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No. She’d ignored all three calls. “I keep my phone on Silent when I record.”

“Makes sense.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”

He didn’t budge and gave her a pleading look. “Can we please get together tomorrow to write?”

“I need to check my schedule. I’ll text you.”

“You will? You promise?” He eyed her. “Because it seems like you’re not happy to see me.” The words held a tinge of anger masked as hurt.

She remembered what Hunt had told her about antagonizing someone who had an obsessive personality. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Right.” He seemed to soften a bit. “Yeah. That’s okay. We’ll have plenty of time to spend together soon.”

She raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“The bar is closed on Sunday and Monday. We can spend those two days together.”

“I have other plans. And when I write with someone, I usually keep it to a couple of hours.”

“Then, it’s a date.” He shivered again. “You sure I can’t come in and warm up? We could hang for a while.”

“No.” She inched the door closed even more.

“Okay, then. See you tomorrow.”

She closed the door and locked it, not giving him a chance to try to worm his way into her apartment again.

She walked toward her bed and found Viper standing just outside the bathroom door, out of sight of the front door and covered window.

“What the fuck?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “You sure I can’t tell him the badass-biker dude is my boyfriend?”

He stalked toward her very slowly and stopped an inch from touching her, looming over her as she stared up at him. “Is that what you’d tell him?”

She dropped her arms. “Hell yes. In a heartbeat.”

He leaned down, even closer. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

“Good. I don’t know what’s been taking you so damn long.”

“I wanted you to be clear about who I am.”

“You’re the man who tells me and shows me the truth. Everything else is outside of you and me.”

His eyes went wide. “You do get it.”

“I’m trying, because I think you’re worth it.”

His lips met hers with an urgency and need that stunned her at first, then warmed to something so intimate and consuming it nearly buckled her knees. She didn’t need to worry about falling off the world: he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her up to her toes, and kissed her like his life depended on her feeling everything he poured into the start of them.

The kiss ended with one long touch of his lips to hers, like he didn’t want this to ever end. But then he pressed his forehead to hers and took a long steadying breath.

She kept her arms around his neck and watched him finally open his eyes, and the relief and need were there, along with something more. Something deeper. Something she’d never seen before.

“I’ve wanted to do that almost since the moment I laid eyes on you.”