“Yeah,” he said as he strode with her into a large living room. “But we’re not going to make it there.”

  “We’re not?”

  “No.” The rough gravel of his voice and the look on his face turned her on way more than she’d like to admit. He dropped a knee to the biggest couch she’d ever seen and laid her out on it. “But we are going to get all of our clothes off this time,” he promised and had them both stripped down to bare skin in less than a blink, and then proceeded to crawl up her body and get started making the most of their eight hours.

  Sadie assumed the next morning would be awkward. After all, morning-afters weren’t in her repertoire. When Caleb dragged her out of bed before dawn’s first light, she told him he should prepare to die. He only laughed and slung her over his shoulder and strode into his bathroom.

  She’d considered biting his very fine ass, but then he stepped with her into his blissfully hot shower so she decided he could live for another few minutes.

  “You almost died,” she told him.

  “Shh,” he murmured and lifted her up against him. “I’m not finished with you yet.” Then he took his time making sure she shared in his joy of coed morning showers and she forgot all about murder.

  After, she told him that maybe he might be the perfect man after all—if he cooked her pancakes. But he reminded her he couldn’t cook worth shit. So whew, he really wasn’t perfect.

  Lollipop was in the living room attacking a pillow when they came out of Caleb’s bedroom, ready for work.

  Sadie froze. “Your sister’s here?”

  “No, she just dropped off Lollipop.”

  Remembering the last thirty minutes in the shower, Sadie bit her lower lip. “Think she heard us?”

  He gave her an amused look. “Us?”

  She smacked his chest and he laughed, grabbing her hand. “She didn’t hear anything, the walls are very well constructed and nearly soundproof.”

  The “nearly” worried her, but she put it out of her mind when Caleb bought her McDonald’s, breakfast of champions, and then drove her and Lollipop to work, where she’d drop Lollipop off at the pet shop for doggy daycare for the morning. Before she and the dog slid out of his car, he pulled her in close for a goodbye kiss that curled her toes. His touch was sometimes playful and sometimes lust-filled, but it was always meaningful.

  “Have a good morning,” he murmured, smiling at the undoubtedly glazed-over look in her eyes.

  “I’ve already had a good morning,” she reminded him. “Did you wreck your knees on that hard tile floor in your shower?”

  He smiled a very sexy, very knowing smile that brought her back to the steamy hot shower and how he’d dropped to his knees, slid his hands up her thighs and leaned in to give her one of the most erotic experiences of her life.

  “You worried I won’t be able to do it again?” he asked.

  “More that I’m worried for my knees when I return the favor.”

  His eyes went molten lava and he kissed her again. When he broke away, she had to look down to make sure she was still dressed.

  After what felt like a very long shift at the day spa, she headed to the Canvas Shop. Both Mini Moe and Blue were there, as well as Cal, who was talking to Rocco.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to Cal. “I don’t have you on my schedule for today—”

  “I know. I’m just on an early dinner break. Listen, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Come on back with me while I get set up for my first client.”

  He leaned back against her counter and started to pull something from his pocket and she pointed at him. “Stop right there. I don’t want to hear anyone having sex.”

  He raised his hands. “I know. And I’m still sorry about that. I just . . .” He met her gaze, his own serious now. “I want to show you something. I was in the building the other day and also this morning. I’m interviewing for a job with Hunt Investigations on the second floor. That’s confidential, by the way.”

  “Okay. So why are you telling me?”

  “Because . . .” He broke off with a grimace and ran a hand over his head. “Shit.”

  “What is it, Cal?”

  He accessed his photos and thumbed through, showing her two pictures.

  Of herself.

  One was of her walking through the courtyard with a bag of McDonald’s, which meant it’d been taken that morning. The other was of her leaving the Canvas Shop, Lollipop on her leash, and given the clothes she was wearing, it had been taken the week before. “What the hell is this?” she asked.

  He took the phone back and went back to the first pic and zoomed in. There were people in the background, which wasn’t odd because the courtyard was usually full of people. But there was a young woman sitting on a bench, her phone up and facing Sadie.

  Then Cal scrolled to the next pic. The same woman was in the background of that one too.

  Sadie shook her head in shock. “What the . . . ?”

  “You either have a stalker, or you’re being watched for some reason. Want me to—?”

  “No,” she said grimly. Because she recognized her so-called stalker, and because she did, emotions were tumbling through her like a category five hurricane. “I’ve got to go. Text me those photos.”

  Cal nodded and left her alone. She stood still for a beat, closing her eyes, trying to contain the sudden tsunami of emotions tumbling through her, battering her from the inside out.

  Because her stalker was one of Caleb’s sisters. Given that she was extremely pregnant, it was Kayla, no doubt backed by the others. She felt a blood-boiling temper that her privacy had been violated. This was immediately followed by humiliation, because she should have known. Of course to allow a woman into his life, Caleb would’ve had to have that woman vetted. She might have even thought of it sooner, but Caleb had pretty much locked down her good sense from that very first night when they’d rescued Lollipop. The poor dog was thankfully blissfully unaware that both of her owners were crazy.

  Caleb was having her followed.

