Will Solberg was slime.

Wait. No.

That was an insult to yogurt everywhere.

Will Solberg was a shitty human being.

Not only was he an abusive dick, he also took advantage of my girl when she was literally at her lowest and needed a friend. Sure, he might have pretended to be one, held her hand and picked up some mega medical bills, but…

That did not make him a knight on a white horse. Oh, hell no. He didn’t do any of that out of the kindness of his heart. Dude had a lump of coal in its place. He did all that as a down payment on what he knew was going to be a major star in the music industry.

To Will, Aerie wasn’t a person with feelings. She was dollar signs, prestige. A means to an end. Arm candy.

You know, she was the kind of respect and beauty a man tried to buy when he couldn’t get those things on his own.

I was pretty much boiling on the inside, knowing how badly he manipulated and used her. Only the worst kind of trash used a loved one’s death to get what he wanted.

The kicker? Aerie blamed herself for it. That was classic mental abuse right there. Made me want to physically abuse him. In the face. With a chair.

Too graphic?

I didn’t think so, either.

As I drove, headlights slashed over the dark pavement, and I wondered how the fuck he managed to get her to marry him. Clump nugget new she was just searching for a way to get away from him, and he managed to chain her even tighter.

How the hell I was going to get him out of her life once and for all? Because, oh, he was on his way out. Jackass sent men to scare her, possibly hurt her. Game over for him.

Game on for me.

I had no idea what I was going to do, and it would be so easy to get lost inside my head right now, trying to figure it out. I couldn’t, though. As much as I wanted to plot, there was something more important than getting that sleaze out of Aerie’s life.

Aerie.

She didn’t know what to make of my silence. I could tell by the way she fidgeted in her seat, by the way she looked astonished when I told her I still thought of her as a princess.

I had no idea what to say. I didn’t have a lot of experience with girl drama. Hell, I didn’t even watch reality TV. Not that I thought she was being dramatic. If I had, I probably could have come up with something to say.

This shit was real. And she trusted me enough to spill it all, something she clearly didn’t have much experience with. I felt I was creeping around on tiptoes, worried I would say the wrong thing and blow the gift she gave me.

Truth was I wanted her. Everything about her.

Except her husband. Him… I’d have to do away with.

Geesh, no, I wasn’t going to murder him.

Though the thought did cross my mind.

I didn’t care where she came from or how she got here. All I needed were the words to tell her. A way to make her really believe.

“Wasn’t that the turn to your house?” she asked, tapping on the window as we went past.

“We’re not going home just yet.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be alone with you.”

“You do?” she whispered.

I smiled.

A few minutes later, I pulled onto the street where the music department was located on Blaylock’s campus.

“This is your school?” she asked, face pressed to the window.

“Yep.”

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “I never went to college.”

“Is that something you wanna do?” I asked, curious.

“I’m really not sure.”

I parked behind the building near a side door only staff used. The back of the building was filled with shadows. Most of the lights were at the front and in the parking lot.

“Let’s go.” I gestured, getting out of the car. I had a key to the department, courtesy of my father (with approval from the dean), from when I’d been working here with Ten. We liked to come at night when no one else was around. The acoustics with the piano in the auditorium were pretty good.

“Are we allowed to be here?” she whispered as I unlocked the door and ushered her inside.

“I have a key, don’t I?”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?”

I chuckled and took her hand. “I wouldn’t do anything that would put you in danger, okay?”

She nodded.

Our footsteps echoed down the hall. I switched on the lights as we went. Toward the end, I tugged her around to a large wooden door and pulled her inside. It was dark, but I was familiar with the space. Keeping hold of her hand, I led her to where I wanted.

“Stay here.”

“Why are you always bringing me to dark places and then leaving me alone?” she quipped. “I’m starting to think you’re super weird, Nate.”

“It’s part of my charm,” I called out, then flipped a switch.

I heard her gasp and smiled. Her back was to me when I came up behind her. She didn’t even hear me. She was too busy looking out over the empty auditorium.

“Still think I’m weird?” I murmured in her ear, sliding my arms around her from behind.

“This is beautiful,” she murmured.

“Yeah. It’s one of the newer buildings. It’s even nicer when it’s all lit up.”

“I like it the way it is,” she mused, glancing up at the vaulted ceilings overhead.

