“You’re blushing,” he smirked.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “These people may not all know me, but they all know you.”

  “They know you, Lila Kate Carter.”

  My cheeks were flaming now.

  “God, you’re cute,” he said, grinning now. His earlier tension had eased. “I’ll see you shortly.”

  With a nod and a shy smile, I left with my gaze straight ahead, afraid to make eye contact with anyone. Cruz had already disappeared in the other direction.

  “Lila Kate,” a female voice stopped me. I turned to see Adelle Boyd giving me a calculating look. She sat at a table with her mother and younger sister. They were all three in tennis skirts as if they’d just come inside from the courts. Which they probably had.

  “Hello,” I said to the table already knowing what this was about. That kiss was sweet, but I knew it would get me some attention I didn’t want. Or I should say, drama.

  “Are you dating Cruz?” she asked a touch of disbelief in her tone

  I forced a smile. “Yes.”

  Her mother made a strange sound in the back of her throat. I didn’t look at her.

  “Since when?”

  “It’s new,” I told her sweetly. What I wanted was to be rude and tell her it was none of her business though.

  Her mouth turned up into an amused grin. “It’ll also be short.”

  Both mother and sister made muffled laughs. I didn’t have time for this.

  “Y’all have a wonderful day too,” I said before I walked off hoping no one else stopped me.

  They didn’t. Once outside I breathed a sigh of relief. That was just the beginning. I had to learn to handle people’s reactions better.

  Cruz Kerrington

  I TURNED AND went the other direction as Lila Kate left the Club. My stomach clenched as my demons chased me. The reason I had kept my distance from Lila Kate, the reason I had wanted her and now knew I loved her but would never get close enough was breathing down my neck. I’d taken this chance and gone after her even though I had shit that could destroy us before it ever began. I had sworn to her I wouldn’t hurt her. I was about to make sure I kept that promise.

  Turning left instead of right, I headed for Kelsey’s office. My father hadn’t sent her for me. She’d seen me with Lila Kate, and she’d come after me. Normally, she didn’t interfere with my sex life. She was a married woman after all. But she knew . . . Lila Kate Carter was different.

  I didn’t knock on her door. I just walked inside. She was standing on the other side of the room with a glass of ice water in her hand staring out the window.

  “You can’t date her,” was all she said. She didn’t even turn around.

  “I can do whatever the fuck I want to do, Kelsey,” I replied angry that she thought she had some magic pussy that could control me. Maybe that was true when I was sixteen and she’d brought me in this office one night late after a ball and sucked my dick for the first time. She’d had some power over me. But I wasn’t a boy anymore. I’d had many women since she introduced me to sex.

  “I don’t care about all your whores. That’s all they are. You’re a man. Men like sex. They like variety. I’m okay with that. But not her. You know she’s not a whore. You want more with her,” she turned to me then. “Am I right?”

  “Yes, you’re correct. What we did wasn’t right. You’re married. We should have stopped a long time ago. Hell, we never should have started. But I was a horny teenage boy, and you took advantage of that. I didn’t care about your husband then. I should have, but my sex drive was running the show. We are done. I love her. There is only her for me.”

  Kelsey was a beautiful woman. Tall, slender, generous breast size and a freak when it came to sex. I’d fucked her right on that desk many times in many different positions. And she’d watched me fuck other girls and had waiting to fuck me after because it turned her on. That had been fun. Before. But the past year, she’d gotten clingier. Needier. More possessive.

  “Is that what you think? That you can fuck me for five years then just walk away. Just like that?”

  “We never had a relationship. We fucked. It was never exclusive. You’re married. Remember? I can do what the hell I want to do. This thing we did is over.”

  The blaze in her eyes was never good. She didn’t like being told no. She typically got whatever she wanted. I was more than positive I wasn’t the only teenage boy she’d fucked. She liked them young. She told me so when she bared her tits to me and sucked me off the first time.

  While having sex with her the past five years had been fun and games, I knew it was wrong. It was something Lila Kate would never understand. I had to make sure it was buried. Forgotten.

