“Fair enough.” I cupped her around the back of the neck and sealed my mouth over hers as I stared to move now that I had the freedom to do so.

I kissed her so she could feel all the things I was working with. I kissed her so she could feel me. I kissed her so that I could tell her without words how badly I was hurting and how disoriented I suddenly felt. She kissed me back and I felt like it was where my home had always been.

Now that her libido was on board with my own, I dug my fingers into the giving flesh of her backside and really started to thrust into her. She crossed her legs around my waist and I felt her heels dig into my ass. I had to break the kiss to suck in a much-needed breath, and when I did she switched her attention to my jaw and dropped sweet little kisses all along the clenched line. Even while I was powering into her, rutting like an animal into her soft heat, she was still trying to soothe me and make it all better, even though she had no idea what was wrong.

I clamped my teeth on the curve of her neck and sucked hard enough that I knew a mark would be left behind on her dusky skin.

I felt the response deep inside her and that made my dick very happy. Actually my dick was way happier than it normally was when it was buried inside of her and it wasn’t until I felt my balls draw up and the orgasm blindside me with a tidal wave of pleasure that I understood why. I inhaled her scent, kissed the red mark I had left on her throat as she shivered and quaked around me as she reached her own pinnacle of release. I told her quietly as she came down and peeled her eyes open to look at me, “I didn’t use anything, Salem.”

She was quiet for a minute and I almost panicked. We still hadn’t had the been-there-and-done-that-with-every-girl-on-the-block talk and I wasn’t exactly eager to know who she had been spending her time with in the last decade, so I just used a rubber every time we were together and called it good enough.

She lifted a black eyebrow and put her hands on either side of my face. “We’re fine. As long as you don’t have any scary things hiding in your sexual closet, I’m on the pill and have been for a long time.”

I lifted an eyebrow to match her own wry expression. “Clean as a whistle.”

“Me, too.”

Well, that was a much easier conversation to have than I had anticipated and I had to admit it gave me an odd kind of thrill to think about ha**ng s*x without anything between me and her. I had been sexually active for a long time and I couldn’t remember ever being with a girl and not having latex be part of the program. Yet another first this woman was for me.

I kissed her again. This time with the care she deserved and with all the gratitude I could put into it. We both made a strangled noise of pleasure and regret as I pulled out of her and bent to lean my forehead against hers. I still had her caught up against the door and I liked the position she was in because we were eye to eye and even if I wanted to it was really hard to look away from her pitch-black gaze.

She rubbed her hands over the sides of my head where my hair was short and reached up to smooth down some of the strands that were still sticking up all wild and out of control on the top of my head.

“Not that I’m ever going to complain about being thoroughly ravished by a blond sex god, but maybe you can explain to me what brought that all on so I can be more prepared for it next time.”

I rubbed my forehead against hers as I shook my head and made her laugh when I pulled her off the door and stumbled to the couch still holding her in my arms. My pants were still undone and half off of my ass, so when her damp core hit my lower belly my traitorous dick twitched in awareness. I wondered if I was ever going to get enough of her.

She braced her hands on my shoulders and asked me in a very serious tone, “Rowdy, what happened?”

I thought maybe I could get through spilling my guts easier if I had something else to focus on, so I stripped her cool T-shirt off of her and reached behind her to pop open the clasp on her bra. She rolled her eyes at me and told me I had a one-track mind. I didn’t argue and instead pulled my own shirt off over my head and pulled her to my chest so that our hearts were pressed together and beating in time. There was nothing sexier than the slide of metal across my skin as her ni**les brushed my tattooed skin. She was the hottest thing in the world.

“You know the lawyer?”

She tucked her head under my chin as she trailed her fingers up and down my ribs.

“Sayer? The one that works down by the LoDo shop?”

“She’s the one.” I could hear bitterness creeping into my tone as the unbelievability of her claims made my body go tense even though Salem was petting me and rubbing me down like I was a rabid wolf. After the way I had gone after her without any warning it was no wonder she was treading lightly with me.

“What about her? Did she finally work up the nerve to get a tattoo?”

I barked out a choked laugh and decided I needed her all the way na**d before I could go on. I urged her up so that she was standing in front of me and pulled her now-wrinkled skirt off of her and settled her back across my lap so that she was straddling me. Everything below my waist took immediate notice of all my favorite parts of her hovering na**d and close by.

“No, but she finally worked up the nerve to tell me that she’s here in Denver because of me.”

“What!”

Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say to the na**d woman on my lap but my brain was tired and my c**k was getting hard again.

“Not like that. She claims she’s my half sister. She said my dad”—I made air quotes in air around the word “dad”—“died last year, and when she went through his estate she was stunned to find out he had left half of everything to a long-lost son . . . me. What in hell am I supposed to do with that?”

“Wow.” It was just a puff of sound. “That’s insane and intense.”

“That’s what I said. I told her to leave me alone and that I have zero interest in any part of it.”

