Watching Caleb walk away, Sadie stood stock-still for several seconds in rare indecision. He’d told her he could be emotionally detached, and she’d believed him.

But she would bet the bank that she was better at it than he was. Except . . . normally when she detached and made a decision on someone, she never looked back. Sometimes it was an emotional cut, such as with the previous men she’d let in. They’d had to go for her mental health. Same with her family. She still saw them, she participated as a family member, but after all that had happened during her rough teenage years, she’d cut off their ability to hurt her.

The problem was, emotionally detaching in one area of her life had slowly bled into other areas as well, until she’d been emotionally detached from just about everything.

Until Caleb.

He’d come along and pulled her into his vortex, stripping her emotionally naked far before he’d ever gotten her clothes off. The truth was, she didn’t want to be emotionally detached from him. But here was the thing, she wasn’t sure how to be anything other than who she was. And deep down inside, she wasn’t sure that who she was would be, could be, enough.

Still, she was a scrappy sort of survivor and knew how to change up a situation to her favor when she needed to. And this was most definitely a situation she wanted to change up. She’d overreacted and worse, she’d let him walk away thinking she didn’t want him. So she grabbed Lollipop’s backpack, urged the dog into it, and then shouldered the pack. Then she ran out of the shop past a startled Rocco, Mini Me, and Blue.

Rocco raised a hand with his fork in it as a salute, and Sadie ran on.

“Arf!” Lollipop said excitedly.

Sadie’s phone buzzed, and hoping it was Caleb, she answered without looking at the screen while on the run. “I’m trying to catch you.”

“What are you talking about?” her mom asked.

Crap. “Nothing, forget it. I’ve gotta go, I’ll call you back—”

“You always say that, but you don’t call me back. I need your confirmation that you’re coming to dinner next week. It’s the practice rehearsal family dinner. You know, where we practice being a warm loving family before we have to actually do it.”

Damn. That was in only a week?

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten,” her mom said. “You know how important this practice is. We have to get in sync.”

Good luck with that one. “Of course I didn’t forget.”

“Good. Who’s your date?”

“Um . . .”

“You promised you’d have a date for the wedding.”

“Yes,” Sadie said. “But this isn’t the wedding. It’s not even the real rehearsal dinner. Like you said, it’s just the practice.”

“Which we’re doing for you.”

Sadie had to laugh. Of course they were. “Because heaven forbid I just act as myself, right?”

“Honey, I’m not in the mood for your sass. Just say you’ll be here.”

She stood up on one of the wrought-iron benches in the courtyard to see the entire length of it, searching for a sign of Caleb. “I’ll be there.”

“With a date.”

“Fine, with a date,” Sadie said.

“What’s his name? What does he do?”

She managed not to smack her forehead with her own phone. Not was he nice , or does he treat you right , but what does he do . . . She was worried Sadie was going to bring someone inappropriate to the wedding and needed to get an early look at her choice. “He’s a genius billionaire and he wears expensive suits,” she said without thinking.

“Well, there’s no reason to be sarcastic.”

“Mom.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ve got to go.”

“You think I’m a bad mom.”

Sadie craned her neck one way and then the other, searching for the tall, built guy walking out of her life.

“Wow,” her mom said into Sadie’s silence. “You really do think that.”

“Mom—”

“You’ve got to go, remember?” And she disconnected.

Sadie might’ve called her back, but she caught sight of Caleb at the other end of the courtyard. She took off at a fast clip, to the huge joy of Lollipop on her back. By the time she got to Caleb, she was breathless from the mad dash.

Okay, that wasn’t the truth. She was breathless because she’d nearly not caught him. The man was smoke when he wanted to be. But she managed to get in front of his long-legged stride and face him.

But then she realized she had no idea what she wanted to do or say. Luckily Lollipop had her own agenda.

“Arf!” the dog said at the sight of her favorite male.

Sadie wasn’t going to wag her tail or give herself away in any such fashion, but she knew one thing—she wanted to believe in him. In them . “Mount Diablo,” she said, still fighting for air.

Caleb reached a hand toward her face and her heart squeezed because it was going to be okay, he was going to touch her.

But he stroked a hand over Lollipop’s head instead, although his eyes remained on Sadie. “Mount Diablo?” he asked quietly, not giving away a single hint of what he might be feeling.

Fair enough. “You asked what was on my list,” she said. “Dating’s not, because clearly I suck at it. But Mount Diablo is because I’ve lived in San Francisco my entire life and I’ve never been.”

He hesitated only very slightly. “Have you ever called in sick?”

