“What’s your favorite color?”

I heard the whisper of Caine’s movement against my pillow as he turned his head to look at me. “My what?” he said, bemused.

After a few days of no sex and some major anticipation, I’d given Caine the all-clear for resumption of the fun stuff that Thursday morning. He’d appeared at my apartment a few hours after work and we’d gone at each other as though we hadn’t had each other in years.

Relaxed, I lay beside him on my bed, my arms flung above my head in postcoital satisfaction, and decided it was time to ease him into the whole getting-to-know-each-other thing. “What’s your favorite color?” I repeated.

“What’s your favorite color?”

I looked at him and saw his mouth was curled up at the corners in amusement. I liked this side of him, this playful, boyish side that peeked out at me sometimes. “Purple. Now yours?”

“I don’t have a favorite color.”

I frowned. “Everyone has a favorite color.”

“I don’t.”

“You must at least have a color that you’re partial to more than other colors.”

He grunted. “Wouldn’t that be the same thing as having a favorite color?”

I stopped and resaid it in my head. I giggled at the realization he was right.

Caine gave a huff of laughter, but I wasn’t quite ready to let him off the hook. I rolled to my side to face him, resting my head in my hand. “Okay, let your mind go blank.”

His gaze moved over my naked chest. “Can’t do that, I’m afraid.”

I rolled my eyes. “Try.”

“Okay.” He gave a long-suffering sigh. “Now what?”

“What is the first color that comes to mind?”

“Yellow,” Caine blurted out, and then immediately scowled for some unknown reason.

“Yellow?” I grinned. “That’s definitely a surprising color, but we’ll go with it. Your favorite color is yellow. What’s your favorite movie? And don’t say you don’t have one, because I’ve seen your DVD collection.”

Caine raised an eyebrow. “Has someone been snooping?”

“No.”

If anything his eyebrows rose to greater heights.

“Fine,” I huffed. “I snooped in your DVD cabinet.”

To my surprise and gratitude he didn’t say anything else about that. Instead he said, “Seven Samurai.”

I attempted to mask my shock that he’d offered the answer so easily. “What’s it about?”

I watched, fascinated, as Caine moved onto his side so we were facing each other. There was interest and light in his eyes. “It’s this Japanese movie made in the fifties and it’s about these seven down-on-their luck samurai who are hired by this poor farming village to defend them against marauders. The battles scenes are some of the best in cinematic history—for its time it just … It’s fantastic. It’s real, though—it’s got grit and heart. It’s a great movie.”

I brushed my fingers along his forearm. “Do you have it?”

“I do.”

“Maybe we can watch it sometime.”

Caine’s gaze roamed over my face. “I think you’ll like it.”

I took that as a yes to us watching the movie together and hid a smile. “Favorite band?”

“You didn’t tell me what your favorite movie was.”

“That’s easy. Gone With the Wind. Although I could slap Scarlett silly for most of the movie. I mean, who would ever choose Ashley over Rhett?”

Sensing I wanted an actual answer, Caine shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“No one, that’s who. Ashley is this Byronic limp noodle and Rhett is dark and challenging and all man. There’s no competition. Scarlett was a nincompoop.”

Caine’s lips twitched. “A nincompoop?”

“Yes! It would be like me choosing to have Dean in this bed instead of you.”

His amusement fled. “Who’s Dean?”

I choked on a laugh. “Dean. Your main receptionist. You know, the guy that sits at that big glass desk and directs people where to go.”

“Oh, that Dean.” Caine appeared adorably confused. “I thought he was gay.”

“My point exactly.”

“Ashley wasn’t gay,” Caine argued. “He was a gentleman.”

“Whatever he was, he was boring and spineless.” I flopped over onto my back. “Women are attracted to men who can take charge of a situation.”

“Not all women.”

I glanced up at him. “Speaking from experience there, are you?”

He sighed. “I’ve been known to intimidate some women.”

“You? Intimidating?” I teased. “No.”

Caine laughed and reached for me, sliding one arm across my belly so he could pull me into him. “And some women need to learn to be more intimidated by me.”

