The Mayberry House Inn had seen better days.

As she and Gage pulled up in his truck, their hands linked on the center console, Lizzie couldn’t help but notice the dipping porch line, the chipped hurricane shutters, and the overgrowth of plants in the front lawn.

So far, their trip wasn’t turning out exactly as planned.

Glancing at the stoic man beside her, Lizzie worried over the straight line of his mouth. Tense didn’t even begin to describe his aura right now, and it hurt her to think of everything he’d been through.

Was clearly still going through, if the exhausted pinch of his expression was anything to go by.

She squeezed his hand once, and then leaned over to grab her backpack off the floor by her feet. “I bet it’s going to be great,” she announced, looping her hand through one padded strap. “The pictures don’t even do it justice.”

Understatement of the year.

“Wonder if it’s haunted?” he said after a brief silence, and she could tell that he was trying to pull his mood up from the bottom of the barrel. “Maybe the ghosts will do me a solid and retrieve the sheets for me every time you steal them away.”

“Hey”—she jabbed a finger into his hard bicep—“I always return them. Stealing implies that you never get them back.”

There. There was that sexy smile of his that turned her to molten liquid. “I get them back all right,” he said. “When you climb out of the bed the next morning.”

“You enjoy every minute of it, Officer Harvey, I refuse to believe anything different.”

They climbed out of their respective sides of the truck, and Gage moved over to the bed. He lifted his duffel out, then her travel-friendly suitcase.

“Do you want me to get that?” she asked, stepping close and waving her hand toward the bright pink luggage.

He batted her hand away with a mock-glower. “Nope, your only job is to do the socializin’ with this innkeeper.”

Turns out, that didn’t happen.

The moment they stepped into the Mayberry House Inn, the old floorboards creaking beneath their shoes, there was a flurry of commotion as a woman decked out in a lavender tracksuit strode forward, brown hair artfully arranged on the top of her head, oversized glasses perched on her nose.

“Gage Harvey?” she exclaimed, eyes wide behind the clear frames. “Is that you?”

Beside her, she practically heard his bones cringe as he muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Louder, he said, “Mrs. Whitehouse, good to see you.”

“Good to see me?” The brown bun shook atop her head, threatening to spill over. “Boy, I haven’t seen you in over a decade. Get your little tush on over here and give me a hug.”

Slowly, dread threading through every movement, Gage set the duffel bag next to the suitcase and did as Mrs. Whitehouse ordered, wrapping his big arms around her bony shoulders for a quick hug.

“Now that’s more like it. You think I don’t remember you and your brother runnin’ wild around here? How is Owen?”

“He’s good, ma’am.”

She shook her head, finger going to the bridge of her nose to shove up her glasses before they slipped right off. “Sure is a shame about his criminal record now. Some of the girls couldn’t believe it, you know. They’d sit at Moe’s, sipping their coffee, and your brother always did come up. Such a shame.”

Gage’s shoulders, broad as they were, dipped as he slid his hands into the front pockets of his cargo shorts. Then he glanced back, black eyes seeking her out. “Mrs. Whitehouse, this is Lizzie, my . . . girlfriend. Lizzie, Mrs. Whitehouse was my high school history teacher.”

Shock jolted up her spine, and it took everything in her to keep from smiling like a fool. She knew that he hadn’t meant it, not literally. Lizzie might have lived her entire life in New Orleans, but she knew that in small towns like Hackberry, appearances were everything.

Don’t overreact. Play it easy, calm.

She stepped forward, catching her reflection in the large entryway mirror off to her right.

Oh, God, someone please slap the stupid smile off her face right now.

“It’s good to meet you, Mrs. Whitehouse.” She held out her hand, not the least bit surprised when the woman grabbed her by the shoulders and drew her into a boob-smashing hug that threatened to cut off air supply.

Over the innkeeper’s shoulders, she met Gage’s gaze.

Help, she mouthed.

He launched into action, ever the protector. Like peeling the skin from a juicy orange, he tugged Mrs. Whitehouse away. “So when did you buy the inn? It’s just, uh . . .”

“Old?” Mrs. Whitehouse supplied, and then laughed heartily. “No need to mince words, Gage; I’m fully aware that it’s a little sad around the edges right now. And to answer your question, about two years back or so. The local preservation society decided they wanted to restore Mayberry House, but lacked the funds to do so. Asked the town if anyone minded taking a more important role in creating awareness, and I stepped in.” A small grin worked itself onto her face. “The gift shop was my idea, as was this inn. Actually had this house moved over from Lake Charles, can you believe it? Rode all the way down here on one of those crane things like something out of a darn movie.”

