It had been nothing but the truth when I told Kian it had been easy to find him. He hadn’t realized how much he gave away in casual conversation, but then again, very few people did.

I felt like a heel as I cuddled up against his chest, listening to his heart pounding. With my ear pressed to that hard, muscled wall, I felt every beat, every stutter.

At some point, he shifted around so that his back was against the door, and I half lay, half sat in his lap.

I would have been fine to stay that way until…well, whenever we had to move. But that wasn’t really an option because I needed to get out of there. The longer I lay there with my skin plastered to his, the harder it was to think about what I had to do next.

My mind was sharp, but the information I’d gathered from him about his mother was slowly getting lost, and I had no doubt it was because of both guilt and afterglow. Talk about a mind-fuck there. A part of me wanted to curl against him like a cat in heat, while another part of me wanted to recoil and shout at him, tell him not to let me do what I had to do.

But that was the problem…I had to do it.

Unable to take the mental battle anymore, I got up, stretching my arms overhead and wincing as a few kinks made themselves known. “I need to get going,” I said, forcing myself to meet his eyes with a smile. “I’ve got work tomorrow.”

He hooked his hand around the back of my neck and tugged me in for a kiss. “So do I, but I’d rather you not go anywhere.” The last few words were spoken against my lips, and I sighed, tempted beyond all belief when he trailed his tongue against the seam of my mouth, teasing his way inside.

It wasn’t like he needed an invitation. I was already opening for him, willing and ready and waiting.

But as the kiss grew more heated, I slid my hands between us.

“I’ve got to go,” I said again. I pulled away from him and rose, letting my dress fall back into place. My panties were all twisted around my hips, and I turned away so I could adjust them. Behind me, I heard him making a few adjustments of his own.

When I turned back, he was on his feet, shoving a hand through tumbled blond hair, putting it back into a semblance of order. “It’s not fair, you know,” I said, striving for a light tone. “Guys can hitch up their jeans, finger comb their hair and look presentable. I need fifteen minutes in the bathroom to do the same. Right now, I look…” I gazed down at my wrinkled dress, reached up to touch my hair as I searched for the right word.

“You look beautiful,” Kian said.

I met his eyes, my cheeks flushing. He wasn’t the first man to tell me I was beautiful. But he was the only man who ever managed to heat my belly in such a manner when he told me so.

“Thank you.” I moved closer and got up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I’ll see you around.”

He went to reach for me, but I swayed out of his grasp. Bending to grab my purse, I headed out the door as he called my name.

I waggled my fingers at him in response.

If I didn’t leave now, I might stay the whole damn night.

Forget the job.

But forgetting the job meant forgetting Joelle.

The one thing I couldn’t do.

Back in my room, I made hurried notes, rushing to get things down while they were still solid in my mind.

Inherited money.

Single mom.

Had him young – although that was obvious by the way she looked.

Never married.

The list went on and on, and I began to form a picture of how I’d run things, although I needed more time with Tamara first, needed to get a better feel for her, who she was. Not on paper and through somebody else’s eyes, but her.

She was coming to see me again in a couple of days, so I’d have the chance then, but I was on a timetable. I had no idea when Papa meant to marry Joelle off. There was a clock in my head, ticking away the time and I just didn’t have enough of it, I knew it.

At some point, I’d stopped writing notes as I stared off into nothing, and when I started again, I realized I’d been doodling. The name Kian had been written front and center on my notepad. Then I’d decorated it, adding swirls to the K and N.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

I was in such a mess.

Why was it that the one guy to really catch my attention in months was the son of the woman who just might be the ticket Joelle, Trice, and I needed to get out of the prison that was our lives?

Sometimes, life just plain sucked.