Mandisa sat on the back porch swinging lightly as the music from her phone filled her ears. Eyes closed, with the sexy groove of LUV by Tory Lanez blasting through her earbuds, she allowed the emotion of the song to slowly spread through her. With each bop of her head and snap of her fingers, ideas would blossom, forming the building blocks for the scent she was creating in her head.

To the average person, scent was something handled solely by the nose. However, for the chemist in her, scent always began with ideas about what she wanted a scent to represent, and what ingredients she’d need to build it the way her mind imagined it.

This scent was inspired by the man she’d cradled in her arms for the last few nights. The memory of Slade, resting his head on her chest and letting her stroke the dark strands of his hair until his choppy breathing turned into a quiet bristle of wind against her skin, warmed her.

He’d scared her the night of their dinner with Bull.

Not in the physical sense. She had no fear of him bringing her physical harm. But watching him battle whatever this fucked-up situation was between Slade and his father unnerved her. Slade was always calm, carefree. But when she’d asked him to discuss Macy, she almost hadn’t recognized the man who’d walked into the bedroom with her.

Bull made Slade jumpy, uneasy, and wary, none of which were attractive qualities on the big man.

When he’d first lain in her arms, he was stiff, his body rigid with anger and pain. Pain he hadn’t wanted to voice. But even though he hadn’t revealed his pain to her in his words, the way the stiffness bled out of him as she stroked his hair and ran light fingertips across his skin told her everything she needed to know…for now.

That dinner had caused a tide to turn in their brief but intense connection. It was somehow deeper than before. In Slade’s anger, Mandisa could see a glimpse of vulnerability she wanted to desperately protect. That vulnerability was just one more beautiful layer to the tender man she was getting to know.

A light flashed across the inside of her lids as aromatic thoughts burst behind her eyes. She pressed her finger over the home key of her phone and pecked away at the digital keyboard.

Strong, fun, sexy, spicy, sweet, intriguing, intelligent, and treasured, were the words swirling around her head and olfactory system. She could feel a wide grin dancing on her lips as she thought of ways to describe Slade. She couldn’t say exactly when it happened, but at some point he had become a cherished part of her life. Someone she wanted to keep near at all times.

You live three thousand miles apart. How are you supposed to keep him close with that much distance between the two of you?

As the song played on repeat, the sensual tones sliding through her veins and stoking the bubbling emotions just beneath the surface, her mind created scenarios of how she and Slade were going to make a go of their relationship living in two different time zones. Her jam session hadn’t given her a definitive answer to the how of their situation, but she knew they’d figure out a way in the end.

Satisfied about the direction of the relationship and certain she had the correct descriptors for the new scent she was planning, she needed to go shopping and play with a mixture of ingredients to make a scent that was uniquely him.

She finished jotting down her notes on her phone, turned the music off, and stood up, looking out at the beautiful expanse of Slade’s land. Leaving this place, even with the knowledge she’d be frequently visiting to see it and its owner, created a small ache inside her heart. She shook herself, attempting to displace the heavy feelings trying to take over. Convinced her creative process had left her emotions exposed, she took a deep breath and headed inside.

Why sit here lamenting leaving when you can be spending time with the object of your thoughts?

* * *

Hey, cowboy.” Slade looked up from his desk to see a smiling Mandisa leaning against the doorway. “For someone I sleep next to every night, I’ve seen very little of you over the last couple of days. I get the feeling the events of the infamous dinner with your father are still hanging over us.”

Slade closed his laptop as Mandisa slowly made her way from the door to his desk. She kept walking until she was standing next to him, twisting his swivel chair until he faced her. She climbed into his lap and snaked an arm around his neck, tugging him until their lips met in a sweet kiss.

“You don’t have to avoid me, Slade. I’m not going to hound you about the issues you have with your dad. You don’t have to spend my last few days here dodging me because of it. Or does your avoidance have to do with our bet coming to an end? Is this the part where we transition from the pleasure part to the business?”

Slade closed his eyes, quickly attempting to hide the shame he felt welling up inside of him. She was right. Ever since Aaron had called with the news about the Pitkin Avenue store, Slade had been avoiding her.

Slade worked tirelessly to put his plan into action. Getting all the necessary players into position while keeping Bull in the dark hadn’t been easy, but he’d managed to do it, and tomorrow he’d finally be able to cut his father off at the knees.

“Darlin’, my scarceness doesn’t have anything to do with you. A few days after you got here, I found out my father is trying to make a play to steal my company. I’ve been working overtime to stop him. Tomorrow I take back what’s mine.”

“Your company? Isn’t Logan Industries Bull’s?”

Slade shook his head. Bull certainly wished Logan was his, but Slade would never let that happen.

