Folding my arms, I leaned against the brick wall as I stared down the alley. It seemed penises were going to be the theme of the day, which was fitting. I’d barely slept due to thinking about Joel’s. Well, not just that part of him. Joel’s everything. When the sun came up, the thoughts hadn’t vacated. I’d even considered going back to the Blue Blossom, sneaking up to the top floor, and seeing if he wanted to have me for breakfast.

Then I remembered I wasn’t pathetic or a stalker. Well, at least I wasn’t a stalker; the amount of time that morning spent replaying being in Joel’s bed indicated fairly high marks on the pathetic scale. My mother’s text sending me on an errand for my role as a lesser member of the city council had been almost a relief, even if such tasks were little more than grunt work. So there I was, alone in an alley, surrounded by spray-painted renditions of every size, shape, and color of penis imaginable.

I take it back. I didn’t get fairly high marks on the pathetic scale. There was a penis, a pink one, painted right at the corner of the alley that opened up to Bluff’s Boulevard that curved up at the right angle to bring to mind Joel’s dick. The way it was shaped just the right way to hit my prostate with nearly every thrust. Yeah. Getting an erection while staring at graffiti pretty much meant my pathetic scale rating was off the charts.

My phone vibrated, and I felt my cheeks heat. I wasn’t going to answer my mother’s call in the midst of an erection issue. I checked the screen. Nope. My boss and my best friend’s mother. Weird enough, but at least it wasn’t my actual mom. I hit Accept and listened to her fluttered dilemma. Sure enough, problem solved. For the first time all morning, all thoughts of cock were erased. Which was a relief, actually.

After ending the call with her, I texted my mother, letting her know the graffiti was as bad as had been reported and it would probably cost a small fortune to get it fixed, especially on such last-minute’s notice. She’d be able to handle that, as well as the witch hunt for the tourist or Lavender Shores teenager who fancied themselves an erotic artist.

I cast a longing glance at the perfectly curved pink penis, rising another rung up the pathetic scale, and walked the block to work.

Both my blush and my erection surged back to life as I stepped through the door of Lavender Realty and saw Joel Rhodes sitting in one of the lobby chairs. I must have gasped, because he looked up at me and flinched, his eyes going wide.

I looked over at Regina, who hadn’t missed a beat.

“Oh…” She glanced at Joel and then back at me. Then back at Joel, her smiled growing. “Oh.” She chuckled softly. “Well, it looks like introductions aren’t needed. Please remember that we’re in the business of selling properties and not your personal assets as you take Mr. Rhodes on some showings.” She continued chuckling as she went back to her office.

Dear God, was I that obvious? Yes, of course I was. Though I prayed she hadn’t noticed what was happening in my pants.

I waited to see if she’d shut her office door. There was a click, thankfully, and I turned my attention to Joel. “Hey. You’re here.”

The corner of his lips curved into the beginning of that smile from the night before but didn’t quite make it all the way, causing him to look completely confused. “Yeah. As are you.”

I thought he looked happy to see me, but I wasn’t sure. From the way my heart was thudding, I wasn’t certain if I was happy to see him or simply terrified. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking at property.” Joel’s gaze darted toward the hallway, then back. “You’re not the other agent, the one who deals with commercial real estate are you?”

I nodded. “Yep. That’s me.”

The expression that crossed his face took away the notion he was glad to see me. I could quite literally see Oh Shit! run through his mind.

“Is that okay?”

For the first time since I’d met him—granted, that had only been a few hours before—Joel Rhodes wasn’t graceful. “Uhm, I…” He licked his bottom lip. “I… Yeah. Of course.” He smiled. This was one I hadn’t seen before. Not sweet. Not promising to devour my body. But one I imagined he gave to clients, or business people, or his tax guy.

Fuck. This was going to suck. “If you’re uncomfortable, I can get the list of properties together and give them to Regina. She can show them to you.”

He shot out of the chair. “No.” He cleared his throat, and then his voice was normal. “No. Not at all. I just wasn’t expecting to see you until toni—I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

Not graceful and then flustered. Maybe he was happy to see me. Maybe too much? Good God, I hoped so.

Why hope that? So what if he was glad to see me? He was here on business. He wasn’t staying. But he was looking at property, so maybe…

Pathetic scale. Pathetic scale. Oh my God, pathetic scale. Take it down a notch, Kelly. Or a thousand.

“Okay, if you’re sure then follow me to my office, and I’ll pull up some listings. I don’t have another client until noon, so I could show you a couple, if you have time.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I actually have all day. That’s what I scheduled with Regina. I figured I’d pick a place today and then use tomorrow to finalize plans.”

The thought of him planning to make such a huge decision and purchase within a matter of hours fit the mental picture I’d formed of him easily. Take charge; get what he wants. Never stutter or stumble. Yet… “Great, well, let’s get going. I’m sorry I don’t have all day like Regina, but I should be done with my other clients by five or so. If you… uhm… need more time.”

