It’s a hot day, well into the nineties before noon. “Thank God for air conditioning,” I whisper, cranking it up a bit more to keep the apartment comfortable on cleaning day. One of the perks of working for myself now, is having time to keep my place clean. One of the downfalls is having no excuse on the weekend to avoid cleaning my place. My cleaning sessions are almost as good as an actual workout.

When the doorbell rings, I’m on my knees on the kitchen floor with a scrub brush in one hand. “Who the heck is this?” I mutter, dropping the brush into the bucket of sudsy water and wiping the sweat from my forehead with the back of my forearm as I walk to the door. I’m not expecting anything, or anyone.

And I sure as hell am not expecting Lincoln and Maddie. Not in a million years.

“What are you guys doing here?” I ask, suddenly intensely conscious of my ratty sweats and bleach-stained tank top. My hair’s in a messy bun on top of my head, strands falling out all over the place. Probably stuck to the back of my neck with sweat too.

Maddie giggles, holding her father’s hand. “We came to see you!”

“I can see that,” I say, smiling, looking from her to Lincoln. I don’t feel like smiling at him right now. He could’ve called. He could’ve given me a little warning. And he could’ve refrained from bringing his daughter with him, like I’m going to soften just because she’s here. He should know me better than that.

“Can we come in?” he asks, eyebrows raised.

“It doesn’t look as though I have much of a choice,” I murmur, stepping aside to let them in.

“Oh Sam, your apartment is so cute!” Maddie gushes, her eyes big and excited.

I’m glad I’m almost finished with the cleaning. I don’t have to be embarrassed by dust bunnies under the sofa. “You like it, huh?” I chuckle, hands on my hips. “It’s nearly as big as your Princess tent.”

“No, it’s not,” she says seriously. My tent is muuuuch smaller.”

I absolutely adore this kid. She’s so cute. “Make yourself comfortable,” I encourage her, still side-eyeing Lincoln at the same time. I don’t know what game he thinks he’s playing, even though the sight of him—the fact that he’s here in my apartment—makes my heart race.

I can’t pretend I didn’t develop feelings for him.

“I don’t think I should,” she says, smiling ever so slightly.

“Why not?”

Another knock at the door. I turn to it, surprised, and hear Maddie explain, “I have another appointment to go to. I’m pretty busy.”

I have to laugh as I open the door to find a kindly middle-aged woman standing in the hall.

“I’m here to pick up Maddie,” she explains.

Maddie runs to the door and flings her arms around the lady’s waist.

“This is Gwen, Maddie’s nanny.” Lincoln pats the top of Maddie’s head.

“I see.” And I can see that he brought his daughter as a way to get in the door. Now that he’s in, he can send her off with Gwen. My heart is thumping with a strange excitement, but I’m not sure how I feel about this bit of trickery. Does he think he can just roll in here and take up where we left off?

“Sam, will you come over to our house soon? Please?” Maddie asks.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I reply, stroking her hair before Gwen leads her away.

Leaving only Lincoln and me.

I wait until the door is closed before I whirl on him. “What do you think you’re doing here?” I ask, my voice shrill with nervousness. “How manipulative can you possibly be?”

“What? You think I’m trying to manipulate you?”

I fold my arms across my chest and raise my eyebrows disbelievingly. He knew exactly what he was doing. “By bringing the baby.”

“She’s been driving me insane for two weeks, asking every day when we’ll be able to see you again. If I didn’t bring her with me, even so she could see you for a few minutes, I’d never hear the end of it. If anything, I’m the victim here,” he says with a hangdog expression.

The idea of him being a victim is so ridiculous, I burst out laughing. “You’re crazy.”

“Yeah, I know. Crazy for you.”

I pretend not to hear the last part even though my heart is singing. “Even so, I don’t have to listen to a word you say. You know that, right? I could throw you out right now and have every right to do so. Nobody would blame me.”

“I won’t leave until you hear me out. Please, Samantha? I want to apologize.”

“You could have done that over the phone.” But my resolve is weakening every moment, every time our eyes meet. It’s not fair. He’s too sexy, too handsome, too magnetic, too everything. How am I supposed to fight that kind of pressure?

“Yeah, I could have, but I’m here now, aren’t I?”

It’s exhausting, trying to win. I should just give up. “Okay. You’re here now. What do you have to say?” I’m careful to keep my arms folded tight in front of me, unwilling to leave myself open to him. He needs to know how much he hurt me. I can’t make it easy.

To my surprise, he stumbles over his words. “I don’t—I don’t know where to s-start.”

“You could start by telling me how wrong it was to call me what you did. That’s a good start.”

A dull red flush stains his cheekbones. “I should never have called you that. I’m really sorry. It’s unforgivable, I know. And I know now that you were right all along. I heard your father fighting with Ryland after their demo, and it was all just like you said.”

“So…?”

“So?”

I shrug. “What’s all this mean? You were wrong. I knew you were wrong from the beginning, but that doesn’t change the way you treated me, the things you said. How small you made me feel that day, after—after everything.” My cheeks start burning at the mere mention of what went on in his office only hours before he fired me.

