“You kneed me in the junk.”

Claire’s eyes widen, her pink lips part. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” She reaches for my cock as if she can somehow make it better.

Standing up, I band my arm around her back and hold her to me. The last thing she needs to see is my erection, which is growing by the second with her tight little body writhing against mine.

“I’m fine,” I answer, realizing that rather than seeing it, she’s now likely feeling it.

Screw it.

I refuse to apologize for the way my body reacts to hers. Oddly enough, she doesn’t seem affected by it.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I drop my head to her shoulder, needing a moment to catch my breath and process these…these strange feelings coursing through me.

Claire Daniels is the only woman in this town who gets my blood pumping. I’ve been lusting after her since the fifth grade when she showed up at the rock quarry in a purple bikini. Until tonight, I thought she looked at me as nothing but a distant friend, which worked perfectly, because if that’s all I was to her, there was no reason to tell her my secret, a secret I’ve carried around for thirteen years. But clearly, I was wrong. It’s one thing to watch Claire from afar, but it’s entirely different having her in my arms and knowing that the giant secret I’ve kept for so long could ruin us before we’ve even started.

I want to blurt it out right now just so we can move forward without anything between us, but I’m not ready for that—and I’m not sure Claire is ready for that. I’m not even sure there’d be anything left between us after I spoke. But my only other option is to walk away now, and after getting a taste of her, I’m not sure that’s an option.

You have to, I remind myself. Something between Claire and me could never work. There are too many things working against us, too much history between us—history she doesn’t even know about.

But I’m a selfish bastard, and even though I know I should climb in my truck and never look back, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to do.

When I look up, she smiles. Her green eyes are shining with a brightness I haven’t seen in far too long, and I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make me feel ten feet tall.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi.”

“We were talking about that kiss,” she adds, softly.

“Best damn kiss I’ve ever had.”

Claire’s cheeks turn pink. She rests her forehead to my chest and laughs.

“Most women don’t laugh when I compliment them.”

My words only make her laugh harder, and after a couple of seconds I find myself laughing along with her.

“Why are you laughing?” I ask.

She looks up, her eyes wet with tears. I sweep a stray hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.

“Because I finally get you in my arms, and I knee you in the balls. Only I would do something like that.”

The smile falls from my face. This is another reason I find Claire so incredibly attractive. She’s honest to a fault. But that’s not what has all coherent thought flying from my brain—it’s the other thing. The really important and shocking thing.

“Finally?”

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and watches me. Lifting my hand, I tug on her chin until her lip pops free.

“I sort of, maybe have a thing for you,” she whispers.

“I know.”

“You do?”

“Figured it out when you attacked my mouth.”

“What?” Her jaw drops, and when I smile, she punches me in the shoulder. “You attacked my mouth first, mister.”

Wrapping my fingers around her wrist, I hold her in place. I shouldn’t tell her I feel the same way. It’ll only make what I have to do that much harder, but I’ll be damned if I let her share her feelings and walk away thinking I don’t feel the same.

“You’re damn right I did, because I sort of, maybe have a thing for you too.”

Claire’s lips fall open. “You do?”

I laugh. “Why do you find that so hard to believe? You’re a beautiful woman, Claire. You’re smart, funny—”

“Old,” she inserts.

“Old? You are not old.”

“I’m four years older than you.”

“Are you serious right now?”

She pinches her lips together and glares at me. This is the first time I’ve seen her flustered, and I like it.

“When I was twenty, you were only sixteen.”

“Well, you’re not twenty anymore, and while I still have the stamina of my sixteen-year-old self, I assure you I’ve matured physically and emotionally.”

She swallows, all humor gone from her face as she looks down at my erection nestled between her legs. “I know.”

I’ve never seen nervous Claire either, and I like her just as well—although the last thing I want Claire to be around me is nervous.

“Is that why you never told me? Because of our age difference?” Not that it matters, but I want to know.

“Mostly that—and because you’re Rhett and Coop’s little brother.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’ll want to kill me when they find out about this.”

“You don’t look too worried.”

I grin. “I’m not.”

“What now?”

Now comes the hard part, sweetheart—the words that will likely kill me to say. “Despite how both of us feel, we can’t act on it.”

She blinks, and then blinks again. “We can’t?”

I shake my head. Pressing my palm against her cheek, I move my fingers through her hair and curl them around her head. Slowly, gently, I pull her face to mine. Her eyes dart to my lips, and the need to taste her, one last time, is too strong. My lips find hers, and Claire’s eyes flutter closed as she falls against me. Her lips are soft, and she tastes so damn good, but that’s all this is—all it can be—a taste.

Claire peels her eyes open when I pull back. “Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind? Because I’d really like to explore that a little more.”

I groan, pressing my lips to hers again, wanting her to feel how hard this is for me, to know that walking away from her is the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a damn long time. She opens to me on a sigh, and I stroke her tongue with mine until her body relaxes against me.

“I’ve got to admit, Trevor, I’m not sure where you’re coming from,” she mumbles against my lips.

I place my forehead to hers and smile. “You’re making this so hard.”

Her body wriggles against mine. “That’s not a bad thing.”

“It’s a very bad thing,” I say, watching her smile die. “Because we can’t be together.”

“Remind me again why that is.”

Because I’m a coward. Because I don’t deserve your attention, let alone your affection, although I crave it more than you’ll ever know. “There are so many reasons I don’t even know where to start.”

“Humor me.”

“There’s Rhett and Coop for one.”

“I can handle them.”

“How about the fact that you’re relationship material, and I’m the farthest thing from it.”

“Who said anything about a relationship?”

“Come on, Claire, you’re a relationship kind of girl, and that’s not a bad thing. And what about your rule? You don’t date firefighters, remember?” And for a damn good reason.

“Oh, right.” The hope drains from her face. “That pesky little occupation.” She worries her bottom lip for a few seconds. “I’m starting to wonder if my rules are stupid.”

“Your rules aren’t stupid. They’re logical, and you have them in place for a reason, and while I believe that someday you will move past them, I don’t think today is that day. And I’m not sure I want to be the test dummy.”

Her cheeks flush, and she looks down. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Small steps, Claire. Maybe you should start with Milo.”

“So where do we go from here?” she asks, looking up.

“We go back to doing what we’ve always done.”

“And what’s that?”

“I flirt and annoy you, and call you Red, and you ignore me. It’s our thing.”

“I’ve never been able to ignore you.”

“Pretend.”

“So, we just forget tonight happened? I’m not sure I can do that.”

“I hope you don’t forget it, because I sure as hell won’t. Tonight becomes a fond memory—one of many between us—that we’ll file away like all the others.”

She nods, her wistful smile transforming into a yawn.

“It’s been a long day.” I brush a thumb across her plump bottom lip. “It’s getting late. You should head home and get some sleep. You’re probably going to be sore tomorrow.”

Claire slides off the bathroom counter. She’s halfway out the door when she turns around. “Tonight wasn’t a mistake, right?”

“Not at all.” I’m protecting you, Red. I’m protecting both of us. Because losing Claire over what I did would be far worse than never having her at all. “It just can’t happen again.”

She flashes me her beautiful smile one last time. “See you around, Trevor.”