From our position on the stage, we could see equipment and ropes, all the behind-the-scenes stuff that people in the audience couldn’t. As a backdrop, there were heavy velvet drapes in the university’s primary burgundy color.

The only lights I turned on hung from the ceiling on long black chains, looking sort of like oversized lightbulbs. The hardwood underfoot was glossy and shiny where the light hit, and in the center of the majestic stage was a wooden grand piano.

Sitting down on the long, tufted-velvet bench, I hit a few keys, playing a simple melody. Aerie smiled and sat beside me, close enough that her leg and hip pressed against mine.

I still had no idea what to say to her. Finding words wasn’t always easy… so I thought perhaps I’d try it this way.

My fingers moved over the keys, not as graceful as I would like, but skilled enough. I played a song I knew by heart, then segued into a few things I’d written, but didn’t have any lyrics for. Aerie laid her head on my shoulder. I heard her sigh beside my ear. Her hand moved to rest on the top of my thigh, making my fingers stumble on the keys.

She giggled a little, and it was prettier than the music I played. I thought back to the morning in her living room when we were both by the fire. The moment the attraction between us became undeniable. The moment we connected. Automatically, my fingers began playing the song I’d been working on, the song she’d added to without any difficulty at all.

The melody was a little different on the piano than the guitar, but she recognized it.

Lifting her cheek off my shoulder, she looked at me. I still played, but my eyes collided with hers.

“Sometimes it feels like you were just a dream,

“A wish floating through reality.

“At night, I wait for sleep to claim me,

“To hear your voice, remember your face,

“but when I open my eyes, you’re gone without a trace.”

Aerie’s voice picked up when mine faded away. My heart turned over as she sang, because she remembered the words from that day.

She remembered our song.

A song not really about us, but our song just the same.

“Lost in the past, nonexistent in the future.

“Which is worse? I’m just not sure.

“Looking in the mirror, a reflection gazes back,

“But it isn’t me.

“It isn’t me.

“It’s how I know you weren’t a dream,

“A wish floating through reality.

“Memories are hard to keep

“But you’re always there, aren’t you?

“Buried down deep, always there when I’ve had too much reality.”

When the last of the music echoed out into the audience, my fingers stayed perched over the ivory for a few moments before retreating into my lap.

“You know you can’t go back to him, right?” I told her quietly.

“I don’t want him.”

Gazing down into my lap, I watched her hand slowly glide over the side of my leg, fingers extending toward mine. Opening my hand, palm up, I waited for her to arrive.

“I don’t care that you’re married. About the rumors, where you grew up, or even that you like yogurt.”

She made a sound between a groan and a laugh. “Everything I just told you—”

I cut her off. “Doesn’t change how I feel. I told you back at your house. I’m telling you now. I’m just going to keep saying it.”

“How do you feel?” she whispered.

Suddenly, I knew what all those guys on TV felt like. You know, the ones in charge of choosing the red or blue wire? Cutting the wrong one would blow up everyone. I was so nervous my hands were getting clammy.

Without thinking, I let go of her hand and wiped my palms down the thighs of my jeans.

“You make me nervous.” The words spilled out, and I wanted to bang my head on the keys.

She giggled. “You make me nervous, too.”

Everything inside me quieted. My head whipped around. “I do?” I’d never made anyone nervous before. Not in a good way anyway. I cocked my head to the side. “In a good way?”

A small smile played on her lips. “Depends on what your answer is to that question I asked you.”

I rubbed my hands on my jeans again. “I think maybe I’m in love with you.”

Her breath caught. It was sort of a gasp, sort of a choked sound.

Great. I was choking her.

An edible arrangement probably wasn’t going to fix this.

“It’s a really good kind of way.”

My head shot up. “Really?”

She laughed, but it was cut off when I pressed my mouth to hers. Aerie grabbed my wrists as I held her face and the kiss stretched on and on.

Desire flooded my system so hard and so fast nothing else mattered. I grabbed her, pulling her into my lap. Her legs wrapped around my waist, bringing her core right up against me.

Deep in my jeans, my balls tingled and my cock jerked. She must have felt the stony length because she rocked against it, and I groaned. Kissing her still, I grabbed her hips and made her rock into me again… and again.

