“It is a beautiful night.” Through my peripheral vision, I could see Dylan looking at me. I was so torn. I wanted to disappear into the night with him, to feel his hands over every inch of my body – but on the other hand, I couldn’t see a way to make it work. I felt like a boat in the center of a hurricane, everywhere I looked – there was a mess. I couldn’t fool around with Dylan or his heart and keep the secret in my belly from him. Being with him meant giving up my inheritance, and it sounds shallow, but what would happen if I gave it all up – and he didn’t want to be with me anyway?

  We walked further away from the main cottage, the path winding past smaller outbuildings. “You’re awfully quiet,” he said.

  I couldn’t tell him what was going on inside my head. “I’m just enjoying the evening,” I lied.

  Well, only somewhat. I was enjoying the evening with him. It had been one of the best in my entire life. His friends were real people who didn’t care about my last name, or that I came from the Yates Estate. I drank beer, ate pizza, laughed, and felt my heart race every time my eyes met Dylan’s.

  “Bron.” His voice sounded serious. He stopped walking.

  “Yes?” I turned so our bodies were facing each other, but his face was in shadow.

  “You and me.” He stared up at the sky. “We’ve known each other for years.”

  Known. That was an interesting way of putting it.

  “We have.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Why have we never talked about being together?”

  He was thinking the same thing I was. “I guess it never came up. And then you went through that rough patch. When we reconnected this spring, I thought you just wanted to have some fun.”

  “That’s what I thought you wanted.”

  I smiled but didn’t know if he could see it. “I did have fun.” I don’t know why, but my throat constricted, and I felt like I was going to cry.

  “Me too.”

  He reached out to hold my hands. “Being around you, I don’t know how to describe it, it just feels right.” He rubbed the back of my hands with his thumbs. For someone who worked with his hands, they were surprisingly soft.

  I knew that I shouldn’t ask, but I couldn’t stop myself. “What are you getting at? What do you want?” My voice was a little colder than I wanted it to be.

  He let go of my hands and ran one of his through his hair. “Isn’t it obvious, Bron?

  I studied the pathway at my feet. It was totally obvious. “No, Dylan. What do you want?” My parents’ many lectures about men without money using me for mine were nagging at the back of my brain.

  “You. Bron. I want you. I always have, always will.” His voice had dropped almost an octave and into growl territory.

  The wind whipped my dress against my legs and this time there was a chill in its gust.

  “Say something.” He took a step closer.

  Oh, God. I could smell him. A desire for his touch coursed through my body. I knew what his dick felt like and there was nothing I wanted more than to feel his girth pushing into me. I took a step back; my body was going to betray me, and I needed to think straight.

  He stepped closer and into the light. His eyes were filled with intensity and were smoldering as they searched mine. All I wanted to do was launch myself into his arms. “Tell me you don’t want to be with me.” He closed the gap between us, and I could feel the heat of his body on my collarbone. “And give me one good reason we can’t be together.”

  There was one very good reason we couldn’t be together. BUT it was the same good reason why we SHOULD be together. At that moment, I hated being a Yates. I hated being the heiress to a billion-dollar fortune and the rules that had been imposed on my life.

  I opened my mouth, hoping that something good would come out of it. Instead, I stood in front of the man I was falling in love with, trying to figure out what the hell to tell him.

  “Time’s up,” he growled. Dylan grabbed my hips and pulled them to his. A gasp escaped from my open mouth, but only briefly before Dylan’s lips were on mine. I didn’t resist, I melted into his roughness, my body needing this assertive man. My hands found the back of his strong neck and I returned the kiss, pressing myself against him, not worrying if he noticed that my body had changed since the last time he’d touched it.

  The flags on the building behind us snapped angrily and the hem of my dress whipped against my legs. My skin prickled with goosebumps as the breeze escalated into a gale, but I didn’t notice. I was too wrapped up in the warmth of Dylan’s embrace, the softness of his lips, and the very big, very hard bulge at the front of his jeans pressing against me.

