Since Kevin’s place was closer, they went there, after racing down Heart Attack Hill and into their respective cars. As soon as they were both inside his loft, with the door closed and locked behind them, he stripped off his clothes and headed for the shower.

“I’m starting with a clean slate,” he told her. “And you’re invited too, though you smell amazing covered in sweat.”

“Oh please,” she scoffed. “No one smells amazing covered in sweat. How big is your shower? Can it fit both of us?”

“I’ve never tried, but this might be the perfect time to find out.” He took her by the hand and led her into the bathroom, where they looked at the shower stall and burst out laughing.

“Yeah, maybe not.” She peered at the rickety frosted-glass panel that he hadn’t gotten around to replacing. “I like the theory, but in reality, I can picture my elbow going right through that door.”

“Wait here. Please don’t go anywhere.” Still chuckling, the way he seemed to do so often around Cassie, he stepped into the shower and quickly rinsed off. He didn’t want to give himself time for second thoughts. This was happening. He wanted it to happen, more than anything. He was following his gut, the way he always used to before he’d become Cautious Dad material. They’d figure out the fallout later. It would all be A-okay.

When he stepped out of the shower, Cassie was nude, behind a towel, which she was holding for him. All those sweet bare curves hidden behind terrycloth—he couldn’t stand it. He reached for the towel, but she forestalled him by wrapping it around him, pinning his arms to his sides. With a grin, she skipped around him and dove into the shower.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” he called over the sound of the rushing water cascading over her. Behind the frosted glass, through the steam, her sexy silhouette made his imagination go wild.

By the time she stepped out of the shower, he had a full-on, hard-as-rock erection, which he didn’t bother to hide as he toweled off his hair. She blinked water out of her eyes and stood dripping on the bath mat, all long legs and sleek skin, swelling curves and strong forearms.

Funny thing to notice, forearms—but hers were truly something thanks to all the wrenching she did. He reached for one hand and bent over to rain kisses onto the corded tendons that ran between her wrist and her elbow.

“There’s a lot of competition, but this part of your body might be top of my favorites list.” He turned her arm over to expose the inner skin, so fragile compared to the tanned outer surface.

“My arms?” She sounded both confused and breathless. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. These are hard-working, kickass, badass arms. Sexy as fuck.”

She giggled, so much more girly than her usual style. “You’re not a typical guy, are you? Aren’t most men all about the tits and ass?”

Boom, his arousal rose another big notch up the dial. “Tits and ass, it’s good stuff. Not saying no to all that.” Especially hers, especially with shower water still running down her body. He put a finger under her right nipple. A droplet was tracing a curve around her breast and he caught it on the tip of his finger. He didn’t even touch her nipple, but even so, it tightened. “You are so fucking gorgeous. Your nipples make me want to cry. They’re like the perfect shade of coral, like the inside of a conch shell.” Delicately, he touched her nipple—so responsive, it hardened again. “And then they turn a kind of wine color. What’s that pink wine…rosé? Never got inspired to drink it, until now.”

She closed her eyes as he bent over even farther and touched his tongue to her nipple. Her warmth radiated through the fresh taste of clean skin. He couldn’t get enough of the way her flesh peaked under his stroking. It drove him mad, the pebbled hardness swelling against his tongue, the softness of the areola. He drew the plump curve into his mouth, feasting on her sighs and moans. Dimly, he felt her nails scratching up and down his back, urging him on, harder, faster. His cock throbbed with need.

One of her legs wrapped around his, her pelvis pressing against his groin. “Weren’t you saying something about a bed?” she whispered in his ear. She tugged on his earlobe with her teeth. In response, he stroked the flat on his tongue hard across her nipple, then followed up with his fingers, pinching just hard enough to draw a gasp from her.

“Holy shit, Kevin.” She gripped his shoulders. He felt a rush of wet heat against his cock. “That feels incredible.”

He sucked on her neck, tracing a path of nibbles up the tendon to her jaw. “I could just eat you up, every bit of you.”

“Not stopping you,” she gasped.

He hoisted her up so both of her legs were wrapped around him and clamped his hands on her ass. He walked with her out the door, leaving damp footprints across the hardwood floor all the way to his bedroom.

He had a king-size bed because he was a sprawler, and always seemed to end up with one part of his body dangling off the edge. But right now, that king-size looked just about perfect for the amount of romping he wanted to do with Cassie. He hadn’t made his bed this morning—he’d intended to do it as soon as he got back from running. It was the usual tangled mess of navy-blue sheets, with the duvet halfway onto the floor.

