I breathed a huge sigh of relief that the inside of his place didn’t match the outside. It was surprisingly orderly. Some neat things filled his limited accommodations. You could see everything in the room from here. Tiny kitchen, a small, red futon, and behind that a tiny desk—if you could call it that—with a laptop on it. At the back of the apartment, a double bed sat either on the floor or on some kind of support that I couldn’t see beneath the blankets.

Then again, this entire place was a giant contradiction to who I thought Jason was. His clothes were nice, not designer but still cool. His haircut didn’t scream I live in a dump and neither did his car. It wasn’t like I thought he pulled in major bucks driving for a living, but I didn’t expect this either.

The giant wall clock said it was nearing ten. Suddenly, I felt the weight of the past weeks descend down on me all at once. I needed to sit. This was a lot for my brain to take in.

I sat down on the futon, placing the happy cat beside me. She protested being set aside so she climbed back onto my lap. “Your cat is very affectionate,” I informed him of something I’m sure he already knew. A grin spread across his face before he strode the four steps it took to get to the kitchen.

Well, one thing was for sure—this place was efficient. Nothing too far from reach. This one room served the purpose of four as gracefully as it could. He came back with ice water for both of us, handing me a clear glass. The outside was mercifully cool, so I held it up to my head to relieve some of the confusion I saw before me.

“Headache?” he asked me, concern in his voice.

“Uh, not exactly. My brain feels like it’s going to burst, but it doesn’t hurt,” I answered him, then took a long drink of the cool water, hoping it would stop my head from spinning. It didn’t.

“Sorry, it’s all I’ve got to offer you. I haven’t, um, been out to the store in a while,” he said hesitantly, like he was genuinely embarrassed he didn’t have something better than ice water to give me. I thought that was sweet. I didn’t care about what he had in his cupboards to offer me, but I was sad that it looked like he maybe didn’t have enough for himself.

“This is perfect, thanks,” I said, placing the glass down onto the eccentric coffee table made up of several license plates from all over the country. It was understated, yet cool. I enjoyed the effect so much I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “I like this.” I pointed to the table, leaning forward to take a better look. “Did you make it?”

“Nope. Picked it up at a garage sale. Like most of this stuff.” He motioned with his arm to the tiny room.

Now that piqued my interest. “I love garage sales. I’ve found lots of great treasures for my house that other people were ready to dump. Do you go often?” I asked, quickly wishing I’d shut my mouth. The guy had no time or space for weekend bargain hunting.

“Why are you here, Vivienne?” he said instead, shocking me. I hadn’t actually thought of what to do or say once we got to his place. All I knew I had to do was get here. Now what the hell was I going to say?

Ignoring his question and trying to buy myself some time to think, I blurted, “Where’s your TV?” Every guy had a TV. It was the most important thing in their lives. Just ask Harper’s ex before she smashed his plasma screen to smithereens. I stood up, walking a few steps to his office chair—if you could call it that—and sat down carefully.

He sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t have one.” He didn’t have one? No TV? What the hell?

I spun around at his desk. “You don’t have a TV? Why not? Everyone has a TV for crying out loud.”

Hands crossed his muscled arms on his chest, causing his biceps to really pop. He answered simply, “I don’t.”

Clearly this man was insane. “I see that. But why don’t you have a TV? You could attach it to the wall right over there.” I pointed to the space by the bed. There wasn’t much room, but it would work. Then something occurred to me. Maybe he couldn’t afford one. “I’ll get you one,” I offered, trying to be helpful. “And a new desk chair, too. This one is falling apart.” His chair wobbled and creaked under my weight.

“I don’t want a TV. No time to watch it, so it’s just going to sit there.”

No time to watch TV? Who didn’t have time to watch TV? I ran my fingers over his laptop. It was the only thing in this room of quality—with a price tag to match. It didn’t match his surroundings, much like Jason. Was he an undercover cop or something?

“Everyone has time to watch TV,” I said absentmindedly, trying to figure out the mystery before me. “Are you an undercover cop or something?” I asked. He threw his head back, laughing so hard I wondered if the walls would hold.

He settled down, then replied, “Not exactly.” What kind of answer was that? Jerk. At least now he’d uncrossed his arms. His eyes filled with mirth, like we had a game to play.

I swiveled the chair around and spotted two wide bookcases near the bed, filled to bursting. “You read, instead of watch,” I said, turning back toward him.

“Mmmhmm, mostly. Although there are certain things I enjoy watching,” he said in a deep, husky tone that made me clench my thighs together. His eyes narrowed on me, spreading warmth as he raked his gaze down my body.