I giggled, wrapping my arms around him as he rolled so he was braced over me. “It’s not going to happen.”

He nodded, contemplating me. “I’m getting that.”

“I think you like it.”

Instead of answering in the affirmative, Caine brushed his thumbs across my cheekbones. “Favorite band?”

I smiled, glad he was so cool with sharing, even if it was just trivial stuff. “The Killers.”

“Nice choice.”

I warmed under his approval. “You?”

“Led Zeppelin.”

I trailed my fingertips over his muscular back in a lazy, familiar way that felt altogether much too good. “Favorite city outside of Boston?”

“Sydney. You?”

“Prague.”

Caine stilled under my touch. “A very nice choice.”

“I really want to visit Budapest, though. All the places I visited were with Benito, and none of them were the one place I wanted to see.”

“I’ve been to Budapest.” He bent his head to sweetly brush his lips against mine. “You’d love it.”

I loved this. I loved that he was no longer fighting to keep who he was from me. Right now we were two friends getting to know each other. While we were naked.

“Why do you like my apartment?” I suddenly blurted out.

Caine studied me a moment, seeming to drink in every aspect of my face. “Because it’s got charm. There’s no flash—it’s got a timeless, simple beauty about it. A lot like its owner.”

His compliment seeped into me, warming through to the very tips of my fingers. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” I whispered.

Caine smiled. “You think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to you?”

“Yeah.”

“See. No flash. Just beauty.”

I narrowed my eyes in thought. “You secretly like my tank tops and short shorts, don’t you?”

He grinned in answer before swallowing my laughter in a deep, drugging kiss.

My greatest issue with our relationship was coming to terms with the fact that even if Caine allowed me those small moments of intimacy, he had no intention of changing his mind about what we were doing together. I’d developed a bad habit of building my hopes up only for Caine to remind me that this was still a friends-with-benefits situation.

Only a day after we’d spent the morning laughing and talking and playing, I was brought back down to earth with a bump. I’d felt close to him in those moments, but the next day everything was back to the way it had been before. I didn’t blame Caine. He didn’t know I kept changing the rules in my head. I was frustrated, however, by my lack of progress and I needed to regroup, to find another way to get through to him, and so far I’d come up with nothing.

We made no plans to meet that weekend and I considered dropping in on Effie for her unique perspective until a phone call with Rachel that Friday afternoon.

Caine was out to lunch and I was at my desk, nibbling at a salad. I hadn’t exactly had the best appetite these last few days.

“Lexie, come on,” Rachel huffed in her annoyance. I’d just told her about my failed attempt at getting closer to Caine. “Maybe it’s time to call it quits on this guy before you get hurt.”

I ignored that. “I’ve been trying to come up with a new tactic, but I realized something this morning. No more tactics. Maybe honesty would work best.”

“No way.” I could sense her rolling her eyes. “Unless you want things to definitely end between you … and I’m not exactly averse to that anymore.”

“You need to make up your mind. Do you find me screwing my boss sexy or stupid? Choose one.” She kept flitting between the two, which was not good when it came to needing advice.

“Right now it’s stupid. I think it’s ti—Maisy, Ted is not a toy!” She cursed, and I heard the phone drop. A minute later she was back with a breathless “Sorry about that.”

“Who is Ted and do I want to know what the devil child was doing to him?”

“You know I’m going to start taking your comments about my kid seriously one of these days.”

“I wish you would.”

Rachel snorted. “Ted is our puppy.”

My eyes widened in horror. “You gave the kid a puppy?”

“He loves her. It’s so adorable.”

I was one hundred percent sure that poor puppy did not love Maisy. I was certain that poor puppy was terrified of Maisy. “What was she doing to him? And be careful what you say, because I am not afraid to call Animal Protection on your ass.”

“Oh, stop it. She was just cuddling him a little too hard. I was there. I’m keeping an eye on her. Don’t you trust me?”

Um … “I’ve seen what you’ve let that kid do to your husband.”