“Yes, but never when I’ve actually been sick,” she admitted.

A small smile curved his mouth.

An hour later, he’d driven them to the trailhead of Mount Diablo. The three of them stood on top of the rock city, surrounded by a spread of cavernous caves and sandstone rock formations that took Sadie’s breath away.

So did the man who’d brought her here. He had Lollipop’s pack now, having relieved Sadie of the weight. Lollipop had walked a bit of the trail, but it turned out she much preferred riding on Caleb’s shoulders.

Caleb had been up here before, of course. He’d been everywhere and done everything, and though Sadie liked to consider herself worldly and cynical, she had nothing on him.

He turned and studied her. “I feel like I smell smoke burning.”

“I’m not sure what you see in me,” she said and worked at not grimacing at the pathetic statement. But she really didn’t know, and apparently she needed to.

He glanced over at her, clearly surprised by this.

“You know what? Never mind,” she said quickly, turning away and pretending to study the view.

She heard him release Lollipop to run around to her heart’s content and then pulled Sadie onto his lap. His arms closed around her and he kissed her shoulder, then the nape of her neck, blazing a trail to her ear.

She shivered. A full body shiver of the very best kind.

“I’ve been fascinated by you since the beginning,” he murmured.

“Not true,” she said. “We ran into each other plenty over the past year and you never seemed fascinated.”

“You didn’t notice because you were too busy doing your best not to be fascinated by me as well.”

The sheer male ego in this statement made her laugh, but it backed up in her throat when his teeth grazed her earlobe. Then his hands slid beneath the material of her shirt and settled on her waist. “You’re deflecting,” she said.

“Yes, and I’m very good at it. The truth is, Sadie, you scared the hell out of me.”

She stared at him. “How is that even possible?”

“Whenever I get in close proximity to you, I feel something.”

She wriggled in his lap, her ass to his crotch, and felt something alright. “Yeah,” she said on a low laugh. “It’s called lust.”

“There’s some of that,” he agreed, “but it’s more. Before Lollipop, there was always something in your eyes that made me feel . . .” He drew in a deep breath. “Exposed. Vulnerable. And I don’t typically do vulnerable. That didn’t change once we got to know each other, by the way. But my curiosity and need for you overtook my fears.” He smiled, though his eyes were serious. “But if the question is really when did I start to fall for you, then it was the night we rescued Lollipop. When you stood in the freezing rain with me, your clothes molded to your body, your eyes flashing. I couldn’t see straight I was so turned on.” He smiled in memory. “And then you proceeded to argue with me. Over everything.” His laugh was low and rough. “I wanted to push you up against the wall and kiss you until you wanted me even half as bad as I wanted you, until you melted for me.”

“And then?” she heard herself whisper.

“And then you co-adopted Lollipop with me. And not because you were looking to get something from me, but because you wanted to do the right thing for the dog. That’s when I knew it was more than lust, and I had to walk away and plan my strategy.”

“Always the venture capitalist?” she murmured.

“Something like that.” His hands spread wide over her ribs, the tips of his fingers just brushing the undersides of her breasts. “You’re not an easy woman, Sadie.”

“I am a handful,” she agreed, her pulse kicking into gear. “But that’s why you have two hands.”

He ignored her attempt to lighten up this conversation. “You’re not easy,” he said again. “You’re something else entirely.” And while she simmered over that, he smiled and kissed her softly. “And I like it,” he said against her mouth. “I like you very much, Sadie Lane.”

She sighed and tightened her grip on him. “I like you very much too, Caleb Parker. I didn’t want to.”

“Do tell,” he said, voice amused.

She rolled her eyes and then got serious, staring up at him. “I mean, I really didn’t want to. But you sneaked in under my defenses when I wasn’t looking. And now I can’t seem to shake you.”

He smiled, gentle and warm. “I’m very grateful for that.”

Lollipop was zooming around them like a wild woman, darting here and there and back again, occasionally tripping on her three legs, but getting right back up again, still having zero idea that she was handicapped in any way.

Sadie had the urge to stand up and run around too. Run around and . . . hide. She was a master at hiding, she’d been doing it all her life, both physically and mentally. But actually, she didn’t want to hide from Caleb. She wanted to stay right here in his arms for as long as she could have him. Craning her neck, she stared up at the night sky. It was a tumultuous one, threatening rain, which she loved. When a few drops began to fall out of the sky, she stuck out her tongue to catch one.

Caleb watched, his voice husky when he spoke. “If we’d been out here a week ago, we’d have seen a rocket launch sending payloads into space.”