With her still clinging to him, arms locked behind his neck, he set one knee on the edge of the bed. Before he could go any farther, she let go of her grip and dropped onto the mattress with a bounce. She leaned back on her elbows, her glorious breasts with their wine-coral nipples calling to him like twin sirens. Her skin glowed like pearls against the blue of his sheet.

She rolled over and over, sprawling across his bed, as if she were making snow angels in his sheets, or posing like Marilyn Monroe against velvet.

“Sheets, just like you wanted,” she said with a wink. “Anything else you have in mind?”

“Just you and me, babe. You and me and maybe a condom.” He crossed to his nightstand, his penis bobbing almost painfully as he walked. He found a condom and quickly ripped it open. Their time was ticking away, and if he didn’t get inside her before too long, heads were going to roll. Or explode.

He was so throbbingly hard that he struggled to get the condom on. He’d always hated the things, but never again would he take a chance until he was one hundred percent sure he was on the same page with a woman. He’d learned his lesson, thanks to Sylvie.

He felt Cassie’s foot trace a path up the back of his thigh, and turned around. Why’d he have to think about Sylvie at a time like this? Ancient fucking history. This was now, and Cassie was a completely different type of woman. She wasn’t a selfish person who put her partying above everything else.

Not that Cassie didn’t like to party. They had met at a bar, after all. And here she was, rolling around on his sheets like some kind of nude model.

“What’s going on?” Cassie asked softly.

And that was another thing. Cassie cared about other people. She might act like she didn’t need anyone, but she adored her brothers, and she’d essentially sacrificed years of her life to look after her mother. If she became a part of his and Holly’s lives, she wouldn’t flit away at the first sign of trouble.

Or would she? Hadn’t she left Jupiter Point after problems with a boy?

“Just…thoughts,” he said. Fuck, none of this mattered now. This was sex, pure and simple. No need to torture himself.

“You’re overthinking again, aren’t you?”

He fisted his latex-covered cock, which was just as hard as before he’d started thinking. “Maybe a little, but don’t worry, I’m putting this guy in charge now. And he has a few ideas about what to do with this incredible naked woman in my bed.”

Questions still lingered in her eyes, but she smiled anyway. “If he’s anything like the rest of you, he has all kinds of good ideas. I’m all ears. Okay, not all ears.” With a smirk, she let her hand wander to her own pussy.

He licked his lips, since one of his ideas had to do with tasting her just there. He came to her, straddling her body, her legs nestled between his knees. She squirmed a little, a delicious little twist of her body that made his mouth water.

“Stay still,” he told her. “I need to look at you. And taste you.”

He licked her nipples again and it was like coming home. Except now they were hotter, spicier somehow, more flushed with blood. He gorged himself again, then licked his way down the valley between her breasts, across the trembling muscles of her belly, to the nest of curls that, oddly enough, echoed Cassie’s personality. Bouncy, beautiful, silky.

He parted her legs with his head to make space for his mouth, then dragged his tongue across her clit. She gave a soft cry and jolted toward him. He felt the hard rise of the little kernel of flesh rolling against his tongue. It was absolutely intoxicating to him, especially when she gave those little moans and whimpers, and twisted her hips to get closer.

Her flavor was so addictive, more like a drug that shot adrenaline-like into his bloodstream. She slid across his tongue, slippery and so tender, every bit of her soft and luscious as some kind of wild fruit. He danced his mouth across her clit, kissing and nibbling with his lips. He curled his fingers in the soft hair adorning her pubic mound, tugged lightly, just enough to stimulate, not harm.

“Jesus, Kevin! This is insane. You’re driving me literally insane.”

“Good. That’s what you’ve been doing to me since I first met you.” He growled the words against her sex. Nibbled. Tugged. Stroked and licked until she burst into a wild climax, her heels digging into his mattress. She let out a long, low wail. The sound shivered up his spine. He wouldn’t be surprised if that alone could make him come.

But of course he wanted more. He wanted inside. He rose up, his lips and mouth tingling madly. He ran his tongue across them, lapping up the last delicious traces of her flavor.

She reached for his cock and wrapped her hand around it. “I want to taste you too,” she said lustfully, “but right now I’d get a mouthful of latex. Next time, wait for that condom, would you?”

Next time…he liked the sound of that. “You got it, darlin’. But for right now, let’s keep it simple. My cock. Your pussy. I think that’s about all we need here. You ready?”

She gave a strangled scream of mock-frustration. “If I was any more ready, I’d be a puddle on the floor.” She ran one leg up his thigh, so sexy, and that was all the invitation he needed.

