“I kind of like you too,” I said, breathless.

“You’re a hot cheerleader.”

“You’re a sexy quarterback.”

We laughed and kissed some more. Sally splashed for attention.

I didn’t realize I was still crying until I noticed my tears were falling onto the concrete fence in front of the cage.

“You okay?” The voice pierced my pain, only slightly. I turned to see Demetri leaning against the door.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“Easy.” He shrugged. “I put a tracking device in your taffy.

It’s all part of my evil plan to take over the world. One hot girl at a time.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The jerk, he would make me laugh when I was trying to wrap myself up in all that pain.

“Truthfully?” He walked toward me and leaned against the concrete wall. “I figured this was where I would go if I were you. It has happy memories, and right now you need to be cheered up.”

“They told you.”

“I guessed.”

I sighed. “So now you know.”

“No.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug. “I know nothing. I want to hear it from you, but not until you’re ready. In fact, I remember a while back making a little deal with you. I tell you something hard and you tell me. Technically someone else told me, but I’ll still count yours for the day.”

I closed my eyes and nodded as I placed my head against his chest and sighed again. He felt so comfortable, so good.

“I loved my girlfriend, Cassie, so much.”

I wanted to tense and push away, but really, wasn’t I mourning a lost love too? I would be the biggest hypocrite on the planet if I did that. So I waited for him to continue.

“My brother and I were drunk one night and made a bet. I’d been wanting to sleep with her for months. I was fifteen and horny.”

“And you’re different now…?” I whispered into his chest.

His laugh warmed me from the inside out. “Very funny.”

His hand moved to my head as he caressed my hair. “Anyway, my brother was giving me so much crap about it that finally I had enough. I told him that even he couldn’t get in her pants. Before all this happened Alec had always been the lady killer. I know, hard to believe, but it’s true.”

I felt him gulp as he held me tighter and whispered, “He gave her heroine.”

Shocked, I pulled back and looked at his face to see if he was kidding. He wasn’t smiling. In fact, that all too familiar look of pain was etched in his eyes. “They had sex and she got pregnant.”

“With his baby,” I whispered hoarsely. “The girl you loved?

And your brother? So you have a nephew?”

“No.” His lower lip trembled, as he pulled away and leaned against the concrete container. “But, that’s a story for another time.”

I had pushed him to his limit. It was clear he didn’t make a habit of telling this story — it was private. Nobody knew about it, otherwise I would have been told by now. He trusted me with something deep and dark.

And I owed him the same thing.

I reached for his hand and pulled him into a hug.

Well, it was supposed to be a hug, until I reached up and touched his face. He closed his eyes and moaned.

I wasn’t sure if I moved first or if he did, but our lips met, and in a frenzy he picked me up and slammed me against the wall.

“Sorry,” he mumbled setting me down. “I’m just overwhelmed a bit. Kind of used to using this as a way to…”

“Mask the pain,” I finished looking into his hurt eyes.

“I don’t want to use you.”

“You aren’t.”

“How do you know?”

He doubted himself so much, but I knew what type of guy he was. He was one of the good ones, as much as he whored around. It was all a mask, a smokescreen. I took a deep breath.

“Because I do. Now kiss me.”

Demetri’s eyes widened just slightly before his mouth crushed mine. I parted my lips as his tongue plunged in and out.

His hands moved to cup my butt and pull me against him.

His kiss was nothing like Brady’s.

Nothing.

Demetri’s hands moved against my skin, slowly lifting my shirt. When I felt his fingers graze the skin above my hipbone it sent a shot of electricity through my body, and my head jerked back. His mouth worked down my neck. Clearly, the guy knew how to kiss.

I shuddered beneath his kiss, his touch. I’d never in my life experienced anything like it. Part of me wanted to pull back, because it felt like I was cheating on Brady’s memory, that I wasn’t being faithful to the relationship we had, but another part craved Demetri.

A throat cleared in the distance.

Slowly, Demetri put me back on my feet, his eyes never left my face. A sense of awe reflected in them as his forehead touched mine.

The throat cleared again.

“What is it, Bob?” Demetri’s voice was hoarse.

“People are waiting to come in.”

“Right.” He reached out and pulled down my shirt then tucked my hair behind my ears. “Do you have any lip gloss?”

I nodded.

“Put it on.”

I nodded my head numbly and reached for my lip gloss.

With shaking fingers I dabbed a bit on my lips and rubbed them together. I ran my fingers through my hair so it didn’t look so mussed, but I’m sure it probably still looked awful. After all, I had been sobbing and making out with the hottest guy on the planet.