The wall beside the tiny desk was filled with sticky notes containing various inspirational quotes. I ran my fingers over them. Some were new—others were curled up with age. All different colors, he didn’t discriminate with his sticky notes.

A spiral notebook sat on the desk beside the laptop, more sticky notes poking out, attempting to see the light of day. Opening someone’s notebook would be a tremendous invasion of privacy, if that person weren’t there. But Jason stood directly in front of me. Gazing up, I took stock of his body language. He leaned against the wall, looking rather resigned, like he knew I was about to solve his mystery.

Well then. I grabbed the notebook and opened it up. Chapter One was written on the first page. My brain scrambled to make sense of it. Paging through, I turned the sheets carefully. There were a number of sticky notes on each page that I feared losing. Descriptions, plots, and characters followed Chapter Two. He was a fucking writer.

“You’re a writer? Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked as a knife sliced straight through from my heart to my stomach. He never shared this with me. Why?

Shifting from the wall to beside the desk, he stepped around, removing the notebook from my hand. “It never came up,” he said as he placed the book back down beside the computer. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. My eyes welled up.

“It never came up because you never brought it up.” I stared at him with glassy eyes. Damn it all to hell, sometimes I hated being a girl. A man would never start crying in this kind of situation, but here I went. How could I possibly help it? I flashed back to all of the clues I’d found. Not once did he mention this rather important piece of information. Not so much as a hint.

“It’s not important. I don’t make any money from it or anything.” Yet. That was what he wanted to say. I could feel it. His writing was the most important thing about him. He’d love to make money off of it someday. That was why he drove—to support his writing career. All of the tiny mysterious pieces of Jason began to fall into place.

The list in his car, his tattoo, the book I’d found. He’d lied when I asked about all of these things.

“What it is, Jason, is a huge part of you. The biggest part that you never trusted me with,” I said to him angrily, the tears in my eyes threatening to overflow.

He turned around, hands running through his hair, pacing back toward the kitchen. “I didn’t want to sound stupid, okay? This means a lot to me. I don’t tell many people because they judge you, and I didn’t want you to think I was some loser who sits alone in his shitty apartment most days, typing away on a computer, working toward some pipedream that will likely never come to fruition.”

“This is why you drive, right? So you can devote your extra time to writing,” I said, examining his every movement while he leaned against the near nonexistent kitchen cupboard.

“Pretty much. Just over a year ago, I gave up my office job to see if I could make a go of writing. It’s something I always knew I wanted to do, just a matter of timing. Then I realized there never was going to be a good time. Now I live off driving and my ever-dwindling savings account.”

I was able to keep my tears at bay, for now. “I really wish you had told me. The list I found in your car? That was for your book? Your tattoo, the book in your kit? This is a big part of your life. You never mentioned a thing.” Out of curiosity, I picked up his notebook again, flipping through it quickly. Every page was filled to bursting. He’d put a lot of time and effort into his writing. This was something he took seriously.

“Well, I’d rather you didn’t tell your boyfriend. No offense, but that guy is a serious douche. I have no idea what you see in him.” He bit back at me, arms back to crossed and defensive again. He thought Jared was my boyfriend.

“He’s not my boyfriend and he hasn’t been for months,” I said, standing up. Slowly, I crept toward him.

“What do you call someone you hook up with regularly? Your lover? Are we getting stuck on semantics now?”

“Um, there’s been no hooking up. Not for probably, ten months? In my book that’s called an ex-boyfriend. Semantically speaking, that is,” I said, trying rather unsuccessfully to quell the sarcasm.

“And yet there you were, making out with him right on your doorstep. The douche filled me in on your sexual practices during the entire ride over to pick you up. Then he informed me you were moving in together, which was a big shock, considering I saw how much work you’ve put into your house. So I can only surmise that you really love him a lot to give all of that up.”

I felt like he punched me. It was such a physical shock, I took a step back. “Excuse me? First of all, we were not ‘making out.’ He kissed me. Secondly, he said we were moving in together? That little bastard,” I shouted, spinning on my heel, stomping to the only window in this room, which was right by his bed. I barely contained the anger rising up in me. No wonder Jason was so pissed off. Jared must’ve said some pretty awful things. Awful lies. That asshole.

There was no stopping the fit of rage that ensued as I stormed to my purse. Ripping out my phone with shaking hands, I dialed the number. That asshole better answer. It rang once. Twice.

“I knew you’d call me eventually. You ready to apologize and come back to me yet?” His annoying voice was like nails on a chalkboard, making me scream even louder.