He set the swollen head of his shaft at her juicy entrance. Even that contact felt so good that he groaned. Then he pushed inside, her channel opening for him, her slick inner walls embracing him as if that was exactly where he belonged.

Oh God—the heat, the tightness, the wild joy of connecting with her like this. He braced himself over her, arms trembling with the effort of not exploding right away. He wanted this to be so good for her, he wanted to ride a second wave of orgasm with her.

He thrust, deep and thorough, with the sense of leaving no bit of her un-pleasured. He watched her closely, noting every micro-expression that crossed her face. The way her eyes went hazy as he stroked, the way she bit her lip, the flush that came and went in her cheeks. Her sighs, her whimpers, the hot scent of arousal, even the hint of sweat mingling with it—all of it spun around him like an enchantment. He could do this forever, living for each sign of pleasure he elicited from her. It felt timeless, with no beginning and no end, just the two of them utterly wrapped up in each other, their bodies joined like two elements combining.

God, where were these crazy thoughts coming from?

Right behind those came other, cruder thoughts. Fuck, this is good. Damn, it feels good to be inside you. I’m going to come so hard, like a nuclear bomb.

Sadly, those were the thoughts that actually came out of his mouth. Or something like them, anyway. He heard some “fucks” spilling out, and a “baby, you’re so hot,” and maybe a few “Jesuses.”

Typical guy stuff, probably.

She didn’t seem to mind, but then again, she was Cassie, and he’d heard the kind of language she used while she was wrestling with an ornery valve or a fuel line.

This was Cassie, who would fix cars and swear like a sailor and make goofy faces and turn him on with nothing more than a flick of her hair over her shoulder, and oh God…

“I’m going to come,” he warned her in a growl. “Can’t hold back any more.”

She arched up against him in an eager thrust. “Do it. Come. Fuck me, Kevin. Fuck me good.”

If she was going to talk like that, he didn’t stand a chance of drawing this out any further. He gave one last hard stroke and the orgasm burst through him like a fireball. It traveled down his spine and through his cock, into her body. The muscles of her channel fluttered around him—her own orgasm? God, he hoped so, with one part of his mind. The other part was all pure, primal, grunting ecstasy.

The long, low growl coming from his throat said it all, caveman style. Sex, good. Woman, un-fucking-believable.

When every drop of pleasure had been wrung out of him, he dropped his forehead to touch hers. He kissed between her eyebrows, the little indentation at the top of her nose, then down the bridge of her nose to her mouth. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing hard. He found her lips, full and parted, maybe a little dry from all that panting. He brushed his lips against their surface, rough here, tender there.

Why wasn’t she saying anything?

Oh fuck. What if he’d disappointed her? What if the intense, amazing pleasure he’d just experienced was all on his side? Sure, she’d orgasmed before, with his mouth on her pussy. But maybe she was hoping for more, and he hadn’t delivered.

“That was just a first try,” he murmured. “I can do better.”

Her eyes flew open.

As a former Air Force pilot, he was very familiar with the sky and the many different kinds of blue you could see when you were piloting a jet through the layers of the atmosphere. Her eyes reminded him of the achingly pure light-filled shade you saw after bursting through the clouds, an endless, arching expanse of perfection.

“You’re an idiot,” she said amiably.

Okay, that kind of punctured the moment. “I am?”

She rolled him over so she was on top, and rested her chin on his rib cage. Her hair spilled across his chest, tickling his still-sensitive skin. “You’re worried that I might be disappointed, aren’t you? Because of what I said before?”

“Well, yeah.” Seemed logical to him.

“How could I be disappointed when you made sure I came first? When you got me so aroused I was practically dripping? When you never stopped paying attention to me the entire time? I don’t think you understand that it doesn’t always play out that way.”

“So you’re happy?”

“I’m happy. I’m incredibly happy. And not one bit disappointed. Except for the fact that we can’t stay in bed and do that a hundred more times because you have to pick up Holly soon, right?”

“Shit.” He shot up to his knees. Damn, he’d actually forgotten about Holly. Like, forgotten that he had a daughter, a family, a life. He’d been so focused on Cassie, everything else had gotten obliterated.

He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and checked the time. Ten minutes, whew. It could have been hours too late, and he might not have been aware. Sex with Cassie had practically stopped time. Or at least his awareness of it. “Okay, I’m fine. I have exactly ten minutes to prove how great I am at cuddling. Particularly spooning. Spooning is my specialty.”

