“When did you buy this place?” I asked as Glenn pulled to a stop in front of the locked gates.

“I didn’t.” For a grim moment, he stared at the foreboding gates as they loomed over us. “It belonged to my mother. She grew up here with her father and after he died, it passed to her. When she died…well, it’s mine now. But I grew up at the house…the other house.”

He climbed out of the car to open the gates.

Without being asked, I slipped over into the driver’s seat and pulled the car through. He glanced up at me, surprised at the action, then he smiled. It was faint, but it was there, and something happy slid through me. It had been a long time since I’d felt happy, and clutched it to my heart desperately.

After putting the car back into park, I slid back into my seat and waited for him to climb in, fighting back the creeping rush of nerves that had started to crawl in after we left the cemetery. The drive had taken too long and now I was wondering if I’d made the right choice.

But it didn’t like there was a right choice anymore—just a series of bad and worse ones.

Why not take the one that would give me some decent memories, at least?

Once we were inside, he stood there in the middle of the entryway, hands in his pockets, looking a little out of place.

“Neither of us has eaten in a long time,” I said softly. I wasn’t going to make a fuss, but I was actually starving. “How about we find something to eat?”

Glenn frowned, but then he nodded. “Yeah. If you’re hungry, I guess. Why not?”

“Such enthusiasm,” I said without thinking. Immediately, I wished I could yank it back, but to my surprise, he smiled at the teasing.

“I’ll be enthusiastic enough once there’s food in front of me that I wasn’t required to prepare.” He started toward a part of the house I hadn’t seen. “Come on, the kitchen is this way. I’ve got a housekeeper…ah…I guess you might not know. Mrs. B died. A heart attack, they thought.”

“I heard.” Unable to stop myself, I caught his arm, then I wrapped him up in a hug. “I’m so sorry, Glenn. I know what she meant to you.”

If he’d pulled away, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

He nuzzled my hair, kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

Awkwardly, I pulled back and we continued down the hall. “Anyway, I’ve got a lady who comes in twice a week. She cleans, takes care…of other stuff, and puts casseroles and the like in the freezer. There’s always something. We should have to just pick one out and heat it up.”

“Sounds perfect for me!” Giving him a bright smile, I moved ahead of him into the kitchen and found the freezer. There were five casseroles in there, each one neatly labeled. I bypassed the one in front, even though it was clearly meant to go next. I wasn’t eating a tuna fish surprise. I didn’t care what the surprise was.

After turning on the oven, I put the casserole down on the counter top and peeled away the aluminum foil that had been placed on the top. Glenn was already sitting down, hands folded on the table in front of him, his eyes staring off into the distance, pensively.

I went to join him.

“Tell me how you met Cane.”

And he did. The oven preheated and I got up to put the casserole in and he continued to talk. As I got water for us both, he talked. The casserole finished and he talked about their early days in Hollywood, both of them taking on cheesy bit parts that they’d still laughed at, even years later.

He finished telling one story and then stopped. “I guess he won’t laugh about it anymore.”

“So you’ll tell others about it,” I said. “And they can laugh with you. That’s how you keep him alive, Glenn.”

“Yeah.” A sad smile curved his lips. “Maybe.”

We finished the rest of the meal in silence, and he surprised me by taking over the clean up, insisting I stay there while he washed up the dishes and returned the rest of the casserole to the fridge.

When he finished, he came back to stand at my side.

Just like earlier that day at the church, he held out a hand.

This time, I didn’t hesitate when I took it.

I expected him to lead me to his bedroom, but to my surprise, he turned me around to face the table and my breath caught my throat as he tugged my dress up.

“I saw you everywhere I looked, for weeks…months…years. Even when I was with Kimberly, I’d see you. I’d wake up with her hands on me, but you were the woman I tasted,” he whispered into my ear.

Both hands closing around my hips, he tugged my butt back against the hard ridge of his erection, grinding his cock against me. Hunger twisted in me like claws, emerging from out of nowhere and laying me open.

“Did you miss me?” Glenn growled the words against my ear.

I opened my mouth to answer, but a moan escaped before the words could.

He fisted a hand in my hair and yanked my head back. “Did you miss me?” he demanded again.

“With every breath.”

He spun me around then, boosting me up to sit on the edge of the table. “Show me.” Fingers plunging into my hair, he took my mouth in a hungry, ravaging kiss that threatened to destroy every last, sane piece of me.

When he finally broke away, it was to kiss a path down my neck, then my chest. At some point, he’d opened each of the tiny pearl buttons that held it closed and the feel of his mouth against my skin was pure, savage seduction.

“Show me,” he said again, guiding my hands to his head.

I clung to him, tugging his mouth to my breasts.

He bit one nipple through my bra. I felt that contact with my flesh, already so much more sensitive than before, as though he’d brushed me with pure electricity. Arching up against him with a shriek, I tightened my grip in his hair.

Black dots blurred in front of my eyes.

He did it again.

“Wait…wait…”

He shifted his attention to the other side.

It was too much.

I could feel the pressure building inside me and pulled him away. He seemed to acquiesce, but all he did was take the opportunity to work my bra up over my breasts, not even bother to free the clasp at my back. When I felt his mouth close over my nipples again, wet, demanding and with absolutely no impediment, I couldn’t control it. I climaxed with a hard, jerking spasming.

