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Even though he had been the one in charge, she had completely destroyed him. Her submission had been unquestionably beautiful. In that moment when she was kneeling, staring up at him with those expressive blue eyes, he’d felt a connection to her that was much deeper than anything he’d ever felt before.
Last weekend Jamie had used the term lovesick, and he’d brushed it off. Now, though, he felt like he was becoming something suspiciously close to that. He was feeling way too much, way too quickly. He knew he needed to slow down. Part of him suspected that she might be it for him, though. The one.
He continued to stroke his hand over her hair until he felt her breathing even out. Even without looking down, he knew she had fallen asleep. She had been exhausted.
He lay there, listening to the easy cadence of her breathing until he felt himself begin to drift off, too.
Moments later, he was jarred awake by the disembodied sound of ringing. Slowly, he disengaged himself from Taryn, careful not to wake her. He moved toward his cell phone in the living room.
By the time he reached it, it had stopped ringing. He picked it up and saw that his sister had called. He closed his eyes as he remembered. Shit. He was supposed to go over there this afternoon to help his sister manage her portfolio.
He groaned. He had no desire to do anything but curl back up with the warm, naked woman in the next room. He had promised though.
Twenty minutes later, he had cleaned up, spoken briefly to his sister, showered, and had left Taryn a note. He headed downstairs toward his car, dreading the conversation to come. His mother, no doubt, had informed Christina that when she’d stopped over Thursday night, he’d had company.
When he pulled into the drive, Doug gave him a wave from the riding lawnmower. Getting out of the truck, Evan raised his hand in salute as he headed toward the door.
That was one of the things that he liked most about Doug. He was in middle management for the county. He made decent money, but his sister was definitely the bread winner. Christina always invited Doug to take part when they had discussions about her money, but he never really presumed to have any say over it.
He knew from his own experience that when what you made a year was in the high six figures, that it was really difficult to tell
your friends were. It was comforting to know that her sister had found a guy who very obviously wasn’t after her money.
He rang the bell and waited for his sister to open the door. When the door opened, he only saw the very adorable Maddy standing there. Her eyes were big as saucers and she screeched, “Unca Evan!”
He grinned and leaned down to scoop her up. He gave her a smacking kiss and said, “Maddy! Why are you answering the door? Where’s your mama?”
The little girl snuggled into his neck and pointed to the door. When his sister popped her head around the front door, he said, “She’s a heartbreaker, Teeny. I have a feeling this one is gonna be trouble.”
She snorted and said, “Like the other two aren’t?”
As she moved back and gestured for him to enter, she said, “When she heard me talking to Doug earlier about you coming over she got so excited. I had to open the door for her, but I thought it would be cute to let her answer the door.”
“It was,” he agreed. “Where are the boys?”
“A friend’s house. I’m wondering if I could get her to keep them?” she said, thinking aloud.
“Oh, c’mon. You’d miss them,” he said.
“They tried to shave the cat the other night. I caught them in the guest bath with Doug’s beard trimmer,” she said, exasperated.
“Why?” he asked, alarmed.
“He looked hot.”
“Poor Spartacus,” he said.
As if summoned from under the couch, he slunk out of the room, his belly almost dragging against the ground in shame. He had one pronounced stripe of missing hair on his back. Poor guy.
/> With a wince, he turned back to his sister and asked, “How did you not ground them for that?”
She said, “I was just overjoyed that they didn’t shave each other’s heads. Plus, I didn’t want them under foot today.”
“Good thinking. Did you hide the trimmers?” Evan asked.
She nodded and said, “Totally.”
They moved into the living room. A few manila folders sat on the coffee table. Once they moved to sit down, Maddy hopped down, then scurried over to the toy box and started playing with her dolls.
