Grady tilted Linx’s head to the side, deepening the kiss. His emotions soared and plunged whenever he was in her orbit, and his body ignited on contact—plain and simple.

This wild and wonderful woman was the mother of his child—his flesh and blood. Even though he was the black sheep of his family, the one who acted as if family ties didn’t matter, he was still a Hart, through and through, and despite it all, they loved him and he loved them.

Which was why he needed to call them and let them know he was back. He’d lost his cell phone, and he had a gloriously hot woman in his arms—one who’d said she didn’t want to sleep with him anymore, but was now kissing him with everything she had.

Catching his breath, he broke the kiss—barely, and whispered, “You okay with this?”

He felt, rather than saw, her nod. Her breathing was hot and heavy as she captured his lips, tugging ruthlessly on his lower lip, then plunging her tongue deep into his mouth.

He’d checked for consent, and she hadn’t put a stop to it, so it was all systems go.

Once, he’d almost fallen in love with this spitfire, and his immaturity and Salem’s treachery had screwed everything up—turned him into a bitter, resentful male, distrustful and detached.

That was then, and this was now.

Being a father was serious business, and getting this woman to be truly his wasn’t going to be easy.

Heck, nothing about Linx Colson was easy.

Which was just the way he liked her.

“Trailer or truck?” he muttered in between devouring her lips.

“Trailer.” She moaned urgently as she ran her hands down his chest. “Is this going to be different? Are we?”

“Yes.” He gazed into her warm brown eyes, darkened with emotion. “It’s completely different. I want this. Want you. Only you.”

“Grady …” She spoke his name like a prayer. “From now on, I’m not taking the back seat. If this isn’t real, I don’t want any of it.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’ve lost so much. No more regrets.” He lifted her, and her long legs wrapped themselves around his waist.

They crashed through the small trailer door, disengaged enough to crawl up into the loft above the fifth wheel and smashed themselves onto the thin mattress.

He’d never been able to control the explosive heat between them, and from the way she writhed and moaned as she wiggled out of her clothing, neither could she.

She unbuttoned his shirt and he ripped it off, then shrugged out of his T-shirt. Her gaze fixed on him, hopeful but sharp. She wasn’t a baby doll, innocent and naïve. The suspicion was still there, masked behind lust and desire.

Smoothing a strand of hair from her forehead, he kissed her gently, then rested himself face to face, needing to reassure her.

“I’m taking my stand here, with you. I’m not ever leaving unless you want me to go. You got it?”

She nodded, yet the doubtful expression still marred her furrowed brow. “I want to believe you. But are you sticking with me because you want Jessie back? If we can’t get Jessie back, will you leave?”

“No. I won’t leave you.”

Her lips quivered and she touched his cheek. “What if Salem has your child? What if she’s alive and you find out she has your child? Would you leave me for her?”

“No, but would you still want me? I’ve screwed up my life by playing around. I don’t know what I was thinking. Thought I could shirk responsibility, be the opposite of my family, run away and be free—all that crap.”

“You’re like me.” She palmed his jaw, stroking his beard fuzz. “Scared to commit. Better to be free and lonely than get hurt.”

“Yeah, exactly right.” He kissed her hand. “Except we both managed to get hurt anyway. I figure if we can’t stay away from each other, then we might as well stop hurting each other.”

“Sounds sensible, but can we really keep this up? This niceness? This togetherness? What happens if we can’t get Jessie back? Will you blame me?”

He ran his hand up and down her bare back and held her close, pressing her belly against his jeans. “I’ll blame myself for letting you go.”

“What happens if we make each other miserable? We fight and curse? We’re like oil and water. We’re not like Jenna and Larry or Connor and Nadine.”

“No, we’re not. We’re like two cats hissing and spitting, clawing and scratching, but if we fight, we’ll make it up with love.” He gulped, unable to keep a silly grin from his face. He’d just mentioned the one word he’d never wanted to associate with any woman.

Love wasn’t an emotion he yearned for, but rather one he feared. It was dangerous, suffocating, and made him feel like a trapped animal.

“Are we capable of love?” Her brow wrinkled, as she, too, had her doubts. “Or is it sex?”

He let his gaze run down her beautiful body. “If it were only sex, why are we talking about love?”

“We don’t know what it is without the sex.” She grasped his hand and held it, her fingers twined with his.

“It doesn’t have to be either or.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Shall we learn it together? Learn how to make love?”

“I’ve been making love since the very first time.” Her eyes narrowed with a mischievous and naughty glint. “But I’ll take great sex anytime.”

With a hearty purr, she launched herself at him, claiming his mouth and kissing him like a possessed woman.

“I want this to last, this lovemaking,” he muttered, gasping and shying away from her touch. “Want to feel you against me, skin to skin, closer than any two people can get.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” She touched him, shooting tingles throughout his body.