Glenn stilled above me.

Appalled, I went to shove him back, unable to figure out how to explain how I’d just gotten off all from him sucking on my nipples.

Sure my breasts had been sensitive the past few weeks and I assumed it was from pregnancy, but that much?

“I guess that is definitely showing me,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the middle of my torso.

The bra twisted uncomfortably under my armpits and I shoved at his chest, my face hotly red. “Let me up.”

He did, but when I went to look away, he wouldn’t let me. “What’s wrong?”

“That was…” I floundered, unable to explain—at least without giving away secrets I wasn’t ready to reveal.

“Shhh…” He brushed his lips over my mouth. At the same time, he smoothed my dress off my shoulders so that it pulled around my hips on the table. Then he freed the clasp of my bra and tugged it away. “Just touching you is about enough to make me lose it. Seeing you climax like that is amazing.”

Ducking my head, I hid my tears, the secrets. He went to his knees in front of me and pulled me off the table, pulling my dress completely off. That…and my panties. He left the garters alone. “I love a woman in garters. I know they don’t work for everything, but fuck me if they aren’t the sexiest thing around.”

After easing me back onto the table, he kissed my knees and urged my thighs apart. “I’m going to lick you and suck on you and make you beg me, Maya. Then I’m going to imprint myself on you. Tell me you want that.”

He braced himself over me, staring into my eyes as he waited.

“I want that.” Gripping the front of his shirt, I struggled to breathe around the ball of lust that had gathered inside me. This was what I’d missed…this connection, this…tenderness. Us. “I want that, Glenn.”

A slow, smug smile curled his lips and he went about doing just that.

* * *

“Please…” I moaned as he circled his tongue around my entrance, then flicked it against my clit. “Glenn, please…I can’t.”

“You can. You still haven’t done what I told you to do.”

What he’d told me?

I’d climaxed so hard my brain had melted.

I thought I might be dehydrated and my throat was raw from crying out and moaning.

What had he told me to do?

“Beg, Maya,” he whispered just as he sealed his mouth over my cunt and thrust his tongue deep.

I arched up against him weakly, too dazed, too spent to tug him closer. But the pleasure was too sharp, too keen, for me not to chase more of it. “Please…Glenn, please!”

“Good enough.”

He stopped abruptly and I wailed. “What are you…no…”

The orgasm had been just out of reach and now it withdrew, taunting me.

Even as my brain tried to comprehend that, Glenn levered himself over me, the heavy oak table bearing our weight. I gasped as his heat crushed me for a moment, bringing my hands up to push against his chest.

Then he was splaying my thighs and coming inside me. I moaned.

He caught my wrists and dragged them over my head. I whimpered.

He nipped my lower lip and whispered my name…and said, “Beg me, Maya. Beg me again.”

“Please, Glenn. Please make love to me.”

I needed him to fill this ache inside me. He was the only one who’d make it go away.

He tensed minutely and something in the back of my head clicked on. I tried to focus on it, but he was already thrusting inside me, slow, deep thrusts that had him rubbing against the sensitive spot deep in my pussy.

“Please…” This time, I didn’t even know what I was asking for.

He understood anyway. He thrust deeper, harder. And when it still wasn’t enough, he let go of my wrists and worked one forearm under my waist, tugging me into fuller contact with his groin. Now, barely moving, he ground into me, letting me feel the ripple and pulse of his cock and it was like our hearts began to beat in rhythm.

His eyes burned into mine.

I couldn’t look away if I’d tried.

He twisted his hand into my hair, fisted it, just to make sure I didn’t even dare to try.

Like I would.

He was in my blood, in my soul.

The climax built slower this time and Glenn did nothing to help move it along. It was like he wanted to build, and build, taunting us both. As it drew closer, he slowly even those minute movements until he was barely rocking inside me. Even that was too much.

One pulse of his cock finally sent me over and I ended up sobbing and twisting under him. He bore my weight to the table using his hips, a demanding kiss stealing the breath out of him as he, too, began to come.

The feel of his cock jerking inside me over and over made me moan, triggering a series of aftershocks that was just too much. Another mini climax started and Glenn swore. “Fuck…don’t…”

He pulled out abruptly and I cried out in shock, but all he did was flip me onto my belly and pull me to the edge of the table.

Then he was inside me again, riding me deeply this time, hard and furious and fast.

I had another climax, then another.

Then, just as he growled and came, black dots gathered in front of my eyes and I passed out.

* * *

I jolted awake in bed as he passed a cloth over my face.

He chuckled when I groaned and slapped his hands away so I could cover my face. Then, when a soft murmur, he caught my wrists and dragged them away, kissing me softly before he settled down next to me. He pulled me into the hard curve of his body and nuzzled my temple. “Go to sleep.”

I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that.

Even though my body was ready to shut down, just lying here with him was…everything.

Rolling closer to him, I worked my arm around his waist and pressed my face into his chest.

“I’ve missed this,” he said into my hair.

I almost said it back, but then, before I could, he added, “I don’t want to talk about it…or anything else tonight, okay? I just want to hold you like this. Okay?”

So I nodded, trying to fight back the sting of tears.

His hand smoothed up and down my hip in a stirring, soothing motion.

My eyes grew heavier.

He said something else.

But all I could make out was my name.

Sleep drowned out everything else.