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“Now that is a bed,” she said, moving over and diving on it, doing a turn in midair and landing on her back spread eagle.

She put her arms and legs out wide as if she were a snow angel wanting to leave her mark.

She was leaving it, all right, but she had no clue how deeply she was in his life.

“You’ve got a king-sized bed,” he said. “And you need it with all that moving around you do.”

She rolled to one side and then the other and sat up. “I think I sit still so much that when I’m sleeping and should be still my body decides it needs to move and burn off calories.”

“What calories?” he asked. “You hardly eat.”

“I eat one enormous meal a day. You know that.”

“And while you’re here, I’m going to take care of you. I fear your mother. I don’t think my publicist or agent would be too happy to find out I ended up in one of her books with my throat slit.”

“Why?” she asked. “You’re going to end up in one of mine. Or aren’t I popular enough?”

There was a smirk on her face, but he wondered if that was something she’d had to live with.

“Do you try to compare yourself to her?”

“It’s hard not to,” she said. “I think it’s natural for kids to do that with their parents. Roark followed my father into law, but never wanted to be a judge. He’s making his own mark in the world.”

“Just like you,” he said. “What made you want to add the romance to it? Because, you know, you’re not that romantic of a person.”

She got up and pushed him toward the bed. He set Lucky down and the cat went running out of the room.

“I don’t need to give someone romance when I can just jump them. I thought you liked that about me.”

“I love that about you,” he said.

“Get on the bed then,” she said. “Let me jump you.”

“Now?” he asked.

“We kind of have this thing when we see each other after time apart. I didn’t get to do it last weekend. I’ve got to make it up to you.”

“I think you do,” he said, sitting on the bed.

She walked away from him and shut the door. “I don’t need Lucky to come in here and distract me. He’ll be fine.”

“He will be,” he said. “I’m not worried.”

She lifted up her faded yellow T-shirt with an eighties band on the front. He was positive the shirt was made to look older than it actually was.

She unzipped and dropped her brown shorts fast, leaving her in a pair of black bikinis with the Patriots logo on the front.

It was almost as funny as the arrow design she had done with her wax the first time he’d seen her naked.

She hadn’t gotten waxed again but kept it nice and trim and neat.

As much as he appreciated the super bare skin, he knew it wasn’t her and wanted her to be who she was.

“Stand up,” she said.

She was in front of him, and he pushed himself up. She pulled his shirt over his head, then yanked his athletic shorts down along with his boxer briefs.

“I’ve got condoms in my bathroom.”