My eyes went wide. I hadn’t expected her to say yes, though I was prepared to wear her down. “At the end of the day, we only regret the things we missed out on doing. So I’ll make sure we do it all.”

Annalise’s friend walked back over. “You two look cozy.”

“Now you come interrupt? Where were you five minutes ago when I had a temporary lapse of sanity and agreed to the crazy deal this lunatic just proposed?”

Madison smiled at her. “You need a good dose of insanity. Plus, we’re running out of stuff to talk about after twenty-five years of friendship. This will give us all new material for our weekly dinners.”

Annalise leaned over and kissed Madison’s cheek. “It certainly will.”

***

I’d wanted Annalise to myself from the moment I’d walked in. Not that I didn’t have a good time—because surprisingly, I did. Her friend Madison was a straight shooter, and her date was a decent guy, too.

But now they’d just said goodbye, and Annalise and I stood outside the winery, just the two of us, as they pulled away. The dirt that kicked into the air from the tires hadn’t even settled yet when I had her face in my hands. I kissed her softly at first, but I couldn’t stop myself, and it didn’t take very long before it turned hard and heated.

She moaned into my mouth, and I had to force myself to pull back before it was too late and I ended up fucking her against a tree for her parents to walk out and see.

I brushed my thumb over her swollen lips. “Come home with me.”

“I can’t.” She frowned. “I told my mom I’d stay over tonight. Tomorrow morning I take the ride with her to go deliver free bottles of the new season’s wine to some of her biggest customers. Matteo cooks a huge brunch, and all the pickers and workers come to eat. We started doing that the first year they bought the place, and it stuck as a tradition.”

That sounded nice, but I was selfish, so I couldn’t even hide my pout.

“Awww…” She stroked my cheek. “You look like I used to at Christmas when I opened all my new toys and then my mom made me put them away because company was coming over.”

I locked my hands behind her back. “I definitely want to play with my new toy.”

“I think we should establish a few ground rules anyway,” she said.

“Uh-oh. Rules always get me in trouble.”

She smiled. “I bet they do. But I think we need a few.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like I don’t think we should make it public at work that anything is going on between us. Not even to our friends.”

I nodded. “Makes sense.”

“And when we’re together outside of the office, no talking about work projects where we’re competitors.”

“Agreed.”

“Okay. Well, that was easy. You’re not usually so agreeable.”

“I also have a few of my own ground rules I’d like to establish.”

Annalise raised a brow. “You do, do you?”

“Yep.”

“Okay…”

“Unless one of us ends things before the expiration date, we’re monogamous.”

“I guess that was a given for me. But good, I’m glad you put it out there anyway. Anything else?”

“Are you on the pill?”

“I am, yes.”

“Then let’s get rid of the condoms. I had my annual physical a few weeks ago. Clean as a whistle. If it feels that good inside of you wearing them, I need to find out what the hell it feels like without.”

She leaned in and pressed her breasts against me, looking up.

“Bare…okay.”

“What time is brunch over tomorrow?”

“Probably by three.”

“Come straight to my house after. I’ll make us dinner and eat you for dessert.”

She looked up from under those long eyelashes and ran her tongue across her top lip. “What about my dessert?”

I groaned. “You’re killing me, Texas.”

Chapter 30

* * *

Annalise

I stood with my mouth hanging open, looking out at the view.

Since Bennett and I didn’t live far from each other, I’d assumed he also lived in a five-hundred-square-foot apartment and sacrificed space for the nice neighborhood. But West Hill Towers—at least the apartment I was currently standing inside of—didn’t sacrifice anything. His open kitchen and living room area was probably twice the size of my entire apartment. And when I looked outside my window, I saw the building next to me. Bennett had a million-dollar view of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge with the mountains as a backdrop.

He brought me a glass of wine and stood alongside of me as I gawked at the sight. “Umm… Do you rob banks on the side?”

The corner of his lip twitched. He lifted his wine glass to his mouth. “I’m too pretty to go to prison.”

“Sugar momma?”

He shook his head.

“Win the lotto?”

More head shaking. He could have just told me what the deal was. He knew me well enough to know it wasn’t likely I’d be letting the subject go without an answer.

“Rich parents? You do wear some expensive suits and shoes.”

“My father was a postman. My mom was a secretary at a law firm.”

“I know that on average, men tend to make more than women in the same jobs, but this…” I held up my hands toward his view. “…this would be a little insane.”

Bennett set his wine down on a nearby bookcase, then took mine out of my hand and set it next to his.

He hooked both arms around my waist. “You didn’t kiss me hello.”

“I guess I got distracted by the view.”

His eyes raked up and down my body. “I’m pretty distracted by the view at the moment.”

My stomach got that squishy feeling.

He leaned in. “Kiss me.”

I rolled my eyes as if it were a burden to plant my lips on this beautiful man, and then leaned in for a quick peck hello. Only when I went to pull back, Bennett tangled his hand in my hair and didn’t let me. My hasty kiss turned into way more than hello. Bennett’s other hand slid down to my ass, and he pulled me flush against him. I felt the prod of his erection against my belly.

Well, hello there.

He broke the kiss with a tug of my bottom lip between his teeth. I was breathless.

“Hi,” I said.

His mouth curved into a smile. He pushed my wayward hair behind my ear. “Hey, beautiful.”

We stared at each other, grinning like two goofy teenagers who just made out for the first time. Bennett used his thumb to wipe smeared lipstick from my bottom lip. “I had an accident a long time ago. Got a big settlement. Invested part of the money to buy this place.”

It took me a second to realize what he was even talking about. His kiss had left me dazed.

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope no one was too hurt.”

Bennett handed me back my wine. “I better check on the pasta.”

While he went back to the kitchen, I snooped around. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room were the decoration in his apartment, so he didn’t need much else. His furnishings were nice, dark and masculine, and he had a gigantic curved-screen TV in the living room.

The only real sense of who Bennett Fox was had to come from his bookshelves. I perused the titles—an odd mix of political nonfiction, hardcover thrillers, and some well-worn comic books. There were four small, framed photos, two of which were Lucas—one in a soccer uniform with half of his front teeth missing in his smile, and one that looked more recent of him and Bennett on a boat. They seemed to have a very strong bond.

There was another of Bennett and an older woman on what looked like his college graduation day. I turned and found Bennett watching me from the open kitchen.

“Your mom?”

He nodded. “Graduate school graduation.”

I looked more closely at the photo and could see the resemblance. “You look like her. She looks very proud here.”

“She was. I went off the rails for a year the month I started grad school. Dropped out. I’m pretty sure she never expected I’d get back on track and finish.”

“Oh, now I’m curious. I expect to hear more about that crazy year at some point.”

Bennett’s face turned solemn. “It’s not a year I’m proud of.”

Feeling the need to change the subject, I put the photo of his mom back and picked up the last frame. It was a girl, probably about seventeen or eighteen, leaning against a car and smiling. She was pretty.

“Your sister?” I asked, even though I remembered he’d once mentioned he was an only child.

Bennett shook his head. “Friend. Lucas’s mother.”

He’d said Lucas’s mother died a long time ago, so I didn’t push. Instead, I looked down and studied the photo. Her son looked exactly like her.

“Wow, he’s like her little mini-me.”

Bennett dumped water into the sink from a steaming pot. “He’s becoming a little wiseass just like her, too.”

I set the photo back down and walked to the bar stools tucked under the living room side of the kitchen counter to watch him cook.

“Are you any good?”

He arched a brow. “You tell me.”