“Oh, Rowdy.” She curled her hand around my neck and kissed me right in the center of my chest. “You can’t mean that. I don’t know Sayer at all but she seems nice and if she uprooted her entire life to come here and get to know you that means something.” She lifted her head to look at me. “Believe me I know, because I did the exact same thing.”

I stared at her hard. “I was left alone.”

She huffed out a disgruntled noise. “So why would you deny someone that is reaching out to you and trying to get to know you? Wouldn’t having a sister mean you would never, ever have to worry about being alone again?”

Her words and her take on the whole thing were making me really uncomfortable. I would have much preferred her saying something like, “Don’t you know that now you have me you won’t ever have to be alone again,” but instead she was looking at me like I had somehow disappointed her.

“I don’t need a family, Salem. I went out and found my own and they will never leave me or abandon me.” It was an unnecessary dig at her and she didn’t miss it. Her dark eyes narrowed and she went to move off of me but I wouldn’t let her. I grasped her around her waist and grumbled, “I’m sorry. I’m in a nasty mood.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Are you scared of having another blood relative?”

I recoiled and threw my head back on the couch cushions. “Why would you ask me that?”

She shrugged a smooth, caramel-colored shoulder and leaned forward to kiss me on the end of my nose.

“The only family you knew died in a horrible way and started you on a very rocky journey to find the family you have now. It might be terrifying to let someone else in after suffering that kind of loss. Sayer seems like a good person, Rowdy. She helps kids, and even though she obviously comes from a different walk of life than you and I, she never seems judgmental or stuck-up about it. Just consider that letting her in, just a little, might not be a terrible thing. That’s a wonderful surprise to have offered up to you.”

“If you suddenly had some dude knock on your door and tell you he was your brother, you would just welcome him in with open arms?”

She looked like she was considering it and then she shrugged again. “Maybe not open arms, but I sure wouldn’t slam the door closed in his face and then throw the locks.” She suddenly giggled a little and rubbed her palms over my chest. “I kept thinking she looked really familiar for some reason. You have the same eyes and the same hair color. She’s beautiful and totally looks like your sister.”

I swore and it made her laugh. “She said her dad was married when my mom got pregnant.”

Salem made a sound of sympathy and leaned forward to kiss me again. “There is a story there. Don’t you want to know what it is?”

“I guess . . . maybe.”

“No one is going to make you do anything you don’t want to, so that means it’s up to you to make the right choice.”

I lifted both my eyebrows up and grinned at her. I decided I was done talking about Sayer and what the right or the wrong thing to do about her might be.

“So it matters that you came here to get to know me?”

She curled her arms around my neck and scooted closer to me so that she was right over my waist. The very tip of my pierced c**k dragged through her folds and it made my eyes twitch in response.

“Of course it matters. You have always mattered, you big moron.”

I would have answered but she set herself over my erection and any blood that was left floating around for rational thought shot right to my groin.

“You matter, too, Salem.”

I had to say it just in case she didn’t know.

“Be quiet, Rowdy . . . my turn to ravish you.”

Any time of any day in any place she could think of. I groaned as she started to move over me and just let my eyes drift closed as she instantly made everything seem better just by being.

CHAPTER 12

Salem

WE SPENT ALL DAY in bed on Sunday. I could tell Rowdy was still struggling with learning about Sayer and the fact he had a father that had left him out in the cold . He was not particularly talkative, which went so far against his affable nature that I simply let him sulk and tried to support him in the best way I knew how. I made sure he understood I was there to talk it out with, but I also didn’t mind his strong, silent act as long as the results were so delicious and made my body burn. I knew he was going to have to face Sayer and the past sooner or later but I wasn’t going to push him into it.

On Monday he wanted me to go hiking with him. Over the last few months I was realizing the way he kept his impressive physique without stepping foot inside a gym—ever—was by doing really strenuous outdoor activity every chance he got. He liked to pick up a football game at the park. He liked to put Jimbo on his leash and go running. He liked to go tromp around in the mountains. He liked to kayak on all the different lakes and rivers that were scattered over the mountains. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to do any of that even if it meant I got to watch him get all sweaty and run around shirtless. I was happy being a little round and enjoyed being curved rather than straight up and down.

I told him to ask one of the guys to go with him and rolled my eyes when he grumbled about it. I think he wanted the opportunity to watch me sweat and get all grimy and hot along with him for once, but I was a lady—well, sort of a lady—and that wasn’t a look that was good on me. Besides I already had something I really wanted to do before going back to work on Tuesday and it would work a whole lot better for me if he was out of the way and off in the mountains somewhere while I did it.

He rallied Nash and Rome for the venture and was out the door with my dog without even asking if it was okay that he took Jimbo with him while I was still getting dressed and moving a little more slowly than normal thanks to his relentless and amorous attention the day before. Who would’ve ever thought the sweet little boy from next door would turn into a demon in the sack? He had moves I had never seen before and the addition of that metal cross on the tip of his impressive package kicked things up to a mind-melting level. Even more so without a layer of latex between it and me. Just thinking about it was enough to have me blushing and fanning a hand in front of my face.