I gave her a really? look. “You’re not ramming that thing against my boobs.”

“You’re right, I’m not.” She gave me a sweet smile before jamming the ball in between Jude and me. South of our belly buttons. “There, now the rest of us can actually eat tonight, since you won’t be able to grind up on each other every two seconds.”

Jude looked down at the ball between us and burst into laughter. “Man, Luce. You been telling on me again?” he said, flexing his h*ps against the ball, successfully shoving me against the fridge. “You know I like it kinky, but even for me, this might be a stretch.”

I sighed. “I’m sure it wouldn’t stop you.”

“No,” he said, tilting his beer at me. “No, it wouldn’t.”

“Mom?!” LJ shouted from the toy box. “What’s kinky?”

Jude’s face froze in surprise. Holly gave him a shove before clearing her throat.

“It’s when a chain gets tangled up,” Thomas said, all matter-of-fact.

“Oh,” LJ replied, before going back to unloading the entire contents of the toy box.

“Nice save, my man,” Jude said, lifting his chin at Thomas.

Thomas shook his head as he continued to stack cheeseburgers onto a serving tray. “So today I’m ‘your man,’ but not too long ago I was Peter Pan. What earned me the upgrade?”

“First off, I called you Peter Pan because I’m a jealous dick who’d just found you undressing my girl,” Jude explained. “And you’re ‘my man’ because you’ve been looking after the three most important people in my life.”

Thomas fought his smile. “What do you know? The dumb jock is deep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jude said, taking a drink of his beer. “I’ve heard enough dumb-jock jokes to last an eternity.”

“And I’ve heard enough Peter Pan jokes to last two,” Thomas tossed back, before heading to the table with a tray holding more cheeseburgers than we could eat in a week.

Jude took another drink before examining the bottle. “PBR?” he said, looking impressed. “Luce, you know how to treat me right.”

I wrapped an arm around him because, after three weeks of being apart, I didn’t want to be apart anymore. “Nothing but the best for my man.”

“Come on. Let’s eat,” he said, ringing an arm around my neck. “I’m starving.”

“Me, too,” I said, lowering my voice, since young ears and sexual innuendos shouldn’t go together. “But not for food.”

Jude stopped in place. His mouth lowered just outside my ear. “You keep up that kind of talk and I will throw you down and do you on this table, too.”

Goose bumps were already rising, but when his teeth grazed my earlobe, those goose bumps exploded to the surface even quicker.

Fine. Two could play at this foreplay game. I had to rise up on my tiptoes to settle my mouth at his ear. “I’m so ready for you my panties would be wet . . .” I said, going one step further and sucking the tip of his earlobe between my teeth, “if I was wearing any.”

His breath hitched between his teeth.

Flashing him an innocent smile, I continued to the table. Just as I was sitting down, he came up behind me. “Thanks to you and that filthy mouth, I’ve got to take a little time-out in the bathroom.”

“What?” I said, spinning in my seat. “We’re just about to eat dinner. A cold shower can wait.”

I chalked up a point for Lucy Larson. She’d won this round of verbal foreplay.

“My dick’s so hard a cold shower wouldn’t even touch it. And I’m not going to sit through dinner with a hard-on tenting my jeans,” he said into my ear. “I’m going to go rub one out. I’ll be right back.”

Speaking of wet panties . . .

“I’ll help,” I said, jumping out of my chair.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me along. “Good. Your hands are softer than mine.”

We’d just about made it to the bathroom, so close I was already reaching for the top button of Jude’s jeans, when a solo knock sounded outside the front door.

A solo knock followed by three fast ones.

I wanted to cry from the letdown. If we’d been two seconds faster, we already would have been behind that closed door and my hand would have been sliding up and down—

“Lookie here. We’ve got a welcoming committee,” India said after swinging the door open.

With Anton at her side.

“Shit.”

Did that just slip out of my mouth?

“‘Hello. Nice to see you. Good of you to make it,’” India said, stepping inside. “These are a few commonly accepted greetings when welcoming someone to your place.” Smirking at me, she gave Jude a quick hug. “It sure is nice to have my arms around your sexy-ass body again. Any idea why we had to shove through a mini army of paparazzi camped out on the sidewalk?”

“Hey, Indie,” Jude said, his eyes locked on Anton. “I hope you kicked each one of those bloodsuckers in the junk on your way up.”

I sighed. I must have been too absorbed and focused on getting up to the apartment to notice that the small crowd of people outside our apartment had cameras around their necks. It seemed wherever Jude Ryder went, so did the photographers. Looked like we wouldn’t be leaving the apartment all weekend, which, actually . . . wasn’t such a bad deal.

