Somehow Stella had gotten out of that boat without giving in to the long, liquid beauty of Jace’s touch. She had a supercritical appointment with her doctor to keep before she did any more “stargazing.”

With a man like Jace on notice that she was open to seeing what happened between them, an IUD was a must. Immediately.

Luck was on her side. Jace texted her that he’d picked up several parasailing excursions at his day job as Jack had apparently gone to the States with his wife and Evan was deep in the midst of wedding plans that he couldn’t get out of. She didn’t see him for two days, which gave her plenty of time to get her birth control sorted out.

Part of her wondered if he was playing her. Drawing out the anticipation for some masochistic reason. Or maybe that was just her imagination. She could not get the feel of his hard body against hers to fade. The man was built like a velvet-wrapped concrete slab. The things she’d let herself fantasize about over the past two days when she should have been asleep would make an excellent adult film. She’d watched the visual smorgasbord enough times in her imagination that she’d seriously considered charging herself for admission.

Being bartender-less on top of sleepless was exhausting enough that she posted a help-wanted ad first thing on Friday. The whole interview process sucked, but hopefully she’d find someone who wanted to jump ship from one of the resort bars, which would allow Stella to avoid comprehensive rounds of training.

Being Jace-less had no solution. Because she didn’t know how to feel about the fact that she missed him.

On the third day, he blew through the door of the bar at six o’clock, wearing rimless Ray-Bans over a cocky grin, and he was so beautiful that her heart stumbled over itself in an attempted jailbreak. Nervous all at once, she lifted a hand in greeting. Then second-guessed such a lame response. Then it didn’t matter because Jace tossed his sunglasses on the bar, threw up the pass-thru, and cornered her, his hands sliding around her waist to hold her steady as he backed her up against the wall in a delicious full body press.

Oh God yes. If this was his interpretation of “let’s see what happens,” she was an instant disciple of it.

Then his gorgeous mouth claimed hers in a hot, wet hello kiss that dissolved her knees. The first wicked slide of his tongue yanked a moan from her throat, and she would have collapsed except he was holding her so tightly that her feet might never touch the ground again.

The kiss went deep, so deep that she lost all sense of time and space. All she could focus on was Jace, his hard, thick arousal against her belly and the knowledge that for the first time in her life, she’d been offered free rein to use up a man for the sole purpose of her own pleasure with nary a thought to what might happen after that. Unless it was round two, where she called the shots.

That was a powerful aphrodisiac.

She went in for more, nipping at his lower lip, thrilling at the feel of his hands kneading at her waist. A growl emanated from his chest, rumbling against hers deliciously, and she felt it all the way to her toes. Or maybe that was just the dense, sizzling spread of Jace through her blood. She’d probably never get it out.

But then he pulled back with a colorful curse and tipped his forehead against hers.

“You snap my self-control so easily,” he admitted ruefully. “I forget that I can’t boost you up on this counter and peel off your underwear so I can lick you until you scream.”

“You um…” God, her whole body flushed with arousal as the suggestion took on a life of its own, throbbing through her already sensitized core. “No, you can’t do that.”

Or she’d never get the bar opened. She’d sit right there on the stainless steel serving bar, head thrown back, demanding he put his tongue between her legs over and over again. Her lungs hitched, and her vision went a little gray as she imagined exactly that, and she was pretty sure she’d be thinking about it all night. Probably as he’d intended.

“Whenever you change your mind, you know where to find me.” His heated gaze roved over her face. “Hi, by the way. I missed you.”

“You… ah—” And for the second time in under a minute, he’d rendered her stupid. “You didn’t come by.”

Now she was babbling like an idiot. Of course he hadn’t come by. He’d had a job to do on an island that wasn’t this one, and just because he’d surprised her a few times before by showing up unexpectedly didn’t mean he was required to do so all the time solely for her benefit. Duchess Island wasn’t next door. The distance hadn’t really seemed like that much of a factor before, but then she’d never been the one traversing it on a regular basis. How selfish was she that she’d forced him to do all the work to get to this point?

“Couldn’t.” He scowled. “Someone always had the boats for one reason or another. Rachel’s hired a bunch of bridal consultant types in Nassau instead of Freeport for God knows what reason, so I can’t even hitch a ride with her and Evan when they go do wedding crap. Being trapped on Duchess Island was slightly less torturous than being waterboarded.”

That pleased her enormously to hear. “Poor baby. You’re here now.”

“Yes, I am,” he agreed with a wolfish smile and shoved a knee between her legs to rub his thigh at her most sensitive spot, which he’d already inflamed just by walking over the threshold.

She sucked in a breath as he pushed her along the path toward a cliff that was going to be very hard not to fling herself off of if he kept that up. His thigh was the consistency of solid rock, and it was making the acquaintance of a part of her that hadn’t said howdy to a man in a long time.

“Are you sure we have to open at seven?” His voice rumbled through her, long and low and delicious.

