She paused, watching him closely, then went on hurriedly.

“You weren’t back in town. I hadn’t even met Johnny yet.”

“Babe, I’m just pissed I wasn’t around so that revenge bang could be with me. Though, since you weren’t in the right place then, that might have been bad. But I don’t care you got yourself some. It was over with your ex.” He grinned. “And you got down in the mud to get some of your own back. Good. I’m glad. You deserved it. Proud a’ you, Addie.”

She grinned back. “We so totally fit.”

They so totally did.

“And if you weren’t you, Toby, you would not fit me and it’s not about being flaky and fucking around and fucking up. It’s that all you went through made you all you are. A good, decent, protective man who would take on a woman and her son. And if you weren’t that, it goes without saying, it would seriously suck.” She glided her knuckles along the beard at his jaw. “‘Take ’Em and Leave ’Em Toby and Wild Child Addie, a match made in heaven.”

Fuck, he liked that.

So much, he felt the growl in his gut before it came out his mouth and he kissed her when it was still rolling.

She kissed him back, sealing their first date and all she just gave him on her couch in his memory.

And it was good.

Too good, seeing as, with her on her period, they couldn’t take that goodness further.

So he broke the kiss and muttered, “Let’s go to bed.”

“No way,” she replied. “I’m going down on you on the couch.”

His cock felt her words like she’d slipped him in her mouth.

He still told her, “You don’t have to do that, Addie.”

She glided her fingers through his beard and returned, “Honey, shut up and flip us so I can suck your dick.”

He studied her face.

She was moderately turned on, eyes warm and intent, cheeks pink, body loose under his.

All this indicated she wanted to suck his dick.

Toby didn’t ask to confirm.

He kissed her and flipped them while he did.

They made out with both his hands in the back of her jeans and one of her hands in his hair, the other one cupping and kneading his junk for so long, he was in the zone and was close to begging her to get down to business.

She either read that from him or wanted to get down to business, because it was Addie who broke the kiss and slid down his body.

He pushed up until his head and shoulders were on the pillows at the arm of the couch so he could watch.

And fuck, she put on a show, undoing his belt, his jeans, hitching them down just enough to free his rigid cock, and taking him in her mouth.

It almost looked better than it felt.

Almost.

She took her time. She had no intention of going slow. And for that, he was seriously fucking grateful.

Tongue and lips and suction and all her beauty right before his eyes, working his dick.

Jesus.

Staggering.

When he could take that beauty no more and either had to fuck her face or take over another way, he wrapped a hand around the base of his cock and worked with her.

Her eyes came to him with his dick in her mouth and good Christ . . .

“Adeline,” he groaned.

She worked with him, following his rhythm, speeding up when he did, sucking harder.

“Babe,” he grunted his warning.

And in answer, her hand wrapped around his, tightening as she took it faster, pumped and sucked him even harder, and his head dug back into the arm of the couch.

His other hand went into her hair, and the world turned white and shrunk to Addie and her mouth, hair and hand as he shot down her throat.

He came down feeling her lave him, finding both his hands in her hair, and when he dipped his chin to watch her, her eyes were again up to him.

They closed. She bent her head to what she was doing as she drew him deep. And another noise sounded from his mouth that came from his gut as she slowly skimmed up, wet and hot, every inch she could take before she dragged her tongue hard against the sensitive head, making his hips jerk, and she released him.

Wild Child Addie.

All his.

Thank . . . fuck.

She crawled back up his body and straddled him, taking his head in both her hands before she kissed him hard.

When she broke it, he told her thickly, “Fantasy come true for you, honey. I’m now officially addicted to your blowjobs.”

She smiled down at him.

Then she said, “You totally owe me.”

He hitched his jeans back up then wrapped his arms around her again saying, “I’ll pay that debt.”

She kept smiling.

Her smile faded, and she whispered, “Thank you for a great day, Toby. And the best first date ever.”

Toby gathered her hair on either side of her face and pulled it to the back.

Adeline Forrester was right there, straddling him after blowing him. Her face sweet and earnest, filled with warmth and gratitude.

This after he got to take her and her boy into town and claim them as his.

Now, none of his friends would come to him again and ask if he was cool to set them up with Addie.

She was his, right there, feeling gratitude because she was all she was, gave all she gave and so damned easy to fall in love with.

It was sweet she felt that way.

But it was Toby who was grateful.

And to communicate this, he pressed his hands full of her soft hair into her head and replied, “Believe this, baby, you gave as good as you got.”

On Thursday night, Toby walked in Addie’s door to Dapper Dan racing down the steps to get to him.

He shut the door behind him and called, “Adeline!”

“Up here! Almost ready! Down in a second!” she called back from upstairs.

He bent to rub down Dapper Dan’s coat, murmuring, “Hey, boy,” his head tipped back to look through the entryway.

Toby came to Addie every night.

Strike that.

Outside of Monday, when she was home because she had the day off work (and he’d come home to her making him chicken parmigiana), since she was working the later shifts that week, he’d been getting Brooks from Margot or daycare and she came home to him.

He’d noticed she was obsessive about turning out lights in rooms she wasn’t in.

But it was his understanding Deanna was hanging with Brooks that night while they were having dinner, and it was past Brooks’s feeding time but it wasn’t past his bedtime.

Right then, the entryway was lit but there was no light coming from the kitchen or dining room and only the muted light of the Christmas tree coming from the family room.

Further, Deanna didn’t call out to him, something she’d normally do.

He didn’t bother taking off his overcoat as he moved to the steps and up them.

The only light in the upstairs hall was coming from Addie’s room.

He hit that, saw it empty, and moved to her bathroom.

He stopped in the doorway, and all thoughts of where Deanna and Brooks were went out of his head.

Fuck.

She was in a loose knit, just loose on her body, long-sleeve brown sweater dress that had horizontal rips in the knit at the sides from hem up to her waist, showing plainly she either got creative with underwear or she wasn’t wearing any. The hem was low at the back, almost to her knees, but high at the front. Stiletto-heeled, thigh-high boots with lacing up the back. Hair up in a messy bunch at the back of her crown with some hanging down her neck and in her face.