“Logan Industries was created and owned by my mother’s family. My mother dying when I was a child left us a in a bit of a pickle when my granny died and I was still a teenager. Although she left me the ownership of the business, I wasn’t technically old enough to run it. So she put the company in a trust for me until my fortieth birthday. Until then, Bull and two other trustees run it. I’m not supposed to take the reins for another five years.”

Slade could see the questions swirling around in her warm chocolate eyes when she asked, “Why forty?”

“Granny didn’t want to pressure me into taking over the business if I didn’t want it. She was attempting to give me options. What she actually did was give my father another way to attempt to control me. Don’t get me wrong—she put in failsafe contingencies to keep him from completely screwing me over, but for the last decade that I’ve worked under him, he’s used his position to torture me.”

Concern marred her deep brown skin and reminded him yet again why he couldn’t let Bull’s tentacles reach her. She should never look worried or saddened, especially because of something his useless father did.

“Slade, if my being here is a complication right now, why didn’t you just tell me?”

Slade pulled her in for another kiss, this one deeper than the last. “You are never a complication. Work will always come second to you. That’s why I’ve been down here late each night. It’s over tomorrow. I was hoping you’d come join me for the meeting.”

She regarded him carefully. The slow way her eyes appeared to be searching his face revealed her hesitation. “You don’t want to come with me?”

“That’s not it, Slade. Businesswise, I don’t want to get caught in the middle of whatever this is between you and your father. Your company, your father, is a powerful man. I don’t want to make an enemy of him.”

“Mandisa, after tomorrow, you won’t have to worry about it. Our deal will still stand, and if you decide you want to work for Logan, Bull won’t be able to interfere with any of that. Please, come with me.”

She touched soft fingers to his face, sparking a warm sensation that spread throughout his chest, into his limbs, stoking his need to touch her.

“I’ll be there, Slade. But I can’t walk into this meeting blind. I need to know what the real issue is between you and Bull. I haven’t asked, because I wanted you to come to me in your own time. But, Slade, if this affects my business, or our ability to do business with one another, I need full disclosure.”

He’d known it would come to this. He’d hoped to never have to recount these details, but realistically, he knew he’d have to come clean someday.

Slade took a breath, digging deep to pull up memories from a lifetime ago. Moments he’d fought like hell to bury so deep, he had to wonder sometimes if they’d actually happened. But just the sight of Macy at that dinner, clinging to his father while still flirting with him, brought the entire sickening ordeal to the surface.

“About ten years ago I fell for this cute flight attendant I met coming home from a business trip. She was sweet and fun and catered to every one of my whims. My oversized ego told me it was love. So, after dating and living with her for a couple of years, I proposed to her.”

“That cute flight attendant was Macy, wasn’t she? So, you lived with her here on the ranch?”

Slade shook his head. Thanking God yet again that Macy had never set foot on his ranch. She would have tainted it, prevented him from enjoying the land he loved.

“No, this happened just before I bought the ranch. At the time, Bull and I were still cordial to one another. I harbored a lot of resentment toward him for how he treated my mother when she was ill. Instead of being home with his dying wife, he was cheating on her with any floozy that showed interest in him or the things he could provide.

“Even though I didn’t think he was worth a damn, I don’t think I hated him at that point. It wasn’t until I found him screwing my fiancée at our engagement party that my loathing of Bull began.

“I remember that moment clearly. I’d walked into the bridal suite to get Macy and found my father bending my fiancée over a damn table, fucking her from behind, and the two of them smiling at me through their reflections in the mirrored walls. I watched that disgusting whore come on my father’s cock while I stood there paralyzed in the open doorway.”

Slade closed his eyes as the memory flooded his mind. The smiles they were both wearing, their lack of shame, Slade’s inability to react—all of it pressed to the forefront of his mind. By the time Slade had regained his ability to move, Bull was done riding Macy, and Slade’s stomach contents were traveling up his throat.

Slade could still remember the taste of his own bile as he rushed through the wait-staff and stumbled into a private bathroom. He didn’t realize he was heaving in the present until he felt Mandisa’s familiar touch on his face.

“Slade, it’s over. You’re not there.” She leaned down and kissed him, pressing her body into his personal space, using his senses to pull him out of the traumatic hold of his memories. “You’re here with me, not with them.”

He raised his hands to her arms, touching her, verifying her statement, making certain the right woman was in front of him before he opened his eyes.

“That was the moment I hated my father, Mandisa. The moment I watched him take another thing I loved from me. First my mother, then my company, then Macy. I knew then that if I didn’t fight him, he’d steal it all away, and I’d have nothing left.”

Mandisa rubbed her fingers through his hair, her nails scratching lightly against his scalp, soothing the tidal wave of emotion that threatened to take him under.

“None of what your father has done to you is your fault, Slade. And if Macy was willing to betray you like that, you dodged a bullet. You are a wonderful man, one that deserves so much love, because you give it so easily. You’re the man I fell in love with from the first time he called me darlin’ and made me tremble with his beautiful southern drawl.”