“I hope you are hooking up my girl tonight, because she needs some sweet, sweet lovin’,” India said, patting his cheek before heading down the hall. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Lucy’s cute little freshly F-U-C-K-E-D face.”

“Don’t worry,” Jude answered her, continuing his stare-down with Anton, who didn’t look the least bit threatened. “I plan on taking care of my girl. All. Night. Long.”

I flushed so hard I could feel it bleeding into my neck. “Hi, Anton. Nice to see you,” I said, wrapping both hands around Jude’s arm. “Even for you, this is one hell of a ballsy move.”

“Lucy,” he replied with an amused smile.

I shot him a tight smile before tugging on Jude’s arm. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. “Now, if you’re done talking about our sex life with my boss . . .” I pulled again, harder this time. Nope. One of the downsides to being with a man who could bench a school bus was feeling like the biggest wimp in the world. “I’ve got a half dozen cheeseburgers with your name on them.”

Jude squared himself in front of Anton, not taking the cheeseburger bait. “You must be Anton.”

How could he make a few harmless words sound like a death threat?

Anton looked pointedly at Jude’s arm draped over me. “And you must be Jude.”

“In the flesh,” he said. “No more phones keeping us apart if you try to cuddle up to my girl again.”

“Jude,” I warned for quite possibly the millionth time in my life.

“Okay. How do we do this?” Anton said, sliding his hands into his slacks. “I haven’t been in a fight over a girl since fifth grade. Do we take it outside? Throw down right here in the doorway? Schedule an appointment? I’m in uncharted territory here.”

I would have laughed had the whole situation been so not funny. Where was everyone else when I needed them to help me separate these two? A peek over my shoulder revealed my answer.

“Oblivious” was the name of the game back in the kitchen.

“Let’s get one thing straight right now. We are not fighting for a girl. Luce is my girl. She will always be my girl.” The veins were starting to bulge in Jude’s neck. We were two stages away from fists flying. “What we’re fighting over is the way you look at my girl. The way I know you think about her. The way I know you want to have her. That’s what we’re fighting over.” Jude straightened his back to stand a little taller. He had a way of making his three-inch advantage seem like he was towering over Anton. “But let’s be honest. Since you and I both know you don’t stand a chance in a fight against me, why don’t we just pretend I’ve just kicked your ass into next year and you stop trying to weasel your way into Luce’s better judgment, heart, or pants. Got it?”

“I’ve never been one to take the easy road,” Anton replied, as calm as if he were conducting a business meeting. “And I don’t like being told what to do, so I’m afraid that’s a no-go, big guy.”

“Anton,” I hissed, wondering if he had a death wish. From what he was saying, I would guess he did.

“So how are we going to do this?” Anton repeated, taking a step forward. I’d underestimated Anton. I’d figured him for more the pacifist, antiwar kind of guy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He wouldn’t back down from a fight any sooner than Jude would. Anton just wore a suit to the battle.

“I’m gonna kick your ass,” Jude replied, taking his own step forward.

Yep. They were going to do this. Right here in the doorway.

“Dinner’s ready!” Holly shouted. “If you don’t want me tossing yours out the window you’d better have your butts in your seats in three.”

When the end of time was upon us, Holly Reed was here to save us.

“Later, then,” Anton said, shouldering past Jude.

“Looking forward to it,” Jude said, glaring holes into Anton’s back.

“Real mature,” I said, nudging him.

“I thought you said that guy didn’t have a thing for you, Luce.”

I still hadn’t told Jude what Anton had said to me that afternoon a few weeks ago in the office. No time seemed to be right for unloading that dirty little secret. Least of all now.

“What’s your point?”

“That douche has a serious thing for you. A serious thing.”

I rubbed his arm, trying to soothe him. “How do you know that?” I asked, pretending I wasn’t sure if he was right.

“Because when he looks at you, it reminds me of the way I looked at you when we first met.”

“And how was that?”

Jude grabbed my hand in his and led me to the table. He sighed. “Like it was all over. Like the girl I was looking at was the one I was going to spend my life with.”

“And you don’t look at me that way anymore?” I teased.

“I still do, but there’s a confidence behind that look now. A confidence because I know you’re mine.” Jude pulled my chair out for me and moved his mouth closer to my ear. “That guy looks at you with the uncertainty I did at first. When I wasn’t sure I could ever have you,” he said quietly. “That guy wants you, all right, but I’m going to make damn sure he knows that he will never have you.”

“Hey, Tarzan,” I said as he took his seat next to me. “Tone it down a notch or ten.”

He slid me a smile. “You know that’s not my style, Luce.”

“Then why don’t you take a cheeseburger and stuff it in your mouth before you start throwing around any more ass-kicking threats at my boss.” I motioned at the tray of burgers Holly was holding out for Jude.