Everything jangled inside of me. Emotions, lust, afterglow. Did afterglow jangle? It sure felt like it did. And he wouldn’t get out of my damn face about it.

Just five minutes to put myself back together. Was that too much to ask?

I stalked down the hallway into the living room where my bags were scattered and his shirt had somehow gotten draped over a lamp. I wasn’t sure this house had ever seen so much action. And if it had, I didn’t want to think about it.

I swung into my sister’s room and borrowed a shirt from her wardrobe. We weren’t quite the same size, but it would do in a pinch. I looked down at the slight gap in the shirt. Ugh. Maybe not.

I turned to the large mirror over her dresser and winced. I’d tried to repair some of the damage after…well, just after. But there was no denying the just-fucked hair I had going on, or the beard burn feathering across my neck and collarbone.

Since when had my collarbone been sensitive?

Oh, right. When he’d done that thing with his tongue. Jesus.

Toast. I was freaking toast. How was anyone supposed to just walk upright and have a conversation after getting laid like that?

That wasn’t sex. It was something way—

Not thinking about it. Nope.

“Fee.”

I turned toward his husky voice. He was dressed again and his hair was scraped back into a messy tail, but his eyes…his stupid, perfect blue eyes were full of too much. Everything.

How dare he come back here and stir stuff up?

His gaze raked over me, landing on the button on my shirt that was ready to bust before lifting to my face. “Ready?”

I didn’t want to look down at the button or my nipples that still hadn’t relaxed after all the abrading and sucking. Ugh.

His Adam’s apple bobbled once before he disappeared down the hallway. When I got into the living room, my bags were picked up and the room no longer looked as if it had been tossed. Myles had brewed a few to-go cups for us and left mine on the counter.

Dammit, why did he have to be thoughtful?

As amazing as he’d always been, there had been a careless guy in the best friend I’d loved for so many years. Again, this Myles was just a little different. Thoughtful, exciting, a little jagged.

I huffed out a breath and grabbed my purse and the travel mug, following him out the door. I expected a hot car. Seemed to fit a rockstar of his caliber, but instead there was a huge pewter-colored Silverado at my curb.

What the hell did Myles need a truck for?

The truck bed was uncovered and something lay under a tarp near the cab of the truck. Before I could steal a peek, Myles opened the door.

“Up you go.” He held out a hand.

I ignored him, handing him my coffee then climbing into the cab under my own steam. I reached out for my coffee then he slammed the door with a shake of his head. I took a deep breath during the minute I got to myself.

It wasn’t nearly enough to calm me.

Nerves I’d never had around Myles were now alive between us. He gave me a tight smile before pulling out of the small complex my sister lived in. It was slightly rundown as the neighborhood was deciding between gentrification and decay.

For my sister’s sake, I hoped for the former.

“Where are we going?” I asked, placing my mug in the cup holder.

He took a left and headed for the highway. “Not far.”

I played with my necklace. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “About what?”

“About making it weird.” I forced myself to relax my hands on my purse. I wanted the coffee, but I wasn’t sure I should add caffeine to the jitters I was carrying around.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear and turned those ridiculous eyes on me. “Not every day you go over to your best friend’s place and get naked, Fee. Shit’s gonna be weird for a second or two.” He reached for my hand and tangled our fingers. “Hopefully, more good than weird.”

For a minute, I didn’t know how to touch him. I mean, I knew…hello, we’d just gotten seriously naked, but our fingers didn’t work like they used to. I let out a frustrated breath and shifted, then my thumb slid along his and our fingers seemed to fall into their natural grooves as warmth and connection fused between us.

The only kind of connection I always understood.

His lips twitched.

“What are you smiling about, Vaughn?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s something.” The mustache of his beard wiggled and I couldn’t stop a laugh. “Right there. Is that a smug smile brewing?”

He gave me some serious side eye. “I did make you scream my name approximately four times. I think I’m allowed to be a little smug.”

“I’ve been in a dry spell.”

Myles huffed out a breath. “Sahara?”

“Shut up. I suppose that was a regular day ending in y for you?” My words were tight. I didn’t want to be judgy, but there had to be a ton of women in his past. Women that weren’t me. How many since…

No. Do not go there. That was the road to Bitchville. I didn’t like that zip code and didn’t want to be that girl. I hadn’t been an angel while he’d been gone.

I’d tried like hell to forget him. Maybe too hard for a few months.

And now I didn’t know what I wanted. I thought I’d been so sure. Go find myself and then find Myles. Repair friendship. Not lose panties and have spectacular orgasms. Those were not on my to-do list.

