She watched him as she stretched. “Wow.”

He grinned. “Why, thank you. Back atcha.” He watched her carefully, so carefully that she cocked her head.

“What? Did I do something wrong? I’m not . . . well, this was new for me.” She blushed so prettily he couldn’t help but lean down to kiss her.

“You did everything right. I just want to be sure you’re with me all the way. What we did was good. Really good. I want you to be good with it too.”

She smiled, sliding her fingers through his hair. “Yeah? I don’t know what to say to you sometimes.”

“That’s got to be novel for you.”

Her laugh relaxed him.

“That’s pretty true, as it happens. I get the feeling this is normal for you. No, not normal, that’s a judgment word as Erin would say. Regular? I guess I figured you just said what needed to happen and that was that. Your lifestyle? I don’t know, I’m saying it wrong.”

He understood right at that moment that Raven Smith hated to be uncertain about things. Liked to be in charge.

That she was willing to be off balance with him—for him—meant quite a lot. More than he wanted it to, but it was too late to feel anything else for her but the way he did. That he hadn’t known her very long was pretty irrelevant at that moment.

“I resist terms like lifestyle because playing golf is a lifestyle, gardening. Whatever. To me, this isn’t a lifestyle. This is how I like to have sex. Other people may say differently and that’s how the world works. Regardless, I’d be a prick to do things with you, especially when you were bound, that you didn’t like as much as I liked doing them.”

“Oh. Yes, I liked them. You should do them more.”

He laughed, pulling her close. “Gimme a few minutes to recover. You’re hell on my cock, gorgeous.”

“That’s probably one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.” 

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

Erin laughed as she hooked her arm with Raven’s and steered her toward the front door of Tart, the home of Mary’s supper club, Delicious.

It was, of course, already full of the people who made up the whole extended group of friends and relatives Erin was part of.

Mary had to stop doing the public one after it had become so well known she was involved with Damien Hurley, uber big rock star. But she still did them for her friends on occasion.

“And I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Jonah Warner was a kinky motherfucker. Jesus, you totally hold out on me all while telling me you love me?”

Erin said it in an undertone so no one else could hear, but Raven felt the heat of a blush anyway. Damn it, she did not blush!

“I told you yesterday. I’m sorry. I figured it would scar Alexander for life to hear his mother and Auntie talk about how Auntie’s man loved to whip her with a slapper while she was blindfolded and tied up.”

“I love it when they blindfold me. Makes all my other senses come alive.”

They’d actually not been able to get into the whole Jonah discussion too deeply the day before either, as they’d run into Elise and Rennie while they were out shopping and had ended up spending the afternoon together.

“He’s so hot. My god.” Erin’s grin made it impossible not to grin back.

Like this was news? The man messed with her head. Made her break all her rules. He was a tornado in her life.

“I agreed to be monogamous while we were together.”

Erin turned, her brows flying up. “Get out! Really? Damn, he must make you come so hard.”

“Well yes. Didn’t I already say that? He demanded it. And I like him and it seemed silly to argue. I’m too busy to fuck anyone else right now anyway, and this will burn out in time and I’ll move on when we’re done. I’m a big girl, I can do it.” She chewed her lip. “I think.”

Erin cocked her head.

“God, what if I mess it up?”

Erin put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “You’re not going to mess it up.” She took a drink from the table and handed it to Raven, clinking her glass to it. “It had to happen sometime. My baby is growing up.”

Raven snorted before she took a sip.

And then she heard him.

“Well now, I’m extra glad I came tonight.” Jonah walked straight to her as if no one else was even in the room. He took her free hand and kissed her fingertips. “Hello.”

She knew she did one of those cartoon gulps but she really couldn’t help herself. “Hi. Fancy seeing you here.”

“I called your place, actually. To ask you to dinner. But you weren’t there and Levi bugged me to come here and I was hungry. But this makes everything so much better.”

He made her skin tingle. His voice did things to her nipples. Flashes of how he felt deep inside her as he fucked her kept running through her memory.

“Hey, Raven.”

She tore her gaze away from Jonah to catch sight of Daisy approaching wearing a big smile.

“Hello, Daisy.”

“We saved you a seat. Next to Jonah, I mean.” She fluttered her lashes at Raven, who managed to wrestle her left eyebrow into staying put.

Jonah did some fancy thing with her hand. He turned as he put her hand on his arm, his own hand firmly over it, keeping her at his side as he walked her over to their table.

Erin simply moved their things down to that end of the table. “That was pretty nifty there.”

Jonah gave Erin a look, but she wasn’t the type to be scared off by a big alpha male face, as she had two of her very own anyway.

“That little spin as you directed her, I mean. So how have you been?”

Todd sat on one side of Erin and Ben the other. He kissed Erin quickly. “Smooth. You totally could have been a CIA agent with your sneaky skills.”

“I’m not sneaky. He’s smooth. I’m not waterboarding him or anything.”

Jonah leaned in closer to Erin, clearly amused. “Would you?”

“I don’t know. I might. Have you done anything worthy of being waterboarded?”

“Not yet. I don’t think.”

Raven cleared her throat. “Just ask him whatever you’re going to ask him already.” She turned to Jonah. “You need to give in now. She won’t give up. She’s like one of those little dogs. She’ll bark and nip at your ankles until you submit. It’s her way.”

Erin laughed, clearly delighted. “I’m just getting a feel for him. If he wants to take my daughter out, I should know his intentions.”

Raven couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m a big girl, Mom.”

“She’s concerned.” He put a hand over hers briefly. “I promise not to despoil her. And to have her back by ten.”

“What if I like being despoiled?”

“I tell you, you walk away from a table filled with these people and you return to talk of despoiling.”

Mary shooed her fiancé, Damien, to the table. “Sit. Don’t get any ideas.”

“I can help you in the kitchen.” He mooned over her, which Raven—though she’d never admit it out loud—thought was sort of sweet.

“You are not my helper tonight.”

“I am. So back off, buster.” Daisy sent him a lovely smile that sort of ruined her gruff words. “You get her all the time. It’s not enough that you stole her away to Oregon? You get to be in her kitchen every day. You need to learn to share.”

“That sounded sort of dirty. Can we watch?” Adrian leaned back in his seat, his arm around Gillian’s back.

“Only if you want me to poke your eyes out.” Levi sipped his drink. “If anyone gets to watch, it’s me. And Damien I guess, if he’s nice.”

Raven breathed a sigh of relief when the conversation moved past the grilling of Jonah. Oh, she knew people thought she loved being the center of attention and none of them mattered enough for her to correct their misperception. But she didn’t like it.

Erin leaned closer. “So we need to continue our discussion later.”

Jonah slid his hand up her spine, stopping to cup the back of her neck. She shivered and Erin’s eyebrow slowly rose as she took in Raven’s response.