I knew better than to argue. The only time Lee could say for certain he was a good guy was when he was in the Army and during some of that time I was ignoring him and most of his missions were top secret so I had no examples to give.

I took another sip of coffee. “All right, what do I have to do to pay you back for Rosie? And I’ll warn you, I won’t clean your bathroom.”

“You sure that’s the only stipulation you wanna make?”

I thought about it for a second, wondering what else I should throw in when he said, “Time’s up.”

He was playing with me and I was losing my temper.

“Oh for goodness sake, just tell me!” I snapped.

No sooner had I got out the word “me”, he moved.

And he moved fast, faster than I think I’ve ever seen anyone move, especially at that hour of the morning.

My coffee cup was gone, he had his hands at my ass and then I was going up, my behind settled on the counter and Lee moved in. Both his arms went around my back, I had no choice but to spread my legs or I’d gouge his abs with my knees, his arms pulled me to him, my nether regions pressed to his crotch and he bent his head and kissed me.

The first time in my life that Lee kissed me.

Holy shit.

Holy, holy, shit, shit, shit.

He was a fine kisser.

In fact, just that one kiss blew the entire Joe Perry experience out of the water and that’s saying something.

When he lifted his head, I said (or kinda shouted, at this point I’d totally forgotten Rosie), “What the hell was that?”

I was covering and recovering. My mouth was the only thing that worked, every other part of my body had been reduced to Jell-o.

“Advance payment on services rendered.”

I stared at him, thrown.

He looked down, likely to further assess my reaction.

“Is this my shirt?” His hand came from around my back and lifted to touch the wife beater, very close to my breast. I slapped it away, feeling my nipple harden and thanking the Lord above for lightly padded bras that hid hard ni**les.

“Yes, it’s your shirt, and what do you mean, advance payment on services rendered?”

His hand went to the side of my breast rather than to the actual breast which was only a relief for about five seconds as it then slid around my back, pulling me to him again.

This was not brother-sister behavior.

What was he playing at?

He told me.

And he told me bluntly.

“I do this thing for Rosie, you sleep with me.”

I stared at him, open-mouthed and in stunned silence.

I did, of course, understand what he meant but he explained further.

“Not like last night, we’ll both be na**d and sexual acts will be performed.”

My expression didn’t change except maybe my mouth opened wider.

“I’ll expect your participation.”

Holy shit.

“Your avid participation.”

Dear Lord in Heaven.

Eventually, I whispered, “You must be joking.”

He shook his head and watched me.

I dropped my eyes, unable to hold his stare.

“I think I need more coffee,” I told his throat.

His hand went into my hair and with a gentle pull he tilted my head back again.

A light bulb clicked on.

A way out.

“You’re already involved. You made the calls last night, you said you would.”

Lee verbally waved it away because his hand was twisting in my hair.

“I know the principles, I can back out this morning. Rosie will be on his own.”

This, I thought, was not a bad thing, considering the expected payment.

“Okay then, Rosie will be fine, I’ll go with him.”

“Rosie will do this alone, you’re not going anywhere near these guys. You don’t exist to them and I’m gonna keep it that way.”

“There’s a flaw in your plan, Lee, they saw me last night.”

“Minor blip. During the call I told them you were mine and that’s why I’m getting involved. They’ll keep a distance.”

Holy shit! He was already telling other people! And I hadn’t even agreed!

“I’m not yours!”

“You will be tonight.”

Holy shit, shit, shit.

What was happening here?

Was I in an alternate universe?

“You can’t do this! We can’t do this!”

“Why not?”

He was calm and blasé, one of his hands was tangled in my hair and the other arm was wrapped around my back, the hand resting at my waist like we did this every morning of our lives.

Both my hands were pressed on the counter and I was about ready to shoot through the ceiling.

Lee was not just a Bad Boy, a Badass or a Badass Extraordinaire, he was a f**king crazy man.

I thought about it for a second, hard and partially hysterically, and then came up with something. It wasn’t original but it was something.

“You’re like my older brother.”

“Is that why you tried to stick your tongue down my throat when you were fifteen?”

Yikes.

“And sixteen?”

Crap.

“And seventeen?”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Jeez.” I broke into his trip down memory lane. “You said you thought of me like your younger sister.”

“I lied.”

My eyes bugged out at this piece of news.

“What?”

“I was into some serious shit back then, depending on the assignment, I didn’t know if I’d come home breathing and in one piece. You were twenty years old and hung up on me.”

Oh for f**k’s sake.

“I was not hung up on you.”

He grinned. “Yes you were.”

I was but I wasn’t going to admit it.

I narrowed my eyes and he kept talking.

“I didn’t need any entanglements. I didn’t need anything on my mind but what I was doing. I didn’t need to worry if I’d leave a girl at home brokenhearted because something happened to me.”

I had to admit, that made sense and it was kind of thoughtful.

I wasn’t going to acknowledge that to him either.

“By the time I got out, you backed off. You had a man then and I thought you were over me.”

He shrugged, nonchalant, like he didn’t care and that kinda pissed me off.

No wait, that really pissed me off.

“Then that guy was gone and you kept avoiding me. Guys came, guys went. I figured you had no trouble approaching me before, when you were ready, you’d come to me.”

I was no longer avoiding his eyes or him. I was staring daggers at him.