Josh couldn’t have been more sweet and caring towards her. He took her home and fixed up the guest room properly to make sure she was comfortable.

Amy was grateful to him and his kindness and appreciated that he took time out to make sure she was okay. Or as close to okay as possible. She was devastated about her dress, and really didn’t know what to do.

Since he gave her the day off she slept in till ten and couldn’t have been more surprised when he came in with a tray of breakfast.

“You brought me breakfast in bed?” She sat up and smiled at him. She’d never had breakfast in bed before.

“I did, and you’ll love this.” He looked proud of himself as he placed the tray before her. She looked down at it, narrowed her eyes, and smiled at the amusing display.

He’d made her pancakes and created smiley faces on top of them with chocolate syrup. There were also little macaroons, like the ones she’d seen in those fancy European stores. These were in the shape of pink unicorns and teddy bears. He’d also made scrambled eggs and toast, which he cut up in triangles. It looked like something you’d give a child.

“Josh, this looks like a kid’s meal. A very cool kid’s meal.” She couldn’t believe she could laugh, despite her inner turmoil. “How old do you think I am?”

He gave her that wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look. “Um, is that a question I’m meant to answer?”

“You can if you want to.” Now she really wondered how old he thought she was.

He grimaced. “Please just tell me you’re legal because I’m at risk of going to prison if you aren’t.” He looked at her breasts and kept his gaze there. “You’re not wearing a bra are you?”

“Josh,” she chided him, pulling up the sheets to her chin. No she wasn’t wearing a bra and didn’t normally wear one to bed.

“I’m sorry. It’s that Italian blood thing again.”

She giggled. “Anyway, you thought I might not be legal?” There was no way she looked that young.

“Well you always get all squeamish when I talk about sex and you said you wanted to take things slow, so it occurred to me that maybe that was because you were waiting to turn eighteen. Either that or you escaped from the convent. I hope I’m wrong.”

She couldn’t believe she was laughing. “Josh, you thought I was either under eighteen, or a nun.”

He shrugged sheepishly. “Anything can happen these days.”

She laughed even more. Really laughed, and he did too. “And I’m not squeamish about sex.”

Mischief filled his eyes. “Have you done it before?”

Great, now he thought she was a virgin. “If you must know, yes I have. Not as much as you. Definitely not as much as you.”

“Hey, I can’t help that women crawl all over me. I swear to God some of them just land on me and we just end up doing the wild dance.”

“Joshua Mancini you better hope the good Lord didn’t hear you just lie through your pearly whites.”

He looked at her, studying her, and smiled. “You just sounded like Corey. His family is originally from Texas. His southern accent comes out when he’s well and truly annoyed with me.”

She blinked and looked down at the tray he’d set before her. Amy had lived in New York for so long that her southern drawl had diminished to some extent. Living in Atlanta where there was a good mix of accents meant that hers had never been as strong and pronounced as her mother’s, who was originally from Louisiana.

It didn’t surprise her to hear that Corey was from Texas. Aside from the hint of an accent she’d detected in his voice, he had the good manners of a southern gentleman.

Josh continued to observe her, and she knew why. Last night had opened the door to a lot of questions. The biggest of all was what she was doing in an apartment like that in downtown when she worked for him.

She held his gaze, pulled in a deep breath, and said, “I’m from Atlanta. I moved to New York after college.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t know that weeks ago.” His eyes never left hers. “I feel really bad that I didn’t try to find out more about you when you helped me through such a tough time. It occurred to me that I don’t even know how old you are.”

“I’m thirty-three.”

“You don’t look a day over twenty,” he smiled. He certainly knew how to make a girl feel good, especially when she felt more like a hundred years old.

“Thank you.”

“I can continue my wild fantasies now.”

“Wild fantasies?” She found that hard to believe.

“Oh yes, but we’ll talk about that another time. If I tell you now and I get lucky with you from my glorious bravery last night, I’ll have to wait till later to find out about you. Also, Hilda wants to come in and see you, and if I get my hands on you it won’t be a quick thing.” He shook his head. “We’ll be at it for hours. Let’s just say the whole day and night. I’d have to send her home.”

