“Seriously? This is better than soap?” Avery held up a lantern and inspected it.

“A million times yes.”

The camping store was one I’d seen advertised but had never been to. Camping is not high on my priority list. Still, it was fun to have an excuse to wander the aisles of gear and clothing.

“We all think that buying more shit will make us happy. But we care about experiences. That’s what we’ll remember.”

“Experiences,” he echoed.

“Yeah. Like, I’ve always dreamed of taking my grandma to New York to see Kinky Boots.” Avery froze. I laughed at his expression. “It’s a musical. Grams was a Rockette but hasn’t visited New York since my grandfather died five years ago.”

“So do it.”

I lifted a shoulder. “It’s expensive. You know what I make.”

“Says the woman who gets free designer shoes. You’ll figure it out. You could figure out anything.”

His confidence warmed me as I picked a neon pink Thermos off a shelf. Unscrewed the lid and looked inside.

“You know, I do have a few thousand in the freezer.”

He shot me a horrified look. “You work at a bank and that’s how you save.”

I let out a laugh. “It’s from promotions on BBB. A little side hustle.”

Avery came up behind me as I set the Thermos back down. “Of course it is.” His admiring look had my mouth pulling up at the corner.

“Don’t you have any hobbies?” I asked.

“Played poker online through school.”

“You like it fast and loose.”

“I like winning.”

He followed me up the stairs to the second level. That’s when I saw it. It sat up on a platform, surrounded by others. But this one was perfect—a shiny beacon of gifting greatness.

“Bingo,” I breathed.

“No way. It’s a coffin.”

“Come on!” I dropped to my knees and crawled inside the two-person tent.

I waited a moment before Avery’s head appeared between the zippered panels. Laughter bubbled up as he crawled in after me.

“I’ve always wanted to see you crawl.”

But he made it in and I managed to zip the thing closed after us.

“This is a neon advertisement telling the bears and the cougars where to find you,” Avery grunted as we wedged in next to each other.

“We don’t have cougars here. Besides, there’s something romantic about it.” I scooched over onto my back, blinking up at the ceiling.

“There’s no room. If I breathe, I’m choking on nylon.”

I rolled to face him. He should’ve looked ridiculous lying on his side in the tent, the dim light filtering through.

He didn’t.

He looked like a Burberry ad transplanted into the middle of the woods. Because with the zipper shut, I could imagine that’s where we were.

It was wicked appealing.

Avery’s smell filled my nose. He was everywhere, and suddenly all I could think about was how big he was. That his mouth was inches away.

His gaze roamed mine, and I knew the second our brains synced up. At least I hoped they did, hoped I wasn’t the only one with some pretty basic needs hijacking my mental capacity.

My lumberjack fantasy came back full force. Plus a shockingly detailed memory of the way he’d come on my tits, his face a mask of tension and satisfaction. His hand went to my hip, his thumb brushing in the hollow there, and I had to remember how to breathe.

“So you’re out here, under the stars,” I whispered. “The…fresh air.”

Fuck fresh air.

“Um. Nature.”

Fuck nature.

The tent was our cocoon, protecting us from the rest of the world. He inched closer, and when his hand reached to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear, I could feel his heart beat through our clothes.

“Since we’re out here in the forest…can I tell you something?” he murmured.

All I could do was nod.

Avery’s mouth brushed my ear. “I want to fuck you so fucking badly.”

I swear I melted.

It wasn’t poetry. Or a song. It was better, because it was true.

Our gazes met and he shifted over me, slow and controlled. His hard body pressed mine into the ground.

Floor.

Whatever.

What was important was that mouth that I was suddenly desperate to taste was a breath away. In fact, every part of him was in arms’ reach.

Now, in this private place with him, I wanted him to kiss me.

Then keep going.

“It kills me when you look at me like that,” Avery murmured. “It’s got me remembering how soft you are under my hands.” He stroked my breast and I arched against him, lighting up from his touch through my thin shirt. “Here…” he moved to my waist, reaching under the hem to tease the skin there. “And here…” he squeezed my ass before hitching my leg around his hip.

“I want to touch every inch of you. Taste what I’ve touched. Fuck myself into your brain the way you’re in mine.”

He murmured it against my ear and my mouth fell open. I pressed my hips against him.

