Ophelia Croft, Ophi to her friends and family, watched from the edge of the high school gymnasium as her baby sister danced with a man. She’d never seen her sister dance with a guy before, let alone look at one the way she was looking at Joshua right then. Seriously though, if Nettie could still want the guy after Ophi had convinced him to put on that Zorro costume, then it must be love. She grinned as she took a sip of her punch, her fourth cup of the evening, and damnMr. Dearborne, the local pub owner, had made it really strong this year.

Yum.

Her baby sister was growing up; her middle brother was becoming a strong, successful independent man despite his handicap; and Ophi had two wonderful kids…and a blog. She snorted at the ridiculousness of that statement. A fucking blog. How could she rate her success through a damn blog? By how many followers she had? By how many people commented on her children’s Halloween costumes that she’d made from scratch? Yeah, Ophi was a damn good seamstress, and she knew making clothes was an intrinsic part of her…but it didn’t mean anything, did it? Just because she posted some photos on the Internet that prompted strangers from all over the world to request she make costumes for their kids, and some of them paid up the butt for those costumes, didn’t give her permission to say she was done.

She wanted more from life, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.

“Good evening, Ms. Croft.” A tall man with blond hair and blue eyes leaned against the wall next to her. “I had to come over and say what an amazing job you did with the decorations this year. I have never heard so many glowing compliments about Halloween decorations before, and that you did this all with the small budget you had. It’s impressive.”

High school principal David Goldberg was the kind of good-looking Ophi thought only existed in catalogs. He would have looked at home on a boat in a polo shirt or in a thousand-dollar suit driving a sports car. His jaw was perfectly symmetrical, strong, and pointed. He had light brown, golden-blond stubble sprinkling his cheeks and chin that only added to his classic perfection, and eyes the color of crystal-clear blue ocean. The small flaw of a scar cutting through his right eyebrow, breaking up the classically handsome looks, only added an element of sensual danger. Though Ophi knew he got the scar from a bicycle accident…not dangerous at all, but she didn’t care.

Because when David Goldberg smiled, the scar stretched a teeny bit, and he brightened the gym by an inner light her body—and more specifically her practically dormant libido—had no control around.

“Seems like your sister and Josh are having a good time.” He frowned as he watched Nettie lead Josh off the dance floor and out the door. “Maybe too good a time. Should I follow them?”

“Nettie can take care of herself but thank you for the offer, Principal David.” Ophi hated how stiff she sounded around David, but she needed to keep some distance. He was too beautiful for her to keep her wits about her.

“I think I’m more worried about the sanitary state of my school equipment.”

Ophi laughed, turning so her shoulder leaned against the wall as she looked directly up at David. He was dressed as Gomez Adams—slicked hair, pinstripe suit, and superthin, drawn-on mustache. He looked kind of terrible, and Ophi told him so.

“You look weird as Gomez Adams.”

He nodded. “That’s what everyone has been telling me.” He glanced down at her with a grin. “You, however, look positively charming as a…punk rock princess?”

Ophi held out the side of her giant pink tutu, speckled with grease stains.

“I think my sister called this creation ballerina mechanic. She was supposed to wear it, but I wanted her to dress up and look pretty for a change. She never spends time on herself.”

“Sounds like another Croft lady I know.”

“I spend time on myself,” she said indignantly, crossing her arms.

He scoffed, but his grin only widened. “Sure, when you’re not taking care of your kids or sewing the costumes for the school play, or volunteering to run the bake sales”—he gestured around the atmospheric gym—“or decorating our gym for the Halloween party, or hell, working your actual job by filling costume orders and writing the blog? You’re amazing, Ms. Croft. I’ve always thought so.”

“You do?” Ophi couldn’t take her eyes off him as he smiled.

“Your entire family accomplishes one amazing feat after another. I always say the Croft family is a family to aspire to.”

“Oh,” she said lightly, nodding in thanks and trying not to sound disappointed. “Thank you, Principal Goldberg. That’s really sweet.” She placed her punch glass on a nearby table. All of a sudden, the room was a little too dark and the music too loud. “I think I’m going to head out for the night. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

Without waiting for another word from him, she turned on her heel and almost ran out the door. She was so embarrassed. Of course the handsome, most coveted bachelor in town wouldn’t want an overworked single mom of two precocious children. Hell, even before she had children, she’d had children. After her parents’ deaths she’d raised Nettie and Armie as best she could, pushing them to attend college and learn how to be good, independent people. They turned out better than she could have imagined. Ophi knew she owed the people of their small town for pitching in to help, making sure the Croft family kept their home as long as possible, then giving them places to stay before they could move into a new place. This town was more a part of the Croft family than her neglectful parents had ever been, and she was grateful.

