I almost had a heart attack when I turned around and saw Gage standing there. I still wasn't used to running into someone else in my nightly wanderings. Plus, he'd caught me raiding the fridge. That would've been fine if this were my house, but it wasn't. I knew better.

I was an employee. I wasn't family. I shouldn't be raiding the fridge after midnight, looking for something sweet. Especially after lecturing Amelia on eating too many cookies. I was such a hypocrite. But I wasn't a diabetic and, secretly, I completely agreed with Amelia. Fruit was great, but it wasn't dessert.

Mrs. W had texted that there was leftover chocolate cake hidden in the vegetable drawer of the fridge where Amelia was sure not to look. I wasn't going to pass that up, even if the chocolate might keep me awake. It's not like I was sleeping anyway. I’d tried.

I’d washed my face, drank a cup of my normal sleepy-time tea and had dutifully gotten into bed. Nothing. I lay there staring at the ceiling for two hours before giving up, pulling on my robe, and coming in search of the mythical chocolate cake.

Standing in the doorway of the kitchen, Gage grinned at my shriek, and I felt my cheeks turning pink. If I could get through one day without embarrassing myself in front of this man, I could die happy. So far, it hadn't happened.

It didn't help that just the sight of him made me blush. It wasn't my fault. Gage Winters was hot. His face was beautiful, those blue eyes, sharp cheekbones, and full lower lip. But his body… Every inch of him was chiseled, the muscles of his biceps straining the sleeves of his T-shirt and his forearms—I’d never gotten distracted by a man's forearms before. I couldn't remember the last time I’d been distracted by a man at all, and then definitely not by his forearms.

I could stare at Gage all day.

“Hungry?” he asked, his eyes scanning me from head to toe, something in them making my blush hotter.

“Huh?” Why was he staring at me like that? His expression was almost predatory, but I didn't feel threatened. The way he was looking at me was… It was like he wanted me. But that didn't make sense. I wasn't Gage Winters’s type. I couldn’t be. Not in a million years.

“You're standing in front of an open refrigerator,” he clarified, “so I assumed you were hungry.”

“Oh,” I said, stupidly. “Not hungry, exactly.” I opened the vegetable drawer and spotted the cake plate nestled among stalks of broccoli and a bunch of asparagus. I lifted it out and showed it to Gage. His eyes widened in appreciation, and he grinned.

“I take it Amelia doesn't know about the cake?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“How do you know about the cake?” he probed, pacing closer. I resisted the urge to back up. Instead, I carefully placed the cake on the kitchen island between us.

“Mrs. W told me,” I said, opening the drawer to retrieve two forks.

“She told you about chocolate cake, and she didn't tell me?” Gage took one of the forks and dug into the generous slice of cake. “I can't believe it. I'm her favorite.”

Without thinking, I said, “I know. But I think she felt like she owed me one after the bugs in the lamp incident.” I took my own forkful of cake, smaller than Gage's, and lifted it to my lips. Bittersweet chocolate melted across my tongue and I closed my eyes in pleasure. Gage made a low sound in his throat, and my eyes flew open. He was staring at me again with that same look.

Predatory. Possessive. Hungry.

I watched him lift a forkful of cake to his own mouth, my eyes riveted as his lips opened and his straight, white teeth pulled the cake from the fork. When his tongue flicked out to catch a stray crumb, a shiver went down my spine, and heat bloomed between my legs.

This was bad. I should have left. I should have put down the fork and gone back to my room. I had no business staring at Gage's mouth. Even if I put aside the fact that I worked for his family, that I was, in a way, his employee, Gage Winters was the last man I should look at to break my dry spell. For so many reasons.

I should have put down the fork and gone back to my room and made a list of all the reasons I should stop staring at Gage's mouth.

I didn't. I watched him take another bite of cake, and the heat between my legs grew. So stupid. I was so stupid. Stupid, and helpless beneath his blue gaze.

I dug my fork into the cake for another bite. I wasn't paying attention, and I ended up with mostly frosting. I licked it off the tines of the fork and Gage made another low sound in his throat. Risking a quick look at his face, and I saw his eyes narrowed on me.

