And then she tossed the phone across the room, where it landed in her laundry basket.

“Nice shot,” he said.

“Yeah, I make that shot a lot. The trick is remembering to rescue the phone before I do laundry.”

“Expensive mistake,” he noted.

“Tell me about it. I’m on phone number three this year already.” She rolled away from him and started to climb out of the bed. “Listen, I need to get up early, so you should probably go.”

He pinned her on her belly, letting the erotic feel of her beneath him take over from everything else.

She blew hair from her face, craned her neck, and narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s with the caveman hold? I think we’ve both had our jollies here tonight, so we can consider ourselves over the whole ‘I’m yours’ thing, right?”

“Wrong.” He rocked his hips against her sweet ass.

A soft moan escaped her, and her eyes softened momentarily, until her phone began vibrating again.

“How much you want to bet it’s another ‘Don’t Answer’?” he asked.

She turned her head so he couldn’t see her expression.

Ah. The brick wall. He was getting good at bashing his head up against it. “So who’s Dickwad?” Lowering his head, he brushed his scruffy jaw against the nape of her neck.

She shivered. She liked. So he did it again. “Olivia?”

“No one important.”

Uh-huh. Whoever he was, he was important enough to label. “And the Evil Queen?”

“Wrong number.”

He laughed softly. “Such a beautiful liar.” Scooping her hair aside, he pressed his lips to the spot. “I bet I could get you to tell me all your secrets, Supergirl.”

“They’re not very interesting,” she said, and then hissed in a breath when he nibbled his way down her spine, the sound muffled against the pillow, like she was pressing her face hard into it so he couldn’t hear her.

But he wanted to hear her. “I think everything about you is interesting,” he said, and when she growled at his hold, he merely spread her legs with one of his thighs. And then made room for the other.

“I said I have to go to sleep,” she muttered, but she pushed her ass into his crotch.

And then it was his turn to groan.

One hand braced at her shoulder, holding the bulk of his weight off her, he slid his other beneath her and cupped a soft, warm breast.

Her nipple immediately tightened and pressed into his palm.

“Okay,” she said panting. “Fine. You’ve got ten minutes.”

“I can do a lot with ten minutes,” he said. And then he proved it.

Chapter 17

It was a sneaky, cowardly thing to do, but Olivia got up before dawn and…left.

Yeah. She left her own place, with Cole in her bed and her phone still in her laundry basket.

She stopped at the Eat Me diner for coffee, hit up the bakery for a croissant, and then wasted more time by walking the pier, telling herself she needed the exercise.

She didn’t. She’d burned a bazillion calories riding Cole like a bronco all night…Just remembering burned a bunch more.

The sun came up behind the mountains, highlighting the choppy water. She watched awhile longer while finishing her coffee and croissant and then went back home.

Cole was gone.

She’d thought she’d be relieved, but she was something else entirely.

Disappointed. In herself, not him. She’d long ago decided that as Olivia she was going to be a better version of herself, and she had been.

Until this morning.

By the time she showered, dressed, grabbed her phone, and got out the door—for the second time—she was having a hard time maintaining her distance about the night she’d just had.

What had Cole thought when he’d woken alone? And why did she care? He wanted to know more about her, and she got that. She wanted to know about him, too. But she didn’t want to share her past with him, not now.

Not ever, if she could help it.

Not because she didn’t trust him. As ridiculous as it sounded, she already trusted him. There was just something about him that instilled a boatload of trust.

But with that came a healthy dose of reality. She’d learned the hard way not to give too much of herself. Nothing good came from it. She needed to remember that.

Just a little bit longer with him, the devil on her left shoulder begged. Oh, please.

You shouldn’t, the angel on her right shoulder said, clearly worried. Guard your past, walk away.

Olivia’s heart clutched. She knew she couldn’t keep her distance, couldn’t resist him.

But tick-tock, the clock was counting down. She knew it. Behind that easygoing, laid-back nature of Cole’s, he was sharp as a fox. And intense. He had questions, and he wanted answers.

He was going to complicate the world she’d built for herself. He was going to huff and puff, and if she wasn’t careful, he was going to blow her carefully constructed house down.

Right around her ears.

Even as she thought it, her evil, evil phone buzzed in her pocket, and she took a look. Not a DON’T ANSWER this time, but Becca. “Hey,” Olivia said, cradling the phone in the crook of her neck as she unlocked the door to her shop.

“You missed mine and Callie’s impromptu breakfast. Did you get my text?”

“I did,” Olivia said, walking inside, flipping on lights and the heater. “Sorry. I was…busy.”