I feel like I’m sending Ivy into a den of thieves to get bamboozled by a bunch of Hollywood bigwigs. She’s a young girl with an extraordinary amount of talent. She doesn’t have an agent. She doesn’t have a lawyer. All she has is me. And it would gut me if they take advantage of her out there. Yeah, Will’s paying for her flight and her hotel room, but that’s about it. The whole thing doesn’t sound too promising.

I haven’t read the script yet. Ivy won’t let me until it’s done. She says she feels weird about me seeing her unfinished work. But I read all her articles in the Independent Gazette and she was fine with that. I was always stoked to see her byline whenever I opened the paper. It was cool to actually know the writer. Check that—love the writer.

I look at her now as we get inside my truck to drive to the airport. I can’t help remembering our first ride together, bringing a container of gas to her stranded car after it had died on the dirt road leading to the garden center.

* * *

“You don’t have to do this, you know. I’ve already kept you waiting for forty-five minutes. You must have a million things you have to do.” Ivy glances at me anxiously.

“True, but I want to,” I respond, giving her a wink. “It seems like your day’s been bad enough as it is. The last thing I’m going to have you do is lug this heavy container out there by yourself. C’mon, get in.”

“But you already gave me a pair of shoes. I can’t keep taking without giving something back in return.” She pouts as she hops up next to me on the seat. I take a second to enjoy the moment. A girl hasn’t ridden next to me in quite some time.

“Are you forgetting that the whole thing was my dog’s fault? We’re even as far as I’m concerned.” I crank the ignition and the engine roars to life. Shep, hearing the sound of the truck, comes running with the heel of Ivy’s shoe in his mouth. “See what I mean?”

She takes one look at Shep and loses it. She’s laughing so hard that she’s practically crying. There’s something about her laugh that makes me want to join in. We’re cracking up as Shep gets more and more annoyed that I’m taking someone else for a ride and not him. He jumps up on the passenger door, hanging his paws over the window, making us laugh even harder.

“Oh, the poor thing. I stole his seat.” She reaches out to give him a scratch behind the ears. He usually doesn’t let people touch his head, but he seems to like Ivy. And I kinda like her too.

“C’mon, boy. Get down. We can’t stay here all day.” Shep heeds my command, lowering his tail. I don’t often yell at him, but his manners today have been atrocious even though Ivy’s been cool about it. I know I wouldn’t mind staying parked with Ivy from now until eternity. But I don’t think she’d appreciate that. She’s been sweet and polite, humoring me and my crazy dog, but she probably can’t wait to get out of here.

“Bye, Shep!” Ivy waves to him as we pull away. She reaches back to look at him over her shoulder and her hand unexpectedly lands on my leg. “Oops, sorry.” Her face flushes as she quickly pulls it away.

I can’t speak for a full five seconds. My dick immediately went hard at her touch. Her fingers were so tantalizingly close. I clear my throat and try to change the subject. “I can’t believe Lauren sent you all the way out here just to pick up a disk. I could’ve dropped it in the mail.” At the mention of Lauren’s name, Ivy’s face drops, but it buys me some time to collect myself—not like that’s going to help matters as I catch a whiff of her perfume. I clutch the wheel until my knuckles turn white. She has no idea what she’s doing to me right now as the bumps in the road cause her breasts to bounce against her camisole.

“No, it’s okay. I had to run an errand at the movie theater first, but that was a bust,” she shrugs, and I nearly come undone at her choice of words. Ever since I laid eyes on her, all I can think about is sex—and what it would be like with her.

“Why, what happened?” I try to appear interested, and I am, but she’s so damn distracting. The way her body moves. The way she touched me. The way she smells. All of my senses are heightened.

“I was supposed to pick up the payment for their ad, but I struck out. Now Lauren’s going to go nuclear on my ass because the whole upcoming edition revolves around the film festival. It might be too late to change it.” She fiddles with her skirt as I pull up alongside her car.

“Yeah, I heard they’re not doing so well over there. People around here are so used to watching movies at home. The theater’s only been open for a few months. We had a pretty bad winter and no one wanted to make the trek into town on those cold and snowy nights. But now that summer’s here, they need to be reminded that it’s there.” I lean back, straining against my jeans to reach for the wallet in my back pocket. “I’m a huge movie buff and I don’t want to see it fail. I like being able to see a film on the big screen. There’s nothing better. Tell me how much they owe the Gazette and I’ll foot the bill. The arts need as much support as they can get.”

“Eric, you’re being way too generous. You don’t have to solve all my problems in one day.” She shifts, facing me. Instinctively, she lays her hand on my arm as a friendly gesture, but it ignites every nerve ending in my body. I lower my head and take a deep breath, and she misinterprets my response. “Please don’t be mad. I just don’t understand why you’re being so nice.”

“Because I like you, Ivy.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Damn it. “I mean…you seem like a really good person, who just so happens to be dealing with a lot of bad luck on her first day on the job.”

“How did you know it was my first day?” She looks at me in amazement, her jaw dropping.

“Because you’re trying too hard.” I’m joking, and for a minute I think she’s going to throttle me, but she doesn’t. The reason I know is that Lauren pretty much has me on her mind 24/7. I’m her obsession. So it’s a pretty fair assumption that she’d make up some excuse to send her new intern up here to spy on me. But I can’t tell Ivy that. She has to work with the nutcase. “Ivy, if you don’t take my money now, I’m just going to ask Lauren to tell me the amount when I call her to explain why you’re wearing clogs.”

