At a spaz past three, I get a panicked text from Lex asking me to meet her at Hallowed Grounds asap. And since it’s well before my shift starts at The Sloppy Pelican, I take her up on it.

I spot her in the corner with her sunglasses hung low while meditating over a latte. I order and pick up my own drink before heading over. She looks snug in a black leather jacket, cropped and cute. Her hair billows over her shoulders like a pair of dark crimson clouds, which is apropos considering she’s sort of a walking catastrophe. So am I, but that’s beside the point.

“What’s up, chica? You finally ready to pony up those Benjamins?” Okay, so I’m sort of kidding, but I’m sort of not. Five hundred bones might make me feel better about that whole imprisonment thing—brief as it might have been.

She rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but note how much they glow against that gunmetal shadow she’s layered on. Lex’s eyes are a honey hazel/green combo that siren out at you—like a warning.

“Here.” She pulls a wad of bills out of her purse and quickly counts it out. “Two hundred fifty bucks. We’re halfway settled. That good enough?”

“For now.” I snatch the bills before they magically dive back into her wallet. “So, what’s the deal? You sounded frantic. Did Neiman Marcus run out of your favorite cashmere sweater?”

“It’s June.” She glares at me a moment. “Everyone knows you don’t purchase cashmere until the fall.” She plucks a lipstick out of her purse and swaths a fuchsia coat over her lips. Honestly, it’s a color not many people could pull off, but Lex has all of that dark drama going for her, and it just takes her beauty to an inhuman level. “It’s my ex.”

“Axel!” I perk right up as I take a sip of my mocha frap. “I totally love him by the way. He’s got a great sense of humor and those eyes. Wow. You can see forever in them.” I give a wicked wink her way, and that look of horror on her face says it all.

“Would you stop? I honestly don’t care if you’re banging him on the side.” She scowls at me a moment because we both know she’d nail me down by way of my vagina if those sexual shenanigans were really happening. “How are things going with Levi, anyway?”

It’s nice to have a friend to have a good one-on-one with. God knows I can’t even hint of a romantic connection with Levi to Raven.

“Things got serious as all hell last Saturday night.” I give her the quick rundown in real-time. “And since we both work the night shift, and well, Levi essentially works every shift, we’ve been making out hot and heavy whenever we can steal a minute.”

Her jaw goes slack. “What about his Johnson? You’re still in separate beds? Either the two of you have superhuman willpower or this Raven chick wields a mean whip.”

“Definitely that.” I make a face just thinking about my bestie. “Suffice it to say, there have been one too many cold showers happening at headquarters. I don’t care how humid Hollow Brook is in the summer. It sucks dunking your naked flesh in ice water. That never feels good.”

Lex barks out a laugh. “Oh, grow up! Fuck the guy already, would you? Even I’m getting hot and bothered thinking about it.”

“Oh my gawd!” I do a quick glance at the crowd. “There are children in this establishment. I don’t know what they taught you at Barnes, but expletives do not fly in the real world.” I lean in with a vengeance. “Save it for the bedroom—where I’m sure you’d like to pin Axel to your headboard!”

She sucks in a breath, those raccoon eyes of hers round out in horror before closing, and her entire person sags as if it might be true. “For the record, I don’t do expletives. That one was strictly in your honor.” She smirks out the window. “And can we not mention what I would and wouldn’t like to do to my asshole of an ex.”

“Aha!” I’m quick to point a finger at her. My phone buzzes over the table and does a little twirl. “It’s a text from Raven.” I glance up at Lex, and we share a quick grimace. As much as I hate to go behind my bestie’s back on anything, I prefer to be on her good side. “How’s it going?” I read. “Do me a favor and keep an extra eye out on Levi. I can’t find anything on this skank Evie Slater!” My mouth falls open as Lex and I take a moment to gawk at each other.

“What are you going to do?” She takes an expectant sip of her drink as she gives a giddy shiver.

“I can see you’re pretty broken up about this.” I begin typing back to my bestie. “Will do! I doubt she means anything to him.”

She texts right back. “Chip says they’re joined at the crotch,” I whisper. “It’s a done deal. Next time you see her, send me a picture.” I roll my eyes over at Lex. “Right. Like that’s going to happen.”

“You know.” She lifts a perfectly lacquered, perfectly pointy, and might I say lethal, fingernail at me. “If she’s asking you to snap a picture, maybe she’s asking her brothers, too. I mean, she seems pretty eager to get the lowdown on who this skank might be.” She strums a dark giggle. “Once a girl gets an itch, there’s nothing she won’t do to satisfy that—”

I cut her off before she can get to the end of the tired euphemism. “You’re right!” I snap a quick picture of her and hit Send right back to Raven.