There was that grin. Wicked and full of promises. Thank God. It wasn’t all in my mind. “Oh, I’ll definitely need more time. No doubt.”

My brain fried, along with my power of speech.

I was going to end up in his bed again. Holy shit.

I motioned at the hallway with my chin and headed toward my office, deciding it was safer to avoid attempting intelligible speech. My office was directly across from Regina’s, which normally was great. She was a hoot, but I’d give anything to be as far away from her as possible at the moment.

Joel followed me in and stepped aside to allow me to shut the door, his gaze following my every move.

As soon as the door clicked, his hands were on me. Rough and strong. He pulled me around, and his right hand found its spot at the back of my head again as he covered my lips with his.

His kiss was a bit desperate, his mouth enveloping mine, his tongue exploring my depths. He smelled of soap, obviously from the hotel as it left him slightly lavender scented.

He pushed his weight into me, and we fell against the door with a bang, his body pressed against mine, his hardness erasing any doubt of his desire for me, if his kiss had left any at all.

Everything disappeared. The office, the lights, the sound of the nearby river, Lavender Shores. Hell, California might have crumbled into the ocean, and all I’d know was the feel of his heat, the pressure of his hands capturing me, the ache of my body, and the stirrings of a new kind of longing deep in my chest.

I lifted my hands to either side of his face, his short beard wonderfully scratchy against my palms. At my touch, he grunted and thrust against me. Once, twice, then again. Each time banging against the door. The fourth time—or maybe the tenth, who the fuck knew—the sound broke the magic, and the world came back. I managed to pull away slightly. “Wait.”

“What?” He was panting.

So was I. “Wait.” I sucked in my breath. “My boss. Across the hall.”

“So?”

He had a point. I started to kiss him again and then stopped, picturing her face. “No, I can’t, sorry. She’s my boss but also my best friend’s mom. She’s practically my second mom. I can’t do this with her in the next room.”

“Oh.” He heaved a heavy sigh then stepped back, giving me a little room but not much. “Okay. We can just go to my place and—” Whatever he thought poured over him like cold water. He took a step back, breaking contact. He nodded, ran his hand over his beard a couple of times, breathed deeply, and then nodded again with finality. “Right, okay.” He looked at me again, gave a partial Joel smile which transformed it to the one I’d seen in the lobby. “Okay. Business. That’s why I am here. That’s the point.” Another sigh and he motioned to the desk. “Let’s look at properties.”

The sting of rejection bit at me, which was ridiculous. He obviously wanted me, and I’d been the one who’d halted things. But the walls went up behind his green eyes so quickly it was chilling. I tried to shake it off. He was only respecting my wishes. I needed to get a grip. “Sure. Let’s do that.” I crossed the room, careful not to accidentally touch him in the small space, took my seat behind the desk, and powered up my computer. “While that’s loading, why don’t you tell me about your business?”

“Of course, you don’t know that yet.” A sad expression crossed his face, but then it was gone. “I’m looking at opening a coffee shop. Coffee shop and pastry bar type of thing.”

I halted, fingers poised above the keyboard, waiting to enter my password. Shit. He’d said one sentence, and I had to tell him no. Fuck. Maybe I didn’t have to tell him. I could show him the listings, spend more time with him. Spend the night.

Good God, what was I thinking?

I swiveled toward him. “I’m sorry, Joel, that won’t work.”

His head jerked, nearly unnoticeable, but the reaction was there. “Excuse me?”

I was surprised. Joel gave me the impression he was always in control. Always ten steps ahead of his opponent. Ready for anything. We’d spent a matter of hours together, so this clarified that I obviously knew nothing about the man, nor how to read him either. “Lavender Shores has very strict guidelines, regulations, and laws around anything business-related that comes into town. As you know, we’re surrounded on all sides by Point Reyes National Seashore, so there’s no place to grow. We can only have one business of each type. We already have a coffee shop in town and a bakery.”

Joel stared at me as if I’d spoken another language. He opened his mouth, shut it, then opened it again. “You’re telling me that since there’s a coffee shop in town I don’t have the option of even looking at property for one?”

I blinked. I couldn’t believe he’d come so far—to the point he planned on finding a property in one day—and hadn’t done his research on the town to know this. “Well, I can show you property, but it won’t help you. You won’t be allowed to buy it with the intent of opening another coffee shop.”

His eyes darted back and forth as he thought. His tongue flicked out to lick his lower lip—a motion I’d never be able to see anyone else make without thinking of him. Suddenly, his eyes cleared, he looked at me, and his smile returned. “Well, it doesn’t have to be a coffee shop. Why don’t you show me the best little places in town that are zoned for commercial, and I’ll go from there, come up with a business that Lavender Shores doesn’t have.” He stopped talking, like he had nothing else to say, which made absolutely no sense. And he clearly was waiting for me to respond.

