“So, Mr. Beaumont? All fine when you turn this way, too?”

The doctor’s thick Italian accent was almost comical. He’d been staring intensely at Gregor’s retinas, trying to determine if the wreck he’d been involved in during his trial run was as serious as everyone seemed to think.

“Oh yes. Tip top.” Gregor blinked against the light, wondering when the inquisition would end. He’d damaged the car. Badly. And maybe he’d lost consciousness for a few seconds after the wreck. But he’d been able to walk away, and he felt fine now. It was more important to get back to ironing out these engine kinks. Before the big race, where the outcome truly mattered.

“You must be careful,” tutted the doctor, scribbling something on his pad. They’d been in Italy since the day after that painful dinner with his Nana. Kara had been none too happy that he’d hidden his lactose and nut intolerances from her, but it was something he never got around to telling women. He didn’t have girlfriends. He barely had flings. Gregor did one-night stands, so what was the point of outing his physical sensitivities?

Besides, he’d been secretly worried Kara might laugh or coo in sympathy at him, or something equally belittling. How she viewed him was important. A little bit too important for his taste anymore.

A week and one country later, Gregor felt more married than he’d ever planned for himself. He’d never imagined spending so much time with one, just one, woman. Who would know about his inability to digest milk-based products and meet his grandmother and survive to tell the tale. A woman he couldn’t even touch, despite the endless barrage of fantasies he entertained.

Yet here he was, almost three weeks into the plan, and it still felt like the right choice.

It felt like something more than the right choice, actually, but he didn’t like to think about that too much.

“No lady come to take you home?” The doctor winked exaggeratedly while he knocked on both of Gregor’s knees with a tiny mallet.

“She doesn’t know I’m here,” Gregor said, his breath catching when the doctor pressed the cold stethoscope to his chest. “I don’t want her to be worried. Because I’m fine.”

“Yes, yes, fine, fine.” The doctor nodded, brow furrowing as he listened. “No talk now.”

Gregor studied the far wall as the noise of the hospital thrummed softly beyond the closed door of the examination room. Machines beeping from somewhere; footsteps scuffing. An angry American voice, rising above the quiet.

Gregor furrowed his brow, listening carefully.

The doctor harrumphed. “Your heart rate picked up.”

“I think—” Gregor began, but the next moment the doorknob turned and Kara stepped in, followed by a very sheepish looking Christian.

“There you are!” Kara sounded out of breath, like she’d been running the halls looking for him. “What the fuck happened to you?”

The doctor’s eyes twinkled. “Your lady is here!”

Gregor couldn’t ignore the way his heart rate spiked when Kara walked in. He hoped the doctor didn’t make an embarrassing comment about it. “Kara, what are you doing here?”

“Trying to figure out why the hell you’re in a hospital and no one thought to tell me!”

“How did you find out?”

She scoffed, so emphatically that his gut told him she wasn’t faking it. More and more he got the sense that she wasn’t performing. “Christian called to let me know you wouldn’t be getting back to me—”

“Gregor, I tried,” Christian protested.

“But that was fishy as hell so I dug a little deeper,” Kara went on.

“She forced it out of me,” Christian said.

Gregor tried to look as irritated as he wanted to feel, but he couldn’t hide the smile. Somehow, it was flattering that Kara cared.

“Fine. Will you leave us be?” He looked at Christian and jerked his chin toward the door. Kara sat in the chair at the side of the exam room, her arms crossed defiantly.

“You don’t have to send people to lie to me, you know,” she said in a low voice, glancing at the doctor. After a moment she said, “I’m sorry, doctor, to interrupt. I’m Kara Alerby, his girlfriend.”

The doctor released a rich belly laugh. “Oh yes, I know by now!”

Gregor felt his cheeks heat up. “I didn’t want to worry you. It wasn’t a bad crash.”

“Wasn’t a bad crash? Christ, Gregor, I saw a picture of what happened to your car!”

“Those things crumple like paper,” he said, but paused when he saw her face darken. “I mean, they’re not unsafe. Crumpling absorbs the shock. I’m more protected than the US president in there, I assure you. All I’m saying is that it looks much worse than it was. And I’ve been in plenty of crashes to know.”

Kara sighed, resting her temple against her fingers. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

Gregor watched her as the doctor finished up with his exam. A moment later, he clapped his hands and exclaimed, “Exam is finished! You are fine.”