  “You think you have control over this?” Kelsey asked as she took a step toward me. She was unbuttoning her shirt. Once that would have gotten me excited. Right now, it just pissed me off.

  “Yes, I do. It’s done. Over,” I was direct. Looked her in the eyes and made sure she saw how serious I was.

  Her blouse was open, but I didn’t look down. I didn’t want that from her. Not anymore.

  Her hand was on my dick, and she squeezed. “Really?” her voice had dropped to a purr.

  “Yes, really,” I replied, backing away from her. “Just stop. You’re pathetic.”

  She froze and her previously smiling face returned to a state of fury. “You little spoiled bastard. You will regret this.”

  “No, I won’t,” I assured her as I turned and walked away. The end of what I’d been doing with Kelsey was way overdue. When I was almost out the door, she found a way to stop me.

  “I’m pregnant. My husband is sterile. I was preparing to tell him about us. I still am. You can’t walk away from this, Cruz. You’re going to be a daddy.”

  I glared at her. Even now she was lying. “I’ve never fucked you without protection. Ever. So it’s someone else’s baby. Not mine. You tell him it’s mine and you’ll have to prove it.” I wasn’t a teenage boy anymore. She couldn’t trick me into shit.

  Her eyes teared up. “Condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective.”

  “Birth control is,” I shot back.

  She wiped a single tear as it rolled down her cheek. “I stopped taking them a year ago. I want a baby. I want your baby.”

  I shook my head. No. She was lying. This was her way to manipulate. It wasn’t going to work. “You are a liar,” I roared not caring who heard me then stormed out of the office. Away from the club and the dark shit that was now catching up with me. I thought she’d keep quiet for fear of losing her marriage. She had told me once she loved her husband, but he didn’t take care of her sexually. She needed more. The dirtiness, the excitement. I had felt sorry for her and didn’t understood how a man wouldn’t enjoy her insane sexual needs. It had been fun. Now I saw the fun was fucked up.

  It was also going to destroy me if she went through with this lie. I had to find a way to stop this. To protect Lila Kate. I never wanted her to see that side of my life. To know the sordid shit I’d done.

  Getting to Lila Kate was all I needed right now. To hold her. Smell her. Feel her. The brightness in her world made my damaged past fade away.

  The drive to her studio was only a few miles, but it felt like an eternity. The fear she’d know and hate me weighed on me. Her refusal to listen to me and to love me was clawing at my heels. I drove faster and focused on getting to her.

  I took long fast strides from my car to her door. When I jerked it open, there Lila was. She’d already changed into paint-stained clothing, threw her hair in a bun and was dancing to music as she cleaned out a paint brush. She was good. Perfect. Pure.

  I locked the door behind me and went to her. She glanced up, startled at first and then she smiled.

  “Hey,” was the only thing she had time to say before I was there in front of her. I backed her up until she was behind the corner blocking us from the windows. The shadows there didn’t mask the surprise and excitement on her face.

  I didn’t take time to kiss and hold her. I couldn’t. The wolves that were chasing me, haunting me, had me desperate. I jerked down her shorts and panties then quickly shoved my jeans down until my dick was free. Grabbing her by the waist I picked her up, pressed her between the wall and my body then thrust into her with a groan.

  She grabbed my shoulders and cried out my name. That only caused this wild intense pounding in my head to get worse. My mouth devoured hers tasting and taking it all. I was fucking her while loving her.

  “This is mine,” I told her biting at her neck. “You can’t leave me.” My words would sound crazy to her, but they came out anyway.

  “Okay,” she said as her head was thrown back against the wall and her throat exposed to me while I licked and left my mark on it.

  “I will always need this. Need you. I’m addicted to you. Fucking addicted.”

  She moaned and I pounded harder. Wanting to get so damn deep that we were like one person. No one else would ever be this for me. She would be all I needed. Being inside her made the darkness and the lies go away. All that mattered was her. This. Us.

  “Oh God,” she cried then bit my shoulder. She was trembling in my arms. “AH!” Her orgasm squeezed my cock and I let go with her.

