“I thought Dad had the repairman install a window unit,” Ellie said.

“He did. He didn’t turn it on, though. It must be ninety in here.”

Ellie thought it was hotter. She followed Max into his bedroom but stopped when she saw the oversize window unit. “It’s huge. Does it fit, or will it fall on the floor during the night?”

Max checked it out. “It barely fits,” he said, smiling. “If it falls, it will go out the window, not in.”

He looked at all the switches and dials and finally located the on and off button. He pushed it on and waited. The unit shuddered and began to make a low humming sound. Cool air immediately poured out of the vents.

“Okay, I think we’re in business,” Max said. “It’s set for seventy degrees.”

Ellie was feeling hot and sticky and took a quick shower. She put on an extra-large T-shirt for a nightgown, then went into the living room to see if SportsCenter was on while Max showered.

He walked into the living room wearing a pair of gray boxer shorts and nothing else. His hair was still wet, and he was drying it with a towel. Ellie felt that familiar stirring in her body just looking at him. He had a massive chest. It was all muscle. She knew that for a fact because she had kissed every inch of it. His dark, curly chest hair tapered to a V at his belly button. She’d kissed that, too, she remembered, and oh God, what hadn’t she kissed? His legs and thighs were just as muscular. She remembered squeezing those thighs in the throes of passion.

Was it getting hotter in here?

Max put the towel on the rack in the bathroom, then went to the kitchen to get a beer. He noticed Ellie’s face was flushed.

“Are you okay?”

“I need to buy a pregnancy test.”

The announcement didn’t faze him. “Okay,” he said. “Can it wait until tomorrow?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

Max opened the beer bottle, tossed the lid in the trash can, and sat down beside her, scooting her over to the end of the sofa so he wouldn’t be near the lumpy springs. He took a drink and said, “Isn’t it a little too soon to know if you’re pregnant? It’s only been one day,” he added. “And I used protection.”

“It’s not for me,” she said, exasperated.

She took a drink of his beer and handed it back to him. Max reached for the remote, but Ellie was quicker.

“It’s for Annie, isn’t it?”

Her eyes widened. “How did you know?”

“I’m an FBI agent. We’re trained to be observant. Now give me the damned remote.”

“Not until you explain.”

“First of all, there’s the process of elimination. Your mother is a little too old to get pregnant.”

“True,” she agreed.

“And Ava can barely stand to look at you, so she certainly wouldn’t confide in you.”

“And that left Annie.”

“Yes,” he said, reaching for the remote again.

She stretched her arm out to the side and held the remote in her fist.

“But there were other signs,” Max continued. “And we agents are trained to pick up on those signs.”

She rolled her eyes heavenward. “Like?”

“Annie didn’t drink any wine.”

“Neither did we.”

“Her complexion was gray.”

“She was tired.”

“She threw up.” He halfheartedly tried to grab the arm with the remote.

“Where did she throw up?”

“In the trash can in your father’s office. Fortunately, the can had a liner.”

“What was she doing in his office?”

“Talking to me.”

“About what?”

“She needed a favor.”

“Are you going to tell me what the favor was?”

“No.”

She sighed in frustration. “Maybe she threw up because she had eaten something that disagreed with her. Were you there when it happened?”

“I held her hair back for her.”

“That was sweet.” She kissed him on the cheek and handed him the remote.

He immediately began to channel surf. “But the number one reason I know why she thinks she’s pregnant . . .”

“Yes?”

“She told me.”

Ellie thought about it for a minute and said, “Annie doesn’t want anyone else to know. I wonder if she told Ava.”

“No, she didn’t. She doesn’t want to take anything away from her focus on the wedding. Ellie, do all women get crazy about their weddings like Ava?”

“You mean act like a maniac?”

“Yeah.”

“No, not all brides behave like Ava.”

He nodded. “Where do you want to get the pregnancy test? I think I saw a drugstore when we were pulling into Winston Falls.”

“Oh no, no, no. The entire town would think I was pregnant if I purchased a test here. My parents would hear about it before we got back home.”

“I’ll be meeting Agents Clark and Hershey before they get here tomorrow. I’ll set it up in another town nearby. We could find a pharmacy there.”

“There’s a plan,” she said, smiling. She took another drink from his bottle and handed it back to him. “You really won’t tell me what favor Annie wanted?”

“I don’t know what the favor is,” he said. “We didn’t get that far. But when I find out what she wants, no, I won’t tell you. It’s an FBI agent and client confidentiality issue,” he teased. “If she wants you to know—”

“Agent and client? That’s a new one.”

“That’s right.”

“Help me understand. She asked for a favor, but she wouldn’t tell you what it was?”

“Couldn’t tell me,” he corrected.

“Why not?” She sounded disgruntled.

“Her face was in a trash can.”

“I guess I’ll have to ask her.”

“I’d have a trash can handy when you do.”

Yawning, she stretched her arms above her head and stood. “It’s still beastly hot in here. Think we could turn the fan up a notch or two?”

Max turned the television off and followed Ellie. “Let’s go to bed.”

She noticed the door to the smaller bedroom where she planned to sleep tonight was closed. She opened it and felt a rush of hot air.

“You’re going to have to keep your door wide open, or my room won’t get any air.” She walked into his room to feel the cooler temperature.

“Do you want to sleep with me?” he asked.

