Colin opened his palm. “Give those to me.”

“I can . . .”

“And take my man card? I don’t think so. Pour yourselves some wine and talk about me when I’m gone.”

She smiled and lifted her lips to his.

He winked after he kissed her, and called the dog. “C’mon, Scout. Keep me company.”

After he walked out the door, Erin turned to her and said, “I didn’t know men like that existed.”

“Me either.”

Austin and Mallory both walked in the door after nine, ate dinner, and went to bed.

Erin excused herself to the guest room, and Colin finally found some alone time with Parker.

“Alone at last.”

They curled up on the couch, full from dinner and warm from the wine. The generator still ran, the noise hummed behind the music.

Parker tapped her fingers on his thigh. “What should we do?” she asked, a lift in her voice.

“Spin the bottle or three minutes in the closet are my best games.”

“You need more than two people to play spin the bottle.”

Colin stopped her hand and brought it to his lips. “Three minutes in the closet it is.”

She leaned her head back on his arms and he took the offering of her lips.

Kissing her was becoming an addiction he was fast learning he couldn’t do without. They started out lazy . . . a slow languishing of lips and tongues until he felt Parker’s hand land just shy of his groin while she repositioned herself.

Colin pulled her up against him and captured her sexy little hand before she could move it away.

“You’re bad.”

He nodded. “You found my fault.”

He pressed her hand dangerously close to his erection and watched her eyes widen.

“Colin, I . . .” She looked away, her palm squeezed his hip. “I’ve never done anything in this house. With a man . . .”

It took a second for her words to catch up to his brain. “What about a woman?” he teased to try and ease what he felt were her nerves speaking for her.

His goal was achieved with her laughter. “It’s just that, Austin and Mallory are in the other room, Erin . . .”

“You don’t have to explain, Parker. I understand.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I took over my parents’ bedroom, so that just feels weird.”

He placed a finger over her lips. Sure, he was disappointed, but he completely understood. “Shhh. Let’s just make out on the couch,” he said before kissing her again.

Parker pulled away, smiled. And the fist next to his goods relaxed and grazed his cock. “Maybe some heavy petting?” she asked.

He pulled her higher on his lap, kept one palm firmly on the cheek of her ass. “Until one of us cries uncle.”

The sweetest torture of his life commenced and ended with an awkward walk to his car an hour later. He placed the cold water bottle she’d given him for the drive home between his legs to calm his hormones and pulled out of her driveway.

He drove through the neighborhood, where not even the streetlights shined.

It was dark and unsettling. In neighborhoods where the houses were closer together, power outages didn’t feel so empty. But out here in the middle space between big cities and rural countryside, it was like a dark vastness of quiet. It was then Colin understood Parker’s father’s desire for fences and gates, shotguns, and “No Trespassing” signs. It wasn’t that he felt threatened, but he didn’t want some opportunistic criminal to see a dark house at the end of the road and take advantage.

It was also at that point he was happy that his little Annie Oakley could be a serious ballbuster when she wanted to be.

But he still worried.

The problem with the big box stores is you go in to get one thing, leave with twenty . . . and forget the one thing you went in for. But Parker was learning to buy in bulk.

She was on her third trip up the stairs with armloads of groceries when Erin poked her head into the garage. “Want some help?”

“Absolutely.”

“So how is the world of editing?” Parker asked while pivoting around the kitchen putting groceries away.

“Strangely satisfying. I’m reading more books than I have in years.”

“I don’t remember the last time I read for pleasure. It’s always school or how-to manuals on fixing something here.” She shuffled through the produce, putting it away and tossing stuff that was growing the wrong shade of green.

“I have some great recommendations once your time frees up.”

She peeked around the open door of the refrigerator to look at her. “Like that is ever going to happen.” They’d spent three days power washing patios, furniture, and swimming pools.

Scout let out a bark while staring out the sliding glass door.

Parker stopped what she was doing to investigate. Her eye traveled to the far end of the property. The last of the heavy-machine drivers was climbing on the back of his loader. The men who worked directly for the county had all left. It wasn’t uncommon for the subcontracted men to stay behind to oil their rigs and repair any issues before they left for the day. “What’s got you excited?” She reached down to pet the dog.

He barked again.

One of the large oak trees at the bottom of the driveway cut off her view from a large section of the property, the part that once corralled the horses when they had them. After the fire, there wasn’t anything left of the fences to contain anything. Parker opened the door and Scout darted out.

“Hey!”

He ignored her and ran off.

“What is it?” Erin asked.

Parker walked to the far end of the patio and spotted a small convertible parked in the center of the field away from where the construction workers parked. Then she saw another dog running around.

What she didn’t see was the person who drove the car in.

It wasn’t completely uncommon for one of the office engineers to make an appearance, but most of the time they came with one of Colin’s people in the middle of the workday. Not after everyone else had left for the day.

“I don’t know,” Parker told her. “I’ll go find out.”

She trekked down the stairs and driveway and cut across the yard. The closer she got to the car, she was able to make it out. A Mercedes. Not the kind of car anyone had driven in before.

Scout had run up on the hill outside of the chain-link fenced portion of the property. The gates had been open since construction had started. No need to shut them when no one other than her family and Colin’s workforce walked up there.

Scout and another dog were dancing around each other, playing. At the top of the hill stood a man she didn’t recognize. She made it halfway up before the man turned, smiled, and waved.

“Hello,” she greeted who she assumed was a county employee.

He peered over the work in progress, hands on his hips. “This is some project.”

That sounded odd.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Looks like they’re expecting some serious flooding.”

Okay, not an employee. Parker’s guard went up.

“They’re not taking any chances.”

The dogs started barking, and it looked like Scout was getting a little too friendly with his companion.