He locked her door before moving to yank down the blinds on one of the big windows. "All G.o.dd.a.m.ned day long I thought about you." He yanked down another blind, so hard it rattled against the gla.s.s. "Every second at the stadium, every second of my meetings, I was waiting for it all to end so that I could get home and spend my last night before leaving for the playoffs with you." Frustration fairly rolled off him. "But you weren't there."

She stood in the middle of her workroom, paralyzed by the desire-and possessiveness-in her normally calm and easygoing friend's eyes as he quickly covered the distance between them.

"We agreed to go slow," she reminded him, and herself, even though slow was the exact opposite of what she wanted right now. Fast and hard and breathless was all she could think about even as she told him, "We've spent the past six nights together. I wanted to give you s.p.a.ce to go out with the guys."

"I've had a lifetime of s.p.a.ce," he growled. "I don't need s.p.a.ce. I need you, Vicki. You."

She was sh.e.l.lshocked by his intensity.

And honesty.

"Then take me, Ryan, because I need you, too."

He yanked off his shirt and then hers, stopping only long enough to run his fingers over the engagement ring hanging on the chain between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her leggings were gone a second later and then he snapped open the clasp at the back of her bra and it fell, too. All that remained was for him to push his thumbs into the sides of her panties and shove them down over her hips and thighs.

Her hands were wet and covered with clay, but Ryan clearly didn't care as he threaded his fingers into hers and backed them up against the nearest wall. He lifted her hands up over her head and lowered his mouth to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, roughly rubbing the stubble on his chin over her, making her flesh even more sensitive by the time he laved first one and then the other with his tongue.

Even lost in the sweet shock of arousal, Vicki realized she was surrounded by all of her favorite things.

Clay. Sculptures. Ryan.

Full to bursting with a joy she hadn't ever let herself believe could be real, the next thing she knew, Ryan was kissing her again and letting her hands go to press his now clay-covered palms over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Every inch of skin he touched came alive beneath his fingers, marking her with clay, claiming her as his even more with every caress.

Wanting to mark him, too, desperate to feel his heat and strength beneath her fingertips, she laid her hands over his shoulders and slowly slid a path of clay down over his chest and then his abdomen.

He pushed himself between her naked thighs so that the zipper of his jeans-and the huge bulge behind it-was a deliciously hard press of heat into the vee between her legs, making her gasp as he hit just the right spot. Always incredibly in tune with her body, he reached for one thigh and slid his hand down to grasp her beneath her knee and pull her leg up and around his waist.

Vicki was entirely sensation now, a bundle of nerves ready to spring apart at any moment. But she didn't want to go there alone.

Suddenly clumsy with desire, her hands shook, fumbling at the b.u.t.ton and zipper on his jeans. He moved his hands from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s just long enough to pull a condom out before his jeans fell to the ground. She was the one yanking off his underwear now and thank G.o.d his hands were clean enough from brushing over her skin again and again to slide on the condom.

So strong, he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist just as he lowered her down onto him. Both of them breathed out hard at the sweet moment of connection, her body a perfect fit around his, and then he was cupping her hips hard in his hands and riding her against the wall while she kissed him with more than just her mouth. Her entire heart and soul were there in every slick of her tongue against his, in every gasp of ecstasy...and especially in the explosion of pleasure that soon took them both over in the middle of her studio.

They clung to each other for several long moments, working to catch their breath. She loved the way Ryan kept holding onto her as if it didn't even occur to him to ever let her go.

"I like dating you," he said into the curve of her shoulder.

She laughed before losing her breath all over again at the aftershocks that her body made jostling over his in laughter. Thirty minutes later, when they'd pulled their clothes back on over their clay-covered bodies and were sitting on the floor devouring the slices of pizza that had just been delivered, with Ryan's fake-engagement ring lying between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she realized it was the craziest second date she'd ever had.

Crazy...and so right.

Chapter Twenty-three.

Vicki snuggled in closer to Ryan. He had a bad habit of kicking off the covers while they were sleeping, but as long as he was there to keep her warm, she didn't mind.

A few minutes later, alarms started to sound from around the room. "Time to wake up, sleepyhead. You have a plane to catch." She softened her words with a soft flick of her tongue across his earlobe.

He groaned and tried to pull her closer, but as much as she wanted to let him drag her beneath him to make their morning even more perfect, first she needed to wiggle out from beneath his arm to find his various alarms and turn each of them off.

