Evan’s apartment was a bit of a drive from the SoHo coffee shop. If Evan had been a regular there, it must’ve been to meet Lily. It sure as hell wasn’t for the convenient location.

As far as New York buildings went, it was in terrible shape. The old brownstone had some crumbly bits here and there, but, in its favor, there were no bars on the windows or trash piled up outside.

“You said Evan made an investment with you, right? Where did he get his money from?”

“Nowhere fancy. A grandmother died and left him an inheritance. Not enough to make them rich for life or anything, but enough to have a fun year. But since Evan wouldn’t know the meaning of fun if it bit him in the ass, he chose to get in business with me.”

To her amazement, the landlord really did meet Lucas outside with the key. He didn’t seem skeptical at all about Lucas’s desire to get into the apartment. If anything, he seemed annoyed that he had to go through the effort. She really did enjoy lazy security when it made her job easier.

There was an elevator, but Lucas went for the stairs, and she followed him. She supposed the fewer people who saw them, the better. Besides, Evan’s apartment was on the fifth floor so the stairs were doable. Harper considered herself physically fit, but she had to work to make sure Lucas didn’t hear her trying to catch her breath. As soon as they walked onto the fifth-floor landing, he held out an arm to stop her.

“What?” She didn’t see anybody in front of them, so she didn’t know what had spooked him.

“That’s his door.” Lucas pointed to the apartment that said 5D.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do you see that little box next to the door?”

“You mean the doorbell?”

“That’s one of those fancy doorbells. It has a motion-activated camera.”

Odd. She dealt with those things all the time in her line of work, a staple of the paranoid sort she was usually hunting down. But they weren’t exactly common in apartments. “So much for the element of surprise.”

“We still have some surprises.” Lucas set a hand on her shoulder.

She stiffened. Lucas had touched her enough that she should be used to it by now. But the opposite was true since their time together. He seemed to realize it, too, because he awkwardly pulled his hand away. “I mean, Evan doesn’t know you. Neither does Lily.” He held the key out to her. “You need to go unlock the door. Try to block the camera while you’re doing it so they can’t tell what you’re doing, but don’t make it obvious that you’re trying to block the camera.”

Harper shook her head. “There’s two of us. We can work together. I’ll go and block the camera and knock on the door. You sneak around behind me and work on the lock. We will both be in his apartment and he won’t know any better.” Of course, none of this would do any good if Evan had skipped town. Harper didn’t know Evan, but she knew that if she had stolen a bunch of money, the last thing she’d want to do is hang around her apartment.

“You really want to work together?”

She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

He shrugged. “I mean... I figured if you could do something on your own, you’d rather do it on your own.”

“That’s ridiculous....” She trailed off as she realized he wasn’t exactly wrong. If Harper could do something without anyone’s help, that’s exactly what she would do. And it was totally possible that she could walk in front of the camera and get into the apartment without too much of a hassle at all. But somehow it just made more sense to have Lucas help her. Dammit, they didn’t have time to deal with this right now. She didn’t take the key from him and started down the hall. He would just have to figure this shit out on his own. When she reached the door, she purposely put her hip very much in front of the little camera lens. She wasn’t sure whether there was sound, so she made a show of it. She banged loudly on the door. “Excuse me? I have a few questions. It won’t take more than a second.”

If this Evan guy was home, it was officially too late. Lucas got the door open and swooped inside. Harper tried to make it look as if she were walking away from the camera before ducking in. Without knowing the range the camera picked up on, she had no idea whether their efforts paid off or not, but it was worth a try.

Lucas was already deep inside the apartment, leaving her to shut the door behind her and follow. The place looked like a bachelor pad. There was a pile of shoes by the front door and a bench filled with jackets. The floor looked as if it hadn’t been vacuumed in months. There was basically no character to the place at all. Besides that, the apartment wasn’t that bad. There was a defined entryway that led into a living area. There was a hallway that looked as though it had at least two bedrooms off of it. Whoever this Evan guy was, he wasn’t doing too bad for himself. An apartment with multiple bedrooms, or any bedroom at all, didn’t come cheap in New York City. It didn’t necessarily look as though he’d just stolen a hundred thousand dollars nice, but in the scheme of things, a hundred thousand wasn’t all that much. It would keep someone happy for a year, maybe two or three if they lived frugally, but it wasn’t exactly the score of a lifetime. She would think Lily, who obviously came from a decent background, would know that much.

“Do you want to wait around?” asked Harper when she found Lucas in the kitchen, going through the refrigerator.

Lucas pulled out a bag of leftovers and looked carefully at the receipt. “This is from yesterday. Looks like our boy’s still in town.”

Harper walked up closer and took the bag from Lucas. She looked at the receipt in detail. It appeared to be from some sort of Italian diner. “Two entrées and one dessert.”

“You think it was from a date?”

Harper shrugged. “Depends on if they shared the dessert or not. You know your boy better than I do. Is he as much of a ladies’ man as you are?”

