He put her on her feet, grabbed her hand and led her to his chest of drawers. He opened one and yanked out a tee but he didn’t give it to her. He shook it out, bunched it up and pulled it over her head.

Emme pushed her arms through and the tee dropped down to her thighs.

He cupped her jaw with his hands and bent close.

“You want me to go get your panties?” he asked.

“I’ll get them,” she whispered.

He nodded, lifted up, kissed her forehead, let her go and moved to the bathroom.

He had his jeans on, pulled on a sweater and had his phone to his ear while he was making his way through the house to the garage when he saw Emme in his kitchen, her back to him. She was at the counter with bread, condiments and Ziplocs of deli supplies spread around her.

All that was Emmanuelle Holmes in his kitchen in his tee making him a sandwich after he’d f**ked her and they’d both come hard.

That did not suck.

He grinned at his phone as he told one of his boys to go home.

Then he saw her jeans folded on the couch, made a correct guess and found her keys in a pocket. He went out and pulled in the Bronco. It hurt, even driving a few feet in a Bronco with a butterfly hanging from the rearview mirror, but he survived it.

He did this on the phone and by the time he got back to the kitchen, she had a sandwich on a plate with chips, pickles and an open beer on his bar and he was on his last call.

“Right. Thanks. Later,” he said into his phone, his eyes on her where she was all the way across the kitchen, facing him, back to the counter, arms wrapped around her stomach, eyes on him.

He disconnected and put his cell to the bar.

Then he said gently, “Come here, Emme.”

“I made roast beef and Swiss, seeing as you had them I figured you liked them. But I didn’t know what condiments to use. If you were a beef and mayo man. A beef and mustard man. Or other,” she informed him.

“Come here, Emme.”

Uncertainty moved through her features and she whispered, “That never happened to me.”

“We got chemistry. Personally, babe, I’m not surprised,” he replied.

“Not that.” She was still whispering.

He took a guess and went to her.

He was intense during sex. Their late-night conversation the other night exposed she had concerns about pleasing him, and he deduced this was because she wasn’t exactly experienced. This was not a surprise. But it was something he told himself to have a mind to. When she went wild on him, he’d forgotten that.

He stopped close to her, but not too close, curved his fingers around her h*ps and dipped his face to hers.

“Right, honey. That got outta hand and I saw your indecision when I told you to expose yourself to me. Just know, I know what I like in bed. I get it even if that means I give orders to get it. But I hope you get with what just happened, even though I control everything there, I’ll always take care of you, and no matter what I ask or do, you’re safe.”

“Not that,” she repeated. “The orgasm.”

His chin jerked back.

“What?”

“I… um… no one’s ever…” Her eyes went anywhere but to his. Then, pure Emme, she couldn’t hold evasive for more than a few seconds, they came back to his. “I was concerned it was me,” she finished quietly.

Deck stared.

“No shit?” he asked.

“Well…” she trailed off.

“No man’s ever made you come?”

She tipped her head to the side and shrugged.

He couldn’t believe this.

“Seriously, you light up like that and no man’s ever taken that home?” he pressed.

“I don’t, well… normally light up like that.” She took in an unsteady breath and stated, “I don’t know what came over me.”

Deck f**king loved this.

He fought a grin as he suggested, “Maybe because it’s never been me?”

Her head jerked, her eyes flashed and she replied, “You think a lot of yourself.”

“Babe, you got your tits out for me. You spread yourself over my couch for me. You opened yourself for me in my bed. And you begged me to f**k you and you came hard and fast for me. Yeah. After that, I do.”

Her peeved expression came back.

“I hardly need a blow-by-blow, Jacob. I was there,” she snapped.

“Well, I don’t want you to forget any of it seein’ as I won’t and we’re gonna act out that scenario again. It was so hot, maybe repeatedly.”

“Jacob—”

He rounded her with his arms and pulled her into his body, one hand sliding up her back into her hair.

He quit f**king with her and gentled his voice when he said, “Emmanuelle, that was good. Explain to me why you seem conflicted.”

“Because I was really angry with you and then I was all over you. Then you were all over me and I liked it and I’m not sure angry sex is healthy sex.”

Yeah. Definitely inexperienced. Angry sex arguably could be the best sex you could get.

Teasing but hoping she took his point and it eased her mind, he replied, “Then I’m f**ked because, with you, angry sex is f**kin’ great sex and I hope it happens a lot.”

“I’m being serious,” she whispered.

“So am I,” he replied, and she blinked.

“You are?”

“Babe, you’re here, in my tee, I think you get I didn’t play you, so we worked it out.” He gave her a squeeze. “In a good way. So I’m not complaining. We argue, that’s the end of the argument, I won’t complain then either.”

Again, her eyes roamed to anything but his and he gave her another squeeze.

“Talk,” he ordered.

Her eyes came back to his. “I don’t have a lot of experience.”

“I know. You did, I wouldn’t have gotten that phone call late the night before last that was not about what Elsbeth said about me but about you worried you weren’t gonna please me. I got it then. I got somethin’ that pleased me fifteen minutes ago. Better yet, for the first time, you got somethin’ that pleased you.” He moved his face closer and finished, “Honey, it’s all good.”

“You need to eat your sandwich,” she informed him, blatantly changing the subject.

Deck denied the subject change. “Not before you tell me you’re good.”

“I’m good… ish.”

He fought back another grin then demanded to know, “Explain the ish part.”

“Dane.”

It was definitely time to get conversation about that moron over and done with. So Deck sighed, turned them, rested back against the counter and pulled her close so her body was resting on his. She allowed it and he spoke.

“I know you’ve heard this more than once but I can’t talk about my work.”

She opened her mouth. He shook his head.

“Give me a second, Emme.”

She shut her mouth.

“Within a day, you’d decided to break up with him. You weren’t broken up about it. You hadn’t been seein’ him long. You were more worried about workin’ with him once it was over than hurtin’ his feelings or nursing your own hurt. You weren’t sure. You were right not to be sure. You were gonna end it. I was workin’ on ending other things for him. So even if I could have talked, for you, there was nothin’ I could say. If you were in deep with him, that would have been different. But straight up that first night you stated you weren’t. Fifteen hours later, you were done with him. You did my job for me ’cause knowin’ what I knew and not likin’ the guy even if he wasn’t a felon, I intended to make you done with him. Either way, it got done. In other words, baby, this point is moot.”

She held his eyes then she looked to his sweater. Seconds later, she collapsed into him. Her weight pressing deep, her forehead to his chest, she pulled in a breath that hitched and his arms got tighter.

“Emme,” he whispered.

“He was creepy because he’s creepy,” she told his chest, her head jerked back and she cried, “That boy shot himself because of stuff Dane’s involved in! And I slept with him!”

Deck was having great difficulty dealing with talking about this guy, knowing McFarland had her and had her recently.

For Emme, he pulled it together to keep dealing and lifted a hand to her hair.

He slid his fingers through it and murmured, “You sensed it, you were gonna end it. Now it’s all done, honey.”

She shook her head even as it drifted to the side, stammering, “I… I…” She looked back to him. “That’s gross, Jacob.”

“He’s a good-looking guy, Emme. Lots of women would go there. He’s a dick. He’s a criminal. He’s a liar. And I learned tonight he’s shit in bed. But none of that is on you. You felt it. You were making moves to end it.”

“You don’t think this reflects on me?” she asked.

“I don’t think you should care what people think,” he answered.