“Hold up!” Jagger’s yell was muffled by the door, the loud television, and giggles. For the barest second, I thought about running, but it wasn’t an option, not if I wanted to figure this out. The door swung open and Jagger appeared, his eyebrows shooting up at the sight of me. “Hey?”

My smile was tight and close-lipped. “Is, um, is Josh here?” I could barely get the words out of my mouth. Saying his name was still torturous, even almost three months later.

Jagger smiled through his shock. “Yeah, yeah, come on in.”

I followed him down the hallway and made the turn that mirrored the floor plan of our own apartment into the living room. “Walker, you’re not going to believe who’s—”

“Holy shit.” Josh cut him off, immediately standing, which was unfortunate for the co-ed who had been perched on the arm of the couch next to him. He caught her just before she hit the floor, and then set her aside. “Ember?” His eyes raked up and down my frame, and I didn’t miss the stab of desire that raced through them. Glad I could stoke the fire he had for . . . oh, yes it was. Tweedledee and Tweedledum both glared at me.

Jagger hit the mute button on the TV, and whatever slapstick comedy they were watching fell silent. For a moment, I couldn’t speak; I was too lost in looking at him. For the last few months, I hadn’t let myself meet his eyes. I’d sat next to him in class, smiled in his general direction when he said something amusing to our professor, but I’d avoided looking at him like the plague. Losing myself here was the reason.

He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Neither was Jagger, but nothing affected me like Josh’s bare chest. He was still cut like a dream. If anything, his muscles were larger, more defined, especially the lines that ran into his black basketball shorts. And his tribal tattoo wasn’t just black anymore; it had ice and flames dancing through it and around it, all originating from the area over his heart. I tried not to swallow my tongue, or think about how badly I ached to kiss him. “New ink?”

Ten feet separated us, but we may as well have been naked together, or ten thousand miles apart, it was the same difference, really. “Yeah.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Tweedledum glared at me, crossing her arms under her breasts to shove them up through her neckline.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your, eh”—I gestured to the room—“date. I just need to ask Josh a quick question.”

“You came all the way over here to ask him a question?” the girl fired back.

I looked to Josh, but he looked too awestruck to answer, refusing to take his eyes from me. My cheeks flamed. “I’m his next-door neighbor, and—”

“And she’s done explaining herself to you,” Josh interjected, finally coming to life. “Ember, what’s up?”

The way he said it, his voice curving around the words, made me want to ask him for more than information. Then I thought about the way his bed had pounded against my wall. He’d moved on. I steadied myself with a deep breath and hugged my waist. “You didn’t tell me how close you were to my dad.”

His jaw flexed, and his face paled. “That’s not really a question if you already know the answer.” His hand raked over his head, through his short hair, a style I now knew he kept for the Guard. “But yeah, we were friends.”

“What’s with the records? Why would you ask my dad for them? Why not go to Evans Hospital here?”

He swallowed. “Did you read them?”

I shook my head. “No, they’re yours. I saw the date and stopped.”

He walked in through his bedroom door and motioned me inside, but I wasn’t sure I could walk into that room. “Come on, Ember. I won’t take advantage of you.” The smile he gave me was small and didn’t reach his eyes. It was gone almost as quickly as it came.

“You can take advantage of me!” Tweedledum sang after him. Then she leaned in close to whisper so only I could hear. “The body on that man is just.. . . .”

I shook her off and walked toward him before she could finish. If I had to choose between the lion’s lair and the snake pit? Well, at least I knew the lion. I glanced around, noting that nothing had changed. He’d even put the picture from state back on the wall. I thought twice about sitting on the bed and instead chose to stand while he rummaged in his closet. Finally, he came out with a gray handled filing case.

He rested it on the bed, opening it with a click. “I have to say, I never thought I’d get you in here again, but if I did, I never imagined it would be like this.”

I concentrated on the movement of his fingers and the play of muscles up his arm. “Could you put on a shirt? It’s a little distracting.” My voice sounded breathless, even to me, but I couldn’t slow my pulse, not with him standing three inches from me.

He laughed, which didn’t help my state; it only turned me on. “Could you put on some pants? Those mile-long legs of yours have me thinking about the way you loved to wrap them around my waist.”

I sputtered, and he grinned, pulling out the records from his file and handing them to me. “You’re going to find out some day, it may as well be my doing.”

I scanned the top. “You were hurt in July, two years ago?”

“Yeah, I was stupid and gave the Guard the only hard copy I had. Then when they updated their computers, they lost mine from Afghanistan. I needed them for the docs here to clear me to play for UCCS. Your dad was deployed, and I knew that hospital would have a copy somewhere. I was just lucky your dad knew where to look.”