Secretly freaking out because he had a bad feeling he’d fallen in love with her for real, he took a moment to bury his panic before following her into the kitchen, where he had coffee brewing.

“I’m going to take a quick shower, okay?”

He nodded, watching her over the brim of his coffee cup. “You remember everything from last night?”

“Most of it, I think.” She finished off her juice and placed the cup in the sink. “I can’t thank you enough for helping us. You didn’t have to come.”

“I wanted to.”

She gave him a sincere smile that gave him all the feels. “Thank you.”

What would Aunt Truth say about that? Something about Cupid hitting him right where it counted.

He cleared his mind, or at least, he tried. “Oh, Justine. If you only realized I’d move mountains for you.” He winked to show he was—mostly—teasing. “That’s not just fake boyfriend sentiment. We’re real friends, in case you didn’t realize.”

“I know. More than friends, though, huh?” She looked him over. “You spent the whole night with me.”

“I did. You have a nice bed.”

“Very funny.”

He leaned back against the counter. “What? It’s true.”

“I…” She groaned. “I’m going to go get clean and get myself together. Then we need to talk.”

“Whatever.” We need to talk. The four words a man rarely wanted to hear from the woman he’d fallen in love with. Jesus, I’m in love. Hadn’t expected that to happen.

The shower turned on, but he didn’t make much of it over the thread of panic weaving through him. Xavier was supposed to be recuperating from his breakup with Christine. Taking time to mentally heal from all the stresses in his life, both professional and personal.

He also knew Justine had no intention of dating. Hell, they were just friends who’d had sex. He was her fake boyfriend—emphasis on the fake. The smart thing would be to stay away from her and put a respectable distance between them. To help her out with the wedding then back off and return to his regular life. Work, the gym, his family, maybe find a woman to date once he felt whole again.

The problem was he felt whole when with Justine, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“Xavier,” she called, sounding anxious.

He raced to the bathroom and knocked. “You okay in there?”

“I need help.”

He pushed through the door and saw her form blurred behind the shower curtain. Knowing she was naked turned him inside out. He cleared his throat and told himself to behave. “Justine?”

She ripped the curtain back and yanked him by the arm into the shower, a lot stronger than she looked.

“Oh, no. You’re getting all wet.” She had him naked and plastered to the tiled wall in seconds.

“Justine?” Confused and in lust, he tried waking himself from a scenario straight out of his X-rated fantasies.

“I just wanted to thank you for being such a sweetheart.” She moved closer and kissed him, and he tasted minty toothpaste. A fact that had him seeing stars when she went to her knees and took him in her mouth. The pressure of her lips was heavenly in addition to the tingle from the mint, but thank God not overpowering.