I stood there, frozen in place. My first instinct was to run, a gut response to the tension in his muscles, the heated intent in his eyes. I stayed where I was. If I ran, he would chase me.

Gage Winters was the predator, and I was the prey.

But that wasn't why I didn't run. I wasn't afraid of Gage. I probably should've been. He was twice my size, and I was alone with him. Not only was he a lot stronger than me, the night we’d met he’d proven he wasn’t quite stable.

I wasn't afraid of Gage. I was afraid of myself.

Gage moved, breaking the stillness between us and digging his fork into the slice of cake. I didn't expect him to bring it to my mouth, the cold metal of the fork urging my lips open. The chocolate melted on my tongue, sweet and rich.

Gage set the fork on the island with a click of metal on marble. Lifting a hand, his fingers slid along my chin, his thumb brushing my lower lip.

I swayed into him, the heat of his skin a magnet. He dropped his head and whispered, “You have chocolate on your mouth.”

Then he kissed me.

All thought of running dissolved as his lips slid over mine, light as a whisper. I made a sound somewhere between a whimper and a moan, and Gage's arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me flush to his hard, tall body.

My lips parted, and Gage was there, kissing me harder, his tongue running along my lower lip. He tasted of chocolate and man.

I fell into the kiss, goosebumps covering my skin as his fingers tightened on the back of my head, tilting my face to his. He lifted me, setting me on the counter and moving between my legs, one strong hand on the small of my back, pulling me against him.

With me on the island, the difference in our heights wasn't a problem. Gage's hands went to my waist, jerking on the belt of my robe and pulling it free, pushing back the thick fabric to bare my nightgown-covered body.

My nightgown wasn't anything special. Plain white cotton trimmed in lace, it covered me from my collarbone to my knees. It was pretty and feminine, but the furthest thing from seductive.

Gage didn't seem to care.

The cotton was so thin, the heat of his hands felt like we were skin to skin. I was barely thinking, all of my attention captured by his mouth moving on mine, the utter possession in his kiss. If I had been thinking I would've expected him to go straight for my breasts. The few men who'd gotten this far with me had done exactly that.

I should've known Gage would be different.

One hand slid up my body, moving over the side of my breast to my shoulder and sliding up my neck, sending shivers over every inch of skin he touched before his hands buried themselves in my hair and he pulled my lips to his, kissing me deeper.

His other arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me to him, pressing my body to his until there was no space between us, my breasts flattened to his hard chest, his hips forcing my legs open, the hard length of his cock pressing into me. Only a few layers of fabric separated that cock from my heat. His cargo shorts, my underwear. Not much.

I didn't care. I didn't care about anything but Gage touching me. Kissing me. He was heat and strength, surrounding me, taking me over. I wrapped my legs around his narrow hips, holding him tight, rolling my hips into his. His chest rumbled with a groan as he lay me back on the island.

Tearing his mouth from mine, he dropped his face into the crook of my neck, his breath hot against my skin. He was holding back, restraining himself so fiercely his muscles shook in barely perceptible tremors. I rolled my head back on the cold marble of the island, pressing my breasts up into him.

I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't thinking. Gage had kissed me, and at the touch of his lips, something inside me had broken open, something feral and needy. After so many years of emptiness, my body had woken up, and it wanted.

Gage's mouth closed over the side of my neck, sucking and tasting my skin, his tongue tracing my frantically beating pulse. At the touch of his long fingers on the side of my breast, I went wild, squirming against him, shuddering when his fingers closed over my nipple and squeezed. A bolt of pleasure streaked between my legs, and I gasped his name. “Gage.”

His mouth moved to my ear, and he breathed, “Sophie. Fuck. Sophie.”

A thump sounded down the hall, followed by a tumbling noise as if someone had knocked over a stack of books. We both went still, breath caught in our lungs, hearts pounding frantically. Ice washed through me as I realized where I was, spread out over the island in the kitchen of Winters House, Gage Winters between my spread legs, his hand on my breast, his mouth on my neck.

