“I wish I didn’t have to go back to work.” He pulls me against his chest, where I fit perfectly. Different from how I used to, but perfect now. “I’m having a hard time focusing there knowing you’re here in my house.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to distract you from your work, Tor.”

He lifts my chin up. “Kenzi…it’s a good distraction. I usually don’t have anything to look forward to at the end of the day other than coming home to these two lazy fur monsters. Knowing you’re going to be here, all cute and sexy, with a kick ass dinner and homemade apple pie you made for me is like hitting the lottery.”

The sparkle of light in his eyes makes me hug him even tighter. I love hearing the playful, teasing, hopeful tone in his voice. He’s got it all wrong, though. I’m the one who hit the lottery.

Later that day I’m still so jittery and nervous that I’m not even sure I can eat any of the dinner I’ve made for tonight, no matter how good it smells in the broiler. I only thought of him when I planned it, and had no idea he’d ask me to stay.

Is this a date?

I have no idea, but I definitely want it to be.

He said he’s been thinking, but he didn’t tell me if he reached any sort of conclusion about what he thinks of us being together and what we do next. As for me, I’ve been thinking about him and us and still have only come up with one unwavering constant: all I want is for us to be together. Somehow, someway, I want us to be able to be together as a real couple and just be happy. And I want our loved ones to be happy for us.

Diogee and Kitten run to wait by the front door together when they hear Tor’s bike pull into the driveway for the second time today, and I get the feeling this is a nightly ritual for them and his earlier mid-afternoon visit was just as much as a surprise to them as it was to me. As I stand next to them and wait for him to come inside, I’m struck by how cute it is that they seem so excited that he’s home, but it also makes my heart hurt a little with the realization that Toren’s been coming home to a dark, empty house for a very long time, with no one at the door waiting for him.

Maybe it’s too soon for me to be thinking thoughts like this, but I want to be waiting for him at the door every day next to his dog and cat.

Breathe, Kenzi. Slow down.

When he walks through the door, he tweaks my heart when he hands me three red roses, then bends down to give the dog a cookie and the kitten a crinkle ball toy.

I’m speechless, standing there holding my first roses, watching him play with the kitten on the floor, seemingly oblivious to how freakin’ perfect he is.

“What?” he finally asks, standing. My beanie is on his head, only its faded now from the sun beating down on him when he rides. Tufts of dark hair are sticking out from the sides of the hat, and he has a small smudge of grease right above his left eyebrow that I want to reach out and rub off. He looks a bit disheveled and tired but he wears it well and it adds to his rugged charm.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asks.

“I just didn’t know you’d be like this.” I answer softly. “Roses…”

He moves closer to me and leans down to kiss my cheek. “Because now I’m your lover. Not your friend. Not your godfather. Not your dad’s best friend. Big difference.”

I blink at him, swaying, my heart racing. The word lover feels so…intimate. Powerful. Adult. Sexy.

He’s still close to me, our bodies almost touching but not, his lips just inches away, when he brushes my hair away from my face.

“I love you, Angel. But I won’t baby you when you’re in my house, and in my bed. If we do this, the little girl and the uncle are left at the door.” He kisses the spot behind my ear and brushes his lips across to my cheek. “Can you do that?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“You know that a little rough isn’t meant to hurt you, right? I would never hurt you.”

I turn my face into his, my lips just barely touching his. “I liked it a little rough.” My words are just above a whisper, but I know he hears them from the way his breathing changes.

I’ve read an embarrassing number of romance and erotica books over the past few months in what I can only describe as a quest for personal research, and I can’t lie – the rougher, harder, alpha scenes definitely got to me, and made me turn those pages faster. I secretly hoped he would be that way, and I even dreamt of him that way.