My gaze narrowed. The man of God was touching her. The action was impersonal, but I didn’t fucking care. She was one gorgeous woman and I wanted to be the one to put my hands on her. She might have been innocent when she was seventeen, but she’d gotten dirty since then, I was sure. I was hard at the thought of being the one to get her dirty now. Of mussing her up. Of getting that lipstick smeared and all over my dick.

I felt my cell vibrate, knew it was Marshall again. He didn’t like to be ignored. But that brought me back to reality. To why I was here for the wake.

It wasn’t to pay my respects. I was here to fuck North Wainright. For Marshall. For stupid-ass pillow talk.

As my dick hardened down my thigh, I knew one thing was for certain. I was going to get her beneath me. I had a new mission now. To fuck her. Not for Marshall or the FBI.

For me.

Hell, for her.

Because once she discovered how I could get her off, she wouldn’t go elsewhere.

Because now that I’d seen her again, no other woman was going to do. Fate? Love at first sight? Serendipity? I didn’t give a shit. All I knew was this woman was mine.

East ditched her with the minister, which made me hate the kid. Brothers, even younger ones, should watch out for their sisters. The minister was speaking, clearly droning on about something. She didn’t smile at him but offered the guy her full attention. At least that was what it looked like. I could tell—how, I had no fucking clue—she was elsewhere in her mind. Her ice castle where she escaped, perhaps.

I strode toward her, the timing perfect. A quick glance at Macon Wainright in the casket and maybe I was stretching it a bit, but I wasn’t turning back now. The wake was the only time the mansion’s front door was flung open to the town. The burial would be later, but that was family only. I couldn’t knock on the door and proposition her.

No, it was now or… sometime when it’d be a hell of a lot harder.

“There you are, princess,” I said, sidling up beside North so our shoulders brushed. She wasn’t a short woman and in those heels, she only had to glance up a few inches to meet my gaze. I took off my hat. “I’ve been looking for you.”

North’s pale brow arched and recognition flared in her eyes. Interesting. She remembered me.

I turned to the minister. “I hope you don’t mind, Reverend, but North’s needed in the study.”

I didn’t know where the hell the study was, or if this house had one, but it was big and fancy enough for the possibility.