“You’re really going to do that? I thought you were kidding.” She sounds impressed by my willingness to go out of my way for her. I’m not looking forward to talking to Lauren, but if it saves Ivy a tongue lashing, I’ll do it. From the moment I held her in my arms, I haven’t been able to shake the urge of wanting to protect her.

“I’m a man of my word.” I look deeply into her eyes, showing her I mean what I’m saying, and she blushes. “Now let’s go fill that empty tank of yours.”

My hand is on the door handle when I feel her pat me on the back. “Thank you, Eric. You’re really something special, you know that?”

And just like that, she’s out of the truck. But the warmth of her touch combined with the sweetness of her voice leaves my head spinning. Man, I can feel myself falling for this girl—or maybe I already have.

* * *

“What’s wrong?” Ivy shoots me a worried glance from the passenger seat.

I’ve been meaning to replace the ignition switch on my truck for a while now, but I kept on putting it off even though it’s been giving me problems. But man, it sure picked a hell of a time to die on me. I turn the key again, but to no avail.

“Eric, we’re already late, and you know I can’t miss this flight.” Ivy’s voice rises as she starts to panic.

We took our time getting ready this morning. I wanted to savor every last moment with her. We should’ve been on the road a half hour ago, but I followed her into the shower and…well, one thing led to another. I was a good boy while she cut my unkempt hair and shaved my fledgling attempt at a beard, but after that I couldn’t keep my hands off her. Holding back while she was cleaning me up just made me even crazier for her when she was done. It was torture having to sit there and behave while she was turning me on with every snip of the scissors and flick of the razor.

But I have to get her to the airport somehow, and my mind begins to race furiously through all of the available options. Jack was already out back on the tractor, but he rode over on his motorcycle, so that wasn’t going to work. My dad was off visiting an old buddy of his and wouldn’t be back until this afternoon. And my mom isn’t able to handle the stick shift in the old truck in their garage. And there’s really no one else I could call on such short notice.

Just when I’m about to give up, we hear a set of tires crunching the gravel and the pulsing bass of a stereo turned all the way up.

“Oh thank God,” Ivy whispers. “It’s Ben.”

Not exactly what I was thinking, but he could be our way out of this mess.

“Hey, boss. Turns out I don’t have school today because it’s a teacher in-service day or some crazy shit like that. And we don’t have football practice either because Saturday was a day game, so I thought I’d head on over here. Maybe pick up a few extra hours or something. What do you say?” Ben saunters over to my beaten, broken-down truck after exiting his showroom-worthy model while tucking his aviator sunglasses into his front pocket.

I fucking hate the kid. He has no worries, no responsibilities, not a care in the world—except deciding which cheerleader he’s going to bang on Friday night. He does whatever he wants, whenever he feels like it. And now I’m going to have to grovel at his feet.

I grit my teeth as he leans against the door, peering in at Ivy. “Ben, we’re going to have to borrow your truck.”

“Oh man, no can do. My dad has a pretty tight insurance policy on this baby. I’m the only one he has listed as a driver. If I let you take it and something happens, he’ll go apeshit on my ass.” Ben grimaces, but it’s all for show. He just doesn’t want me driving his truck. Does he really have to be such a dick about it?

“Please, Ben…” Ivy urges. I can’t stand hearing her beg him for anything.

“Well, I’ll tell you what I can do.” Ben’s grin slowly widens as he watches Ivy hanging on his every word. “I can drive Ivy to the airport…as long as you’re cool with it, Eric.”

I’m definitely not cool with it, but Ivy’s already out of her seat, trying to pull her luggage out of the back. No matter how much I don’t like this, there will be no arguing with her now. I just don’t like the idea of Ben driving like a maniac through all of that traffic. Ivy is precious cargo and he better treat her as such—and not tear down the interstate like the reckless thrill-seeker that he is.

I grunt while getting out, gently moving Ivy aside to take the handle of the suitcase from her. She huffs, giving me an exasperated look. What? I’m only trying to help. She shouldn’t be lifting anything heavy in her condition anyway. I only hope a stewardess is able to put her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment since I won’t be there to do it for her. And now I won’t be there to kiss her goodbye either. A knot forms in my stomach knowing that this is it.

Ben stands there watching as I draw Ivy against my body. I glare at him over the top of her head, and he takes the hint, grabbing her bags with one hand. I bury my lips against her hair, breathing her in. I tighten my hold on her, sending him a clear message. She’s mine, dickhead. Don’t even think about it.

Staring him down, Ben is the first to look away. Good, he’s going to miss quite a show. I bend, capturing Ivy’s lips with my own. She’s a little timid at first, knowing that Ben is probably watching. But it’s not long before she gets swept up in the kiss, moaning against my mouth. I spread my fingers firmly across her back, allowing my thumbs to come forward and play with her breasts. This way, Ben can’t see what I’m doing to her and she opens herself up to me even more. She can’t get enough of me touching them, and I’ve come up with many ingenious ways of fondling her over the past couple of months. I’m all about giving my woman what she wants when she wants it in order to keep her satisfied.

But Ben seems annoyed by our public display of affection as he impatiently beeps the horn. “C’mon, Ivy. We gotta go,” he calls out from behind the wheel.

She pulls away from my lips breathless, my thumbs still circling her nipples. “Ah,” she sighs. “You can’t keep doing that or I’ll never leave.”