“You want me to show you property, and you’ll just pick an approvable business later.” I lifted a brow. “Is that what you’re saying?”

He nodded, looking relieved. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Perfect.”

“But don’t you—”

“Andrew,” he cut me off. “I’ve already lost time this morning with Regina, and then I’ll lose several hours this afternoon while you’re with other clients. Do you mind just showing me property, and I promise that I’m capable of coming up with a satisfactory business?”

His tone wasn’t harsh, but I couldn’t help but feel reprimanded. I didn’t like it. I straightened my shoulders and turned back to the computer. “You got it. Available properties coming right up.”

Joel reached across the desk and placed his hand over my forearm. Despite my hurt feelings, I looked at him, right into those green eyes, and his walls were down.

“Andrew, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. Between my fa—uhm… business has been complicated lately. I’m just stressed. But none of that is your fault. At all. I’m the dipshit who showed up and hadn’t read the fine print.” He squeezed. “Sorry, really.”

I softened. He obviously meant it, but I felt a couple of bricks of my own walls go up. “Thanks, no problem.” I couldn’t help but smile at him before looking back at the monitor. “Let’s get going, then.”

One of the problems with limited space was the limited options. Obvious, to be sure, but it was a problem. Especially for Joel. Even as I looked at the two available places, I knew he wouldn’t like them. They weren’t bad; they just weren’t right. Both were too small and didn’t have much flexibility outside of being tiny little stores. One had been a souvenir shop until a month ago when the owner decided he was tired of small-town life. The other had been a little bookstore, but Ms. Jenkins had passed two weeks ago and the place was still filled with enough books to stock a store three times its size. But since Joel didn’t know what kind of shop he wanted to open, maybe I was wrong. Hell, maybe he’d just step into the musty bookstore and decide he wanted to sell books. I couldn’t see him doing such a thing, but what did I know?

We went to the bookstore first. Both shops were on the same block as Lavender Realty, so we didn’t have far to walk. We were silent on the way, which made the distance seem longer.

Joel took one look around and turned to face me. “This is it?”

I nodded.

“This is a shoebox.”

“Yeah, pretty small. But you’re not sure what kind of business you’re running, so maybe a bookshop?”

He looked around again, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and turned back to me. “I don’t think the smell of used books is a lifestyle choice I’m inclined to make. Maybe something a little less dusty?” He gave a small smile, relaxing me a bit.

“Okay the other one is just two doors down.” I locked up, and we started walking again. I paused at the store next door. “Oh, this is Lavender Leaves, er, the coffee and tea shop I was telling you about. Want to go in?”

He glanced up at the sign above the door, clearly not liking the name, and then peered in through the large window. Despite his tendency to wall up, it was so easy to see when he was thinking. I wasn’t sure what it was, but the wheels were definitely turning. He looked back at me as he readjusted the strap of his satchel. “No, that’s okay. I’ll go in and do some work on my laptop while I wait for you to finish up with your clients after me.”

Shit. Right. There were only two properties. Well, there was at least dinner. If I didn’t thoroughly piss him off with the corner shop.

He wasn’t pissed when we went in, but he wasn’t thrilled either. “This is bigger but still way too small for what I’m thinking.” He turned sharply toward the wall, his eyes narrowing. “Wait a minute, that’s the coffee shop next door, so it would be easy to tear out this wall or put in arched doorways.” He looked back at me again. “I bet I know what you’re going to say. No tearing down walls or combining businesses.”

I tried for an apologetic smile. “Yeah. To both.”

He let out an exasperated sigh and checked his watch. “It’s only ten; we’ve got lots of time still. What’s next?”

I hated to do this. “Actually, that’s all there is.”

He gaped at me. “What?”

“Yeah, sorry.” God, this was embarrassing. “I was hoping it would take longer and then you’d still need to see some showings this afternoon. Although I don’t know why I thought you’d spend two hours in a tiny bookshop.”

Disappointment flickered then vanished as he stepped closer. “Yeah? Keeping stuff from me to occupy my time, Mr. Kelly?”

My heart sped up. “Yeah. I guess so.”

He stretched out a hand, hooked a finger through my belt loop, and pulled me to him. “Not very professional of you.”

I hesitantly put my hand on his waist. “True. But my boss isn’t next door at the moment, so…”

Then his lips were on me, as were his hands.

All my thoughts of property and sales and lackluster real estate flitted away. I groaned and leaned into him, ready to let him take me, right there despite the large window to the street.

He pulled back abruptly. “Wait a minute.” He looked at me in confusion. “I thought you had other clients at noon.”

“I do.”

“Well, are you showing them these two properties or something else?”

Okay, apparently thoughts of real estate had fled my head. It was a struggle to focus again. Why the fuck were we talking when we should be fucking? “Uhm, no. Something else.”