Looks like I found one after all!

“You did not just do that!” Lex dives for my phone, but I hold it up out of her reach.

“I did, and she’s texting back. She must have a lot to say. Let’s count how many ways she can call you a skank!” Lex and I wrestle it out just as my phone pings, and we both slump in our respective seats, curious as all hell.

“Well?” Her eyes are back to the size of dinner plates.

I glance down and frown. “Wow, she’s beautiful. She is definitely an upgrade from Meredith. She looks like she’d be fun to hang out with, too. I can’t wait to meet her. Do you think she’ll like me?” I stick my finger down my throat and pretend to hurl, although the feeling is hauntingly real.

“Sounds like she’s my new bestie.” Lex takes an aggressive bite out of her cookie, and I’m quick to snatch it from her grip.

“Let’s get one thing straight. Raven is my bestie and should she come to town and meet you—well, you’d love her, too.” I toss the cookie right back in front of her. “There. You’ve got two friends now. I bet that’s two more than you had before I sat down.”

Her left eye comes shy of winking. I can tell under that dark beauty she’s percolating like a kettle. “Nice. And you’ve got one.”

“You mean two.”

“I mean one.” She lifts her brows with delight as if she’s cornered me. Lex is a hard ass, and I think that’s honestly why I put up with her. If my mother trained me to do anything, it’s to love a hard ass. “Once Raven finds out you’ve lied, cheated, and stole her brother, you’ll be deficient one very best friend.”

“Ouch.” I swallow past the Raven-sized lump that’s spontaneously settled in my throat. “Touché.” Thoughts of Raven chasing me around Hollow Brook with the working end of her stiletto play on a loop in my brain. “So, what was the big emergency? You have another ploy to land me in handcuffs?”

“More or less.” She bites down on that bloated bottom lip of hers, and her features soften. Lex goes from badass to ass-in-a-sling in a single bound. “My boss let me know The Sloppy Pelican put in for another review. Apparently, they’re in the throes of redoing their entire menu and they’d like a piece done on them in about a month.”

I take a mock bow. “You can thank me for that. I’m personally redoing the menu. Honest to God, they had the boring food disease. Trust me, I saved them from a sure and sudden death. Most new restaurants specialize in closing, and that’s exactly the train the TSP was boarding.”

“You’re responsible, huh?” she growls my way. “I should have known. You do realize I can’t do this.”

“Why in the hell not? So what if Ax might be there? Say hello and get over it. Let him see how stunning you are. Wear a low-cut top and drive him to the brink. We’ll laugh about it over sangrias.” I give a silent applause. “I’m updating things on the bar end as well. Plus, I’ll be there. You can use me as your security blanket.”

“Puh—lease.” She scoffs out the window. “You and Levi will be rutting in the corner by then. The last thing on this planet I want is to come face-to-face with that man—Axel, not the one you’ll be rutting with.”

Thoughts of Levi and me naked and hungrily humping behind the fake bird of paradise makes me hot in all the right places. “You really think things will move that quickly?” I’m salivating just thinking about it.

“Only if you’re human.” She grunts. “Look, in a month you’ll be me, and I’ll happily give you the remainder of what I owe, not to mention an extra two-fifty.”

“No way. I’m not going down that thorny road again. Not to mention the fact the boys that own and run the place know exactly who I am. Face it, you’re stuck with this.”

She lunges forward and snaps up my wrist. “Then make sure he’s not there.” Those hazel eyes quickly morph into twin pleading doves. “I’ll do it. I’ll be quick and efficient. Just lock that boy in the freezer if you have to.”

“First of all”—I carefully pluck myself free—“he came sniffing around the first time you were supposed to be there, because he obviously wanted to see you. Don’t you think that if he can get over the past—so can you? Put your big girl panties on and suck it up, sweetheart. Believe me, you’ll feel tons better once it’s over. Whatever this worst-case scenario you’ve got strumming in your head—trust me, it’s about as far from reality as you can get. You might even have a blast.”

“A blast, huh?” She glowers at me as if she’ll have anything but. “You’d better pray I like the food.” She toasts me with her drink before sashaying out the door in her spiked Steve Maddens.

The food will be excellent.

Her luck may not.

