“Noah, there’s no need to come over. I can handle it. It’s just a little leak.” Dammit. I’d made the mistake of calling him when I noticed a leak in the ceiling above the wardrobe.

I foolishly mentioned the light switch and he started freaking out because of the electricity and water, thinking I was going to electrocute myself.

“I’m fine,” I said for the hundredth time.

The problem might not have been fine, but I didn’t care right now. I didn’t give a shit if the whole damn place flooded and drenched everything. Ryan would be here in ten minutes, and that was what I cared about.

Jesus Christ, the man had done some sort of enchantment on me that I couldn’t free myself from—and I didn’t want to.

I wanted him, all of him.

The problem was I didn’t want to tell Noah about Ryan, and if he came over, firstly I wouldn’t be here, and then secondly I’d have to explain why.

I knew what he was like, and if he got wind of me going on a date, he would talk my ear off about it. It would be all the more interesting that my date was with Officer Asshole, who was no longer Officer Asshole.

I just hadn’t told Noah that.

God.

“Brooke, if the water gets to the electrical wiring, that would be very bad.”

“Jesus, Noah, it’s really far away. I just wanted to know where the mains are so I can turn it off.”

“It will be in the roof somewhere, or the basement maybe. God your people certainly shacked you up in a hovel.” He huffed.

Hovel? I would hardly call the house a hovel.

Other than the water leaks and maybe the broken window in the attic, I thought the house was beautiful. It was certainly different than my lavish apartment in LA, but it had that homey feel about it that I missed from living with Grams.

“Noah.” There was a beeping sound on the phone, signaling another call coming through. I moved it away from my ear to check who it was.

Jayce. Argh. The men in my life were going to give me palpitations tonight.

“Noah, Jayce’s calling me.” Better to talk to Jayce because my overprotective best friend was worse than my overprotective brother.

“Okay. Call me back if the leak gets worse.”

Good. At least that got rid of one of them.

“Will do.”

The minute Noah hung up, I answered Jayce’s call.

“Hey,” he cooed, sounding happy. He hadn’t called since the week before. “Just checking in on you.”

“Hi, I’m good. Everything worked out and I’m back on track.” The last time we’d spoken, it had been to tell him about Sally. That was before Perry kicked me off the assignment. I’d never gotten around to telling him that part.

I had, however, had a lengthy conversation with him about how I thought Sally hated me. He needed an update, but not right now.

“I’m so glad. Alexis and I were thinking of going to see you, maybe after the Fourth of July.”

Alexis was his amazing wife. They’d been married for six years and had two boys, Dennis and Scott, who were four and two. They were super adorable. I would definitely love to see them.

“I’ll come visit as usual.” I went to visit because I knew it was difficult traveling with the kids. They lived in San Francisco near Grams.

“We didn’t want to interrupt your schedule.”

My schedule. I actually had to think for a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Of course he meant work, but I was thinking about my schedule for the night.

I glanced on the clock on the wall. My stomach tightened. Ryan would arrive in five minutes, and I hadn’t decided on what lipstick I wanted to wear.

I was wearing a white bodycon with little gold straps that helped push out my breasts. The aim was to tease him to death by dressing overly sexily.

“No, no, I’ll come see you. Chad, I’m about to go out. Can I call you back tomorrow?”

I had five minutes to choose a color. I was thinking either my Chanel red or my Dior pink that looked like bubble gum. I’d curled my hair and gone for a smoky look over my eyes, so either of those colors would be fine.

“Of course. As long as you’re okay.”

“I am—I’m peachy.”

“Okay, sis, have fun. Love you.”

“Love you more.”

I sighed when he hung up, missing him because I hadn’t seen him in close to five months, but eager to get back to getting ready.

I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. I looked good, probably more like I was going to a club than like I was going to dinner, but that was the idea.

I picked up the red lipstick first and smeared it over my lips. It looked perfect, too perfect to remove even to try the pink, so I left it.

Water rushing down to the floor grabbed my immediate attention. My head snapped toward the bathroom where the sound came from. I ran in there to see the water running from the ceiling and into the bath. My guess was the same pipe fixture must have run from the bedroom and into the bathroom.

I backed away, deciding it would have to stay just like that because I wasn’t tending to it tonight.

No way. That called for a plumber’s attention in the morning.

As I took another step back to go into the bedroom, water came gushing down on my head. I screamed at the sudden coldness and the fright that made me jump out of my skin.

Shit. I was drenched, actually soaked from head to toe, and the ceiling had a hole in it from where the plaster had given way. The water must have built up on that section and burst through, and now it slowed to a steady flow.

