Shifting his taut body slightly, he spreads my legs further apart and presses into my core. He moves his mouth to suck my bottom lip before he starts kissing me hard and wildly. True undaunted yearning cascades through my body as fast as the water ripples around the basin and down the drain. The toothpaste is now dripping from both our mouths as the water continues to fill the sink, but neither of us cares.

Finally, I nudge him in the shoulder and he steps back. “Hey. That’s not playing fair. I didn’t say I wanted you to brush my teeth. I . . .” but I don’t get a chance to finish. As his eyes flicker to my lips and down my open shirt, his breathing labors as his lips part and he bows his head forward. The tip of his tongue finds the small swell of my breast where some toothpaste has dripped and as he starts slowly dragging his tongue up my chest, an unstoppable moan escapes my mouth.

As his lips slowly and seductively slide from my chest to my neck, I wipe the toothpaste from my mouth with the back of my hand and try to stop panting as my body heat rises from his touch. When he looks up at me, his eyes are full of passion. Licking the edge of his bottom lip, he propels his hard body back into mine, but this time I wrap my legs around him instead of pushing him back, welcoming the feel of his soft skin against mine.

With a quick intake of breath and toothpaste still dripping down his chin, he says, “What were you saying?”

Moving toward him, I slide my tongue up his chin, licking all the toothpaste off before wielding a simple, “Nothing.”

With his taut body crushed to mine, he reaches and turns the water off. The only sound that can be heard in the room now is our increasingly heavy breathing.

“Actually,” I moan as my lips drift down his cleanly shaven chin. “I was wondering.” I pause to inhale deeply as my hands slip into the waistband of his silky black boxer shorts, “Why haven’t you sang for me yet today?” I barely get my words out between trying to catch my breath and shoving my hands down his boxers to grab him.

With a sharp intake of breath, he pulls me forward, my behind barely resting on the counter. My hands fall from his hardness and he exhales deeply as he rocks his h*ps into mine, his hands travel down my spine, pushing me even closer. Crying out, I scratch my nails down his back before arching so I can grind my h*ps further into his.

As his hands travel around my waist and rest on my lower back, he takes a step back. He stares at me with desire clear in his eyes, the same eyes I used to be afraid I would jump into and never get out of, but now so happy that I did take the leap.

“You want me to sing something for you?”

Nodding my head, I feel his hands travel right to my sex. He slides them between my legs and trails his fingers up and down my inner thighs, teasing me, almost torturing me. “Let me turn the music on,” he breathes out. But he doesn’t leave the room, he doesn’t leave me, instead he glides his hands around my h*ps and lifts me off the counter, carrying me to the shower, pushing me up against the wall. He turns the water on before setting me down and I get the feeling the water is our music.

He grins and asks, “What do you want me to sing?”

“Anything by Maroon 5 of course.”

Showering with River is intimate, very sexy, —almost carnal. As he lathers the soap all over my body, he sings She Will Be Loved. And even though he frowned when I answered Maroon 5 to his question, he sings it anyway. I reward him generously when he sings, “It’s not always rainbows and butterflies it’s comprise that moves us along.” My favorite line in the song.

When he finishes, he whispers seductively into my ear paraphrasing the same words he spoke last night but also divulging his sexual desires. He tells me how much he wants to taste me everywhere, describing what he wants to do to me with his body. Feeling unabashed and very comfortable, completely connected in this man’s arms, I detail what I want to do to him, with him, freely, with no walls and no barriers between us.

My brain feels as if it’s in overdrive, but my body is invigorated as he steers me down the road I so desperately want to be on. With every shift of gear, my body quickens over and over again. I feel like a car accelerating too fast, and my body is driving into oblivion. God this man is . . . is . . . I can’t even think as he slowly moves his hands up and down my sides, reaching behind me, lifting me and backing me up against the shower wall.

When we finally emerge from the shower, both sated and satisfied, he wraps a towel around me, and then his waist. I run my fingers through his wet, messy hair. I shake my head and grin at how attractive, charming, and just adorable he is before I turn and head into the bedroom. I can feel his stare as I leave the room, so I shake my ass a little, giving him a show, and I hear his chuckle.

Heading to the living room, I grab my suitcase and bring it back to the bedroom. I set it on the bed just as River comes out of the bathroom buttoning his jeans with a towel around his shoulders. He looks overwhelmingly attractive.

He sweetly says, “Why didn’t you ask me to get that for you?” For some reason his gallant, chivalrous gestures do something to me. I’m falling for this guy, a guy I hardly know.

With an enchanted smile on my face, I conjure as strong of a southern accent as I can muster while pretending to fan myself and say, “Why kind sir, do you think I’m a helpless maiden?”

Laughing and smiling that huge dimpled smile again, he comes over and draws me into his arms; shaking his wet head of gorgeous light brown hair against the crook of my neck.

“No, I don’t think that,” he says, biting my shoulder, “I just wanted to help.”

River’s phone chimes from the dresser, but he ignores it. He slowly reaches over, grabs a lock of my hair, and tucks it behind my ear. Sending shivers down my spine. He circles his index finger around my ear and lightly tugs on my lobe, which sparks a heat in my body.

Grabbing his towel, I pull it off his shoulders and use it to dry his hair while massaging my fingers on his scalp. The rumbling of my stomach stops the emotion sticking in my throat from his pure sweetness. He braces his hands on my arms and leans back, his smooth chest glistening brightly in the sunlight, and asks, “Hungry?”