I was on overdrive, every part of me responding to his voice, his touch. I needed his hands to strip off my clothes. I needed his mouth to follow.

He pulled back an inch, staring down at my face. Studying me.

I wondered what he saw. My lips trembling. My eyes wide with desire, and conflict.

My throat worked. “After you kissed me in the trees that time—” my voice shook a little “—I had a dream.”

His expression darkened. “Yeah?”

“Mhmm. It was you and me in the middle of the forest. You were a lumberjack, and…”

I trailed off as I felt his shoulders start to rock. “Seriously?”

My hand slapped him in the shoulder. “Yes. It’s my fantasy, don’t knock it.”

“Sorry. Keep going.” He tried to keep a straight face.

“You lift me up against this tree. And it’s green all around us and you dive under my skirt.”

The humor fell away, replaced by heat. “Then what.”

“Then you make me scream.” The tension in his face matched his body now, and it radiated off him. “I don’t know how many times I got off to that. Though when I’m at home, the role of you is played by my vibrator.”

Avery’s lashes lowered as he studied my face. “Toys can’t do what I can do.”

“You’d be surprised.”

He shook his head once. “They can’t look into your eyes and know you need it slower, even though you’re begging for faster. That you’re about to come. Can’t add a finger in just the right spot when you’re about to fall off the edge.”

The intensity in his expression had me arching toward him, asking him with my body for exactly that.

When he wound a piece of my hair around his finger, tugging lightly, it had me almost whimpering. Even before he stroked a finger down the side of my face.

“I promise you, Duchess.” The nickname had heat pooling between my thighs. “Nothing in your nightstand can fuck you like I could.”

Holy shit.

“Now let’s get out of here before I prove it to you.”

He shifted off me, pulling out of the tent.

I lay there on my back for a second, catching my breath.

When I caught up to him at the desk, he had his credit card out. A box with a sticker advertising the tent we’d just been in was sitting in front of the register.

“I thought it was a deathtrap,” I offered, my voice almost normal.

“It is. And she’ll love it.”

We checked out and were on our way, stashing the tent in the car.

“I’ll drop you off.”

“I want to come with you. To give it to her.”

He looked surprised. “All right.”

“Can we make a quick stop first?”

* * *

Avery pulled up in front of his sister’s and knocked on the door. Barking echoed through the townhouse, which looked way too nice for students.

The girl who opened the door was my height with dark hair. “Waldo!”

Waldo? Wtf.

“Hi, Ken.” He wrapped her in a hug that had my ovaries turning over. The warmth in his voice seemed reserved for his sister.

She didn’t look anything like her brother. But that didn’t seem to get in the way of their relationship and the way he hugged the crap out of her.

“I came to drop off your present.” Avery held the box with the tent over his shoulder.

She grinned. “Who the hell is this?”

Avery glanced at me with a rare hesitation. “Kenna, this is Charlotte. Charlotte’s my—”

“Um, I know who Charlotte is. We’ve spoken on the phone. Plus, you talk about her all the time. Oh, was I not supposed to say that?” She shot her brother a fake innocent look. He glared but held the door for me.

Two things occurred to me as I crossed the threshold. First, that I was going to like Kenna. Second, that seeing Avery like this was seeing a whole other side of him.

“You guys want a drink? My roommate’s not here. I have juice. And maybe soda. We were cleaning out the fridge since we’re gone for the weekend.”

“Remind me who you’re going on this trip with?” Avery asked under his breath as we followed her down the narrow but modern hall, past too many shoes to belong to just one girl, and into the kitchen.

“Tabs. Jen. Maddie.” She turned to me. “Tabs and Jen are my roommates. Tabs is loaded. Hence the place.” Kenna waved a casual hand toward the living room, complete with old but shiny wood floors, two couches, and a fireplace.

“Thank God,” Avery commented.

“Aww, you’re worried there’ll be guys? Brother, dearest. There’s something I need to tell you—”

“Don’t say it.” Avery’s face paled.

She grinned wickedly. “I’ve had sex! With a man!”

“Don’t say ‘man.’”

“You want me to say ‘boy’?”

“I don’t want you to say anything.”

The dynamic was fucking fascinating. I watched their banter until finally she gave up. Kenna moved to the box containing the tent, which Avery slung off his shoulder and deposited in front of her.