  I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my entire life.

  The first drops of rain fell like marbles around us, bouncing off the hard stones, but it didn’t stop either of our hands from exploring each other’s bodies while we kissed. Mine went to his T-shirt and rested on his lower abs and the sexy muscles that disappeared into the waistband of his jeans. One of his hands rested on my shoulder, while the other held a fist full of my dress and my ass at the same time.

  The next drops landed on us, almost hard enough to hurt. But I didn't care. Dylan's other hand found its way to my ass and he pulled me to him tightly. I longed to get closer to him. I wrapped my leg around him and pressed my body so hard against his that I couldn't tell where mine stopped and his started. My breaths were coming hard and fast and my hands gripped either side of Dylan's face, my lips wanting more. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance, and while I heard it somewhere in my subconscious, I ignored it. Dylan squeezed my ass and then dropped my dress from his hands, falling softly around my calves. There was one more crack of thunder and the sky light lit up with lightning, not the jagged showstopper lightning, the stretch across the whole sky kind of lightning. I looked into Dylan's eyes as the light flashed around us and felt like I could see his soul. It scared me a little bit, I'd never seen anyone that intensely before.

  Dylan kissed me once more then whispered, “I should get you out of the rain.”

  The drops turned to streams that turned to sheets and within seconds it was like someone had just turned on a tap.

  “Come on.” Dylan grabbed my hand and I squealed as he pulled me along the pathway.

  “I thought that the trees would shelter us, but they're not doing a very good job.” He laughed as the rain streaming down his face dripped off the end of his nose and beaded on his eyelashes.

  “I wonder if any of these cabins are open?” Dylan looked past me at one of the small guest bunkies.

  “We shouldn't,” I said. But secretly, the idea of sneaking into one of Pine Hill’s bunkies with Dylan Moss was so rebellious and scandalous, it was something I absolutely needed to do.

  “I know we shouldn't,” he smiled. “But we are going to.” Holding my hand, we ran to the screen door of the green building. Dylan tried the door, shaking the knob comically, but the cabin was locked up tight.

  With the chill of the weather, the goosebumps I had from kissing Dylan had turned into goosebumps from being cold. My lips started to chatter. “We should go back to the main house,” I suggested.

  “We should,” Dylan said. Lightning flashed and I saw the small-town rebel that had caught my eye so many years ago. “But we’re not going to do that.” He scooped me up into his arms and I buried my face into his neck as he carried me along the pathway, wondering where we were going. When I realized he was taking me to the car my heart dropped with disappointment. Was he taking me home?

  He opened the door to the Rolls-Royce but instead of helping me into the front seat, he crawled into the back seat and pulled me in behind him. This was even better than the Pine Hill cabin - kissing my small-town mechanic boyfriend in the back of my family's Rolls-Royce seemed like the ultimate act of defiance. All of the anger I felt at my family for forcing these decisions on me made me want to defile the backseat of that car with Dylan, in every way possible.

  “We don't want to wreck the interior,” Dylan whispered. He pulled his wet T-shirt over his head and I heard it thud heavily onto the floor. “Let's get you out of that dress.”

  I gave him my best smoldering look and maneuvered so that I was face down on the rear seat, exposing the zipper on the back of my dress to him. My body tensed as I felt his legs straddle either side of me. He held onto the bodice of my dress and slowly, one tang at a time, unzipped my dress. By the time he slipped the straps off my shoulders and slid the dress off my body, every inch of me was buzzing with anticipation and I turned over beneath him, to look him in the eyes.

  “You're so beautiful,” he whispered. He traced my body with his fingertips, starting at my collarbone, lightly following the lace of my bra, and pausing to draw circles around my nipples with his thumbs. He kissed my chest between my breasts while his hands slipped behind me to unhook my bra. When I felt the warmth of his palms on my nipples a moan escaped through my lips.

