She whimpers, surprised, and I don’t care who sees us at the moment. Without breaking the kiss, I walk her backward, into the hallway, and around the corner.

She tears her mouth away. “What are you doing?”

But God, I’m so hungry. I dive for her lips again, tasting her tongue and threading my hand through her soft hair.

“No.” She pulls away from me.

I drop my arms, my heart pounding and my fingers still buzzing with the feel of her skin.

“I’m not going to fight with you,” I tell her, breathing hard, “and I’m not going to ask you to come home. I just want to say I’m sorry.”

She lifts her chin, feigning ignorance. “About?”

“The pizza, the movie…”

“Forgetting me,” she adds.

I approach her, trying to stay calm and keep my hands off her. “I didn’t forget you. I can’t…forget you.”

She’s quiet, holding my eyes, and I’m not sure what’s going on in her head, but I just needed to say it to her face. I don’t want her acting out because she thinks I was being careless with her.

Without another word, she twists around and heads down the hallway, pushing through the exit.

“Where are you going?” I follow her.

“My sister has a change of clothes in her car,” she answers, still sounding impatient with me. “I’m fine, and I’ll be home later, okay?”

She reaches Cam’s white Mustang in the crowded parking lot and goes to the driver’s side.

“Stop.” I come up behind her, putting my hand on the door in front of her. “Just let me explain.”

She twirls around, a sympathetic look on her face. “Oh, I’m sure you have an excuse. A really good one. No worries.”

She turns back around and reaches for the handle, but I need her to listen. Just for a second.

“Stop. Please.” I breathe hard, staring at the back of her head. “Jordan, I…

I swallow, just wanting her to turn around and look at me with her sweet smile and gentle eyes again.

I drop my voice to barely a whisper. “I can’t lose him,” I tell her.

She stills, and all I can hear is her breathing. Did she have any regrets when she woke up this morning?

She finally turns and looks up at me, nodding calmly. “I know,” she says softly. “So you have to lose me. I get it. I don’t want to hurt him, either.”

She spins around again to open the door, but my head falls forward into her neck, and my eyes close. She’s like water slipping through my fingers, and I’m dying here.

“I’m falling for you,” I whisper.

Slowly, she turns around again, and I don’t know if I should’ve told her that, but I raise my weary eyes, taking in her quiet expression. Her eyes look equally floored and something caught between desire and struggle to hold back.

“I knew you were out there somewhere,” I tell her, quirking a sad smile. “The girlfriends, women I dated, Cole’s mother…. I never wanted to marry anyone, because they weren’t what I was looking for. I had started to think I had my sights set too high, and you didn’t exist.” I clasp the back of her neck and run my thumbs down her throat. “Turns out my dream girl belongs to the one person it would kill me to hurt.”

Tears well in her eyes, and I bring her in, my lips meeting her forehead.

“I don’t mean to scare you,” I go on. “But you kind of scare me, because I want you like I need air, and…”

She nods. “And complications,” she finishes for me.

Pulling back, she looks away, and neither one of us are sure what to do next. The problem is there to stay.

“I needed time to think tonight,” I explain. “I’m sorry I stood you up.”

“And what did you figure out?” She drops her eyes, pulling at my fucking heart. “With all your thinking?”

I don’t hesitate, because I know I can’t stop. “That I can put off feeling guilty until tomorrow.”

I snatch up her lips and kiss her hard, feeling her slowly melt into me and pressing her body to mine. Heat floods through me, and I grow hard, moving my hands around her back, gripping her ass and lifting her leg by the back of the knee. I trail kisses over her cheek and down her neck, and she lets her head fall back, giving me free rein as I press her into the car and nibble her throat and collar bone.

“Pike, someone will see us,” she pleads.

But I’m so damn hungry for this. The strap of her top falls down her arm, and I pull the cup off her breast and dive down, taking a mouthful of her flesh, nipple and all, in my mouth.

She gasps. “Pike. Oh, God….”

She moans as I kiss and suck on her, nibbling on the pebbled skin of her nipple.

“Jesus, we gotta get home,” I groan. “Or I’m going to fuck you right here.”

“Hey, Pike,” someone calls.