  “Fuck! That’s it, baby. Come all over my dick.”

  “Ahhhh! Cruz! I can’t,” she was clinging to me now. Her arms wrapped around me. Her head in the crook of my neck.

  I exploded inside her jerking free a little too late.

  “Shit,” I groaned as the rest of my release coated the inside of her thigh.

  We stood there in the corner sweaty, wrapped together, panting. This was what I’d never done with anyone. I’d always been careful. But my insanity when it came to Lila Kate had taken over and it had been the last thing on my mind.

  “It’s okay,” she finally whispered. “Remember I’m on the pill.”

  I nodded and kept holding her. Wishing I was still inside. Pulsing my release until it ran freely out of her. Making her mine.

  I was scaring myself.

  Lila Kate

  I HAD INTENDED to get a lot done this weekend. But Cruz had changed that plan. After the wild sex we’d had downstairs, he’d taken me to the shower where he was now bathing me slowly. He wasn’t talking much. The haunted look in his eyes like he was running from something and needed me to protect him was hard to miss. It was as if he was safe as long as we were touching.

  He was more important than the studio. All that could wait. For now, I enjoyed him. Being with him. He needed reassurance. This was new. I would say I needed reassurance too, but the way he was hovering over me I was getting plenty.

  Sunday we slept in, ate breakfast that we cooked together and watched movies all day.

  When Monday morning came, so did Ophelia. I had just gotten out of the shower and was looking forward to the coffee I smelled in the kitchen when I heard her say “Holy shit. This is not happening.”

  I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me and hurried in there. Ophelia was standing in the kitchen with a suitcase staring open mouthed at Cruz who was wearing nothing but boxers while he held a tin of muffins I had left in the oven.

  “Morning, Ophelia. Can’t say I’m happy you’re back,” Cruz said as he turned to look at me and winked.

  Ophelia swung her gaze toward me. “Ohmygod,” was all she could get out. Her eyes were wide, and she dropped the bag on her left shoulder to the floor with a loud thump. “What happened?”

  “It’s rude to ask for details, O. You should know better,” Cruz was taunting her.

  She glared at him. “I don’t want details! I want to know that there is an explanation that doesn’t include the two of you,” she wagged a finger between us and said, “doing it.”

  Cruz laughed loudly. “Did you just say ‘doing it?’” he asked then laughed some more.

  She gave up on him and turned completely to me. I was still standing there silently unprepared. “Lila Kate?” she prompted.

  “I, well, uh,” I glanced at Cruz who was eating a muffin and grinning enjoying this a little too much. “Yes, we did it,” I blurted out.

  Cruz began to laugh some more.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she asked pointing back at him. “He’s a whore!”

  “Hey, I’ve got feelings. You’re crushing them,” he didn’t sound crushed at all.

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “No, I’m, uh, we are, you see,” I was fumbling.

  “We’re exclusive. I’ve given up my man whore ways because Lila Kate gave me a taste and I got addicted. There’s also the small very important detail that I am in love with her.”

  His explanation wasn’t as sweet and romantic as the things he’d said to me, but my chest swelled anyway. That was as sweet as Cruz let the world see him. He’d been open and just made himself vulnerable by admitting that.

  “In love?” Ophelia repeated it like it was a foreign word she’d never heard before. She looked back at me.

  “Yes. I love him, too.”

  Defeated, she sat down on her suitcase and shook her head. “I need a moment. This . . . just wow.”

  “Muffin?” Cruz asked holding the pan out to her and then me. “They’re fucking delicious. Grab one now because I’m gonna eat them all.”

  I walked past Ophelia, and she watched me like I was about to grow wings and fly off. As she sat down at the bar, I took the muffin pan and picked a muffin out, then went to pour myself some coffee.

  “Are you going to,” she waved at Cruz. “Walk around in your underwear a lot?”

  He smirked. “No. You’re not that lucky. I wasn’t aware you’d be barging in so early.”

  “It’s ten,” she replied.

