The brunette was Moira Cage. It hadn’t taken me long to find her. I’d picked up lunch and gone back to my office to do some research. Less than an hour later, I found her on the website for Evan Lee’s car dealership. She was standing next to him, smiling, and Evan was standing far too close to her. If I had to bet that his hand was on her ass, I was fairly certain I’d win.

Now, whether that meant that Evan was being overly flirtatious or that the two of them had been involved, I didn’t know, but that wasn’t what I’d been hired to find. Once I had a name, I compressed the video file I’d loaded onto my computer, attached it to an email that included a summary of what I’d learned, and then sent it off to Evan.

I was glad I’d asked him for his email address. Even though I had caught Jessica cheating, it didn’t mean I wanted Evan in my office again. The less I had to talk to him, the better. Considering how he’d leered at me before, I didn’t want to give him an opportunity to do it again.

After I sent the email, I went back to Jenna’s case. She hadn’t given me anything new to look at on the trafficking cases, and today wasn’t a good day to try for new photos of the addresses I’d already obtained. The weather was too bad to get anything clear. Jenna’s personal case, however, had tons of work to be done.

For a few hours, I managed to lose myself in research and planning, stopping only when my phone buzzed with a text from Jalen.

Want some dinner? I don’t feel like eating alone tonight.

Well, at least he didn’t say ‘we need to talk, and I’d take that as a good thing. Maybe he wanted to talk to me about meeting with Elise, or he truly just didn’t want to eat alone. Either way, I knew once I sent him a response, he was coming to see me, not going to see her.

And I refused to let my mutinous mind tell me any differently.

To prevent myself from overthinking, I went home, took a shower, and picked up a few things until he showed up with pizza, breadsticks, and a side of wings.

“Hey,” he said as I opened the door. “You look nice.”

I was wearing a pair of comfy jeans and a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, both of which were clean and presentable, but nothing special. Score one for Jalen. When I saw that he’d gotten one of those pizzas with all the different kinds of cheeses, I awarded him another point.

“What do you want to drink?” I asked as he followed me into the kitchen. “I pretty much have water, orange juice, and alcohol.”

He laughed, the warm sound slithering over every inch of me. “Whatever you’re having.”

It was probably a good thing that I didn’t have any hard liquor here because the way my nerves were going, I could’ve used a shot or three. I reached into my fridge and pulled out two beers. I didn’t drink it a lot, but it was the perfect complement to pizza, in my opinion.

We went into the living room, and I turned the volume down on the TV rather than turning it off. Pauses in our conversation would feel less awkward if there was some background noise, and I was uncertain enough about where things stood with us to want to plan for those possible uncomfortable moments.

After we’d both settled on the couch and served ourselves, I waited to see where he took things first.

“I’m glad you wanted to share dinner,” he said. “I really needed to see a friendly face after the day I’ve had.”

That sounded promising, but I tried to keep that thought from showing on my face. “Things didn’t go well?”

He shook his head as he chewed. He took a long drink, then explained, “First, I had three programmers call in sick with that nasty flu bug that’s going around, and of course, they’re the ones doing a lot of the base coding, so other programmers can’t do their work. Then, I get a call from Elise, saying she wants to talk about signing our divorce papers, finally. So, I ask her to come to the office.”

I went still for several long seconds, then forced myself to pick up my beer and take a drink.

“But, when she gets there, all she wants to do is talk about how we can’t throw away all this history we have.” He scowled at his pizza. “Still, I had lunch with her, thinking I could maybe get through to her. She wanted to talk about it instead of pretending I’d never filed, and that was a step in the right direction.”

Another long drink of beer on his part while I took another bite of pizza I could barely taste.

“We spent an hour together and accomplished absolutely nothing.” He shook his head. “I should have told her that I wouldn’t talk to her again unless we sat down with our lawyers.”

“Do you think she’d actually agree to that?”

He shrugged. “Probably not, but at least I would’ve been able to eat my lunch in peace, and considering how my afternoon went, I could’ve used the break. As soon as I got back to the office, I find out that one of my techs, Matt, has just discovered a huge problem with a program that I’d thought would be ready for release next week. So I spent my afternoon trying to figure out who I could pull off of other projects to fix something that should’ve been taken care of weeks ago, and I can’t even blame anyone else because I completely missed it too.”

He sounded so frustrated that I felt guilty for even considering that he might’ve been hiding Elise from me. I was even more glad now that I’d walked away and given him the benefit of the doubt.