Pulling back just enough, I sucked her lower lip into my mouth, then nibbled at it with my teeth. Her hips thrust again, and mine arched up to meet her.

Aerie ripped her mouth away and I tried to follow, but she laid a palm on my chest and said my name.

I blinked, trying to think with my head and not my dick, but it was really, really hard (both thinking and my dick).

“Nate,” she said again.

“Hm?” I managed.

“You’re so beautiful,” I told her, “so fucking beautiful.”

“There’s still a part of me you haven’t discovered tonight,” she said, her fingers playing with the hem of my shirt.

My mouth ran dry. “Don’t say shit like that to me, princess.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ll lay you out on this piano and play your body like a guitar.”

“I was kinda hoping you would.”

I stood up so fast the bench beneath us clattered to the stage. Her arms gripped my shoulders; her legs locked around my waist. Her ass hit the top of the piano at the same time her feet hit the keys, making the space echo with sound.

I pulled off her shoes and threw them behind me, then caught her stare and held it. “If we do this, you’re officially mine.”

“I was officially yours before our first kiss.”

Need hammered inside me so hard. Harder than it ever had before. I lifted the hem of my hoodie—the one that looked hella better on her than me—and tugged it over her head.

When it was gone, I lowered it and said, “I don’t share.”

“Neither do I.”

Holy shit, the way she arched her brow and said that made it physically painful to wear these jeans. I spread the hoodie out on top of the piano. Aerie ripped at my shirt until it disappeared somewhere with her shoes.

I knew I wasn’t nearly as buff as any of the men she was used to seeing, but when her eyes scraped down my body, I saw only want. It kinda blew my mind.

More music filled the auditorium when I pulled off her jeans and tossed them over my shoulder. Leaning down, I kissed the inside of her knee. She made a sound, and I smiled, licking farther up the inside of her leg. Her knees fell open, giving me some space.

Gliding my fingertips up her calf, around the outside of her knee, and then up to caress the side of her hip, my fingers played with the edge of her panties as my lips drew dangerously close to her inner thigh.

“Nate,” she whispered. The quiver to her voice only spurred me on.

“Lie back, princess,” I said, using my free hand to push her down against the hoodie.

Once she was spread out, her knees bent, feet still resting on the keys, I pushed her legs wide and had a perfect view of her entrance.

As I climbed my hands up the insides of her legs, she shivered a little, her hands gripping the edge of the piano. Her panties were pale pink, trimmed with lace. Dipping under the edges, I caressed the area where her legs met her body. I trailed my fingers around the sides of her opening, teasing the silky skin then slipping away made her squirm.

Pulling back, I swiped my hand up her center over her panties. She gasped and her legs started to close.

Chuckling, I pushed her legs open again and kissed all the way up to her inner thigh. One of her hands found its way into my hair, tangling in the strands and urging me on. I sucked deeply at the softness of her inner thigh, then dipped beneath her panties again.

She was soaked. Her body clearly liked the sweet torture I was making her endure.

Unable to stop myself, I tugged down the underwear, baring her completely. Palming her inner thighs, I pushed, feeling as if I were pulling back the curtains to reveal a beautiful day. Aerie whispered my name the second I dipped into her wetness, swirled my slick finger around her swollen clit, then pushed two fingers into her tight, warm body.

She arched up off the piano, and I pushed her back down, descending upon her center with my mouth.

The first lick made me high; the second made me an addict. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs as I licked and teased her body, all the while fucking her with my fingers and feeling her legs quiver around my head.

Her hand tightened in my hair, almost to the point of pain. With one last lick up her center, I pulled away.

“Don’t go,” she whispered, reaching for me but meeting air.

All my clothes met the floor, and I climbed on the piano, caging her in with my body.

Her hands started running over my naked form, exploring and driving me wild. Dipping my head, I made love to her with my tongue. The taste of her sweetness lingered between us and reminded me there was so much more of her I had left to taste.

“Shirt,” I told her, and she immediately tossed it away.

The second she was on her back, her hips thrust upward, seeking mine, but I made a sound and worked my way down her body, kissing and stroking until my lips closed around one of her swollen nipples.

Aerie cried out, but I kept sucking, then moved on to the next. Her legs locked around my hips, and I thrust toward her, allowing my hard dick to slide over her opening, but not penetrate.

