I squirmed uncomfortably.

I knew Effie’s advice was well-meaning, but there was a time and a place to push the boundaries between me and Caine, and too much too soon would have him running in the opposite direction. Deciding to pretend I missed her point, I pushed my plate back. These breakfasts were the only real time I imagined Caine got to spend with Effie, especially with me taking up what little free time he had. I decided to give them privacy. “Well, I’m stuffed. I’m going to have a shower.”

Effie smiled gratefully at me and Caine’s own expression was warm, tender almost. It took everything within me to restrain myself from caressing his cheek as I passed him.

Slowly, Lexie. Slowly but surely, I reminded myself.

When I wandered back downstairs after my shower, the table was cleared and Effie was nowhere to be seen.

Caine approached me and I stilled at the predatory look in his eye. “Where’s Effie?”

“She had a book club meeting to get to. She told me to tell you she’ll see you soon.”

“Oka …” The word died on my lips as Caine drew to a stop in front of me and felt under the Red Sox T-shirt for his tie. He yanked on it and the sweatpants instantly began sliding down my hips. With satisfaction etched into his features, Caine forced the pants down my legs and then bent down to his haunches to pull them off. I stared at him, confused, as he stood back up.

“The T-shirt looks better on its own,” he explained.

His actions suggested I was sticking around the apartment for the day. “Aren’t you busy?”

“Probably, but let’s pretend I’m not.”

Delighted, I grinned up at him. “So you want to hang out? Like normal people?”

“Neither of us will ever be normal, but we can certainly hang out.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” He looked around his apartment. “I’ve never just … hung out before.”

“Hmm.” Sensing I needed to take control of the situation, I stepped past him and stared over at the TV corner. “We could watch a movie.” That was something that normal couples did. In fact, it sounded so normal I had butterflies of excitement fluttering around in my belly.

In answer Caine strode across the room and opened his DVD cabinet. “What do you feel like watching?”

I made my way over there and bent down beside him. Eyeing the movies, I felt overwhelmed not only by the choices but by the fact that this was happening. I was spending the day with Caine, dressed only in his T-shirt, and he was prioritizing me over work just as he had done last night. Surely that was huge. I bit my lip to contain my giddiness and began looking through his foreign movies.

After selecting one about World War II, Caine set up the movie and then flopped down on his sofa so he was stretched out along it on his side. My initial instinct was to gaze down at him uncertainly, as he’d never really invited casual affection before.

But I was over uncertainty.

I’d decided I was over that this morning and I was sticking to it.

Decision made, I curled up on my side in front of him and relaxed when his arm snaked around my waist to pull me closer.

For the first fifteen minutes of the movie I found it difficult to concentrate on anything but the fact that I was cuddling on the sofa watching a movie with Caine. My awareness of him was heightened even more than usual—his hard body pressed close to mine, the steady, slight rise and fall of his chest against my back, the clean fresh scent of his skin and the hint of his cologne …

Eventually, however, I relaxed completely and allowed the film to draw me in. I was enjoying the fraught story and the coziness of the situation, but was beginning to realize where the plot was going and what it would eventually lead to. Somewhat familiar with foreign movies, I knew they could be more sexually explicit than our homegrown fare, and I wondered how I’d deal with watching a sex scene with Caine when the two of us were still so hyperaware of each other.

Sure enough, a sex scene began and I found my breath catching at the highly sensual acts unfolding before us. Caine strained slightly behind me as the cries of pleasure filled the room while the hero put his mouth between the heroine’s legs.

Ripples of desire moved through me, shooting electric tingles between my own legs. My nipples hardened as I watched the lovemaking on-screen while surrounded by Caine.

Slowly I reached for his hand that rested on my hip and I drew it down over my thigh and back up under the T-shirt.

His breath hitched behind me as I guided his fingers underneath my panties; all the while my eyes were glued to the screen.

His erection pressed against me. “I thought you were sore,” he whispered, the words heavy with lust.

“It’s a good kind of sore,” I managed to whisper back.

In answer Caine rubbed his fingers over my clit.

Our breathing grew louder, shallower, as the couple on-screen fucked at the same time Caine’s magical touch took me toward orgasm. I cried out, coming around his fingers as the guy on-screen thrust into the heroine.

Quite abruptly I found myself on my back as Caine braced himself over me and yanked my panties off with rough need. I gasped, thrilled by the harsh lust hardening his features, and a renewed rush of desire swept over me as he shoved down his sweatpants enough to free himself.

And then he was inside me, pushing into me with a deep need that I matched as I lifted my hips against his thrusts. Lying beneath him, my fingers digging into his gorgeous ass as he moved inside me, I wondered at this madness between us, and if this base demand for each other would ever calm.