Titan had already turned to head to the door, and he stopped and jerked around abruptly. “The thing had a ton of work done. It should have run fine for another year at least.”

“I know you lied about the bill.”

“Get over it, Yve. What the hell happened?”

“I got here a few hours ago to work on inventory, and forgot I’d left my phone in my car. When I went out to get it, there was a giant puddle of oil under it. I called my cousin—”

“Stevie with the tow truck?”

“Yeah.” I was surprised he remembered. “And he took it back to the garage. I’m hoping they screwed up, and it’s not something new going wrong.”

“You need a new damn car. Something reliable.”

I propped a hand on my hip. “I’ll get right on that, Mr. Titan, as soon as I find someone to give me a loan to buy the business that basically means more to me than anything in my life, and then, you know, stumble onto a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the front seat of a new Ferrari.”

He ignored my bitchy remarks and focused on one specific point. “How did your appointment go at the Entrepreneur Fund? Did you go? Or did you skip it just to spite me?”

I wasn’t about to tell him that they’d met with me, looked at my business plan, projections, and references, then had smiled, nodded, and told me they’d be in touch soon.

Soon better be within days. I’d caught sight of the skinny bitch Jennifer again today outside the store, most likely scoping out the foot traffic. I wondered how long it would be before she made her move. I felt like an idiot waiting to talk to Harriet, but pride was a crazy, stupid thing.

Instead of sharing any of that with Titan, I glared. “I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t skip something like that just to prove a point to you. Did you not catch when I said this place means more to mean than anything? I’d think you’d get that. Don’t you feel that way about your company? Or is it just the gold in your Scrooge McDuck vault that you spend all day swimming in and counting that makes you happy?”

Titan was shaking his head as he strode toward me. “You’re something else, woman. Come on.” He held out his hand, and I contemplated it for a moment.

Apparently a moment too long, because he grabbed mine and dragged me along.

“Wait, my purse.”

He paused and dropped my hand. “Get it and let’s go.”

“You’re the bossiest man I know, Titan.”

“How many billionaires have you met?”

“Touché.” I grabbed my purse and we headed for the door.

If you’d asked me a few weeks ago how many times I’d ride in an Aston Martin in my life, I would have told you a big fat zero. But that number seemed to be rising fast. We neared the street corner that I’d jumped out at before, and Titan hit the locks.

I grabbed the handle experimentally and pulled the lock. It didn’t budge.

“Child locks. Because someone has a tendency to bolt at inconvenient times.”

“You really care where I live that much? It’s not a big deal.” And while I preferred he didn’t know before, I guessed I was rounding the corner of I don’t really care now.

“Which way?”

“Right. Pull into the alley. It’s the green one—third house on the left. There’s a little parking area.”

He followed my directions and pulled up behind my building. When he flipped open the door locks, I hopped out. I didn’t expect him to follow me, but Titan didn’t play by the rules I set out for him in my head.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Making sure you get inside.”

“I’m not going to get mugged on the way to my door. It’s a hundred feet away.”

“And yet I’m walking you up there.”

We were already halfway to the stairs, so the conversation was getting ridiculous.

“Is this one of those rare times you pretend to be a gentleman?”

He didn’t answer, just followed me to my door.

“What sent you running that night?” he asked once I’d slid the key into the lock.

“Nothing important,” I lied.

“Something. And you wouldn’t call the cops. Has it happened again?”

I punched in the alarm code as soon as I had the door open, and Titan followed me inside without invitation.

“Um, you can go now.”

He eyed the security system with interest. “That’s new, I bet. Are the locks new too?” His gaze dropped to me. “Whatever it was spooked you badly, and you still won’t tell me a damn thing.”

I dropped my purse on the tiny table beneath the mirror to the left of my door. “Look, Titan. We might be having a fling, but I don’t think either of us is under the impression that this is a friends-with-benefits situation.”

He shut the door behind him and leaned up against it. “I have to say this is a new situation for me, where a woman wants me for nothing more than my cock.”

“Don’t forget your mouth and your hands. Those are important too.”

“But not my money, influence, protection, or anything else I can offer.”

The word protection rubbed me the wrong way. It was just a throwback description to keeping a woman.

“I don’t need anything else from you.”

“So damn stubborn.” He closed the distance between us with one step. “And yet I want you more than I can remember wanting anyone else.”

The words crashed into me, quite frankly scaring the hell out of me. I wanted him on my terms; I didn’t want his fixation or his genuine interest.

“You shouldn’t. You should only want me as much as I want you. Anything else is a mistake.”

“Then so be it.”

He buried a hand in my hair, tilted my head back, and crushed his lips to mine. I didn’t think. I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I just let Lucas Titan kiss the hell out of me in my house and wondered when the world had gone so sideways.

He released me and stepped away. “Don’t wait too long to send out the next booty call, Yve. I’m already hard.”

Once he was gone, I reset the alarm and checked every room of my place. Nothing else moved or missing. I would have thought I’d imagined the other stuff—but I couldn’t make up the words on the mirror.