I grabbed the entire box of condoms from the nightstand. I hated the idea that Alexa was leaving in the morning. I didn’t know if I could say that to her in words. But my body sure as hell could fuck it in to her. She’d know by the time she left the ranch that she was mine. She was coming back to me.

The timing couldn’t be worse. The season had just started, and I had more shit going on right now than usual. But I wasn’t letting this girl go.

I heard a scream and sprinted down the hall.

“What the fuck, Linc!” I hollered at my brother who was gawking at a very naked Alexa on the couch.

She had tried to arrange pillows to cover herself up.

“So I guess this is a thing.” He eyed her then me.

“Turn your fucking back, you pervert.” I didn’t have frilly blankets and throws. I ran back to the bedroom and grabbed a quilt on the end of the bed.

I hurriedly wrapped Alexa in it.

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

She made a triple wrap and secured it under her arm.

“Who is that?” she asked.

“My brother,” I grumbled.

“Hey, you’re the one who left the door open. No tie or sock on the door. That’s the universal signal for somebody’s gettin’ some.” He laughed. He extended his hand. “Sorry, to meet you like this. I’m Linc, Luke’s older and much more handsome and wiser brother.”

“Hi.” She was suddenly shy and quiet. “Alexa.”

“What are you doing over here?” I quizzed him.

“Not trying to bust up your night.” He kept stealing glances at Alexa.

“Then what?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the campaign. I’m sure you two saw all the headlines.”

Alexa shook her head. “Not for a while. We turned everything off. It was too crazy.”

Linc looked surprised. “It’s the biggest headline tonight. You’ve made all the news cycles. You’re the hottest couple right now. Although no one can come up with a word that combines your names. You’ve stumped them. I did hear ‘ALuxi”, but that’s just dumb.”

“B-but…” Alexa’s eyes darted to me.

“We’re not a couple, Linc.” I stared hard at my brother.

“Just fuck buddies?”

“Hey.” I glared at him.

“Sorry.” He grimaced at Alexa. “Didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just calling what I see. You two are clearly in the same house after the press caught you making out at the hospital. And the girl was completely naked when I walked in. Looks like you are something.”

I sat next to Alexa. Linc wasn’t going to believe any of this shit. But he was the only one I trusted. He was always the only one I could trust.

“Linc, we aren’t going public with this.”

His mouth dropped. “What?”

“Maybe we should talk in the study,” I suggested.

Alexa sat forward. “I’d kind of like to be involved since this is about me. About us.”

Her blue eyes convinced me.

“Ok. Fine.” I put an arm around her. I didn’t know where all this protective instinct came from, but it was there when I was near her. “Alexa is off limits. Her brand. Her image. All of it. She and I are keeping this private.”

Linc finally took a seat across from us in my recliner. “You are fucking with me, aren’t you?”

I shook my head. “No.”

Alexa spoke up. “Linc, this is not the way I wanted us to meet either.” She blushed. “But Luke and I have an agreement and we need your help. I can’t be involved with him publicly. Country music fans aren’t very forgiving when it comes to his kind of reputation.”

I saw Linc pull his shoulders back. “Luke is a good guy.”

“I know he is.” She smiled. “That’s why I’m willing to take this chance. But nonetheless it’s a chance. The fewer people who know the better.”

“You two are serious about this?”

He looked between us.

“Yeah, we are. It can’t be part of the campaign to build my new brand. I have to do it on my own without Alexa. Understand?”

“I do. But she could help you, brother.”

“It could ruin me.” Alexa’s eyes flared.

I didn’t want her to have to defend her position. We had already agreed how this was going to go. Linc had to get on board.

“It’s not going to.” I squeezed her shoulder. “Not a word of this to Charlie.”

He shook his head. “I won’t mention it.”

“Today was the last time I’ll ever use Alexa like that.”

“Got it.” He nodded.

“Good. Then will you get the hell out of my house so we can get back to what we were doing?” I held up the box of condoms.

Alexa yelped and scrambled to hide them from my brother.

I laughed.

“I’m out. I’ll talk to you tomorrow I guess.”

He strolled out of the living room. “Nice to meet you, Alexa.”

“Umm, yeah.” She was still trying to wrestle the box from my hands.

We heard the door close behind him.

“So that was your big brother?”

“Yep. The one and only.” I was focused on figuring out how to get my hands on her. I didn’t want to talk about Linc.

“Do you like having him as your manager?”

“Yeah. I can trust him, which means you can trust him.” I eyed her. The Canton brothers wouldn’t betray her. I wanted those doubts erased right away.

“That’s nice you have someone in your corner.”

“You don’t have anyone on your team like that?”

“My stylist, Helena. We’re close. I can tell her pretty much anything. She’s great. Really.”

“Alexa Wilde, what am I going to do with you?”

I tugged on the quilt that had her twirled up like Cleopatra in a Persian rug.

“I don’t know.” She bit her bottom lip.

“Liar,” I growled.

Our eyes locked and I only had one thing on my mind. I was going to use every fucking last condom in this box tonight.