She reached up and brushed her lips over his. “I say we do this.”

As if anticipating he was about to be ousted, Samson let out a single baritone woof.

“Yeah, we’re going to need that chew.” Gabe cleared his throat and shot a glance toward the kitchen. “I’ll get it and lock him out here. You, uh, want anything? Like your water?”

Olivia pressed her lips together but couldn’t stifle her laugh. “I’m sorry, it’s just… How much cardio is this going to involve?”

After a grimace, Gabe was laughing along with her. “Yeah, guess that didn’t come out right.”

Sensing her nerves had her close to slipping into the out-of-control laughter zone, Olivia took off for the back of the apartment. At the last second, she grabbed her purse in case she needed to dig out the condom that had come in the emergency survival bridesmaid pack she’d gotten from the December wedding she’d been in.

After finding the light switch, she flipped on the light and did a double take. Gabe’s room was tidier than she might have guessed. The bed was made, and no clothes were strewn about. But the mattress on the floor, and the sawed-off legs of the nightstand next to it threw her.

Samson’s hips, she guessed after spotting a flattened circle in the middle of the bed where the dog likely slept. A smile lit her face. All these things only endeared Gabe to her more.

She slipped off her sandals and, after dropping her purse on the dresser, fished out the condom from the bottom of the side pocket. Clasping it in her palm, she headed to the bed and sank onto the edge of the mattress, her bent knees nearly as high as her shoulders.

She’d hardly given the condom a thought over the last several months, except for the few times she was fishing for change or a package of ibuprofen. Now that there was occasion to make use of it, the words “Nirvana Collection” stood out in stark detail, and her heart thumped with the vigor of a brass band.

Suddenly, Gabe was walking into the room and closing the door behind him, looking exceptionally tall from her spot on the floor. She might as well have been caught with the hot potato by the way her palms began to sweat. It’s too late to hide it now.

“I, uh, figured we should get the protection talk out of the way right off the bat.” She held it up between her thumb and forefinger.

Gabe kicked his shoes off next to hers. Rather than taking a seat beside her, he sank into a squat at the end of the bed, facing her. He locked his hands around the backs of her calves, and she could feel the heat of them even through her stretchy denim jeans.