Fuck, she feels incredible pressed against me. It’s all I can do to slow things down. If my body had its way, we’d be much further along than this. Every time I pull back from her, it physically pains me, but I know I have to. I can’t let her become another transient woman in my life—there one day and gone the next. The only way to keep her is to hold her at a distance until she’s ready to go all the way.

Lightly, I pat her ass to let her know I need her to get off my lap. She detaches from my lips, and at first I think she’s about to get off of me, but then I realize she took the pat as a command and is starting to pull her shorts down. I catch her hand, stopping her from baring herself in front of me before she’s ready.

“Whoa, whoa, love…I just meant, ‘We ought to get going,’ but good to know you’re eager.” Grinning in a way I know will make her blush, I take hold of her hips. She hides her reddened face in her hands.

“God, so embarrassing…” Her whisper is barely audible.

“Kyri, look at me.” I can’t help but chuckle at her reaction. I pull her hands down and tip her chin up to catch her gaze. Her sweet innocence and awkwardness only serves to endear her to me. I doubt there’s anything she could do to make herself unattractive in my eyes. “You don’t need to be embarrassed. Just let me lead. When I want you naked—and you can bet I will very soon—I won’t leave a single doubt in your mind.”

The sparkle of humor I love so much enters her eyes. Fighting a smile, she asks, “What makes you think you’re going get that far?”

“I’m irresistible. You’ve already proven that.”

Her cheeks redden even further, but this time the fire continues into her eyes. It makes my flame for her stir even more.

“So do you still want to show me around Atlanta?”

She looks into my eyes, softening. Finally, she nods and stands to her feet. After adjusting her shirt and shorts, she says, “Let’s go. I hope you don’t mind going in my piece of shit car…that is, unless you want to pay for a cab—”

“Your car will be perfect.” I send her a reassuring smile. “Lead the way.”

After picking up her things, Kyri takes me by the hand and leads me out to her vehicle. We get inside, but as I’m setting into my seat, I notice something odd.

“Care to explain this?”

Curiously, I eye the dent above my head as I pull the passenger door closed. The inner lining of the car has been bashed, causing wrinkles around the dent in every direction.

“Oh, um…that was from some…fun I had with a friend in high school…” Kyri’s neck turns ten shades of crimson as she turns the ignition and the car putters on.

My eyebrow cocks of its own accord. “What sort of fun?”

She throws the car into reverse and mutters, “The kind that fogged up the windows…”

My eyes roll up toward the offending dent and a low growl escapes my throat. There is physical evidence in this car that another man touched my Kyri. Eventually, once I won’t look insane for doing it, I’m going to buy her a new car. One where the only man she’ll ever be fucking in it is me.

“Did you just growl at me?” Kyri eyes me from the side, scrutinizing me.

“I would never growl at you, sweetheart.” I try my best to turn on the charm again even though I’m feeling like making a dent of my own. “Tell me, love, what sort of car would you buy if you could have anything in the world?”

“I don’t have a dream car or anything, but lately I’ve been really salivating over this one Dodge Charger over at McCann Dodge.” Her eyes light up with desire at the mere mention of the car. Now I know where I’m taking her in a couple of months once this car peters out and she needs me to come to the rescue. “My money was being saved for a trip to Europe, so I never thought I’d be able to afford it.”

Relief floods my chest. “You want to go to Europe?”

Even from the side, I can see the stars in her eyes. “I’ve wanted to go forever…to taste the food, to have new experiences. Also, I want to see if it’s really the way I tried to describe it in my books. I did a lot of research, but of course nothing compares to being there live and in person.”

“You’re a writer?”

“Yes. I’m an author. Not published yet, but hopefully I will be soon.”

“That’s fascinating.” Beaming my appreciation, I take her in. Beautiful, intelligent, scrappy…she really is a bloody force of nature.

“What sort of things do you write about?”

She drags her plump lower lip between her teeth. “Um…I write romance.”

“Romance, eh?”

“Rock star romance, contemporary romance, anything hot with a happy ending.”

I can hear the slyness enter my voice. “So does that mean you’re well practiced in dirty chat?”

“Not…in person.” Chuckling nervously, she tucks a tendril of her wild red mane behind her ear. “I’ve written plenty of it, but putting it into practice is another story.”

“Well, I can think of plenty of ways to help you practice.” I watch a blush wash over her delicate skin.

Glancing to the side, she catches my gaze for only a second, quickly turning her attention back to the road. “You sure know how to distract a driver, Jace Hawthorne.”

It’s difficult to figure out what’s going on in this woman’s head, but the one thing I do know is that there’s something between us I’ve never felt with anyone. Our easy dynamic and chemistry didn’t just happen by chance.

“You can distract me as long as you’re staying here, which I’m sure won’t be long,” she says, shattering my illusions.