What the hell was I thinking? I was going to lose my job. And Gage – Gage hadn't struck me as the kind of man who took advantage of a woman working for him, but here I was.

He hadn't exactly taken advantage though, had he?

At that thought I shoved him back and scrambled off the island, yanking my robe shut and tying the belt in a tight knot. I couldn't meet his eyes.

“Excuse me,” I said, moving to sidle past him and escape the kitchen.

Gage's hand shot out and closed around my wrist. I jumped in surprise. I didn't mean to. Some reactions are too ingrained to outgrow and, for me, being grabbed by a strong hand is one of them. I went still under his grip, then carefully twisted my wrist in his hand, trying to free myself without struggling. Struggling only made it worse.

Gage's fingers held me securely, but his grip wasn't tight. Wasn't painful. Voice so low I could barely make out his words, he said, “Wait. I heard something. You heard it too, didn't you? I don't want you to walk out there by yourself.”

Gage's demeanor had shifted, and I'd been so panicked from his hold on my wrist, I'd missed it. A minute ago, leaning over me on the island, he'd been shaking with tension. Now he was the same, but it wasn't passion firing his nerves.

I looked up into his eyes and realized he was on high alert, every one of his senses focused on the sound we’d heard down the hall.

“Maybe it was Aiden,” I whispered. I knew it wasn't Amelia. She slept like a rock and after months of working for her, she’d never woken a second earlier than she had to. But, for that matter, I'd never known Aiden to be awake in the middle of the night either. I was up often enough; I would've noticed.

Agreeing with my inner thoughts, Gage said, “No, it's not Aiden. I would've heard him on the stairs, and Aiden never wakes up in the middle of the night.”

“You think someone's in the house? The alarm is on. Isn't it?” My gaze swept the kitchen, settling on the lighted panel by the door to the laundry room. Red lights glowed, indicating that the alarm was set and operating normally.

Gage's hand tightened on my wrist, and I winced. Immediately, his fingers fell open, and he released me. His blue eyes met mine, focused and intent but somehow haunted. Something lurked there, dark and afraid. Until that moment, it hadn't occurred to me to be afraid. But I remembered someone had broken into this house once before, and when they had, two people had been murdered.

“I need to go check it out,” Gage said. “I don't want to leave you in here. Too many entrances. It's not secure. I want you to follow me down the hall. Stay right behind me, okay?”

I nodded. I wasn't completely sure there was someone else in the house. The alarm was on, and I'd heard something, but maybe I’d misunderstood. Maybe it was the air compressor kicking on, or the refrigerator in the garage. It was a big house, and old.

Odd sounds weren’t unusual, and at night things like that always seemed amplified. What you might ignore during the day grew to a threat in the dark. That didn't mean there actually was a threat.

I felt a little calmer after talking myself down, but that didn't mean I didn't follow Gage closely out of the kitchen. He guided my hand to his belt loop, silently threading two fingers through the strip of canvas. I shuffled down the hall behind him, pausing as we reached the doors to the dining room.

Gage stopped, scanning the moonlit room. A moment later he nodded to himself, and we moved on, through the entry hall, stopping again at the doors to the living room. Gage did another quick scan before we moved on.

The library and Aiden's office were at the end of the hallway, facing one another, the wine room in between. Gage pressed me to the wall outside the library, crowding me with his big body. Shielding me, I realized.

“It was here,” he said, “the library or the office. I need to check them out.”

“I can help,” I said, inanely. I wanted to help, but honestly, what did I think I was going to do? I was a nurse. Unless there was someone standing in the middle of the room holding a sign that said I'm the intruder, I wasn't going to be much use.

Gage must've agreed because he said, “No. I don't have time to take you to your room and clear it.”

Making a decision, he led me to the wine room in the back of the short hall between the library and Aiden's office. Gage swung the door open, tucked me behind his big frame, and quickly determined the room was empty. Flipping on the light, he led me in, saying, “Lock it behind me. Don't open the door until I come back.”

“Be careful,” I said.

Gage gave a short nod and pulled the door closed. I flipped the bolt and settled in to wait.