“But that’s just Jeff. I would never let Maisy hurt an animal. Not that she would mean to … She’s just overly exuberant. I’ve got my eye on Ted, though. Don’t you worr—hey, you changed the subject,” Rachel snapped. “Ditch the loser boss.”

My silence made her sigh heavily.

“Rach—”

“Okay, whatever, but at least promise me you’ll keep Saturday night free, because I have an extra ticket to the Red Sox game and these tickets are fucking awesome. Jeff got them from work. Get this, field box forty-three, row four, behind home freaking plate.”

I chewed my bottom lip in thought. Those were great seats, but there was every chance Caine would be at that game. He couldn’t make it to every one, but he did try and with Saturday’s game set against the Yankees, there was a more than huge chance he would be there.

“I didn’t hear the ‘hell yeah’ I was expecting. Come on,” Rachel pleaded. “We haven’t hung out in ages and yeah, Jeff will be there, but we’ve got a babysitter, so Maisy won’t be.”

That did sweeten the idea a little more.

And even if Caine was there he would be up on EMC level and no way would he spot me in a crowd of thousands.

Wait.

If he did, so what? I was allowed to go to a game. He didn’t have a say in what I did in my free time. “Do not go down that path,” I warned myself.

“What path? What path am I going down?”

“Not you, Rach. And yes, I will go to the game.”

“Yay! Okay, Jeff and I will meet you at the entrance at six thirty. Do not eat before the game. I intend to buy copious amounts of junk food and beer and you will join me so I don’t feel so bad about it.”

I grinned, suddenly feeling a whole lot better now that I had concrete plans for the weekend that didn’t involve Caine. “Hot dogs are on me.”

There was a mixture of guilt and mischievousness in Rachel’s eyes as I walked toward her and Jeff. They stood outside the busy entrance to Fenway Park and they were not alone.

Crushing my irritation with them, I managed a smile of hello as I approached.

Rachel’s eyes bugged out and I caught her silent Please don’t kill me message.

But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

They’d brought another guy with them.

A date.

For me.

I hadn’t bothered to tell Caine what my plans were for the weekend because he hadn’t asked. After I’d gotten off the phone with Rachel, Caine returned from lunch and perched his ass on the corner of my desk.

“How’s it going?” he said, seeming genuinely interested

“Fine.” I tilted my head to the side and smiled. “You?”

His eyes warmed for the first time in days. “I’m fine.” He looked away. “I’ve been really busy and I know we haven’t …”

I put my hand on his thigh. “Don’t worry about it. I knew going into this that you’re a busy guy.”

“Right.” His fingertips brushed over the hand that rested intimately on him. “I don’t know when I’ll be free. Perhaps Sunday?”

I shrugged, like it didn’t hurt me that I was that far down on his list of priorities. “Call me when you’re free and we’ll see if I am and then we’ll go from there.”

Caine smirked. “You’re being very amenable.”

I squeezed his thigh. “I’m just giving you what you want.”

He frowned at that, suggesting he didn’t like my response, but eventually he nodded. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure the coast was clear and then he leaned in to press a soft kiss to my lips. His soft kiss suddenly turned hard and he gripped the nape of my neck as his tongue slipped into my mouth. The kiss ignited into something hungry and arousing, and it took me a moment to remember where we were. I pulled back, panting.

Running a hand through his hair, looking consternated by the kiss, Caine stood up, gave me a disconcerted half smile, and disappeared into his office.

I stared at his closed door, wondering when I had become such a good actress.

The reality was I shouldn’t feel bad that I’d allowed myself to be duped into a blind date, but as I shook the hand of Jeff’s work colleague, Charlie, I felt like I was doing something wrong by allowing this to play out. Caine and I had agreed to be exclusive.

Charlie was tall and he was attractive in a guy-next-door kind of way that was really appealing. He had a great smile and if I hadn’t been currently trying to win over Caine Carraway’s heart, I would have been happy to be set up with Charlie.

The guys went through Security first and Rachel clung to my arm as we followed after them. “Please don’t be mad at me,” she whispered. “Charlie saw your picture in the wedding photo on Jeff’s desk and asked about you. Jeff doesn’t know anything about Crazy Boss Guy, and when he suggested it I thought it might be good for you.”

