“You,” I answered, my voice more than a little breathless. “I mean, you weren’t, but then I came out here looking for you, and you have no shirt on.”

“It’s hot.”

“I’ve noticed.”

I knew I was supposed to be mad at him for shutting me out. I knew I was supposed to keep up the awkward, private stalemate we’d had since the flight yesterday, but in that moment, I just didn’t care. I needed his mouth on mine more than oxygen—and he knew it.

He kissed me, lightly at first, as though asking me permission. I opened for him as he licked the seam of my lips, and sucked his tongue into my mouth. He groaned, his grip shifting from my hair to my ass, and walked backward until he landed on a stool near the workbench.

He gripped and lifted me onto his lap with a smooth motion until I straddled him, my feet braced on the supports of the stool. “Your shoulder,” I mumbled against his mouth.

“Shh, it’s fine.”

Even that word didn’t fire off my temper. I was too consumed by his skin against mine as my tank top rode up over my stomach. “Josh,” I whispered as he ran his tongue down my neck, stopping at the spot he knew triggered my instant need for sex. It may as well have been labeled with a bull’s-eye for how well he knew my body.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” he whispered.

“Have you looked in the mirror?” I asked.

“No, but we could try it,” he answered, his mouth gliding over the neckline of my top. “Could you get into that? Me behind you, watching you, watching us.”

I groaned, his words bringing images into my mind that definitely weren’t safe for a garage with the door wide open. “That was not what I meant.”

“Oh, I know,” he replied, peeling my top down over one of my breasts and lifting it from my lacy bra cup. “Damn, I’ve missed this. How many days has it even been?”

“Too many.” I gasped when he flicked his tongue over my nipple. The heat of my body, the air around us, his skin, all blended together until I felt like I was a living fire.

“I need you,” he whispered.

I knew what this would do. He was using sex to bandage the gaping wound that festered between us. I needed to care, to stop and make him talk this out, not give in to the primal need to feel him moving inside me, to let our bodies connect us. “Josh…”

“Fuck,” he growled, popping my breast back into my shirt when the door handle turned. To his credit, he didn’t throw me off his lap, but when his mom came down the steps, I wished he had.

My head hit his shoulder, and all the blood that had centered between my thighs a moment ago rushed to my cheeks.

“Mom,” Josh said with a nod.

“Uh-huh,” she said, a laugh finishing it off.

“Mom,” I mumbled, tossing up my hand as a wave but leaving my face firmly hidden.

“Well, my date should be here any minute,” she said sweetly, “so you two kids play nice, and I’ll see you later?”

“No lecture?” Josh asked, his arms wrapping around me to keep me from moving.

“Well, I did say that I wanted grandbabies,” she joked.

I groaned my mortification into Josh’s neck as a car pulled into the driveway. “No way,” he muttered, and I turned to see a nicely dressed man climb down out of the truck. “Sherriff Lane?”

Okay, that was it. I pushed back off Josh’s chest and slid until my feet touched the floor, pulling down my tank top along the way. “Hi,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster.

“I’m Dwayne.” He introduced himself with a firm handshake.

“I’m Ember.”

“Josh’s fiancée,” Mrs. Walker clarified.

“Nice to meet you,” he said with a nod, then looked past me to Josh. “Good to see you, Josh. I’ve heard you’ve grown into quite a man.”

Josh stood behind me. “Still working on that one, Sheriff.”

Dwayne’s eyes narrowed at the bike. “Well, it’s been a few years since I’ve seen that.”

“Well, you kids play nice, and have a good evening,” Josh said, using his mother’s own words, then took my hand, firmly pulling me into the house and shutting the door behind us.

“What was that about?” I asked, basking in the sweet rush of cold air.

“I cannot believe she’s dating him.”

“The sheriff? He seems nice enough.”

“He’s the one who kicked me out of Winslow. He was the deputy who caught me.”

My mouth hung slightly open for a second. “Oh.” The Josh I knew was more than a little bit of a daredevil. Hell, I even remembered the playboy from high school. But I’d never really met the Arizona version of Josh who had wound up in the back of cop cars, even when we’d been back on previous trips.

He shook his head. “You know what? Never mind. I want to take you somewhere.”

“Okay.”

He walked back to his bedroom, and I followed, backing up while he pulled a giant box out of the bottom of his closet. “I ordered everything you could possibly want.”

I peered into the box and took in the protective pants, jacket, and helmet. “No way am I getting on that organ-donation-mobile.”

“You ride the Harley at home,” he cajoled.

“Josh…”

“I’ll be careful.”

“You can’t even drive it,” I said, pointing to his air cast. “Speaking of which, how did it even get here from the storage unit?”