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live here?”
    She gestured at a smaller warehouse tucked between an oil field trucking outfit and an empty field. “There.”
    “I know it’s unusual,” she said as they climbed out of the car. “But I needed a place with a lot of space and this just seemed to fit the bill.”
    She pulled open a large sliding door cut into the side of the building, smiling down at him from her perch on concrete ramp. “Come see.”
    It was an invitation he wasn’t about to pass up. Augustus climbed the ramp, shaking his head at the small flower bed just beginning to bloom between the ramp and the long concrete pad that had once served the trucks that made their deliveries here. A warehouse. He couldn’t imagine anything less like home.
    But that was before he stepped through that door.
    Someone had gone to a great deal of expense to make the place livable. The floor was covered in laminate wood planks that shone in the dim light of night coming through the high windows. There was a thick brick wall that separated the space into two. On one side was a working artist’s studio with dozens of easels set around a work station that featured heavy oak cupboards and a double sink. The other side boasted a huge gourmet kitchen with appliances Augustus didn’t even recognize, a large living room, and an inviting bed tucked into the back. The furniture was contemporary, expensive microfiber and leather. A television hung from the wall that was three times bigger than the one in Dave’s gaming room back in L.A. book, magazines, even what looked like a cashmere afghan, were scattered around the living room. It was comfortable, the kind of place Augustus could imagine warm family scenes unfolding in.
    It made him nervous.
    The owner of this amazing apartment, or whatever it was, had crossed the room and was leaning back against the long counter that partitioned the front edge of the kitchen from the rest of the room. “It’s something, isn’t it?”
    “Did you do all this?”
    She shrugged. “My stepdad’s an architect. He helped.”
    Augustus nodded, his eyes still taking in the simple décor, the recessed lighting, the mixture of oil paint and floral perfume that seemed just right. And then his eyes fell on her and it was like everything else just fell away.
    He crossed the room and took her wrists in his hands, locking them back against the edge of the counter. She looked up at him, her eyes round with emotion. He thought he saw fear, and that made him hesitate for a moment. But then she bit her bottom lip, the pink tip of her tongue barely visible as she licked it. A desire to taste what she was tasting overwhelmed him.
    Damn…he wanted her.

Chapter Eight
     
     
    “You don’t do this, do you?” he asked, pulling her lip from her teeth with his index finger.
    “I told you, I’m not a one night stand kind of girl.”
    “And what kind of girl are you?”
    She bit her lip again. He pulled it away again. He cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to keep her eyes on his even as she tried to study her toes instead.
    “What do you want from me?” she asked in lieu of an answer.
    He shook his head slightly. “What does any man want from a beautiful woman?”
    She raised her hands, letting them float between them for a moment before she pressed them against his chest. He thought for a second that she intended to push him away. Instead, she moved closer to him and pressed her lips lightly, awkwardly, against his.
    Augustus slid his hand around her jaw and into her hair. He pulled her closer as he pressed his tongue against her lips to encourage her to open to him. She responded immediately, opening with a sweet sigh that bathed him in her breath. He rushed inside of her, his tongue tasting, touching, everything she was willing to offer. It was like silk, the feel of her palate against the tip of his tongue, the inside of her cheeks, the edges of her perfect teeth.
    She tasted him, too. He could feel her tongue straining, reaching