I kept smiling because Charlie was throwing me looks over his shoulder every now and then, but I was pissed. “You don’t get to make those decisions. Caine is probably at this game.”

“So what?” she snapped.

I looked away, drinking in the sight of all the vendors underneath the bleachers, and inhaling the smell of fast food, popcorn, and beer. People sat in benches outside the vendors eating and laughing. There wasn’t anything quite like the atmosphere at Fenway, and I realized that one of the reasons I loved coming here was that it gave me that feeling family was supposed to give me—that warmth, that unity. It was a sweet place to be on game night.

“You’re mad.”

“Yes,” I admitted. “Caine and I may be—”

“Nothing. You and Caine are nothing.”

“Not true.” I scowled. “We’re exclusive.”

She sighed. “Look, even if he’s here, so are at least twenty thousand other people. I’m pretty sure there’s a snowball’s chance in hell he’ll see you, considering he’s probably up on EMC level.”

My expression confirmed her suspicion.

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way, come and let Charlie buy you a beer and a hot dog.”

Under silent protest I went with her.

Charlie smiled his cute smile and waved to the nearest hot dog vendor. “Can I buy you dinner?”

Guilt slammed through me. This was so a date. I couldn’t even pretend it wasn’t. Bad, Lexie, bad, bad, Lexie. I glanced over my shoulder, certain that at any moment Caine would appear and make me feel even worse. “You know what?” I gave Charlie a friendly smile (there would be no flirting or encouraging of the flirting!) “Why don’t we just take our seats? The vendor guys run up and down the field box every few minutes. We’ll just grab them then.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

We started walking back the way we came, turning right under the bleachers toward our field box. Rachel and Jeff settled back, giving Charlie space with me. I could have punched them both.

“So … Rachel says you’re a personal assistant?” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and threw me a coaxing smile.

There was something about his manner that suggested he was nervous.

Great.

I felt even worse.

“Uh, yeah.” I was not getting into that. “What do you do?” Jeff worked in advertising, but I knew from listening to him that there were a lot of different job positions in the agency.

“I’m with the art department.”

“Oh, that’s great. I always wished I’d spent more time on art at school. I enjoyed drawing, but that’s as far as my skills go.”

“You’re creative?”

I thought about it. “I don’t think I’m creative per se. Organized. Very organized. And I think I have a good eye. You know, I always wanted to be an events planner and combine the two.”

He shrugged. “So why don’t you?”

“Don’t I what?”

“Be an events planner.”

I laughed. “Like it’s that simple.”

“All you have to do is get that one great client to give you a shot, and a glowing reference could kick-start your company.”

I stared at him incredulously. “I don’t think it’s that easy.”

Charlie smiled. “I don’t think you know if it’s that easy. You’ve never tried to give it a shot.”

“Because I’m a personal assistant. I organize things for one person.”

“Caine Carraway.” He nodded and just hearing the name sent another shard of guilt stabbing into my gut. “If you can organize the life of someone as prominent as Carraway, you can organize a party or two.”

“We just met and you’re already giving me career advice. How did that happen?”

“Sorry.” He shot me a sheepish look and flicked his silky brown hair out of his blue eyes. So cute. It was a definite shame we hadn’t met months ago. “I have a tendency to do that. I should have been a guidance counselor.”

“It’s okay,” I reassured him. “I’m used to getting advice about my career.” Or at least I’d grown used to hearing all about it from Grandpa and Rachel since I started working with Caine.

Charlie’s gaze questioned my enigmatic comment, but before he could say anything Rachel bounced in between us like an excited teenager. “This way!”

I chuckled and threw Jeff a look.

He shrugged. “She gets like this when we have a babysitter.” He grinned and strode after her up the concrete slope into the light of the bleacher stands.

“After you.” Charlie gestured.

I blinked against the late-afternoon sun, and then spotted Rach and Jeff heading left toward the field box. I didn’t wait for Charlie to catch up before taking off after them. I wanted to be clear in the most diplomatic and least cruel way possible that this date was a nonstarter.

