“What about you, Salem? Did you think of me as a brother?”

When he spoke I felt his words as they brushed across my mouth more than heard what he said. I gave my head a tight little shake and let my fingers curl into the strong cords at the base of his neck.

“No. I thought you were a beautiful and sad little boy and then I thought you were a clever and talented teenager.” I gasped and let out a tiny shriek of surprise because there was no longer fabric between his questing fingers and my wet and eager flesh. “Now I think you’re a gorgeous and complicated man, but none of my feelings for you have ever been familial. I never considered you like a brother, Rowdy.”

It was hard to get the words out, hard to breathe because he was touching me, stroking me from the inside out, and finally his mouth was rubbing achingly across my own. How was a girl supposed to have a single coherent thought when all of that was happening to her and the guy doing it looked and felt like Rowdy did? When he was the only bright spot in an otherwise cloudy childhood.

“Tell me you’re here for me.” His voice was low and I could practically feel the intensity of his gaze and he shifted me a little so his fingers could move deeper, play harder with all the most sensitive female parts of my body.

I didn’t want to tell him that. Even if it was the truth.

He kissed me. Really kissed me. His lips and tongue taking no prisoners as his thumb landed on my cl*t and pressed down with enough force to make me jerk in his hold. I kissed him back helplessly, sat there and let him play with me and my body like I was powerless to stop it . . . because I was. His fingers circled inside of me, his touch just right as he continued to ravish my mouth.

He pulled back and dropped a hard, biting kiss on my mouth. He leaned a little closer, his hand pressing in with him as he used the very tip of his tongue to touch the very center of my top lip and then he brushed a kiss across the ruby that sat right above my mouth. It made me shiver and had my nails digging hard into where I was holding on to him. I cried out and arched my back when he found that perfect spot, that magical place inside of me that not every man had found before. I saw a flash of white as he grinned at me and then it disappeared as he buried his face in the curve of my neck and started kissing and sucking along the taut flesh that was there.

“Tell me, Salem. Tell me you came here for me.”

I was so close, could feel pleasure and something more burning along all my nerve endings. I was squirming in his hands, my body was bowing and quaking against his, and I knew I was going to break apart at his touch any second now. My ni**les were tight and aching. My skin was overly sensitized and everywhere he touched I felt it electric and sparking right where his hands were, not to mention he had honed in right on the coiled core of my desire.

“Rowdy . . .” His name escaped on a strangled groan, as his teeth sank into the side of my neck where my pulse was thundering. The noises I was making told him exactly how his touch was affecting me, it was over and he knew it. I felt him growl against my pulse, I felt his muscles go tense as my body broke and spasmed around his fingers. It didn’t just feel good and sexy-sweet, it shook me to my very core.

I liked sex, and had never been scared to admit it, but I had never been touched, never had a man put his hands on me and have it feel like I was better for it at the end like he had just done. I felt like he was showing me something new, teaching me something I didn’t know about myself, and it left me stunned.

Rowdy pushed back just enough so that we were staring at each other. He pulled his hand out of my shorts and rested it on the top of my bare thigh. We were both breathing hard and just watching each other. His eyes glowed and there was a grin and something else dancing across his face.

“I came for you.” My voice squeaked out high and thready.

He laughed, deep and rumbling. “I know. I was right there with you, but I still want you to tell me you’re here for me.”

I pushed him back from me with a scowl and jumped off the counter. The way my chest pressed against his much harder one made my already excited ni**les hurt with the need for attention.

“Fine. I’m here in Denver for you. I met Phil a few years back and he had me spilling my guts to him while he tattooed me. He asked where I grew up and I told him Loveless, Texas. He had to have known you and I had a lot of history. He put the wheels in motion before he passed away but the truth is I came here for you.”

He opened his mouth to say something else but the puppy, who had remained surprisingly quiet during all our commotion, came hurtling out of my bedroom with the remains of a tattered and slobbered-on high heel in his mouth. I sighed as he brought his prize over and dropped it at Rowdy’s booted feet with a proud “woof.”

I grumbled, “Looks like he wants to play.”

Rowdy chuckled and bent down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “So do I.”

I couldn’t stop my gaze from rolling over the way his pants were straining in the front. I bit my lower lip and saw his gaze narrow in on the motion.

Now that there was some space between us, I got my wits back and told him, “Look, I had no idea you asked Poppy to marry you. I have all these memories of how sweet you always were, how in sync we always were, and how you always made me happy. I decided to chase those old feelings down. I was always missing something no matter where I was at and I kind of felt like that something was you. I didn’t think it all the way through . . . I never do.”

I shifted uneasily on my bare feet as he continued to watch me in silence. “I want you, Rowdy. You’re gorgeous and extremely talented, but I’m not going to share a guy with my sister. Not any guy, not ever.” I wondered if he even knew she had married someone else just a few short years after rejecting him.

He lifted one of his golden eyebrows at me and rose back up to his full and impressive height.

“Poppy isn’t here.”

“It doesn’t feel that way. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to get my head around the fact you asked her to marry you, Rowdy.” I looked at the little dog that had wiggled between us and plopped his fuzzy bottom on my feet. “I always thought it was just puppy love, not something real.”

He rubbed one of his sideburns with his index finger and a boyish grin flirted with his mouth. He was a dangerous mix of the boy I remembered and the complicated man I was starting to get to know on a much different level.

He put his finger under my chin and lifted my face back up so that we were looking at each other.