For the third day in a row, Maddy found herself working late. She didn’t really mind—she was digging the work and the freedom she’d been given to really put her mark on things. She hadn’t wanted to say it, but Purely Pleasure’s social media presence had been kind of neglected. A lot of basics that should’ve been implemented a while ago were missing, and she was already drawing up a list of changes that needed to be made and possible ad cost increases across the board.

She glanced at her phone, realizing it was nearly ten o’clock. Getting up, she raised her arms above her head, her eyes closing as she enjoyed the stretch. She needed to get back to yoga class. She’d stopped when she’d lost her last job, but now she could afford to start going again.

She’d kicked off her heels earlier, and she didn’t feel like putting them back on, so she headed to the break room barefoot. After all, she was the only one still working. Everyone else had gone hours ago.

The rest of the office was dark as she walked through the hall, the back-up lights her only guide as she made her way into the room, popped a K-cup into the coffee maker and brewed herself a cup. She was just stirring in milk when a loud whooping sound broke through the utter silence of the outer office.

Maddy yelped in surprise, dropping the cup. It shattered at her feet, splashing hot liquid over her bare legs. She yelped again, stumbling backward, right onto the broken glass. Ow! Ow! She bit her lip, wincing at the pain as blood welled up on her heel.

She heard some hurried footsteps, and then to her utter humiliation, Carter appeared in the doorway of the break room, looking alarmed.

“Shit!” he said, his green eyes widening as he took in her bare and now bloody foot. “Don’t move,” he ordered softly, hurrying over. He knelt down in one swift movement, and all the adrenaline that had rushed through her with the injury suddenly rushed in a very different direction.

What was it about a man on his knees in front of her that just… it made her want things. It made her want to pull up the hem of her skirt and hook her leg around his shoulders… and to want his mouth sucking and licking at her through the lace of her panties. It made her want to get down there on the ground with him, their bodies pressed against each other until one of them gave in, rolling the other to the floor, the length of his body covering hers…

“Let me see your foot,” he said, reaching out, looking up at her for her permission before he touched her. She gave him the barest nod, unable to stop the shiver that went through her as his hand closed around her bare ankle.

“Ouch, that looks like it hurts,” he said, clearly mistaking her trembling for pain instead of…

Lust. Desire.

Want.

Oh, she wanted. It had been months since David had dumped her, and she had been keeping to herself, too angry, too humiliated, too raw to even think about dating. And every time she even contemplated a one-night stand, David’s words would just echo inside her head. Contrary to her ex’s assumptions about her past, she had never actually had a one-night-stand. And jumping into a new relationship seemed like a bad idea.

Which is how she’d ended up being celibate for six very, very long months.

Suffice to say, her collection of Purely Pleasure toys had gotten quite a workout. And now the inventor of those toys was on his knees in front of her, looking like the most delicious hunk of man she’d ever seen.

She was so screwed. Or rather not.

Oh, God, stop making bad jokes.

“Steady,” he said. “This is gonna hurt. On three.” His fingers closed around the shard of glass still embedded in her heel. “One. Two.” She tensed, expecting him to pull it out on two, like so many people did. But he didn’t trick her. “Three.” He yanked it out, quick and smooth, and she let out a little gasp. “There we go.” His hand skimmed off her ankle and she almost gasped again, feeling the loss of it all the way to the tips of her fingers.

You need to get laid, she told herself firmly. You can’t be lusting after your boss.

“Just don’t move,” he directed, finally getting up off his knees. She’d hoped he’d be less distracting now that he was upright, but nope, just as distracting. Just as handsome. Just taller.

Dammit.

She watched as he grabbed a towel, wet it down, and carefully scooped up all the broken glass, dumping the entire thing in the trash.

“Sit down,” he said. “I’ll go get the first aid kit to fix up your foot. Or, at least, I’ll try to find wherever Zoe put the first aid kit.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—” she started, but he’d already ducked out of the room, reappearing a minute later, a big red case in his hands.

“I can always trust Zoe to be prepared,” he said. “It was under her desk.”

“She does seem scarily competent,” Maddy said, remembering the intricate color-coded calendar she’d glimpsed on Zoe’s tablet.

“She’s incredibly organized,” Carter said. “Which is good, because I never have been.” And then, oh, God, he was back on his knees in front of her, so he could tend to her wounds like she was some freaking Princess in a fairy tale and he was her Prince.

A fairytale princess would be demure and sweet. She wouldn’t be thinking about throwing her legs over the Prince’s shoulders, like Maddy was.

Blissfully unaware to her inappropriately naughty thoughts, Carter unfolded a wad of gauze, wiping away the blood welling from the cut on her foot. She let out a little hiss of pain.

“You cut yourself pretty deep,” he said, applying pressure to her heel as he dug in the first aid kit for a Band-Aid. He bandaged her foot, still holding it in his hands, keeping it elevated.

“This is my fault,” he said. “My shouting… I probably scared you.”

“It’s okay,” she said hastily. “I just thought I was the only one here.”

He smiled sheepishly. “So did I.”

“I’m not usually this jumpy,” she assured him.