  “Oh, Dylan,” I whispered into his mouth. “I've missed you so damn much.”

  “Did you miss me? Or my dick?” His mouth was still on mine. It could've sounded crass, but it was one of the hottest things he'd ever said to me.

  “They’re a package deal aren't they?” I reached my hand to the front of his soaking wet jeans and had to use two hands to get the top button undone. The zipper followed easily, and I thrust my hands into the back of his jeans and started to pull them down. When I couldn't reach any further, I brought my feet up to hook onto the belt loops and pulled his wet jeans down to his ankles. I gasped as his cock slapped against me with a loud thud. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me, Dylan never wore underwear.

  “Still rocking the commando?”

  “You know it.” His breath was hot on my ear. Dylan held both of my wrists in one of his hands and cupped my cheek with the other while he kissed me again. I writhed beneath him, pushing myself closer to his body urging him to lower down onto me so I could feel his weight. I just wanted to be covered in Dylan.

  “I've missed you, Dylan.”

  He stopped kissing me and stared into my eyes. I repeated it. “I've missed you.” I rested my hand on his chest.

  “I've missed you too, Bronwyn.”

  “Missed me? Or missed fucking me?”

  His brow furrowed and all the muscles tightened in his body. “Bronwyn, before we got soaking wet, I told you that all I wanted was you.” He tapped my chest and I could feel the power in his finger on my sternum. He tapped it again. “You,” he whispered and then rested his hand over my heart.

  All of a sudden, it felt wrong. “I can't do this.”

  “What can't you do?” Dylan asked. He brushed my wet hair behind my ear and stared at me, his blue eyes searching mine.

  What could I tell him? All of a sudden, I went from being super horny to realizing that I could not have sex with the man. There was no way, no matter how horny I got, that I could have sex with him and not feel guilty about it.

  “Dylan?”

  “Yes?” He eased his body off of mine and sat upright. I pulled my legs off of his and sat so I could face him, my bra straps hanging loosely off my shoulders.

  “Here, let me get that.” He reached around me, and I could feel his breath on my neck as he clipped up the bra.

  “I have a weird question for you.”

  “Okay…”

  “If we were to meet now, do you think we could or would, you know, go on dates?”

  He chuckled. “You want to go on dates? With me? In Laketown?”

  “It was just a hypothetical question.”

  Dylan crossed arms and looked like he was thinking. “Well…” He let out a small laugh. If, hypothetically, you and I want to go on some dates. I would probably take you to the fall fair. It's a big deal in Laketown.”

  All of the best romance movies I’d ever seen started to flash before my eyes – mostly kissing on Ferris wheels. “I've never been to a small-town fair. Would you win me a big stuffed animal?”

  He rubbed his hands on his thighs. He was sitting completely naked with a semi-hard-on in the back of the Rolls-Royce. But… he didn't seem to care.

  “I'd win you a stuffed animal so big you wouldn't be able to carry it.” He shifted closer to me and draped his arm over my shoulders. “For the next date, I'd take you fishing.”

  “I've been fishing,” I said.

  “Not this kind of fishing,” he laughed. “I'd make you paddle the canoe.”

  I laughed and smacked his thigh. The idea seemed so ridiculous. “You’ve got to be joking.” I rested my head on his chest and let my hand rest on his thighs.

  “It’s no joke, Bron.”

  I could feel his heart beating and the baritone of his voice against my cheek made me smile. “Tell me more,” I purred, caressing a little higher on his thighs.

  He absentmindedly played with the end of my hair, and I wondered what he was thinking. The vibration from his voice on my cheek and the sound of the rain hitting the top of the car were the only things I could hear. “I would call your friends and find out what you wanted to do, and we would do that.”

  I gave him another little slap. “That's cheating,” I teased. “I want to hear what you would come up with.”

  This time, my fingertips brushed the base of his shaft and his cock twitched in response. His heartbeat quickened, thudding under my cheekbone. “I’d make you watch one of my hockey games.” His chest shook a little as he chuckled.