When I took my seat beside Jeff, I ignored the sight of a bunch of people getting their picture taken at home plate with the Red Sox mascot, Wally the Green Monster, and waited for Charlie to take his seat beside me. He got settled in, smiled at me, and let his eyes drift down over my legs. I was wearing a Red Sox girly-fit T-shirt and jean shorts.

Practically my entire body was blushing by the time he was done checking me out.

And that was when I decided the least cruel way was the most honest way.

I leaned into him and Charlie smiled and ducked his head toward me so he could hear me over the crowds and the guy talking into the mic about a charity foundation. “I didn’t know about tonight.”

He frowned. “About me?”

“Yeah. Rach didn’t tell me.” I could feel Jeff stiffen beside me as he overheard.

Charlie grimaced. “Is it a problem?”

I gave him an apologetic look. “I’m kind of seeing someone … I mean it’s … I don’t know what it is but—”

He held up a hand and gave me a disappointed smile. “I get it. Really, it’s no problem.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” he assured me. I smiled gratefully at him. Such a seemingly sweet guy. What the hell was I doing? “You’ve still got to let me buy you something to eat, though. No strings?”

“You know what …? I think we should make Rachel do that.”

“I concur,” Jeff agreed beside me, and I looked at him to see he was not happy. Apparently Rachel hadn’t told Jeff I didn’t know about the setup either.

“I couldn’t,” Charlie insisted. “My mother would kill me if I let a woman buy her own dinner.”

I chuckled. “Isn’t that a little outdated?”

“Probably.” He grinned. “But she’s terrifying, so I do what she says.”

I nudged him with my arm. “Okay, then, I’ll have a hot dog, please.”

“Hot dogs! Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs!” a burly guy in a yellow vendor’s shirt bellowed from behind us, skipping down the steps with his hot case of dogs held above his head.

We burst out laughing. “Nice timing,” Charlie said, and lifted a hand to catch the guy’s attention as he turned at the bottom of the box.

Two hot dogs and a cold beer later, we were thirty minutes into the game and the Red Sox were killing it. The electric atmosphere of the crowded park fed into me and like always made me forget even the slow moments in the game.

“I have to get one of those shirts!” Rachel reached across Jeff to slap my knee. “The replica baseball shirts.”

“Why don’t you try the team store?”

“I want a girly one, though. My breasts will get lost in the guy’s one.”

I couldn’t remember seeing a feminine style of the shirt in the store. “Online?” I suggested.

Instead of answering, Rachel looked over my shoulder and her eyebrows rose. I glanced back to see what had distracted her.

A tall, well-built older man in a Red Park Security shirt was staring down at me with this deeply disturbing blank mien. “Alexa Holland?”

I ignored Charlie’s curious gaze on my face and wondered what the heck I’d done wrong. “Um … yes,” I was almost afraid to admit.

“Mr. Carraway requests your presence in his suite on the EMC level.”

Holy …

I blanched.

How the hell had he spotted me in this crowd?

As if he could read my mind, the security guy pointed up behind me. I looked up over my shoulder. Caine’s suite was right above me.

Of course it was.

I sighed.

“You don’t have to go, Lex,” Rachel shouted over the noise.

I threw her a look. “Yes, I do.” If he’d seen me with Charlie I could only imagine what he was thinking. After telling them I’d catch up with them later, I followed the security guy out of the field box. I stewed over what kind of reception I was about to get, and what would bother me more—Caine not trusting me or his indifference.

As soon as the security guy swung open the door to Caine’s suite, I was taken aback to see Caine was not alone. Effie and Henry were there, among familiar faces from work. Effie came hurrying over to hug me close, and the guilt I’d been feeling dissipated under my anger.

He’d invited all these people to watch the game and he hadn’t invited me.

Not until he’d seen me there with someone else.

“You look hot, kid.” Effie grinned up at me.

I smiled, pushing my ire back down. “As do you.”