Sunday rolls around luxuriously lazy, inspiring Levi and me to dance in the kitchen blaring “Key Largo” while whipping up a double batch of chocolatey goodness for the cheesy ’80s movie marathon we’re about to partake in. Oh, who are we kidding? We’re going to drown ourselves in chocolate before drowning in each other. Who knows? Tonight might even be the night.

Levi has been bedroom eyeing me, eye fucking me—call it what you will—but this slow dance we’re embroiled in, his rock-hard chest pressed to mine, those ocean-deep eyes beaming down over me, that lewd grin slowly ticking to life—it’s all I can do not to let the damn brownies burn the house down and drag this man to bed.

My phone blinks to life, and that tense knot that’s been brewing in my stomach ever since my last encounter with my bestie gets a little bigger. I haven’t exactly confessed to Levi that I sent Raven Lex’s picture, partially because of his proximity to her ex. How did my life get to be a complicated version of six degrees of separation? I glance over at my phone. It’s not Raven. It’s Lisa.

“It’s my sister.” I sigh as I pick it up to see what threats will be lobbed my way now.

Dinner is at five. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. The girls are baking a cake. You still love me, right?

It takes a minute for me to wrap my head around what the heck she’s talking about, and then it hits me in the face like thirty-four birthday candles.

“Oh God, I’ve almost missed my sister’s birthday!” I look to Levi in a panic. “Come with me.”

“What?” Now it’s his turn to panic. “What do we tell her?” He flicks a finger between the two of us.

“That I picked up a really cute hitchhiker?”

A dark rumble of a laugh strums from him as he pulls me in close and lands a kiss to the softest spot on my neck. “I think maybe tonight is the perfect night to test the waters—as far as sisters go. How about we go for the truth?”

A crooked smile comes to my lips, but I can’t help it. “That you’re my married boss and I’m eager to have a full-blown affair?”

He belts out a laugh that dies as quick as it came. “Maybe go easy on the details.”

“Okay.” I wrap my arms around his waist. “I’ll make sure we keep things light. And thank you in advance.” My teeth graze my lip over and over again with apprehension of what the night might bring.

“For what? Spending time with the girl I can’t keep my hands off?” His voice softens, as does his gaze.

“For spending time with my psycho of a sister. Lisa is going to drill and grill you. Stay strong, my friend.” I give his rock-hard ass a squeeze. “Stay strong.”

Friar’s Corner is deficient of its fair share of Starbucks and Walmarts and doesn’t even register on the radar of any modern map. It’s one of those long-forgotten, one cow towns that is stuck in another era, another century, a simpler time when girls still get both a reputation and an ass whooping for looking at, let alone living with a married man.

Levi drives as I point the way to the tiny home I grew up in, the one Lisa and her husband, Dave, now own and live in.

No sooner do we pull up to the tiny baby blue bungalow than my younger sisters greet us on the porch.

I pull them both into a giant group hug. “Levi, this is Sadie. She’s a senior and graduates in two weeks. And this is Everly. She’ll be a senior in the fall.” They’re both blonde and beautiful, same blue-green eyes as our mother.

“Future Briggs’ girls?”

“That’s right.” Sadie gives him the side-eye while jutting out her chest, and oh my God, is she hitting on my man?

“Down, girl. Let’s head inside, ladies, and get this show on the road.”

Lisa spots us from the kitchen and lets out a roaring whoop as she heads on over with each of her girls tucked in her arms. Karly and Kasey are four and five and small little blonde whippets at that. Lisa, however, is a blonde bombshell with big blue eyes, a big personality, and those heart-stopping looks of hers, I’m sure have already rendered Levi speechless. Lisa looks startlingly like our mother, and at times that’s been both a blessing and a curse.

Lisa stops shy of attacking me and feasts her eyes on the strapping god I’ve managed to drag in with me.

“Well, hell—icopter.” She lands the girls down, and they scatter. Lisa promised herself she’d give up expletives for life once her little girls were born, and she’s holding strong in that department, but in lieu of that fact, she’s liable to get a little creative with the English language. “What the fudge? Or should I say, who the hells bells is this handsome man? Please say he’s my present.”

“Again—down, girl.” I wrap an arm around Levi, and he laughs while extending a hand.

“Levi Masterson.”

“Oh?” Lisa perks up, and I cringe because I know what’s coming next. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Raven Masterson, would you?”

And there it is. Lisa knows Raven all too well.

