“I’ll pass. Even cheese can’t conceal the broccoli smell. Brings back nightmares from my childhood.”

I think about him as a child for a moment and how cute he must have been. “Did you have to sit at the table until you ate all your vegetables?”

His teeth graze his own spoon slurping in a giant noodle. Once he swallows he says, “Something like that. For me it was more like I had to sit at the table until I could get my dog to eat all my vegetables.”

God, he was a bad boy even as a kid. I find that oddly to be a turn-on. Watching him eat has my stomach yearning with desire and not for food. “We had a dog too. A golden retriever named Beat.”

He laughs. “That makes sense since your dad was in the music business.”

“What was your dog’s name?”

A gleam enters his eyes, one I’ve never seen. “Kahuana. He was the biggest, baddest, chocolate Lab you could ever have seen.”

I laugh. “Sounds like ‘Leroy Brown.’”

Seemingly lost in his thoughts still, he looks at me questioningly.

“The song ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.’ He was meaner than a junkyard dog.”

He shakes his head at me again. “Yeah, something like that. Can I ask you something?” His tone changes to something more serious.

“Sure,” I say, blowing on my soup.

“That night I came over and you pulled out a bottle of wine, I saw vodka on your counter too. Are you drinking again?”

I tense up while his eyes study my face. “No, I never drank any of what I bought. I thought about it. I opened the bottles. Even poured a glass or two but never drank a drop.”

His hand moves to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.

I jerk away, moving to swat his hand. “I’m not like my father. I’m not an alcoholic, you know.”

He catches my wrist and gently closes his fingers around it. “I know that and it doesn’t matter anyway. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

My heart beats faster, as if it’s reaching for him. “I am.”

The moment suddenly feels too serious.

“Good, because I’m the jackass that got so drunk that night at the bar I couldn’t remember where I parked.”

“You didn’t drive home, I hope?”

“No, Beck drove my bike home, and believe me, he was not happy.”

We finish our soups and talk about fun things we did as kids. When we’re done and heading back, I stare out the windows watching the trees sway side to side. It seems as though so much time has passed since our first dates. But in actuality not that much time has passed; it’s more that much has happened between us.

Before I know it we pull up to my apartment building. He puts the car in PARK and turns to me. “You know, I really missed you.”

I smile. “I know.”

He shakes his head, somewhat amused, I think.

I leave him there pondering my answer and open the door to get out.

He catches up to me just as I’m climbing the steps. Once we hit the top, he grips my hips. “And how do you know that?” he growls in my ear.

I breathe him in—that scent I’ve missed for far too long makes me feel a little dizzy. I stabilize myself and take my keys from my purse. “Because I missed you too.”

Then I turn to face him. He’s staring at me, his eyes gleaming. “That strangely makes sense,” he says, and takes the key from my hand before leaning in to place a soft kiss on my lips.

The heat between us intensifies and he pulls away, caressing my cheek and motioning for the door. When we get to it, he quickly shoves the key in the lock. I stand behind him as close as I can and rest my chin on his shoulder to peer down.

He twists his neck around to see me. “What are you doing?”

I grin, liking the feel of his body so close to mine. “Making sure you know how to unlock the door.”

“You know, I could use a little direction,” he says.

I press closer into him. “You insert the rod into the hole,” I whisper into his ear. My voice is low, raspy with desire.

His body stiffens and his breathing is rough.

I close my eyes and feel a rush of excitement. “Next you turn it and pull it out.”

He twists the key ever so slowly. “Like this?” he asks in that husky voice that makes me throb between my legs.

My own breathing picks up and I’m shamelessly panting. If I never understood kinetic energy before, I do now. He grabs the door handle and quickly pushes it open, ushering me by him at a rapid speed. I take the key from his hands. “Then you—” I start to say as I turn around to lock the door, but I’m silenced when his hard body meets my back.

He grips my h*ps and his lips find my neck. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

I try to catch my breath, but all my air is gone. I let my head fall back on his shoulder. “I’m sure. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

He flips me around and runs his hands down the side of my body. “Do you have any idea how badly I want you?”

“Show me just how bad,” I breathe huskily over his lips.

His eyes close and he shudders.

“Ben, stop thinking.”

His eyes open at the sound of my voice, and they have never been bluer. “I’m trying to figure out if we should be doing this after everything that happened tonight.”

I bring my hands to his face. “He didn’t attack me. I wasn’t really afraid, just startled. I’m okay. This is okay,” I reassure him, my body aching for him in a selfish way.

He stares into the depths of my eyes and brings a hand up to stroke my cheek. “We’ll take this slow.”

I slide my lips to his hand and kiss it, nodding.

