Page 21 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

He’d gotten himself an almost identical bowl of whatever this magical mix was that made greens not taste quite so green.

The silence that settled over them wasn’t completely unwelcome, but the fact that she was on his counter, eating,naked, felt a little weird. Not necessarily because she wasn’t clothed, which was a surprise, but more because silence gave her time to think. About how he had come to her. About how he’d needed something from her.

Thinking about that made her sad for him all over again. How he’d lost his grandmother and didn’t know how to come to grips with his grief.

But unfortunately she didn’t feel quite right about sayingSorry about your dead grandmawhen she was sitting here naked on the counter. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.

“I don’t suppose you have any cake? Pie? I’d even settle for a muffin with chocolate in it.”

“If it doesn’t grow from my garden, I don’t have it.”

“How is that even possible? You need like . . . salt and flour andcoffee! And—”

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“You don’t . . . You don’t drink coffee.”

“No. Never have.”

“I’m trying to understand how that’s physically possible. Are you an alien? That would make much more sense than a human who doesn’t drink coffee.”

His mouth curved and she got no simple pleasure from the fact she could make him smile. Especially now. It was one of those things she wasn’t allowed to feel about him. Because he was the enemy. The man whose land she was supposed to buy.

It was funny how they could justify it to themselves to have these two separate identities. C and D, Carter and Dinah. Was it so crazy to think that justification could continue . . . a little bit longer? Yes, she was still trying to buy his land, but she hadn’t been sexed out of that idea yet. Maybe this was simply something they could do. She studied him until he glared at her.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just trying to work out why you’ve been feeding me.”

“You figure it out?”

“You’re secretly the nicest guy on the face of the planet?”

“Try again.”

“The kale actuallyispoison and you’re going to kill me so I can’t buy your land?” It was something of a test to see if he would wince or cringe or lose that easy looseness about him that only seemed to come out after they’d had sex.

“Not yet.” He stepped toward her, setting his bowl and then hers on the counter. He spread her legs wide with those big, rough hands, and then stepped between her legs. The height of the counter didn’t leave for easy matching of their bodies, but he could rub the rough edge of his denim against the wet heat of her pussy.

She spread her legs wider, ready and willing for whatever he was offering. It should concern her how much she wanted him, howeasyshe was when he was this way, and yet even in the light of day she had trouble finding that shame. “So, why’d you feed me then?”

“I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t wimp out on me. Get some energy before round two.”

“Do you think I can’t handle round two?” she asked with an arched brow.

He flashed her that sexy-as-sin grin that was in no way fair. “Oh, I have all the faith in the world in you there, D.” He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked her to the bedroom.

* * *

Carter was not a stupid man, though he’d been told on occasion that he was. There were times people mistook his drive and his determination for an inability to see reason. He had never believed it.

Until now.

Carrying Dinah to his bedroom, and before that feeding her, talking to her, treating her like a woman he cared about, was idiotic and stupid and against everything he knew he had to do.

But he didn’t stop. He carried her to his bed, and he laid her on the mattress with a care he shouldn’t afford her. He planned on fucking her for as long as he possibly could. No amount of argument from his brain seemed to stop this fire she unleashed in him. It was a feeling that had been so elusive in his life. Something like belonging.

He knew it was as fleeting as those things he’d belonged to in his life—the farms, the people. There was no way in any universe this worked out. No way this went beyond a couple of stupid mistakes in the bedroom.

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