“My God!” Lisa chirps, and my sisters gather around to gawk. “There she is hiding in your face!” The three of them let out a congratulatory whoop. “Raven came down to Friar’s Corner just about every single Sunday along with this one right here.” Lisa doesn’t take her eyes off Levi. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was salivating. “I don’t remember Raven mentioning a strapping older brother.”

“She’s got two.” I avert my eyes at the thought of two-timing Chip.

“So, is this official?” Lisa’s left brow hikes in the air, and my stomach boils in its own acids. Dear God, that eyebrow has roasted and toasted the best of them. Please, Lord, let that be her one and final question.

Levi and I share that deer in the headlights look and hem and haw our way through the next ten seconds while Sadie and Everly giggle up a storm. Traitors.

“Ah, so it’s new.” Lisa’s head tips back, and her eyes slant the way they do before she’s about to pull out the sword with which to gut you. “Say—you look about my age.” She winks. The wink of death. “Any exes under your belt yet? Have you taken the paralyzing plunge? You know, made an unholy merger?”

“Yes,” Levi flatlines, and that grin he’s been wearing since we stepped out of the car is quickly dissipating.

Gah! This is no time to tell the truth! I do my best to step in his line of vision and give my head a barely there shake. Abort! Abort!

Lisa chortles like only she can because she knows she’s got him. “What’s my little sissy trying to hide?” She wags a finger at him. “Let me guess. You’ve got two ex-Mrs. Mastersons hiding in the wings? Three?”

If only.

Levi takes in a breath, his already massive chest expanding like an accordion. “I think maybe what Low doesn’t want you to know is the fact my divorce isn’t quite final.”

Oh. My. Shit.

You can feel the oxygen vacuuming out of the room as my three sisters, including Dave who seems to have stepped into the room at the entirely wrong time, suck in a never-ending lungful of air.

“A married man?” Lisa laughs as she says it like only a madwoman can. Her stern eyes narrow in on mine, and I can feel the very real and sudden urge to bolt to my room. “Harlow Hartley, you have got to be fucking with me.” The entire room seizes. And there goes her, for lack of a better word—fucking record. “This is a joke, right? I mean, the next thing you know you’ll try to tell me the two of you are living together.”

A choking sound emits from my throat, and Lisa’s intake of air increases to dangerous levels.

My sister’s face turns a ripe shade of cherry. “Crap on a crap cracker, Harlow.” She closes her eyes a moment.

“Ear muffs!” David shouts at my nieces, and even my incessantly giggling little sisters have slapped their hands over their ears. When I say Lisa has everyone in this house trained, I mean everyone.

Lisa steps forward and cups my face with her hands. “Oh, honey, I know he’s knock-your-kinckers-off gorgeous, but don’t you see he’s using you?”

“No—I promise, I’m not.” Levi is suddenly wild-eyed and vocal. A little too late for that.

“Yes, he is,” she insists. The rife worry on her face makes me feel like puking. “My God, all married men who cheat tell their poor, innocent, younger, better-looking lovers that they’re about to get a divorce.”

“But he really is.” I hate how I just whined that out.

“Enough,” she grits it through her teeth. “I will be civil to your guest this evening, but this conversation is far from over.” She snaps her neck to Levi and mumbles something about a chicken bone lodging in his throat.

Dave steps forward with an ear-to-ear grin, because clearly we’re nothing more than the entertainment for the evening. “Dinner’s ready.” Dave is lanky and balding, but the nicest, kindest man on the planet. And have I mentioned a saint to put up with my sister?

Dinner is home-cooked heaven, and thankfully Sadie and Everly regale us with all the stories about their promposals—yes, it’s an actual proposal to go to prom—they even model the dresses they’ll be wearing. My nieces run around screaming and yelling, and by the time we dole out the birthday cake, sans the birthday brownie Levi and I brought that Lisa shoved into the freezer and promptly forgot—nevertheless, the girls need to be peeled off the ceiling. My sisters have long since retreated to their room, most likely to sleep off the sugar coma.

Lisa stands and eyes her miniature doppelgangers. “I’d better get these two to bed.” No sooner does Lisa say the word than the girls scatter like frightened mice. While she and Dave try their best to wrangle them up, I take Levi on a tour of all the framed family photos Lisa has set out.

“That’s me with my missing front teeth.”

He wraps his arms around my waist from behind and buries a quiet kiss under my ear. “You are hot with or without teeth.”