I pop up, Jordan yelps, and I wrap my arms around her as she tucks herself into my chest, trying to hide her barely clothed body.

“Shit,” I growl and turn my head, seeing Ben Lovell in his police car, idling right next to us. How did we not hear him drive up?

“Ben,” I say, breathing hard. “What the hell?”

He’s doing a lousy job of hiding his amusement as he answers, “Just doing my rounds, man,” he says. “Is that Chip Hadley’s girl you got there?”

“None of your business.” I shift, trying to make sure Jordan is out of his view.

But he still tries to peer over at her. “You okay, honey?” he asks, still smiling.

She hugs her arms to her body, covering her nakedness as she folds her smile between her teeth. “Um, yes, sir.”

He chuckles to himself and shakes his head. “Goddamn,” he mumbles under his breath, shifting his car into Drive and slowly moving on.

I wait for him to leave the parking lot before I turn to Jordan. “Don’t worry. He’ll keep quiet.”

Lovell isn’t a gossip.

She quickly pulls up the strap of her top and crosses her arms over her chest, looking around nervously.

“Come on.” I take her hand, leading her to my truck. “Let’s go home and go for a swim.”

“Naked?” she taunts.

I pull open her door for her, shaking my head. “No,” I reply. “Wear the shells. I’ve been dying for the chance to peel that suit off you.”

She smiles and climbs in the seat, and I walk around the car, opening my door. She takes out her phone, probably texting her sister to let her know she’s leaving, and I start the engine, kicking it into gear.

Before we’re even out of the parking lot, she crawls up next to me and starts nibbling on my neck.

“Speaking of suits…” she says, sliding a hand inside my jacket and caressing my chest. “I could get used to this look on you.”

“Don’t,” I warn. “It’s only for special occasions.”

“And I’m a special occasion?”

“I think you know you are,” I tease. “I don’t widen my comfort zone for just anyone.”

I flash her a smirk, not the least bit annoyed she’s flipped my whole carefully constructed, boring world upside down. I’m doing things I wouldn’t normally do just to please her, but she’s also making me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. Some of them, never. I actually found myself entertaining a list in my head today of all the things I want to do with her. Take her to baseball games and on road trips, and I actually sifted through fucking eBay today for 80’s cassette tapes I thought I could surprise her with, like I’ll still be around for the holidays and her birthday next year, for crying out loud.

She makes me excited for everything to come. Whatever that is.

I turn to her, trying to keep one eye on the road and kiss her at the same time, but I just end up laughing.

“Buckle up. You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

She plops back on her ass and scoots over, pulling on her seatbelt.

“Oh,” I say, glancing at her, “and I know Mick wants to hire you. You’re not working there. You got that?”

She rests her head back on the seat, staring out the windshield. “Oh, are you laying down the law now?”

“I don’t like worrying. This gets settled now.”

I don’t really think she’s serious, but I like things carved in stone.

She just shrugs. “My sister makes good money. She’s not hurting anyone, and I’m not letting anyone support me.” She pauses and then continues. “I guess I’ll do what I have to do. I don’t really need your permission, you know?”

I dig in my eyebrows, the irritation of this situation crawling up my back.

But then I remember how hard she had to be pulled on stage tonight, obviously deciding that a wet T-shirt contest was not for her, no matter if she had gotten dressed for it or not.

I let out a little snort, remembering the way she protested. “I don’t even know what I’m concerned about,” I say, my voice thick with humor. “You’re a good girl. You don’t have what it takes to work there.”

“I’m not a girl.”

I press my lips together to stop smiling, but it’s hard. I know, I know, she’s a woman.

“And if Dutch or that little prick Jay or any of the guys who work for me come in?” I press. “You gonna be able to wear a bikini behind the bar and serve them drinks, or even worse, take off your clothes and dance for them? Let them use you to get off? Sit in their laps and rub up on them for forty bucks?”

I can’t help but laugh under my breath at the ridiculous notion. If she actually thinks about it and mentally puts herself in that situation, she’ll know it’s absurd.

She turns her head toward me. “Are you laughing at me?”

“I’m saying I know you,” I tell her, evening out my tone. “You and I both know you don’t have the guts any more than I would, so let’s stop wasting time arguing about something that will never happen.”