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O pal nestled back onto her sun lounger.

She had a diet soda sitting on an old crate next to her and she wore a two-piece bikini that she’d treated herself to.

Now, this was the life.

It was Sunday afternoon and she’d just gotten home from the Alec and Mia’s. She’d gone to Sunday lunch. Alone. Unfortunately Renard had gotten called into work since the other chef was running late.

Settling her sunglasses on her face, she sighed.

God, she loved being warm. And wearing whatever she liked as she sat in her own backyard with her swimming pool glistening under the sun.

All right, it wasn’t much of a swimming pool. But when she’d seen it in Mr. Oldsman’s shed, she’d known it would work for her. She’d thought about buying something bigger, however they were all out of her price range.

This was enough. And it was free.

Mr. Oldsman had been so grateful to her for helping him with his gardening that he’d given her the pool.

Grabbing her book, she started to read. She’d just gotten to the part where the heroine had discovered that the hero was actually a dragon.

She could not wait to see how that went.

“Gem! Gem, what the hell?” a voice growled at her, startling her.

Shit!

She jumped and looked around. What was going on?

Where was she?

Oh. Crap.

She’d fallen asleep. She wasn’t getting much sleep at night thanks to her nightmares so it was no surprise.

Stefan just didn’t want to let her go.

The bastard.

“What?” She spun to see Renard standing there, glaring down at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Knocked on the door. You didn’t answer.”

“Um, that’s because I’m out here.”

“Sleeping?”

“Yep.”

“Got sunscreen on?”

“Yep.” She gestured to the bottle of sunscreen sitting on the crate next to her.

He grunted. “When did you last apply it?”

“I don’t know. About an hour ago. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. But I knew you should be back from lunch so I knocked, and you didn’t answer. Texted. You didn’t answer. I just don’t like that.”

“Malina turned up.”

He grunted. “Finally.” He turned to glare at the pool. “What the fuck is that?”

“That’s my new pool. Isn’t it great?”

“Gem. That’s a kids’ paddling pool.”

“I know. I found it in Mr. Oldsman’s shed. He gave it to me. I love looking at the water.”

“Gem.” He just stared down at her.

“What?”

“You need a real fucking pool.”

“That’s not in the budget and, anyway, I can stick my feet in the water. I was thinking about planting some flowers out here, though. Don’t you think that would look nice?”

“Yeah, guess it would.”

“Don’t know much about flowers, but how hard can it be to plant and water them?”

Renard didn’t want to tell her that it probably took a bit more knowledge than that to make plants grow. He also didn’t want to point out that the paddling pool kind of looked ridiculous.

Because he thought he was finally starting to understand why she was making all these changes to a house she didn’t own.

It was because she felt at home here.

She was making it her home.

“You’ve never planted flowers before, Gem?”

“I never lived in a house like this,” she told him as he grabbed the sunscreen. She might have applied it an hour ago, but he was having trouble believing that she’d done it as thoroughly as he would like.

So he poured some out and rubbed it onto her legs. If she was gonna be sunbathing like this, she really should be on her porch. Or she needed a gazebo, something to keep her safe from the sun.

And the pool should be bigger. Something she could swim in.

Plus, this backyard could use some bigger plants and a fence to keep kids out of the pool. In fact, the entire house could use a repaint.

“No?”

“No. Just apartments. And there was never any money to make those apartments feel like a home, you know? Any spare money that I got had to go toward food and clothes. It feels nice to be able to spend money on flowers, even though a part of me thinks it’s frivolous and dumb. It is, isn’t it?”

“Anything that makes you happy isn’t dumb, Gem.”

He watched as her body melted, a wide smile filling her face. He slid his hand up her thighs.

Fuck.

“You’re so sweet.”

Yeah, the thoughts he was having right now weren’t sweet. He was wondering how he could get away with settling his head between her thighs and eating her out until she came.

Probably not something he could do out here.

“That bikini looks good on you, Gem.”

“Thanks.”

“Not sure I like you wearing it without me, though.” He moved to putting sunscreen on her stomach.

“Why not?” she asked as he ran his hands over the tops of her breasts. They were nearly spilling out of the bikini.

“Because anyone who sees you in this isn’t gonna be able to look away. And then I’ll have to pull their eyeballs from their sockets for staring at my girl.”

“Savage,” she whispered.

“You don’t like savage, Gem?”

“Oh no,” she replied. “The weird thing is that I love savage.”