“Come back to you? We haven’t been together in almost a year. And what the hell are you doing telling people we’re moving in together? Not only is that not true, that would never happen in a million years and you know it.”

“Hey, settle down. What the hell are you talking about?”

“The driver who took us to the banquet? The one you told all kinds of shit to?”

“Ah, that kid. I only said that to him, nobody else. I was hoping to spring the question on you that night before things got messy.”

“Spring what question? We aren’t together. What in your tiny little brain would make you think there’s anything about us that says let’s move in?” I bellowed, kicking the side of Jason’s bed. Yep, there was wood underneath it. Shit. Pain gripped my poor toe, but I refused to give Jared the satisfaction of letting him know. Silently, I slumped to the bed, kicking off my shoe. “You told him a bunch of personal stuff about us? That’s really classy, Jared. How many other people have you been shooting your mouth off to? Huh?”

“He’s just a fucking driver. Who cares what I told him?”

My blood pressure shot up to dangerous levels. All I saw was red. The pounding ache in my toe fueled my anger.

“He’s not just a fucking driver. I’m falling in love with him, and you screwed everything up.”

Did she just say what I thought she said? My brain traveled a mile a minute as I prowled to her on my bed. She’d kicked the wooden frame during her temper tantrum, which was pretty hilarious. Her foot had to be hurting, considering the force she’d used. I knelt down to wrap my hands around her delicate foot.

“I was trying to be nice because I’d already said I’d go to the banquet with you. Which,” she held up her finger in the air, “I only did because you cried when I dumped your ass and I felt sorry for you. But then you turn around and pull this shit? I don’t think so,” she screamed into the phone again. I could hear every word the douche said, loud and clear. There was no denying his guilt.

“If I ever hear of you saying shit like that about me again, I’ll...I’ll...I’ll...I don’t know what I’ll do, but it’ll be bad.”

She was cute when she was mad. The phone bounced on my covers and then onto the floor. Uh-oh. Jinxy spooked, dashing under the futon.

“It wasn’t true, Jason,” she sobbed. I pulled her into my chest. “None of it. I’d never move in with him. Our crappy relationship was over months ago.” She took a huge breath before continuing. “I’m so sorry he lied to you.”

I held her even tighter against my aching body. God, she felt good. I’d missed holding her in my arms. The floral smell of her hair brought back the memory of her underneath me, her scent surrounding us. My cock throbbed, wanting more than anything to back inside this beautiful woman.

“I don’t care what he said. I care what you said. Why’d you lie to me?” I asked, wanting an answer from her after all this time.

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” she said, squinting up at me with tears streaming out of her eyes. “I felt trapped into going with Jared, and I didn’t want to dump my past onto you. We were still so new. I worried if I told you, I’d screw everything up. Which I managed to do anyway.” She let her forehead fall onto my chest. “Can you forgive me?” she asked, but what she didn’t realize was that I’d already done that.

“Honey, look at me,” I asked, then she glanced up, guilt in her eyes. “We can’t have lies between us. You should have just leveled with me. I might not have been happy you were going with him, but we could have talked about it.”

“Lies? You don’t want any lies between us? What the hell do you call this? You have a whole fucking world you’ve hidden from me.”

And she was back to being pissed. But she was also right. I suppose I lied by omission.

“I should have told you. I’m sorry. You’re just so fucking gorgeous and classy, I didn’t want to sound flaky and turn you off.” I gave her my best and only excuse.

“Writing isn’t flaky. I bet you’re great at it. I just wish you would have told me. You had ample opportunity.”

“It’s called insecurity.”

“Can I read some of your stuff?”

That made me smile to think she’d even want to. I leaned in, almost touching her lips. “Later,” was all I said before taking her lips in mine for the first time in forever. Fuck, she tasted good. I couldn’t get enough of her as my tongue swept into her mouth. She sighed sweetly, like she was just as relieved as I was. Of course, I took full advantage, kissing her harder, my hands roaming her body, relearning her curves all over again.

Pushing Vivienne all the way down onto the bed, I lay down on her. Squeezing her sweet ass, we instinctively pressed our lower halves together. Her gasps spurred me on.

I licked and kissed down her neck to her chest. Next, I unzipped her dress, unable to think of anything else but burying myself inside her sweet warmth. We fumbled, pulling her dress off with clumsy, desperate hands.

Her arms twisted behind her back to release the hooks of her sexy red lace bra.

The sight before me left me breathless. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” I told her reverently, unable to take my eyes off her luscious form. “I’ve waited so long to see you again. You’re so hot, baby.” I tenderly caressed her skin with the tips of my fingers, trailing her tattoo. “This looks phenomenal. It healed well. Do you like it?” Her nod was barely perceptible, but I saw it.

