His plan had been to hit the sack and sleep away as much of the adrenaline and exhaustion as he could. But then he’d found a present waiting for him, a present in the form of this sweet, sexy, perfect-for-him woman, all wet and warm and …

Sputtering with outrage.

“You dunked me!” She gasped, swiping the water from her face.

“Yeah.” He moved in closer. For years after she’d first left Cedar Ridge he’d felt an emptiness, and regrets. He’d wanted her, but she hadn’t wanted him back. He couldn’t have her and that was that.

He’d moved on.

He’d told himself so. He’d moved on and had done okay for himself in the women department, unlike his brothers, remaining mostly unscathed by love and unattached by choice.

Then Lily had driven back into town and blasted right through his brick walls in a way no one else had ever managed.

That she’d done it so effortlessly terrified him.

He liked to be in control. Needed to be in control. It’s how he and Gray had managed to keep it together, they’d stepped up to head of household, gathering in all the innocent pawns—their mom, Hudson and Jacob and their mom, and also Kenna—and they’d created a family. A fucked-up family, but blood nevertheless.

But being one of the two who’d held it together all these years also meant that the buck stopped with him and Gray. It meant staying tough, putting his own needs and feelings aside, and that was fine but also … lonely.

Gray had always had Penny.

But Aidan didn’t have that kind of a connection, and yeah, that’d been by choice, but he’d been wrong about that. He knew it now. He was sick of being alone, and if he was being honest, he’d felt that way for a while now. The part that was new was that he wanted to not be alone with … Lily.

The question was, had he convinced her yet that she might be starting to feel the same way? He hoped so. Taking a chance, he slid his arms around her, hauling her into him.

She looked down at herself in shock. “I’m all wet.”

“Just the way I like you.”

With steam rising all around them, vanishing like tendrils of fog into the night above, she stared into his eyes and then at his mouth. “You’re having fun at my expense?”

“It was my turn.”

Her dress had suctioned itself to her skin. And being the palest of blues, it had also gone sheer. The effect was more erotic than if she’d been naked, and he couldn’t tear his eyes off of her. “Christ, Lily, you’re the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” He nudged a wet spaghetti strap off her shoulder.

“You dunked me,” she repeated, apparently still stuck on that thought.