All Amy could do was stare at him with narrowed eyes and her mouth open. It never ceased to amaze her how his mind worked. Also, she knew he wasn’t joking and that’s what fascinated her more. She’d never met anyone who’d speak their mind so freely.

“So, anyway, tell me, Amy Rose, what made you leave your job in New York to work for the biggest asshole you’ve ever met in your life, with just a sewing machine, a mannequin, and a beautiful red dress that used to have rhinestones?”

She looked at him and thought about how to answer the question. The simple, short answer was money.

It twisted her stomach to think of her situation and how he’d feel when he learned her story.

Amy looked away again and focused her gaze on the sturdy features on the window. He had blinds up in this room as opposed to curtains, and the decoration was quite plain. In the corner was a small wardrobe, a matching chest of drawers, and a desk. Her stuff was next to a box full of weights. All her belongings were in one pile on the floor.

She looked back to him when he reached out to take a lock of her hair.

“Tell me, Amy.”

She shook her head. The more she thought about it, the more awful she felt.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to think that it wasn’t real, that I wasn’t real.” A tear ran down her cheek.

“I have a habit of being able to tell what’s real from not. You’re the real deal, Amy. Let me make it easier for you. I know this job pays really well. I know everything about your job. I guess you needed money for something, but anything you did for me stopped being about money after the ESPN show. It stopped when you followed me inside after dropping me off and asked me if I was going to drink.”

His eyes were full of understanding and deep appreciation. He ran his finger along to the side of her cheek and smiled. “Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“So now that’s cleared up, you can tell me what’s going on with you.”

She bit the inside of her lips to prevent herself from crying as she thought about all that was going on with her. “My mom is really sick and needs specialist surgery. She has severe heart disease. I took this job so I could pay for the surgery for her.”

His eyes filled with sadness as he searched hers. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Josh, you had a lot going on.”

“But so did you. Do you need more money? Let me help.”

“No. It’s all okay now.” In few a months she’d receive that fifty thousand and everything would all be okay. It did, however, warm her heart to hear him offer to help. “Thank you, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. But I have everything under control now.”

“Okay, but let me know if you need me.”

“I will,” she promised.

“Until then you’ll stay here. I can’t believe you’d live in that awful place like that. Amy I have a room I keep my shoes in that’s bigger than that dump. You could have just come here.”

“I can’t stay here, Josh. I couldn’t then and I can’t now. That’s such an imposition.” It was, and she was still trying to deal with her feelings for him.

“It’s not.” He shook his head.

“It will be when you want to invite Allegra and bed friends.” She had to be realistic. The man just told her women crawled all over him and it wasn’t his fault if they did the wild dance. “You get all cranky with me when you haven’t had sex in days. God forbid if I was the cause of you not being able to have your little fling parties.”

She thought he’d make some sort of wise crack about that but he didn’t. He gave her this cautious look and she wasn’t certain what he was thinking.

“I won’t be inviting Allegra and bed friends here anymore. I haven’t in months.”

“But you might. You might miss them.”

“I won’t.”

“How do you know?”

He took her hand and held it up. “Because of this.”

“My hand?” She narrowed her eyes at him and wondered if this was another one of his crazy reasonings.

“No, this.” He shook her hand.

“What is it?” She chuckled.

“Exactly, I don’t know what it is, but there’s something between us. Something that I don’t deserve.” He released her hand. Amy couldn’t have been more stunned by his words. “But since I want it, I’ll work for it. That means no more Allegra and bed friends. And it means taking us as slow as you want.”

She pulled in a breath to calm herself. To calm her heart as it reached out to his words.

“Josh.”

“Amy, please just give me a chance to take care of you. Let me have that.”

She felt a sense of eagerness coming from him and saw that he really wanted her to be here, so she thought she’d agree. “Okay.”

“Good. So, that just leaves the dress. You made it, didn’t you?” He tilted his head to the side.

“How’d you guess?” She smiled up at him.

“It was the way you looked when you realized it was damaged.”

“I’m a fashion designer. I applied to work with Dior and that dress was supposed to be my ticket in.”

“Well Amy, you are full of surprises. You really are. You’re a fashion designer?” He looked really impressed.

“I want to work for Dior, but now I don’t have a dress and the new designer showcase is in a month. That dress took me months to make.”

“Is that how long it takes?”