By the time she clicked off the last one, he was sitting up in bed giving her a very appreciative-and smoldering-look.

"You look so good naked, you've just given me a new idea."

She raised an eyebrow even as she moved toward his outstretched arm. "Are you sure it's a new idea?"

He pulled her over him so that she was straddling him over the covers. "I think we should make this a clothes-free room."

She laughed and kissed him. "Okay."

His large, extremely talented hands cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and as he lowered his mouth to them, he said, "If I'd known it was going to be that easy to convince you, I would have said the whole house should be a naked zone."

Her laughter stopped the second his tongue slicked over her. She threaded her fingers through his hair and held him against her as he feasted on her.

She was panting as she said, "Maybe."

He lifted her head. "Say that again?"

She gave him a wicked smile. He needed to get on the road soon, but if they worked fast, they could squeeze in a little fun, couldn't they? "Make me say it."

Just that fast, her wrists were in his hand, her gentle morning lover turning deliciously dominant in a split-second change-up.

Ryan's free hand moved between her legs and his mouth covered hers as his fingers played over her aroused flesh.

"You ready to talk yet?"

Talk? She could barely breathe.

"Okay, then. You've left me no choice but to get serious with you." He moved his hand down to the top of her abdomen and stopped right there-such a good tease.

Already overflowing with wanting, Vicki gasped out the word, "One."

"One what?" His fingers went a little lower, just brushing against her curls, but no matter how she tried to move against his hand, he held firm.

"You can have me naked for one day."

"Where? Just in the bedroom?" He nipped at her earlobe with a possessive growl. "Or the whole house?"

He moved his hand even lower, but still not low enough.

She all but moaned the words, "The whole house."

He grinned down at her, but his eyes were dark with desire. "Only once?"

She couldn't believe what she was about to promise him. But no one had ever made her feel so desired-or safe-that she could even consider agreeing to stay naked for one full day with him.

"At least once."

"Every month." His words were a seductive flicker of warm breath and stubble over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and stomach as he kissed his way down her body until his mouth was hovering right over his teasing hand. "Promise me a naked day every month and I'll give you what you want."

If she'd been able to, she would have promised him anything, everything, but all she could manage was, "Please, Ryan."

She'd stopped trying to quiet her pleas when they were in bed together. Not only because it didn't feel like she was giving up any of her power to him when she begged...but also because she knew how much he liked knowing he was making her crazy.

His mouth came down on her at the exact moment his fingers slid inside, and Vicki instantly came apart in a flash of brilliant, beautiful color.

Moments later, he moved over her, inside her, and she was wrapped all around him and he was wrapped around her, too, and it was all so beautiful and perfect that she knew it couldn't possibly get any better.

"I love you."

They were the three words she'd waited half her life for Ryan to say. Not only to hear him say it...but also to believe it could be true.

She'd been so young when she'd learned not to get too attached to anything since her father would be stationed somewhere new at least every year. But that one year with Ryan had been different. So special that she hadn't been able to keep herself from losing her heart to him. Just like this week, when she'd given him her heart all over again.

And still, even when he'd told her how he felt about her, and that he wanted their fake relationship to be real, she'd held herself back out of fear that their friends-to-lovers story was too good to be anything but fiction.

Only, as they lay together, with his heartbeat thudding in time with hers, Vicki felt closer to Ryan than she'd ever felt to anyone else. Close enough that she finally allowed herself to give voice to the feelings she'd once believed would forever remain silent.

"I love you, too."

The joy on his face at her confession had her heart clenching hard in her chest and tears coming so fast they were already slipping down her cheek one after the other.

"G.o.d, it's good to hear you say that. So d.a.m.n good, Vicki. Say it again."

"I love you," she whispered again and again between kisses, and even though they were already so close, she needed more.

And as their words of love for each other tangled on their tongues and mouths, their morning quickie turned into something even hotter and sweeter with Ryan's fingers threading through hers, and he took her body-and heart-up to the highest peak she'd ever crested one more beautiful time.

Vicki was towel-drying her hair as Ryan gathered up the last of his things to head out for the airport. They'd used up every single second of their final morning before the playoffs-and then some, she thought with a smile.

