His hips were moving fast as he was looking down at her face. Her eyes popped open as if she realized he was watching her.

  “Kiss me,” she said.

  He’d do anything she asked of him at this moment and realized he hadn’t felt that way about a woman before.

  It was scarier than anything else he’d felt or gone through in the past year.

  But he did as she said, getting down on his elbows and framing her face with his hands.

  The two of them were moving so fast that Dahlia’s bed was hitting the wall and he hoped to hell no one else in this apartment building could hear it.

  Her legs lifted up and went around his hips, he let go of her face with one hand and put it under her ass, pushing her up as tight to him as possible.

  “Are you close?” he asked.

  “You sound like you’re in pain.”

  He was. He was gritting his teeth trying to hold off as long as he could to get her there before him.

  “I want you to come for me first,” he said.

  “I am,” she said. “Now. Oh my God.”

  She let out a little squeal and her hands just dropped to the bed, but her legs stayed wrapped around his hips.

  He held her up high and just started to slam into her because he didn’t feel as if he could not do that.

  She kept squealing and if he was worried about the sounds of her bed hitting the wall, it was nothing compared to what was coming out of her mouth.

  The minute he felt himself starting to come he moved even faster until he knew there was nothing left in him to come out and all but collapsed and then rolled so that she was on top of him.

  “I’ve never come before,” she said suddenly. “Sorry about that. I hadn’t expected it.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Not during sex. I mean, I can with oral and a toy.”

  “A toy?” he asked. This was news to him.

  “Ivy got me one a few years ago.”

  Not surprising. “And you use it?”

  “It’d be a waste not to, right?” she asked.

  She propped herself on her elbows on his chest and was looking down at him.

  “I suppose so.”

  She kissed him quickly on the lips. “That was the first orgasm I’ve had without anything else other than...you in me.”

  “I’m glad,” he said. “If I knew that before I don’t know if I could hold up to the pressure or the patience to get you here first. More like I don’t know if my heart could have held up. I wasn’t finishing until you did.”

  “That’s sweet,” she said, “but you don’t have to worry about that.”

  “Shit yeah, I do,” he said. “I’m not a selfish lover.”

  “I don’t think there is a selfish bone in your body,” she said.

  He rolled off the bed. “There are some that would disagree with you.”

  The minute he turned and looked at her face, he regretted saying those words.

  He’d apologize after, but for now he needed to clean up.

  He grabbed his pants only and walked to the hallway and into the bathroom.

  Once the condom was taken care of, he ran the water as cold as he could and splashed it over his face and neck.

  He didn’t look any different, but he sure the hell felt it.

  When he returned to get the rest of his clothes, Dahlia was gone. He didn’t think he was in there that long but guess he was.

  His shirt was on the chair, so he grabbed it along with his socks and shoes. He carried his jacket with the tie stuffed into the pocket out to the living room.

  “Sorry,” he said when he saw her in the kitchen working on dinner. “I didn’t mean to take away from what we just did.”

  “You didn’t,” she said. “I think we are both in unfamiliar territory. I just experienced something I never have before coupled with you making me feel different too.”

  “Different how?” he asked.

  “I can’t explain it that well. Just know it’s good.”

  He'd take her word for it. “I’m glad. And yes, I could say the same thing. After my past year, I didn’t expect to find anyone, let alone you.”

  “Are you going to ever tell me what happened in the past year for you?” she asked.

  He could appreciate she hadn’t asked prior when he knew she wanted to. “You know about my marriage,” he said.

  “I also know there is more to it than you’ve said, but I won’t push you. Come sit while I cook. I’m starving and you did more work than me, so you’ve got to be too.”

  He nodded and moved to the stool by the counter. “Anything I can do to help?”

  There were two strip steaks in a package she was opening, two big potatoes and a bag of frozen green beans.

  “No. This is a fast simple meal. I can do more and better than potatoes in the microwave, beans in a pot and steak in a pan, but again, I’m hungry.”

  “It works,” he said. “Just like I’m starting to realize you work for me.”

  She tilted her head and smiled at him. “It’s scary, isn’t it?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “You’d be surprised,” she said.

  He’d leave it at that because if he asked why then she’d want to know more too and he wasn’t ready for any of that.

  14

  GOOD TO FIT IN

  “You got lucky last night,” Ivy said when she walked into the apartment the next morning.

  “What?” Dahlia asked. She was putting the dishes away from breakfast and was going to leave for work in a few minutes. She didn’t expect her sister to show up.

  “I said you got lucky last night.”

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I grabbed the wrong shoes for this outfit,” Ivy said. “It’s on the way into work. No biggie. And you aren’t answering my question.”

  “You didn’t ask me a question,” she said.

  “Did you get lucky last night?” Ivy asked all but bouncing around the living room.

  “Are you Poppy now?” she asked.

  “I knew it,” Ivy shouted and pointed her finger doing the famous Poppy booty shake.

  “How did you know?” she asked, sighing.

  She’d looked in the mirror last night. Closely too.

