He moved so that his forehead rested against hers as he slid his hands into her hair, his fingertips against her scalp. “You’re daring me.”

“Yes,” she said, not opening her eyes, enjoying the bliss caused by his touch. Even without looking, she felt him smile. After a moment he tugged lightly on her hair until she met his gaze.

“I stayed away to give you time to think,” he said.

“Thinking’s overrated.”

This startled a laugh out of him, and she soaked up the sight of his genuine amusement. He was just too damn sexy for his own good, certainly too sexy for her own good. When he let her inside his personal space like this, when he so rarely let anyone in, letting her see the private side of him, every last defense around her heart melted away.

Just melted away . . .

“Griffin?” she whispered, suddenly serious.

His smile faded. “Yeah?”

She backed him to the foyer table. “Remember when you asked me if this table was sturdy?” She patted her hands on it. “It feels sturdy.

His eyes were serious now, very serious, with only the slightest quirk of his lips as he stepped into her and kissed her hard. “You’re going to be the death of me,” he whispered against her mouth.

“I know,” she said, sliding her hands up around his neck. “But it’s a good way to go, right?”

Apparently he was too busy divesting her of her clothes to answer. He started with her blouse. He smiled at her pretty pink bra and then took that off, too, tossing it over his shoulder. “Do your panties match?” he asked.

“There are some things a man should find out for himself,” she said demurely.

His hands slid beneath her skirt and pulled her leggings down and off. He shoved up her skirt and eyed the matching scrap of pink. “Nice. Lose ’em.” Then, before she could, he tugged the silk down her legs. And then her skirt as well. Which left her bare-assed on the wood. Putting a big hand on each of her thighs, he spread her legs and then stepped between them, his jeans rubbing up against her heated flesh.

Heaven . . . “Griffin?”

“Yeah?” He trailed hot kisses up her cheek to her ear, melting her bones.

“You want me bad,” she said, rocking against him, pulling his head down to hers, pressing a kiss to first one corner of his mouth and then the other.

He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and swallowed hard as if unused to such a tender touch, which of course only made her want to be all the more tender.

“I do want you bad,” he whispered as she planted tiny kisses along his jaw and down his throat. “Very bad.”

“Good.” She pushed up his shirt, reveling in his rock-hard abs and leanly muscled chest, leaning in to take a nibble right above his collarbone, and when he sucked in a breath, she soothed the ache with her tongue.

Her efforts tugged a deep groan from Griffin. He tore off his shirt and shoved his hand into his front pocket, coming up with a condom.

“You think of everything,” she said.

“Yes, would you like to know what I’m thinking now?”

She had a pretty good idea. “If I didn’t know the truth,” she said. “I’d swear you were once a Boy Scout.”

He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and huffed out a laugh, his chest rising and falling as he fought for control. “Don’t play with me right now,” he warned. His taut body wasn’t up for teasing.

Neither was hers. She popped open his jeans and reached inside. “I don’t play.” She stroked him, and he swore roughly. Picking her up, he turned and pinned her against the wall. Her fingers tangled in his hair as he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her into submission.

“Bed,” he growled against her lips, and carried her to her room. He dropped her onto the mattress and then crawled up her body, kissing every inch of skin he passed, stopping at every spot where she gasped or squirmed, starting over when he felt like it, until she was writhing and panting beneath him. The feel of his hard body pressing into hers, combined with the way he devoured her, sent jolts of pleasure through her, coiling low in her belly.

“The condom,” she finally gasped.

He was one step ahead of her, and then his weight settled on her. Opening her thighs for him, she urged him closer. “Hurry.”

“Hell no.” Cupping her face in his big hands, he moved as calmly and deliberately as he pleased. “We have time.” And then he held her gaze as he, just as slowly and steadily as he did everything, slid into her.

He stilled then, a look of impossible control crossing his face. But if he was learning her body, she was doing the same with his. She knew how to wrestle his hard-earned control away, and she gradually arched her hips, taking even more of him deep inside her.

Eyes hot, he bent over her, and then it wasn’t just his control snapping but hers, too, as they both fought for release. When it came, it was with shocking force, knocking them both into oblivion.

Much later she felt him lean over her to kiss her good-bye, a deliciously hot kiss that left her stirred up all over again. “Uh-oh,” she whispered.

“What?”

“It’s still here. Our chemistry problem.”

He smiled a little tightly in silent agreement, and then he was gone.

Nineteen

Kate woke up deliciously sated and with a smile on her face. Sex absolutely did a body good. Normally, she might have spent a few moments wondering what last night had actually meant—or not meant—but she decided if she didn’t think about it too deeply, she could take it in the spirit she’d originally intended.

Naked fun, and not as the possible beginning to something between them, because that would end in disappointment.

Not that any of that mattered at the moment, because she was running late. She made the usual run to her dad’s, where she speed-read Ashley’s practice SAT essays, fed everyone, grabbed Tommy—Captain America today—and ran out to Ryan’s car.

Thirty minutes later, Kate’s class was humming with the wild energy of twenty second graders getting ready to go on a field trip to Belle Haven.

Their new vet, Dr. Wyatt, usually came to her class for monthly visits, but at least twice a year Kate brought the kids to the animal center. They got a lot from watching responsible adults handle all the animals, and Kate got a lot out of letting the kids run themselves ragged on the large acreage.

With budget cuts, Kate had to rely on parents to drive the class, and as a result, she was humming with her own wild energy—worry. One of the parents who’d signed up to drive hadn’t yet shown up.

Trevan Anders.

She got him on his cell phone five minutes before their scheduled departure time, and he said he was unable to get away from work. He expressed polite regret and offered to make it up to her over dinner, where he hoped to also apologize for his behavior the day before in the parking lot of the school.