  I moved from my blissful position on his chest so I could look him in the face, “I'd love to see you play hockey.”

  “You would?”

  “You seem surprised.” I had moved my caressing from his thighs to lightly gripping his now fully rock-hard cock.

  “Yeah, I've heard so much about the star of the Otters.”

  “I'm not the star.”

  “That's not what I've heard.” I gripped onto his manhood a little tighter and he arched his hips and shifted in the seat. I swung my leg over his, so I was straddling him and held onto his shoulder with my free hand while my other hand continued to caress him. His eyes were hooded but yet still intently staring at me. “I’ve heard that you’re one of the most underrated players.”

  A line of crimson spread across his jawbone.

  “Dylan Moss. Are you blushing?”

  He wrapped his hand around mine which was wrapped around his manhood and grinned slyly. “I mean, you do have your hands on my cock.”

  It was clear that he was brushing off the compliment. I kissed along his jawbone and then let my lips linger on his until we both batted our eyes open at the same time. “Dylan, do you think you could take me on a date, for real?”

  “Yeah, babe.” He squeezed my ass.

  It didn’t make sense, but my heart took over the operation of my words and totally turned off my brain. At that moment, all rational thinking had been thrown out the window. “I want to start over with you. I want to pretend like we’ve just met and haven’t been hooking up for the past two years.”

  “That sounds like fun.” His strong hands were going to leave fingermarks in my ass, and I loved it.

  “The only thing.” I paused the stroking, and he opened his eyes a little wider. I kissed him again. “Do you think we can keep it a secret – for now?”

  His lips narrowed and I knew I’d upset him. His hands slipped from my butt, but he kept them looped around me. “You want to go on dates with me. And keep it a secret.”

  I nodded.

  “You’re going to have to tell me why.”

  I hadn’t gotten this far in my spontaneous plan. I knew that I wanted to be around Dylan, and my body wanted to make love to him with an intensity that I couldn’t explain – but until I figured out how, and if I was going to tell him about the baby, I couldn’t have sex with him. I realized that it was selfish of me, to keep him in my life on my terms – new terms.

  I picked at my thumbnail while I tried to think of how to explain it in a way that would make sense.

  “Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” His voice was low, not embarrassed, but accusatory and I felt his body tense beneath me.

  “No!” I couldn’t have said it more emphatically and repeated it again softly. “Not at all.”

  He relaxed. “Then, why, Bron? This seems a little…”

  “Weird,” we said it together and I couldn’t help but smile.

  “I know.” I let the words come out. “But, the paparazzi, they’re going to be all over this story. There’s some stuff happening overseas with Yates Petroleum and my family wants to stay out of the limelight. And…” I rested my hand on his chest. “I don’t want them to go after you. They’ll dig into your background. I’m used to it, but I wouldn’t wish that kind of scrutiny on anyone. Dylan, they’ll write about your parents.”

  He nodded slowly and I could see the words sinking in.

  “And my parents, they don’t know about the struggles you’ve had and until they get to know you, I don’t want that kind of publicity for us.”

  It was all true. To some extent. The photographers would hound us. Pictures of the car wreck where his parents died would turn up in the gossip magazines. If they decided to be cruel, his struggle with alcohol and whatever else would be made public. Was it still a lie if I just left out a few things?

  The car was so steamy that drops of condensation streamed down the windows, but the rainfall had slowed. Dylan kissed one of my breasts. “So, this. We have to pretend like this…” he bit at the nipple, “…has never happened?”

  “Well, maybe we don’t have to go back to the very beginning,” I kissed his neck and then shifted my knees to the floor of the car and continued kissing down his chest.

  My plan didn’t make any sense. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones turning me into a sex fiend. Whatever it was, I took Dylan’s manhood into my mouth and studied his face as I worked his shaft. I knew the way he liked it and it wasn’t long before his hips bucked, and he moaned as his body shuddered with his orgasm.