When he approached, she looked at him, and her lips parted. Michelle eyed him venomously and cussed under her breath.

“I need to talk to you.” She just stared up at him. She didn’t look at all interested in coming with him. He crouched down to her level at her feet and tried again. “Please.”

She looked to Michelle for a moment, and Michelle cocked her head to the side. She was definitely not on his side. Bailey finally nodded, but her face remained leery. He stood and offered her a hand. As fate would have it, Veronica spotted him from fifty or so odd feet away, and she instantly hollered and waved to him. He had no intention of going to see her, but he didn’t need to. Within moments, she was by his side, only just then taking in his company.

Bailey was suddenly rigid at his side, and when he glanced to her, she looked like she was in hell.

Veronica took in Bailey and sneered. “Oh . . . you’re that girl I fired. Betsy, or whatever your name is.”

“Her name’s Bailey. Listen, I’m kind of busy right now. Maybe we can talk some other—”

Veronica’s face fell, and she looked between him and Bailey with utter confusion. “Oh . . . yeah, sure.” She wasn’t taking the hint very well. “Well, I just wanted to say I was sorry we had to cut our date short the other night.” She reached for his arm with a cruel glint in her eyes aimed squarely at Bailey. She was trying to make Bailey jealous, and because Bailey had no idea there was no reason to be jealous, it was working. “Sorry, you weren’t feeling well. We’ll just have to try again some other time.” She caressed his arm, and he pulled away.

Bailey looked at him, her eyes wide. He didn’t look away from her when he responded to Veronica. “I don’t think so, Veronica. Sorry, I’m just not interested.” Bailey’s lips pursed and her brow flinched before she looked down to his chest. Veronica was huffing beside them, and when he glanced to her, she was staring incredulously back.

“What? Because of her?” She was indicating Bailey beside him. “You’re the one who told me she was a convict. A convict!” She was starting to cause a scene, not that anyone surrounding them didn’t already know she was a convict. The only reason Veronica hadn’t was because she wasn’t local.

“Like I said, I’m sorry, but it’s not going to happen.” And then he looked back at Bailey, ignoring Veronica until she finally left. “We really need to talk.” She just nodded. “Michelle, I’m stealing her.”

“So long as you return her in one piece.” She was threatening him with her eyes, and she was pretty damn good at it. About as good as Jess used to be. Bailey sure inspired fiercely protective friends. He’d been one of them once.

“Well, you’re just going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out because I’m keeping her for the night.”

“Darren . . . I came with Michelle. I really shouldn’t. I don’t want to leave her alone.”

Michelle stood then. “It’s okay. You go. I’ll be fine.” She shot daggers at him again but eventually sighed. He pecked her on the cheek, and she patted his shoulder. She might want to protect Bailey from him, but she had never been his enemy. Not ever.

“She’ll be fine.” Michelle nodded, and he pulled Bailey along with him toward the parking lot.

“You didn’t—” She was talking from behind him.

He stopped and rounded toward her. She nearly careened into him. The eyes of the crowd were still following them, picking up new onlookers the farther they waded through the sea of blankets. “I didn’t.”

“But your bed was—” She looked humiliated that she was asking.

“Exactly as it always is when I don’t sleep well.” He was reassuring her. He was protecting her feelings in exactly the same way he always had when they were young. And it felt fucking amazing.

“I was so cruel to you the other morning. . .”

“No more so than I am to you. I can handle it.”

He took her hand and started for his car again, ignoring the tennis-court eyes that followed them. When they reached his car, he turned to her again. He was struggling. He needed to say something, and it had been so damn long since he’d let his guard down with her that it was hard to plead. “Don’t give up yet.” He studied her eyes and then decided to humble himself even more. “There are times when I’m with you that I feel more at peace than I have in so long. I’m not asking you for anything more than time. And perhaps a bit of an open mind.” Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Open mind for what?” She sounded suspicious.

He pulled her up next to him and turned her around to face his car. He didn’t move in on her body, but he clasped and held her hands to the side of his car as he leaned to her ear. “Open mind to just let go for a while. Give up the expectations and assumptions.” He was hard and aroused as he spoke, and while his words weren’t entirely about that, he wasn’t going to deny that part of what he wanted was very sexual. He wanted her to feel how aroused he was, and before he had a chance to rationalize that the parking lot likely wasn’t the best place to show her, he pushed his groin against her lower back, and she dropped her forehead to his driver’s side window. “We work so hard against one another. I’m tired of the fight. It’s exhausting, and it doesn’t feel good. Not like this does.” He bit the side of her neck gently and lashed his tongue across her skin.

The first of the fireworks started exploding in the sky behind them. He kissed her neck, and he waited for a response. “Okay.” He pushed against her again, and she whimpered. He reached around her to her breast, slipping his hand beneath the low-fitting neckline of her shirt. He lifted her breast up above her bra, and he squeezed and groped the soft, supple skin.

“God, I want to taste these.” He dropped his free hand down along her side to her waist. He pulled her hips back to him, opening up the space in front of her just enough for his hand. He cupped her sex through her jeans, and she gasped. “And more than that, this.” He squeezed her through her jeans, and she pushed her bottom back into his groin, and it was his turn to groan. “Come home with me.” His voice was breathy, and he was terrified of what she’d say. She nodded, and he sighed.

“Yes.”

