” He winked at me.

“Yes, of course. My bad.” I laughed. Excitement bubbled within me at the thought of what was to come that night. I would have loved nothing more than a replay of the previous night.

I didn’t care if I never slept again.

“Brooke, I owe you a fortune for the stuff you got Aria.” His expression took on a serious note.

“No, you do not.” I’d kind of expected this conversation.

“Even I know who Vera Wang is. How much did you pay for the dress?”

“Ryan, if you’d seen how beautiful Aria looked in it, you’d have sold your house to get it for her.”

He looked taken aback when I said that, and something flickered deep within the warmth of his gaze.

“You really are something else, you know that?”

“Hey, I’d rather you think that than have you thinking I’m on drugs.” I laughed.

He did too. “Nah, I still think you’re on drugs. I also think I need to do something to thank you for spending the day with my girl and making her so happy.”

I looked him over and knew exactly what he could do.

I reached forward and tugged on his shirt, running my finger over the tight skin over his abs.

“Can I just have you?”

He raised his brows. “Oh yeah.”

I laughed as he swept me up in one quick motion and heaved me over his wide shoulders.

He ran his hands over my ass and gave me a firm pat. “You can have me, Brooke, but this feels like me having you.”

“Let’s just have each other.”

“That sounds good too.” He proceeded up the stairs with me just like that, taking me to heaven.