But a small part of her, a tiny insignificant hateful part, regretted a lot in her life. She hadn’t been able to finish college, too busy working to support Armie and Nettie, and then later her children. She hadn’t met a good man. Sure, she got knocked up by two guys, but one was dead and the other a deadbeat. She had nothing for herself, nothing that was hers, and for a moment she’d thought the most gorgeous man in town had told her that she alone was amazing…but no, it had been her family he meant.

The Croft siblings were a unit in this town, and she loved her family dearly, but for once she wished someone would look at her and not see the kids, and the siblings, and their tumultuous history.

Nettie would probably be spending the night with Josh so Ophi might as well take the car and get the kids from Mrs. Berkin. Although, maybe she could leave them for the night, have some time to herself. She hadn’t specified when she’d get them, only that she’d get them, and Mrs. Berkin wouldn’t mind keeping them for the evening. She could have a glass of wine and a bubble bath that didn’t involve rubber duckies or Transformers. Oh, the thought was too delicious to resist. She hopped in her car and turned on the engine, but before she could put it in Drive, there was a tap on her window.

Principal David was outside her door, bending and waving. She rolled down the window.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did something happen to the fog machine?”

“No, the fog machine is in perfect working order.”

“Have the decorations started to fall?” An alarming thought occurred to her. “Did a decoration fall and hit someone in the head?”

“No,” he said, laughing this time. He walked around the car, then opened the passenger door to sit next to her. “I think we need to discuss something.”

David Goldberg was sitting in her car, and she was about to have a heart attack. For the first time in a while, she was alone in a small space with someone other than family, a smart, good-looking someone. Not just any someone, but the someone she’d been fantasizing about since first meeting him a few months ago.

“What are you doing?”

“I feel as though I said something to hurt you.”

“No, you—”

“What I meant, back there, is that you’re amazing, Ophelia.” Hearing him say her name made her insides squirm. “You alone. I’ve thought so since I first met you.” He leaned over and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “It’s you that sends chills up and down my back when you concentrate so hard and bite your bottom lip. It’s you that had me running from the auditorium last month because I got so turned on seeing you in that red dress I almost embarrassed myself.”

She laughed, recalling the incident. She’d been on her way to a social media party in Manhattan and her sister had convinced her to borrow a sexy red dress she’d had to squeeze into. Right before leaving she’d received a call from the drama teacher saying the lion’s costume in Wizard of Oz had ripped, and no one could figure out how to fix it. She’d run over to the auditorium and fixed the costume. Before she left, David had walked onto the stage to make some sort of announcement to the rehearsing children, saw her, and then turned right back around and made an excuse to leave after looking at his phone.

“You looked good that night,” she admitted, remembering how his hair had been styled to the side. “You had on a double-breasted cardigan with a striped shirt underneath and khakis. You could have stepped out of a scene from the nineteen-forties. It was You look good in sweaters, let’s just say that.”

They laughed together, and when it subsided, they were both leaning against the car seat headrests with their faces angled toward each other.

The world melted away.

He glanced over her face before settling on her lips, his own lips parting, making her heart race and her skin tighten in anticipation. She knew what was going to happen, and holy Moses did she want it to happen.

Leaning forward, he cupped the back of her neck, bringing her closer, angling toward her mouth. Their lips touched and an explosion detonated in the car, except it was silent and inside her mind and her heart. Ophi saw spots behind her eyes as his tongue dipped into her mouth, taking charge. She craved him like a drug, becoming more addicted as the seconds passed, as she tasted him. He bit her bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth, then letting it go with a gentle pop.

She moaned. He gripped the back of her neck harder, and something inside her snapped. She hadn’t had sex since right after giving birth to Dani, and that had been a monumental mistake—more postpartum depression and confusion over Dani’s father’s death than anything else.

And it had been years.

She climbed over the seat and settled in his lap, kissing him voraciously. He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her in close, lifting his hips and grinding his erection into her core. All she had on was a tulle skirt and some lace panties, and damn, did she feel every single glorious inch of him.

“I want you,” she said between kisses.

He laughed. “The feeling is mutual, but I’m in the parking lot of my school. Any of my students’ parents could come out of that gym and catch us.”

“You’re right, you’re right.”

