I feel like my body is a live wire. I’m seriously fucking on edge. Last night hearing Rory get off was good—seriously good. I promised I’d be there this morning with breakfast. I’m here… I have breakfast…

But I’m sitting in my driveway, still in my truck, staring at Rory’s door, not wanting to make a move.

A fucking chump without balls—that’s what I’ve turned into.

I stare at the white bag full of pastries from Doughnut World. I snag it and the coffees and head to Rory’s door. I knock, still not knowing what I’m doing—still don’t have a clue of what I’m going to do. She opens the door, I see the same uncertainty in her eyes.

“Hi,” she whispers, her voice reminding me of the same one she used last night. I feel my damn balls tingling, my cock wanting to wake up, despite the fucked-up mess my head is in.

“Hey, Gorgeous. I brought—”

“Coffee!” she groans, and damn if that groan doesn’t sound almost better than some of them she gave me last night—or maybe it’s the fact that she’s in front of me this time when she does it.

She takes the container with the coffees out of my hands and I follow, still carrying the bag of pastries. She leads me upstairs to the kitchen and I look around her house as I go. It’s very similar to mine, except Rory has added paint and décor that makes her house look a lot less cookie cutter and more like a home. The kitchen is the biggest difference. It has the same layout but there’s an old farm table and matching chairs that you can tell someone has painstakingly sanded and refinished, preserving the old grooves in the wood while at the same time making it glossy. In the center of the table there’s an elaborate metal centerpiece that holds yellow and white candles, strewn around them are old seagrass rope and daisies. I don’t know where she got the idea, but it’s pretty and it suits the room. More importantly it reminds me of Rory herself.

I put the pastry bag down on the bar, feeling more than a little out of place. Rory has already guzzled down half her coffee and I’m doing my best to ignore the way she’s so vocal about her enjoyment. I don’t think she realizes how she sounds; she’s deep in a coffee-fueled haze. Still it is sexy as hell, and my dick has gone from sleeping to standing at attention.

“Doughnut World makes the best coffee,” she declares.

“There’s a place in Tennessee that has them beat, though only slightly. Still you can’t beat their glazed doughnuts.”

“Glazed doughnuts?” she repeats, her eyes brightening up and the glow on her face is so happy that it makes me smile.

I push the bag toward her and she stares at it like she can’t believe it’s there.

“Have at it, Cupcake,” I laugh.

“Why do you call me that?” she grumbles, opening the bag that contains six glazed doughnuts.

“Because you look fucking sweet to eat,” I tell her, not bothering to pull my punches.

She stops mid-bite and stares at me.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” she mutters. Her voice muffled from around the doughnut.

“Suit yourself,” I tell her, grabbing my own coffee and taking a seat at the bar, starting to feel a little more comfortable.

I’ll worry about why I feel comfortable around this woman later. Even when I was sunk so deep into Violet’s pussy that I didn’t see her lies, I never felt comfortable with her—not like I did with my men, or my friends. There was always some part of me I kept alert. Rory makes me want to completely relax and even though I know that would be dangerous… it doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it.

We sit in silence for a bit and then she looks at me.

“We need to talk,” she says.

I know what’s coming next. I’m just wondering if I should let her get away with it. She’s going to back out of sleeping with me—which is what I’ve wanted to do since I got up this morning. Now that she’s the one doing it, however, I’m not happy.

“About what?” I ask, acting like I don’t know what’s coming next. You’d have to be an idiot not to see what’s coming though with the look on her face.

“Last night shouldn’t have happened.”

“Is that a fact?”

“It is. I was tired and I… I’m sure you were too. We got caught up in the moment.”

“Rory—”

“It’s okay. It happens, but we’re both adults and we just put it behind us and go on,” she says, interrupting me and rushing to get the words out. I know she’s hoping it will shut me down and since I was having second thoughts, I honestly should let her.

“Are you lost in the moment now, Cupcake?”

“What? Of course not, why do you ask?”

“Your nipples are poking against your T-shirt.”

“They are not!” she dismisses, looking down. I watch as her face blushes a deep red. She looks back to me and her eyes narrow. “Doughnut World coffee does that to me.”

I find myself laughing. I didn’t expect it, but fuck if I can stop it.

“Remind me to buy stock in the fucking place, Gorgeous.”

“Is that what you are?” she asks thoughtfully.

“What I am?”

“What you do? Are you a stockbroker?”

I frown, leaning down on the bar to study her closely.

“Do I look like a fucking stockbroker?”

“Well, no. I don’t guess. Then again, I can’t say as I’ve met any.”

“Not a stockbroker, Rory.”

“What are you?”

“I’m me,” I shrug, not liking where the conversation turned.

“That doesn’t really give me an answer,” she huffs.

“Only answer you’re going to get.”

“You think I should just let you in my bed not knowing who you are?”

“You weren’t complaining when I got you off,” I smirk.

“Technically, Noah, I got myself off. You were just along for the show.”

“It was a damn good show,” I admit. “Then again, it was my name you gave me when you went over the edge.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this,” she mutters into her coffee. Her face tinges a soft shade of red.

“We could talk about you going to your bedroom and letting me have those tits in my mouth,” I tell her, forgetting I was going to walk away.

“Do those lines really work for you?”

“Wasn’t a line. It’s just what I want. You have a problem with my mouth, I could definitely go with my dick instead.”

“You are a dick,” she mutters, and for some reason it makes me grin.

“Good thing you like dick then, isn’t it?”

“I’ve just sworn off of it,” she responds.

“I think I got proof last night that you haven’t.”

“Just happened today when you showed up at my door and began acting like an asshole. I’ve had enough assholes in my life. I’m not in a big hurry to add another to the mix.”

“For today, I’m going to let you get away with that,” I murmur, studying her face. “But soon you and I are going to stop this dance, Gorgeous.”

“Eat a doughnut, Noah. You’re delusional from hunger,” she says pushing the doughnuts toward me.

I take one and look at her while I eat. She steers the conversation about the weather and I let her—partly because she looks sexy fresh out of bed, partly because I’m confused as hell myself. Mostly it’s because I’m busy counting the freckles scattered across her nose….