“Oh shit,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Amanda stiffened and then lifted her head to stare at him. He refused to meet her eyes. Was getting busy with her on the couch that embarrassing?

“Shouldn’t have done what?” she said, her voice laced with the building anger she felt.

“I had no intention of making a move on you, Amanda, I swear. I apologize.”

Jacob “Shade” Silverton was apologizing for sexual contact? Had the world ended without her knowing it? Or was he truly disgusted that she was the one who had had two mind-blowing orgasms under his attention and not that Busty Lusty McGillicutty who undoubtedly knew her way around a penis?

“Why wouldn’t you make a move on me?” she said, mentally cursing the emotional hitch in her voice. “Do you find me that sexually unappealing?”

“What? No,” he said and squeezed her against his side, “I can scarcely keep a grip on myself when you’re within the same county. It’s just . . . I like you, Amanda. I shouldn’t have touched you.”

“You like me, so you shouldn’t touch me? Jacob, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

“I don’t sleep with women I like.”

“Why not?”

“Because … ”

This was a side of him she’d never seen before, and she wasn’t sure how to handle this guy. The cocky jerk? Yeah, she understood him. But she’d never imagined there was a heart under all of Shade Silverton’s pomp and pageantry. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She had seen his heart. He wore it like a huge target on his chest when he was with his little girl. But could he care for a woman with the level of devotion he showed Julie?

“Because why?” she pressed.

“Because I wouldn’t want to hurt a woman I like. Not the way I hurt Tina. And I would. I’d tear her heart apart. I can’t help it. I’m an ass**le that way.”

She chuckled and relaxed against him. “What if I promised that you wouldn’t hurt me, Jacob? Because even though I like you too, I would never in a million years think a serious relationship would work out with you. I just want to hang around with you. Have fun with you.”

“Have sex with me?”

“Yeah, there’s that.”

“You’re sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just sex. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

His tense body relaxed. “Just-sex.”

“Yeah, nothing more.”

“All right, we’re on exactly the same page then.”

“You’d better stop acting all caring and sensitive. You wouldn’t want me to fall in love with you, would you?”

“No,” he said quickly, “that would be a bad idea.”

“Agreed.”

“Are you sure just-sex won’t hurt your feelings?”

“I’m sure.”

“All right then.” He sat up and pulled his shirt off over his head. “Then these clothes need to go.”

Oh God, the man was a genius. Not to mention gorgeous. He shucked his pants next and then settled back on the sofa with her tucked along his side. He slipped her borrowed shirt from her shoulder. “You won’t need this for the rest of the night.”

“What if I get cold?” she said with a smirk.

“Not an option.”

She removed the rest of her clothes and snuggled up against him with his arm around her. With his free hand, he reached for the bowl of fruit, set it on his sculpted stomach and began to feed her bites. She allowed her hand to wander his body, wondering if she was dreaming, or if she really was naked in Jacob Silverton’s arms, supposedly watching a movie, and doing her damnedest to make that magnificent c**k of his rise again.

When she got brave enough to run one fingertip down the length of his limp cock, he said, “Trying to watch a movie here.”

She smiled when she received the appropriate response out of his fifth appendage and it began to harden and thicken.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, “am I bothering you?”

“You are being a little distracting, Miss Lange.”

“Only a little?” She wrapped her hand around his thickening length. “It looks rather big from my perspective.”

He chuckled, smoothed her hair and kissed the top of her head. “We have all night for that. I mean, if you want to stay.”

Fuck yeah, she wanted to stay. “Are you inviting me?”

“We’ve already established that you can’t take a hint.”

She tore her gaze from the beauty that was his now fully erect c**k and angled her head to look into his eyes. “Well?”

“Will you stay the night with me, Amanda?”

“That depends,” she said.

He scowled. “On what?”

She grinned at him. “How many erections you can get in one night.”

He grinned back. “One won’t be enough?”

It would take him years to satisfy every fantasy she’d ever had about him. “Not for what I have in mind.”

“And I assume I’m supposed to figure out what you have in mind by trial and error?”

And she was sure he was going to treat her to fantasies she’d never dreamed of. “Normally I don’t like people to put ideas in my head, but that sounds like a plan.”

“Three.”

She supposed she could live with that. “I guess I’ll stay.”

He kissed her forehead tenderly. “Then you can relax. No need to rush.”

She supposed that was true, but she’d wanted him for so many years, now that he was literally at her fingertips, she didn’t want to waste any time. Maybe if she thought they’d have anything beyond one night together, she wouldn’t feel so desperate to spend the entire time with him between her thighs.

Jacob munched fruit and watched the continuing adventures of a psychotic serial killer while Amanda gently massaged the length of his cock. She was surprised when he continued to thicken beneath her persistent touch. She’d incorrectly assumed that he was as hard as he could get.

His skin was so smooth. Veins strained in tortuous paths just beneath the surface. She would have believed he was mostly unaffected by her touch if not for the little hitches in his breathing each time she discovered new ways of touching him. When she enclosed the head of his c**k in a loose fist and stroked him rapidly, his belly tightened and breath caught in his throat.