“You should see what I can do with my new chompers.” I bite the air, and he winces. We stop in front of an old family portrait, the last one we ever took with all of the original members. “And that’s a family lineup from back in the day—when we were all together, last time.” My voice grows small. “There’s my mother.” I point to her in the pink dress. “Looking like Lisa, I suppose. And my father.” I’m still mesmerized by his dark brows. “And us girls in height order.” My arms are intertwined around my father’s legs as if already at that young age I could sense his need to bolt. I wanted to ground him, just as badly as I wanted to keep my mother alive that day.

“How long after this did you take that car ride?”

“The road to Key Largo?” I try to lighten the mood, but you could tie a boat to the tension in the room and it wouldn’t go anywhere. “About five minutes. I think it was just a few months after that.”

His chest expands and relaxes over my back as he sighs deeply, his breath warming my neck. “And how about your mom? Can I ask what happened?”

“I killed her.” I take in a deep breath and hold it. “I’ve never uttered those words in this house. I was fifteen, just got my learner’s permit, and drove us through an intersection at the wrong time. We were T-boned. She was on the vent for a week. We told her she could go home if she wanted to. She was pretty banged up. No sooner did we say those words than she flew away. Lisa took over and life marched on.”

“Come here.” Levi spins me around and gently lifts me by the chin until I’m forced to look at him. His eyes bear into mine a good long while as if he were sending all of his grief into me telepathically. “That was a terrible accident. Accidents happen. I’m sorry you had to go through any of it.” His lips twitch as his eyes gloss over with emotion. “I don’t want you to hold yourself responsible for that. You didn’t kill her.”

My arms wrap around him tight as I bury my face in his chest and buck with tears. It’s been a good long while since I’ve cried over the death of my mother—or the dine and ditch my father pulled.

“It’s okay.” He presses a heated kiss over the top of my head.

Lisa and Dave thunder down the stairs, and I take a full step away from Levi in the event Lisa shows up with a machete. Tonight’s the kind of night where everything’s on the table—and I’d hate to think Levi’s dick might end up there, too.

“I think we’ll be going now.” I sniff back the tears that I’m sure have already landed on my sister’s radar.

Dave says a quick goodnight before offering to get my sisters, but Lisa glares at Levi as if he just stole our mother’s ashes. “Can I have a word with you alone?” She nods to the kitchen, and he’s quick to comply.

Sadie and Everly run down and smother me with love and I love on them right back, trying to memorize the amazing way their hair smells. And before I know it, Levi is right next to me on the front porch.

“That was short and sweet,” I whisper as we make our way to the car.

“Most threats are.”

And that’s all I need to know.

The ride home is mostly silent with the rare exception of grunts and murmurs of our discontent. It’s as if all of our frustrations have finally bottlenecked, and both Levi and I are about to burst at the seams. All I know is that I’m all out of my sexual reserves and I’m scrounging, jonesing for just one hit of Levi Masterson. And, ironically, I don’t at all feel romantic at the moment. I feel pissed. Livid. I’m fuming over the fact Raven is orchestrating my sex life from exotic locales like Milan and Barbados, making me masturbate in the corner while I have a perfectly good specimen seated right next to me.

Once we arrive back at the house, Levi starts a fire and I fire up the stove.

“You’re not making brownies again, are you?” He stomps into the kitchen looking stupefied as if I were about to hack the tails off a litter of kittens for the umpteenth time.

I turn Bertie Higgins on and let “Key Largo” filter through the air, set on a loop before I bother to answer him. God knows an entire stream of expletives is begging to shoot right out of me.

“Why yes, Levi, I am making brownies again. You see, my ingrate of a sister put them in the freezer to save for later since they already had a cake, thus creating a divide between my daily allotment of their ooey gooey goodness and me.” I pull the bowl out of the cabinet and slam it onto the island. “And you’re welcome by the way.”

He grunts while folding his arms across his chest, watching me as if he were my supervisor—a decidedly hot and vexingly handsome to the bone supervisor, but a watchman nonetheless.

“What has you so worked up?” I pull out the cocoa and the chocolate chips, the flour and the baking powder. “It’s your sister that holds the key to this chastity belt.”

“My sister?” His head ticks back a notch. Levi’s brows arch in that way that frames those glowing eyes, and my heart lets out an unnatural thump. Have I mentioned he is quite the specimen? The body of a lumberjack, the mind of a genius, and a heart of gold, mostly.

I frown over at him. “Yes, your sister. This is what you get for letting Raven rule the roost.” I point the spatula at him. “It’s probably all your fault she’s a naughty little brat who always gets her way.”

He barks out an obnoxious laugh. “My sister didn’t threaten my balls an hour ago.”