“Wait. No wrapping. And where’s my card?” she teased.

“You don’t need a card. Cards are for people who cheaped out on a gift.” He looked to me for backup and I nodded.

Kenna ripped into the tent with delight. “This is amazing! I’ve always wanted a tent. This is seriously the best gift you’ve ever given me.”

“I might have had some help,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

That reminded me. “I got you some accessories to go with the tent.” I held out the gift bag I’d gotten at Walgreens, along with a few last-minute supplies.

She opened the bag and tissue paper I’d stuffed into it in the car, pulling out one item after another.

A camping mug. Streamers. Temporary tattoos.

“Everything’s purple!”

“What you need for a fun weekend away.” I’d noticed the color was in nearly all of her pictures when I’d pulled up her social media profile in the car. From her reaction, I could tell I’d guessed right that it was her favorite.

Avery’s brows pulled together as he reached for a box under the streamers and tattoos. “Are those…?”

“Purple condoms?” Kenna snatched them out of his hand, holding up the package. “Nice.”

The look Avery shot me was designed to melt me into the floor.

“Kenna, did you get your brother a purple tie by any chance?”

“Sure did. Why?”

“No reason. Hey, what’s with the Waldo thing?”

“No.” Avery’s authoritative voice rang through the room.

Kenna grinned. “You don’t know that story?”

“Hmm, I don’t think I do.” I couldn’t hide my delight as Avery rubbed a hand over his face.

“You know Where’s Waldo? The kids’ books where you search for that guy with the glasses and the red hat in a sea of people?”

“Yeah.” I vaguely remembered the dense, colorful illustrations.

“Avery went as Waldo for Halloween.”

“How old were you?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” Kenna cut in. “Not one year. Every year. Like, until senior year, I think? Maybe to a law society mixer…”

“That is not true.”

“I think I have pictures. He was obsessed with Waldo. Had all the books. There are art prints in his townhouse—have you seen them?”

Avery’s expression was bleak. “We put those up when you moved in.”

“Don’t pretend they were for me.”

“Now that you’ve completely emasculated me, why don’t you get that dog of yours?”

“Sure. Thanks for taking Charlie for the weekend,” Kenna offered. “I shut him in the other room.”

A bark from far away captured my attention again. Kenna crossed the room and opened the closed door. The golden retriever that barreled out was shiny and happy, its dog mouth open in a grin.

“I’ll go get his things.” She bustled out, leaving me alone with Avery, who bent down to stroke the dog’s ears.

I struggled to catch up. “Wait, the dog is Charlie?”

“Yes. I couldn’t bring myself to call you the same name, even if it was what you wanted.” A smile ghosted over his face. “Not everything I do is designed to piss you off, you know.”

I studied the two of them together. Avery, bent nearly double to pat this squirmy creature, its tongue lolling out one side as it panted with happiness, was the last image I’d ever expected to witness.

“How long has Kenna had him?”

“He was our dog. I bought him when she moved in with me to make the transition easier. Dumb idea. Took us weeks to house train the thing.” But he scratched the dog’s ears with affection. “I sent him with her when she moved out. You know, to give her something to take responsibility for.”

“Not to protect her when you couldn’t.”

“Of course not.” He straightened and the dog whined as its scratching post disappeared.

Seeing Avery like this, his protectiveness. He smiled more and teased more. It was sexy as hell.

“What?” he asked at my expression.

“You’re different like this. With your sister. You’re fun. You’re funny. Why aren’t you like that with anyone else?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t like anyone else.”

“That’s not true. You like me.”

“I’d like to do very bad things to you,” he corrected, his eyes sparking as he leaned against the counter.

I wasn’t sure why it bothered me when he swung the topic back to sex. I tried once more. “Maybe if we both want them, they’re not bad anymore.”

Avery’s gaze searched mine. Finally he shifted off the counter and glanced toward the door. “Let me get Charlie’s things and I’ll drop you off. I’m sure you have plans tonight. Thousands of Bostonians needing shoe advice.”

I blew out a breath. “Right,” I muttered as I watched him turn to go after his sister.

He wasn’t being an asshole and we were on good terms. The chemistry between us was off the charts, and unless my radar was completely gone, we were destined for more steamy times ahead.

So why did it feel like I had less of a handle on him than ever?