“No, it just took time to design the right dress. Something I thought would win their hearts and I…” The dress had cost her a total of five thousand dollars. She didn’t even have three hundred right now.

“How about you work out what you need and then you and Hilda can go shopping in Beverly Hills or something. There’s plenty of designers there and I know there must be places you can get your material and diamonds or whatever.”

She just laughed. Maybe he didn’t realize how broke she was.

“Josh, I’m broke, I can’t even get plastic diamonds in the Bargain Bin.”

“You aren’t broke, you have me.” He reached into his pocket and took out his bank card. “Here, just get what you need.”

“Josh I can’t take your card. The dress cost thousands. I’m already staying in your house.”

“Baby, don’t you think life is hard enough as it is?”

“Yes.” There was no question about that.

“Look what happened to you last night.” He smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “Just take it and get whatever you need. It’s the least I can do.”

She didn’t care about her loose camisole that probably showed off too much or the matching shorts, she had to hug him.

“Thank you so much,” she told him and snuggled into his embrace.

He held her close to him, filling her with that feeling of safety, again, she’d felt last night.

“Thank you for everything.”

“Anything for you, beautiful Amy.”

* * *

Josh had the pleasure of watching her on a daily basis. Night and day.

He didn’t know that he could be so fascinated with one woman as he had been with her. Everything she did amazed him and it was nice to have her around all the time. It got to a point where he couldn’t remember not having her in his life. He was serious when he told her he didn’t know what they had, but wanted it. Since then every minute spent with her strengthened that desire.

The first week she spent at his house was the very best week he’d ever lived there. She brought so much life into the house and seemed appreciative of everything. She liked waking up to watch the sunrise on the beach. She liked sitting by the fireplace with a fire in the back while she drank cinnamon hot chocolate. She liked his not-that-great cooking, and she liked listening to classical music and reading poems with him.

His sessions with his therapist helped a great deal, but what worked for him was Amy. Her. Plain and simple. It was her. She made him want to be a better person.

She made his house feel like a home and extended her presence to accompanying him to the stadium when she could to offer her support. He was grateful for it. Particularly on days like today when he was exhausted from the intense week they’d had.

He’d finished about fifteen minutes ago but Coach Simpson wanted to go through some strategies with him. Josh was particularly good at this and would have been able to give more insightful commentary if he hadn’t noticed Amy talking with Corey by the water stand. Josh knew Corey and couldn’t believe his asshole of a best friend was flirting with her.

Amy wore denim shorts and a white shirt over an olive-green tank top. Her golden hair sparkled against the bright stadium lights. The whole image of her was sexy as hell without trying, and she carried herself in that sassy-but-girlie way he liked.

When Corey rested his hand on her shoulder Josh glowered at him, but he was too far to see.

“Josh, what do you think of that?” Coach asked.

Josh continued to glower at Corey, thinking that if he wanted to keep his hand then he needed to remove it from his girl. And stop talking to her too.

“Josh.”

“What?” He looked back to Coach Simpson quickly. “Um yes.” He didn’t know what he was saying yes to, but that was usually the correct answer, except where no was required.

To Josh’s horror Amy started to laugh at whatever lame joke Corey was telling her and brushed her hand across his chest. She didn’t do that to Josh, and his jokes were always funny. More than Corey’s, which would be about some stupid horse or his family’s farm. But, maybe Amy liked horses and farms.

“Josh,” Coach Simpson bellowed, nudging him in his side really hard. Josh looked at the older man and saw the annoyance on his face. His grey brows were lowered and nostrils flared.

“Yes coach?”

“Look son, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, and if your assistant’s going to be that much of a distraction tell her not to come.”

“Okay.” Josh rushed across the field before Coach Simpson could say another word. When he got up to Corey and Amy, Josh nudged into him so hard Corey fell over. He then took Amy’s hand and pulled her away from the scene of startled onlookers on the side lines who were now laughing at Corey.

He didn’t care, he just wanted to get her away from them, all of them. Coach was right, Josh should keep her safe from these evil man creatures. By right he should let her stay at home, but that would mean he wouldn’t see her all day, and if it was late like this she’d be asleep by the time he got in.

“Josh.” Amy winced. He was pulling her too fast. He slowed down but he didn’t let go of her hand.

