Aubry laid her hand over her stomach. “I am so full. I could use a walk. Are you interested, Tucker?”

“Sure.”

“Why don’t you walk him around the grounds?” her mother suggested. “It’ll help your digestion.”

“That’s a great idea,” Aubry said. “It’s perfect weather tonight. We’ll be back in a little while.”

“All right.”

Tucker followed her out the back door. He grabbed her hand as they strolled through the gardens.

“Thanks for having my back earlier when I screwed up.”

She looked over at him. “Oh, you mean about the wine cellar?”

“Yeah.”

She laughed. “Not a problem. I could see the panic on your face when you blurted that out.”

“Not my finest moment. I’m glad you can think fast.”

“It comes from being grilled by attending physicians. You have to always have an answer on the tip of your tongue.”

He squeezed her hand. “And you did tonight. Thankfully.”

She looked beautiful tonight in a blue sundress that highlighted her blond hair and gorgeous eyes. Of course, he thought anything she wore made her look beautiful, but tonight, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. Or her legs as they strolled past the pool house he’d checked out for her the night of the party.

“Did you ever find your uncle that night?”

She frowned. “My . . . oh, right. Yes. He was upstairs in one of the guest rooms. He’d had a lot to drink and had wandered up there to lie down and had fallen asleep.”

“Alone, I assume?”

“Yes, fortunately.”

“I’m sure that made your aunt happy.”

She nodded. “Very. At least that night, anyway.”

He put his arm around her. “I’m sorry you have a straying uncle.”

“Not much I can do about their relationship if my aunt’s the one who insists on staying with him. If it were me, I’d have kicked him to the curb a long time ago.”

He stopped and pulled her against him. “You can rest assured there hasn’t been anyone but you for me ever since I met you.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Really?”

“Well, yeah. Like you told your dad inside, we both have really heavy schedules. It’s not like I have a lot of time to date a bunch of women.”

Her lips curved. “I see. So it’s not that you were all that interested in me. It’s just that you’re too busy to date more than one woman.”

Shit. “That’s not what I meant, Aubry. Let me rephrase. I was so blinded by your intelligence and your beauty that no other woman could compare.”

“Much better.”

They started walking again.

“Plus, you have a great ass.”

She laughed. “You always say the sweetest things.”

They wandered around the gardens for a few minutes, until Aubry started back to the house. He assumed she was taking him back inside, but she surprised him by going toward a set of stairs that led down.

“Is this where the millions are hidden?” he asked.

She laughed. “Actually, kind of.”

She pulled a set of keys out of the pocket of her dress and unlocked the heavy wood door, then gave it a hard push.

“No one really uses this entrance since you can get in here through the back stairs from the kitchen. But I used to sneak in this way, because I know where the keys are hidden.” With a secret smile, she led him through a chilly, dark passageway.

That led right into the wine cellar. As soon as they made their way into the room where he’d been that first night he met Aubry, his balls quivered. He could still visualize Laura’s knee-to-the-balls reaction to his refusal to move in together.

“This room pains me.”

She laughed and cupped his crotch. “Well, that’s not a good thing. We need to replace your awful memories of the wine cellar with something a little more . . . pleasant.”

His cock sprung to life, hardening as she rubbed back and forth. “You’ve got my attention now.”

“Good attention, I hope.”

“Definitely the good kind.”

She unzipped his pants and pulled his cock out. “I promise to be gentle. No harm will come to your cock down here.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

She paused, her brows lifting. “My hand on your cock is not a good idea?”

“I mean, your parents are upstairs. What if—”

She brushed her lips over his. “Don’t worry about it. They have no reason to come down here, and they won’t hear us.” She stroked him until his breath rasped. “Unless of course—you’re afraid?”

He swung his arm around her waist and lifted her, taking her over to the table in the middle of the room. “Now you’ve laid down the gauntlet, Dr. Ross. And you know I don’t back down from a challenge.”

She let out a soft laugh. “I was hoping you wouldn’t.”

He slid his fingers in her hair and kissed her, a hot, deep kiss that obliterated the cold of the wine cellar and turned everything hot. He pulled the straps of her sundress down, drawing back the cups of her bra so he could get to her breasts. The cool air made her nipples pucker, so he took a few seconds to admire the view.

“Suck,” she said.

He had to admit he enjoyed the command, and her sense of urgency. He raised his gaze to hers, saw the desire shimmering in her eyes.