It was? That was an odd coincidence. Then I remembered her tat.

My Whole Life Has Been Pledged to This Meeting with You

Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe she really was my atonement.

I looked around. I was definitely on some kind of an edge. I knew that, because if I jumped up in place, I could see the rosebushes on the other end. I charged in the opposite direction.

“Are you really looking for me?” Her voice was quiet.

“Nah. I’m taking a lengthy stroll in a stranger’s maze in the middle of the fucking summer because sweating my own body weight is a favorite hobby,” I quipped.

“No one else ever did, and I’ve been coming here for two and a half years now. Sometimes for entire days.”

I sucked in a slow breath, ignoring the fact my blood had migrated from my dick to my head, and now I was angry. Where the hell were her parents?

“I’m getting closer,” I said.

“How do you know?”

“I can smell you.”

“How do I smell?”

Like dessert.

“Green apples and the first rain after a dry spell.”

She laughed, then sniffed. Was she crying? I didn’t ask, because I didn’t want to do something stupid if she was. Already, I sounded like a bad Valentine’s post card. Then she said, “Cedar wood and cinnamon.”

“Huh?”

“That’s what you smell like.” I heard the grin in her voice and imagined her chewing the tip of her raven black hair.

“I didn’t think you were ever close enough to notice.”

“It’s a strong smell.” She sniffed again. Definitely crying.

“Bet it smells delicious,” I said, hating the beat that followed my statement.

“It does.”

Warmth filled my chest. This was not good. My cock was one thing. Anything north of it was something else entirely. We were going to establish a few rules once I got to her. If I ever did. It occurred to me, then, that Jesse sounded sad, but not stressed. She knew her way around this maze, probably better than anyone.

Step. Another step.

My eyes found her back like a light in the dark. Her silky hair. Her sweet, round, small, perky ass. I wanted to sink my teeth into one of the cheeks and dig a finger into that tight hole. Make her moan my name. Then suck on her pussy until I had pussy breath for the next week.

“Boo,” I said dryly.

Jesse turned around, the red of her eyelids against the blue of her pupils sending me crashing back to planet Earth.

“I can’t believe you looked for me.”

“I can.” Mother of all fucks, what was I saying? I took a step forward without meaning to. She didn’t take a step back. Another calamity waiting to arise. “You called me a whore because you wanted me to give up on you like all those other motherfuckers, didn’t you?”

She dropped her gaze to her Keds. “I don’t trust men, Bane, but I guess you haven’t given me a reason not to trust you yet.” A truth. “Whatever your motives are about me, are they one hundred percent pure?”

“Yeah.” A lie.

I liked her. I did. That was good—I needed to like her, I had six months to spend with her—but I didn’t want to like her like her. I liked Jesse in the same way I used to like my ex-girlfriend, Edie. It was a long way from the L word, but it sat comfortably between caring about someone to wanting to fuck them so hard they couldn’t walk straight for three days after.

“So. You’ve met Mrs. B.” Jesse wiped her eyes quickly, breaking whatever spell we’d found ourselves entwined in. I tousled my hair to do something with my hands. “Yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is calling the police right now, reporting the mammoth Viking stamped with tattoos who trudged into her hedge maze.”

Jesse laughed, bringing a lock of dark hair to her lips and chewing on it. “How did you find me?”

Your stepdad tells me where you are twenty-four-fucking-seven.

“You told me about this place right before you decided to take a shit on our newfound friendship. I figured you’d be here, and I was in El Dorado with one of my usual hookups.”

And the lies just keep on piling up like shitty food at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re not stalking me, right? Because I’ve had my fair share of crazy for this lifetime.”

I gave her a pitying look. “You barely leave your house and dress like a teenage nun. No offense, but you make a very unattractive stalkee.”

“Stalkee isn’t a word.”

“But you have to admit it’d make a good one.”

She could smile right now if she weren’t so broken. But she was. So she nodded instead. “I came here to gather courage. Shadow hasn’t been eating or drinking, for two days now. I need to take him to the vet.”

I vaguely remembered the furry dirtball from the playground. She’d clutched him into her chest like he was her newborn baby, even though he was kind of big.

“Okay. Let’s go.” I cocked my head to one of the many paths of the maze. She looked up, and there was hope in her eyes.

“You’ll come with me?”

Her gratitude depressed me. What role did her parents play in her life, other than trying to get her to have a job so she could leave their home?

I shrugged. “I’m not meeting my evening piece till nine.”