“Ugh!” A primal cry rips from my throat, and all I see is red as I retrieve the eggs from the fridge. Then I strut right over to him and land my hands flat against his chest and give him a solid shove—albeit unfruitful, since he’s still planted in the exact same spot I found him in. Moving Levi is like trying to relocate a mountain. He’s solid and strapping, and all kinds of good things under those clothes that I will never know about because his sister is such a pushy little tart. “My sister is only looking out for me. Unlike your sister who is only looking out for herself.”

He leans in, his eyes narrowed as if he were livid himself. “My sister is only looking out for the both of us.”

“Ha!” I laugh right in his face, and my lips double dare me to cover his, but I’m too stubborn to listen. “My sister thinks you’re a two-timing cheat about to pull me under into the wicked world of adulterous fornication. Your sister knows that I’m a great person. Your sister knows that you’re a great person. Why in the hell wouldn’t she want us together? Because she’s having a tantrum. That’s why! Raven is a big fat baby. She couldn’t handle the thought of me parading around this place in my underwear, trying to seduce her angel of a brother!” My voice hikes to its highest soprano as my fingers work my blouse off then my skirt. I drop trou right there in the kitchen as “Key Largo” carries on its melodramatic tune. In all my life, I have never imagined doing an inadvertent strip tease to the song I grew up listening to like a life raft, but right now it feels far more like a battle cry.

Levi’s eyes widen as he takes that visual elevator up and down. My feet are still pressed neatly in my Louboutins. My lace panties just so happen to match my lace bra, and both are appropriately see-through. It’s what I had donned this morning in hopes that this would finally be the day we kicked Raven and all her ideals to the curb, and instead we’re arguing at ten o’clock at night—half-dressed, half-baked, half a mind to shove one another into that roaring fire eating up the next room.

His Adam’s apple rises and falls as he steps forward and cups my face. His steely eyes bear hard into mine, and they’re saying so much more than words ever can.

“Low”—he sighs into my name, and a smile comes up on the other end of it—“I don’t want to fight with you. In fact, there’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you all day.”

A flicker of light emanates from the living room and the heat level rises, but I solely attribute that second part to the fact Levi’s body is inching ever so dangerously close to mine.

“Oh my God!” he shouts so loud, I close my eyes from the blowback. Levi bolts into the living room, and I trot right along with him, only to find that damn robotic fireplace has sent a line of flames all the way to the ceiling. “Shit!” he barks as he points the defunct remote to it as if it were a gun, and just as quick as the flames engulfed the vicinity, they disappear on command. In its wake are a badly charred wall and a few sparks still shooting out from the armpit of the fireplace.

“Nice save.” My heart does its best to launch right out of my throat, and I press a hand to my chest as if keeping it in. “Maybe we should go old school next time? You know, firewood and a match.” It’s then I notice that monkey with five arms is blackened from the flames, and I head right over to it. “Oh, no! Your grandmother’s gift!” No sooner do I pick it up than Levi turns my way from across the room.

“Be careful—it’s hot,” he shouts just as I launch the scalding piece of questionable art into the air, and I stand there, watching the horrific event in slow motion. The knives gleam as they twirl airborne, slowly coming back down to earth, all of its five razors aiming straight for me—but I’m frozen solid, completely unable to navigate from ground zero. The only thought going through my mind is that it’s the last thing Levi has left of his grandmother.

“Low!” Levi’s voice comes in slow and deep, demonic in nature. His body wraps itself around mine as he tackles me and lands us both on the sofa, his heavy protective frame securely settled over mine. And just as our eyes connect in something other than irritation for the first time all night, a horrific crash comes from our right as the monkey in all of his primate knife-wielding glory shatters into a million tiny pieces.

I gasp as I look over to see it sprayed about the hardwood floor like confetti.

“I’m so sorry.” I bury my face in his chest, and all of the tension of this evening just pours right out of me like the loosening of a damn.

“It’s not your fault,” he says it quiet like maybe it is. Levi lifts me by the chin, and I’m met with those watery blue eyes, that budding crooked grin that I’ve grown to love like crazy. Hell, I’m in love with all of him. I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life. To hell with Raven and her overprotective ideals. Wouldn’t she rather he end up with me than with the last nut he was with? “I promise you, it wasn’t that important to me. I’m just glad you’re safe. My concern is for you.” That greedy grin of his spreads wide. “You’re half-naked. I didn’t want those flames anywhere near your body.” He swallows hard, and the moment grows serious. “And who knows? Maybe as much as my sister is doing her best to keep us apart, my grandmother of all people has joined us together—literally so to speak.”