  “Exactly—the crack of dawn.”

  “Lila Kate, you can’t be serious about this. He’s . . . he’s Cruz!”

  I smiled into my coffee cup. This was our first encounter with a friend or family member. I imagined this was going to happen a lot.

  “What about Eli? I thought you liked him.”

  Cruz’s smile vanished, and he scowled. “She doesn’t,” he replied. His teasing tone now gone.

  I put my cup down. “Eli is a great guy. But I’ve been in love with Cruz a long time.”

  “Why?”

  Cruz laughed again. “Damn, Ophelia. I didn’t know your opinion of me was so high.”

  She cocked her head and stared at him with a “get real” expression. “You have screwed most of my friends. And when I say most, that includes all of them. And now you’re sleeping with Lila Kate.”

  He winced. “Could we not discuss my past? That’s behind me. I’d like to leave it there.”

  Ophelia stood up and let out a heavy sigh. “This is going to end badly. Then Grant Carter will murder you. Mark my words,” she said as she carried her suitcase and bag to the bedroom that was to be hers.

  I slipped an arm around Cruz’s waist and leaned into him. “She’ll be more positive soon.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “That’s what I expect we will get from everyone in our life.”

  He was probably right. So I just kept my mouth shut and hugged him to me. “I’m happy. I’ve never been happier,” I assure him.

  “Me too. And honestly that scares the hell out of me.”

  “Why?” I asked tilting my head back to look up at him.

  “Because I know what this feels like and I can’t live without it or you.”

  “You’ll never have to so that’s not a problem. I’m not going anywhere.”

  That desperate, haunted look shadowed his eyes again. I wished I could soothe him and his concerns. I was the one who should be worried. Not him.

  “Can y’all put on clothes at least while I get one of the boxes out of my car?” Ophelia reminded us of her presence.

  Cruz jerked the towel around me off and I scrambled to get it from him. “You are taking all the fun away,” he told Ophelia. “I like her in a towel. Easier to get her naked.”

  “God! You are a pig,” she replied and went back down the stairs.

  I slapped at his chest and grabbed the towel from him. “Stop that!”

  He pulled me to his chest. “Think she’d care if we went up to your room and went another round?”

  As tempting as that was, I wasn’t doing that to Ophelia. “Get dressed Cruz,” I told him, then grinned and left my towel off as I walked up the stairs to my room.

  “Damn, you are asking for it,” he threatened.

  I glanced back and winked at him. “Save it for later.”

  “I take it back,” he said staring up at me.

  “What?”

  “You’re not a china doll, and nothing about you is cold.”

  I smiled and bit my lip to keep from grinning too big.

  “You are incredibly tough, and that body is so fucking hot I won’t ever get enough.”

  They weren’t words you’d ever hear in a sonnet but coming from Cruz Kerrington it was poetry.

  Cruz Kerrington

  OPHELIA MOVING IN with Lila Kate wasn’t ideal, but over the next week we made it work. I even started getting along with my dad better, but that was mostly due to my showing up on time to work. Being at the meetings he required and all the other shit I had been ignoring.

  Thinking about August when I had to go back to school sucked. Lila Kate was finished. She’d be here, and I would leave. I didn’t like it. Worrying about it right now just gave me more to stress over. Avoiding Kelsey had been my biggest hurdle at work. She hadn’t said anything to my dad, or I would know. I was hoping that she had been bluffing to scare me.

  Regardless, the kid wasn’t mine. I was willing to do a paternity test to prove it. That was if there even was a baby. I doubted that too. When I was sixteen, she’d been the sexy, exciting older woman. However, over the past year I had started noticing the crazy boiling under the surface.

  The summer crowd was already up and in full swing when I walked out of Lila Kate’s studio at eight in the morning. I had planned on walking to the coffee shop across the parking lot and getting Lila Kate one of those fancy teas she liked and a muffin. I definitely hadn’t been expecting Grant Carter to be standing against his truck with his arms crossed over his chest glaring at me like he wanted to take the life from my body with his bare hands.