“How was your day?” he asked.

Instead of telling him that I’d closed a case where I was pretty sure that the client’s wife was cheating on him with his mistress, I leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“What was that for?” He gave me a puzzled smile. “Not that I’ll ever complain about a kiss from you. I’m just not sure what prompted it.”

I set down my empty plate and took his plate from him as I slid closer. His leg was a solid presence against mine, and I reflected for a moment about how much that described what he’d become to me. A solid presence. Someone I could count on. Since he’d come to me in Indiana to apologize for flaking out on me, he hadn’t made the same mistake. He’d faced the trial head-on, tried to protect me from Elise, wanted to share his day with me.

This time, when I moved toward him, it was to press my mouth against his, to show him all the things I wasn’t quite ready to say. Including that l-word that kept creeping into my mind at the most unexpected moments. I wasn’t there yet, but it was coming.

I pushed away all thoughts of the future and what it might or might not hold. I wanted to be about now.

He caught me around the waist as he angled my head to deepen the kiss. Without knowing exactly when it had happened, he’d taken over things, but I was glad to relinquish control to him. His fingers flexed against my spine, the pressure as reassuring as it was erotic. It amazed me how he was able to make me feel both out of control and safe at the same time.

He made an urgent sound in the back of his throat and pulled me onto his lap. I put my knees on either side of his hips and wished I’d put on a skirt. It would’ve been so easy to have him inside me. Unzip his pants, pull out his cock, sink down onto him. Three simple steps to satisfy the deep ache growing between my legs.

I put my hands on his cheeks, relishing in the stubble scratching my palms. I had the sudden urge to push back and beg him to go down on me just so I could feel the whisker-burn on the insides of my thighs. I’d gotten over a lot of my self-consciousness when it came to my body, but I still struggled with thinking about it too much.

He pulled back and caught my chin in a firm grip. “I swear, sometimes, I can hear you thinking.”

He took my mouth with a deep, bruising kiss. His teeth latched onto my bottom lip, and he worried at it until it was swollen and throbbing. I’d read books where the author had described lips as being ‘bee-stung’ and I had a feeling that’s what I’d see if I looked into a mirror.

“Talk to me,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.” I flushed, and the response made him chuckle. “That bad?”

The hand on my back slid under my shirt, leaving a hot trail up my spine to my bra. His talented fingers made short work of the clasp.

“Is there something you wanted me to do that I’m not doing?” He sounded intrigued. “You can ask me anything, Rona, and I won’t think of you differently because of it.”

“It’s not bad,” I said. “I just surprise myself sometimes, with the things that I want.”

He considered that for a minute while he pulled off my shirt and bra. As the cool air hit my skin, my nipples pebbled, tightening into hard little points.

“Maybe I should tell you some of the things that go on in my head.” He flicked the tip of his tongue against one nipple, then the other. “I’m still planning on fucking your ass. I also want to do it at least once while I have a nice, thick dildo in your pussy. I want you to feel what it’s like to be completely filled, but I won’t ever share you with someone.”

My entire body clenched at his words, but I wasn’t sure if I was more turned on by what he wanted to do with me or by his declaration that he’d never share me. I’d never had anyone want to be possessive with me.

“I have this fantasy about fucking you in public.” He rolled one of my nipples between his thumb and forefinger, not attempting to even try to be gentle. “Outside somewhere maybe. Take you on a hike and then step off the trail. Lean you against a tree, tug down your pants, and fuck you right there.”

Damn. If he kept this up, I was going to come right here.

I tugged on his shirt, and he leaned forward to let me pull it off. I ran my hands across his shoulders, his chest, smiling as his muscles twitched and bunched. “I was thinking how I want you to go down on me so I can feel that five o’clock shadow on the insides of my thighs.”

His eyes darkened. “Take off your pants and underwear.”

I climbed off him, my hands shaking as I hurried to follow his instructions. He shifted on the couch, turning until he was laying on his back, his legs bent at the knees to allow him to fit.

“Come here.”

I moved up to the end of the couch, taking the hand he offered. With his help, I managed to get back onto the couch, and then I let him position me with my knees on either side of his head, my pussy above his face. A hot flush made its way across my skin, but I didn’t complain. When I’d imagined this, we hadn’t exactly been in this particular position, but this was somehow hotter.

