He felt no such uncertainty. Not a single lick. He dropped his pack, took the bag she was holding and set it on top of his pack, and then he backed her to the front door and kissed her.

Lily moaned against his mouth, hot and sweet, and he curled his hand around the back of her neck and took what he’d been thinking of for four-plus straight days. He kissed her until they both ran out of air and then as he pulled back, he tugged her lower lip between his teeth for a beat, unable to let go.

She let out another soft sound of arousal in her throat and if he hadn’t already been hard at just the sight of her, and then the taste, that would have done it.

So of course his phone went off with the tone of a five-alarm fire. “What the—” He pulled his phone from his pocket. The ID screen read: Mom. “I’m going to kill Mitch for constantly changing the ringtones on my phone,” he muttered before answering. “Mom, not a good time.”

“No? Well when would be a good time to call your mama and tell her you’re alive?”

Still holding Lily flush to the door, Aidan thunked his head to the wood a few times next to hers. “I’m alive and well,” he said, “and you know it because you called my captain—twice—and he told you so. And, by the way, he’s not real thrilled that you stole his contact info from my phone. He wants you to lose his number.”

“What? Are you kidding me? I used to babysit that man!” Char complained. “He wasn’t potty trained until he was five. He sucked his thumb until second grade. He can answer my damn calls—he owes me.”

“Mom.”

“Okay, whatever, I’ll ‘lose’ his number,” she said. “But that means that in the future, I get to hear you’re alive from you.”

“Duly noted,” Aidan said.

Lily snorted.

Aidan met her gaze. Clearly she could hear every word and just as clearly she was enjoying this. Her amusement—at his expense—looked great on her.

“Thank you,” his mom said, sounding slightly mollified. “Now, about your fight with Hudson.”

Oh, Christ. “Mom—”

“Don’t you ‘mom’ me. Tell me.”

“I didn’t have a fight with Hudson,” he said.

“He told Gray about it. So now you can tell me about it and also, while you’re at it, why you would lie to your mama?”

Aidan grated his teeth. Sometimes Gray was such an old lady. “Mom, I really have to go—”

“Fine. Soon as you tell me one thing—you get any good packages lately?”

At her oddly innocent tone—and she was far from innocent—Aidan lifted his head and met Lily’s eyes.

Her hands still fisted in his shirt, she bit her lower lip.

He sighed. “Mom, stop meddling.”