She made a “pfft” noise at me as Henry stepped up to say hello. He looked different wearing his Red Sox shirt and jeans. More approachable. Gorgeous. “I got banana cream pie,” he announced, and I laughed. I’d managed to talk Effie into easing up on Henry.

Effie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she engaged an older couple in conversation.

People waved who recognized me and I smiled politely back, letting Henry edge me closer to Caine. He was standing on the balcony, his back to me as he watched the game. He looked remote out there, even surrounded by so many people.

My anger drifted away.

He liked it this way. He liked to be alone even with so many others around him.

But I was beginning to think he was unable to be alone around me … and I realized then that was why he’d never invited me to share the game.

Until he’d seen me there. With someone else.

“Better go say hi to the boss.” Henry winked at me.

Although Caine hadn’t told a soul about our relationship, I knew Henry had very definite suspicions that something was going on between us. Other than Effie, he was the closest thing Caine had to family. And he was a smart man. He knew Caine well enough to note changes in his schedule, his demeanor, and his attitude with me.

Feeling butterflies flutter to life in my belly, I strode out onto the balcony and settled in beside Caine, keeping a few inches of space between us. I glanced up at his profile, hating the way those butterflies went crazy just at the mere sight of his face. “Hey.”

“Who are they?”

I flinched at the coolness of his tone. “Friends. A college friend and her husband and his colleague.”

“You didn’t think it was important to mention you’d be at the game tonight?”

His words were quiet, but I could feel the tension emanating from him, and my own frustration and irritation started to build again. “You didn’t tell me you were coming to the game.”

“I have season tickets. You know this.”

“You don’t always go to the game,” I argued softly.

“I don’t care that you came to the game.” He finally looked at me, anger in his dark eyes. “I care about the guy who is all over you.”

I should have been thrilled by his jealousy, but I wasn’t. Not anymore. I was sick of the uncertainty between us. “Rachel set up a blind date and didn’t tell me. I told him right away that I’m … seeing someone.”

“I don’t think he got the memo.”

“And you can tell that from up here?”

Caine suddenly leaned into me, clearly forgetting where we were and that we had an audience. “I saw you weren’t doing much to dissuade him.”

I looked pointedly over my shoulder, silently reminding him where we were.

He pulled back, his jaw clenched as he stared forward again.

I edged close enough to him so he would hear me without anyone else overhearing. “I wasn’t encouraging him, and honestly this whole possessive bullshit is pissing me off.”

Caine threw me a cutting look, but I refused to be intimidated. “I’m not the only one who gets jealous,” he reminded me.

“No, you’re not. And do you know why we’re acting like crazy people? Because you’re not willing to give the whole ‘friends’ part of our deal a real shot. There is uncertainty between us because you keep throwing up this wall.” I looked over my shoulder again, double-checking that no one was near us. My gaze returned to meet his. No more games. No more tactics. Honesty. It was all I had left. “This isn’t just sex, Caine. This is an affair.” I held my hand up to stop his coming protest. “I’m not suggesting permanency. I’m suggesting that you admit that there’s a difference in what we’re doing here. We aren’t two people who just have sex now and then. There are feelings here whether we want to admit it or not. I’m not asking for forever. I’m asking you to stop pushing me away. I’m asking you to be real with me for however long this lasts.”

His eyes blazed. “And if I don’t?”

My knees trembled. “Then I think we should end it.”

He exhaled and looked away again.

Time to be even braver. “I don’t want to end it. I don’t think you do either.”

“And what makes you think that?” he drawled lazily, and I almost believed his indifference.

Almost.

“We’re not done with each other.”

After a few seconds Caine looked at me again and I saw the heat and longing in his eyes. “No, we’re not.” We held each other’s gaze for a few moments and that burn of desire started to pool low in my belly. “So, what exactly do you suggest, Lexie?”

I smiled slowly. “Spend the day with me.”

He blinked in surprise. “Spend the day with you?”

“Anywhere I choose. Spend the day with me and just be my friend for a few hours. Afterward I promise to bang your brains out.” I grinned.

Caine considered my suggestion and then chuckled before looking back out at the game. “Deal.”