“I…yes.” She nodded, incapable of further speech. Especially when his grin widened and he looked like a predator.

They sat down and began to dish up the food, digging in. He watched her and she laughed. “What? Do I have a bean spout between my teeth?”

“No,” he chuckled. “I just like the way you look here with me.” He shrugged. “And I like that you eat. Not like some dainty thing who wants everyone to believe she survives on air and mist, but you eat like a real person.”

“Is that your finessed way of telling me I eat like a pig?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Oh the unwinnable guy question. Darlin’ you do not eat like a pig. You eat like a human who likes to eat. I like that.”

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and shrugged before going back to her plate. She’d only just put the weight on she lost from the hospital and afterwards in the last three months or so.

They kept a wide berth around what happened the night before but Cassie was pretty sure Maggie had told him about Terry. He didn’t seem freaked, which made her more comfortable.

After they’d eaten, he helped her clean up and get the dishes in the dishwasher before they retired to the couch.

“Let’s get comfortable here, shall we, darlin’? Because I have some serious smooching planned and we should do it right.” He winked and pulled her into his lap, her body straddling his.

The hard ridge of his c**k fit up against her and she undulated, grinding herself over him without even thinking of it. Little flares of pleasure played up her spine and the muscles inside her pu**y fluttered and contracted.

One of his eyebrows rose slowly and his hands slid to rest at her waist. “So that’s how it’s gonna be, huh? Mmm. You feel so damned good, Cassie. I need to kiss you again.” Arching his neck up, he brought his lips to hers with crushing intensity.

Her head swam as she drowned in him. In a myriad of ways he affected her, overwhelmed her, turned her on and turned her out. Helpless to do anything more than hang on, she slid her hands up his chest and neck and into his hair. The soft, cool silk of it flowed over her skin, his skull solid and sure beneath her palms.

Grunting in satisfaction, he slanted his mouth to get more of her. His tongue slipped in between her teeth and he tasted her, met her warmth with his own. Her elemental flavor rocked him, he couldn’t get enough. When she sucked at his tongue, he pulled her to him tighter and delighted in the moan that came from her lips. Swallowed it down with the rest of her that he took from the kiss.

God he wanted more. The luscious flesh of her bottom lip seduced him as he sucked it into his mouth. Arching into him with a breathy sigh, she traced the outline of his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. Down over the seam of his mouth where her lip was captured, the wetness of her tongue, the tentative and yet utterly carnal way she responded, drew him in.

It’d never been like this with a woman before. Intense, sure. Really good, that too. But so good, so right that it made his chest ache with want and need of this woman in his arms? Never.

Damn, he was falling for Cassie. Scratch that—had fallen for Cassie and he wasn’t running. No, he wanted more. Wanted to gorge himself on every drop of her he could get as long as he could get it. He wanted to see what kind of tomorrow he could build with this woman. Cassie Gambol wasn’t a casual indulgence at all, she was big league addiction and instead of fear, there was only joy that he’d found it at last.

It took every bit of his self control to keep his hands resting at her waist instead of sliding down to cup her ass. She was so soft against him, so warm and pliant—everything sexy and earthy, he wanted to take her in the grass under the moon, the dew on his naked skin as he watched her in the silvery light. She was a goddess come alive in his arms.

Her head tipped back as he kissed down her neck. To keep her balance, one of his hands, splayed open on her back, moved up to her neck. He gripped her, sure but not hard. Still, she stiffened and pushed away.

“Whoa! What’s going on?” he asked as she scrambled off his lap and put some distance between them.

“I’m sorry. I…you touched a nerve. He did that to me when he…damn, what you must think. I don’t know why you even came over here after Maggie told you.”

“Told me?”

“About all the abuse, the…” her voice lowered, “…rape. I don’t know if I can be normal.”

“Rape?”

Cassie paled. “Maggie didn’t tell you?”

“She told me you had problems with your ex-husband. She said she couldn’t tell me any specifics because she didn’t want you to not be able to trust her.”

“Shit. Never mind. It was bad. It’s over. But there are things that happen and I don’t even see them coming and I don’t know if I can be a normal person again. I seem to have a minefield of emotional shit because of him.”

“Sit down.” He pointed to the couch and went to retrieve a glass of iced tea. Coming back into the room, he pressed it into her hands and sat next to her. “Now I want you to tell me. Damn it, Cassie, trust me. Please. I can’t help you if I don’t know. We can work through the minefield together but I can’t if I’m blind.”

Closing her eyes a moment, she began to relate all that she’d told her friends the night before. She kept looking blankly out the windows as she did and Shane didn’t interrupt her.

By the time she’d finished, the sun was down and her tea was empty.