“Pretty sure,” she croaked and cursed as his leg relaxed. No, that was good. She couldn’t think when he touched her, and then she forgot that she had a livelihood to contend with.

She had just enough wherewithal to laugh at his crestfallen expression. But the Crow Bar wasn’t nearly enough motivation to keep her from letting her hands wander all over his magnificent chest. “It’s Friday. Should be fairly busy. For now anyway.”

That was a sobering reminder. The new bar across the street wasn’t open yet, but the arrival of her competition was as imminent as a giant boulder poised at the top of a ravine. All it was going to take was one push to get it rolling, and she’d be flattened.

“Hey, none of that.” With his thumb, he tilted her head up to meet his gaze. “Yeah, this is the last free weekend before Señor Hipster opens. But we’re going to be good. I have lots of plans.”

Balefully she eyed him, curious how he’d clued in that she’d had a mild pang of panic. “I just bet you do. But I thought all the plans involved getting me naked. Bar plans are a whole different animal.”

Naked. She’d never so much as said that word out loud in Jace’s presence, and there was a reason for that. The thought of it put a sour note in her Jace symphony. Fantasies were one thing, and in them, she could envision herself however she wanted. Glamorous. Flawless makeup. Silk negligee from Paris guaranteed to make a man gaga.

Reality check. She had no silk, no glamour, and if she hadn’t had a front row seat for his usual type over the months, she might be less worried. She wasn’t twenty-two anymore, and even when she had been, the term stacked had never applied. She didn’t have a full repertoire of bedroom moves guaranteed to bring a man back for more. What, exactly, did she think she was doing with a man in the prime of his life who had his pick of women?

Judging by the way his expression had lit up with hunger and appreciation the moment he’d pulled off his sunglasses earlier, she might be worrying unnecessarily.

The points Jace had made while they’d been stargazing on his boat were staring her in the face whether she liked it or not. She was obsessive about everything. He wanted to teach her how to live life with his particular brand of in the moment. She should let him do that.

“Yes, naked is definitely one of the plans,” he murmured and circled his hips against hers suggestively, not that she’d needed the reminder of how turned on he was.

She’d been reveling in the feel of his heavy arousal for several long blissful minutes now. That was a kick and a half, having such a perfectly built man pressed up against her, granting her the opportunity to experience the physical things she did to him.

All at once, she wasn’t entirely sure why it was such a bad idea to spread out on the counter and let him indulge her in a slew of wickedness before the crowd arrived. She could bask in the warm memory of his talents all night as she worked the register.

Hell, for that matter, she could have taken him up on what he’d been offering for weeks. But she’d held back for the same reasons then as she had to now.

Fear.

She wasn’t sure she could throw her entire personality out the window and follow her shaman without caution into the realm of carnal pleasures. What if her IUD failed because she hadn’t given it enough time to work? They’d use protection—she’d insist on it, though she’d hope that would be a given—but accidents happened. That’s why she’d avoided sex for this long.

She could not deal with another pregnancy. Could not. It would finish her.

The panic welled, and he didn’t miss it. His expression immediately gentled, and he eased up on the full body press, not quite pulling away but definitely giving her more space.

“When you’re ready to get naked, it will be in the plan,” he clarified softly. “I get that we’re seeing how it goes. I’m not going anywhere no matter how long that takes.”

“Why?” she blurted out and almost bit off her tongue.

Shut up. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, ding-dong. They’d already been over this ground like a hundred times. The problem was that no matter what he said, it never changed the slight sense of wonder and disbelief that yes, Jace had his pick of women, yet here he was still pursuing Stella, the undersexed, overanxious bar owner who was still too old for him.

“Because we have a bar to run. Together.”

The solemnity of his statement hooked something inside her. He could have answered her with any number of sexually suggestive comments or made it all about his quest to be with her, but instead he’d flipped it back to business. That was hands down the most romantic thing he’d ever said to her.

“We do.” She could say it decisively now. He was here for the long haul, or so she was choosing to believe. It didn’t have to be so hard. “Shouldn’t we like… get started on that?”

He didn’t move. “Can’t. You smell too good. I’m physically incapable of letting you go.”

God, what was it about him that made her feel so feminine and treasured? It was ridiculously exciting. They hadn’t even slept together yet, but somehow he managed to make it sound like he was still getting exactly what he wanted from her.

She swatted at his chest in mock protest and ended up sticking around to explore the swath of skin above the V-neck of his T-shirt. It was bronzed and yummy, like the rest of him or at least the parts that she’d seen, and all at once, she was deeply regretful that she’d turned down his invitation to the beach.

“Take me on a date tomorrow,” she suggested, surprising them both. But he recovered faster, nodding so agreeably that it was a wonder his head didn’t roll off his exquisite shoulders.

“That is an excellent plan, one I wish I could take credit for. But it’s enough that I get to see you outside of work tomorrow so I can focus on pleasing your customers tonight.” The gleam in his eye warmed her thoroughly. “Fair warning. Tomorrow I will be focusing on pleasing you.”