He put his hands on my hips as he rubbed his cheeks against my skin, giving me a hint of that hot near-pain that I’d craved.

“Ride my face.”

A shiver went through me as I looked down at him.

He squeezed my ass. “Come on, babe. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. Me underneath you. You in control. Deciding how deep I go, where I touch. Where I…lick.”

My face burned, but the embarrassment of this particular position wasn’t as strong as my desire for what he offered. I nodded, and he eased me forward, then down. I muttered a curse as his tongue teased me. It worked its way between my lips, and I shifted, wanting his tongue in a better place. A more sensitive place.

He chuckled, and the vibrations made me moan. His head barely moved, but even the most minute of movements made the scruff on his skin abrade the insides of my thighs again. It felt even better than I’d imagined.

The combination of the soft, wet caress of his tongue and the coarse abrasion of his face had my entire body tingling. It was a blistering, tight spiral like nothing I’d ever felt before. A single finger slipped between my cheeks, and a moment later, I felt it press against my anus. The burn spread quickly as the tip breached that ring of muscle, and the moment it hit the knot of pressure inside me, I exploded.

“Yes! Fuck, J!” I squeezed my eyes closed, and I still saw sparks.

I ground down on his face, and his hands held me there, his mouth keeping me on that plateau until it became too much, and I began to beg him to stop. I tried to move away, but now he was in control. A single word could get him to stop, but I hadn’t quite reached that point yet. Still, it was torture. Pure ecstasy, but torture nonetheless.

Then his mouth was gone, and he was flipping us over, stretching his long, hard body over mine. At some point, he’d dealt with his own clothing because it was bare skin against bare skin now. I hardly had enough time to process the sensations before he buried himself inside me.

I cried out as that thick, hard shaft split me in two. His mouth crashed down on mine, his tongue delving into my mouth, languidly exploring as he reached down and stroked my clit a few times, making my muscles spasm around his cock.

“Fuck, baby,” he groaned, his mouth moving down my jaw and throat as he spoke, “You feel so good.”

He pressed his face against the side of my neck and rocked against me, creating perfect friction that made my entire body shudder. He pulled my leg up straight, my calf resting on his chest, my ankle on his shoulder. The stretch and burn down the back of my thigh mingled with the building heat inside me. I waited for him to drive into me hard and fast, but he didn’t.

He pulled back until just the tip remained, then eased forward, his pace leisurely, but deep. He reached every inch of me, filled every part in ways that I’d only ever felt with him.

That fire low in my belly flared, then dimmed, smoldering before roaring to life, each change brought about by a new stroke or bite. His hands moved over my body, cupping my breasts, tugging on my nipples. It was gentle and rough. Hard and soft. A dichotomy of sensation.

“Come for me, pretty girl,” he murmured. His breath ghosted across my skin, and I shivered. “I want that tight pussy of yours to squeeze me, milk out every last drop of my cum.”

“I need more,” I whimpered. I was so close. I could feel my body ready to shatter, but I couldn’t quite get there.

“More what, baby?” He scraped his teeth on my collarbone, then bit my shoulder. “Tell me. What more do you want?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I just need…I need…please, J. I need…” I grabbed his arm, digging my nails into his flesh. “J.”

My leg dropped as he went up on his knees. He took me with him, forcing my torso up, my weight resting on my shoulders. His eyes locked with mine as he gripped my hips.

“Play with your clit, baby,” he said. “Because I’m going to fuck you until I come, and if you don’t come by then, you get to wait until I’m ready to go again.”

I wanted to ask him if he’d punish me, and I wanted to tell him that I could get myself off on my own. The look in his eyes told me neither would be appreciated. A little thrill went through me at the knowledge that I could affect him like that. I watched my hand slide up toward him, toward that place where our bodies came together.

My fingers moved through the thin layer of curls, gathering moisture. The first pass over my clit had me gasping. It was swollen, sensitive, throbbing…fuck…

“That’s it, baby,” he said. “Come on my cock.”

Now it was time for hard and fast.

Neither of us lasted long. Half a dozen strokes and I came with a scream. My body stiffened, and Jalen cursed. My fingers pressed tight against my clit, sending a nearly-painful rush of pleasure through me, and I came again before the first climax finished.

He pulled out suddenly, his fist moving over his swollen cock until he finished, his cum decorating my stomach. He collapsed half on top of me, pulling me close.

At some point, I’d need to clean my couch, I realized. But right now, I was content where I was.