My damn hair that had taken over an hour to curl was a mess. I winced at the sight of myself in the mirror and closed the bathroom door.

“Dammit.” I frowned, flipping my hair over my shoulder.

“Brooke, are you okay?” Ryan called out.

I gasped. Oh no, he could not see me like this.

His footsteps sounded on the stairs. He was in the house.

Before I could think about what to do, he appeared at the doorway to my bedroom, looking worried—worried and also hot.

Just like that first time I saw him, the sight of him stole my breath away.

But, unlike that first time when he’d worn a suit, he was now dressed in a white biker jacket and a fitted black shirt that clung to his abs. Black slacks hung loose around his hips, giving a fantastic view of his powerful, athletic legs.

I didn’t think he could be any more perfect than he was, but I’d been seriously wrong. He’d even gotten a haircut that accentuated his faux hawk.

“What happened? I heard you scream.”

I was trying to find my voice. “Water,” was all I could say. Very few things in this world had the ability to render me speechless.

He was one of them.

He moved toward me and looked me over with appreciation and a smile.

“Water. You’re soaked.”

Soaked and looking like I’d participated in a wet t-shirt contest.

“The house is full of leaks. I’ll change. I can be ready in ten minutes.”

He wasn’t listening, his eyes fixed on my breasts—my breasts that were practically on display with my dress clinging to them because I only relied on the built-in cups as opposed to wearing a bra.

He stepped closer with a smirk on his face.

“I should help you change.” He reached for me but I smacked his hands away playfully and giggled.

“Ryan, this wasn’t how I wanted you to see me.”

His eyes turned darker with lust and desire, turning me on—turning me on so much a lump formed in my throat.

“I have no complaint.” He reached for me again but I moved out of the way.

“I do—you look like a million bucks while I look like I just washed up on the beach.”

“Sweetheart, I know what washed up on the beach looks like, and that is not you.” He chuckled, moving closer to me.

He backed me right up into the corner of the room, near the bed. I moved until I came in contact with the wall and he placed his hands on either side of me to block my escape.

“This isn’t making me get ready any quicker.” I giggled when he placed a kiss on the bridge of my nose and leaned down so his face loomed just in front of mine. The fresh woodland scent of his aftershave filled my nose, along with the tantalizing scent of him. He smelled really good—really, really good, like edible good. I knew if I could taste him I’d be satisfied for life.

“I have a new plan,” he declared. Mischief flickered hot in his gaze.

“What are you thinking?”

“I want to know what you’re thinking first. I know you’re turned on, but you didn’t say anything sexy. That must mean something I haven’t figured out just yet.”

“Well we can take a break from trying to figure me out.” I placed my hands on his chest.

I wanted a break because since we’d started this little game, he was getting so good at it. Ryan trying to figure me out was getting dangerously close to my heart. He seemed to know my inner desires and even my thoughts. He’d gone past the wall I’d built up to shield myself and I didn’t even know how.

He brushed his nose over mine and smiled.

“I don’t want to, baby. Brooke and Ryan 101—that is us. Never start a game you can’t finish, and definitely don’t do that with me.”

I smiled as he brushed his lips over mine. “You’re the rebel tonight.” The version of him that weakened my knees and made me crumble.

“I am.” He lifted my chin toward him and smiled at me. “I want to hear it, not just guess. It’s so much more fun if you tell me.”

“I was thinking…” What was this?

Nerves gripped me, nerves I’d never felt before. I could always hold my own, but this guy had pushed me into some sort of abstract dimension where I felt nervous around him, and the nerves made me not want to mess up so he’d still want me.

He looked like he wanted me.

“I was thinking,” I started again, biting the inside of my lip to hide a smile. “That you look like you taste good.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “You want to taste me?”

“Yes.”

“Great. That falls in line with the new plan.”

“What’s the new plan?”

“You taste me and I eat you for dinner.”

My knees…

My knees and my stomach quivered, and I could barely stand.

He moved to the hollow of my neck and kissed all along my neckline then his hands slid leisurely to cup both my breasts.

“I like that plan.” I certainly did.

Screw it. Dinner would have been nice, but the highlight of the evening was the prospect of getting to explore each other.

The bed was right there…why in the hell would we wait?

Thank you water leak, fate, or God—whoever created this opportunity for diversion.

He moved back and looked me over like he’d suddenly gotten another idea. The dark hue of his eyes told me it was going to be wild.

“Brooke …Take your clothes off for me, nice…and…slow.”

“Okay, Detective.”

He liked that. It made him smile.