“I realize that,” he mutters, shaking his head. “It was wrong. I can’t tell you how wrong I was or how sorry I am. I was deeply hurt by what I thought was your betrayal, Sam. It cut me to the bone to think that you were not what I thought you were. Not to mention the fact that so much of the business relied on our demonstration. What would you do in my shoes?”

“I would ask why you were with Vince Weissman. I would ask flat-out if you had anything to do with the leak.”

“Why would you have admitted having anything to do with it if you were really a spy? Why would you tell the truth?”

“If you had an explanation for what was happening the way I did with Ryland you would’ve at least gotten the chance to share it. You could’ve had your say. I didn’t get to have mine. I had to email you, hoping you would read it without deleting it first.”

“I did.” He looks and sounds sincere. I have to give him that. “I would do anything to make this up to you. Do you know that?” He takes one step closer, then another. “I mean it. Anything in the world.”

I could move away, but I don’t. Having him nearer to me is a joy I don’t really want to refuse. I’ve been refusing myself for too long already. The weeks without him have been worse than torture. Even though I haven’t known him for much longer than that, the heart wants what it wants.

So does the body.

“Sam. I couldn’t have done anything I did without you.”

When he reaches for me, I don’t pull away. I allow his hands to linger on my arms—light, gentle, not demanding a thing.

“You’re the entire reason we were a success at the conference. It was all you. I would be nowhere without you. I’m nowhere without you now.”

“What are you saying?” I whisper, not daring to hope.

“First of all, I would love it if you would come to work for me again, because you’re really and truly a genius, and I need you on my team.” He strokes my arms, staring deep into my eyes.

I can hardly hear him over the sound of blood rushing in my ears. Does he have any idea what he does to me? He can’t possibly. I narrow my eyes until they’re practically slits, pretending to think it over. He deserves to sweat a little after what he put me through. “Hmm…no. I don’t think so.”

“What?” He frowns and pulls back a little, hurt and surprise in his eyes.

He thought I would give in so easily, did he? “Well, I mean, I’d be happy to work with you. Just not for you. I have my own clients now.”

“You do?” He looks deflated, but when he sees me raise my eyebrows, his expression changes to excitement. “That’s terrific news!”

“Yes, it is. You helped quite a lot, dropping my name the way you did. I appreciate it more than I can say.” I take a deep breath, releasing it slowly before continuing, “I’ve been wanting to get out of my father’s shadow for as long as I can remember. I’ve wanted to make a life for myself away from him, completely and totally. And there’s no way he’d ever let me into his life after what he knows I did to him, so…”

“Actually, even though I’m crushed at the thought that you won’t be in the lab at all hours of the night, I’m very proud of you,” he whispers, smiling softly, his eyes shining.

I’m not used to hearing people say they’re proud of me. It sounds good. I could get used to it. “There’s another thing, too,” I whisper back, leaning in ever so slightly.

“What’s that?” he asks with a totally sexy grin.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to date my boss.”

His grin turns to a smile, wider than any I’ve ever seen from him. “You mean that?”

“I absolutely do.”

He takes my face in his hands, cupping it gently. “In that case, Miss Harper, I’m afraid your services will no longer be required by Guardian.”

“Gee, that’s a shame, but thank you for letting me know, Mr. Cage.”

“Now, that we have established you are no longer working for me, Ms. Harper. I’m afraid I’m going to need to get my tongue into your sweet pussy.”

I giggle, letting him pull me closer. “I’m pretty gross right now, by the way.”

“There are two ways around that problem. I could lick you clean or I can get you showered up, then,” he murmurs, sliding his hands over my back.

“You would lick me even though I smell of sweat and bleach?”

“Sweetness, I would take you any old way I can. I love you clean, I love you dirty, I love you drenched in sweat and stained with bleach. Anyway, I can take you.”

I can hardly believe my ears. “What? You love me?”

He smiles, the slowest, sexiest smile you ever saw and I wait with bated breath for it to finish.

“I do. I really do.”

“When did you realize that?”

“I think it was when you were cleaning Maddie’s feet. I looked down at both your heads so close together and this strange thought crossed my mind. If any man ever hurts either of these two girls I’ll fucking kill him. I felt so protective towards both of you. As if you were both mine. But of course, you were always running hot and cold, so I talked myself out of it. I told myself it was just a thing. A fling.”

“I was running hot and cold because I was scared. I didn’t know if—”

“I would respect you in the morning,” he interrupts in a dry voice.

I smack his chest. “See these are the kinds of things that made me run hot and cold.”

“I could be that guy who professes to love a woman and never hears it back, but you know, it would be nice if the feeling was returned in some small measure.” He is joking, but his eyes are serious and almost apprehensive.

My chest feels like it’s about to burst. Everything I’ve ever wanted is right here in this room, holding me in his arms. Just when I thought I lost out on my dreams of him, he came back.

“I love you, too,” I breathe the words out, my eyes filling with tears in the instant before his mouth touches mine.