“We can’t have sex,” Jaimie tells me, and I can see she’s about to make a break for it. That wall of hers is threatening to come back up.

“Don’t go. Sleep here.”

“Justin—”

“Stay.”

I can tell she’s surprised. Hell, so am I.

I kiss her objections into oblivion and her arms slip around my neck, goblet still in one hand. Her soft curves feel so good against me, I have to hold her tighter. My erection is obscene, an obvious tent in these cotton sweatpants and I know she feels it. How could she not? She moans softly into my lips but starts pulling away before things go too far.

“Ignore it,” I rasp, my hands gripping her back like I want to rip this dress right off her body. “Jaimie, I’m not going to do anything tonight but talk with you and kiss you until your lips are raw.”

She gazes back at me and whispers, “Because Hannah’s sleeping in the other room.”

“No. Hell, I could lock the guest bathroom and we could fuck quietly in there. I’m doing this to show you I’m good for more than just sex.”

“Why?”

“Stop asking stupid questions.”

Her black eyelashes flutter closed as I kiss her again. With my mouth molding hers I take her glass and place it on the floor, sliding my hands up her sides on the way back. She moans into my lips and the primal part of me wants to fuck her against this window and hope someone’s got binoculars because it would be hot as hell to see her ass pressed into the glass. I’d envy the man. But I won’t do that. I’m going to fight this.

I’m not sure I can abstain.

No matter what I’m telling her.

I’ve never wanted any woman as much as her.

We make out against my kitchen counter forever and I could go on longer. When I pull away from her lips, she’s breathing as heavily as I am.

“You want to borrow some sweats?”

On a hungry-for-more frown she nods and slips her hand into mine, following as I guide her to my room. We enter really slowly and I pad over to my dresser while Jaimie waits by the door. I could be a spy, that’s how quietly I’m digging for something she could sleep in. My eyes land on Hannah and I go very still. She looks like an angel, pure and innocent, and so small. The photo is on the pillow next to her now. It’s getting bent from all the attention. I’ll have to get some more printed. I’ll make sure when they clean out the apartment that I get the computer. I bet there are hundreds more photos on it.

Meeting Jaimie at the door I motion for us to go. In the hall I whisper, “I’m going to be a dangerous father.”

Jaimie whispers back. “You’re not going to let any men near her, are you?” She takes the clothes from me. “Where’d I leave my purse?” she mumbles to herself, heading off. I wait right here by the guest bathroom and when she returns her eyes light up with questions. “What?”

“Change in front of me.”

“That’s pushing it a little too far.”

“It’ll be torture,” I shrug. “Do it anyway.”

She takes my hand and brings me in the bathroom with her. “Hold these.”

“We’re just passing my clothes back and forth now,” I tease her as she starts untying her wrap dress. Her smoky eyes never leave mine as she unravels the thing and lets it slip to the floor in a soft heap. I hiss through my teeth seeing her in black bra and panties. “My favorite color.”

“Black is not a color.”

“It’s the only color.”

She smiles seductively and reaches back to unsnap her bra. Soft mounds with tightly aroused crests tumble out and I close my eyes lest I attack her right here and now. “I thought you said you could do this, Justin.”

Peeking at her with one eye, I shake my head like I can’t but say aloud, “I can.”

She laughs. “Then look at me. No one wants to be invisible, remember?”

I grit my teeth against desire pulsing in my blood, the way an animal must feel when it sees its prey. “I can touch, too.”

“No. You can’t.”

“You’re killing me.”

“This was your idea,” she teases as her slender fingers dip under the straps of her panties and she slides them down her thighs, revealing a dark, trimmed bush. My knuckles go white on the clothes I’m holding for her.

“This was the worst idea I’ve ever had.”

She pauses with her panties around her knees, looking up at me with her breasts hanging under gravity’s pull. “You want to go outside?”

“Fuck no!”

She steps out of them and extends an open palm. “Give them to me.”

“My cock and balls?”

On a laugh, she says, “The clothes, you idiot.”

Chuckling I hand them over, but don’t let go, stepping forward until our lips brush against each other and I can feel the sweet heat of her breath. Neither of us are able to breathe as I trace the side of her body from under her arms to her ribs, her waist and then her hips, with just the tips of my fingers and so softly that she shivers. “I want to taste you.”

She whispers, “Oh God, yes,” eyes heavy with permission.

“But that’s sex. No matter what Clinton said.” With a smirk I open the door and leave the bathroom, her staring at me like I’m a bastard, and loving every second of it.

I knew she would have let me.

I’m craving more, too.

But I’m set on proving something to her.