I pulled the zipper on the side of the dress down, slowly for effect. Then I moved the straps down and pushed the rest of the garment down my torso.

I actually didn’t have much to take off, and that seemed to turn him on more.

As my breasts broke free, they bobbled and swayed toward him, inviting him to touch, and he did.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he looked at me and rubbed his fingers lightly over my diamond-hard nipples, made hard first from the cold water and now from him.

He stopped me when I went to push the dress down past my hips and zoned in on my belly button bar.

“Jesus, you didn’t have that yesterday.”

“I couldn’t decide on what color I wanted to wear.” I giggled.

Most days I wore my bar with the blue stones, but Sally had been on my mind when I’d woken up the previous day and I’d gotten into that crazy cycle of not knowing what to wear—similar to earlier in the evening when I couldn’t decide on the lipstick I wanted to tease him with.

Tonight’s bar had two little pink stones that did the job I wanted them to do. They fascinated him.

He ran his hands over the flat of my stomach and lowered himself to kiss and lick the skin around my navel. I leaned down as well so my breasts could brush against his face.

He took the bait and moved to taste my right nipple then my left, licking the tips and sucking, making me wet with desire. He then tugged on the dress around my waist.

“Continue. I want to watch you. Take everything off.”

I did as instructed, keeping my eyes on him because I wanted to watch him watching me. Just like the day before, the look returned—the look that told me he wanted to savor me. It was past want and need. It had those elements within it, but it was so much more. That was how he looked now, and it was hard to place my usual shield up against a man who could look at me like that.

My dress floated to my feet and I kicked it away. When I pushed my panties down and kicked those away too, his eyes went down to my core and lingered there. At first he just stared at me like he was in some sort of trance, and I found I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to break the moment with movement.

“I don’t know what part of you I want first, or more.”

“How about all of me?” I whispered.

“All, yes.” He nodded slowly and moved to touch me, but I stopped him.

“Your turn—I want your clothes off too, all of them.”

He chuckled. It was a deep, masculine, sexy rumble in his chest. He slid his jacket off and whipped his shirt over his head.

I smiled at the sight of his glorious muscles and tats on display.

Next came the pants. That left him in his Calvin Klein boxers, and I was able to see more tattoos going down the full length of his powerful legs: Japanese characters and Celtic swirls. I smiled, completely fascinated by his body.

“Time to pick up where we left off yesterday,” he announced, picking me up as he spoke.

I squealed in delight as Ryan placed me on the center of the bed.

“You’re still in your boxers,” I pointed out, laughing, and he ran his hands over my legs.

He backed off the bed and pulled his boxers down, releasing the colossal magnitude of his cock, which I hadn’t gotten to see yesterday but felt.

My eyes widened and a thought occurred to me: He might not fit inside of me.

I’d assumed he must be big, but he was big.

A smooth sexy grin inched across his lips at my reaction.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, it will fit, and you’ll enjoy it.” He winked at me.

I sucked in a breath as he climbed back on the bed and moved up to meet my lips. His naked body pressed against mine did wild things to me. The heat of his skin on mine made me come alive from the rush of sexual energy that wanted to consume us.

I wanted him desperately, and maybe more than that. The need in his touch as he ran his hands all over me made my skin tingle, made it sizzle and scorch.

The kiss he gave me spoke of all he wanted to do to me.

“Give yourself to me tonight, Brooke, all of you. No 101 games, just us.” He cupped my face and slid his hand to the back of my head. “Just say yes.”

“Yes.” I wanted that too—no games, just us, just me not hiding my emotions about what I wanted like I always did. I was tearing down that wall and letting him in.

I wanted to. I wanted to be me with him, the me who desperately wanted to be wanted and not have those awful fears from the past, the fear of disappointment, of embracing something new and losing it.

I didn’t want to care about that tonight—or ever.

“Yes,” I repeated, but it was like I was speaking more to myself than to him, like I needed to convince my own mind.

“Yes,” he said with a sexy, confident smile.

More kisses were placed on my neck then along the line that led to the valley of my breasts, where he buried his face and licked my skin. He kissed the swells of my breasts then made his way over to take one nipple at a time into his hot, wet mouth. He alternated like that for a little, making me want more. Then he lingered on my right breast, sucking like he could taste me, sucking like he really was eating me.

I shuddered against him, writhing from the pleasure and moaning into each suck. I shivered deep in my soul when he moved to my left breast and gave it the same attention.

He moved down the plane of my stomach, placing more kisses of fire on my skin until he reached where I craved him the most. Like the day before, he parted my legs and slid his fingers inside me, one finger then another, and then a third, sending more pleasure through my body in waves.

