He stood in the kitchen, watching as she straightened couch cushions in the living room. The hem of her summer dress was too short, lifting with every move she made, revealing an indecent amount of trim, tanned thigh... One nibble wouldn’t hurt either of us...

She caught his gaze and, with a smile trying to form, said, “Oh! I forgot to tell you today’s affirmation. Are you ready?”

He forced himself to nod.

“I am both dominating and submissive at the same time.”

Taunting me?

He’d take the abuse and then some. He deserved it.

He just couldn’t go on like this. He had to talk to her, admit to his feelings and his past so they could move on—the facts were like obstacles, so many in their way. And if they couldn’t move on, he’d have to come to terms with it; at least the mental torment would finally end.

He stalked toward her, determined to confess all. Maybe.

“I promised I’d help you with your list,” he found himself saying instead. “It’s time to check off another item.”

She stepped back, maintaining a certain amount of distance between them. “I already planned to check something off today,” she said. “I’m attending a wine-and-cheese tasting later.”

“I’ll take you.”

She beamed at him. “Thank you. I’d like that.”

Relief coursed through him as he realized she wasn’t going to yell at him for the juvenile stunt he’d pulled, leaving her house in the middle of the night—or his even worse treatment afterward. One obstacle dodged, at least, and as easily as a blink.

He reeled. He’d always thought his life merely moved from one crap experience to the next, but just then, he couldn’t deny how blessed he actually was. He’d found a beautiful girl with a big heart, and she genuinely seemed to care about him.

He pretended to work as he watched the clock. In just a few hours, we’ll be alone in a car.

Not soon enough.

Time seemed to tick by slower than ever before, but finally the clock did zero out, and they headed into the city. Being so close to her rekindled the fire only she was able to stoke, and he had two choices. Grip the wheel or reach for her. He gripped the wheel.

“Have you ever been to one of these?” she asked.

“No.” The closest he’d come to a “tasting” was the toilet-brew one of his cellmates had offered him. Declining had been a no-brainer. “What made you want to try it?”

“My parents went to one. They came home tipsy, giggling and kissing, unable to keep their hands off each other. My mom even danced around the room, grinning so big, saying she’d never had so much fun.”

Wine and cheese just became my new best friends.

They reached the three-thousand-square-foot warehouse where the event was taking place, and he quickly found a spot in the gravel, parking and racing around the car to open her door for her. He even took her hand to lead her inside the barn where the tasting was to take place, touching her at last, barely stifling the urge to kiss her knuckles. There were several other couples milling around, studying the different bottles of wine on display and countless shelves of cheese. The smell in the room was pungent but sweet.

Multiple tables formed three rows. Candles glowed in the center of each, with trays of bite-size cheese plated in front of every chair. Throughout the room, display cases were lit from within to make crystal glasses glisten like diamonds.

“Rustic meets romantic.” Brook Lynn breathed deeply as she took everything in. “It’s amazing.”

You are amazing.

During the next hour, he was forced to endure speeches from the family of owners, each taking turns to explain every single nuance of the different cheeses and wines. Jase barely tasted the things he put inside his mouth. He wasn’t sure how he stopped himself from pulling Brook Lynn into a dark corner, ripping open her shorts and her panties and taking what he craved more than breath. Actually, that wasn’t true. He did know. She was having such an amazing time, he refused to end it. She grinned without ceasing, listened intently and participated every step of the way, even forgetting her inhibitions and hooking locks of hair behind her ears.

His chest puffed with pride. He liked those implants. They helped her. Why be embarrassed about that? He loved that her confidence had grown by leaps and bounds, and he couldn’t help but feel he’d had something to do with it.

“—poor girl,” the woman to his right said to her companion. She wasn’t quiet about it, either, and she should have known better. She was in her midthirties. “I wonder what’s wrong. To have to live with machines in her ears like that...well, it must be miserable.”

For the first time since they’d arrived, Brook Lynn stiffened. The bright light drained from her eyes. She hurriedly unhooked her hair from behind her ears.

Jase went still and quiet—a dangerous thing. He knew it and tried to temper the storm brewing inside him.

Too late. Lightning struck his mind. Thunder boomed in his heart. The ceramic plate he held snapped in two, sharp stings erupting in his hands, warm trickles of blood dripping to the floor.

His switch had just been flipped.

He stalked toward the woman whose careless words had cut through Brook Lynn’s hard-won self-confidence. He’d never hit a female before, and he wouldn’t start today, but she was with a man and he’d do.

In the back of Jase’s mind, a warning screamed. Don’t do this. You’ll get in serious trouble with your PO. But the scream wasn’t loud enough to overshadow the rage. Someone had to pay.