I was scrounging around in the fridge looking for something to make for lunch and the pickings were slim. I wasn’t exactly a gourmet cook and I lived right off one of the main roads that ran through Denver, so spending time in the kitchen wasn’t something I did very often. I decided that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some potato chips were going to have to do and figured Rowdy would be all right with it considering our entire day had been spent reliving moments from our youth. I was putting the sandwiches on a plate when there was a sharp knock at the door that had Jimbo rousing from his nap and barking.

I pulled to door open while I was licking the last of the peanut butter off the knife. Rowdy was propped up on the other side, still missing his shirt and even more rumpled and sweaty than he had been an hour ago when I left him in the park. His shirt was hanging like a tail out of the back of his jeans and all the ink that covered him was glistening like wet paint across his smooth skin. His blond hair was messy and falling across his forehead and his aqua-colored eyes were blazing like a beacon out of his face.

I let the hand with the knife fall to my side as we stared silently at each other. His gaze drifted over my damp hair, across my startled face, and down to my bare feet. He took one step inside the door, which forced me to take one back.

“Did you win?” I sounded shaky and nervous even though I didn’t really feel uncertain. I was way more along the lines of breathless and needy.

“Oh, I think I’m about to win for sure.” A sexy smirk pulled at the edges of his mouth. “Do you have anything on under that dress?”

It was a bold question followed by him taking the knife from me and tossing it dangerously in the direction of the kitchen. It clattered loudly as it landed in the sink, and even that wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of my heart pounding loudly in my ears. He was totally in my face and I knew that sandwiches were no longer on the menu for lunch.

I was.

“Why don’t you find out for yourself?” I could play this game with him. After all, there had to be an offense and a defense in order for there to be a game in the first place.

He growled at me low in his throat and kicked the door shut behind him with the sole of his sneaker as he prowled toward me. He didn’t stop coming at me until we were pressed right up against each other. He smelled like the outside and the grass from the park. He felt hard and strong and any idea that this was still the boy next door melted away as the erection bulging at the front of his jeans came into contact with my stomach. His eyes burned hotter than the summer sky, and when he slid his hands around, underneath the thick fall of my still-wet hair, I felt like it was all too much and I was just going to melt in a puddle of anticipation and longing at his feet.

He didn’t say anything else, just started walking in the direction of the bedroom, forcing me to match him step for step as he waltzed me backward. The bluesy and folksy sound of Old Crow Medicine Show wafted out of the bedroom, guiding his way in the right direction.

“I stink.” His voice was gruff and sent chills racing up and down my spine as we backed into the darkened bedroom. My bed wasn’t even made and half of my wardrobe was lying across the floor. None of it slowed him down as he kept his pace going until the back of my legs hit the edge of my bed.

I wrapped my fingers around each of his tattooed wrists and gazed up at him. I licked my bottom lip and he groaned.

“I kind of like it.”

“Shit.” It wasn’t really a word, more just an exhalation of sound, and then his mouth was on mine and nothing else mattered anymore. There was nothing more than the way he made me feel and the way that all the wildness and restlessness that always hounded me seemed to fade away under his lips and at his touch.

He kissed me hard. He kissed me long. He kissed me breathless and then he pulled back and did it again from another angle. The boy was good with his mouth, so good that I didn’t notice the fact that his hands had found their way to the hem of my dress and the fabric was slowly being inched up the outside of my legs. His tongue twisted around mine, his teeth nipped at the tip of it, and I gasped loudly in the quiet when his big hands closed over either side of my na**d backside. Maybe I had been planning for it all along, but putting anything on under my dress after my shower had seemed like a useless step when I knew I would be taking it off for him at some point.

“Nice.” There was nothing but appreciation in his tone and his breathing kicked up a notch as his bare chest moved against mine.

He released one side of my ass and ran his hand up my spine so that he could undo the long zipper that held the cute frock closed. I moved my hair out of the way for him, and between one sigh and the next I was na**d in front of him and he was obviously enjoying my curved form. He swore again and reached out a fingertip to touch one of the small silver hoops that decorated both of my ni**les. They capped the dusky peaks and glittered with a ruby jewel that matched the one above my lip.

He let go of my rear end completely and used his thumbs to trace across the big lotus flower that marked one side of my hipbone and the arching, sprawling cherry blossom that decorated the other. They were both delicately done and popped brightly against my dark skin.

“Beauty against all odds and the fragility of life.” His voice was hushed as he bent down and dropped a kiss on my clavicle.

“I guess that’s one advantage of getting na**d with a tattoo artist—it cuts down on the show-and-tell.”

He laughed a little and I felt it all the way to my core because he was bending me over one of his arms that he had snaked behind my back and using my new arched position to circle each pierced nipple with his tongue. I was pretty sure nothing in my entire life had ever felt that awesome. Each peak puckered and pulled at the attention, and when he used his teeth and sucked the little metal ring into his mouth, it made them hot and wet when they landed back against my skin. I really thought I was going to die from sensation overload.

I was clutching at his shoulders to try and stay somewhat grounded and not totally get lost in the pleasure when he moved a single step closer and I lost my balance and toppled over onto my back, hitting the mattress with a little bounce. He was looming over me and the smile on his face couldn’t be called anything but wicked.

He kissed my breastbone right between the full swell of each breast and drew a moist line all the way down the center of my body with his tongue, stopping to dip it in my navel and to put biting little kisses on each of my tattoos that framed the very exposed, very sensitive part of my body he was obviously heading toward.