The feel of her silk sliding over me caused my entire body to shudder. My head lifted, no longer able to just kiss her. All train of thought condensed into getting inside her body.

Aerie reached between us, wrapping her hand around my length and stroking upward. I sank down on top of her, my body pressing her into the piano. “I want you so much,” I whispered in her ear.

Her palm flattened on my shoulder, and she shoved up.

I moved instantly, thinking my weight was too much for her to take. When I glanced down to apologize, I noted how dilated her eyes were and how unfocused her stare was. “I want you.”

I practically leapt off the piano and fished around in my jeans until I found what I needed. Ripping open the packet with my teeth, I rolled the condom over my length in record time.

The second I came over her again, Aerie pulled me down so we were chest to chest. “I’m covered.” I assured her, and she smiled. Her head lifted off my hoodie beneath her, and we kissed.

With a single plunge, we joined, and everything else ceased, even our kiss. Keeping myself still, I gazed down through heavy-lidded eyes. Holding my gaze, she moved, stroking my dick with her tight, warm walls.

I moaned and started to move, thrusting into her over and over. She met my thrusts with some of her own. Her enthusiasm only fueled my desire and made me want to give her more.

Sweat beaded my back. My body screamed for release, but I denied myself and thrust as deep as I could go.

“Look at me,” I demanded.

Her eyes opened, and she smiled.

“I don’t maybe love you. I fucking do.”

“I love you, too, Nate.”

It was as if she lit a flare in the middle of the darkest night. Waved a red flag in front of an already incensed bull.

“Say it again,” I growled and pushed into her again.

Her body slid up the piano with my thrust. Her hands wrapped around my biceps for an anchor.

“I love you.”

The little bit of control I managed to hold on to snapped. My hand wrapped around the edge of the piano above her head, and I used it as leverage as I thrust inside her again.

“There.” She gasped, her eyes opening wide.

I rocked, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Her moans of pleasure coupled with the feel of her nails biting into my back sent me over the edge. I shuddered and cried out as I exploded into her body.

Even after I came down from the high of being inside her, I stayed where I was, buried deep. My arms were quivering, but it didn’t matter. I kissed her temple, along her hairline, and then the corner of her eye.

Her arms slipped around my waist and tugged me down. After a moment, I shifted, rolling so she was atop me and I was bearing her weight.

Air brushed over our bare skin, and for the first time since we got here, I wondered if maybe a bed with blankets would have been better for our first time.

“You’re really good at this,” she purred.

I couldn’t help but grin up at the ceiling. I totally rocked her world.

“You seem surprised.” My voice rumbled out of me, sounding a lot rougher than normal.

“I really shouldn’t be anymore. Everything about you surprises me.”

Gently, I pulled my hand through the strands of her tangled hair.

“I didn’t know men like you actually existed.” She confided as if she’d just discovered some sacred secret.

My chest swelled with love. And pride.

“They don’t,” I quipped. “I’m limited edition.”

“I really think you are,” she responded, snuggling her cheek into my chest a little bit farther.

My stomach flipped. Those damn butterflies in there were misbehaving. “I meant it, you know. It wasn’t just the heat of the moment.”

Propping her chin on my chest, she asked, “What?”

“I love you.” I’d never said that to anyone before.

Her face softened. “I really love you, too.”

Priceless. Hearing that. Having her love. It was absolutely priceless.

I kissed her quick. “We should probably get dressed. If the janitor comes in here and sees my girl in the buff, I’ll have to take him out.”

She gasped and sat up, covering her perfect breasts with her arms. “The janitor!”

I chuckled. “So gullible. I’d never strip you down if I thought there was even a chance someone else might see.”

She stuck out her tongue at me, and renewed desire caught fire inside my body.

Leaping down off the piano, I gathered all our clothes and laid hers on the piano. After I tossed the rubber and put on my jeans, I helped her get dressed, letting my fingers linger on her skin.

Abruptly, she spun, fell against my chest, and kissed me wholeheartedly.

I could get used to this.

I was used to it.

Aerie was mine, and I wasn’t about to give her up.

But if I was honest, totally honest, she wasn’t one hundred percent mine.

She couldn’t be.

Not while she was legally someone else’s wife.