  Nothing appeared different on her face. She wasn’t walking funny either.

  There was no way anyone could figure this out.

  Not that it was a big deal, but she wasn’t used to people knowing so much about her life. Especially her family.

  “Mr. Jones was out on the front porch with his coffee when I came in. He said there was this loud banging and squeaking last night for a short period of time. Sounded like the pipes used to do years ago before they were fixed. It stopped after a few minutes. He just figured you were in the shower. He saw me first to tell me so that we can let the landlords know.”

  She felt the heat fill her face. “Noooooo.”

  “Yep,” Ivy said. “Good for you. Your bedroom is right next to the bathroom so you know, I put it together pretty fast since I knew Hugh was here. Well...how does it feel?”

  “How does what feel?” she asked.

  “To have sex with him,” Ivy said. “I know you’ve wanted to. How do you feel now that you have?”

  “I’m not talking to you about my sex life,” she argued. This was mortifying. Almost as much as her having to ask Hugh for it, but one of them had to make a move and she knew he was being gentlemanly and all.

  “I don’t want to know those things. I mean I always thought I did and with other people it’s fun and funny, but you’re my older sister.”

  “So is Jasmine.”

  “But it’s different with you,” Ivy said. “You’ve always been more of a mom figure to me. I don’t want to think of Mom and Dad doing that.”

  “Gee,” she said. “Thanks for that. I’m only four years older than you. I’m younger than our bosses.” Well, younger than Lily and Poppy.

  “You know what I mean,” Ivy said, waving her hands.

  “No, I don’t, but I don’t have time for this either. We need to get to work.”

  Ivy went to her room to get her shoes and came back out. Her sister had a cute skirt and top on. The shoes she’d been wearing looked fine. They were a pair of wedge type sandals but she came out in flats.

  “I’m going to be on my feet today,” she said. “Lily texted me to meet her at the plant to go through a bunch of stuff.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Guess it’s hard when you are splitting your time at two places.”

  “Not a big deal,” Ivy said. “As I said, it’s on the way.”

  “You’re not thinking of wanting to move in with Brooks?” she asked.

  In the past Ivy was always the one to rush into things with a guy.

  “No,” she said. “It’s all going to be at his pace. Sure, I’d like to spend more time with him. I think he wants to do it too, but for now I’m happy we are together.”

  “That’s a good way to think of it,” she said. She moved over to hug her sister. “I’m so proud of you, Ivy.”

  “Huh?” Ivy asked. “Why?”

  “Because you’re such a beautiful person inside and out. You’re not the young girl I remembered you from and I know sometimes I still give you a hard time.”

  “Not like you used to. And I’ll admit that I had it coming.” Ivy hugged her back.

  “I think Mom put me in the position to watch out for everyone and it was hard to stop it.”

  “It wasn’t right of them to do what they did with us. I feel like we never got to have a normal childhood.”

  Dahlia sighed and wished she hadn’t started this. “I know. It’s in the past. Think of it this way—we know the things we’d never do for our children.”

  “Nope,” Ivy said. “But you better hurry up because you’re getting old.”

  “Not funny,” she said.

  “Just picking on you,” Ivy said. “But next time I see Hugh I’ve got to congratulate him.”

  “Why is that?” she asked. She grabbed her purse and the two of them left together.

  “Because aside from chipping the paint on the wall, he knocked some emotions loose in you.”

  “He didn’t chip the paint on the wall,” she said.

  “Yep,” Ivy said. “He did. I just looked. Needed to make sure if it was the pipes or not, but it sounds as if your pipes got a thorough flushing last night.”

  She rolled her eyes and the two of them drove to work.

  She wasn’t in her office an hour before Poppy came rushing in. “Woohoo, girl.”

  “Did Ivy tell you?” she asked. Her sister had a big mouth.

  “Nope,” Poppy said. “You just did.”

  “No way,” she said. Dahlia couldn’t believe this happened to her twice. “How could you have guessed that?”

  “Ivy said that she was staying at Brooks’s last night when she left. I heard you telling Lily you had to run to the store and figure out dinner. I put it all together. You’ve said more than once that you’d just eat cereal if you were alone. But my Spidey senses said you were cooking for a man and then you had the place to yourself.”

  “Well,” she said. “Now it’s out of the way, everyone can let me have some peace.”

  Poppy giggled and moved out. “There is no peace when you’re getting lucky.”

  She laughed at the dance Poppy was doing when she moved into the hallway.

  She did have to admit it felt good to fit in even if she never thought or expected it like this.

  Jasmine came in a few hours later. “Ivy told me.”

  “I figured she would,” she said, grinning.

  “Said you need to repaint your room.” Jasmine was laughing.

  “Good lord,” she said.

  “I’d like to meet him. Or is it too soon for that? Tell me to mind my own business if you want. I understand more than anyone.”

  “I’ll think about it,” she said. “It’s not like this is something I’ve had to worry about before.”

  “I know. I’m not going to say I’m worried or anything like that. No reason to be. But it’d be nice to meet him. Ivy did. Unless he wants to come in here one day and I’m around.”

