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believed in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but sex? He absolutely believed in amazing sex.
    Jade bit her lip, deliberating. Her teeth left clear imprints there when she finally let go. “Fine. Short-term friends-with-benefits, with the understanding that eventually I’m going to ask you to break up with me in a very dramatic fashion so Isak can swoop in and do what he does best.”
    “Play rebound guy?”
    “No.” Jade shoved him gently. “Fix people who are broken and then offer to give them a world where nothing will ever fall apart again.”
    Jade? Broken? He took a second to reevaluate what he’d learned in their short time together. She seemed too strong for breaking—the kind of woman who took no shit and gave zero fucks. The kind who grabbed life by the balls, regardless of consequences.
    Yet, when Alfredsson had been here, she’d seemed…smaller. Frailer. As if part of her personality was all bluster and the Swede tore the wind right out of her sails.
    If she was broken somewhere, it was a wound that went deep. He’d seen it before in kids at the state home. Regardless of their personalities, they’d all become perfectly compliant whenever a potential family appeared.
    Just as Jade had with Alfredsson.
    So much of what she offered sounded perfect. Except the whole setting her up for that as a future. It wasn’t so much the sense that Isak Alfredsson would do her wrong as it was the sense he couldn’t fix what was wrong.
    There was no heat between her and Alfredsson—not even the hint of any sparks—if there had been, Dean would have been man enough to back off. The chemistry between Dean and Jade, on the other hand, had been off the charts. And maybe within that fire, old injuries could be healed.
    It might not be forever—hell, it probably wouldn’t be forever—but he couldn’t imagine a world where Jade was Jade-lite for all time. She deserved more than that. He just had to figure out how to make sure he was enough of what she wanted for her to see that she didn’t need Alfredsson, too. And he needed to make that happen within the next two months.
    Besides, with her he didn’t have to put on an act, either. She liked him just fine the way he was. Plus, there was sex to consider. Fuck it. He was in. He’d known he’d been in from the second she’d implied they were together. “Sounds like a plan. Count me in for all the benefits.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Then cancel your damn cab. We need to figure out our history, and we aren’t doing that until I have a shower, clean clothes, and breakfast.”
    He’d already punched in a text canceling the taxi. “Which means?”
    “I’m taking you back to my place.”
    Where she said she only took things if she planned on keeping them. Perfect. “Cool. I hope you have a drawer for me, because I’m thinking there are a lot of sleepovers in our future.”

Chapter Four
    Bad idea. She should have insisted on going to his place. It didn’t matter where he lived; she didn’t take men home—it never ended well. They started to settle into her life, and when they left she had a hole to contend with. How many times could she do that before she crumbled like her mother had?
    But by the time she’d thought it through, it was too late to change her mind.
    She turned into the parking garage, and Dean raised an eyebrow. “You live at the W?”
    “I like to be in the heart of the action.” The W Hotel sat in West Hollywood, right on the Walk of Fame, with a fantastic view of the Hollywood sign. While much of the building rented by the day, there were several condominiums, including the one Jade called home.
    Dean laughed. “I only asked because after I signed my Providence Academy contract and cashed my first check, I looked into buying a place here, but there were no openings. I’m jealous.”
    That shouldn’t have warmed her to her toes, but it did. Isak had hated her condo—too loud, too many people coming and going. That Dean liked it