“Well, I was kind of being loud,” he admitted.

“It seemed like… happy whooping,” she said.

His smile turned from sheepish to utterly joyous, and her fingers curled into fists to stop herself from reaching out. “I just got some really, really good news,” he said.

“Oh?” she knew it was nosy to ask, but she needed some distraction from the way his fingers were looped around her bare ankle, keeping it elevated.

“Yeah,” he said. “I—” he let out an incredulous laugh. “Sorry,” he said. “I am just so fucking happy right now, I feel a little loopy… Like I’m losing it.”

She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face at the pure kind of happiness that seemed to fill him. There had been a tightness around his gorgeous green eyes ever since she’d met him, but now, she noticed, it was gone, replaced by these little crinkles of joy that made her stomach clench in response.

“Can I ask what’s the news?” she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“I just got a call,” he said, his grin widening. “From the team who will be in charge of my little sister’s kidney transplant. I’m a match. So we’re not going to have to worry about waiting on the transplant list setting up a paired kidney donation. It’s on!”

Maddy’s eyes burned with unexpected tears. She knew the relief in his face all too well. Her little brother, Jackson, was a childhood leukemia survivor. He’d been diagnosed when he was eight and had a six-year battle before he was finally cancer-free. Jackson was one of the reasons she’d always stayed in Oregon, instead of leaving the state for any of the job opportunities she’d been offered. But now, he was healthy and just started his last year of college at the University of Oregon. Soon he would be going out in the world, getting his start. And she was so glad for it.

She knew what Carter was experiencing, knew what it was like, to finally get a light at the end of the long, dark, lonely tunnel that was pediatric illness. She still remembered the giddy relief and happiness that had filled her when they’d finally gotten the scans that had confirmed that Jackson’s cancer was gone.

“Carter, that’s amazing!” she said. “I’m so happy for you and your sister and the rest of your family. The relief you’re feeling must be huge.”

His fingers squeezed her ankle. “Thanks,” he said. “I just—I was really worried we wouldn’t be a match. Olivia’s technically my half sister, so the odds weren’t good. But I guess after all this time, we’re finally getting some good luck.”

“The best luck,” Maddy said. “How old is your sister?”

“Olivia’s seven,” Carter said, laughing when he saw the surprised look on her face. “I know, big age gap between us. My mom was sixteen when she had me. My bio dad ditched us before I was born. My real dad, the one who raised me… he came into our lives when I was a little older. They brought me up, and they thought they were done raising kids once I was off to New York, but then Olivia “pulled a fast one,” as my mom likes to put it.”

“That’s adorable,” Maddy said with a little smile.

“Oh, God, I am so fucking relieved.” This quiet confession to her, the rumble in his voice, the way his eyes went a little bright, like the emotion he was feeling was almost too much, made her stomach twist and her heart thump.

This time, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder. “I understand,” she said quietly. “My little brother—well, Jackson isn’t so little anymore. He’s graduating college next year. But when he was little, he had leukemia. He’s cancer-free now, but it was a long time, six years, before he got there.”

“Fuck,” Carter said. “That’s a long time to deal with that.”

Maddy nodded. “It shaped all of us. My entire family. I’m sure you can relate.”

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s why I’m here,” he said, gesturing around the break room. “That’s why I moved the company here. I didn’t want to be too far away from them. My parents… you always read about how couples who have a sick child can break up. The stress and all. I wanted to alleviate as much of that as possible for them.”

God, this man… he was killing her. Not only was he handsome as sin, but he was a loving son and brother. Devoted to his family.

She understood that, on a level that many people would scoff at or think was extreme. Her ex had never understood her family’s closeness. David hated that she had standing dinner date with her parents—and with Jackson if he could get away from school—every other week. He told her it was infantile to see her parents that often.

Maddy understood not everyone’s family was great, and that some people were way better off without their blood family, but she had been lucky enough to grow up in the kind of family you wanted to devote yourself to. She knew Jackson’s illness had bonded the four of them closer than they might have been if he hadn’t gotten sick, but she wasn’t going to change that for anything.

“I’m sure your parents are really happy to have you home,” Maddy said. “It’s always a little strange when you come home and you’re an adult, and they have to let go of the reins a little.”

His mouth tilted into a lopsided smile that made her heart flutter. “My mom is terrible at letting go of the reins.”

“She’d probably get along with my mom, then. But Momma Bears like that? They’re the best person in the world to have by your side when you’re a sick kid. They don’t let anything fall through the cracks.”

“That’s true… she’s basically a grizzly at this point.”

She laughed. “Sometimes you’ve got to go full grizzly. Really commit.”

He looked down for a moment, silence—but not the uncomfortable kind—falling over them. “Thank you, Maddy,” he said.

“For what?” she asked.

“For being jumpy,” he said. “For breaking your coffee cup and yelping loud enough to get me to come running. For letting me talk. For giving me hope that once my family gets through this, once Olivia gets through this, we can have some kind of normal back.”

“It won’t be like before,” she said. “But it will be new. A new normal.”

“A new normal,” he echoed, his green eyes shining with a warmth that went straight to her head. “I like the sound of that.”