Devlin just glowered at him.

Vaughn leaned closer. “I just came off defense, Devlin. You’re now looking at an offense player.”

“You are threatening me?” Devlin spat.

Vaughn exhaled, all cool and casual, as he straightened to stand beside me again. “Just a friendly warning.” He shrugged.

Oh boy, my guy was sexy.

I took his hand and shivered at the feel of his fingers sliding through mine in response.

“Well.” I gave them all a fake sweet smile. “I’m not nearly so eloquent and scary hot as Mr. Tremaine here, so I’ll just say”—I leaned in to look at each one of them individually before focusing on the father—“you can kiss my ass.”

Jack reached for his glass, drawing my gaze, and I knew this time I didn’t miss the smile he was hiding behind his drink.

Apparently, I was never going to understand that man.

“You all have a nice evening now.” I gave them a taunting finger wave as Vaughn led us out of the restaurant.

People stared, having clearly caught the vibe at Devlin’s table, but I couldn’t care less.

A floating cloud.

Yup.

I was on a freaking, beautiful, floating cloud.

Vaughn was quiet as we walked out of the hotel to his car, but instead of letting me go when we reached it, he pressed me up against it and started kissing me.

Really kissing me.

His fingers curled into my waist as his mouth moved over mine in hungry, carnal kisses that made my knees tremble. Thankfully I was holding on to Vaughn and I had the car behind me to keep me on my feet.

When he finally released my mouth I was breathless. I stared up at him wide-eyed, my cheeks flushed as I felt his erection press into my belly. “What was that for?”

Vaughn rubbed his nose over mine in this cute, tender way that was completely at odds with the lusty kiss he’d given me. “That was ‘I love you and you look sexy as fuck in that dress and you getting off on getting one over on the Devlins has turned me on.’”

“I get it,” I muttered against his mouth, “because you getting all menacing with Ian Devlin got me more than a little hot and bothered. How do you fancy taking me back to your place and pinning me to the bed?”

He laughed, his eyes growing dark with heat. “Considering how hard I am right now I think that’s the only plan.”

“You’re losing control a lot in public these days, Mr. Tremaine,” I teased.

“Only with you, princess.” He gave me a quick, hard kiss, and then pulled back to open the car door for me. “In.”

Chuckling at his demand, I got into the car as quickly as I could.

To my surprise, Vaughn didn’t drive back to the hotel. Instead he drove us to the south side, on the outskirts of Hartwell where the wealthier residents lived. The large homes were mostly owned by people who summered in Hartwell—a pity as the gorgeous houses sat empty for most of the year.

I knew that Vaughn had a house right on the water because he let Jessica live there during her problems with Cooper. But I’d never seen it.

Silent, I let Vaughn take me into the house, and I drank it all in.

It was a picturesque home—white cladding, wraparound porches on the first and second floors, pretty garden—and as we walked through I was stunned to realize that the porch looked right out over the water. Amazing. Most of the houses here had large back gardens with pools, and a path that ran down to the beach and the ocean. Vaughn’s home was on a private inlay on the coast. It didn’t provide the same outside space at the back but I’d soon discover it had lots of land around it, and to the right side of the house was a huge pool and patio area.

Despite the beauty of the home, inside it was cold and modern. It was a bachelor’s house with a large, glossy chef’s kitchen with every appliance you could think of. The furniture was contemporary and everything was black, chrome, and white with some splashes of color here and there provided by artwork and sparse soft furnishings.

It was like something out of a magazine.

It wasn’t a home.

I followed Vaughn out onto the back porch, and we were quiet as we watched the sun set over the water.

“Why don’t you live here?”

“Because it made me feel lonely.”

At his honest answer I moved into him, wrapping my arm around his waist to rest my chin on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead, sliding his arm around my waist, too. “You’re not alone here now.”

“I know.” He studied me, brushing my hair off my face.

“You’ve gone all serious on me. What happened to the raging hard-on and the need to dominate me in bed?”

Vaughn gave a huff of laughter. “It’s there, believe me. But I felt like sharing this place with you tonight.”

There was something tentative about his words and I grew still, contemplative.

Today I’d made the decision to trust this man, to love him, and in doing so I’d made the decision to be myself around him.

Well, being Bailey Hartwell meant always speaking my mind.

“You want me to move in with you, don’t you?”

His gaze flew to mine. “It’s too fast.”

“But you want to ask anyway,” I teased, delight bubbling up inside of me.

“You don’t think it’s too fast?” he asked, sounding amazed.

“Vaughn.” I laughed. “We’ve been dancing around each other for almost four years, and we’ve definitely been dancing around this for months. It feels like we’ve been together much longer, doesn’t it?”