He let her nipple go with a little pop and looked up at her as he sank to his knees. “So clearly we’re on the same team. If the mission is to complete all the levels and the way to do that is with orgasms.”

She nodded, her eyes dark, her fingers sinking into his hair. “Yep. Same team for sure.”

“So what’s our opposition?”

“Time, I guess,” she said with a smile. “We need to get through as many levels as possible before I have to go to work on Monday morning.”

“Okay, then.” He grasped one of her thighs and lifted it, draping her knee over his shoulder, loving her little gasp of surprise. “Then we need focus and determination and teamwork.” He sucked on the end of the strawberry, then drew it over her clit. He looked up at her as she let her breath out with a little hiss. “And strawberries.”

“Sure. Whatever tools and accessories and magical amulets we can get,” she agreed.

Well, in Warrior of Easton, the warriors collected diamonds on their quests.

Dax was very aware that he was getting closer all the time to getting Jane a diamond as a matter of fact.

But for the time being, he was more than willing to make do with the strawberry and his tongue and fingers and several dirty words and phrases.

She came hard only a few short minutes later, and he carried her to the bed, triumphantly.

“Level two, down,” he said, tossing her onto the mattress.

She immediately turned on her stomach and crawled to the edge. “I’m ready to do my part for level three.”

And she did.

Oh, she did.

By Monday morning they had conquered levels one through eleven and had a plan to knock out levels twelve through fifteen over the course of the next week.

“Hey!”

Jane turned at the sound of Max calling to her. She grinned as he jogged to catch up with her halfway across the parking lots.

“I’m so pissed off at you both,” Max said as he came up beside her. He put his hand on his chest and took a deep breath. “And now I’ve had to run too?”

Jane rolled her eyes. Max led a spin class at the gym four days a week. Because there was no one else in Appleby who would have ever thought of getting up in front of a room full of other people on bikes and calling it a “class.” And truly it was a total of four stationary bikes with Max at the front blasting music from his phone and calling out encouraging things like, “You’ve got this! Work it, ladies!” and “Oh yeah, feel that burn!”

But he really didn’t like running.

“You’re pissed at me?” she asked as he fell into step with her.

“I am. You spend your lunch breaks making googly eyes at Dax and then beat it out of here at the end of the day to get naked by five thirty and then spend your whole night fucking his brains out,” Max said.

Jane gave a surprised snort-laugh. “I am not naked by five thirty.”

Max lifted a brow in a very skeptical look.

“I have to eat first,” she said. “Need to fuel up for the night of fucking his brains out.” She grinned widely. She couldn’t help it. She was happy. So, so happy.

Now Max snorted. “That’s my girl.”

“But I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much this week.” Dax was in the Hot Cakes break room most of each morning—not before ten or so, of course, but from about ten to one—chatting and hanging out and then eating lunch with her before he took off to work on some project he had going on now that he wasn’t a Hot Cakes owner. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine, except that I’ve had no information about how great the man is in bed or how huge he is or what kinds of gifts the hot millionaire buys his fuck buddy,” Max said, propping his hip against the side of her car as she unlocked it. He grinned. “This is the kind of best friend information I require and have been denied and I’m not happy about it. At all.”

Jane tossed her bag onto the car seat and then gave her friend a grin. “He’s amazing in bed. I seriously think he’s the best lover in the world. The orgasms are plentiful, and I still feel them the next day. He’s huge. Like, porn star huge. And he buys me all the cake, pie, and cookies I can handle. And does very naughty things with them before I get to eat them. But I definitely get to eat them. I’ve probably gained five pounds this week.” She paused. “Then again, we’re definitely burning a lot of calories, so it’s probably all good.”

Max gave a happy sigh. “Even if you’re lying to me, thank you. You are a really good friend.”

She laughed. “You’re so welcome.”

“But truly,” he said, sobering slightly and studying her. “You seem really happy.”

“I am,” she told him sincerely. “He’s amazing. And everything is so good. My dad has never been happier. He’s been letting Dax visit him and even let his sister and one of his buddies stop by. I thought my aunt was going to cry. Kelsey got a B on her last chemistry test. Cassie hasn’t called me even once this week. Kelsey and Aspen have only fought twice this week and one of them was just a little tiff over what time they were leaving to go to some pizza party.”

“Wait.” Max held up a hand. He shook his head. “I don’t even know where to start.”

Jane smiled. Max knew everything about her family so he knew this was huge.

“I knew Kels was working on her chemistry,” Max said.

“You did?”

“Yeah, she was in the break room after school the other day.”

“She was?” Jane asked, surprised. “With Dax?”

“No, with Ben.”

Ben was one of the food scientists on staff. “Oh. She was studying?”

“He was tutoring her. He’s a chemist, you know,” Max said with a little smirk. “And he’s got three kids. He was really good about explaining things to her. And the cappuccino probably helped.”

“I never even thought of that.” She didn’t mean the cappuccino.

“Dax did.” Max didn’t mean the cappuccino either.

She nodded. Of course he had.

“And Kelsey and Aspen are going to parties together?” Max reiterated.

“It’s the fucking twilight zone,” Jane said with a nod, her thoughts suddenly spinning.

“And we attribute this all to Dax?”

“We do,” she said. Then she thought about that. She really did attribute that all to Dax. Things had gotten better because of him. Like magically. Which was amazing. Wasn’t it? She frowned. “I mean, he got all the balls rolling anyway.”

“When are you proposing to him?” Max asked with a chuckle.

Jane forced a smile. But her chest tightened at the same time. It wasn’t that she was thinking about proposing, of course. They weren’t going to get married. Married was forever. And there was no way this was forever.

Which, obviously, brought up the question how long is this going to last? And worse, what happens when it’s over?

Her heart started thumping harder, and she pulled in a deep breath.

She was in love with him. She thought maybe Dax was feeling some pretty strong things for her too. But small-town Iowa and a woman who worked in a factory and hanging out with a teenager and a guy in a nursing home… how long would all that interest Dax?