“You love me?”

The question seemed to surprise her. He allowed quiet to remain between them as she appeared to contemplate his question. He wouldn’t hold it against her if she rescinded her declaration. It wasn’t logical that she would feel love for him yet. But Slade had no doubt if given the opportunity they were headed in that direction.

Everything from the way Mandisa held onto him at night when they slept to the way she treated his mama made Slade feel at ease, at home. When you’d grown up with so much hell and mistrust, security was something you didn’t dare reach for or expect. But Mandisa made him foolishly want to believe in the cradle of security that only love could bring.

“The day after we made love, Kandi asked me why I was so hesitant to take you up on your offer. She wanted to know if something bad had happened between us in your hotel room.”

That first night she’d shared herself with him had been heaven. He’d known from those few hours tangled together in his bed that one night wouldn’t be enough.

He’d been secure in his assumption Mandisa felt the same. After all, she’d followed him to Texas forty-eight hours later. It never occurred to him that she might not have been as overjoyed about their first time as he was.

Slade swallowed the slight weight of fear that was attempting to settle in his throat. It would just about kill him to know that night had been a disappointment for her. He let his eyes fall from hers, not wanting to see it if she didn’t feel the same.

He felt the warmth of Mandisa’s touch radiate from the gentle fingertips she’d placed on his chin throughout every cell in his being. It quieted the growing uneasiness in his belly and called to him, giving him the strength to face her, even when his fear told him to shy away.

“I didn’t understand why, but I told her the truth. I felt loved. It was a crazy notion considering you and I had only spent a handful of hours together. I didn’t, and still don’t understand how that could be, Slade. But in the three weeks since I met a handsome stranger in a lounge, I can’t seem to remember what life was like before he called me darlin’ for the first time.”

Something broke inside Slade as he watched her. He’d been so busy attempting to make Mandisa stay that he hadn’t even considered the fact that she would love him willingly. He knew they were connected, felt the undeniable chemistry they shared, but he hadn’t recognized their need to be together for what it really was—love.

“I ought to thank that skank,” she continued. “Macy was just a place-holder for me. Giving you something to play with until the real deal showed up.”

He watched her tuck her bottom lip between her teeth and saw a brief flash of uncertainty.

“That is, if you want the real deal, Slade. I know we’ve talked about seeing each other once I go home. But I want you to understand I’m not just talking about casual dating. If you’re truly serious about doing this long distance, I’m all in. All the way in. I just need to know you’re equally as committed.”

“We still have a few more days before this bet is over. After enjoying life with me on the ranch, and seeing what could be at your fingertips at my labs, you still won’t stay? Isn’t what I have to offer you enough? Aren’t I enough?”

God, he hated the desperate sound of his voice. He couldn’t help it. If begging was the only way to keep her near him, to keep what they shared at his fingertips, he’d spend any amount of time on his knees.

“The only thing that’s taking me back to Brooklyn is my business, Slade. You are definitely worth uprooting my life for. But I can’t. You knew that when you made this wager.”

“I did know that. I just hoped that playing in face paint and making people feel pretty would pale in comparison to building a life with me.”

He wanted to swallow those words as soon as they’d touched the air. He’d meant every one of them, but he knew they sounded harsh. “Mandisa, I didn’t—”

“Yeah, you did,” she answered. “But I’m not angry about it. I understand that you’re coming from a place of loss. That just tells me I mean something to you. I know you don’t want me to go, and honestly, neither do I. But I can’t leave, at least not yet.

“I promise you, Slade, you and I are going to figure this out. But the best I can come up with right now is frequent flying by both of us. No matter how jet-lagged I end up being, I’m not willing to let this go. Can you say the same?”

A gentle smile tugged at his lips. Even though he wasn’t thrilled about her plans to leave, he couldn’t hide his happiness at the level of commitment she was proposing. “Darlin’, I’m right here with you. All the way. If we need to fly back and forth to be with each other, then so be it. My pilot gets paid way too much anyway. It’s about time he started earning the hefty salary he pockets.”

“Good,” she replied just before planting a quick peck on his lips. “Are you finished working for the day? Because if you are, I’d like you to take me someplace where I can purchase essential oils and other ingredients I’d like to pick up.”

Slade didn’t know essential oil from cooking oil, but he figured he probably couldn’t find what she needed at the local market. “Let me do a little research. I’m sure we can find someplace to get you what you need.”

He tried to stand up, but she wouldn’t shift her weight off his lap. He remained seated when she pressed a still hand against his chest to keep him in place.

“I want the oils. But the only thing I need around these parts is you, cowboy. Remember that.”

She moved from his lap and headed toward the door, the happy sway of her hips hypnotizing him as he watched her retreat.

Uncertain what good deed he’d done that had blessed him with Mandisa in his life, Slade understood one thing. No matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice, he could never let this woman go.