  And probably doing a deep background check as well, which meant she was going to have to face facts. He’d either already learned things about her that she’d never wanted anyone to know, or he was about to learn those things.

  Either way, the combo of bad temper and humiliation had her feeling like a cat with her back against the wall, claws out. She texted with her first client, who agreed to move their appointment back an hour, and strode out to the front.

  In unison Blue, Mini Moe, and Rocco did a double take at her expression.

  “You’ve been here five minutes,” Rocco said. “Who’s pissed in your Cheerios already?”

  She couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone. “Why is that a saying? Because it’s disgusting. I mean, think about it, did someone actually piss in someone’s Cheerios for that to be a thing?”

  “Nice deflection,” he said. “I take it you’d like me to mind my own fucking business.”

  “Yes,” she said, never having been more grateful for his real friendship than that moment. But even real friendships had limitations. He knew some of how screwed-up she’d been, but he didn’t know all of it—such as how she’d been involuntarily committed by her own parents. And if she had anything to say about it, he’d never know. No one would. “I’ll be back.”

  “You look like you’re going to kick someone’s ass.”

  “That’s because I am,” she said grimly.

  “Need backup?”

  She stopped and moved back to him, going up on tiptoes to brush a kiss to his scruffy jaw. “No, but I love you for asking, thanks.”

  “Suits screwed up, didn’t he.”

  She had to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. Not easy when it was the size of a regulation football. But there were cracks forming in her temper, allowing other, more uncontrolled emotions to squeeze through, and she couldn’t have it. Not yet. Not until she dealt with this and could get herself off alone somewhere to lick her wounds.

  Rocco studied her for another beat. “Do I need to kill him?”

  “I’ve got it covered.”

  He nodded. “You’ll call me if you need help hiding the body.” Not a question but a statement.

  There was some comfort in the fact that she knew he 100 percent meant it.

  Chapter 21

  #HowToRuinTheMorningAfter

  Caleb entered his offices and ran into Sienne while getting himself coffee. “Hey,” he said. “You studied Japanese in college.”

  She blinked. “If you mean the single Japanese culture class I took a zillion years ago because I needed the credits and it was the only class that wasn’t full, then yes. I nearly failed it, by the way. Why?”

  He yanked at his shirt and pointed to the Japanese character. “Apparently this means mom. Naoki’s idea of a joke. I’d take him to the mats if I thought he remembered.”

  She burst out laughing. “And people call you a genius.”

  Rolling his eyes, he headed to his office.

  “Where’s the tattoo for your sisters?” she called after him. “Why aren’t we immortalized on you yet?”

  He locked his door.

  It wasn’t until hours later when he was in a meeting that he started in surprise as Sadie appeared in front of him. He halted the computer program and pulled off his virtual reality goggles.

  Everyone in the huge room with him working on their latest project did the same. Spence, Sienne, the two engineers from NASA he’d been working with, and his three highest level programmers. “Lights,” he said.

  The lights went from dim to bright.

  Sadie stood there in the same outfit she’d had on when he’d dropped her at work that morning; formfitting ripped jeans, the holes showing off flashes of sexy leg. She wore a black cropped sweater and black high-heeled boots that put her nearly nose-to-nose with him. Her hair was loose and sexily wild around her face and she was wearing enough earrings and bracelets to set off a metal detector.

  But sexy as all that was—and it was very, very sexy—when his gaze met hers, he felt his breath catch. There was so much fury in her eyes he nearly missed the heart-stopping hurt.

  Nearly. “What’s wrong?”

  “We need to talk,” she said.

  “Oh boy,” Spence murmured under his breath to Caleb. “Nothing good ever came from those four words. You do something stupid?”

  “Take ten,” Caleb said to the room, ignoring Spence while maintaining eye contact with a clearly pissed-off Sadie.

  “Try thirty,” Spence said with a smile to Sadie. “Sometimes a woman’s got something to say and needs time to say it.” He crouched low and offered a hand to Lollipop at her side, who allowed a pet, but she was all eyes on Caleb, straining at her leash to get to him.

  Sadie actually returned Spence’s smile, effectively proving Spence right, that Caleb was indeed in trouble all on his own. As the room cleared out, he reached for her.

  She stepped back and crossed her arms. She’d locked herself up good and tight, which wasn’t good. “I take it this isn’t a social visit,” he said and scooped Lollipop up for a big hug, accepted a face full of kisses before putting her down to concentrate on Sadie.

  Not that Lollipop was okay with this. She sat right on Caleb’s feet and stared up at him in adoration, giving him the I’m still right here! whine.

  Pretty much the opposite of Sadie’s greeting.

  “Definitely not a social visit,” she said. “I knew better than to let my guard down with you, but somehow I thought you were going to surprise me and be different. Instead, you’re worse than any guy I’ve ever dated.”

  “That’s quite an accusation,” he said mildly. “You going to tell me what I did?”

  She drew a deep breath. “You were sneaky and manipulative. I mean all you had to do was come to me and ask me yourself. I’d have told you anything you wanted to know. I’m a damn open book.”

  She was lying. He’d never met a woman less an open book. But hell if he was going to point that out when there was steam coming out her ears. “Still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he said.

