I wake up as the early morning light filters through the shutters. It takes me a second to remember where I am.

Nina is sleeping soundly next to me, chest rising and falling steadily. I lay there for a little while, just looking at her, remembering what happened last night.

She looked so fucking sexy as she was riding me. And damn if it wasn’t the best sex of my life. Everything just seemed to . . . work. No awkwardness, no nothing. Just pleasure and passion and intimacy.

Do I want to get this attached this quickly? It’s how I got burned before, with Rosa.

But no, that’s not the same. Nina isn’t the same.

Still, I need to be careful. She’s fragile after her messy break-up. And other circumstances mean that this—us—isn’t going to be easy.

But fuck, I want to give it a try. Give us a try.

She wakes up slowly, yawning and wiping sleep from her eyes. She smiles as she sees me.

“Good morning,” she mumbles. “What time is it?”

“Early,” I say with a smile. “There’s something about this place that wakes you up early. Must be the mountain air or something.”

She grins. “Maybe for you it’s the mountain air. For me, it’s that I’ve got to pee.”

She scurries off to the bathroom, shyly attempting to cover her nakedness.

I roll out of bed and put on some clothes, the smell of coffee pulling me toward the kitchen. Mom’s cooking bacon and eggs, and Dad’s reading a newspaper.

“Morning,” I say.

My dad peers at me over the top of the paper. “Did you sleep well?”

“I slept great,” I answer with a yawn, pouring myself a mug of strong, steaming black coffee. I sit at the table and sip it, the caffeine immediately perking me up.

“Good coffee,” I murmur my appreciation. “It always tastes better when you make it, Mom.”

She laughs. “You probably need it to warm you up. The two of you spent so long outside last night you probably caught cold.”

She throws me a meaningful glance, and I cough, almost spitting my coffee everywhere. I decide to just not respond—my parents love to playfully tease me, but holy shit, it can get awkward. Thank God Nina isn’t here yet.

“Showing Nina the constellations, were you, son?” Dad asks with a grin. “The sky is great this time of year.”

I frown at him.

“Or maybe they decided to do a spot of late-night fishing,” Mom says with a wicked grin. “Did you get lucky, Brock?”

“Would the two of you please give it a rest?” I look from one to the other, incredulous. “Honestly. You’re old, freaking fogies now. You’re not supposed to . . .”

“Supposed to what?” my dad says, acting like he’s offended. “Ask about fishing? I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Do you Barb?”

She arches her eyebrows. “Not at all, Art.”

I throw up my hands, and they laugh at my discomfort.

Luckily, before they can sling any more zingers at me, Nina emerges from the bedroom. Her hair is all mussed up and she’s wearing sweatpants and a crumpled old t-shirt, but to me she looks like the most beautiful woman in the world in that moment.

I shoot a warning glance to my parents that says ‘no more comments about last night,’ and get a wink in response from my mom, which I hope means that she’ll lay off. I don’t want them to scare poor Nina away.

“Good morning, everyone,” she yawns. “Is that coffee I smell? And eggs and bacon?”

“Take a seat, hon,” Mom says. “Brock, get your fiancée some coffee, would you?”

I pour her a cup. Nina smiles at me as she sips at it, closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh of satisfaction.

Mom serves up breakfast, and we all sit around, chatting and laughing, and I take a moment to sit back and relish the moment.

I wish I could start my days like this, with Nina and my family by my side. Good food, good company, and a beautiful girl. What more could a man ask for?

Nina catches me looking at her and blushes.

Damn, every time she does that, I want her even more. It’s like a Pavlovian trigger or something.

We finish up breakfast, and I decide to take Nina for a walk around the lake before we have to head back to the city.

The air is crisp, the birds are singing, and the breeze is blowing in off the lake. As we walk between the pines, I tell her stories from when I was kid.

Here’s where my brother and I made a rope swing. Here’s where we tried to build a treehouse. Here’s where we found a snake.

Nina marvels at every little thing, and I get the impression that she doesn’t spend much time outside of the city.

“Not really,” she tells me. “We never had a lake house or anything growing up, and neither of my parents were really outdoorsy sort of people. And then, after . . . well, Dean and I never had the money or the time.”

Nina breaks off, bending over to look at a plant or a flower or something.

I follow her and put my arm around her. “I’m glad you like it so much up here. Like I said, any time you want to come back here, just let me know.”

She looks up at me and nods, a smile lighting up her face.

It takes us around an hour to make a full circuit of the lake. When we get back to the cabin, Mom and Dad are sitting outside, reading in the sun.

“We’ve got to make a move,” I tell them. “Work stuff, unfortunately.”

They try and get us to stay, but I have to turn them down. Too much to do, too many meetings to attend.

We say our goodbyes, and my Mom tells Nina that she’s welcome up here anytime, and then we climb back into the car and start the drive back down to the city.

Nina’s quiet in the car—noticeably so. She stares out of the windows at the passing scenery and doesn’t really seem inclined to get into any conversation.

“Is everything okay?” I ask her. “You’re really quiet this morning. I’m . . . Are we moving too fast? You know, with what happened in the hotel room last weekend, I didn’t want to push you or anything, get you out of your comfort zone.”

She doesn’t answer for a little while, deep in thought.

“I wanted to be taken seriously as this job,” she eventually says, her voice soft and contemplative. “I mean . . . my brother got me the job in the first place, and now I’m sleeping with my boss? What are people going to think?” She laughs nervously.

“Screw what people think,” I say. “Let them think what they like. We know the truth. You’re great at your job, and I would have hired you even without Dean sending you my way. You saw that pile of paperwork that was on my desk when you started. I’d be lost without you there.”

She nods, looking a little comforted. “Yeah, I guess.”

“I want you to know, Nina, that you’re more than just my assistant. You’re . . . well, you mean a lot to me. You’re special.”

She smiles. “You’re special to me too.”

“I really mean that. After what happened with my last relationship, I’m not someone to say it lightly.”

She reaches for my hand and squeezes. I squeeze her right back.

I know, now more than ever, that I need to tread carefully.

I completely understand where Nina’s coming from with her concerns, and I don’t want us to become a topic of gossip in the office either. We need to keep things discreet between us at work.

I tell myself to take things slowly. There’s no need to rush into this. Just let it play out naturally. Our feelings for each other are real, and this weird fake engagement is turning out to be so much more.

Eventually, we pull up outside her apartment, and she gathers her things.

My plan was to drop her off here then head home because there’s something I need to grab from home before work tomorrow. But as she gets out of the car, I feel a strong longing for her, like I can’t bear to be away from her.

I kill the engine and get out, wrapping my arms around her.

I kiss her on the cheek. “How about I stay here tonight?”