The man was as hot and cold as a sink valve, and he gave her a headache. She’d meet him for dinner approximately never.

“Do we have to cancel?” Tommy asked solemnly at her side, having apparently sneaked up on her.

She looked down into his green eyes. The Captain America sweatshirt was a direct contrast to the seriousness of his gaze. “We are not canceling,” she said. “Even if we have to walk there.”

“It’s seven point five miles.”

That got a smile out of her. She wasn’t the only one in the family who knew all sorts of random facts. “How did you know that?”

He pulled out the iPod Touch he’d gotten for his birthday. “Grif loaded a Find My Friends app and a map, too, and I marked out all my favorite places.”

Her heart clenched. God, she loved this kid. “We’re not walking,” she promised, and called Ryan’s cell phone.

“Five days,” he said.

Like she didn’t know she had five days left to accept her full-ride scholarship to UCSD. “Not why I’m calling,” she said.

Luckily, he agreed to step up to the plate, leaving his district meeting early to meet Kate and her class in the school parking lot. The other parent drivers were loading up their cars when he arrived. He ended up with five kids in his truck—including Dustin, who immediately began playing with all the rear control panel buttons of his new car.

“Stop that,” Ryan told him, and shut the back passenger door. Standing by his driver’s door, he eyed Kate. “You owe me,” he said.

“What do I owe you?”

The kids were inside his car with the windows up, but ever vigilant, Ryan pulled out his phone and sent her a text.

“Seriously?” she asked, lifting her head and meeting his gaze after reading the obscene suggestion. “Is that all men think about?”

“Yes. And food.”

“Good. Because that’s what you’re getting. Food.”

Ryan sighed. “Fine. Pizza. Loaded. And beer.”

“Done.”

“That was too easy,” Ryan said. “I should have demanded both.”

Clearly things hadn’t worked out with the bridesmaid from Holly’s wedding. Probably it was his charm. The drive to the animal center was uneventful. The center was large, and right out front were Brady and Dell, working with a couple of horses in the pens.

As Kate ushered her class past them and inside, Jade stood up from the front desk and waved. She ran the ship here at Belle View with the same drill sergeant ability with which Holly ran her dad’s ranch. Each kid was given a lanyard with a nametag to wear around his or her neck. Jade walked them through an examination room and taught them about some of the equipment.

Then they went out back. In the big barn, they got to meet a bovine and her new calf, who were at the center for some special care after tangling with a coyote. And then Lulu the sheep, who’d just given birth to two lambs out of season.

Back outside, they found Adam in the huge open yard teaching a survival class with Griffin. They’d rigged some sort of climbing wall and were working the ropes. Adam stood at the bottom, belaying Griffin, who was thirty feet above them in the air, clinging to the inverted wall by nothing but his fingertips.

“Wow,” her class breathed in unison.

Yeah. Wow . . . Kate watched him swing and then reach for the next tiny little handhold, holding her breath until he pulled himself up with ease. She wondered if he knew she was there, and then he met her gaze, his own sparking a fire inside her.

Yeah. He knew she was there.

“I could do that,” Ryan said in her ear.

Kate turned and met his gaze. “Yeah?”

“Totally.”

“Except for your fear of heights,” Kate said.

“Yeah. Except for that.”

Dr. Wyatt brought out a big crate of kittens, eight weeks old and ready for adoption. The kids sat around the box and took turns petting and holding them. Dr. Wyatt told them that they could have first dibs, if any of their parents were in agreement.

Dustin had pushed his way to the front and was cuddling one, a black little girl with bright blue eyes who looked up at him like he was her mama. “I want this one,” he said.

“Let your parents know,” Dr. Wyatt said. “If they approve, she’s yours.”

Dustin ducked his face down, but not before Kate saw his expression. He knew his dad would never approve a kitten.

Tommy looked at Dustin for a long moment and then at Kate. “Dad would let me get one, right?”

“Shut up, Captain America,” Dustin said, and swiped his arm across his eyes.

Tommy reached out and stroked the black kitten. “If I adopted her, you could come see her every day. If you wanted.”

Kate’s heart swelled in her chest, both with love and pride. Dustin buried his face in the kitten’s fur and didn’t say anything for a long moment before giving a barely there nod.

Kate let out her breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. She thought of her dad and hoped like hell he could handle one more living creature in his house . . .

After that, Brady’s wife, Lilah, took the kids across the way to Sunshine Kennels to visit the animals there. Kate and the other parent drivers ended up in the employee kitchen with some of the staff. Dell came in and pinned Jade to the fridge for a kiss.

“Hey,” Adam said. “I’m the newlywed.”

Dell pulled back from a now dazed-looking Jade and grinned down into her face. “Just saying hi.”

Jade rolled her eyes, but still gave him a dopey smile.

Everyone but Ryan and Kate drifted out of the kitchen. Ryan handed her a bottle of water. “Figured you were thirsty. What with all that panting you’re doing over Reid.”

She snatched the bottle. “I’m not panting.”

“Drooling, then.”

She ignored this. Because okay, she might have drooled a little bit over Griffin on the ropes. She was definitely lusting. Every time she thought about Griffin and what he’d done to her last night—what he always did to her—her legs got all watery and she went damp in areas she had no business going damp in during daylight hours. “It’s not a thing.” She lifted a shoulder. “Or it’s not a real thing.”

Ryan looked at her for a long moment. There was a lot in his gaze. Affection. A touching amount of concern. And then, wariness just as Kate felt a change in her force field.

She didn’t have to turn around to know who’d come up behind her and now stood at her back. It was utterly unnecessary because her happy ni**les told her exactly who it was.

“Griffin,” Ryan said.

“Ryan,” Griffin said.

Kate sipped her water like her life depended on it.

“Kate,” Griffin finally said.