Those words hit him hard. He was too good to be true. She didn’t know what he’d seen and done in his life—the drugs, the violence, the loneliness, which had, at times, been so profound he’d thought he’d go mad before they released him. Touching her so intimately—as though he was just like any other man, just like she assumed he was—felt deceptive.

He started to pull away but she caught his face and rose up on tiptoe to kiss him. Then he was lost all over again, especially because he got the impression that what they were doing meant something to her—in spite of all the reasons it shouldn’t.

He tried to tell himself that was simply what he wanted to believe, or it was hormones playing tricks on him. They didn’t know each other well enough for this to have any real meaning. She was still in love with her ex-husband, who happened to be a rock star—someone he could never compete with.

But he was surprised by how sincere she seemed to be. There was nothing mechanical about the way she touched him, nothing that led him to believe she was using him as a stand-in. And that turned out to be such a powerful aphrodisiac that even though he felt terrible for not revealing the kind of man he was, he couldn’t bring himself to pull away.

He did the opposite. He held her hands over her head and reached for the hem of her sweatshirt.

He caught his breath as he yanked it off and tossed it somewhere on his bedroom floor. “Oh, God,” he whispered as he looked down at her.

“Tobias?”

He forced himself to lift his gaze. “What?”

She blushed. “You’re staring.”

“Could any man see you without a shirt and not stare?”

She laughed as she brought his hand to her breast, and he closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her soft flesh as it filled his palm. That was when everything started to move much faster. Once again, she dragged his mouth to hers. And then he couldn’t think anymore, couldn’t even consider resisting.

The rest of their clothes came off, one article after another. Somehow, he managed to get a condom from his nightstand and roll it on. Her nails scraped down his back, right on that delicious border between pleasure and pain, and she locked her legs around his hips, groaning as she took him inside her.

For a moment, Tobias was afraid it would all be over too soon. He grappled with control as they fell onto the mattress, kissing and touching and straining to explore every inch of each other.