His lips were so soft, so gentle. His tongue darted out, licking and taunting her with teasing strokes. He tasted like Shane and happiness and apple pie, and her heart sang—he’s mine. Her core went liquid, and she tilted her head for some deeper contact, thrusting her tongue boldly into his mouth.

With a low groan, he pulled her closer, his powerful hands on her hips, fitting her body against his until she could feel his erection pressing against her belly. She rocked slowly as she put her hands behind his neck. He felt like everything she’d dreamed of, every fantasy she’d ever had about her fut—.

“What the fuck?”

Ginger jerked back at Trevor’s outraged voice. Her cheeks heated. “What are you doing here?”

“I finished my pie!” His gaze swung to Shane. “Dude, what the fuck? This is our parents’ house!”

“Calm down,” Shane said.

“Would you be calm if it was your sister?”

Ginger pinched the skin on her forehead. Now thanks to Trevor’s yelling, probably everyone within a mile radius knew what she and Shane had been doing.

“Yeah,” Shane said at the same time Ginger stood up, tugged on Trevor’s arm and said, “Come with me. Now!”

“I’m not finished with—”

“Yes, you are. And if you don’t come with me right now I’m not going to talk to you for the next half a decade.” She turned to Shane. “You stay here.”

Shane had started to get up, but stopped with one knee still on the ground. “Yes, ma’am.”

She dragged Trevor away to the barn. Cows stared at them, then flicked their tails and turned away. “Even the cows have better sense,” she muttered, then rounded on her brother once they were in the barn. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you so nasty to Shane?”

“Because he hurt you. You think I don’t know what’s going on?”

“That’s exactly what I think, unless you’ve been stalking and spying on me.”

“I don’t have to do either of those things to know what he’s doing. I’ve seen guys like that. He takes women for granted, uses them…and he sweet talks them or seduces them to get out of anything. You’re making a huge mistake if you take him back.”

“Jeez, what’s up with you? He’s not like that.”

Trevor stared up at the loft and she actually heard his teeth grinding. “I’m starting to think you’re the one with amnesia.” He stuck out a meaty hand and started using his fingers to tick off points. “He dated you, strung you along for over ten years, then finally proposed when it looked like you might ditch him, and then refused to set a date for your wedding!”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you crazy? That’s totally not how it went. We dated in high school and he followed me to college despite his parents’ opposition. His mother was absolutely livid that he chose to go to Berkeley rather than some Ivy League school. She threatened to cut off his allowance, then when that didn’t work, tried to get him to choose Stanford if he wanted to be close to me. But he insisted on Berkeley because he didn’t even want to be that far apart. You know this.

“And there was no ‘stringing along.’ I stayed with him because I wanted to, not because he tricked me. I’m not that stupid, Trevor. And just because we got engaged didn’t mean we had to set a date immediately just to please you, okay? We wanted to take our time looking at venues and their availability and go from there.”

Trevor made a frustrated sound deep in his throat. “Ever heard the saying that you only need to look at a man’s father to know how the son’s going to treat a woman? He’s emulating Salazar. Everyone knows what a womanizer that old geezer is, and I’m sure he’s thrilled to be getting divorced now so he can pursue his hobby without worrying about a wife or children.”

“Shane’s nothing like Salazar!” Ginger clenched her hands, barely restraining herself from punching Trevor. She’d never felt such a violent urge before, but her brother was infuriating. “You’ve never even met his father, or seen how Shane strives to be better than him. While we were dating, he never even looked at other women, even when they were virtually naked and throwing themselves at him. He always made me feel like I was the center of his universe. The only thing that changed all that was whatever it was that made him go to South Africa. And I still don’t know what that is because he can’t remember. And that makes me feel just…awful, like there’s a bomb in my life. I can hear it ticking, but can’t do anything about it.”

Trevor paled, flinching.

“You don’t know what that did to me,” she said. “You don’t know what it’s like to lose someone you love like that because you’ve never loved anybody the way I love Shane. He gave me my engagement ring—again—and I know he loves me. So I’m going to grab this chance and make sure we can work the problem out—whatever it is. I don’t want to be alone again. If you can’t be supportive of my decision, you can at least not sabotage it.” She let out a shuddering breath and blinked as her eyes prickled with unshed tears.

“Damn, Ginger.” He reached out and hugged her stiff body. “I’m sorry. I had no idea you felt that way.”

“Now that you know, what are you going to do?”

“I can’t promise I’m going to like the guy, but I’ll butt out. And try my damnedest to look the other way when I see you guys sucking face.”

She laughed, finally relieved. She would’ve hated to be at odds with Trevor over anything, much less Shane. “Thanks.” She unbent and hugged him back. “You’re the best brother any woman could ask for.”

* * *

Shane waited until Ginger came back. He hoped whatever talk she needed to have with Trevor hadn’t gone too poorly. Her brother seemed juuuuuust a trifle overprotective. Shane would’ve approved of that if Trevor hadn’t thought he needed to protect Ginger from him as well.

Soon they emerged from the barn. Trevor shot him a glance and went off, while Ginger came toward Shane. She looked so sweet and sexy, her hips sashaying. The movement was even more provocative because she wasn’t doing it on purpose.

“So… Everybody still alive?” he said.

“Barely, but he’ll behave. It’ll mean the world to me if you can be gracious to him in return.”

“Hey. Gracious is my middle name.”

She chuckled. “Sure, SLAP-y.”

He cringed. “You know about that?”

“Yup.” She peered up at him. “Do you remember mine?”

“No.” He frowned. “That puts me at a disadvantage. What is it?”

“Grant.”

“Seriously? That’s it?”

She nodded. “After Ginger Grant from Gilligan’s Island.”

He felt completely lost. “Is that in the Caribbean?”

“Nope. An old TV show and Dad was a fan. Do you feel advantaged now?”

He snorted and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We should get going.”

“Where?”

“Back to the city. Trevor’s right. We can’t be doing the things I want to do to you at your parents’ house. I don’t want your father shooting at me or your mother poisoning my food.”

“I can’t go yet.”

“Why not?”

“I told them I was staying for a few days, and they were so excited. I don’t take a lot of time off or visit often.”

“How come?”

“Well. For holidays, we split our time at your family’s and mine.”

He stared at her, aghast. “Is it nice at my family’s?”

“Honestly? Not always.” She chewed on her lower lip. “The dinner last night was pretty decent since your dad wasn’t there. It can get pretty tense when your parents are together. Oh, and Dane.”

“That I can believe.”

“But you know…your parents live in L.A. Mine don’t. So I don’t see them as often as I’d like.” She put a hand over his chest. “Pretty please?”

“Okay. I’ll stay here with you too then.”

“Really? But—”

He kissed her. She opened up to him instantly, as though she’d been dying for his touch. He groaned into her mouth. “No buts,” he said firmly as he traced the delicate line of her smooth jaw.