God, it felt so damn good.

I cried out as he moved his fingers inside me and watched me with intense fascination.

“Wet and making me hungry for you.” His voice was thick with need and lust, turning me on even more than I already was.

I couldn’t talk, could barely breathe.

A wicked smile lit up his face as he bent down and pushed his face between my thighs, moving his fingers away and pushing his tongue inside me. The previous day he’d made me come twice within minutes. Since I was already so close to the edge, I was certain he wouldn’t have much work to do.

I was right. Not even a minute passed before a white-hot jolt of heat cascaded over me and the orgasm gripped me, making me come right there on his tongue as he licked me and drank me clean.

He’d been holding my waist, but as I cried out, he took hold of my breasts and squeezed, squeezing while he licked and sucked the swollen bud of my clit.

Now tortured moans fell from my lips, heavy with the pleasure I felt. I pressed my head into the bed and grasped the sheets, which only encouraged him to give me more.

More pleasure, hot and sensational. More, and more and more.

His tongue lashed inside me, working deeper and driving me insane.

I lost myself in it and in him, and once again, passion took me with a searing release…twice—again, just like the previous day, and he wasn’t finished with me.

He moved back and looked me over, licking his lips while I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

“Honey and strawberries, baby—you taste of both.”

I moaned, still unable to talk. I didn’t think it was possible but he looked at me with more desire, and in that moment, he spread my thighs wider, pushing my knees up to receive him.

“Are you ready?” A salacious smile licked at the corners of his lips.

“I’m ready.” I was ready like I’d never been before, for anything.

He reached for his pants on the floor and pulled a condom from the pocket. Watching him sheath his shaft with it was super sexy. Feeling him press the fat head of his cock to my entrance sent me back, spinning into passionate gasps.

He took hold of my waist and moved himself against me, teasing my folds open, pushing at my heated core, inching himself inside then moving his hips back and forth to help me adjust to his magnitude.

“Fuck, Brooke, your pretty pussy is so tight.” His bold eyes raked over my body with the promises of pleasure—more pleasure.

I sucked in a sharp gasp of air and grabbed at the sheets. Stars flickered in the corners of my eyes as he moved again, sliding back and forth until the walls of my core widened to take him in. Then I felt full, filled with him, full to the brim, his length searing me.

“Ryan…” I called out his name from the intensity, my toes curling and back arching into him when he started a slow pump.

“Just enjoy me baby, enjoy me.”

He started pumping a little faster, and I met his driving rhythm beat for beat, arching my back to lift my hips as he thrust in and out.

Then hard, rough strokes rocked my body, launching me out of this world as his movements increased and he started fucking me. That was the best way I could describe it: fucking. To say anything else would have been an understatement.

I couldn’t believe I could feel that good, as if I’d been transported to some plane of pleasure where all that exists is euphoria of the deepest intensity.

Hunger matched hunger and pleasure racked me, trapping me within the torment of ecstatic bliss.

I cried out his name again and he pistoned harder, hammering into me, slamming rough and hot in a pure rush of need.

Reveling in the sensations that thrilled me, I took the moment to enjoy every single second of having this man inside me, having him inside me and making my body, mind, and soul come alive.

This was ultimate pleasure. It was. My whole body was on fire with it, luxuriating in the sensation and vibrating in response.

His grip on my hips tightened and he groaned low and deep.

Heat, more heat streaked through me, and my body clenched with the savage energy.

He fucked me harder and a white-hot climax ripped through me. A scream filled with every emotion within me tore from my lips and a hoarse cry of satisfaction fell from his as we came in mutual surrender to the wild orgasm that grabbed us both.

His pulsing cock gushed into me and the inner walls of my core tightened around him, milking what was left of him.

“Fuck, Brooke…” He exhaled, leaning down to press his forehead against mine. “Jesus, you…that was good…really good.”

“Ryan,” I said breathlessly, my voice sounding hoarse too.

I ran my hands through his hair, which was now damp with sweat.

I was sweaty too.

“It was really good.” I tilted my head so I could kiss him.

He tugged on my bottom lip, making me giggle from the sensation.

“Great, and that was just the warm-up.”

My eyes widened and my breath caught somewhere between my heart and my sternum. “The warm-up?”

“Yes, baby. You want the rebel in me, don’t you?” A sinful smile danced on his lips and caused the nest of butterflies in my stomach to take flight.

If that was the warm-up and I feel like this, what the hell will the actual thing feel like? I didn’t care. I wanted whatever he wanted to give me.

“I do.” I nodded.