“Josh, where are you taking me? This is the changing room.” She winced as they got to the doors. He didn’t care, he needed to keep her with him.

“I need to keep you safe.”

“Safe from what?” She chuckled.

“Just come. And close your eyes.” Most of the guys would have gone home so he was hoping the changing room would be clear.

“I’m not going in there.”

He ignored her protests and pulled her through the door. The aim was to get her to his quiet little corner of the room. However, to his misfortune they encountered Ty, Philip, Sam, and that damn Gage, who was showing off his latest tattoo. Everyone else was dressed, but no not Gage. The conceited bastard was shirtless and, to Josh’s further dismay, Amy’s eyes glued to Gage looking at the sculptured muscles along his abs. Josh could have murdered him right then. Seriously, and to make matters worse, Gage saw her and indulged in the admiration with his stupid self by flexing his muscles for her and kissing his abs.

Josh stopped in his tracks and glared at him. “Watch it, quarterback. If you want to keep those eyes you better look away right the hell now.”

Gage just laughed, and so did the other guys.

“Keep going, old man,” Gage joked.

Old.

It was that stupid joke again. Yes, it was funny, but not in front of Amy. “I’m a month older than you, asshole.”

“Yes, older.” Gage laughed with his annoying self.

“Josh, is there a reason why I’m in here?” Amy tried to pull her hand away but he held on and decided to leave Gage alone.

He continued in the opposite direction to where his stuff was and only released her hand when they reached it.

“What is the matter with you? You’re acting like a crazy person.” Amy shook her head and tucked her golden hair behind her ear.

“Oh, so you noticed?” He took off his jersey and shoulder pads.

“I think everyone did.” She widened her eyes at him. “And you’re treating your friends like dirt.”

“What was so funny?” He stared at her.

“What do you mean?” She smiled.

“What did Corey say to make you laugh so much?”

Her mouth dropped and she looked surprised. “You’re jealous.”

“I am not jealous of that pea brain, horse-riding cow.” Yes he was jealous, alright. Crazy jealous.

“Oh great, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Corey and I will be going to the Mandarin restaurant on Saturday.”

“Corey is what?” Josh sent his fist straight into the locker, denting it and popping the door off the hinge. Shit, Coach was going to have his head for that, but he had more serious things to worry about. Looks like he needed to kick Corey’s ass. As he moved to go she came up to him and took his hand.

“I was joking, but clearly I was right.” She cut a glance at the locker. “I can’t believe you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Okay fine. So, next topic as we’re here, have you decided on the ad yet?”

He didn’t know what she was talking about. She let go of his hand and leaned against the lockers on the other side of them.

“Baby, what ad?” He was getting tired of these magazines and their ads.

“Calvin Klein,” she grimaced.

Oh, he remembered now, and he didn’t want to do it. It was time to focus on training. He didn’t have time to be prancing around in his underwear.

“No, tell them to ask Gage. I’ll bet he’ll happily oblige.”

“They want you, and I want to give them an answer by tomorrow. I’m trying to have a cut-off point for these sorts of events and promos. Nothing past next week.”

He liked the way she organized things and dealt with people. She had that firm-but-polite manner about her that maintained professionalism. Whereas he would have outrightly told them all no and the next thing he’d hear was how rude he was. Which, technically he was, so that didn’t bother him.

“Why do they want me?” He pulled off his jersey and her eyes fixed to his chest. He watched with deep satisfaction as she took her time taking in the clear-cut muscular definition of his abs. Good, Gage may think he looked like God’s gift to womankind but he had nothing on Josh. “Amy.” He caught her attention and held her gaze.

“Yes.”

He came closer to her, stepping right into her personal space to give her a better view. “Baby, why does Calvin Klein want me?” He undid the button on his trousers, drawing her eyes there to the start of his boxers with the Calvin Kline logo written across the top. Above that was another tattoo, an image of a blade.

“Because you’re the sexiest man alive.”

“Am I?” He stared at her.

“Apparently.” She played with the ends of her hair.

“Says who?”

She laughed. “FHM.”

“God.” He shook his head. The guys were going to have a field day with that one and tease him to no end when they found out. “What about you? What do you think?” He smiled at her. It didn’t mean anything until she thought it.

