But now real life intrudes and I’m bummed as fuck.

“We should go inside,” she whispers close to my ear, her warm, shuddery breath making me harden all over again. She feels it too, I can tell by the way she shifts against me. Trying to get me deeper.

“Take a shower with me.” I kiss her. We haven’t done that yet. Taken a shower together. I’m suddenly desperate to run my hands all over her soap-slick skin.

“I don’t know . . .” Her voice trails off and I lean away from her, seeing the mischievous smile curving her lips.

Without warning I climb off the chair and hoist her into my arms, ignoring her shriek, her hands slapping against my chest demanding I put her down. I carry her all the way into my bathroom, where I deposit her in my shower and crank on the water, slipping inside the glass enclosure so I can join her.

Where I proceed to wash every inch of her.

Jen

I shouldn’t have taken a shower with Colin. Now I’m sleepy from the warm water, his warm, searching hands, and my third orgasm of the day. It’s barely noon and the man is some sort of lethal weapon. I don’t think I’ve ever had this many orgasms in such a short amount of time.

We’re lying in his giant bed, our clean, naked bodies entwined around each other. He’s dozing, and I’m wide awake with my head resting on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. It calms me, soothes me, and I wish I could lie here like this with him forever.

But I can’t. I haven’t worked up the nerve to tell him I found a roommate yet. I don’t want to ruin the mood. My news will probably make him cranky and I’m just not ready to deal with that.

So I lie here like a liar, pretending everything is fine between us when it’s so not. I knew this would happen. Having sex with Colin is just as good as I knew it would be. Maybe even better. We already share a past, a connection, and now that we’ve pushed our relationship farther, that connection has gone even deeper.

At least for me. For him? I’m not sure.

What’s amazing is that I’ve never felt this way about a man before. Sex was always a means to an end. It’s an act that could almost bore me if I was with the wrong type of guy. And I was with plenty of wrong guys . . .

Resting my hand on his chest, I let my fingers drift down to skim across the muscular ridges of his stomach. We have to go to work in a few hours but I’d rather not. I’d love to stay here in this bed, naked with Colin, talking and laughing and having sex for however long we want.

“Everything okay?”

His deep voice breaks through my thoughts. I lift my head to find him watching me, those clear blue eyes locked on my face, pensive and seeking.

“I thought you were asleep,” I say.

“I was. But you’re tense.” Reaching out, he touches the side of my face, his fingers tracing down my cheek, along my jaw. “What’s bothering you?”

That he knows something is bothering me shows just how well he understands me. I wonder if he even realizes it. “I have some news,” I say, ready to get it over with.

Now he’s the one who’s gone tense. “What is it?”

Taking a deep breath, I decide to just blurt it out. “I found a roommate.”

His expression doesn’t change a bit. He doesn’t even bat an eyelash. “Really.”

I nod, nerves eating at my insides. “The apartment looks nice and is pretty central to everything. It’s in the area I wanted to live in. I checked out the complex site online. She’s in college, she’s a year younger than me, and she works part-time at a clothing store in a mall nearby.”

“You haven’t met her.”

“Well, I’ve talked to her on the phone. Sent her my deposit earlier this morning, too.”

He’s still studying me with that eerie, immovable expression. I can’t tell if he’s happy, sad, pissed, irritated, whatever. “So it’s for sure. She’s your roommate. You’re moving in with her.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’ve never met her in person.”

“Well, no. Of course not.” I throw my hands up in the air, irritated by his seeming nonreaction. “It’s not like I can ask you to drive me back and forth to Sacramento all the time, right? I don’t have a car and I have no other way to get there.”

He ignores what I say. “Don’t you think that’s kind of risky?”

“What? Handling all of this over the phone and internet?” I take a deep breath. This is turning into a fight, which is the last thing I want. But when is anything easy between Colin and me? The sex so far has been incredibly easy, but that sort of thing always comes with a price eventually. “I have no choice.”

“So you’re still leaving?” He sounds incredulous now. Looks it, too, which just makes me want to punch him.

“Yes. I’m. Still. Leaving.” I say each word carefully, wanting him to get the message. I’m out of here—but he can change that with a few simple words. He may not know everything that happened while I was at Gold Diggers, but he knows a lot.

I need to hear him say it doesn’t matter. That he won’t judge me. I need to hear him say he cares only about me.

Holding my breath, I wait for him to say something. Anything. I don’t want him to beg me—I know that’s not his style. But if he just said one word. One simple word is all it would take and I wouldn’t go.

Stay.

“I’ll hire you a moving truck,” he says, crawling out of bed completely naked and heading toward the bathroom. My gaze falls to his perfect butt like always.

Right about now, I’d really like to kick it.

Chapter 15

Colin

I’d come up with the perfect plan and I came home in the middle of the day to tell Jen, hoping like hell that she’d be receptive. Why wouldn’t she be? Last night we had the most amazing quickie non-fuck of my life in my office with a packed restaurant on the other side of the door. The way she was the one who sought me out, hot for me, coming all over my fingers, then giving me a most enthusiastic blow job, will be one of my favorite memories ever.

Finding her almost naked in my backyard earlier today felt like an all-time fantasy come to life. Sex outside by the pool, sex in the shower . . . yeah. Everything between us is fucking amazing.

Then the magical moment was ruined by her announcement that she’d found a roommate. And like a dumbass, I said nothing. I offered to rent her a moving truck like some unfeeling asshole. That was my answer. That’s how I treated what was really a delicate situation. I’m a hopeless prick.

She hasn’t spoken to me much since. Not that I can blame her.

Why is she so hell bent on leaving? I know she craves independence. But I offer her stability. Maybe too much stability, but still. She doesn’t have to worry about finding a job or paying rent or buying a car. I provide all of that for her and more.

Maybe that’s the problem, asshole. You completely take care of her, almost like you’re her sugar daddy.

Running a hand through my hair, I let out a grunt of frustration. She’s into me. I’m into her. I’m offering her a better-paying job that’s in another town but still close enough that we could see each other. So what’s the big deal?

Don’t forget her need for freedom.

Freedom. More like she’s running away.

I shove the nagging voice in my head to the back of my brain. I don’t need to focus on that shit tonight. I want to keep Jen in my life for at least a little while longer. A great job at a different location would give her a new opportunity, a chance to grow, to reach toward that freedom she’s always talking about, but still keep her close. Close enough that we could see each other on a regular basis. As in a real relationship.

For once, that thought doesn’t freak me out. I’m eager to tell her. Spend time with her. Lie down in my bed at night and hold her, talk to her. Just be with her.