Fascinated, Lizzie glanced around at the furnishings. Soft, muted colors decorated the space. The circular stairwell that led to the second floor was the major showstopper. They’d passed Lake Charles on the way here, a good thirty miles away. “I can’t believe y’all managed to move it such a far distance and keep it intact.”

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Mrs. Whitehouse planted her hands on her hips and took a look around at her home, a pleased expression on her face. “Part of the bargain with the preservation society was that I could live here free of charge, and they’d keep any profits from the guests. Which just so happens to be you two for this evening! Our lulls are slower than molasses here, so your booking was a nice surprise.”

Without preamble, she stretched up onto her toes and pinched Gage’s cheek like he was two feet tall, and not six-foot-two and solid muscle. “It’s good to see you happy again, boy. You and your brother, especially after all that dreadful mess with—”

He cut her off before she could finish. “It’s good to see you, too, Mrs. Whitehouse.” Grabbing the duffel again, he hooked it over one strong shoulder. “We already stopped by the plantation. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind?” she repeated, flapping a dismissive hand through the air. “There are reasons the doors aren’t locked yet over there. So many loops and holes to jump through, and we’re not even close to getting the poor house officially listed on the historic register. For now, anyone can pass through free-of-charge. Although . . .” Her eyes squinted behind her square frames. “Did y’all leave a dollar or two in the collection jar out front? Donations, of course.”

Lizzie and Gage exchanged a glance. There’d been a collection jar?

“We’ll be sure to do so before we leave,” Lizzie murmured smoothly. “I’d like to go back tonight anyway. With the lack of city lights over here, I’d love to grab some photos of the property sometime around sunset and into early evening under the stars.”

At Mrs. Whitehouse’s furrowed brows, Gage explained, “Lizzie is a professional photographer.”

“A photographer?” The woman glanced down at her velvet tracksuit and then jerked her gaze over to the mirror. “Fate would have it that the day I decide to let nature tame my hair, a photographer comes to stay.”

Lizzie hid a smile. “I promise, I’m really not—”

“Will you take my photo later?” Mrs. Whitehouse demanded with undiluted excitement. “A nice photo I can hang up above the mantelpiece? I’ve always dreamed of having a picture done professionally!”

Like she could say no? The woman was so friendly it bordered on unreal. Small town living for you, though. “Absolutely, maybe before dinner?”

Mrs. Whitehouse beamed, and then made a show of sweeping them up the stairs to the rooms on the second floor. “Now, you had booked for one of the smaller rooms, but”—she sent a happy smile toward Gage—“it’s so good to have you back in Hackberry, baby, and I can’t be shoving y’all into a room with only a full-size bed. How do you feel about a balcony?”

She didn’t wait for them to answer, simply stopped in front of a heavy oak door at the end of the hall and keyed it open. “Just for y’all!” She swooped in and did a little spin in the center of the room, the hem of her sweats catching on the backs of her tennis shoes. “A balcony and a king-size bed. You’re bigger than I remembered, Gage.”

“Oh, Jesus.”

Lizzie snickered, thrilling in the way Gage’s cheeks flushed with color as he set his duffel on the flower bedspread. “He’s definitely bigger,” she teased, unable to resist making the big, badass Officer Harvey squirm.

His mouth gaped.

Mrs. Whitehouse hooted with delight. “Oh, I like you, Lizzie! All right, you two lovebirds, I’ll leave you to it. Y’all are the only guests in tonight, so I’ll be making supper around six, yeah? Come on down before then, so we can take my photo!”

With a flash of her hand, Mayberry House’s innkeeper sailed out of the room and shut the door behind her.

“She didn’t leave behind a key,” Gage grumbled, still bright red.

Laughing, Lizzie scoped out the bedroom. “Scared she’ll take a peek in here later just to see how big you really are?”

“You’re enjoyin’ yourself, aren’t you.”

Her feet rooted to the area rug. “For a playboy, Gage Harvey, you can be real serious at times.”

He rolled his dark eyes, stalking toward her with intent. “We both know it’s a good thing you quit that challenge of yours. Sooner or later the world would have found out that the guy you picked was—”

“The right guy,” she said boldly, skipping away from his reaching hands to sashay to the bed. “Bad boy or not, I clearly felt inclined to pick you for a reason.”