He lifted her up and then sat on the sun lounger with her on his lap, facing him, her legs spread wide.

“Good. Because you seem to bring out the possessive, protective beast in me.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she murmured as she kissed him. Hot and heavy.

Hard.

She leaned back. “I got a call today.”

“Yeah, who from?” he asked.

“Merc James. He works for Curt. He wanted to arrange a time next week to come in and look at my place for the security system I’m getting installed.”

“That so?”

“Yeah, it is. But when I talked to Alec, he knew nothing about it.”

“Explains the three missed calls from him on my phone,” he muttered.

“Renard!”

“Yep?”

“I thought we agreed no security system. I don’t need it.”

“Never agreed that, Gem. And you do need it.”

“Didn’t you say it was Alec’s responsibility?” she asked.

“That was before I became your guardian. About time Curt got around to getting it set up.”

“I don’t need it! I live in suburbia with a chain on the door as well as a deadlock.”

“You need cameras and an alarm. And Malone was slacking by not putting those in.”

Something he’d make him aware of. When he answered one of his calls.

“It’s way too expensive,” she protested.

He shot her a look. “You’re my woman. My responsibility. You’re getting it. No arguments.”

“Hey, Opal, are you back—oh, uh, sorry.”

What the fuck? Who was this guy? Renard glared up at the guy standing there awkwardly. He was younger than Renard with a bit of a belly and stooped shoulders.

Renard vaguely remembered seeing him before and guessed he was a neighbor. But that did not mean he liked him coming into his girl’s backyard while she was dressed in a hot bikini and he was making out with her.

“Barney! Hey!” Opal tried to tug out of Renard’s hold, but he simply held her tighter.

“Hey, Opal. Uh, sorry for interrupting.” He shuffled his feet but didn’t leave.

“Did you need something?” Opal asked.

“Yeah, did you have any milk?” he asked.

“You can’t go to the store and get milk?” Renard asked.

“Renard,” she warned, glaring at him.

“We’re busy. Store’s a few minutes’ drive away, Gem.”

“I have some milk, Barney.”

“No, you know, he’s right. I’ll go get some milk. Leave you to it.” The guy turned and rushed away.

“Renard!” Opal scolded.

“What?” he asked.

“That was rude.”

“Baby, he came to ask for some milk? Seriously? It’s the middle of the afternoon; he can get his own milk. That guy been bothering you?”

“Who? Barney? No, he’s harmless. Poor guy comes every weekend to spend time with the Grackle, who is his aunt. He’s a saint. Be nice.”

“I’m never nice.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you are. When you want to be.”

“I don’t like him coming over here like that.”

“There’s a lot of stuff you don’t like. I’m starting to wonder if there’s anything you do like.”

“I like you.”

The words slammed into her with the force of a freight train. “You like me?”

“Yeah, baby. I like you.”

Anyone else said those words and they might sound silly. Like something middle school kids said to each other.

But coming from Renard, it was damn near a declaration of love.

Remember. He doesn’t want long term.

You’re just a whore, Opal.

Men like me use women like you. Then when we’re finished, we throw you away.

Because you’re garbage.

Smack!

His hand landed on her ass and she jolted.

“Where’d you go, Gem?” he growled.

“I just . . .” She couldn’t tell him. Not yet. Maybe not ever. “I don’t know. Sorry. I was just thinking that I really like you too.”

Shit.

She hadn’t meant to say that, had she?

He watched her with narrowed eyes. She was gonna be in such trouble if he figured out she’d just lied to him.

“You wanna come inside and fool around?” she asked.

“Does a bear shit in the woods?”

“Ew. Really? I ask you to fool around and you say that?”

“Gem. Am I a guy?”

“Yep. I know that now for sure.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t before?”

“Nah. Not before I saw that beautiful dick yesterday.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “I’m a guy. Not a teenage boy. I don’t fool around; I fuck my girl.” He shifted off the sun lounger with her in his arms, proving that he also didn’t have any back issues from carrying her around. “Thursday night work for you?”

“Huh?” she asked since it was Sunday.

“Got next Thursday night off. That work for you to go to the club?”

Oh.

“Yeah, that works for me.”

“Damn right that works for you,” he muttered before he entered her bedroom and threw her on the bed. She reached behind her to take off her bikini.

“Leave it on, Gem. Arms above you.”

“On?”

“Yep. I’m going to enjoy pulling it off you. With my teeth.”

“Beast,” she whispered huskily.

“Your beast.”

She really wished that he was hers.

Forever.