“It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“It does to me. Does Amy Rose think I’m the sexiest man alive?” He watched her cheeks warm up and turn a soft rose color.

“Yes.”

He couldn’t resist the smile that lifted his lips. “Do you want me to do the ad?”

“You’re asking me what I want?” She laughed.

“Yes. Apparently,” he borrowed her words, “you seem to be the boss of me.” Because his actions hadn’t been his own since he met her. The rules had changed suddenly and no matter what he did he couldn’t get her out of his head.

“It’s Calvin Klein, Josh. In my world we don’t usually tell a designer no.”

“Well, this is my world and it will mean me being in some advert in my boxers or not even that, on a beach, probably near the house with women all over me. So what do you want me to do, baby?”

Her face changed and she seemed a little uneasy as she thought. “It’s an ad. I wouldn’t want you to miss out. But…” She stared at him.

“But what?”

“I think it would make me crazy if there were women all over you.” She bit the inside of her cheek.

“Right, so that’s settled then. I won’t do it.” He nodded. “Come here.”

“No.” She shook her head and blushed uncontrollably. “I’m working.”

“It’s nearly nine, you finished hours ago. You’re not at work. This is just us now.”

“I’m doing overtime.”

“Bull, come here.” He took her hand and pulled her towards him, then lowered to sit on the bench and brought her into his lap.

“Josh, we’re in the changing room. I don’t want people to think we’re up to something.” She rested her hand on his chest.

“Amy, no one cares. You’d be surprised what goes on in these walls.”

“That doesn’t mean we should add to it.”

He looked at her and wondered if maybe she just didn’t like him. Maybe he was forcing this too much and should stop before he pushed her away.

“What’s wrong with me?” he asked her. He wanted to know what she thought.

She giggled.

“Okay I get it, that was the wrong question.” She’d seen him at his worse and the way he’d treated her when they first met was atrocious.

“No.” She smiled at him. “Nothing is wrong with you, Josh. It’s me.”

“What could possibly be wrong with you?”

“I like you too much, and I shouldn’t.” He held her green gaze and looked at her beautiful face. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone so beautiful in his life, and it was a beauty that came from within and made her physical beauty even more pronounced than it was.

Suddenly she looked worried.

“Why shouldn’t you? I like you too much too.” He wouldn’t kid himself it was more than just like. Like was too meager a word to describe how he felt about her. And he only knew because he’d never felt it before. He held her close and caressed the edge of her tiny waist.

“Do you?” She searched his eyes as if she was trying to find something.

“You know I do. Come here, baby.” He crooked his finger and she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his. Every time he kissed her a magical force rushed over his body. He slid his hand up to the soft skin of her face, securing his lips to hers. She ran her hands up his bare skin leaving a heated blaze of fire where she touched. Everywhere on him felt hot all at once and he had to restrain himself. As a soft moan escaped her lips it drove him wild and he thought he would indeed go crazy.

Then he couldn’t have felt more aggravated when he heard the damn wolf whistles from his so-called friends.

The sound pulled him and Amy apart and she looked so embarrassed her whole face turned red. She jumped off his lap as the guys started clapping and laughing.

Josh was so mad he threw an old football at Gage, who of course caught it with no effort.

“Looks like we have a winner,” Corey teased, clapping the loudest of them all. “Well done, Amy, you certainly have tamed the wild beast. Lord have mercy.” He was all Texan now.

“Guys, if you want to live, you better move from my sight.” Josh was fuming.

“Josh.” The dainty hands on his arm brought him back to his senses. He looked down at Amy and saw that she was smiling sweetly up at him. “Let’s go home.”

Home. He looked at her and for some reason the word home stood out in his mind. It made him think of that warm feeling she’d brought to the house since she started living there.

“I’ll go wait in the car.” She continued to blush as she walked past the guys who were still clapping.

Once she was gone he looked back to them. “You’re all a bunch of jerks, you know that.” The humor had returned to him.

“It’s just good to see you happy, man,” Gage said. “Ride with it.”

Corey came over to him. “You should see your face.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

“I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that before. Savor it man, women like that only come into your life once in a while.” Corey rested a hand on his shoulder and nodded.

Josh knew that he was right. It was just a scary thought, but he was right.