Her vulnerability at this moment turned me on, big time. I loved when this confident, cocky woman turned into putty in my hands. Leaning forward, I breezily kissed her healed tattoo, then moved down to pay some much-needed attention to her tantalizing breasts. The scent of her perfume consumed my senses, driving me even madder.

I stroked her beautiful chest, teasing one nipple with my tongue. She moaned, sighing from my manipulations, in turn making me hotter with each passing second. Moving to her other breast, I soon realized I couldn’t take much more and neither could she. The way she was grinding against me, I’d bet my life she hadn’t seen any action since our last night together. That thought drove me even crazier. It might kill the mood, but I had to ask to be safe.

“Has there been anyone? Since me?” I murmured against her torso, barely harnessing my control. What if she said yes?

“What?” she asked, confused. “No, of course not.” I rested my head on her stomach, relieved at her answer. Her fingers drove into my hair, the sensation making me shiver.

“Me either,” I whispered against her navel as I kissed her soft belly.

All this time I’d assumed she was in bed with that douche, but she was really waiting for me. I was an idiot. Emotion choked me, thinking how much time I’d wasted.

I continued kissing and licking my way down until I was face to face with the sexiest pair of red panties I’d ever laid eyes on. The underwear was good, great even, but I knew what was underneath them was better. Seizing the edges, I slowly pulled them down her legs, holding her eyes with mine. She gasped, her chest heaving with anticipation.

The look on her face was one of awe. She’d missed me, too. That much was more than obvious. Lazily, I nipped up her leg to her thigh, taking my sweet time. A moan fell out of her lips. Nearly at my destination, I stopped, relocating to her other leg, licking and teasing her all over again.

A sweet murmur of protest filled my ears as I was so close, but yet so far from what she really wanted. Her patience was running thin. I kissed even more slowly up her leg this time, prolonging her wait for my mouth on her core. Before I knew it, she’d pushed up on her elbows, watching me, trying to make me go faster with her stare.

“I can’t wait. I ache so bad for you. I need you. Please,” she begged urgently. It was music to my ears. In a flash, my mouth was on her. She eased back down onto the bed with a loud sigh.

She tasted like ripe cherries on a warm summer day. After one taste I couldn’t stop devouring her. I didn’t want this to end. Her hips writhed in a rhythmic motion against my mouth. Soon, I heard the familiar tiny gasps that haunted my dreams.

“I need more. Oh God, Jason, I need more. Please,” she urged as her head thrashed from side to side. Then she held my head to keep me exactly where she needed me. Happy to comply, I slid a finger inside to aid me in my work. She responded with a very loud, “Oh.” Yeah, she was close, all right. Observing her as she lost control under my hands was possibly the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

I added in a bit of suction with one more finger for good measure. When I found exactly the right spot, she let me know. “I’m going to come.” And then she did exactly that. Her hands pressed down hard against my head as she pulsed around my fingers. I continued rubbing the magic spot inside her until she finished, finally releasing my head.

“Oh shit, sorry,” she said oddly as I moved up her body, frowning at her.

“You’re sorry for giving me the most incredible show I’ve ever seen?” I questioned her, not understanding what she was talking about.

She blushed, covering her eyes with her arm. “No, I lost control there for a minute. I hope I didn’t hurt you.” She peeked underneath her arm, waiting for my response. Hurt me? Was she nuts?

I nudged her arm away from her blushing face. “That was sexy as hell. I love when you lose control under my hands. It means I make you comfortable enough to let go. And that is extremely hot.” I bent forward to kiss her neck as she wrapped her arms around me. It felt good to be pressed up against her hot naked body again.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked while I continued to kiss her neck. The question was so ludicrous, my body started to shake at the absurdity of it.

“No, you didn’t hurt me. Quite the opposite, actually. I now have a very large problem of my own.” I ground myself against her stomach, giving her more than a hint of what my problem was.

“I’m a great problem solver. In fact, the bigger, the better.” She giggled, the sound making me harder. I stood up and removed my clothing in record time.

“Really? I didn’t know about that. This is a pretty large problem. I’m not sure you can handle all of it,” I said, lowering myself on top of her.

“Hmm, well the only way to know for sure is to let me use my skills and get to work,” she said as she reached down, guiding me inside her. We both moaned at the same time as I entered her searing heat.

“Fuck, I missed you,” I said right before I started to move.

It turned out, she was in fact a great problem solver, just like she said.