Still stroking me slowly, he lifts his head to finally kiss my lips as I try to catch my breath. “You’re such a sweet, sexy little thing,” he whispers. “I’ve been losing my fucking mind thinking about you.”

“I’ve been thinking about you, too,” I reply breathlessly.

“Good.” He slowly pulls his fingers from my quivering body and presses his palm against my sex again, cupping my heat as my body recovers from orgasm. “I want you to keep coming back for more.”

“Okay,” I agree dreamily.

He smiles, and we kiss again—another long, deep, and consuming kiss that blurs the lines of where I end and he begins. This… this is everything I’ve been hoping for in a man.

After a few minutes, he pulls away, and his eyes are dark and lust-filled. “You should probably go home. It’s almost two o’clock.”

Reluctantly, I put my seat back up and fix my clothes, wondering how the night flew by so incredibly fast.

“Should I drive you to the park entrance?” I ask hesitantly. “Is that the best way for you to get to the bridge?”

He nods. “Yeah, but I can walk from here. It’s not far.”

Shaking my head, I start up the car. “I’m not going to let you walk.”

“I walk everywhere, Piper.”

I turn the car around and head toward the main road. “I know, but I’m not going to let you walk in the middle of the night when you’re in my car already. That’s silly.”

He doesn’t say another word until I pull up in front of the park entrance. The street is empty and spooky quiet. Farther down the road, I can see the traffic light near my office change from red to green, and it seems out of place with no cars to stop and go.

“I’m glad we ran into each other,” he says, breaking the silence.

“Me, too.”

He cocks his head at me, his hand on the door handle. “Were you really going to come see me after your date? Or were you just trying to be nice?”

“It wasn’t a date. And yes, that was honestly my plan after I found your note. All I wanted to do was see you again.”

“Just checking.” He climbs out of the car, opens the door to the back seat, and pulls out his stuff. Acorn hops out, yawns, and shakes his body; waiting patiently while Evan leans back into the car.

“Come see me tomorrow.”

My stomach and heart jump with a burst of unexpected excitement. “Here?”

“Yeah. At the picnic table.”

I nod and smile. “Okay.”

He winks and closes the car door.

Even though my space at my parents’ house is supposed to be my own, I know they will freak out if I take Evan and Acorn home with me, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing I could do just that as I watch them walk off into the dark to go sleep on the cold, hard ground.

Chapter Six

It looks like a bomb went off in here. The words my mother used to say to me on a daily basis echo through my head as I stand in the middle of my bedroom, surrounded by clothes scattered all over the floor and on the bed.

I can’t find anything to wear. Well actually, I found a lot to wear. I’m just not sure what to wear.

Something easy for him to slip his hands into.

No! my mind screams. Stop thinking that way. Geez, a guy gives me a few orgasms, and all I can think about is his hands on me. My stomach does its all-too-familiar thud. What if that’s all he’s thinking about and that’s all he’s interested in? Maybe I’m a booty call.

No. I refuse to believe that. Not after he spent hours talking to me last night and telling me all the good and bad parts of his past. He held my hand almost the entire time. And he called himself my boyfriend in the pub. Holding up a thin sweater to see how wrinkled it is, I wonder if he meant that or if was he just kidding in front of my friends.

God. Men are difficult.

Sighing, I pull on a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt and tie a long-sleeved flannel shirt around my waist in case I get chilly. He already knows how short I am, so I slip into black combat boots instead of something with a high heel.

My phone rings as I’m heading out the door, and I know it must be Ditra because no one else calls me. I hesitate at the door, debating whether I should answer it or not, and then let my answering machine pick it up.

“Piper…” Her voice comes over the speaker. “I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work. You can’t avoid me, and you know it. You have to call me and tell me all about your mystery man. Oh, and I had sex with Mitch last night. He had the smallest dick I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not even sure it classified as sex; it was that small. So—”