He snuggled up against her, his front against her back, adjusting her position so her curves nestled against him. He stroked her hair away from her neck, where it was sticking against her damp skin. He blew on it lightly, making the downy wisps at her hairline lift.

“Mmm, that does feel good,” she murmured, her body melting against his. “I bow to your mastery of the art of cuddling.”

He stroked the curve of her hipbone and settled his hand just there, in the divot between the bone and the soft skin leading to her private area. “What about the rest of it? No bowing down to that?”

“Jury’s still out,” she teased, wiggling her ass against his groin. “I wouldn’t want to jump to any conclusions based on one single time.”

“That’s a really good point. I deserve more opportunities to prove myself. Lots more. As soon as possible.”

She giggled, then turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. Her expression was more serious now. “So you’re okay with all this?”

“Very okay. Are you?”

“I am. As long as we both know exactly what we’re doing, I’m not worried at all.” She rolled all the way over so they were face to face. “I was thinking about Holly, and your worries about her. The main thing is that she should never feel that she comes second, or that her feelings don’t matter. Is that about right?”

He nodded slowly. “Her life was pretty chaotic while I was in the Air Force. She got dragged around to wherever Sylvie took her. I wanted to change that. I wanted to give her stability, like what I got when I was a kid. I never had to think about things like where I would be next year or if people were going to accept me. Holly has it extra-hard because she’s half Asian. Just walking through the door, she knows she might stand out. Not always, but sometimes. She handles it well, but I feel like it’s my job to minimize all the other stresses in her life. Shit, she’s in the teenage years now. And that’s even harder these days, with all the social media crap.”

Her gaze softened and she reached out to touch his cheek. “You’re a good father.”

“No.” Vehemently, he shook his head. “For a bunch of years, I left it all in Sylvie’s hands. All I cared about was my exciting fucking Air Force career.”

“What’s wrong with that? That’s a noble calling, serving your country. Not everyone can fly those jets.”

“I know. But if you’re hurting the people close to you, it doesn’t feel so noble. I never asked Sylvie if she was okay being a military wife. I never asked if she’d be happy raising a kid basically alone. I had this idea that it was supposed to be that way. I’m the man, she’s the woman. That’s the way of the world. Then one leave, I came home and I couldn’t even find Holly. Sylvie had left her with her best friend, Tina. But Tina had gotten in a car accident—with Holly in the car. She was unconscious and they called social services to take Holly. Not even Sylvie knew where she was. We both freaked out.”

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. He hated that memory.

“It sounds like one of those fluky accidents, not anyone’s fault.”

“Yeah well, I was never going to let that happen again. I resigned from the Air Force as soon as we found Holly. I told Sylvie I was going to be home full time, and she could either stay or not, it was up to her. She filed for divorce about a week later. Our relationship was essentially dead by then, I don’t blame her. Like I said, I only blame myself.”

He could tell from Cassie’s sympathetic expression that she wanted to say something more about his great parenting, and he really didn’t want to hear it. He threw up a hand and said with a grin, “You don’t have to tell me how awesome I am, I’m already on board with that. Holly gave me one of those Greatest Dad in the World mugs and I about burst into tears.”

She smiled. “That must have been in her younger years. Now she seems a lot more jaded.”

“She might seem that way, but I know better. You should see her when her favorite Rihanna song shows up on her playlist.”

Talking about his daughter made his throat ache with love and worry. Would that feeling ever go away? He hadn’t fully experienced it until he had sole responsibility for Holly. Before then, he’d been so easygoing when it came to being a father. His biggest angst was trying to decide between a panda bear and a koala at the airport gift shop.

But still, he wouldn’t go back to his old life, not in a million years. The day-in, day-out with Holly, that was worth any sacrifice.

“I’m lucky,” he said seriously. “I really am. And I’m not going to mess up Holly’s life any more than I have already. That’s my one big goal in life now.” His phone buzzed. “That’s her, ready for pickup.”

“Let me grab my clothes and I’ll go.” She slid off the bed. “Thanks for telling me all that. I can see why you’re so protective now. I get it, and I’m totally on board.”

She disappeared into the bathroom and he heard the sound of water running. With a long breath, he shoved his hands through his hair. It was tough, talking about that kind of thing. But it had to be done.

Because no matter how mind-blowing and earth-shaking sex with Cassie was, no matter how much he felt for her—which might be more than he was ready to admit—Holly came first. He’d made that promise to her, and to himself, and he wouldn’t break it. Not even if he crushed his own heart in the process.