Beth scrambled into the front seat and gave her basically the same speech when they arrived at her apartment complex.

She loved her family and she loved Matt but she hated the anxiety and didn’t know what to do about it.

Some half an hour later, Matt walked through her front door, looking very intent. Without taking his eyes from her, he threw the locks and pulled the cord to the front blinds, casting the room into pale light.

“Bend over the couch arm, Tate.”

Frozen, she stood and looked at his face, his features sexy, aggressive. Shivers worked over her at his manner, far more dominant than his normal laid back sexual playfulness.

Eyes still locked on hers, he pulled his belt loose, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans, freeing his cock. One of his eyebrows slowly rose. “Tate?”

Stifling a nervous giggle, she shrugged and walked around the edge of the couch, bending forward over the arm. She closed her eyes when she heard the condom wrapper and felt the cool air on her bare thighs as he drew her skirt up to her waist and her panties down. She stepped out of them and let him widen her stance.

His fingertips drew a path up her inner thighs, brushing through the folds of her pu**y, finding her wet.

“Just what I thought. I’ve been so damned hard since I saw you sitting there in the sun on Shane’s deck, your hair gleaming in the sunshine.”

The head of his c**k found her gate and nudged into her body slowly. He made love to her, his hands stroking over her back and thighs, his body pressing deep and withdrawing. Gently at first until the heat between them built and built to scorching and his speed increased along with the intensity of his thrusts.

One hand reached around and he found her clit, ready and slippery. She pushed herself back against his body, rolled her hips, wanting more and he gave it to her.

The fingers on her clit were slow, teasing and he brought her up, built her orgasm like a masterpiece and when it crashed around her, she had to yell into the couch cushion. The sensation was too much to bear, it drove her mindless, pleasure blind as the hand at her hip tightened and she felt the muscles in his abdomen grow taut and his c**k harden impossibly.

“Matt, please. I need you to need me.” She didn’t know where the words came from but they came and brought a gasp from him followed very quickly by his orgasm.

Still breathing heavy, he kissed the back of her neck and withdrew, returning in moments, his pants still unzipped.

He looked pleasure wild, slightly feral and holy shit, he was hers.

Dazed, she managed to land herself on the couch and he sprawled alongside her, his head in her lap. Immediately, her fingers sought the softness of his hair as they enjoyed the silence for several minutes.

“What brought that on?”

He heard the amusement in her voice and was relieved he hadn’t pushed too far.

Lazy, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the way she massaged his scalp, he smiled. “Dunno. I’d planned to waltz you into your bedroom and take you nice and slow but when I walked in the door and saw you, I had to have you right then.”

“It was very inspired.”

He laughed. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was concerned you’d be upset after the shower.”

She sighed but didn’t tighten up. “It’s a cross I have to bear, Matt. She’s not the first, she won’t be the last.”

“To talk to you like that?” He sat up and faced her, his arm along the back of the couch resting on her shoulders.

“Yes. And I did clean her parents’ house. I did a good job, even though my own house is messy, I work hard.” Her chin jutted out and he kissed it.

“Who cares now? It’s what? Fifteen years ago? Venus, some people live in the past. And I wish you’d tell me when people said things to you.”

“Why, Matt? What could you possibly do except feel bad?”

“Why? So you’re not alone in this. Do you think I like it that people treat you this way?”

“Do you think it makes a difference whether you like it or not?”

“Damn it, Tate. Why are you so hard sometimes?”

“Because people I don’t even know stop me on the street to accuse me of trying to steal your money. Because your friend Ron cornered me at the public library to warn me that you’d see past a piece of ass soon enough so not to get comfortable with my newfound position.”

Anger, hot and nearly unmanageable rose in him like bile. “He said what? Ron Moore said that to you?”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

“Doesn’t matter. None of this matters. He’ll only deny it.”

“I don’t give a f**k what he says. He’s lucky if I don’t knock him into next week for talking to you that way. Tate, I’m sorry this is so ridiculous. I’d say it doesn’t matter but being treated that way does matter. What doesn’t matter is anyone’s opinion but yours, mine and our family’s.”

“I know.”

He smiled. “You do?”

“Yes, I do. I know it’s not easy, but I love you, Matt. I love being with you. If people don’t like that, there’s not much I can do about it but I’m not letting what we have go because people who don’t know me don’t like me.”

“Yeah? Because Tate, let’s move in together.” He’d almost asked her to marry him but he knew it’d be too much for her right then. “I want to be with you every day. I want to wake up with you every morning.”