She climbed off him, grinning to herself when he had to stick his hand down his pants and adjust what felt like a particularly large cock.

“It would be cruel to both of us if we ended it here.” She looked over at him, uncaring of dating protocol, or societal conventions. She’d wanted him since she’d first laid eyes on him at the elementary school PTA meeting where they’d introduced him. He’d smiled at her, and she’d gotten so wet she thought she might have left a stain on her jeans. She wasn’t the only single mom in town who’d noticed him, but he was here with her now, and he was hers for as long as she could keep him.

And she had a sitter for the night.

She wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.

“Where can we go?” she asked.

“Exit the parking lot and make a right. My place is nearby.” He looked at her with fire in his eyes. “The first time I saw you, at that PTA meeting, I got such a raging hard-on I had to fake a cough attack and run to the bathroom.”

She laughed as she began to pull the car out of the parking lot. “Did you—”

“No, not in the school. There are lines, you know. Lines that your sister is probably crossing right now with Josh. But I have to admit, I masturbated twice when I got home then proceeded to avoid you at all costs…and then there was the red dress.” He reached over and touched her leg, slipping under the tulle and rubbing against her lacy underwear. “Turn left here.”

“Trust me,” she said breathlessly as his fingers dipped under the fabric, playing with her pussy lips. “The feeling was mutual.”

“Were you wet like you are now?”

“Yes. Shit, yes.”

He pushed two fingers into her cunt and began to thrust. While she was driving! How had this become her life and how could she make sure it never stopped?

“It’s the third house on the right, the yellow one. You can park in the driveway. My car is in the garage.” He said it like he’d give any old person directions, like he didn’t have two fingers knuckle-deep inside her while she drove to his place.

She jerkily pulled into the driveway and made sure to put the car in park before turning it off. She reached for the door so they could get out and move quickly to fucking but he stopped her. He glanced around, for what she didn’t know, then bent over her lap and put his head under the tulle skirt.

“Can’t reach,” he said from beneath her skirt. With a swift reach, David lifted the bar under the seat and she slid further away from the steering wheel. “Better.”

His tongue dipped into the top crease of her pussy and playing with her clit. She was in such a state of shock that she burst immediately, moaning and whimpering as her orgasm cascaded from her cunt and throughout her body, making her legs shake uncontrollably. He eased her down, rubbing her pussy with his mouth before placing a final kiss. He sat up and kissed her, letting her taste herself on his lips, something she always relished and appreciated.

“Let’s go inside, but fair warning, I probably won’t make it past the foyer.”

They both got out as quickly as possible. David unlocked his front door and tugged her inside, then as the door closed behind them he bent and lifted her into his arms.

She laughed, folding her arms around his neck. “Why, Principal David, you’re such a charming gentleman.”

“That’s not what you’ll be calling me before the night is over.” They got to a bedroom that had more bed than room, and he placed her on it. He stripped immediately, and her gut rolled as he revealed his perfect body. She knew he was a runner, but he must do a lot more to achieve those tight abs. He looked down at her once he was completely naked, his cock jutting out, waiting for a mouth to be wrapped around it.

She crawled over to it, wanting to suck, but he stepped back, keeping her from it.

“Why aren’t you naked?”

“Turn the lights off and I’ll get naked.”

“No, I want to see you.” He knelt on the bed and raised her to a kneeling position as well. He slipped the leather jacket off her, kissing her neck, making juices leak down her thighs, the thin panties unable to contain how aroused she was. When he grabbed the hem of her shirt, she stopped him.

“I have a scar…and stretch marks that never went away.”

He framed her face, looking into her eyes. “You’re a mom twice over, and you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Nothing will change the way I see you.”

She took a deep breath, then nodded, releasing his hands so he could pull the shirt over her head. He made no sound, no remarks at the large and thick scar directly above her pubic bone. “A LUCS?” he asked. A lower uterine cesarean section. “My friend had the vertical kind, and she’s had complications ever since.”

“This kind is more common now.” His hand was over the scar, tracing it, then skimming up her body and without warning, unclasping her bra. She groaned in relief, as she always did when her bra was removed. Her breasts were large after two kids, and they were sometimes a bit too heavy and full for the bras to support properly.

But damn, it felt good to take those damn underwire bras off.

“Amazing,” he said, dipping his head to suck on her nipples and bite the sides of her breasts. He was pulling the tulle skirts and panties off her. She still had her steel-toe boots on, though.

