I had the water running hot, punishingly hot, but I couldn’t even feel it. I didn’t know why I’d even bothered setting it so high. It hadn’t mattered any other morning, it wasn’t going to make a difference now.

No, all my attention was on the images in my head, and my hand working my aching cock.

In my mind, Kate was back in my lap, but no tears this time. Just her sweet, warm body pressed to mine, her lush ass in my hands, and my cock deep inside her. I could feel her lips on mine, not soft like they had been in reality, but hungry. I imagined nothing on her smooth skin but the ink I’d put in it.

Liam.

She didn’t moan it like some shitty porno. She breathed it, that husky sound so much fucking better. Her luscious tits swayed with the rocking of her hips. It wasn’t hurried. She would build it slow for both of us because we’d have all the time in the world. I was hers to take.

My balls tightened.

Eventually, she’d be right on that edge. I’d feel it when her pussy drenched me, when her movements got frantic, trying to take her to that place. I’d grab onto her harder, help her move how she needed it until I felt her clamp down on me, but I wouldn’t stop. I’d give it to her full out, keeping her in that state of bliss as long as I could. I’d hold back through the feeling of her milking me, even if it damn near killed me. Not until she’d come. Not until…

It was the image of her collapsing against me, sagging completely replete in my arms that took me over the edge. Like even in my fantasy, she had to come first.

My free hand slammed against the tiled wall to keep me upright as it moved through me. I locked my knees to stay upright as wave after wave overtook me, darkening my vision.

She did this to me. Even when she wasn’t here, she did this to me every fucking time.

It took a couple minutes before I could get back to it and actually shower. Getting off regularly was one thing, but it was at the point now that I’d had to start getting up earlier just to have time to take the edge off. It was the only way I was going to manage being around her without popping up a boner at random like a horny teenager.

It… mostly worked.

Three weeks had passed since dinner at Mom’s, and I’d seen a hell of a lot of Kate. We’d done short lunches a few times when we could both get away from work. I’d taken her, Owen, and Connor out for pizza one night so Mom could be free with Derek. And two nights ago, I’d gone up to the farmhouse with Chinese takeout for me and Kate after she’d complained about Owen wanting fish sticks for the third time this week.

I’d thought, when I’d all but demanded we be friends, that it would be more of a one-sided effort my way for a while. I was wrong. Kate might not have been pushing us forward into more, but she was giving at least the friendship a fair shot.

If only I could keep my mind and my dick happy with just that, we’d be golden.

Before I turned the water off, I contemplated going for double, just to be safe, knowing that the day ahead of me was going to be rough. If my dick wasn’t half raw from the treatment I’d been giving it, I would have.

I got out and toweled off, going to look for something that probably didn’t exist to eat before I went in to work. While I was standing there getting a chill from the empty fridge, my phone went off.

She’d been calling me “Casanova” a lot lately, anytime she thought I was laying it on too thick. Since I was trying to get her comfortable with me being affectionate, that was often. What she hadn’t done was tell me to knock it off, so I was taking that as a good sign.

I didn’t bother telling her that the pictures would only be cropped for my actual portfolio. Anything else I happened to get wasn’t just going to be deleted.

It took Kate a while to get into town from the farmhouse, so I decided I’d be nice and get us both something for breakfast. If she’d already eaten with Owen, I’d just have extra. One of the lesser—but still nifty—benefits of Owen and Kate was that neither was all that great at finishing their food. Since I could eat for two or three most days, the balance worked.

It didn’t take long for me to throw clothes on and drive over to Sugar’s Dream. There was a small crowd, but I kicked back in one of the little tables they had until it died down. Avery was behind the counter, handling the place alone. When the place cleared out, I made my way up to her.

“You’re going to lose that boyish figure,” she warned.

I looked down at myself. “Boyish?”

She flicked a hand like I was completely unimpressive. “Meh.”

“I oughta take my business elsewhere.”

“I might be concerned if I thought you actually would.”

She leaned over the counter of goods, a pose that was meant to draw men’s eyes to a woman’s rack. She knew me well enough to know mine were going lower to the food. It wasn’t that she wasn’t objectively gorgeous. I wasn’t blind. My tastes just ran a different way than the almost too sexy redhead. I liked my women a little sweeter.