He stifled a long moan as lust and love rushed through his veins, cascading into his heart. “Tonight’s about you, my wildcat. When I’m done with you, which will be never, you’ll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have my heart.”

She moved her hand to his hard abdomen and up his chest while smoothing his hair with her other one. Gazing into his eyes, she said, “You’ve always had mine, but even now, I’m afraid to admit it. Will having your heart hurt?”

“If I hurt you, I hurt me. I think we’ve established that already.”

She nodded, biting her lip. “It’s like we’re stuck together. I can’t live without you, but I can’t see us not hurting each other.”

“Then we’re just going to have to make it hurt so good.” He nipped her lower lip and rolled her hair around his hand, pulling her back so that her eyes dilated with hot passion.

“Oh, yeah.” She sighed and grasped his face. “Hurt me so bad, Grady. Hurt me until I scream your name.”

* * *

Dark, unspoken passion drilled into Linx, turning her blood into rivers of fire. She whimpered when Grady drew her lips to his.

He kissed her thoroughly and with more heart than she’d ever tasted, and this time, instead of fighting him, scratching, biting, and challenging him, she let him make love to her, slowly and patiently building the embers of her need into a mighty, all-consuming climax.

She hadn’t expected him to take her over the edge so easily, not so close to the hot and cold internal combustion of the first one.

“I love you.” She surprised herself with the words that had been percolating at the edge of her heart. It didn’t even matter if he didn’t say them back to her—not now when she felt his love so intensely.

His eyes dilated, softening into an expression of adoration and hardening at the same time with wicked lust. “Oh, baby, love is just the start. I’m staking my claim now and forever.”

Heck, a Grady in love was a clear and present danger, a minefield, but one she’d gladly step into, time and time again. Was she nuts? But oh, she couldn’t help it, not when everything she’d secretly wanted was offered to her in such a delectable and hunky package.

She floated down through the afterglow of loving with the burr of his deep voice purring her name, “Linx, Linx, my sweet girl, my heart.”

* * *

Grady closed his eyes, hugging and spooning his woman as her breathing quieted down, easing from the heights of pleasure he’d brought her to.

He was proud of himself, and yet, he braced himself for her push and shove. Would she regret the pleasure and her loss of control? Would she back off, afraid to let that glimmer into her heart stay open?

She’d uttered those words, and he wanted to believe she’d meant them. But at the same time, she’d hurt him—sometimes deliberately—sought her revenge for him hurting her.

Could she go back to that as easily as a woman putting on a bra?

He rested his head on the thin pillow and gazed at the closeness of the trailer roof. Here, on this tiny bed, he and Linx were pressed as close together as two people could get.

Gentle moonlight dappled though the curtains of his trailer, and the soft, satisfied purr of Linx’s breathing rained balm on his wounds.

It was strangely peaceful and intimate.

He moved a tendril of her dark-brown hair that had curled onto her face. She looked so innocent, lying there with her eyes closed and her mouth partially open.

She shifted in her sleep and took in a deeper breath through her nose and her eyelids fluttered as if she were dreaming.

Were they sweet dreams or nasty nightmares?

He watched as her face scrunched and she whipped her head back and forth. Her eyes snapped open and she stared straight up, and then moved her gaze to his.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I have to go.” She sat up so quickly she bumped her head on the roof above them. “I left Ginger and Cedar. We have to call your family. I stole your cell phone and I snooped on you and Vanessa. I’m a horrible, horrible human being.”

“Whoa, wait, where’s this coming from?” Her words jolted him from the intoxicated languor her body had left him in.

She groped in the pocket of her discarded jeans and handed him his phone. Covering her face with her hands, she shuddered. “I’m a bad person. I gave your baby away. How can I ever forget that? I don’t deserve your heart, Grady Hart. I have to leave. Have to leave.”

“If you need to get back to the center, I’m going with you.” He kissed the back of her neck, nuzzling her with his face. “You’re all I have and all I want.”

He reached down and traced her C-section scar, now that he knew what it was. “You gave her life. It could have been worse.”

Her shoulders heaved and she shook her head. “This isn’t going to last. You’re going to hate me again. I don’t know how to be a mother. I don’t know how to love anyone. I’m the last person you should have in your life. I have an evil heart. I’m tainted with poison. I ruin everything I touch.”

“Not true.” He refused to let her flail out of his arms. “I’m also the black sheep. I break hearts. I screw up people’s lives. I’m the bad twin, always getting into trouble. I’m the dark heart of my family. I ruin what I touch.”

“Then we’ll never be happy together.”

“And we’ll never be happy apart. Stick with me, Linx, and trust me.”

“I want to, but we have to get Jessie back. It’s my fault if we don’t.” Her body wracked with agony and she turned away from him, curling up into a fetal position.