Feeling her face heat, she swallowed against a dry throat. “I guess I am.”

“Well…damn,” he said.

She could tell he was interested—at least, she thought so. But he also seemed stunned, and he was so slow to react she suddenly felt insecure. “What does damn mean?”

His caution evaporated as he moved—now quite purposefully—toward her. “It means that’s an offer I can’t refuse.”

Now that she knew she was going to get what she’d asked for, she took a step back. “We could wait until we get home from the beach if…if you’d rather,” she said, slightly overwhelmed by what she’d started.

“Are you kidding? The next four or five days will disappear quickly enough as it is.”

He didn’t crowd her. He stopped a few feet away and simply held out his hand.

Butterflies filled her stomach as she looked down at his big palm and long fingers. She could tell he worked with his hands. They weren’t nearly as perfect as Axel’s—they had a few calluses and scars—but they were very masculine, just like the rest of him.

“Harper?”

Was she really going through with this?

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” he said, and that was probably why she didn’t.

Putting her hand in his, she gave him a tentative smile and let him draw her into the bedroom.

Tobias was doing everything he’d promised himself he wouldn’t—everything he knew he shouldn’t—but he wasn’t going to miss out on this, not if Harper wanted the same thing. If they both understood the rules going in, it should be fine. Depending on when her kids came back, they just had the better part of a week to be together. No one could get hurt in that amount of time. Then the holidays would be upon them, so they’d both be busy. And after that?

She’d be gone.

Instead of taking her straight to bed, he pressed her up against the wall just inside his bedroom and kissed her. He wanted to let the heat between them grow slowly and naturally, to ease into their lovemaking in case she was nervous. But the second their mouths met, he could tell this wasn’t going to be a slow burn. She was as hungry for this kind of contact as he was.

She parted her lips, accepting his tongue, which sent such a flood of testosterone through his blood he had to prop both arms against the wall to compensate for the sudden weakness in his knees.

“I love the way you kiss.” She pulled the tie from his hair before tightening her arms around his neck. “Everyone should be kissed like this at least once in their lives.”