“My boots,” she said, gasping as he found her cunt again, playing with her.

“Keep them on. They’re hot.”

He nudged her back on the bed and the next few moments were a flurry of moans and whimpers, touches and kisses. The fury they felt for one another increased, and then he was between her legs, spreading them wide, and working his long cock into her channel. Her head fell back, crying out at the sensation of being stretched and full. God, she’d missed this intimacy, missed having a man’s weight on top of her.

He was slow at first, learning her body and rolling his hips to thrust and pull back. She would never have thought such a gentlemanly, proper man would have such passion, such sensuality.

This was hot as hell, but she needed more, something harder and stronger.

She shoved him off and turned over, offering her ass to him. “Come inside like this. Touch my clit.”

He did as she asked, bending over so far his chest rubbed against her back, then he thrust inside her again, and truly took control. They were fucking. Hard. She moved her hips back to receive his every return. They grunted and moaned, and cried each other’s names. His forefinger on her clit did exactly what she needed it to do, and soon she was climbing the mountain, almost to the peak.

“Harder,” she cried out. “Give me more. All of it.”

He slammed so hard into her they moved up the bed, his pace almost violent in its intensity. But it was what she needed, a hard release, and he was giving it to her. She came, grabbing on to his headboard and crying his name. “David, oh God, David. Yes, fuck me.”

He grabbed her hips with both hands and thrust into her with rapid strokes. Soon he was there with her. “Ophi,” he murmured, rubbing his lips along her ear then down her neck, kissing her sweetly.

They collapsed on the bed, David turning them to the side so he didn’t crush her. There were no words; this had been a dream, a fantasy. She was falling asleep in David’s arms, and everything was perfect.

A buzzing sound and the soundtrack to the musical Hair woke Ophi up. Nettie probably changed the ringtone on her again. Ophi reached for her phone, still in her bag on the floor, and saw it was Nettie calling.

“Hello?” she mumbled, turning onto her back and closing her eyes.

“Ophi, are you okay?” Nettie’s voice rang in her ears.

“What do you mean? I’m fine, I’m in bed.”

“You left the kids with Mrs. Berkin last night. I thought you’d picked them up after the dance. Then they showed up on Josh’s doorstep this morning.”

“So you were at Josh’s, huh?”

“Yes, but more importantly, whose house are you at?”

“I’m at my house.”

“No, you’re not,” a deep voice next her said. She opened her eyes. That wasn’t her ceiling. Whose ceiling was that? As a matter of fact, these weren’t her pillows. Her pillows were softer. She turned her head, and she nearly screamed. David Goldberg was in a bed next to her, lying on his stomach, smiling at her. Naked.

Oh fucking shit balls.

“I’ll call you back, Nettie.” She disconnected and sat up, staring down at him. He perused her body, a very satisfied smile forming as he went, but it made her realize that she was naked as well.

“We had sex last night,” she said, the panic starting to rise.

“Yes, we did.” He stretched, a thin white sheet the only thing covering his morning erection, although it wasn’t doing such a great job. “Though I’d call it fucking more than had sex. It was—you were—wild. I loved it. Can we do it again this morning? Then I’ll make you breakfast?”

“I almost fucked you in the parking lot of the school.”

He sat up, looking concerned now, and began to rub her bare back. “Yes, but we didn’t do that. We came here like well-behaved adults. We didn’t do anything wrong, Ophi. You’re okay, right?”

She looked at him, her heart going a mile a minute and her brain in full-fledged panic mode. “Fine,” she squeaked. “I’m absolutely fine. But I need to take a rain check on the morning sex and breakfast. I have to get my kids. I, I need to go.”

Ophi stood and collected her clothes, chagrined she’d have to put on the pink tulle skirt again. David rubbed his head and sighed.

“Ophi, did I do something to upset you? Did I hurt you? I thought we both enjoyed it.”

“I did,” she said quickly, trying not to remember how much she enjoyed it. “It was great. I have responsibilities, I need to go get Richard and Dani.”

“Right, should I call you or will you call me?” he asked.

Oh God. He wanted to see her again?

“I really don’t want to lose this momentum.”

“I don’t know. Let’s play it by ear.”

After checking to make sure she had all her belongings, she sent Nettie a text saying she was on her way and ran out of the house as fast as she could. She didn’t say good-bye or kiss him or do anything that would give him the impression that she wanted to see him again, and by the third week of not returning his calls, they suddenly stopped, and with a heavy heart she decided she could finally move on with her life and forget.