eathless by what I saw. I had gotten so lost that I hadn’t even realized what I was painting. A blue sky with a sinking orange sun. Trees, rolling hills, and a path that led to a gazebo. A man stood with his hands resting on the rail, his back toward me as he watched the sinking fireball in the sky.
“Blake.” My fingers slowly came up and pressed against my lips. The memory of him kissing me the other night made my heart race.
“Oh Morgan, what have you done?”
I had promised myself I could handle one night of passion with a man I trusted. That was all it was supposed to be. No feelings attached to the sex, no expectations from either of us. But what happened that night wasn’t what either of us had expected. I knew it the moment he looked into my eyes when he first pushed inside me, bare, and every emotion so raw. Both of us tried to ignore the rush of emotions we had locked deep inside us. He'd felt it too. I knew he had, and he’d proved it by kissing me the other night in the gazebo.
I stumbled back some, hitting the door to the studio I had set up in the spare room of my bungalow. Sinking to the floor, I pulled my knees up and hugged them close to my body.
I stared at the painting as I let the realization of that night sink in. I had let myself fall for Blake. I had let him in, and now I had no idea what to do.
“WHAT IN THE hell is wrong with you?”
Facing Nash, I shrugged. “What do you mean what’s wrong with me?”
Nash stared at me with a blank expression. “In all the years I have known you, Blake, we have never gone out for a run and you not hit on at least one woman. But lately, you haven’t so much as glanced toward one. What’s going on with you?”
Turning away, I focused on the path in front of me. We had stopped to fill up water bottles, and Nash was staring at me like he knew my dirty little secret. I had fallen for his sister. One night of pure heaven in the same bed with her, and she was all I could think about. Dream about. Lie awake fantasizing about. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time I slept a full night’s sleep in the last month.
“Nothing is going on with me. I’ve been busy with work.”
“Work? So let me get this straight. You’re putting work before your sex life?” He smiled wide. “Holy shit. You met someone, didn’t you?”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “I’ve always put work first, Nash. You know that. Plus, I’m up for that promotion, which will only bring more work. Just because you’re happy with your blissful love life doesn’t mean all of us have fallen into that sinkhole.”
He laughed and clapped me on the back. “Dude, it’s okay if someone has caught your eye. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be with one person. You’re a great guy, Blake. Any woman would be lucky to be with you.”
Would he be saying that if he knew it was his sister who had caught my eye? But he was right. My heart only wanted one woman. Morgan.
“It’s not what you think, Nash.”
“No? Then tell me what it is.”
“It’s nothing. It was a onetime thing with an amazing woman, but she wants nothing more out of it.”
He frowned. “She wanted nothing else, or you didn’t?”
I shrugged. “Both of us, I guess. It was an incredible night, and maybe that is all it was meant to be.”
Filling up my water bottle, I felt his gaze on me.
“Do I know her?”
My entire body froze.
I can’t do this. I cannot lie to my best friend.
Turning to face him, I nodded. “Yeah. You know her. Listen, Nash, I didn’t mean for . . .”
His cell phone rang, and he pulled it off the holder he had wrapped around his arm. When he smiled, I knew it was Kaelynn.
“Hey, baby. What’s going on?”
I watched as he walked over to a bench and took a seat. Looked like our run was over.
“Blake?”
Her voice made my body come to life. Memories of her whispering my name into my ear while she wrapped her legs around me, pulling me deeper inside her, hit me like a fucking Mac truck.