“Yours?” she asked.

“Yes. The technology, anyway.”

His world was so much bigger than hers. She’d known that. But it never failed to marvel her. “You used to travel for work all the time and be mostly gone,” she said. “Before Lollipop.”

“Not just Lollipop. There’s a lot of reasons why I’m using SF as my home base these days. My family. And friends.” He paused and met her gaze. “You.”

Her breath caught audibly, and a small smile curved his lips. “I knew the day I met you,” he said. “Which was just under a year ago now.”

“Knew what?” she whispered.

“That I was going to fall for you and never recover.”

Her chest tightened. “I don’t want to ever be the thing that holds someone back.”

“You don’t hold me back. You make life more.”

“More what?” she asked.

“More everything.”

“Because I sleep with you?” she asked.

He smiled. “Most definitely.”

She rolled her eyes and tipped her head up to watch the lazy drops fall out of the sky, but his fingers stroked her jaw and turned her back to him.

“And also because I am falling for you, Sadie. Falling hard.”

She put her fingers over his mouth to hold in any more words.

“That won’t make it untrue,” he said around her fingers.

“Shh.” She closed her eyes and tried to calm her heart down. “Just shh for a minute.” Her thoughts raced in tune to her impending stroke. It was quiet around them. Lollipop was back at their feet, huffing from her exertion.

Okay, so Caleb had a lot of pretty words and those words had thrown her. He wasn’t a man to toy with anyone’s feelings, much less someone he cared about. He cared about her. At least he cared about the parts of her she’d allowed him to have.

But he was definitely missing some. In spite of his sisters looking into her—which they’d either not finished doing so or they hadn’t filled him in on the details yet—Caleb didn’t know her past. Because if he did, he’d be running for the hills. She knew this for sure.

Very slowly, Caleb slid a hand to the nape of her neck, urging her in for a gentle, tender kiss that turned very ungentle in a matter of seconds, leaving her in the same condition as always when he put his mouth of hers.

Hungry for him.

Another few drops of rain hit, and then a few more, feeling amazing against her heated skin as the last of the daylight began to fade away.

Caleb stood and offered her his hand, pulling both her and Lollipop back beneath an overhang to protect them from the rain. Lollipop climbed into her backpack and yawned.

Tugging Sadie close, Caleb wrapped his arm around her waist, taking one of her hands in his, pressing it to his chest.

“What are we doing?” she asked.

“Dancing in the rain.”

That he’d even remembered it was a secret little fantasy of hers had her momentarily speechless, but she slid her free hand up his chest and around to the back of his neck, and leaned into his warm hard body, completely swept away by the moment.

She let him lead, not that they did anything fancier than shuffle their feet and sway gently to the sound of the rain hitting the rocks around them and Lollipop’s gentle snores. Sadie’s head rested against Caleb’s shoulder, her nose up against his throat. Closing her eyes, she breathed in his scent and listened to his heartbeat. “Caleb?” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Take me home.”

His place was the closest. The front door barely shut behind them before he pressed her up against it, kissing her hungrily.

“Arf!”

Caleb sighed and pulled free. “Hold that thought.” He then scooped up Lollipop and vanished from the living room. Two minutes later he was back alone. “She’s in my office with a treat. She’s good for now.” He pulled her into him. “Where were we?”

“Arf!”

Sadie turned and sure enough, Lollipop stood in the open doorway, eyes bright, tongue lolling and tail wagging. Leashed to Caleb’s office chair, she’d dragged it down the hall and seemed to be waiting patiently for some attention.

“Not now,” Caleb murmured against Sadie’s mouth. “Mommy and Daddy need a minute.”

“Actually,” Sadie said, staring into Caleb’s eyes. “Mommy needs more like fourteen minutes, and that’s only if you’re really really good.”

“Oh, I think we both know that I’m better than good.” Eyes lit at the challenge, he nipped her bottom lip. “But I’ll tell you what, you can have as many minutes as you want. You can have the whole night.” He unhooked Lollipop from her leash. “Don’t eat the house,” he said and then took Sadie into the bedroom.

She reached for the buttons on his jacket and shoved it off his shoulders. It took less than a minute for the rest of his clothes and all of hers to end up on the floor. Eyes dark with intent, Caleb gave her a little nudge. The backs of her knees hit the edge of his mattress. As she fell to his bed, he pinned her down and began to explore every inch of her body with his hands, his tongue, his teeth . . . proving to the both of them that he didn’t need fourteen minutes.

But he gave them to her anyway. And many more.