“You were there when I got on the scale at the doctor’s office yesterday,” she joked. “I’m not exactly wasting away.”

He didn’t smile. “You’re perfect, Sophie.”

She sank down on a chair at his kitchen’s breakfast bar. Perfect. Had he just said that? And more to the point, did he actually mean it? Did he actually think that dull, nice Sophie Sullivan was perfect? Beyond the fact that she could have his children?

She swallowed hard, then looked over her shoulder toward the dining table. “What are you working on?”

He slid the plates of food into the oven’s warming drawer. “We just put in a new tracking system for all of the pubs. There are a handful of bugs giving us trouble.”

She was ashamed that it had taken her until last night to realize how hard he worked to build his business. Jake had always made everything look so easy.

What else didn’t she know about him?

“How did you get started with the pubs?” She couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t own them.

He looked surprised by her question. “I guess you were pretty young when I bought and opened the first McCann’s, huh? I’ve always worked in pubs, wherever my dad was. All those tips added up over the years and when I got the chance to bail the owner of one of them out of a loan gone bad, I took it.”

“How old were you?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Wow, that’s really young to own your own restaurant.”

“I guess so,” he said, “but by then I’d been working in pubs forever.”

“You’re good at making it seem so easy, but—” She nodded at the spreadsheets. “—I’m starting to see just how much work it all is.”

“It’s just food and drink. Anyone could do it. Even a guy like me.”

She frowned, not liking the way he was talking about himself, like his incredible achievements weren’t worthwhile. “Jake, you’ve got to see how amaz—”

“Food’s up.” He slid it across the breakfast bar.

She made a face at his habit of cutting her off every time it seemed like they were on the verge of something important. “It’s so irritating the way you always do that.”

He plated some food for himself, then came and sat next to her, saying nothing.

“Don’t you even know what you always do that’s so irritating?” she demanded.

“Nope.”

She almost laughed aloud. “You’re such a guy.”

“Thanks.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.” She jammed some toast into her mouth and crunched it, lest she say something else she’d end up regretting later.

Jake looked at her with barely veiled amusement. “You have some strawberry right here.” He reached out and slid his thumb across her cheek, straight to her mouth, at which point Sophie shocked both of them by sucking the sticky pad of his thumb between her lips and licking off the jam.

His eyes darkened. “I came out here to work so that I wouldn’t attack you again.”

Her breath came faster as she said, “What makes you think I don’t want to be attacked?”

He pulled his hand from her and closed his eyes like a man on the verge of losing it. “Sophie.”

He said her name as a warning, but she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him, could see it not just in the arousal that was starting to tent his pants, but in the taut lines of his face as he tried to control himself.

Not wanting to think, not wanting to face any of her worries for a little while longer, she quickly stripped off his shirt and let it fall to the floor. She couldn’t believe how natural it was to not only get up and straddle his hips, but to do it while completely naked.

“What about you?” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the side of his neck, licking a path up to his earlobe before whispering, “Do you mind being attacked?”

“God, no.”

Just as fast as she’d stripped and moved over him, he shoved his pants down and was inside of her. She lost her breath at the feeling of being connected with him like this, so full she felt as if she’d burst from the pleasure coursing through her veins.

She’d never have believed herself capable of something like having sex on a bar stool in the middle of breakfast, but being intimate with Jake was so natural. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and rode the waves of pleasure that crashed through her as he held her hips in his big hands and thrust up into her in perfect rhythm to her own downward thrusts.

She wanted to be with him like this for hours, to memorize the beauty of his rippling muscles beneath her, but when he moved one hand into her hair and crushed her mouth against his, she had no choice but to follow him over the edge...spiraling off into a world full of brighter, more brilliant colors than she’d ever seen before.

* * *

Sophie blew his mind. Not just every time they came together, but in other ways, too. Like the way she snuggled even closer to him, giggled, and said, “That was fun.”

“Fun?” He did his best impersonation of a wounded lover. “That’s all I am to you?”

She giggled again and with his shaft still inside her, the vibrations felt good. Damn good.

“Oh!” Her eyes grew big as she felt him throb inside her again. “I always thought guys needed a little recovery time.”

He was perpetually hard around her and knew it would be a heck of a long time before he’d need to recover from loving her before wanting to take her again. But he had to think of more than just himself and his needs now.