No, what my attention was on was the proof that she was absolutely right. I was loyal to this place to death.

“You win. Are those Bavarian cream donuts?”

“Sure are.”

“I’ll take three.”

She shook her head in amusement as she started putting them in a box. A dozen box, not a half. Because the woman was smart.

I picked out two other donuts and a bear claw before I asked, “What does Kate like best?”

Avery’s head came up, and she blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Kate’s meeting me soon, but I don’t know what she likes most.”

She wanted to ask. It was all over her face. I was certain that she was going to end up asking Kate later—which I should probably prepare her for—but I watched her fist her hands for a second, release, and force herself to let it go.

“She gets this stuff a lot—obviously. But her favorite are the cinnamon muffins and the blueberry scones.”

Mmm. She had good taste. Though, I don’t know what would have been a sign she didn’t. Maybe the small batch of bran muffins. Not saying I wouldn’t take those in a pinch but by choice? Never.

“Okay, then two of each of those, and two of the lemon poppy seed muffins.”

Jess had been weird all week. There’d been a couple more days of her being pissed, and a couple where she just seemed withdrawn. I didn’t like it. I liked even less that she wasn’t giving me shit to go on. This meant I was getting close to snapping and doing something drastic like kidnapping her until she told me.

In case that came to pass, I’d pre-butter her up with lemon treats.

It’d probably work.

Avery got me all set and checked out, but hesitated when it came time to pass over the box. I looked her dead-on, knowing what this was.

“Careful,” she warned. It was all she had to say.

“I am, and I will be.”

She nodded, handing over the goods so I could go.

Some might be bothered by everyone sticking their noses in the middle of this, but I knew what I was getting into. Kate was the only one who saw her as some kind of island state. The rest of us knew the truth. She had as big a family as anyone I’d ever known, and they’d not even hesitate to go to bat for her. The lot of them wouldn’t be pleased with anyone that would give her an ounce less than that.

What they needed to see was that I was prepared to give it all.

“I feel ridiculous.”

My gypsy was getting restless.

It took all of three shots to figure out Kate did not like being in front of the camera. She was ready to be done before I even got the settings on the camera right. Not shocking. She didn’t seem to like being the center of attention at all.

“You’re literally just standing there.”

“Yes, facing the wall while you stand over there taking pictures. It’s weird. It’s like a mugshot.”

I snapped another one as she ranted, not caring if she could hear the click or not. She looked fantastic when she was riled.

“What do you know about getting a mugshot?”

She shrugged, but her posture got awkward and tense.

What the hell?

“Gypsy,” I called. Her head lolled with her dramatic eye roll before she looked my way over her shoulder. “Mugshot?”

“I have a whole, deep, dark history you know nothing about,” she replied. “You have no idea the things I might have done.”

“Kate.”

“Shoplifting,” she admitted.

“Oooh. Living on the edge.”

She shot me the middle finger. I managed to snap it right on time. Definitely keeping that one.

“There was a bit of an overzealous captain on the force. Our neighborhood wasn’t always the best, so even when he caught kids doing something minor, he tried the whole scare-them-straight thing. Went through the whole process. Prints, mugshot, all of it. I don’t think he even had the clearance to add our prints to a database without parents involved, but it was just about intimidation. I heard he got in deep shit for it later.”

That was a lot to get out of her about her past. Most of the time, she kept everything but the present locked up tight.

“Sooo…”

“So what?”

“What’d you steal?”

Her hand went up beneath her hair, lifting it from her neck. It was a nervous tick I’d seen quite a few times from her. If I had to guess, she had no idea she even did it.

“A few apples, some cheese, a bottle of juice, and a box of crackers.”

It was all she said, and yet I understood what she was leaving beneath it. That wasn’t some teen wanting to get their hands on something fun. She didn’t lift a bottle of cheap vodka. She was stealing real food, food that she should have had anyway.

It was a fucking fight to keep my voice steady. “How old were you?”

She didn’t answer right away. It took her long enough that I’d almost accepted that she wasn’t going to when the one word came out. “Eleven.”

Christ.