We share a quiet laugh.

“As I was saying”—his voice grows tight—“Low, I wanted to wait until the right time to say these words, but now that I see how life is playing out—well, I think the right time is any time you’re around.” His breathing picks up pace. He lifts his chest off mine a bit, and I’m right there panting with him. “I love you.” His smile expands right along with my heart. “I’ve loved you from the moment you set foot in the restaurant that night.” His eyes catch the light and sparkle with the hint of tears as his chest trembles with a quiet laugh. “You lit up the room with your smile. When you walked in, I swear I heard a hallelujah choir singing in the background. You hit me like a bolt of lightning and knocked my entire universe off its pathetic base. Over the last few weeks you’ve made all the crooked places straight, shed your beautiful light where only darkness once existed. You made me realize that what I had before with other people didn’t even come close to what real love was. What I feel for you is solid. It has the power to span a lifetime.” All of the joy on his face is quickly replaced with sorrow. “I’m sorry I’m laying all this on you.” He tries to get up, but I’m quick to press him right back down.

“Don’t you think for a minute you’re getting away with this.” I’m right back to boiling anger. “You can’t just tell me you love me then make a run for the hills—or should I say shower? I know exactly what’s going on in that icy den of hell your sister has imprisoned you in.” I blink back unexpected tears of my own. “I love you, too,” I say it far more curt and aggressive than I ever meant to. “And I mean it.” I practically shout those last words. “The last time I checked both you and I were adults—who by the way are not under the conservatorship of our sisters. If I want to love you—spend the rest of my life with my arms and legs wrapped around you, then that’s just what I’ll damn well do.” Okay, so maybe in all of my schoolgirl fantasies did I not once bark those magical words in the face of the man I want to spend the rest of my days with, but for the love of God with Raven as my psychotic bestie, with Lisa as my drill sergeant of a sister, there was no other way to do it.

“You love me?” His lids hood over, and that grin turns into something just this side of all-out lust for me.

“Hell yes, I love you. If I had my phone nearby, I’d snap a picture of the two of us just like this and send it to both your sister and mine with the words don’t like it, don’t look.”

A deep thunderous laugh rumbles in his chest. “I wouldn’t care if they were watching. Nobody is going to stop me from loving you.” His mouth dips to mine, and he steals a heated lingering kiss off me. “In fact, they could watch me do this.” He leans back and takes off his shirt, sending it flying into the open dark mouth of the soot-riddled fireplace.

I bite down on my lip, trying to hold the bubbling laugh from shooting out of me. “And for sure they could watch me do this.” My fingers work his jeans until they’re open down the front and I can feel him growing against my thigh.

Levi scoops me into his arms and jumps to his feet. “This is where I’d draw the line, sweetheart.”

And just like that, I have a tiny little orgasm in my new boyfriend’s arms.

Levi speeds us to his bedroom—the forbidden zone that I’ve yet to venture to—sans the first day when I stomped in angrily, but I was too pissed off to fully appreciate it—and for a second I admire its girth and width, the size of his bed alone looks twice the size of a king. He lands me softly onto the mattress and falls over me onto his elbows, his warm breath heats over my face.

“You want this?”

A dull thump rides through me at the thought. As if it were ever a question.

“I’ve wanted this from the moment I first laid eyes on you.” I bite down hard over my lip and nearly ruin the moment with a spurt of blood. “But I’m glad that we waited. I don’t mean to make myself sound like a skank, but I gladly would have jumped your bones on the way home from the precinct that night. In a way, I’m glad the fear of Raven—the fear of my own hellion of a sister”—I can’t help but giggle when I call Lisa a hellion because she so is, but I totally mean that in a loving way—“stepped in and saved me from almost missing out on what’s going to be the best night of my life.”

His heavy lids come shy of closing as his lips twitch just this side of a smile at the thought. Levi looks stoned, lost in the most primal need, and I’m going to make sure that his need gets met night after night by me only.

He groans softly. “Your sister still thinks I’m an ass.”

“She’ll straighten out once she sees the light.” I give a guilty shrug. “Like I did.”

Levi gets that glint in his eyes that assures me of things to come—namely me.

“Do you like it slow?” he growls it out as if the thought were already testing his patience.

“I’ll take it any way you’re willing to give it.”

