She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, wearing my T-shirt. The white one with a smear of motor oil on it that I’d discarded on the floor. Her long brown hair was twisted and tousled down her back, her legs slender and graceful beneath the hem of the shirt, her feet delicate and perfect.

I was sitting up in bed, next to her, leaning on pillows against the headboard. I wore the sheet up to my waist and nothing else. I had one arm propped behind my head and the other resting on my stomach. If you’d offered to pay me a million dollars to move from that exact spot, I’d have told you no.

“I think we should talk,” Tara said.

“Why am I not surprised?” I asked.

She watched my face and then she smiled, just enough that I knew she caught my teasing. “I’m serious.”

“I know.”

“This,” she said, pointing to herself and me and back again. “This, here. We need to be clear about what it is.”

Of course she’d be direct. She asked everything head-on. It was what I liked about her. I felt a second of aching fear because she had no idea how I felt about her. None. “You think it was a one-time thing?” I asked her.

“I hope it isn’t,” she said.

My stomach dropped at that. It was something, at least. A start. “Yeah, well, I was hoping you’d get dressed and leave,” I said. “I’d like to set up my Tinder account.”

“Shut up,” she said, the words with no sting in them. “Nice try. I’m not going anywhere.”

There it was. Our gazes locked for a long minute. No, I thought. You’re not going anywhere.

“What?” she said to me. “You’re looking at me funny.”

“Am I?” We were back to fencing.

“Tell me the truth, Jace Riggs. I can’t read your mind.”

I rubbed my finger over my chin and gave it to her straight. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever fucked, and you want to know if I’m done with you yet,” I said. “To me, that’s a weird question. No. I am very much fucking not.”

She bit her lip. She was unbearably beautiful, even just-fucked in the shadows of my bedroom. Especially then. “I think I read that in a book of poetry somewhere.”

“Write it down and savor it,” I said.

She put a hand on my shoulder, letting her fingers trace down my bicep. Her lashes swept down, then up again, a flicker of uncertainty I’d never seen in her before. I stared, fascinated.

“This…” She paused. “This isn’t casual to me.”

My throat closed. I tried to think of words, but nothing came.

“It better not be,” I said at last.

For some reason, that made her exhale, like she’d been holding her breath. Had she actually been wondering? “Okay, then,” she said. “This is a thing. Right? We’re a thing.”

I’d never seen this side of her, vulnerable and questioning. “Will you get in trouble?” I asked her.

She frowned, catching my meaning—she’d been my counselor until a few days ago, after all. “No,” she said. “I don’t see a reason I would. The paperwork is done. It’s pretty clear we no longer have a professional relationship. And my personal relationships aren’t anyone’s business.”

“This hasn’t happened to you before? With a client?” I asked.

Her eyes went wide.

My hackles went up. “Was the last guy a client?” Silence. “The truth, Tara.”

“No,” she answered me. “He wasn’t a client.”

But there was something there, something heavy. Something she wasn’t saying. You can’t be angry, dipshit, I told myself, because you haven’t told her about the coke, have you? The Thunderbird, the junkyard, the fire. She’d be pissed off if she knew. Disgusted, maybe. I could handle that some other day, but today was not that day.

I reached out and hooked a hand behind her knee. Pulled her gently until she had unfolded her legs and was leaning back. Then I rolled on top of her.

“No more talking,” I said.

She parted her lips, looking up at me. Her hair was spread on the pillow, her dark eyes fixed on me, her mouth still rosy from kissing me.

I had Tara Montgomery naked in my bed. Suddenly, that was the only thing that mattered. I ran my thumb along her lower lip, tracing it, watching her eyes go hazy.

“We’re a thing,” I said simply. “No more talking.”

Her voice was a whisper. “Okay, Jace.”

I leaned down and kissed her. Tasted her. Those soft, beautiful lips, all mine. For now.

I kissed her, and I kissed her. And we didn’t talk again.