* * *

Rafe forced himself to unwrap his arms from around Brooke so that she could get dressed. But instead of putting on jeans, she took a pretty dress from her closet, along with even prettier lingerie to wear beneath it.

At his unspoken question, she told him, "I spoke with Cord before I got in the shower. He needs me to come into the city today to do a walk-through on the new storefront and sign some papers."

Rafe’s gut tightened at nothing more than the sound of another man’s name on her lips. He didn’t much care for the idea of her being away from him for so many hours, either. All these years he’d been wary of women who clung too tight, who wanted to be together every free second, yet here he was feeling exactly that way with Brooke.

"I’m sure Mia would love to have you stay with her while you’re in town. Or," he told her instead of begging her to stay the way he wanted to, "you could use my place."

She smiled at the offer, but shook her head. "I’m not planning to stay in Seattle tonight."

Though he was silently rejoicing at the thought of having Brooke back in his arms by nightfall, he said, "I don’t want you to be so tired after your meetings that you have trouble driving back to the lake."

Her chin lifted, but she gave him one of her sweet smiles. "I’ll be fine, Rafe." Her gaze heated up as she added, "And I don’t want to spend the night in the city, not when I’d much rather be here in bed with you tonight."

"How about I come with you?" He’d like to meet this Cord guy, and see what his gut told him about the man who’d managed to sign himself up as Brooke’s business partner so easily.

"No," she said with a shake of her head, "you’re just hitting your stride on fixing up your house. And this is your vacation."

She was right, but she meant a hell of a lot more to him than some house ever would. He was about to insist, when she cut him off at the pass with, "Honestly, I’ll be totally fine on my own."

Knowing it was her gentle way of telling him to back off, and trying to respect her wishes despite his concerns for her, he pulled on his jeans from the day before and went out to the kitchen to make her breakfast before she hit the road. Lord knew, they’d expended more than enough energy since the night before. But instead of sitting down with him, she simply told him she was already late, thanked him for the bagel he’d toasted and buttered for her, threw several boxes of her chocolates into a big canvas bag, then kissed him once before flying out the door looking stunning in her wrap dress and heels.

Rafe stood in the middle of her kitchen feeling as if he’d just been hit by a hurricane.

He’d had plenty of good sex in the past fifteen years, but nothing anywhere close to as hot as what he and Brooke had shared. Sure, he was just a clueless guy, as his sister had pointed out at least a hundred times to him over the years, but he hadn’t missed the fact that even in the midst of the heat between him and Brooke, there’d been something more.

Only, instead of angling for more of a commitment or wanting to define whether they’d shifted into officially being boyfriend/girlfriend now, she’d hopped into her car and headed to the city alone.

Hell, he thought as he ran his hands roughly through his hair, he’d practically begged to tag along. But she very clearly hadn’t wanted him to come with her.

He chewed the situation over. Was it because she didn’t want him to meet her business partner? Rafe had developed an irrational hatred just for the guy’s name. What kind of legitimate businessman was named Cord? After pulling out his phone and doing a search on the guy, Rafe didn’t much care for the way he looked, either. Why the hell did her partner have to be so good looking?

He thought about Brooke hooking up with the man, but he couldn’t get a clear vision of it, for one really good reason: She would never in a million years leave his bed to go to anyone else’s. Rafe was a cynical bastard, but he wasn’t blind. Brooke had surprised him over and over during the past few days, but she wasn’t, and would never be, a cheater.

But while he wasn’t worried about her hooking up with her partner behind his back, he was still worried. Particularly with regard to the money she was continuing to hand over. She was too smart to walk naïvely into a business partnership with a stranger, and while he assumed she’d done her due diligence on the guy, the truth was that Rafe and his employees could find out things about Cord that she never could. Particularly if her new partner had anything he was trying to hide.

It was one thing for Brooke to risk her hard-earned money on her own talent—which she had in spades. It was another entirely for her to risk it on someone else.

Angry with himself for not making this phone call earlier—he’d been so wrapped up in wanting Brooke, and then when he’d failed to keep a handle on that need, he’d been even more caught up in taking her every which way he could—Rafe’s voice was gruff as Ben picked up at the office.

"Hey, boss, I hope you’re calling me from a fishing boat to brag about your latest catch."

Normally he would have shot the shit with his employee, who was also a longtime friend. But today Brooke was all that mattered. "I need you to check into a guy called Cord Delacorte."

Ben immediately switched into business mode. "Anything you’re looking for in particular?"

"I want to know everything about the guy."

Ben knew precisely what everything meant in their business: where Cord went and who he went there with, everything he bought, everyone he called, and where his money was coming from and going to as far back as they could trace his activities.

"I’ll make this my top priority and will both call and email you immediately with anything that looks suspicious."

With Brooke in Seattle, Rafe had nothing to distract him from putting in the rest of his new flooring, along with the kitchen cabinets that the hardware store would be delivering today. But instead of being glad to have so many uninterrupted hours to set his lake house to rights, he was already counting down the minutes and hours.

Not for sex this time, but simply for the chance to see Brooke’s smiling face...and to hold her in his arms.

Chapter Seventeen

Brooke stood on the muggy main street in Kirkland at dusk and waved good-bye to Cord and his wife. Just as Rafe had predicted, she was exhausted. The hours she’d already put in driving to Seattle, combined with actually signing the papers with the lawyer and Realtor for the storefront, would have been tiring enough. But doing all of that after making love with Rafe for half the night and then twice this morning had left her with rubbery limbs and a mind that kept drifting back to him. On top of that, after a quick wrap-up drink with Cord and his wife in which she’d learned more about their fertility problems, she dearly wished she could help them in some way. They were clearly deeply in love with each other and desperately wanted a child, but all the love and wanting in the world hadn’t yet made a difference.