“You’re sure you don’t want lunch,” Evan said as soon as we were alone on his boat. “I think I have a frozen pizza I could heat up.”

“Don’t you even tease me,” I said. “I don’t want pizza. I don’t want food. I just want you. Right here. Right now.”

“Right here?” he said, looking at the dining table.

“Hell yes.” I unbuttoned my blouse and peeled it off, then tugged off the camisole I wore underneath. Evan was watching me, his expression amused, which only fired me up even more. I’d show him amused.

I unzipped my skirt and dropped it along with my panties, then hopped up onto the table.

“You are serious,” he said, but the amusement that had been in his voice earlier was replaced now with heat.

“Please,” I said. “I think I’m desperate.”

“I think I like you desperate,” he said, unfastening his jeans as he approached me. He stepped out of them, then moved between my legs. I was breathing hard, anticipating the feel of him inside me. Wanting this wild, hard moment. And, yes, wanting it now.

He dropped to his knees then, frustrating me, but only until he hooked my legs over his shoulder and then buried his tongue inside me. I cried out, my fingers twisting tight in his hair, as he licked and sucked and then—without any warning at all—he stopped and stood.

And before I had time to protest or anticipate what was coming, he was right in front of me, pulling me close, positioning his cock so that he could slam hard and fast into me.

I arched back, crying out, my body craving more. Deeper. Harder. “Yes,” I cried, alternating with cries of “Harder, Evan, please, deeper. Oh, god, yes.”

I pressed against him, meeting him thrust for thrust, completely wild and wanton, totally exhilarated. And when the orgasm took me away, all I could do was cling tight to this man who had made me feel everything and all at once.

He pulled back, taking me with him, and we tumbled to the carpeted ground. “We should move,” I said, after we’d laid there for a moment.

“To hell with that,” he said, pulling me tighter against him.

I snuggled close, my emotions close to the surface. My desire to get even closer to him palpable.

“It’s the same, you know,” I finally said, my voice breathy.

“What is?”

“The kind of rush I felt today at Neely’s. The kind of rush I got when I shoplifted. It’s the same as the way I feel when you’re inside me.” I propped myself up to see him better. “You make me feel alive, Evan. You make me feel like me.” It was true. I could be myself with Evan. No secrets. No holding back. I’d never understood what it meant to be free until I was in his arms. “Do I make you feel that way, too?” I asked. He gave me such a gift simply by being himself, and right then I wanted more than anything to know that I did the same for him. That I could give him a gift of such profound pleasure, too.

“Do you make me feel that way?” he said. “God, Lina, don’t you know? You are the biggest rush of my life. The biggest thrill. The wildest ride. You are everything I always wanted, and everything I thought I didn’t deserve. You are exceptional. You are beautiful. You are mine. And I love you.”

I blinked, then realized that I was crying. “Could you say that again, please?”

His grin spread wide. “I love you,” he said as he slid down my body trailing kisses over bare flesh. “Would you like me to show you just how much?”

I laid back, my arms and legs wide, my body completely open to him. “Yes,” I said, grinning happily. “Very much, yes.”

twenty-one

We drove out to Evanston the next morning to have Sunday brunch with Ivy. I ate too much, played too hard in the sun, and spent the drive back feeling sleepy and satisfied.

“I need to take care of some things at Destiny,” Evan said. “Do you mind?”

“Of course not. I can pack while you’re gone. But I’m still fixing you dinner tonight, right? My plane leaves at eight in the morning, so I really want the night with you.”

“You got it,” he said. “Your return flight’s on Wednesday?”

I nodded. I’d decided that I needed to tell my parents my decision in person. And since I felt more comfortable on familiar territory, I wanted to go this week while they were staying in our California house.

“I’ll be back by seven,” Evan promised as he dropped me at the condo. I changed into jeans and a T-shirt, then took a taxi to Fox & Obel and returned with two full shopping bags. More food than we needed, I was sure, but I wanted everything to be perfect.

I’d just set one of the bags down so that I could punch the elevator call button when Kevin stepped into the lobby.

“Let me get that for you,” he said, picking up the bag.

“It’s fine. I have it.” I grabbed the bag up. “What do you want, Kevin?”

“We need to talk.”

“I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

He pulled out his badge. “Yeah,” he said. “We do.”

“I—oh.” A wave of fear shot through me. Did he know about Neely? Did he know about the manuscript? I worked to keep my voice steady. “What’s this about?”

“Your boyfriend,” he said, his voice hard. “Let’s talk upstairs.”

I nodded, mute, then followed him onto the elevator. In the condo, I headed straight for the kitchen, hoping to use that time to gather myself, but when I came back to the living room, I didn’t feel gathered at all. I sat stiffly in a chair, stared at him, and told him to cut to the chase.

“I can nail the bastards,” he said without preamble.

“Who?”

“Don’t even pretend not to understand me,” he said. “Evan Black, Tyler Sharp, and Cole August.” He spat each name, and my heart twisted a little with each one.

“Nail them?” I asked, trying to sound a little bored and a lot confident. “For what exactly?”

“For violating the Mann Act,” he said, his words chilling me.

I wanted to tell him that I didn’t have a clue what the Mann Act was, but that would be a lie. My father had been on too many task forces, and he’d spent too many hours talking with my mother about using the Mann Act to combat white slavery.

“What exactly are you suggesting?” I asked icily.

“Those fuckers are transporting prostitutes. They’re bringing women across state lines for the purpose of sex. And I have a feeling that once we open the door and dig a little deeper, we’ll learn that it’s even more insidious than that. White slavery. Drugs. All sorts of shit. They’re in deep, Angie. And the longer you stay tied to them, the deeper you sink, too.”

I felt light-headed, and realized that I’d been shaking my head almost from the moment he’d started talking. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you need to know,” he said. “And because you’re going to help me.”

“No.” I stood up. “You’re wrong. There is no way Evan is tied up in something like that, and I am not going to help you harass him.”

“Sit down,” he said sharply.

I sat.