She put on her usual studio uniform of a tank top and pair of leggings and headed out to the kitchen. Her smile grew even bigger as she thought about just how she could make Ryan's day just a little bit better before he got on the plane for St. Louis to play the Cardinals in the first game of the playoffs.

He was staring at his cell phone and she couldn't see his face as he said, "Thanks for calling about this, Smith."

When he kept scrolling down the screen, she took the chance to stare at him for a few seconds...and to reflect on the shocking fact that he was all hers.

Oh, how she was going to miss him while he was in Missouri for five days. How had she ever managed to go so many years without seeing him, when now she was barely going to make it a week?

Thanking G.o.d he'd be back from his games just before the fellowship board made their decision, she wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her face against his back. "Okay, you can have it." He turned to face her and she was grinning as she said, "One completely, totally naked d-" Vicki's words fell away as she saw his face. "What's wrong?"

"Smith just called to let me know about some new press."

She tried to shrug off the quick hit of panic by joking, "If it's just more awful pictures of me-"

"It's an interview with your ex."

At that point, even Ryan's warm hands on her arms couldn't keep the chill from moving over her. "What did he say?"

"Stupid stuff. He's obviously upset that you've moved on."

She could see how angry Ryan was, the muscle jumping in his jaw, the murder in his eyes. She looked at his phone on the counter. "Is that what you were reading?"

Reluctantly, he handed it to her and held her even closer as she started to read, his arms around her obviously meant to hold her steady.

Vicki's heart pounded hard as she scanned through the part where Anthony talked about his latest successes and achievements. He'd always been a master of letting people know just how well he was doing without it seeming like bragging. He'd been just as good at tearing her to shreds without her realizing it until she was already married to him-every word from his tongue a sharpened knife.

Finally, she came to the part of the interview that had her heart thudding almost to a stop in her chest.

Thirty years have come and gone since Anthony Abbott's first lauded sculpture. I ask him about the many changes we've all witnessed in his work over the past three decades, especially in the past twelve months.

"I know what you're really asking," he replies as his self-deprecating laughter fades away, leaving behind something best described as a deep, strong ache. "True love, broken hearts-how can they not impact a person? It doesn't matter if you're an artist or an accountant, when love comes into your life and turns it upside down, there's love in everything you do." He is silent and I can feel him weighing his next words carefully before he softly adds, "And if love leaves-when love leaves-everything you touch is replaced with brutal pain."

"He always thought he was such a poet," Vicki snarled.

"He's an a.s.s," Ryan agreed, but she was already reading further...far enough for anger to turn to nausea.

Abbott's ex-wife is newly engaged. Not to an artist, this time, but to professional baseball player Ryan Sullivan.

"I wish them nothing but the best," he tells me as he lights a cigarette and takes a few strong pulls on it. "Perhaps because of what I do, I've always been attracted to beauty. Victoria is an undoubtedly beautiful woman, one I knew I had to have the moment I saw her. I have no doubt her new fiance feels the same way." His brow furrows as he jams his cigarette into the ashtray. "I just hope he knows to be careful...to make sure he comes first."

Does he believe his ex-wife used him to further her career?

Anthony stares into the distance for a long time before finally shaking his head. "I'd like to believe that's not the case."

"Oh my G.o.d, I can't believe he all but said that I used our marriage to try and advance my career!" The phone fell from her hands, but Ryan just let it fall and pulled her closer.

"I'm sorry, Vicki." He kissed the top of her head and his hands stroked down her back. She realized she was shaking against him as he said, "I'm sorry you were ever married to him. I'm sorry I wasn't there with you all these years. My lawyer is going to make that reporter wish she was-"

"It's not the reporter's fault." Funny, her voice sounded so steady when her insides felt like they'd shattered into tiny little shards swimming around inside her chest, a thousand little cuts nicking her as she rewound and replayed Anthony's words in her head. "She didn't put the words into his mouth. He's the one who thought I was using him, even though the truth is that marrying him was the worst thing I could have done for my career."

Anthony had always made sure to shove her into a shadowed background whenever she made the mistake of trying to catch even the smallest piece of the limelight that he'd already claimed for himself.

"He's an idiot. We all know it."

"You know it. I know it. But he just gave voice to what people have always, and will always, think. They think I used him." She made herself meet Ryan's concerned-and angry-gaze. "They'll think I'm using you, too."

"You can't let him win. Not when he's nothing but a bitter, self-absorbed p.r.i.c.k."