“See there. Perfectly fine.” Gregor sent Kara a reassuring smile, unnerved by the way his heart resumed jack-rabbit speeds when Kara stood and reached for his hand. He felt like a school boy around her recently. Ever since that goddamned kiss he hadn’t been able to reproduce. Kara seemed to sidestep him whenever he started throwing hints. And the more he was alone with her, the more he fantasized about peeling her clothes off, learning the curves of her body, tasting more of those fragrant, soft kisses.

They walked toward the front of the hospital hand in hand. Gregor watched her for a moment before saying, “I didn’t want to disturb you, really. I know you’ve been doing so much work with the school planning.”

Kara shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I need to know.”

She really cares about you. The thought resonated strangely inside of him. “Did you get work done today then?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been figuring out the pay rates for the teachers I plan to hire. How I’d like to set all that up…what sort of hiring schedule I’ll adopt.”

“Brilliant. And Lexie is managing okay back home with the classes?”

“They miss me, but they’re doing just fine.” Kara flashed a smile. “I guess nobody can really object when a British boyfriend whisks someone away unexpectedly.”

Gregor slipped his arm around her waist, cinching her close to him. She fit like a glove he never wanted to take off. “They won’t complain when they know what you have in store for them.”

“I haven’t revealed my plans yet. Not to anyone.” She sent him a mysterious look. “I want to make sure I have everything set before I tell the world. I’m not big on falling flat on my face. I gotta make sure this succeeds.”

Gregor squeezed the fleshy part of her hip, reveling in her meticulous planning. He could relate to that. “And it will. With you behind it.”

They shared a smile that warmed him, and as the front doors slid open a flurry of conversation and camera clicks made him jerk his head up. Reporters swarmed the hospital, waiting for his exit. He sighed, pulling Kara closer. “Ready to face this mess?”

He walked quickly through the reporters, heading for the private car waiting for them just around the corner. He used his free arm to shield them, a move that felt instinctual as they navigated through the thick crowd of reporters. Shouting clogged his ears, but even in the fray he realized that he’d just passed up a perfect chance to flaunt Kara and get all the photo ops he could want to prove their burgeoning relationship. But he’d hustled through and blocked them…like it felt right to do.

The car ride back to their hotel in central Milan passed quickly, and although Gregor asked her more questions about the school planning, he could tell she wasn’t quite settled about the car crash. Once they were inside the penthouse, door shut behind him, Kara turned to him with that telltale look on her face. The one where she’s about to bring up something serious.

“So why isn’t this type of crash a big enough deal to tell me about?” she asked, crossing her arms.

He sighed. Why couldn’t this just be settled? “I told you. Crashes happen. It’s part of the sport, and I didn’t want to worry you needlessly.”

“But you knew that I would worry, so you had someone lie to me on your behalf, which in my book, is kinda worse.”

He paused, clenching his jaw as he mulled over a response. “Don’t you get it, though? I’m saving you stress.”

She scoffed, turning on her heels. She paced the room a few times before responding. “Don’t you say that to me. I don’t need you to save me stress. That is bullshit.”

Her voice wavered as she spoke, which made his brows draw together. “It’s the truth. You don’t need to worry about this. I’m a professional.”

“I’m so fucking sick of people lying to me thinking it will make things better,” she spat. When she swung to look at him, her eyes were full of tears. “And I don’t need you doing that to me either.”

Gregor looked her up and down a few times, unsure how this got so heavy so quickly. “This is nothing to cry about.”

She let a heavy sigh, wiping at her eyes. “I’m not crying. I’m just…upset.”

“But why?”

She looked to the ceiling, as if pleading with the gods. “I’ve been lied to like this enough in my life. You don’t get it. My father…when he was dying…everyone kept it from me. My entire family lied to me, not wanting to upset me. So of course when it happened, I was…shocked.” She sniffed hard, looking away. “I don’t like being lied to, okay?”

Gregor’s stomach sank, and he approached her slowly, holding out his hands like a peace offering. “I didn’t realize. Honestly.”

“So just tell me. Be real with me, Gregor.”

He covered her hands with his, bringing them up to his chest. His heart had resumed its frenetic rate from earlier and suddenly, he was desperate to kiss her. “The car’s computerized system caused the accident. As far as we can tell, the glitch has been there for at least three years but has never caused any problems…until today. We don’t plan to fix it though, because I’ve logged thousands of hours of driving time in that car without issue. Addressing it would mean ending the racing season early. I won’t do it.”

Kara blinked at him a few times. “Okay. That’s more like what I want to hear.”

