Ready for her, he wrapped an arm around her waist, taking a wide step back. He shifted them sideways then pushed her into the wall. He pressed the door closed and flipped the safety latch just as she tried to shove against his hold and get away from the wall.

He let her push him back but went back farther in order to give himself room to do what he intended to do.

Which was what he did.

Lifting her up wrapped around his middle, feeling his lips twitch at the angry, surprised noise she made, he walked her into the room. He swung her around like they were swing dancers doing a lift and she made another noise, this one just surprised, before she landed on her back on the bed.

He landed on her and that was when he heard and felt her breath leave her in a puff.

“Right,” he began. “Let’s start different this time.”

No void expression.

Her eyes were shooting fire.

Not the kind that she wanted to use to brand him.

The kind that told him she was pissed right the fuck off.

Nick again fought laughing.

She said nothing.

He didn’t laugh but he did smile, moving his hand to her face, cupping the side and dropping close.

“Hi,” he whispered.

Her gaze had dropped to his smile but after he said that word, it lifted to his.

He again had the void.

He missed the fire.

But he got her voice.

“Hi,” she whispered back.

Necessarily, due to the fact it was a whisper, it was soft.

Surprisingly, it was a lot more.

Too much more.

He decided that was good enough.

So he slanted his head and took her mouth.

* * * * *

Twenty-two Minutes Later

They’d both climaxed.

Her face in his neck, his cock in her cunt, him on his ass, his legs up, cocooning her, she tried to shift off.

Nick allowed it to a point.

When he was done, he caught her ankle.

She stilled her movements and lifted her eyes to his.

“We’re not done,” he told her.

She held his gaze. She did this for a while.

Then she licked her lips.

After that, she shifted again.

Toward him.

When she got close, he wound his arms around her and took her to her back.

He also took her mouth.

Later, he took something else with his mouth.

And later, for the first time, she took something of his with hers.

He also managed to get all their clothes off and, without a fight, she let him ride her start to phenomenal finish. They took their time, both coming harder and both taking longer to recover because of it.

He left her in bed to hit the bathroom.

She was dressed by the time he came out.

This did not make him happy.

“Olivia—”

She moved quickly to him, lifted a hand and touched her fingers to his lips before they slid across his cheek and hair then down and around the back of his neck.

Only then did she open her mouth to speak.

“Tomorrow, Sebring.”

She started to move away.

He caught her at the waist and hauled her back, angling his head as he did.

As happened often, their tongues collided before their lips did.

They kissed hard and uncompromisingly. Battling. Seizing. Claiming. Going at it. Giving it all they had.

With no one winning.

But still, they both broke contact as the victor.

“Tomorrow,” she repeated, pulled from his hold and walked away.

* * * * *

5:27 The Next Evening

“Don’t go Unka Nick!”

His five-year-old niece, Kasha, was yanking on his hand, her expression set to stubborn, her eyes—Knight’s eyes in a face shaped like Anya’s—irate and trained on him.

He swung her up in his arms and she tried to beat back the giggle but did not succeed.

“I gotta go, princess,” he told her.

She forgot she wasn’t getting what she wanted and she gleamed.

She loved being a princess.

Fuck, he had to stop thinking of Olivia Shade doing princess shit.

Kat and Kasha, his nieces, were his princesses.

Olivia Shade was nothing.

Except a fuck, a really good one…and a means to an end.

“You don’t gotta go. Daddy’s making steaks,” she reminded him.

He looked to Knight who was in the kitchen with his older girl, Kat.

But Knight’s attention was on his younger brother.

Nick looked back to Kasha. “I’ll have a steak next time around.”

She got irate again. “But I want you to have one now.”

“Geez,” Anya’s voice came out of nowhere. “She’s her father’s daughter,” she finished her mutter, moving out of the hallway into the living room. She stopped close, her attention on her girl. “Uncle Nick said he had to go.”

Kasha crossed her arms on her chest. “Unka Nick should stay.”

“Put her down, Nick,” Anya ordered and the instant she did, which was the second Nick moved to acquiesce to her demand, Kasha wrapped her arms tight around his neck.

He started quietly laughing.

“Unka Nick is staying!” Kasha declared.

“Yeah, he is,” Knight put in.

Nick looked to his brother.

So did Knight’s woman. “Not you too.”

“Me too,” Knight decreed then looked down at Kat. “Baby girl, can you help Daddy and put out another placemat for Uncle Nick?”

“Yeah, Daddy!” Kat, Knight and Anya’s first, almost eight-years-old, always daddy’s little helper, agreed immediately and jumped to do as asked.