She didn’t answer him. Max couldn’t have heard her anyway. A scant second after asking the question, he flipped the switch up to high on the air conditioner and was nearly lifted off his feet by the noise.

Ellie fell back onto the bed. The entire floor seemed to vibrate, and the bed was doing a shimmy to the middle of the room. It sounded as though a Lear jet was landing in the apartment.

She couldn’t stop laughing. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and tried to catch her breath. She was getting a stitch in her side watching Max. He was cursing the air conditioner while turning every possible lever and button to get it to stop. He finally unplugged it.

The unit didn’t die easily. It shuddered again. Its last gasp was so forceful, the glass in the window above rattled . . . then blessed silence.

Max stood over Ellie watching her. She was on her back with her arms above her head, and her laughter was so joyful and uninhibited. He dropped down on top of her, careful to keep his weight off her, and pinned her with his pelvis on top of hers, and his hands holding hers. He looked down at the tears in her eyes. God, she was something else.

“Daddy got another deal, didn’t he?” she asked.

He slowly nodded. Then he leaned down and kissed her. She pulled her hands free and wrapped them around his back.

“It’s going to get hot in here,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I know.”

He was nuzzling her neck, and she couldn’t stop herself from stroking his back and his shoulders. “You probably shouldn’t let me do this, Max.”

She pushed his shoulders back and rolled on top of him. Her shirt had ridden up, and she could feel him pressed against her. She stretched her body over his, slid her fingers into his hair, and kissed him on the mouth, a hot, wet kiss that made her want much, much more.

Max tightened his grip on her hips. Her breath was warm and sweet.

“If you don’t want to do this, stop messing with me,” he said.

She kissed the pulse at the base of his neck. “I want to, but I worry about you,” she whispered. “This could become habitforming for you.”

She was moving downward, kissing his chest as she moved erotically against his pelvis. Her hands were stroking him, driving him crazy. When she reached his stomach, she smiled at his indrawn breath.

“I don’t want you to become attached to me,” she said.

She moved lower, and he couldn’t think. Only when he knew he was about to lose control did he take over. He rolled off the bed, telling her he’d be right back, and he returned in seconds. He wasn’t gentle as he took her shoulders. He saw the passion in her eyes and knew she was ready for him. He entered her forcefully, and she cried out as the sensations began to build. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders.

Neither one could talk then, for the mating ritual was consuming them.

Max made it last longer this time so that she would climax before he did. When she lifted her hips to take him deeper inside and cried his name, he buried his face in her shoulder and found his own release.

“What’s that?” he asked suspiciously.

“Is Simon going to be traded to the Colts?”

He laughed. “We just had sex.”

“I understand it’s possible to do it more than once.”

“We have done it more than once. At least a hundred times last night.”

She kissed him. “You wish. It was four, not a hundred. Will you ask him?”

“Yes.”

He rolled onto his back and pulled her close. She rested her cheek on his shoulder. “Tell me how you became a Daniels.”

His sigh was long and drawn out.

“You don’t want to tell me?” she asked.

“I don’t like talking about it.”

She didn’t prod, and five minutes later Max said, “My parents died in a car accident. A semi ran into them. I was five years old at the time. I didn’t have any relatives, and the lawyer the court appointed me in foster care pocketed all the insurance money. I didn’t have good luck with the three families I was placed with. The last was the worst.”

“How old were you then?”

“Seven,” he answered. “I ran away. It was the dead of winter, and I was hiding behind a Dumpster. I remember being so cold and feeling helpless.”

“What happened?”

“Simon happened. He was on his way home and saw me. He took off his coat and gave it to me and dragged me home with him. I was kicking and screaming, but I stopped when he vowed I would never have to go back to that foster home.” There was a smile on his face as he continued. “Simon was just a year older than I was, but he was big for his age and sounded as though he could pull it off. I believed him, anyway. So I went along. I lived in his house for over a week before his parents found out about me. The bruises from my foster parents were still evident. Simon’s dad was an attorney, and he, too, promised I’d never have to go back.”

“What was his mother like?” she asked.

“Loving,” he said. “And kind.”

“Did they adopt you right away?”

“If you were to ask them, they would tell you I adopted them. It became final when I was eight, and by then two more had joined the family. Bishop and Sebastian. And that court-appointed attorney who pocketed the estate money . . .”

“Yes?”

“Sent to prison,” he said. “And Dad was able to get most of the money back. He put it in a trust fund for me.”

“When did Bradley and Tyler and Adam join the family?”

“You remembered their names.”

“Of course.”

“Bradley and Tyler came five years after I did, and Adam was the last to become a Daniels a year later.”

“No girls?”

He laughed. “Mom and Dad said it would be cruel to inflict the seven of us boys on a sister. We were a rowdy bunch.”

“They sound like wonderful people.”

“The best.” He yawned. “We’ve got to do something about the heat in here.”

“I say we give the window unit another chance. You plug it in, and we’ll keep it on low.”

“Stay here. I’ll take care of it.”

The plan worked. It seemed that, on low, the air conditioner cooperated. Ellie begged him to push the lever up a notch to medium to see what would happen. And once again the Lear jet all but blew them out of the room. Luckily, when he flipped it back to low, the humming sound returned.

Ellie had another good laugh, rolled onto her stomach, and was sound asleep seconds later.