“Because you were desperate and there I was, tall, dark, and tatted up, and you thought, him.”

Settling her back against the hard pillows, Lizzie watched him toe off his tennis shoes and follow her onto the bed. The mattress creaked beneath his heavy bulk, one particular coil squealing like a pig when his knee landed on it.

“No,” she told him as he straddled her hips and placed his hands on the headboard behind her, “it was because you stared at me like I wasn’t real, like I’d struck you over the head with a two-by-four and you didn’t know whether to kiss me or shove me away.”

His mouth met her neck with a gentle nip of his teeth, and she gasped even as she twisted her head just so, giving him more space to play. “I should have kissed you right then and there,” he growled.

“You can kiss me now.”

And so he did.

Moved his lips to hers and drank from her mouth like she was the finest blend of whiskey he’d ever tasted. The storm in his touch from the plantation had quieted, leaving behind only languid strokes of his tongue, his body moving against hers.

Lizzie soaked up every drop of affection.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders when he tangled his tongue with hers. Her body squirmed beneath his when he intertwined their hands and pinned them to the pillows on either side of her head.

“How do you always get under my skin?” he rasped, his stubble grazing her cheek as he nipped at her earlobe. “How do I always tell myself that we need to cool it down, take it back a notch, and then you fucking look at me, and I’m gone in an instant?”

A gasp escaped her at the friction of the big bulge in his shorts rubbing against her seam. Nothing could have stopped her from meeting his hips. She backed her heels into the mattress, lifting her hips again and again to meet each sensual stroke, despite the fact that they hadn’t even removed their clothes.

Because that’s what Gage Harvey did to her.

He made her feel like a teenager again, touching a guy’s erection for the first time. He made her feel as though she could orgasm with nothing but his hot breath on her neck and a dry-humping session that was a hell of a lot more appropriate for someone half her age.

“Those sounds you make when I hit the right spot,” he said, voice tight with lust, “the way you bite down on your lip just before you come all over me.” With her hands still pinned under his, he moved his body down, down, down so he could kiss the top of each breast through her T-shirt. “You drive me to distraction, princess.”

“I-I tempt you.” The words left her on a whimper when he released one of her hands so he could push up her shirt and close his mouth over her pebbled nipple. Her eyes fluttered shut, no matter how much she wished to keep them open and on the darkly beautiful man hovering over her body. “Gage, I—”

His tongue rolled over her, circling and sucking until her legs twisted beneath his, her very soul desperate for the release only he could give her. “You tempt me with more than just your body.” His weight lowered, heavy and hot on hers, tongue swirling over her nipple and making her crazy. “You tempt me into thinking that forever is a possibility when I know it’s a lie we tell ourselves to feel better. You tempt me to throw caution to the wind and make you mine, Lizzie. Mine to kiss, mine to hold at night, mine to have ridiculous adventures with that only we find fun.”

Her heart squeezed. Why did it sound so final? Why did his voice waver like this was the end, and there was nothing else to them?

Her thoughts scattered at the touch of his hand between her legs, over her leggings. Oh, yes, please. His thumb circled over her clit, faster and faster, until her palms were pushing down on his shoulders. Push him away. Pull him closer. She was a hot mess, completely dialed into the pleasure he doled out in spades.

That hand disappeared from where she needed him most, going to her waistband and drawing off her sweatpants. Her shoes, her socks. Her old Saints football T-shirt that had seen better days. He left her naked on the bed, stripped of every accessory—subject to only his hungry eyes.

Shoulders heaving with heavy breaths, he touched his hands to her thighs. “You tempt me to do wild things, Lizzie Danvers, to take chances I know we’ll both regret.”

He was speaking in riddles, clouding her judgment in a haze of lust, desperation, and yes, love. She shouldn’t have fallen for him, not like this, not when something so very obviously held him back from that final leap.

She’d fallen in love with the bad boy, the way she said she would never do again, and she had a sneaking suspicion that she’d been right all along. She’d changed, let down her walls, had given him everything, and would not be the one left standing. As his hands skimmed her body, fear lurked in the back of her head that this moment was the end for them.

But Lizzie had spent her entire life taking chances, on building a life out of making makeup tutorials; capturing photos; being more than the little girl who spent her first twelve years hiding from her own shadow, scared to make her presence known.