And again he stares into my eyes. And then as if he can’t take another minute of restraint, he slides his knee between my legs. My chest rises and falls with an intensity I’ve never felt before. He brushes the hair from my forehead and softly kisses above my bandage. I wrap my arms around his neck and throw my head back as he feathers kisses down my neck. He kisses behind my ear, and a hum of some kind escapes my throat. He groans at the sound. My breath is shallow but fast. Finally he moves to my mouth. My lips part and when he presses his to mine, I slide my tongue inside his mouth and across his lower lip. I want to explore every part of his gorgeous mouth and I want him to do the same, but I know my breath must smell really bad right now.

“Ben?” My voice is shaky.

He pulls away to search my eyes.

My palms flatten on his chest and I can feel his heart pounding. “I need to brush my teeth.”

Obviously fighting off laughter, he presses himself into me and kisses me even harder, deeper. “You taste delicious. You always do,” he says.

I melt back against the wall and band my arms around his waist. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” he chuckles.

“Okay, then.”

“Besides I don’t want to wait another minute to see you naked,” he growls, and then promptly lifts me off the floor.

I flick my shoes off one at a time and hear each clatter against the floor. Then I wrap my legs around his waist and ask a question I already know the answer to. “Where are we going?”

He slides his hands up and down my sides. “To your room.”

“I liked the wall,” I purr.

“If I f**ked you against the wall, I’m afraid you’d bang your head against it. Let’s keep to soft surfaces like the mattress. I told you we were going to take this slow, and besides, we’ve already done the wall.”

I place openmouthed kisses down his neck, tasting him with each lick and suck. “What if I don’t want slow?”

“Good thing I’m the one in control, then,” he says, and my heart races at his tone.

“Maybe that’s where I want to be,” I tease and run my nails down his back—hard.

“Fuck,” he groans, lowering me to the floor in my bedroom. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

“Did I tell you I’ve dreamed about you almost every night since the library?” My fingers trail to the buttons on his shirt and I undo them one by one.

“Tell me what you dreamed,” he says in a seductive voice.

“I dreamed about you delivering pizza to my apartment but I had no money to pay you, about you pulling me over and me trying to get out of a speeding ticket, about you being my doctor and me needing a very thorough exam.” Okay, so really I dreamed about him and me lying together, naked, happy, just us, but I want my dreams to sound a little sexier than they actually were. And I don’t want to scare him off.

His tongue caresses my earlobe. “Did all of your dreams end in me f**king you?”

“Um . . . hmm,” I answer, shivering when his tongue slides inside my ear.

His breathing accelerates at a rapid speed. “Good, because your dreams are about to come true.”

I fumble with the last few buttons of his shirt, my entire body trembling in anticipation. He looks down at my hands and then rips the rest of his bloodstained shirt off, the remaining buttons flying to the floor. He looks at my pale pink silky top also spotted with blood and with his fingers gripping the V of it, he tears it right down the middle and pushes it off my shoulders to reveal my matching pink bra.

His eyes grow dark with desire and his hair has fallen and lies tousled over his forehead. He has to be the sexiest guy I have ever seen—ever.

The lights are on in the room and although the blinds are pulled down, they aren’t fully shut. I want to say something, but when his hands move around to undo my bra and he places both his palms over my br**sts, the tingle in my skin is all I care about. He feels me for a bit, thumbing my ni**les to draw them into stiff peaks. When his hands drop I immediately feel their loss and want that warmth back. He takes a moment to admire me.

“So f**king sexy,” he murmurs.

His voice makes me shiver again. His head dips and he circles his tongue around my nipple, first one side, then the other. He tugs a little on one and traces circles around the other with his thumb. I press into his mouth, loving the way it feels on my skin.

“Touch me,” I plead, wanting his hands to move a little lower. Needing to feel them there.

“I’m in control here,” he says, letting his mouth drop a little as if teasing me.

I gasp when his lips hit the waistband of my skirt, his fingers gliding up the silk of my hose. In response I thread my fingers through his hair, tugging harder the farther up my thigh his fingers creep. My body hums at his sensual touch and my heartbeat accelerates. He undoes my skirt and as it floats to the floor, one of his hands spans my rear and the other the area between my hipbones. I moan so loudly I almost want to beg him to speed it up, but luckily I don’t have to.

He quickly straightens and grabs my chin with my fingers to bring my eyes to his. “I’ve dreamed about being inside you every night too. My c**k has swollen so big thinking about it I’ve come in my dreams,” he confesses.

My hands fly to his jeans and I unbutton them as fast as I can. My need to feel him is out of control. I slide inside his pants, wrap my fist around him, pumping him up and down.

“Does that feel good?” I purr, getting on my toes to nip at his lip.

“Really, really good. So good,” he hisses.

“In your dreams were you this big?”

“Bigger.”

I squeeze him harder, reaching down to grab even lower.

“Oh, f**k,” he groans, and takes a step back, disengaging from me. Then he reaches his hand inside my hose. “Fuck, you’re not wearing underwear again.”

“I never wear them with hose,” I say.

“Sexy as f**k,” he mutters again. He cups my sex, sliding a finger inside me so fast the pleasure seems more like pain. “S’belle . . . your skin is so soft and you’re so wet. I think you like torturing my cock.”