With that lovely promise echoing through her entire body, she floated through the mundane tasks of getting the bar in shape for a Friday night crowd. Jace was right there alongside her, lifting boxes of vodka and grinning at her from across the room as he flipped stools off tabletops.

She was in over her head with him.

Why had she asked him out on a real date? It was probably the dumbest move she could have made. How was she going to avoid taking things to the next level when that was clearly where things were headed? They both wanted it, and she was done lying to herself about that. But wanting something and doing it were two entirely different things, and she lacked the courage to cross that bridge.

Which was totally unfair to Jace. Was she destined to treat him like crap no matter what?

She moped about her incessant need to know how things were going to turn out ahead of time as she counted money automatically into the register drawer. What did he even see in her anyway? Probably none of the other women he’d dated worried about getting pregnant. People had sex all the time without conception being the result.

Oh God. That made it real in a way nothing else had, not even Jace’s thigh between her legs. Birth control was a big line to cross, and she’d stepped over the line without fully realizing it meant she’d already committed. She couldn’t hide behind excuses anymore. It meant accepting that a man wanted to be with her and that she was going to be with him even if only for a little while until one or both of them got tired of the other. And then they were going to walk away and no one was going to cry about it.

That’s what she’d said she wanted. But was it really? Was that how it worked for everyone else, and she’d somehow missed the boat?

About fifteen minutes before opening time, he caught her by the waist and then pulled out a chair at the end of the bar, gesturing for her to sit in it. Curious, she did, only to witness him grab the iPad she used to order inventory and do her bookkeeping. He keyed in his password and tilted it toward her.

“I’ve been working on some marketing ideas. I want to show them to you.”

Speechless, she stared up at his profile as he tapped through a few frames of the graphics and blurbs he’d pulled together. He started jabbering about T-shirts with a new logo that he’d designed himself and threw around the names of a few celebrities who lived on close enough islands that she might convince them to be photographed having a drink at the Crow Bar. Happy hour strategies, sponsoring a charity 5K run, skywriting over the beach, it was all there.

“Jace,” she broke in and had to swallow as her voice cracked. “When did you do all this?”

He shrugged, letting a sheepish grin steal over his face. “When I should have been sleeping but couldn’t because I was thinking about kissing you while we stargazed. You don’t sound impressed. Do you hate it?”

“No. It’s amazing.” He was amazing. “I’m way past impressed. More like floored. Where did you learn about graphic design?”

Which wasn’t even the most important question. When had he become such an integral part of the Crow Bar? He had his own password to her iPad, where her financial stuff was, which she’d given him without thought. Because she trusted him. They were running this bar together, and she hadn’t properly acknowledged it. Not even to herself.

“I have a flair for style.” He smoothed his dark hair back flat-handed in an exaggerated, mock runway pose. “I would have thought that was obvious. But aside from that, I’ve always doodled stuff. I did some graphics for Aqueous too. The logo on our T-shirts? That’s mine.”

As he’d intended, his antics made her laugh but didn’t detract her from the real point. “You have talent. You’re hired.”

“I already work here, honey.” He winked, which should not have been as sexy as it was. “Is that your polite way of saying I need to do a little more to earn my paycheck?”

“I’m saying this is not an effort that should be free.”

She pointed to the extremely intricate logo he’d created of a black cartoon bird holding a bright red crowbar in its beak. It was so effective and so indicative of her place that it didn’t need words. Only someone who got the personality of the owner would be able to come up with something so fitting, and it was humbling in a way she’d never be able to explain verbally.

So she showed him. She climbed from the chair and plucked the tablet out of his hand, placing it on the bar in favor of drawing Jace into a long, lovely kiss that he immediately responded to. His arms wrapped around her as he shaped her mouth with his, deepening the thank-you into something much more meaningful. Hell if she knew what it meant other than an excuse to put her hands on him again. And it was as thrilling to feel the bunching of his muscles under her fingers in that moment as it had been all the other times.

“Tomorrow,” he murmured as he dragged his mouth from hers. “We’re picking this up then.”

He pushed her away like an addict who’d suddenly found his fist full of his favorite vice. The longing in his eyes was so painful that she nearly posted a “closed for repairs” sign on the glass wall that they were supposed to roll back in two minutes.

But he ruined that idea by backing away from her and going about the business of running a bar as if all his internal organs still functioned just fine and he hadn’t just experienced an emotional epiphany.

Hers was running amuck, flinging crazy stuff all over her insides. If she and Jace got involved, there was no walking away afterward. They worked together. Seamlessly. She didn’t know if she could go back to doing it alone. And then he’d brought her all those wonderful marketing ideas that were so brilliant.

He was brilliant. Not to mention fearless. About everything. That was something she desperately needed to learn and not just if she had any hope of actually getting naked with Jace. Her bar needed a fearless leader too.

And she had a feeling that her date with Jace tomorrow would end up looking a lot more like a crossroads than she’d ever anticipated. She had about twelve hours to figure out which road she was going to take.