Gregor ran his tongue over his bottom lip, unable to look away from the fascinating softness of her face. She was a goddess in plain clothes. But up this close, her radiance was impossible to ignore. She could cast spells on him, and these past few weeks had proven it. Never in his life had he felt, much less thought, the things that Kara inspired in him.

My witchy goddess. He trailed a hand up the side of her arm, fingertips grazing lightly enough to cause goosebumps. She jerked her gaze up to his.

“I didn’t want to bore you with the details,” he said in a soft voice, dragging his fingertips over the curve of her neck.

“They aren’t boring,” she said, her eyes fluttering shut. So his touch had the desired effect. He pressed himself against her, their bodies forming a warm seal. She inhaled sharply but didn’t open her eyes.

“Look at me, Kara.” He cupped the side of her smooth face. Her eyes opened a moment later, their chocolatey depths making his chest tight.

“What are you trying to do?” Her voice came out a dreamy murmur.

“I don’t know.” His cock twitched in his pants and became rock hard beneath the waistband of his briefs. “But it seems like the right thing to do.”

“Mmm hmm.” She sounded a million miles away, and when he grazed her lips with his thumb, she caught it in a kiss. Her tongue met the rough pad of his finger, and then a moment later she’d welcomed it into her mouth.

“Mmmm.” Gregor’s cock pulsed, and he swooped down, catching her lips in an urgent kiss. Kara grappled with the back of his head as their mouths met, over and over again, sloppy, uninhibited. She made a small noise as he tracked his hands down the sides of her body, hooking his fingers under her ass. He pressed her groin to his, wanting her to feel the proof of his passion, the unmistakable evidence that she was the only woman on his mind.

“Jesus Christ,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. “This can’t be real.”

“Oh no.” He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her soft scent. His mind spun with desire. “This is as real as it gets.” He ground his pelvis in a slow circle against her, her breath catching.

“We shouldn’t,” she said, a total lack of conviction in her voice.

“I’ve been wanting to since the day I laid eyes on you.” It was true. God, it was the truest thing he’d ever said.

She pinched her eyes shut, groaning. “Ugh, me too.”

“Give me more of this sexy mouth.” He pressed his lips to hers, getting lost in another fervent round of kisses before he pulled away, panting. “But this is your call. Clearly you know where I stand.”

He held himself against her, heart pounding as he waited for her response. Her eyes were hooded as she watched him, chest heaving. “Seriously?”

“Deadly.” He raked his gaze over her, gritting his teeth against the swell of desire that threatened to make him rip her clothes off.

“If you stop now, I’ll fucking scream.”

His grin spread so wide he thought it might split his face in two. “Maybe I want you to scream for me.”

She grabbed him by the shirt collar and yanked him down to kiss her. Together they stumbled backward toward the low-backed couches lining the living room. Kara pushed him backward so he flopped onto the cushion.

“I strongly suggest you revise your nickname from theater class,” he said breathlessly as she tugged her shirt off. “You are most surely a Kinky Kara.”

She giggled, tossing the shirt aside. “And you’ve been Gorgeous Gregor from the start.”

He snagged her at the hips, stilling her hands. “Save some for me, please.” He pressed his lips to her low belly, and then made slow work of unbuttoning her dark jeans, pushing them down to her ankles. When she stood half-naked in front of him, he took a moment to appreciate.

“You’re the gorgeous one here,” he said, running his fingertips up and down the sides of her legs. Her skin prickled in response.

“Take your pants off,” she said, nudging him. He complied instantly, unable to rip his gaze off her as he fumbled to push down his track pants and tear off his dark shirt. His cock made a tall ridge in his briefs, one that Kara didn’t look away from.

“Well,” she said softly, climbing onto the couch slowly. He grabbed her by the hips, cementing her to his body, her legs splaying open to straddle him. She leaned close, and the warmth of her seeped into him, making his vision fuzzy at the edges.

“I’ve imagined how this might go a thousand times,” he whispered, the truth spilling out of him. “And though I think I’d love to go so slow that it lasts until sunrise, I don’t think I can do anything slow, now that I’ve got you on top of me.”

Her face flushed and she gave a throaty chuckle. “Why is that the hottest thing anyone’s ever said to me?”

He gathered her hair to one side, fumbling with the strap of her bra. It released a moment later, falling away, exposing those big, beautiful breasts that had been the center of so many of his fantasies.

He tweaked one rosy nipple and growled appreciatively, grinding his hips against her. “See what you do to me?”