“Why can’t I see that?”

“Why would you want to? They’re not businesses.” I realized what he was thinking when he continued to give me that confused look. “Oh, I also do residential real estate. I met a lesbian couple in San Fran the last time I was there. They wanted me to show them around rather than Regina since we already know each other.”

He processed that for a few seconds. “So there are a lot more residential properties available than commercial, I assume?”

“Yeah, even though we’re small, the population turns over almost twenty percent every few years, so with a couple thousand folks, that keeps us pretty busy. People move to Lavender Shores and are initially captivated by how beautiful everything is, but after a bit, they want a Target or a mall, and they move back to the city.”

Again, he was visibly planning and readjusting. I wished I could hear his thought process; it looked intense. Finally, he spoke. “How likely is it for one of those residential properties to get switched to commercial?”

He kept making me tell him no. He was going to start associating me with that word, which was the last thing I needed. “Sorry. That’s next to impossible. It would have to go through the city council, but I’ve never seen them make a decision like that.”

“If it’s a matter of cost, a charge to convert or whatever—”

“It isn’t.”

His lips tightened, and he looked around the space again. “Well, this is better than the bookstore in any case.”

Out of the blue, the thought hit me. So completely obvious I had no idea how it had failed to occur to me before. Although, if it had, I’d have been a nervous wreck the entire morning, more than I already was.

If Joel was opening a business here, then he was going to live here.

Joel was going to live in Lavender Shores.

Holy shit.

The way he’d made it seem, the night before was nothing more than a hookup. Like there was little chance we’d ever see each other again. But if he was looking to start a business in Lavender Shores, then he was planning on moving here.

Maybe I’d read him wrong. Maybe he was thinking… hoping…

Holy fuck.

“Andrew, are you okay? You’re looking pale.”

I tried to speak but couldn’t. If I did, I’d say something so ridiculously inappropriate and cross so many emotional boundaries that I’d scare him off forever. But holy shit. I held up a finger.

However, if I couldn’t find him anything good, then that chance was out the window. Completely. We’d be back to a hookup.

What was wrong with me? I’d been fine with that a moment ago, and now what? Picturing him in town, picturing him with me. Picturing every night in his bed?

Yep. That’s exactly what I was envisioning. Which proved I’d lost my fucking mind. I didn’t know him at all. Maybe he was crazy. He’d have to be crazy to buy a commercial property without even knowing what kind of business he’d be allowed to open.

But he’d fucking live here!

And I wanted that. Though it probably made me crazier than he was for his insane business idea.

Fuck.

The answer was obvious. Completely. Obvious and wrong. Gilbert would regret it if he sold. I’d been telling him that for years. But it had been years, and he was no closer to changing his mind. If anyone was going to take the place over, I’d want it to be Joel. Which, again, made me crazy. It was one night. He could move here and never want to see me again, and boy, would that make for a fun life.

Joel squeezed my shoulder. “Seriously, Andrew, are you okay?” His voice was heavy with concern. “You’re breathing like you’re about to have a panic attack.”

That’s because I was. Whatever. The care I saw in his eyes in that moment made up my mind, however crazy it was.

“Yeah, I am.” This would work. I could feel it. “Say, do you mind if we hit the pause button and resume this after my other showings?”

He let go of my shoulder, his expression guarded again. “Oh, sure. Sorry if I was too intense with all this. I just get a thought in my head and latch on to it. I wasn’t trying to pressure you. I know it’s not your fault there’s not enough property available.”

“Oh no, it’s not that. I just need to call my best friend.” Shit, I really was doing this. “I have an idea about a property for you, but I don’t want to get your hopes up, and I need to speak to him first. If I can get ahold of him, I’ll probably have an answer for you this afternoon.”

Joel’s eyes widened, and a hopeful grin brightened his face. “Well, sure. Thank you. I’ll be at the coffee shop around five. Waiting.”

“Okay.” Without thinking, I leaned over, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and turned to leave. As I did, I realized what I’d just done.

That wasn’t a kiss of a hookup or the preamble to a hot fuck. That was a “see you in a little bit, honey” kind of kiss. The kind I wanted to give him every day before he left for work.

Holy. Shit. I was screwed. Insane and screwed.

I’d known him for less than a hot minute, and I was imagining a life like fucking Donna Reed?

“Andrew.” Joel’s voice stopped me as I opened the door and stepped out.

I looked over my shoulder at him.

He was grinning. “You might wanna let me get out of here before you lock up.”

“Oh right. Sorry.” I felt my cheeks heat, and I stepped aside to let him pass. “I guess I got excited.”

“It’s all good.”

I locked the door, but before I could turn away to head back to the office, he gave me another kiss. Right on the street for everyone to see. Exactly the same kiss I’d given him. “See you in a bit.”