Pushing back comparisons to Ben or thoughts of how Ben may have lacked a good portion of the sweetness gene, I say in a trifling tone, “You know how to work up a girl’s appetite. I’m starving,” and I let his towel fall to the ground.

Pulling the fluffy-white towel off my body, River grins and swats my behind with it. “If you’d stop being so sexy and put some clothes on, we could get the hell out of here and get some food,” he says as he turns and heads back into the bathroom, leaving me gawking once again at his fine backside view. When he enters the bathroom he says, “I know you’re watching me,” and he also shakes his ass at me.

I laugh out loud, and I begin rummaging through my suitcase. I put my last clean pair of panties on. They are plain white ones with a little black bow on the back. Then I slip on the matching bra. This lingerie doesn’t exactly scream sexy.

He emerges from the bathroom and stands in the door. “I like your bow.”

Turning to look at him and meaning to answer sarcastically, I gasp. He’s wearing a black AC/DC Back in Black Tour concert t-shirt. My dad loved AC/DC so of course I do too.

“Well I like AC/DC, now get out and let me get dressed.”

Strutting, he crosses the room. He passes by me then stops and takes a step back as I continue pulling the messy heap of clothing from my suitcase. He places a kiss on each of my shoulders, and then tugs on the black bow on the front of my bra. “Thank you, Dahlia,” he says as he saunters to the bed, sits down, and puts his socks and black boots on before falling back against a pillow and kicking his feet up.

“I’m not giving you a show, you know,” I say while slipping on a black lace camisole and pulling my gray long-sleeve Coldplay Viva la Vida concert t-shirt over my head before knotting it to the side. I quickly pull up my faded black jeans and while looking at him I start to think about the Coldplay song, Green Eyes. I think it must have been written for him with words like green eyes and the spotlight shines upon you. I can hear the song playing in my head and it reverberates through my soul.

Drawing me from my thoughts, River chuckles as he asks, “Am I making you nervous?”

Swinging my hair over my head, I bend over and brush it. “No you’re not, why would you think that?”

I throw my head back and meet his gaze as he says, “I don’t know. It just seems like it. It’s good that I don’t because I shouldn’t, you’re much too sexy not to be adored.”

Grinning hugely, he puts his arms behind his head. “I really like your shirt. Did you go to . . .?”

As he speaks, I remember my ring. Where is my ring? I start to feel dizzy as I grab my neck, running my fingers back and forth, but I know it’s not there. River sits up immediately as I frantically say, “Oh no, I have to go back to my hotel, my necklace is still in the room!” I’m trying not to panic; really I am, but my necklace, my ring from Ben, I have to have it.

River gets off the bed and heads over to me with concern etched on his face. He pulls the hair from my eyes and tucks it behind my ear before cupping my cheeks with his hands as his eyes examine mine for the depth of my worry. “Okay, we can head over there now.”

I try to calm myself, but I can’t, and tears start streaming down my face. With his thumbs, he wipes the tears away. He doesn’t ask why and he doesn’t shrug off my concern. He just kisses my forehead and leads me toward a journey that can only end with some sort of uneasiness. At the very least, a pained conversation about the man I loved with the man I . . . I don’t even dare think about the word I was going to use.

Feelings are swirling through my body like a tornado. But unlike Dorothy, when the tornado ceases and the damage is assessed, I’m not going to land in Kansas wearing ruby red slippers in a land full of happy people. No, my aftermath will include the Hard Rock Hotel where I must tell the man I’m starting a new relationship with the reason I’m in a panic. I must tell River the reason he’s taking me back to my hotel is so I can get back the most significant reminder I have left of Ben. The man I had, only recently, finally been able to mentally let go.

As we wait outside the hotel for his car, he turns to me and takes both my hands. He looks at me like he knows he can make everything better. “Baby don’t cry, I promise I’ll fix this for you. Everything will be all right,” he says, drawing an X over his heart with his right hand. Baby? Did he just call me baby?

It is in this exact moment, standing at the valet stand with rows of cars behind me waiting to be parked, that I know. I know I’m not just falling for this attractive, charming, and captivating man. I already fell.

We drive over to the hotel in silence. It really is beautiful in this sinful city, but the strip is so different during the day. It doesn’t have the allure it does at night. The lights are on, but aren’t shining brightly, not lighting the way. I hope they at least lead me back to the item I need to find.

I’m feeling a little lost sitting in River’s car going to get my engagement ring from Ben. Fidgeting in my seat, I keep grabbing for the necklace that isn’t there. He isn’t holding my hand and he hasn’t as much as glanced over at me since we got in the car. I know he must be curious as to why possibly losing a necklace would make me this emotional. I just can’t talk about it right now. I need to get the necklace back first and for the lump in my throat to go away. Only then can I allow the words to flow.

I wish it were that easy to shut my thoughts off. Did I betray Ben by taking his ring off? What kind of betrayal took place by sleeping with River? Was it even a betrayal? How long should one grieve? How long should one wait before engaging with another? Are there even any right answers to these questions?

When we finally arrive, the valet opens my door before River gets out of the car. I wait for him, and he takes my hand, leading us straight to the front desk. I know housekeeping must have already been in the room and apparently so does River since we don’t bother going up there. There is a rather long line at the front desk, but River doesn’t acknowledge it. Stepping right up to the desk, he nods his head at the gentleman who just handed room keys to a couple and waits for them to leave. Moving to where the couple was standing, he clears his throat to get the attention of the clerk who is looking down at a computer screen under the counter. I’m sure the line of people behind us is not pleased by our blatant disregard for waiting-in-line etiquette.