“You could kill a man with that dick,” she cracked, leaning back to sit upright on top of him. The weight of her reminded him how badly he wanted to be buried inside her. How desperate he was to feel her from the inside.

Gregor’s fingers wandered to her panty line, and she sucked in a sharp breath when his fingertips danced over the silken crotch of her panties. The moisture there made him clench his teeth. She was so wet for him. He grazed the hard nub of her clit through the panties. Her head lolled to the side, and she moaned low.

“You’re so sexy, Kara,” he said in a strained voice. She’d started rocking on top of him, rubbing that damp pussy right where it counted most. He might come in his briefs if she kept that up. “God, too sexy.”

He reached up to cup a breast, tweaking each nipple in turn as she rocked on top of him, his fingers making a moist trek over the top of her panties. And then he pushed his fingers beneath the fabric, connecting with the velvety heat below.

Kara moaned and there was an edge to it, something that let him know the time was coming. “Do you want to sit on it, Kara?”

She whimpered and nodded, her eyes fluttering shut.

Gregor guided her to standing, tugging her panties down to her ankles. Her pussy was neatly trimmed and shiny, and he rubbed his lips against her crease, studying the intense look that crossed her face.

“Do you have a condom?”

Gregor stilled, raking his memory for where he’d put them. Of course he always had them. His former life demanded he be prepared at all times. But already that seemed like a lifetime ago. “Yes…but where, is the question…”

She shook her head, a tight smile on her face. She grabbed for her purse on the table nearby and fished out a neat little condom package. He grinned as he shucked his briefs, then squeezed her ass cheeks when she resumed her position in front of him.

“Kinky Kara indeed.” He tore it open and rolled the condom on quickly. Kara gripped his shoulders, nails biting into his flesh, and then eased down on top of him. He held her hips in his hands, tensing when his cockhead met the warmth of her pussy. He steeled his jaw as she sank down, his cock disappearing into the velvety heat inside her. His mouth parted, breath coming out in jagged pants.

“Fuuuuck,” he moaned, ass tensing as she swallowed up the last few inches of him. He grunted, spanking her bubbly ass cheeks.

“Mmmmm.” Kara’s head lolled to the side, her gaze vacant as she rocked in a slow circle on top of him. “You’re so big.”

“Yeah? Too big?” He stilled beneath her, letting her set the pace. He didn’t want to hurt her. No, he had to have more of these encounters. Plenty more.

“Gigantic Gregor,” she said, voice just barely above a whisper. She palmed his chest, pressing into him, her knees digging into the soft indents of the leather cushions as her slow rock turned into a heated rhythm.

He gritted his teeth, fighting the surge of pleasure that threatened to tip him over the edge early. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman, maybe a month, and Kara pushed him to the edge in a way he hadn’t felt with anyone else. She set his skin on fire, every cell in his body ready to leap forward at the same time.

He smoothed his fingers over the tiny patch of hair between her legs and then rubbed at the slick nub of her clit while she rocked on top of him. Her head fell back and she let out a low, throaty moan. He sat up suddenly, wrapping his arms around her body so that their skin touched as much as possible, her breasts smashed into his chest. He placed kisses along the top of her shoulder, matching her movements from below.

“God, that feels so good,” she panted, moving faster. “Oh my god, Gregor.”

He tipped his head back to meet her gaze, finding fire and starlight there, something passionate and deep and entirely foreign staring back at him. Their gazes didn’t break as they bumped and grunted, and when the first prickles of heat spread through his groin a moment later, he knew there was no turning back.

“I’m close Kara,” he said, but it sounded more like a plea.

“Mmmmmm, me too,” she said, moving her hips in a wide circle before leaning down to snag his lips in a kiss. Her tongue pressed into his mouth and through the warring sensations, the sweet intimacy of the kiss and the thunderous rhythm of her on top, his orgasm crackled and burst through him, sending his whole body into ecstasy.

He cried out, gruff and loud, at the same time her pussy began contracting in waves around him. She bit down hard onto his shoulder and whimpered through the orgasm, the jolt of pain there mixing into the maelstrom of bliss swarming his body.

“Jesus Christ,” he panted a moment later, stroking her hair as his heart fought to resume a normal rate. “How did…what…”

“Fuck.” She rolled her forehead back and forth on his shoulder, her body limp. He wrapped his arms around her, relishing the sticky heat of their embrace, wishing for all the world he could capture this moment in a bottle and tuck it away forever.

He’d had plenty of sex with plenty of women. But it had never been like this before.

There’d never been someone like Kara.