She was still holding his hand as she stared at the house, and he used their connection to take her closer to the oak tree that he hoped could help anchor her in happy memories rather than sadness over what had happened to the property.

Especially because he couldn’t read her expression.

“Oh, Adam.” He couldn’t read her tone, either, and he was just about to jump in to say something soothing when she continued, “I still love it just as much as I always did.”

She’d surprised him a dozen times before now, but never as much as she did just then, when she managed to see beauty amidst the dirt and rubble, neglect and overgrowth.

He was speechless as she drew him closer to the house and ran her hand over the curved porch columns, just as his father had earlier that week. “I want to live here. In this house. On this property.” Her eyes were bright with excitement as she turned to him. “Will you help me restore it to its former glory?”

He could have said a half-dozen things right then. Could have warned her about all the problems she was bound to encounter. Could have rattled off dollar figures that would have made her head spin. Could have explained how difficult the county was likely to be about the property if they did, in fact, deem it to be historic.

He’d come here today planning to tell her not to get her hopes up too high, because renovating this place was going to be a positively enormous project that would test even the steadiest nerves.

But now that she was all rose-colored glasses and memories of love, he didn’t want to do one damned thing to dim her light, her pleasure, or her excitement.

“Yes, I’ll help you.”

She threw her arms around his neck, and he twirled her around, not caring if they looked like they were straight out of a sappy rom-com.

“Every step of the way, Kerry, I’ll be here.”

This time she was the one kissing him, dragging him under, fast and hot, with her passion.

Her joy.

“I want you.” He’d never tasted anything so sweet. Never wanted anyone as much as he wanted her. “Now.”

She echoed the now against his lips, and the only way he could stop himself from taking her right there and then on the front porch was to forcefully remind himself that they were standing outside in a neighborhood filled with families and kids who could walk past at any second. The inside of the house was out, too, because it would start falling down around them if they got too crazy.

“My house.” He could barely fit the words in between kisses. “Come to my house. It’s close. Closer than a hotel.”

It should have been lust that drove him to make the suggestion, but the truth was that it was more than that. He wanted to test her will to resist him, test her belief that walking away from him one day would be so easy. Maybe it wasn’t fair, maybe it wasn’t even entirely rational, but the way he needed her right now—he needed to know that she needed him that badly, too. Badly enough to throw away their rules for one night and come to his house instead of a hotel.

But she didn’t even blink, didn’t pause before asking, “How fast can you get us there?”

Every time she’d asked him that before, it was to go save her sister. Tonight, though, her need for speed was for them and them alone.

“Depends on whether you’re distracting me or not.”

Lightning fast, she was taking his hand and pulling him down the street to his car. He was careful driving out of the neighborhood—and she made sure to keep her hands to herself—but once they hit the freeway, he gunned it. And so did she, already starting to unbutton his shirt.

“Three minutes. We just need three more minutes.”

He knew she had to be able to feel his heart pounding like crazy beneath her fingertips. And his heart wasn’t the only thing pounding, so when she reached for his belt, he put his hand over hers and held it still.

“If we crash, I don’t get to have you. Give me two minutes to get home.”

Two of the longest minutes of his life, especially when she leaned over and lightly bit his earlobe.

“Sixty seconds.” Which was one minute that he might not live through, not if she kept doing that thing with her tongue.

Finally, they were inside his garage. And then all bets—and any rules that had ever been there between them—were off.

Her dress was up and over her head before she could blink. Her bra and panties torn off and tossed to the floor of his car.

“Come here.”

He shoved his seat back and together they got her onto his lap as fast as possible. Her breasts were perfection in his hands, and then his mouth, and her hips were already grinding onto the jeans he hadn’t let her take off him while he was driving. She was already making those gorgeous sounds that told him how close she was to the edge, and he’d never needed anything so much in his life as he needed to hear her come just then.

“I need to watch you come for me.” He tugged at her hair with one hand so that he could look into her eyes. With the other, he gripped her hip to bring her even closer. “I need to feel it.” He lowered his mouth to her neck to nip at her skin and whispered into her ear, “I need to taste it, too.”

Her mouth parted on a gasp, and when he looked back at her, her eyes were fluttering half-closed as the tremors shook her. They rode her climax together, and though he loved being able to see her face as she came, he needed her mouth too badly not to take it with his.

He’d meant what he said about needing to taste her. Not just her lips, but all of her. And as tempting as it was to take her there in his car, he needed to lay her out on a bed so that he could have better access to all of her incredibly tempting curves and hollows and beautifully sensitive spots.