Happiness was never handed over like a gift; it was created, molded, formed out of the shadows and the despair into something beautiful and inspiring.

“Then I’ll just keep tempting you,” she vowed softly, pushing off her back so that her fingers could go to the button of his shorts. It slipped through the hole, freed. Down went his zipper. When her hand wrapped around his thick erection, a hoarse groan left him like it’d been ripped from his heart, his chest, his soul. Lizzie slipped her gaze up to his face and whispered, “Until you see that the only wild chance you’re willing to take is with me.”

She killed him.

With her words, her hands, the damn goodness in her heart.

Gage’s head dropped back as her small hand stroked up his length, twisting at the head just as he liked. Fuck. He was mindless to the pleasure, the feel of her smooth palm, the touch of her equally soft lips capturing the pearl of come off the tip of his dick.

Being back here in Hackberry was like calling the dead from their graves. Messing with his head. Destroying his sense of calm, the handle he’d held over his life over the years. Both softening his heart to the woman on her knees before him and steeling it, just the same, against the memories that ravaged him.

He needed air, space like he regularly sought out in the Preserve, but he wasn’t willing to let her go to get it.

“Lizzie,” he rasped, tugging on her hair so that she’d stop, “do a wild thing with me.”

Blue eyes blinked up at him as his hard-on slipped from her mouth with an audible pop. “Always, Gage, always.”

That blind trust in him, it was nearly crippling.

He wrapped his hand around hers, pulling her off the bed, leading her to the balcony doors. He shucked his shorts as soon as the doors opened wide. Pulled off his T-shirt a moment later.

With a squeak, Lizzie jumped behind him, curled hands on either side of his spine.

“Gage! There are—”

“Cane fields,” he said slowly, “there are endless cane fields. The plantation is the closest thing to us, and it’s a mile away.”

“Mrs. Whitehouse,” Lizzie started, her small breasts flush against his back.

Gage popped his head out, glancing to the left and right. The balcony itself was deep but not so wide, an obvious addition dating to around the 1980s, if he had to guess. It didn’t wrap around the second floor like the plantation’s—but it also seemed sturdier and less likely to buckle under their combined weight.

“Can you stay quiet?” He peered back to look down at her. “Can I make you come and you not make a sound?”

The challenge in his tone brought the fire to her blue eyes. “Of course I can. You’re not that irresistible, Gage Harvey.”

“Lies.” He stepped to the side, his hands going to her waist so he could drag her forward, in front of him. She held her head up high, proud and sexy and so damn confident. Gage touched his mouth to her ear and whispered, “But I’m willing to let you prove it. Put your hands on the railing and face the cane fields, princess, and then spread your legs for me.”

She gasped at his dirty talk.

Grumbled about all his “demands” when she moved into position, hands on the balustrade, her curvy legs moving shoulder-width apart.

Moaned when Gage dropped to his knees in front of her, gripped her thighs to keep her steady, and slicked his tongue over her clit. His gaze climbed her body, the soft flatness of her belly, her small, perky breasts, up to her face.

Her lips were parted, ragged breaths sucking in and pushing out, her blue eyes half-lidded with absolute desire.

That one look spurred him on. He hooked her right leg over his shoulder. Drove his tongue against her in tight little circles that had her hands leaving the balustrade to grip his hair.

“Please,” she whispered, thrusting her mound against his lips, “oh my God.”

This moment . . . it was wild and dirty and so damn raw.

Tell her everything, he thought, tell her everything and be happy for once.

As his mouth moved against her, his finger finding her entrance and dipping inside her heat, he watched her. The unwrinkled brow. The heart she wore on her sleeve. The creaseless features that were unburdened with worry, defeat, sadness.

If he told her everything, if he poured out his soul, that happiness of hers would dissipate. He’d heard the commentary in Hackberry when he’d returned for his mother’s funeral. He’d heard it while he finished the police academy, and countless times during those early years on the job.

Did you hear about his dad? His mom? So damn sad . . .

Must run in the family, huh. First what happened to his grandfather on the job, and then that awful accident with his father? Poor, poor Bethany.

Can you blame Michelle for leaving him? If I saw the luck of that family, I’d leave too. Wouldn’t matter if he’d just put a ring on my finger, no sir.

Lizzie’s fingers tightened in his hair, sharply pulling on the short strands. She was close, so damn close.

With a last flick of his tongue on her clit, he rose to his full height. She stepped back, giving him space, her breasts and neck and face red with pleasure.