“Fee, nothing has ever been like today.” His thumb traced circles over the top of my hand. “I know it might take a little time to make you see that. And obviously, it’ll take longer to make you truly understand it, but I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“What the hell does that even mean?”

“I’ll tell you everything, just wait until we get where we’re going.”

I exhaled and we drove in silence. We headed into the more affluent area of Baltimore. The outskirts of city and suburbia, where houses were way out of my purview. When I saw signs for Phoenix, the air left my lungs. “What are we doing out here?” Places out here had the word “million” in their listings.

There weren’t any restaurants or social places. It was houses.

Moneyed houses.

He lifted my hand to his mouth. “Your hand is cold.”

“I’m confused.”

He let my hand go for a moment and tapped something into his dash GPS. I tucked my hands under my purse. He was damn right they were cold. And it wasn’t the cool spring day that had caused it.

My heart raced and I tried to hold myself together as we climbed a winding road where a stash of houses were tucked into woods. There was actual land between the houses along with many, many trees. Way more than any park I’d ever been to. Lawns were cut by professionals. No puttering push mowers operated by acne-scarred teenage boys like on my block.

It wasn’t pretentious. At least there was that.

Myles pulled into a long drive that led to a house full of windows and brick. It actually wasn’t massive like some of the ones on the block. But it had huge, black-framed windows and wrought iron accents framing out a patio of wide tile. Dozens of pots full of greenery were staggered around in a charming container-garden style. Plants struggling out of winter hibernation were interspersed with brand-new ones obviously from a nursery to pretty up the struggling landscape.

There was work to be done.

I wasn’t sure why that made the breath trapped in my chest suddenly release. It wasn’t perfect, but it was magnificent. As we got closer to the property, Myles stopped at the black gate. He tapped a code into the box and the gates swung open silently.

He drove through and followed the wide, pressed-stone driveway. He parked at the edges of a circular drive, then got out. I was still frowning when he opened my door and helped me out of the truck. He linked our fingers again and tugged me up to the door.

The front porch had a few more of the potted plants and an impressive black double door entryway. He pressed another series of numbers on a little lockbox.

The kind that realtors used.

I swallowed down the panic bubbling in my chest.

The foyer was warm tile in a toasty color with a spacious living room off the front and a view out the back. Acres of land and trees. For God’s sake, even a deer was grazing in the distance.

A freaking postcard of perfection.

He dragged me farther into the room where a fireplace dominated one wall. It was two-sided, leading into an open plan kitchen with more windows and views to die for. The kitchen was modern and bright. Instead of the typical stainless-steel appliances, everything seemed to be built into beachy gray cabinets with antique bronze fixtures.

All the spit in my mouth dried.

It was exactly what I would have chosen for myself if I had a dream kitchen. I didn’t have much time to cook or bake with my schedule, but there had been many years when Myles and I would bake for Christmas or picnics.

Cookies, pies, endless versions of a cheesecake we’d tried to perfect. Pots of cheap spaghetti sauce doctored up to feed the band during their rehearsals. How many nights had we spent standing over a pizza on the island in my kitchen at my parents’ house?

“What do you think?”

“It’s gorgeous.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” He tugged me off the hallway to a staircase and up to a bedroom.

Actually, bedroom wasn’t quite the right word. More like a suite.

The moment we went through the door, there was a huge expanse of hardwood, and a triple bay window extended the room with a to-die-for window seat decked out in plush cushions and pillows that invited you to curl in with a book. A built-in bookcase surrounded it all, with a couch made for lazing the day away.

As I turned, the rest of the bedroom came into view. A king-size bed complete with a tufted headboard took up one wall and a lush bench sat at the foot. It didn’t look real. The furnishings were the kind you’d find in Architectural Digest, for God’s sake. This wasn’t a house for normal people.

His face was split with an excited smile. “You can fucking swim in this tub. You gotta see it.”

Numbly, I followed him.

He twirled—yes, twirled—in the massive bathroom. “A steam shower—always wanted one of those. After I pound on the keys—” He seemed to falter a little. He cleared his throat. “After a long day, it’s a great way to recover. And right there is a tub. No, it’s practically a freaking swimming pool.” He jumped up on the tiled surround then stepped into the bathtub that could easily fit a family. “Imagine what we could do in here?”

I folded my arms over my stomach. “It’s gorgeous. Whose is it?” I was afraid to ask. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“Mine.” He blew out a hank of hair from his eyes before he met my gaze with a huge smile. “Maybe someday…ours.”