* * *

They were silent as he drove, and he kept his hands to himself, though his fingers were twitching to touch her again. There was no hatred at the moment, no pain, no blame, just want. He was going to set himself free with her to do things he likely had no business doing and that she had no business allowing. It might well be a mistake, and he suspected it was, but he hoped like hell it wasn’t. He just had to know.

He let Macy out quickly, and Bailey stood by the kitchen island, looking nervous. He was nervous too, but he was so damn turned-on he didn’t care. She followed him to his room, and he stripped out of his T-shirt. Her eyes traveled the length of his torso, and her lips started trembling. When he approached her, she jumped at his first touch. He peeled her T-shirt up and over her head and reached back to unclasp her bra. He’d thought her breasts were perhaps slightly larger than they’d been six years ago, and now with her standing topless in front of him, he was certain of it. He loved the new fullness just as much as he’d loved her small tits before.

He was staring, and when he finally touched, he lost all sight of what he was getting into, who she was, what she had done. He just sank into what he was doing, and he let the rest fade to the background. Her skin was warm and soft as silk. Her nipples were tight, light pink peaks against her pale skin. When he sucked that hard nub between his lips, she cried out, and he backed her to his bed, with his head still lowered to her chest. He released her long enough to get her onto his bed, and then he was on top of her, pulling her other nipple into his mouth.

She was panting, and he listened to the sound of her arousal as he lashed his tongue across her skin. He clamped gently down on her with his teeth, and her whimper caught in her throat. He had no idea why he liked to bite her and nip at her skin, but he loved the sudden tension that ran through her body whenever he did. He loved even more the release and groan she emitted when he relaxed his jaw.

Her hips were writhing gently beneath him, and he reached to undo the button and lower the zipper. He pushed his hand roughly past the waist of her underwear, and the second he managed to get his fingers between her soaking-hot lips, he plunged his middle finger deep into her. It wasn’t a whimper or a cry that time. She shrieked at the invasion, and he released her nipple to watch her face. He thought at first he’d hurt her, and she was certainly tight enough around his finger to think it was possible, but her expression wasn’t pained in the least. It was desperation. She pushed down over his finger, sinking him just that much farther into her warmth. If ever there was a woman who could make him come just by touching her, she was the one.

He used his free hand to start pulling her pants down her hips, but he refused to pull his finger from her pussy. She lifted her hips, using her own hands to wriggle out of her jeans, and when he stripped her out of them, he gaped at her. She likely thought he’d lost his mind, and he may have. He was staring at his finger buried knuckle deep inside her, and she was watching him. Her sex was glistening as she seeped her wetness around him, and even his finger looked huge against her small, pale lips. He pulled his finger from her, watching the slick, wet-coated skin emerge, and when he started pushing another finger in too, her heels dug into the sheet, and she groaned.

He stretched her open as he pushed, and her fists twisted in the sheets at her hips. The sight of her body slowly taking his fingers made him think of nothing but sinking his dick into her body. It sure as hell wasn’t a new fantasy, but finally seeing her body take the thickness of his fingers gave him a whole new perspective and left him stunned in utter need for her. He pulled gently from her again, and then pushed in once more. She was so slick with arousal, and her stomach muscles trembled as he started thrusting. He plunged in and out as she whimpered and writhed, and when he leaned to her sex, she stilled, frozen as a statue.

He used his free hand to part the lips of her sex. The inside lips of her pussy were distended around him, and he licked from the top of his fingers up to the hood of her clit. He pushed it back with the tip of his tongue, and pushed gently against the hardened nub of nerves. She bucked against his mouth, and he smiled against the hot, slick skin. He lashed, he licked, he sucked, and he laved until her body was trembling and quivering from head to toe, and then he sucked hard, pulling the nub into his mouth. She exploded around him. Her entire body tensed and then convulsed as her orgasm worked through her body.

He licked her slowly through her release as her stomach muscles twitched. He traced her lips with his tongue, kissing her pussy just like he would her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered, and he watched as she relaxed again. When he sat up between her legs, he rubbed her thigh with one hand, and he caressed her belly with the other. Her hands were now behind her head, and she seemed nervous again. He caressed down to the mound of her sex, and he rubbed gently without parting her lips.

When he stood from the bed, she assumed he expected her to return the favor, but it wasn’t his intent, and as she sat and reached for the waist of his jeans, he stilled her hands with his own. “Please don’t.” She looked stunned, even hurt perhaps. He had no idea why he wasn’t ready for this. He was a man, he was always ready, and God knew his body was more than willing, but he just wasn’t . . . ready. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back in a few minutes.

Her eyes followed him as he walked to his bathroom, and he knew she was confused if nothing else. He stared at his dick once he was in the shower. He was so agonizingly hard, and the cure for that was in the other room wanting to be with him. Instead, he stroked his cock, imagining it was her touch, her mouth, her need that was pleasuring him, and he came with gritted teeth and a stifled moan.

When he returned to bed, he crawled naked in next to her and pulled her into his arms before she even had a chance to roll over and see him. She stilled for a moment before relaxing into his arms. He kissed her neck, and he stared over her shoulder at her delicate hand stretched out in front of her on the bed. He’d noticed her hands before. They were so small and her fingers so elegant and graceful compared to his. He knew what the smallest details of her body looked like, barring the ones he’d only just been introduced to.