“To protect the people you love?”
“What the hell, Avery?” He sat back from her. “Don’t make me out a saint, okay?”
“I would never make that mistake.” Rowdy was better than a saint, more solid and real. An honest-to-God tough guy, here in the flesh. She’d take that over an ethereal saint any day.
No longer caring what Rowdy thought, Avery slipped her arms around his neck and nestled against him.
“Damn it.” He stiffened without returning her embrace. “Here I am, getting more turned on by the second, and you want to slap a halo on my head.”
With her nose pressed close to the skin of his throat, she breathed deep, filling herself with his potent scent. He smelled so good, felt even better, and she admired him so much. “A halo would never fit over your massive ego.”
It’d be so easy to fall in love with him—and that was a problem. Rowdy wasn’t an emotional man looking for commitment. For the most part, he was a loner with an overactive sex drive and a lack of respect for boundaries of any kind.
“True, so don’t act like I was noble or something.” He caught her shoulders and tried to pry her loose. Avery held on until he finally gave up. Tangling a hand in her hair, he gently drew her head back. “I fucked up, you know. Pepper and I ended up living off the grid for more than two years. It was hard on her—”
Avery touched her mouth to his, saying, “She’s alive.”
His breathing quickened. “Thank God.”
“Thank Rowdy.” Smiling, she brushed her mouth over his again. Her fingertips touched his now-bristly jaw, moved down to the side of his hot neck then under the neckline of his shirt to his solid shoulder. Need unfurled, but she sat back before she got carried away.
Rowdy looked stunned.
And interested.
She wanted more. So much more.
Did she dare take a walk on the wild side?
She had a feeling that Rowdy would be more than worth the risk. As long as she kept her heart safe, what was the worst that could happen?
No, she didn’t want to think about the worst. Not now.
With Rowdy watching her warily, she forced herself back on track. “Since your sister is happily settled here, you’re going to settle down, too?”
Apparently uneasy with the idea of settling down, he shifted his shoulders and glanced around at the apartment. “For now, at least.”
He didn’t sound entirely set on the idea. But he’d bought the bar, and she knew he loved working it. He couldn’t pick up and disappear without her knowing. “Can I ask you one more question before we go?”
“Do I actually have a choice?”
Beneath his teasing tone, she heard the agitation. He worried that she’d dig too deep, that something he said would drive her away.
He couldn’t know how much she wanted him, because she’d taken pains to hide it from him. Maybe it was time to stop doing that.
“I want to know everything about you.” For most of his life, choices had been taken away from him. She’d never do that to him. “But I won’t pry anymore if it bothers you.”
That surprised him, too. He scowled at her. “Let’s hear it.”
Enjoying him like this, in this particular humble, grumbling mood, she rested against his chest again. “You said you didn’t want to bring a casual hookup here.”
“It’s bad enough that the ladies in the building keep bugging me. Some women don’t know how to take no for an answer.”
Few men would complain about that situation. “So...why is it okay if I’m here?”
Avery felt his sudden stillness, heard the heavy thumping of his strong heart along with his softly muttered curse.
She stayed close, waiting.
He let out a strained breath. “With you, Avery, I never really know what the hell I’m doing.”
* * *
THE COLD NIGHT started to seep into his bones. All around him he heard unsettling noises that made him jumpy. He wouldn’t be surprised if murder and mayhem happened on a regular basis in such a downtrodden area. It was time for him to go home. He had what he needed now.
He knew where she worked, and he knew who she fucked.
Putting a plan in place would be oh-so-easy.
Soon, Avery, he silently promised. Very, very soon.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MOON, combined with dashboard lights, sent a soft glow over Avery’s profile as he drove her home. His awareness of this one particular woman throbbed through his veins, leaving him on the ragged edge. It wouldn’t take more than a single agreeable look from her to get him hard.
Again.
That damned torturous episode on his couch had nearly done him in. He couldn’t keep from touching her, even if he was the only one to combust.
No one had ever touched him so...gently before. That kiss hadn’t been sexual. It didn’t say, “Fuck me, Rowdy.” Actually, he didn’t know what the hell it said, and he wasn’t at all sure he liked it.
The uncertainty hadn’t kept him from getting turned on, though.
Why is it okay if I’m here? she’d wanted to know. So many reasons...
Instead of reacting as most women would, Avery had looked at him with empathy, sadness, maybe understanding. Because he’d spilled his guts to her. He flexed his hands on the steering wheel and tried to shrug off the uncomfortable sense of vulnerability.
It pissed him off that he’d said so much. Hell, he didn’t confide in anyone. Not even his sister. Definitely not a woman he planned to have under him as soon as humanly possible.
Why is it okay if I’m here?
Then again, Avery was different from other women. He wanted her, no mistaking that, but even when he knew he wouldn’t have her, he enjoyed talking to her and just...being with her. She made him feel things, unfamiliar stuff he’d never dealt with before.
And that was saying something, since he’d had more than his share of shit to manage.
“You’re so quiet,” she said with unsettling understanding. “Everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Just because she asked him questions he couldn’t answer.
“I don’t know,” she said. “You seem bothered.”
“I’m thinking, that’s all.” He had no idea about Avery’s background. He knew enough about false impressions that he refused to draw conclusions just because she worked in a shit bar and rode a bus instead of driving.
“About my question?” She turned defensive. “Relax, Rowdy. I won’t make assumptions just because I was granted entrance to your private domain.”
Defensive and dramatic. Did she really have no clue how differently he felt with her? “A smart person never assumes.”
She crossed her arms and huddled farther into the corner of the front seat. “If it’s that much of a problem, forget I asked about it.”
He glanced at her, but she kept her face averted, watching the landscape pass by her window. Her beautiful red hair, now freed from the band thanks to him, flowed over her shoulders and helped to keep her concealed.
“Never said it was a problem.” He just didn’t have an easy answer.
“Yet, ten minutes later,