“Well, he’s not as charming as I am,” he said, getting a snort out of Harper. “But he does have more money.”

“What is it with you and money?”

Lucas slammed the food on the counter a tad too hard as he glared at her. “I’m sorry that not all of us had our lives work out just like we planned.”

“Hey, you know me. I didn’t live in the biggest house in town. I might’ve had my life laid out for me, but I sure as hell didn’t go by the plan my parents set out. Besides, I didn’t mean it as an insult. I mean.... You kind of have everything going for you. You’re obviously smart, you’re resourceful, and yes, I admit it, you can be charming when you want to be. It seems like if anybody should have it made, it’s you.”

Lucas seemed taken aback by the compliments. Harper had a feeling he didn’t hear them often. “I.... Like I said, things got derailed. What little money I did have set aside immediately went to legal bills, and then I maxed out three more credit cards with the appeals process. None of which worked, by the way. Now I’m a felon with no college education and debt.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“No, you brought this up and now you have to hear me out. I was an angry, vengeful person when I got out. I didn’t make very good financial decisions. It’s kind of a miracle I didn’t end up right back in jail.”

“Well, if you’re interested, I know a few people who can use somebody with your skills. You work a few jobs like mine, you won’t be worrying about bills. I promise.”

“You want to be my partner?” he asked skeptically.

“Of course not!” she said much too quickly. She wasn’t naïve enough to think they could ever work as partners. Rather, she had a feeling it would work very well, but she wasn’t naïve enough to think he’d want her as a partner. He made his stance on relationships very clear. He liked to love ’em and get the hell out as quick as possible. It was only their odd circumstance that caused him to be stuck with her for a little longer. “I’m just trying to be nice. Please don’t let it go to your head.”

“Hey, I’m not about regrets. If anything, I can think of a few ways to say thank you real good,” he said with a quick wink.

“Oh my God, I’ve made things weird, haven’t I?”

“What the fuck? I’m not being weird.”

“Yeah, you are. All day, you’ve been keeping as much distance between you and me as possible, and now you’re back to your default of flirting. It means you’re uncomfortable.”

“I don’t only flirt when I’m uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, but you’ve already slept with me. Thus, there is no more reason to flirt. So you must be uncomfortable.”

“For fuck’s sake, just because I slept with you doesn’t mean I don’t want to sleep with you again.”

Oh God. This was quickly morphing from frustrating to mortifying. “Please don’t think this is some underhanded way to fish for compliments from you. I was merely pointing out that you’re acting differently and I’ve noticed. You don’t have to pretend or put on a front for me.”

“You’re un-fucking-believable. You think I’m pretending to want to have sex with you to make you feel better?”

Well, when he put it like that, it sounded ridiculous. “I’m just saying....” At this point, she’d pretty much forgotten what she was trying to say.

“Do you want me to prove it?”

Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “Prove what?” she asked, fully knowing the answer. She should never have backed away from him. She knew well enough by now that Lucas thrived off the thrill of the hunt.

“You said you don’t believe I want to have sex anymore. I think you’re wrong and I’d like to prove it.”

“It was just a stupid thing to say. Not exactly a scientific theory that needs to be tested.”

“And do you believe me?” He took one more step closer.

She went to move back farther, but the edge of the counter hit her, caging her in place. “Nope. No proof necessary.”

Of its own accord, her voice seemed to get higher and squeakier. Dammit, she was better than this. Why couldn’t she be better than this around him?

Of course, Lucas didn’t let up. He leaned forward, setting an arm around each side of her on the counter. Suddenly she was right back in that hotel room last night, once again caged against the wall. “You know, right now I really, really, really”—he let his hips move forward just enough to close the distance between them so she could feel his erection pressing against her belly—“want to prove you wrong.”

Harper took a deep, nervous gulp. “I think I got it.”

“Good.” He looked deep into her eyes, and for that moment, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“Good,” she said.

And then, half a second later, they were kissing. She didn’t know who made the first move. They were so close, either one of them only had to move half an inch to close the distance between them. Had she given in to temptation and tipped her body forward just the slightest? Or maybe he, so determined to prove her wrong, closed the distance.

He was doing all this to prove a point; she should pull away from him, slap him right now. But that was a silly, logical thought. Logical thoughts and Lucas just didn’t go well together.

Instead, hot, heavy, lusty thinking clung to him like superglue. Pull away? The thought was practically laughable. The truth was she didn’t want to pull away. When he was around, for some silly reason, all she wanted to do was be closer. Be touching him in some way, shape, or form; trading barbs with him in some way, shape, or form. Despite being the most confusing, infuriating man she’d ever met, he drew her to him like nothing else she’d ever imagined.

Like everything about them, the kiss was hard, fast, combustible. Her fingers gripped the soft fabric of his T-shirt, pulling him closer. His hands were everywhere, running down her neck, collarbone, over the curves of her breasts, down her waist, then gripping her hips tightly as he lifted her up and against the counter. As soon as the counter was under her ass, her legs instinctively wrapped around him, pulling that erection completely up against her.

