“She had to take a work call. She stepped out. She’ll be right back.”

Hopefully, she wouldn’t be right back. Hopefully, neither one of them would return tonight. He walked through the restaurant. The chef spotted him and tried to call him over, but Nate shook his head. “Another time.”

He made it to the doorway and found her outside, leaning against a palm tree, chatting on the phone. Her face lit up when she saw him, and he walked right up to her as she was saying, “Thanks, Sofia. Glad everything is all set.”

She ended the call and tucked her phone in her purse.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi,” he said, stopping just a few inches from her. His gaze drifted once more to her collarbone, that spot that drove her wild, and him, too. He met her eyes, her gorgeous sapphire eyes that he loved getting lost in.

“Do you forgive me for getting so mad earlier?” she asked.

He smiled as his heart raced just from being near to her. “It’s not something that needs forgiveness. We’ve both gotten mad and jealous, and I love your crazy, jealous side, because it matches mine.”

“Good,” she said.

“Do you forgive me for being an ass about my ex-wife instead of just admitting to you that it hurts my pride to see her, but that’s all? Because I have no feelings for her. None whatsoever. I only have feelings for you. I have so many feelings for you, I barely know what to do with them all.”

“It’s not something that needs forgiveness,” she said, repeating his words. “But thank you for saying it.”

She closed the sliver of distance between them, dropping her purse to the ground, and placing her hands on his face. “You taught me how to give up control, and you also taught me that you liked it even when I took charge, so that’s what I’m going to do right now. Because I can’t go any longer without this,” she said, then planted a dizzying kiss on his lips, sending his head spinning and turning his world hazy, filled only with thoughts of her, of ravaging her, of sliding inside her and sending her into ecstasy. He could barely believe he’d gone without touching her for five days now. Those five days were hell and he never wanted to experience that kind of torture again. No, he wanted to be tortured only by his lust for her, by his bottomless desire.

And though he never wanted this kiss to end, he had so much to tell her, so he cupped her shoulders and gently separated from her. “I may have taught you how to give up control, but you showed me something even more important, and that’s how to feel again and how to love again,” he said, and the words were remarkably easy to say. So much easier than he’d ever expected. “Because I love you, Casey. I am completely in love with you, and I want to be your friend, and your lover, and the man you love. I want to be all those to you. I want to be everything to you because you’re everything to me.”