  “He’s busy with work, but I’ll see what I can do on a weekend. Let me know when you’re around. Wesley is getting busy with the marina now too.”

  “He’s got a lot of people working for him. And we try to have Sundays off together.”

  “Which means you aren’t going to want to have people over,” she argued.

  “You’re off on the weekends. I’m sure Hugh is too. A Sunday could work for all of us,” Jasmine said. “But I also understand if it’s way too soon.”

  “I’ll let you know,” she said.

  Once her sister left Dahlia went back to work and hoped no one else bugged her today.

  In the early afternoon, she got a text and picked her phone up to see it was from Hugh. She hadn’t heard from him since he kissed her senseless last night and walked out her door.

  She read the text that he had a good time and couldn’t wait for more like it.

  She smiled and replied she was thinking the same thing. She almost told him about dinner with her family but then decided that it was better to say it in person.

  Instead she told him everyone knew.

  A second later her phone rang and she saw it was him calling. “Everyone knows what?” he asked. Oh man, his deep voice was making her heart race.

  When had that ever happened with a man before?

  Never!

  “About last night,” she said quietly.

  “Everyone?” he asked.

  She explained what Ivy had said this morning and heard him laughing on the other end. “I’m glad I don’t live close to family, but it’s not like my sister would ever do that to me.”

  “It’s embarrassing.”

  “I can fix the paint,” he said. “Since I’m the one that caused that to happen.”

  “Don’t worry about it now,” she said. “Maybe it will happen again.”

  “I hope so,” he said.

  “Me too.”

  She told him about Poppy and then Jasmine. “As you can tell, there aren’t a lot of secrets around here.”

  “That only sounds like three people to me,” he said. “Not everyone.”

  “By the end of the week, it will be everyone. It’s fine. It’s nice to feel as if I belong and I’m not the person on the outside all the time.”

  There was silence after that comment and she wasn’t sure why she’d said that.

  “Fitting in is important in life.”

  “It can be,” she said. “I’ll let you get back to work.”

  He said bye and hung up. No talk about when she’d see him again and she wouldn’t ask.

  They’d figure it out and she wouldn’t stress.

  She never stressed about a man before and wouldn’t start now.

  15

  DOSE OF SUNSHINE

  “You were laughing.”

  Hugh turned his head to see Grant standing in the doorway to his cubicle.

  “I didn’t know that was a crime,” he said.

  “Nope. Just that you aren’t one to laugh so I’m going to assume that it didn’t have to do with work and maybe something personal.”

  “That’s right,” he said. “Personal. So not something I’m sharing.”

  “And you’re smirking right now rather than biting someone’s head off.”

  He wasn’t sure he’d ever bitten someone’s head off before. Least of all a coworker. “Maybe I had an extra dose of sunshine in my coffee this morning.”

  “Or you’re seeing someone,” Grant said, smirking.

  He rolled his eyes. “You’re worse than a woman.”

  “I’ve been told that before too,” Grant said. “You’ve been here two months and already found someone. Me, I’ve been here for years and I’m lucky if I can get a woman on a dating app.”

  He lifted his eyebrow over that comment. “That’s your problem,” he said. “Those apps don’t work.”

  “Not for more than hitting the sheets,” Grant said. “Sometimes that is all I’m looking for.”

  He watched Grant move back to his desk while he whistled and went back to the report he was writing.

  He’d spent more time than he wanted to looking at financial reports and trying to understand them.

  Hugh always thought he was a smart guy, but some of this was beyond him. Or it was taking longer than it should. Maybe Dahlia could help him figure things out.

  He got up from his desk and knocked on his boss’s door. “Yes,” Mitch said.

  “What’s your thought on me asking someone to give me a crash course in finance?”

  Mitch leaned back in his chair. “Like a class?”

  “No,” he said. He figured he might as well come clean. He always did. “I’m seeing someone. She’s a CPA. I wouldn’t give her information on a case, never that.”

  “I know you won’t,” Mitch said.

  “We’ve got material that we use to analyze and how to help us find things. Is that acceptable for me to show her and have her just give me some pointers to find discrepancies faster?”

  “Depends who the person is,” Mitch said. “Do I have to worry about them getting their hands on something they shouldn’t, even if it’s training materials?”

  “No,” he said. “But it’s Dahlia Greene. I’ve done a background on her.”

  Mitch laughed. “The woman you were questioning in the Shawn Stratton case?”

  “Yes. She’s been cleared. You’ve seen my report. You’ve looked everything over and agreed.”

  “I have,” Mitch said. Mitch pulled out a manual from his desk and slapped it down. He’d never seen it before. “This is older than the one you’ve got. Use this.”

  “Thanks,” he said. That told him that Mitch only trusted so far and he was fine with that.

  “I need you to go to Greenwich tomorrow,” Mitch said.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “I’m sending you a new case. You and Grant can go together. He’s been getting on my nerves to get out into the field more. He can learn from you.”