I’ve just poured my nightly iced tea when there’s a soft knock at my door, and I’m so surprised I nearly drop it. Instantly, my hand goes to where my holster should be, but I’m not wearing it because I’m at home.

Bad guys don’t knock, Kane, I tell myself.

But I know who would. The knowledge makes my pulse race as I cross the kitchen and the living room, iced tea in hand, to the back door.

For a split second I imagine who else it could be: the Senator, here for yet another chat. Kyle, in some sort of misguided attempt to prove himself.

Or one of the other Burgess women, lonely and after the only non-related man in the house. The thought makes me wrinkle my nose.

But I open the door and it’s her. Of course it’s her, blonde hair floating gently in the breeze and eyes bright green, even in the dark, piercing right through me like always.

Then she tilts her head to one side, and I think she’s nervous but she smiles anyway and it’s not her regular, sweet smile. It’s mischievous and coy and devious and I swear to God that smile is promising me things I’ve only ever dreamed of.

“Invite me in?” she says, keeping her voice quiet.

I hesitate for a split second. If she gets caught in here, even if we don’t do so much as kiss, my old life is gone. My career in the Secret Service is officially over, the end mired in scandal, my name blacklisted in Washington, D.C. forever. I’ll be lucky to play rent-a-cop to state assemblymen after this.

And in this moment, I couldn't fucking care less.

“Welcome to the carriage house,” I say, stepping back from the door.

Ruby steps in quickly and I shut the door behind her, already nervous that she’s been seen. She glances around my apartment, taking it all in, suddenly seeming a little uncertain, like maybe she hadn’t planned this far.

It’s all right. I’ve got some ideas, so I lean back against the kitchen counter, just watching her, every nerve in my body singing.

“How can I be of service?” I ask, my voice low and slow.

Ruby lifts her shirt, and for a moment I think she’s just going to take it off right then, right there, no preamble. My dick practically leaps out of my pants, but instead she lifts it an inch above her waist and pulls three letters out of her pantyhose.

“I came to give these back to you,” she says, holding them out.

I just grin, and Ruby frowns.

“What?” she asks, still holding them.

“Those were in your bedroom, down the hall from your father’s office, and you brought them all the way out to my apartment to give them to me to put back?” I ask, taking a step toward her. “Sure, Ruby.”

I swear she turns three different shades of pink, but she cocks her head at me defiantly, and after a moment, a smile starts gathering around her eyes. A real one.

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she says, teasing me.

“I’m saying you’re a whole fucking lot craftier than bringing the letters to me when it’s miles easier to put them back yourself,” I say, moving toward her.

Now there’s only a foot between us, and it feels like the air itself is charged with electricity.

“Then I must really be here for some other reason,” she murmurs.

I grab the letters, toss them onto the kitchen table, and take her hand, lacing our fingers together as I walk her backward. Ruby stumbles a little but I steady her with my other hand on her back.

“Is it this it?” I growl once she’s against the wall. “Any chance you’re here to finish what we already started?”

Her hand is still in mine and I press it against the wall, over her head, our faces almost touching. I feel like I could almost jump out of my skin right now, and I can practically feel Ruby’s pulse beating through the air.

She doesn’t say anything, her eyes wide, and I dig my fingers into her spine, through her ugly t-shirt.

“If you’re here for something else, Ruby, say the word now because this is all I’ve been fucking thinking about for three days straight,” I say, my voice low and rough with desire.

“This was it,” she whispers.

I squeeze her hand, push it harder against the wall, and kiss her. I can barely force myself to hold back but I do, make myself kiss her slowly and carefully this first time, swiping my tongue along her lip until she opens her mouth under mine, gently curling our tongues together as I try not to growl.

The sheer effort of holding back has me trembling, and I pull away from her by millimeters until our lips are barely touching, my hand gripping hers so tightly my knuckles are white.

Go slow, I command myself. Ruby’s not like the other women. Slow down.

But as I’m admonishing myself, her hand closes around the back of my neck and pulls me in toward her with surprising force. My mouth practically crushes hers, our tongues tangling together instantly and I groan because I can’t help it, pressing her hips against the wall with mine, our bodies flush together.