“Good. It’s going to be fast, and it’s going to be hard,” he says it like a fact. “It might even hurt.” He takes a bite out of my neck as if to prove a point, but the last thing I do is protest. “But most likely it will be everything in between.” His teeth graze along my shoulder, and I let out a tiny cry.

Levi’s mouth falls over mine, hungry as his tongue probes me with an urgency met with my own. We’re off to the races, our limbs already intertwined, his hands manically exploring my body. He flips off my bra, and I help fling it across the room. My panties race down to my ankles all on their own. Levi plunges his kisses down to the girls, biting and sucking as if his life depended on it. His mouth moves south, running a fire line with his tongue all the way down to my hips, and stops just shy of a touchdown.

He looks up, still pleasantly drugged, his breathing as aggressive as my own. “You have a problem with how fast I’m moving?” he belts the words out, smeared with attitude the beastly way only Levi Masterson can, and that sweet spot at the base of my thighs trembles with anticipatory delight.

“Honey, if you don’t pick up the pace and take this baby home, I might just give you your walking papers. I’ve waited eight whole weeks for you to kiss me all over. I wasn’t hoping to stall in the process so we can share our thoughts on thermonuclear dynamics. In effect, we’ve already discussed the theory of relativity far too long this evening.” I give him a swift kick in his rock-hard behind. “Get a move on before I whip out the power tools.”

A deep gurgle of a laugh escapes him. “Oh, honey, after I’m through with you, you’ll toss the power tools.”

And I take a moment to admire this man with his impressive wingspan—muscles bulging from the top of his shoulders where I had no clue muscles existed, that demented smile taking over his face, the way his eyes just zeroed in on mine as if I were ground zero—and for the life of me, I can’t believe how I ever got so lucky. Levi is a work of art, a sculpture of the master come to life—fully charged and ready to teach me a lesson with every lick of that delicious tongue.

“No power tools?” My next breath gets caught in my throat. “Prove it.”

Levi gives a dark laugh that bumps through him, and he gets straight to work. He buries his face between my thighs, and his tongue works in hot, delicious circles until I’m clutching at the sheets.

“Shit,” I pant, unsure of how in the hell he has the ability to make me feel so inhumanly good. My breathing ratchets up as that coil deep inside of me begins growing impossibly tight. Every last part of me is begging to burst. And just like that, Levi springs up and straddles me with his knees.

“What the hell are you doing? Get back there!” My voice knifes its way out of my throat and comes back to me in an echo. Again—never imagined my perfect night with Levi would entail me raising my voice and my blood pressure while barking out orders—which by the way he is slow to comply with.

“I’m joining the party, sweetheart.” He dives to the nightstand, and the next thing I know he’s tearing the condom open with his teeth and stroking it onto his body.

“Oh, my ever-loving shit. That is the hottest thing I have ever seen.” The words come out breathy and jerky and quite possibly completely unintelligible.

His brows give a naughty hike into his forehead. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I pull my knees back to my shoulders and give a wild grin as our eyes connect one final time before he officially makes me his. “Welcome to the party, Levi.”

He falls over me with a ravaging kiss as I navigate him to where he needs to be. It occurs to me that this is the first time I’m holding my boyfriend’s man parts in my hand, and it happens to be nestled under a thin prophylactic layer—not that I’m complaining. I’m more than happy to take in the sticky length of him, and oh, my wow, is it ever an impressive length. In truth, I have only been with one other person, and that was a brief three-week stint of regret. Other than that, I’ve really put some miles on my power tool collection. Raven happens to have a power tool collection of her own, and we swore up and down that if we died in some untimely manner, we would be quick to dispense of one another’s power tool evidence. Not that Lisa would be shocked and dishonored to know I held fast to my own brand of self-pleasure. It was more to shield Raven from staining her pristine image in the minds of her brothers. And what the hell am I doing thinking about my sister and his while his rock-hard joystick throbs in the palm of my hand?

I land him right where he needs to be, and Levi wastes no time in slowly, ever so slowly plunging right in. My body stretches to accommodate him. It feels as if it’s being ripped in two in the very best way, and as much as I’ll feel this for the next six weeks—hopefully, because it’s occurring on a reoccurring loop—I don’t regret a moment of it.

Levi hikes up on his elbows and looks down at me tenderly, and my heart slams against my chest, just begging to break into his body and melt over his.

His eyes smile before he ever says a word. It’s a neat trick only Levi can do. “I love you, Low.”

“I love you, too, Levi.”

He melts his mouth over mine and gets the party started.