Angrily turning the knob, she threw her front door open and stomped toward the panel, disarming the system. As I was about to step into the foyer, she slammed the door in my face.

“Mackenzie!” I bellowed. “Don’t be like this.” Refusing to have a screaming match through the door, I gingerly turned the knob and entered her condo.

“Like what?” she hissed, whirling around. “You keep saying you want to take things slow, and I get it, Tyler. But you have no problem making out with me, feeling me up, making me straddle you as you push your cock against me! Then when I invite you in, you suddenly want nothing to do with me!”

I stared at her in shock as tears streamed down her face.

“It’s because you don’t find me attractive anymore, isn’t it?” she whimpered, avoiding my eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course you don’t. I mean, you disappear from my life and come back to see me like this.” She gestured to her stomach. “You don’t have to pretend you like me just to get information about my father. We’ve already played that game, Tyler. It’s tired and old. So just get out and leave me alone.”

“Mackenzie…” I had no idea what I could say to her that would assuage her fears. Maybe that I thought she was the most beautiful woman on the planet? And even more so when I found out she was carrying our child? But they were just words, insufficient to properly convey how I felt about her. I needed her to see, to feel, how much I needed her in my life. She needed to know it was her, that it was always her. Everything that had happened in my life, from my triumphs to my failures, all led me to her.

“Don’t, Tyler. Just don’t.” With heavy footsteps, she stormed down the hallway.

Running after her, I grabbed her arm and pinned her against the wall. Her mouth fell open as she gave me an incredulous look. Before she could say anything, I crushed my lips to hers and thrust against her. Finding her hands, I raised her arms over her head, trapping her in place. “Is this what you want?” I growled, my eyes hooded as I looked down at her.

“No,” she hissed, shaking her head. “I don’t want a pity fuck.” Her chest heaved as she glared at me, her eyes on fire in the darkened hallway. I ran my tongue down her neckline, tracing circles as I inhaled her alluring scent. A barely audible whimper escaped as she craned her neck, giving me easier access to her perfect skin.

“But you do want to fuck?” I murmured. Releasing my hold on her arms, I ran my fingers across her collarbone, tracing the line of her halter top dress.

“You know the answer to that, but it’s obvious you’re not attracted to me. Not like you used to be…” She pushed against me and I stumbled back, keeping my distance from her. We stood in the hallway and stared at each other, both of our chests heaving.

“Mackenzie, I don’t know what you want me to say. I can tell you I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen from the first moment I saw you, but I’d be lying.”

She frowned.

“When I saw you at my mother’s house and saw this…” I stepped toward her and placed my hand on her stomach. “Well, I had never been so stunned before, so speechless that any woman could capture my heart with her beauty and radiance. I’m just worried if we move too fast, we won’t make it.”

“Tyler…” She wrapped her arms around my neck and stood on her toes, placing a soft kiss on my lips. “I want us to make it, too, but did you ever think that maybe I need this. I need to feel you, feel the connection I’ve missed. I need to know you again…”

“You do know me.”

“We’ve agreed to get to know each other again, but I’m not just interested in your favorite color and your most memorable childhood vacation, Tyler. I want to know you intimately. I want nothing more than to open up my heart to you again, but I can’t do that unless I know you…all of you.”

Tracing circles on my neck, she ran her hand down my chest, a renewed hunger washing over me. Passion flooding my veins, I drew her body close and covered her mouth with mine, my kiss ravenous and unyielding as I pushed her down the hall toward her bedroom. It had been ages since I had walked these steps, but it was so familiar, so natural, as if I had walked this path every day of my life.

Approaching her bed, I tore my lips from hers, desperately trying to catch my breath.

“What do you want?” she whispered, eyeing me with part confusion, part lust.

“You,” I replied in a low groan. “Always you.” I thrust my hand in her hair, gripping it hard and forcing her head back so she had no choice but to stare into my eyes. Her chest rose and fell, and it took everything in me to not throw her onto the bed at that instant. I hadn’t been with her in months and I wanted to make up for lost time. For all the lost kisses, lost embraces, lost I love you’s, lost moans… I wanted to remember each and every shiver, every taste of her skin, every waft of her sweet cinnamon aroma. This was the start of our new beginning, and I wanted to give her everything. I wanted to give her all of me.

“Take me.” She swallowed hard. “Feel me, Tyler.”

Hooking my arm around her waist, I pulled her into me, our two bodies molding together. I ran my hands through her hair, brushing a tendril behind her ear as I gently caressed her face.

Sighing, she covered my hand with hers. “There you are,” she said softly.

“What do you mean?”

“My Tyler. My loving, powerful mystery man. The man who is fierce, in control, and full of fervor one minute, then is sweet, caring, and loving the next. I like how it’s never boring with you, how it’s always…”

“Unexpected?” I said, finishing her thought.

“Yes. You were unexpected, but the most wonderful unexpected thing that ever happened to me. And I wouldn’t change one minute of it. Not the lies or the heartache because it led us to where we are.”

She reached toward the nape of her neck and pulled at the strings of her halter dress. Stepping back, she allowed it to pool at her feet and stood in front of me wearing a red strapless bra and matching panties.

The room was dark, the only light coming from the moon as it filtered through her windows. It was serene, tranquil, still, in complete contradiction to the frenzied beating of my heart that I was certain was reverberating against the walls.

Slowly, she unclasped her bra and it fell to the ground before sensually lowering her panties down her legs. Her eyes met mine as she stood in front of me…exposed, bare, vulnerable.

Taking several determined steps toward her, I kissed her again, our exchange soft, momentarily lacking the ravenous characteristic most of our previous kisses had. She tugged at my hair, pulling me into her as a small moan escaped her mouth. Clutching onto her hips, I deepened the kiss.

I lifted her up and walked across the room, pushing her back against the wall. It was a mixture of hands and legs as we fused into each other, feeling each other, experiencing each other. I needed her. I needed to feel her. To taste her. To consume her.

With one arm, I held her, using the other to brush all the bottles off her vanity, and lowered her to the mahogany surface. Before she could utter anything, I kneeled before her. Spreading her legs, I placed them over my shoulders and traced my tongue against her calf.

“Tyler,” she moaned, reaching for me as I remained just slightly out of reach of her touch.

“Yes, mi cariño? Something I can help you with?”

“I need you.” She threw her head back, overwhelmed with the sensuous torture of my tongue’s slow journey up her leg.

“And you will have me. Don’t rush to the finish,” I murmured, growing closer to the spot I was sure she wanted me to touch…to taste. “Enjoy the moment. Don’t you want to live in the present instead of looking forward?” I squeezed her thighs, my thumb brushing over her center. She took a quick inhale of air, her body growing taut around me. “Don’t you, Serafina?”