Ruby arches her back and rolls her hips and I growl at the friction against my cock, the fucking delicious heat of it all. Now my hand’s moving down, from her spine to her ass, perfect and round and squeezable as fuck through her ugly denim skirt.

So I squeeze. Ruby gasps, and I let her hand go so I can grab her ass with both of mine and I pull her against me, my erection tight against her belly.

She doesn’t pull away. She pushes her hips into mine with a ferocity that takes me by surprise, and I grunt because I can’t help myself.

“Jump,” I tell her, pulling back.

She blinks, breathing hard.

“What?”

I grab her arms and throw them over my shoulders while she looks confused. Disheveled and fucking beautiful, but confused, so I grin.

“Hold onto my shoulders and hop in the air,” I say.

She frowns, but after a moment she hops into the air and I grab her upper thighs, pulling her legs around my hips and pinning her against the wall my aching erection pressed right up against her heat, her skirt wide open.

“Oh!” she yelps, laughing.

“There you go,” I say, grinning. I run one hand over her knee, smooth with nylon, and Ruby keeps laughing and kisses me again, hard, her tongue in my mouth.

It’s taking everything I’ve got not to tear her pantyhose and underwear off and take her right here, just like this. Her legs tighten around me as her hands wander through my hair, down my neck, over my shoulders, leaving tingling trails wherever they go.

I pin her against the wall a little harder with my hips. Ruby gasps into my mouth but moves her hips against me again, the friction nearly overriding my system as I move my hands down her body slowly, palms open over her shoulders, her collarbones, her high, full breasts.

I pull back and look into her wide green eyes as I touch her for the first time, letting my hands linger over her ugly t-shirt, feeling the heat of her body underneath as her chest heaves with every breath.

As desperately as I want her, now, I need Ruby to be okay, to want this herself, so I pause for a moment, just watching her.

She grabs my hand by the wrist and holds it to one breast, the perfect mound filling my palm as I grin. I’m not sure I’ve felt a girl up outside her clothes like this since I was a teenager, but I like it. Somehow being with Ruby makes this all feel brand new, exciting, like I’m touching a woman for the first time.

I grab both her breasts, still through her shirt, and she kisses me again so I run my thumbs over where her nipples should be, though the bra she’s wearing is too padded to tell. Ruby bites my bottom lip and I groan into her mouth.

“Sorry,” she whispers, putting one hand to my mouth.

I grab her ass again and hoist her higher, since she’s starting to slide down the wall.

“What for?” I ask, kissing her jaw, one hand moving under the hem of her shirt, finding denim and pantyhose.

“The noise,” she whispers.

“The noise was a good noise,” I say into her ear. “Don’t worry, it takes more than a nibble to hurt me.”

I close my teeth around her earlobe gently and she gasps. My hand finds the edge of her hose and above it the warm, smooth skin of her belly, and I run one thumb just under the bottom of her bra, feeling her thighs tighten around me.

It’s delicious. Better than I’d imagined, and I’d imagined that pushing her against the wall like this would be pretty fucking good. But she’s starting to slip down again, so I kiss her neck one last time, grab her ass, and pull her away from the wall.

“Oh!” she says, softly, wrapping her arms around my neck, but I’m already halfway across the small kitchen, putting her down on the table, her legs curling around me again as I grab her shirt with one hand, about to pull it over her head.

But Ruby pulls back, one hand on my chest.

“Wait,” she gasps.

We’re both panting for breath, our bodies pressed together, every muscle in my body crackling with her electricity. But Ruby looks a little nervous, uncertain, so even though it’s the last thing I want, I stop.

“Waiting,” I say, lifting my eyebrows, twisting the hem of her shirt in my hand.

Ruby swallows and looks up at me again.

“I’ve never done this before,” she says quickly, the words coming out in a nervous rush. I wait a moment, expecting more, but she just looks up at me like she’s waiting for a response.

A smile tugs at my lips, and I can’t help but laugh softly.

“And?” I murmur, my fingers still playing with the hem of her shirt.

“And... I don’t know what I’m doing?” Ruby says.

I pull on her shirt and lean in closer, my other hand sliding up her denim-skirt-covered thigh.

“What you’re doing is driving me absolutely fucking crazy every time you so much as look my way,” I tell her, my voice getting gravelly and dipping low. “Any further questions?”