I didn’t know why I said it. Well, actually, I did. I said it because I needed to remember it. Because Jesse Carter was a project, not a goddamn date. But that still didn’t explain why I scanned her face for emotional clues. And definitely didn’t explain why I fucking hated not finding any.

“Okay, so we better hurry. I know a way out of here that’s not through the entrance.” She quirked her lips up in a lopsided grin. My logic flew out the window around the same second. That was a new expression on her face. A leftover from her former self, was my guess.

“Follow me.” She motioned with her hand.

My eyes clung to her ass, and I was no longer chasing her.

No, I was hunting her.

Waiting on her.

Knowing the pounce would never come.

Knowing no amount of tall stacks was going to make up for the damage I was about to create.

“LET ME GO GRAB SHADOW’S leash.”

Remember those words, because they were the ones leading to a shitshow of epic proportions, sponsored by Pam Morgansen, directed by yours-fucking-truly.

Here’s how it happened: I stood in the foyer next to the oldest dog in the world. Not an exaggeration. Shadow flashed me a tired I-don’t-trust-your-ass glare, and I answered him with an I-wouldn’t-trust-my-ass-either smirk. It was the first time I visited her house in daylight, and it was luxurious, silent and empty. It was like putting a designer dress on a corpse. Beautifully depressing. I scanned the huge paintings on the walls and tried not to think about the fact that Jesse thought that I smelled good. Usually, I didn’t give a shit. That’s not to say I smelled like it. But I wasn’t used to making an effort.

Anyway, I was trying not to think about that moment in the maze. Instead, I focused on how Shadow’s breath smelled eerily similar to a dead body. Not a good sign. I heard rustling from the kitchen’s direction. My ears perked. If Darren saw me here, he’d see the progress I’d made with Jesse. Only it wasn’t Darren. It was, or should I say that was, a human Barbie doll.

The lady of the manor.

Her hair was too bleached, her skin too tanned, too leathery, too much. Her blue eyes were vacant. An overpainted marionette with the strings cut off. Pretty, but hollow in all the important places. She wore wedge shoes and a bright green caftan. Her fake tan was the exact shade of a KFC chicken thigh.

“A stranger in the house.” Barbie slid her sunglasses down, gasping theatrically, but it was flirtatious. “I’m Pam. And you are?”

Not interested.

“Roman.” I leaned back—boot against the swan-hued wall—my charming smirk on full display. She was of zero interest to me, but I didn’t need her causing trouble with her daughter. Best to be civilized, for now.

Pam shifted closer, offering me the back of her hand for a kiss. I took her palm, lowered it, then shook it. Her blindingly white beam collapsed an inch.

“This is not very chivalrous,” she commented.

“It is also not the seventeenth century,” I informed her, snapping my gum in her face.

“That’s all right. I’m not too fond of gentlemen, anyway.” Her pale eyes scanned my body with hunger I knew too well, because I satisfied those cravings. “I didn’t know Jesse hung out with the tattooed, tall, handsome types.”

I was starting to feel increasingly sorry for Darren. His stepdaughter didn’t care for him much, and his wife actively tried to screw men who weren’t him. All the money in the world and not an ounce of respect. I refrained from answering Pam, lowering myself down to pat Shadow.

“How did you meet Jesse?” Her bare thigh was suddenly thrust in front of my eyes.

“She had a flat tire. I had hands. The rest is history.”

“Classic Jesse. She’s a total mess sometimes.” Pam laughed, but there was no humor in her voice.

I kneaded Shadow’s fur. How long did it take Jesse to grab a goddamn leash? I wanted to get out of there. Preferably before my potential investor found his wife trying to grind her groin all over my face, which was starting to look like a plausible scenario.

“So…are you guys…?” Pam left the question hanging in the air. It was time to smash her little black heart. I straightened my spine, looked her in the eye, and delivered the news.

“Dating? No.”

“Oh.” She licked her lips, staring at me through her extended eyelashes. “That’s good to know.”

“Not for my lack of trying,” I said after a calculated pause, making sure the sentence left the desired impact I was looking for. I stared through her, the way I did when I wanted to dismantle people with egos bigger than their mansions. In my experience, the more insecure you were about holding onto what you had, the bigger your ego was. “She’s not too hot on buying a cow that every farmer in town has already milked, and I can’t blame her. I only attract a certain type of woman. Not the picky ones.” I cocked my head sideways, giving her a thorough scan.