“Bryce?”

“Yes.”

“Like I told you, I didn’t sleep with that woman you saw me with that night at the club. I did go back to her place, and although I was angry and hurt, I couldn’t do it. However, there have been other women I’ve used to ease the pain of losing you.”

She glared at him. “You used them?”

“I didn’t mean to insinuate I took advantage of them, Bryce,” he said. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he’d become a selfish bastard over the years. “Any woman I slept with knew up front that I wasn’t in the market for a serious relationship of any kind.”

She nodded and then said, “And the guys I slept with knew that I was...in the market for a serious relationship. I honestly thought they were serious relationships, but evidently they weren’t serious enough.”

He wasn’t going to ask her what happened, because he honestly didn’t want to know. All he cared about was that she was not involved with anyone now and that tonight she was in his bed and he would be the one to make love to her.

“Now getting back to my size, will you believe that I won’t hurt you, Bryce?”

He wondered if she recalled that was the same question he’d asked her the very first time they’d made love on Eagle Bend Inlet. They’d been young and inexperienced. He had refused to physically hurt her then and wouldn’t do so now.

The smile that appeared on her face at that moment let him know she had remembered. “After all this time I’d think you would have come up with a better line by now, Kaegan.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “You think? But seriously, I won’t hurt you.”

She nodded and then said, “I think we do need to get an understanding, though. About this. I want you tonight, Kaegan. I need you tonight. However, I don’t intend for it to happen again.”

He reached out and cupped his hand at the back of her neck. “Then it will be up to me to make sure you’ll want it to happen again.”

He saw the mutinous look in her eyes—eyes that would always be beautiful to him. Deciding they’d talked long enough, he leaned in and captured her mouth with his.

* * *

BRYCE FIGURED SHE hadn’t made things absolutely clear to Kaegan—that tonight would be all they would have together. Regardless of what he might assume, there could not be a repeat of this. With that thought firmly embedded in her mind, she concentrated on the kiss he was plying to her mouth.

Leaning in and wrapping her arms around his neck, she molded herself to him, wanting to feel as much of his naked masculine body as she could. She was the one still wearing clothes. He was not. Bryce knew the moment his hand touched her thigh to slowly raise up her skirt. Air fanned her thighs and she knew he was about to remove her clothes, as well.