“Not out here,” he ground out, “I want to see your face when I take you. I want you to know it’s me that drives you over the edge.”

Her tongue flicked out to touch her lower lip. “Like I could ever forget.”

Tell her, tell her, tell her.

He fused his mouth to hers, backing her up into the guestroom, kissing her until her thighs hit the bed and she landed on her ass. On that damn butterfly tattoo he’d given her weeks ago, and she’d been right about that too.

Even with roots in New Orleans, she longed to fly free, to stretch her wings and to bask in the excitement of life.

His tattoos matched his life, too.

Every NOPD officer who had died on the job since Gage had joined the force in 2003, was marked into his skin. His grandfather and father sat at the top of his list, just over his heart. A constant reminder of the danger that he faced every day. A constant reminder that not every death came as a result of a traffic stop gone wrong like his grandpa, or a drunk idiot slamming into a police officer handling a roadside accident, like his father.

And then some deaths didn’t come at the cause of others, but because of self-harm.

Like the moment his mother had learned of her husband’s death, no matter that they’d been separated for years, and had seen fit to take her own life that very night.

And there was Gage’s fiancée, Michelle, who had looked at all the death, all the ruination, and pressed the ring he’d given her into his palm. Her parting words, a very quietly delivered, “I can’t do this. No woman can do this.”

“Gage?”

Lizzie’s husky voice yanked him into the present, to her naked body on the bed, to the temptation he’d faced every day since he’d met her.

I can’t do this. No woman can do this.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He needed to get out of his head. Put the memories away. The pain, the—

A feminine hand linked with his, and the contact sent a shiver down his spine.

“Come back to me, Gage,” she said, tugging him down over her body. He went willingly, his still-hard cock nestled against her. “Get out of your head and just feel.”

That was the problem. He felt too much, and every word that spilled from her mouth cracked the gates wider, destroying the locks, throwing away the keys. Under all that, though, was the softness of her against him, encouraging him to let go, to be in the moment.

“I need a condom.” He tried to pull back, only for her legs to cross over his hips, holding him in place.

“I’m on the pill.” Her breath escaped on an embarrassed laugh. “We don’t have to, obviously. I trust you, and it’s not like—well, I’ve never done it without one. Ever.”

A gift she gave him alone.

Every word, every touch, she ruined him.

“Me either, princess.” Not even with Michelle, the girl he’d dated throughout high school and until he’d been twenty. Six years, and not a single time. Less than six weeks with Lizzie, and he wanted nothing more than to sink into her body without barriers. He shouldn’t accept her offer, not while knowing that she wouldn’t be with him in the long-haul.

But Gage had made a living out of serving others, and for the first time that he could remember, he was being offered something precious. And he couldn’t say no.

He drew in a deep breath. “You sure?”

Her lips quirked in one of her flashy grins. “Get to it, Officer. I’m waiting.”

So he did. He wrapped a hand around his cock, placing the tip at her entrance. Waited for her to meet his gaze, and when she did, he thrust in deep, hard. Her neck arched, head hitting the pillow with a hissed sigh, her nails scraping down his forearms.

“Yes,” she moaned, eyes shut, mouth parted, “yes.”

The sensation of being bareback in her was almost too much to bear. It was heaven. It was hell. Gage leaned back, gripping her hips. Glanced down to see his cock slip out of her tight body, and drive back in again. Over and over again. In and out.

Heaven.

And hell.

Without intending to, the words fell from his lips, tangling in the room already echoing with her whimpers and his groans: “Everything, sweetheart. You mean everything.” Her thighs quivered around his hips. “I can’t let you go. I should, I should, but I can’t. You’re mine.”

Those brilliant blue eyes of hers snapped open, and he saw the moment her orgasm swept over her. Pupils dilating, hips pressing down on his, as though she couldn’t bear to let him do all the work—always so independent—breath seesawing as she gasped for air.

He gave her his mouth instead, kissing her, thrusting into her hot, little body, until she came under him, and kicked off his own orgasm.

“Fuck,” he ground out, eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head. For the first time in his life, he came inside a woman.

It seemed momentous.

Terrifying.

Her lips crashed against his forehead as he lay draped over her, his cock still nestled in her body, his elbows flattening the pillows on either side of her head.

“I love you, Gage. You don’t have to say it back, but I just want you to know that I . . . well, I kind of adore you.”

Adore.

Love.

His eyes slammed shut.

What the hell had he done?