A small rumble escaped from the back of Lucas’s throat. Somewhere between a note of approval and a growl. Harper reveled in his animal nature. Her limited dating before had been so... civilized. Who knew that she needed something like this? Something to push back against her compulsive need to overthink things. Something to combat the forever present need to be in control. With Lucas, everything was a fight, and although that should be exhausting, the competitive side of her thrived on it. Thrived on him.

His mouth left hers and trailed kisses along one side of her jaw until he reached her earlobe and gave the soft flesh a little nip. “How could I not want you? I always want you, silly girl.”

If he weren’t holding her tightly against him, she would’ve melted right there. Instead, she responded the only way she knew how. Her fingers curled in the back of his hair. She pulled him closer, rubbing rhythmically against him. There was too much damn denim between the two of them right now. Before she could even think of the mechanics of how to get their pants off as quick as possible, Lucas was lifting her up and carrying her out of the kitchen. Now that she had a few seconds to think as he effortlessly carried her down the hall, she realized it was a good thing they weren’t having sex on some stranger’s counter. It was much better to have sex on some random stranger’s....

She actually had no idea where they were going, but in all honesty she didn’t care. She’d turned into some wanton creature that would do anything for some sort of fulfillment. But not any fulfillment—the type that Lucas could provide. He opened the door, and a second later, she was tumbling on the bed. She pushed up on her elbows and stared up at Lucas.

He stood there for a moment, silently appraising her with a wicked grin on his face.

“I changed my mind,” said Harper, unable to resist.

Shock flashed over Lucas’s face as a muscle in his jaw ticked. “What?”

“I do want you to prove it to me.”

He let out a sigh of what sounded like relief and frustration. “You know you’re gonna pay for that.”

She smiled at him and reached down to undo the button of her jeans. He took a deep swallow as she lowered the zipper, then shimmied her hips as she hooked her fingers in her panties and pants to push them down. She kicked off her shoes, and before she could sit up to push the pants off all the way, Lucas ripped them off with a quick jerk.

Before she could even reach her top, he was hooking an arm under her leg, pulling her toward the end of the bed. He kissed the inside of her knee and ran his teeth along her upper thigh. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he said, his breath so close to where she wanted him the most. “This is how you should be all the time. Naked.” All of a sudden, his hands were at her entrance, and two fingers slid easily in. “Perfection.”

She sucked in a breath and her head fell back. Oh good God.... While her eyes were closed, his mouth joined his fingers and he ate her up as though she were a buffet.

Harper’s fingers twisted in the sheets. She steeled herself. Lucas knew too damn much about a woman’s body. The way he could move her, manipulate her, taking her right to the edge and pulling back, repeating it over and over and over again. So when she finally fell over, her entire body was shaking with need and desire. When he finally started moving up her body, she wasn’t even sure she’d be good for anything besides lying there limply. She was fairly certain none of the muscles in her body actually worked. Lucas held himself over her, smiling down, apparently proud of his handiwork. She reached up, stroking her fingers over his cheek. “Careful, there,” she warned.

“Careful of what?”

“You almost look happy.”

He twisted his head until his mouth was over the soft pad of flesh beneath her thumb and bit down. “Trust me, I’m being careful.” And then he was sliding in.

All the muscles she thought would never work again suddenly kicked on. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, and her legs wrapped around him, held him closer. As soon as he was inside her, she felt so full and right. He stayed still for a moment. She wasn’t sure whether he was letting her adjust or savoring the sensation of being inside her. At first, she liked it, enjoying any chance she had to be close to him. But soon enough, her body, which had just been fully satiated, demanded more. She needed the friction. She needed to move. Her arms held him tighter as her hips writhed against his. “Please,” she murmured against his ear.

“Hold on,” he muttered.

Hold on? Was he crazy? The last thing she wanted to do was hold on. She finally embraced her lack of self-control around him, and he wanted her to hold on?

She wiggled even more fiercely against him. “I don’t want to wait.”

“Goddammit, woman. You know you’re impossible, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you love it.”

“Yeah, I do love you.”

Before she could even comprehend what he just said, he pulled out almost completely and slammed back home. Her eyes rolled back in her head as he started thrusting. Hard and fast. He gave her exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it. Her oversensitive body climaxed so fast she was sure it had to be a record. Hell, maybe it was a continuation of the orgasm he’d given her a few minutes ago. Things like boundaries and limitations were pointless when he was around. As usual, all she could do was hold on tight and ride it out.

Seconds after her, Lucas stiffened, every muscle in his body going rigid as his own climax hit. He collapsed on her on the bed, holding her in an almost punishing grip as he came deep within her.

Right as Harper started to relax, the undeniable sound of the door opening and closing as someone entered the apartment cut through the room. So much for any relaxation.