  “Oh, please. And the really screwed-up thing is that it doesn’t even make any sense. It’s not like I wanted anything from you—or that we’re even a thing.”

  He took a second to absorb that, realizing just how serious she was. “Okay,” he said. “Well, first, we are very much having a thing. It started the night we rescued Lollipop, even though it took you until last night to trust me enough to lower some boundaries and spend the night.”

  Her eyes shot daggers. “Sex does not equal a thing.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed. “Which is why I didn’t reference the first time we slept together. That was sex. Great sex, actually, but last night was different. It was more and you know it. And now you’re using it to back away and run scared.”

  She sputtered for a moment. “Don’t turn this on me. I’m not running scared. I’m furious. And whatever that was last night, it’s over now.”

  “Because . . . ?”

  She drew a deep breath as if she needed it to talk instead of murder him where he stood. “Because you’re having me followed like I’m some stranger you want to bang but have to vet first. And you didn’t even care enough to do it yourself! I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I’m not some sort of con artist. I’m not going to sneak into your house and steal from you or talk to the press and give away your trade secrets, are you kidding me?”

  He felt his mouth fall open. “Wait.” He caught her just as she whirled to go. “Wait a damn minute. What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You once told me that the people you date have to be vetted and go through a process to get cleared, a process handled by your sister.”

  “Yes, but that’s exaggerated.”

  “Right, you wouldn’t need to because you’re having your sister do your dirty work.” She shook her head. “I didn’t want this, Caleb. Any of it.”

  She didn’t say his name often, but when she did—as she had last night when he’d been buried deep inside her—it never failed to give him pleasure. Except this time. This time she said his name like it was a bad word. “I’m not having you followed. I swear it,” he said at her look of disbelief. “I wouldn’t do that to you.” And even just saying it, he knew it was true. He wouldn’t do that to her, and that’s how he knew he was in deep.

  Way deep.

  Too deep.

  Somehow when his brain hadn’t been paying attention, his heart had engaged. It’d been a slow unfurling, but there was no sense in denying it. He was doing things he’d never done before, like using his awake hours for things other than working. Such as opening his home—and heart—to the woman standing in front of him, eyes flashing hot with temper and mistrust.

  Which meant he’d have to have enough trust for the both of them until she understood that he wouldn’t hurt her, that he was real and not going anywhere. “I’m not tracking you,” he said quietly. “And . . . I talked you into this? I’d call bullshit on that, but I’m going to give you a pass because you’re clearly upset and—”

  “Let me tell you where you can put your damn pass,” she said. “Sideways.” She pulled out her phone.

  There were two shots, both of Sadie presumably going about her day in the Pacific Pier Building, and both featuring a woman in the background.

  Kayla, in all her pregnant glory, playing the part of the sneaky photographer. He stared at it. “What the actual fuck.”

  “My question exactly.”

  He lifted his head and met Sadie’s furious—and hurt—gaze. “I don’t know what’s happening here,” he said, “but I will find out.”

  “You once told me that the Parkers act as a team,” she said, “even when it’s just one of you. You stand by each other, you watch each other’s backs. Maybe you didn’t say the words that set this in motion, but you knew it could happen and you certainly could’ve stopped it.”

  This was all true enough to make him wince. “Sadie—”

  “Are you going to tell me you’ve never had your sexual partners vetted?”

  “Sexual partners, no,” he said. “Lovers, yes.” He met her gaze, letting her know that he considered the two of them lovers and not just sexual partners, but she looked away. Whether that was because she didn’t want to acknowledge it or she didn’t believe it, he wasn’t sure. “In the past,” he said, “before I’ve gotten too deep into a relationship, there’s been a vetting process, but always with permission. I admit, I’m in deep with you, but I haven’t informed anyone of that yet.”

  She stared at him. “Including me.”

  “Then you’ve not been paying attention.” He risked his life by closing the gap between them. “I was hoping my actions would fill you in.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m learning a lot by the actions of you and yours,” she said, still stiff, still full of mistrust. “I just hope whatever you all found out about me was worth it.” She scooped up Lollipop. “Goodbye, Caleb.”

  “Hold on,” he said and took her hand in his when she tried to walk past him to the door.

  She tugged free, and this time when she lifted her gaze to his, pain eclipsed her temper. Haunted, hollow, gut-wrenching pain, and it stopped him in his tracks. “Sadie,” he said quietly, softly, wanting only to soothe, to ease what she was feeling. Because something more was going on here, he was definitely missing something.

  “No,” she murmured, her voice hitching. “Don’t.” She took Lollipop and walked out the door, Lollipop’s head bouncing as she looked over her mama’s shoulder to watch him.

  “Arf!”

  She wanted her human. “I could—” he started, but Sadie’s response was to flash him her middle finger as she left.

  Right.

  He could have stopped her or called down and had the front desk detain her. But he’d never do either. She was angry and upset, and she had a right to be.

  He needed to fix this. First, he needed to find out what the hell had happened and why. He’d told Sienne to stay out of her personal life. When he had the 411 he needed, he’d find Sadie and lay his heart out on the line.