“So, I think my friend has the hots for your sister.”

Kim choked on the glass of water she was drinking. Even if the statement hadn’t been jarring enough, Nate walking out in a bitty towel and nothing else caused her lungs to seize.

“Fucking hell, Nate!”

The bastard had the nerve to smile, and Kim felt the irritation curling her toenails.

“Where are the clothes I gave you?” she spat, not caring if her tone was harsh.

She wondered if the man even knew how to dry off properly. Rivulets of water lazily made its way down his sculpted chest. Her eyes were immediately drawn the ridges and bumps of muscle in his abdomen. Shit, even his broad shoulders and cut arms had her creaming in her panties.

It wasn’t fair. It damn well wasn’t fair.

Nate lifted a brow, “I can’t wear that shit.”

Kim knew her eyelid was twitching like a crazy person. She had always considered herself rationally sound. There were many times in her life when shit had hit the fan and Kim was always the rock in those situations.

Kim had been the only one to attend Mandy’s graduations from both high school and college. And she had managed to keep her cool. Kim had caught her parents cooking meth and threatened to turn them in if they kept doing it at the house. It was all in a day’s work.

Kim had seen her dad passed out drunk on more times than she could count. Caught their mother trying to give a twelve-year-old Mandy weed for cramps because she didn’t want to buy a damn bottle of aspirin.

But no matter what had happened, Kim didn’t fly off the deep end. Even when Andrew the ass hat had cheated on her and left, Kim had plowed through. So, what was it about this man that got under her skin.

Was it that sexy smirk that never seemed to come off his face? Was it his killer body that had somehow managed to sneak its way into her dreams? Or was it that smooth whiskey voice that seemed to taunt her at every turn?

“You aren’t leaving here naked,” Kim said firmly.

A grin broke across Nate’s face, and he walked over to her couch. With every step, the little towel parted showing more of his muscular thigh.

Kim hadn’t even realized she was staring until Nate cleared his throat—damn it!

“I would love to spend more time with you and the little bean,” Nate said conversationally and spread his arms out across the back of the couch.

“Are you fucking insane? Did Andrew send you here to screw with me?”

Nate shook his head, “I have nothing to do with Andrew the ass hat.”

Kim’s lips twitched when Nate used the name Freddy has christened Andrew with. But she wasn’t going to smile. This idiot needed to get some clothes on and get out of her apartment, store, and her life.

“Tell me what was wrong with the clothes I loaned you.”

Nate ran his hand through his damp honey blonde hair. Kim felt her mouth water as she watched the play of muscles dance across his flesh. No man should ever be that good-looking, she thought to herself.

“First off, they are small enough to fit you.”

Andrew was smaller than Nate, but it wasn’t that bad.

“Just go put them on!” Kim demanded.

Nate shrugged as if to say suit yourself and got up to go back to her bathroom. Every move he made was like a great jungle beast lumbering through the forest. He was grace and agility and had no sense of hurry whatsoever.

When he returned a moment later, Kim dropped her cup.

The sweatpants ended about three inches above his ankles and were so tight that she could see every nuance of his body. And let’s just say that Nate is both a grower and a shower. The bulge in the front of his pants made Kim involuntarily squeeze her thighs together. And the longer she looked, the larger it became.

“You can’t wear that,” Kim croaked and only met Nate’s eyes when he shouted out a bark of laughter. “What?”

Nate continued to laugh as he stuck his thumbs inside the waistband of the tight sweats and began to tug downward. Every ounce of flesh that he exposed had Kim panting.

Kim whirled around right before he pulled the elastic band away from his large erection.

“What in the fuck are you doing?” she demanded.

There was a rustle, and then the sweatpants flew over her shoulder and stupidly she caught them.

“You didn’t like me wearing your towel, and you don’t like me in the ass hat’s pants. So, it looks like I am stuck with what my momma gave me.”

“You can’t,” she stumbled, “You aren’t—naked people do not fraternize with the general public!”

She heard the amusement in his voice, “That’s good to know. I’ve only recently joined the naked population. And I am not sure what the rules are yet.”

Kim whipped around, but whatever she was going to say lodged in her throat.

Standing before her, in all of his glory, Nate smirked before taking a step closer to Kim. If the room had seemed tense before, it was nothing compared to the sexual tension that clung in the air.

Her throat was dry, and her heart seemed to be pounding at about a million beats per minute. She couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, and most definitely couldn’t look away.

The way she looked at him had Nate digging his nails into his palms. The woman was not only eye-fucking him. She was doing a hell of a job on round two or three. He couldn’t remember a time when he wanted a woman more than now.

Nate knew that he was easy on the eyes. He had never had a problem with the ladies not falling at his feet. Slowly, he bent down and picked up the cup that she had dropped.

“I believe that this is yours,” he rasped, trying to hand it to her.

Kim hadn’t missed one second of the action. She didn’t take the cup that he was offering. Her eyes only stared.

“Why?” she finally blurted out, “Why are you doing this to me? If you are trying to hit it, then I have to tell you. I will buy whatever you are selling. If this to prove a point, that sex sells? Then you win. Is this just your way of showing me that I am weak? I don’t understand.”

He tipped her chin up and placed the gentlest of kisses on her parted lips.

“I want to fuck you right now. I have wanted to be inside of you the first moment I saw you. I picture your body bent in a hundred different ways as you scream out my name. You are a beautiful woman, and I want you. But that has nothing to do with your store. I want to help you, and I will. But you need to let me in.”

Kim swallowed and to her horror tears filled her eyes, “Nobody is that nice. What is it you want from me?”

“I could take you right now,” he murmured as his eyes searched her face. “But you would hate me for it, and crazily enough, I don’t want that. Let me help you, Kim. Not because of any payback, and not because I want to get into your pants. Although, I do, and I won’t hide it.”

“Then why?” Kim whispered.

“Because someone needs to take care of you for once. I see how you watch out for your sister. And I can tell that you have taken far too much out of the business account for your parents. You even still have Andrew the ass hat on the payroll, and he walked out on you and the bean.”

Kim closed her eyes, not able to meet him with the shame that was filling her.

“I want to help you, Kim. But first, you need to realize that I am not your enemy.”

It took her a moment to finally open her eyes, but when she met his, she knew that it was the right choice.

“Okay.”

It was one word, but she felt all of her defenses that she had built for years shaking in their foundations. Maybe this was a mistake, she wondered.

Then she glanced down and was reminded that this golden Greek god was still naked and within touching distance.

“On one condition!” her hand shot out and wrapped itself around his cock.

His response was hoarse, “What?”

“You teach me what pleasure is, real honest pleasure. I have gone down the ‘love’ route, and that is a bunch of fucking bull-shit. I want to know what it is like to want to scream someone’s name. To be so far gone in desire that I want to do the things that you talked about. Do we have a deal?”