“You know, a lot of people are going to hate you,” she said, smiling. “So, if you don’t get hungover, do you forget things?”

“I remember I kissed you last night.”

She stopped pouring cereal out and glanced over at me. I stared right at her, and I watched her cheeks go flush.

“Oh,” she said.

“Do you want to talk to me about that?”

“It’s fine. It was a mistake and you were drunk and it is never going to happen again. We don’t have to talk about it.”

She was cute when she rambled.

“It wasn’t a mistake.”

She jerked the cereal up, and several pieces spilled out of the top, landing on the table, and a few ended up on the floor. I made her nervous.

“I, uh, I don’t think we should talk about this.”

“Talk about what? The fact that since I first saw you at the diner, I’ve been thinking about kissing you?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t say those things.”

“Don’t you like the truth?”

She pushed her chair back and took a step away. I got to my feet, and it didn’t take me long to close the distance she was trying to create. Nor was it hard to manipulate her movements and have her pressed up against the door of the fridge, with no way to escape.

If, for even a second, I thought she was afraid, I’d back away. I’m not here to scare her. I’m here to … well, arouse her. To get this party started.

I couldn’t waste more time with bounty hunters on the loose, potentially tracking her down. Putting both of my hands on either side of her head, I stared into her eyes.

“Peter?”

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid of me?”

“I … no, I’ m not afraid of you.”

“Then what is wrong?”

“There are other women who want you, and they will do anything you want.”

I close the distance between us, so that she could feel the hard ridge of my cock pressing against her stomach. “No other woman makes me feel like that.” I had to stop playing the long game, and instead play the short game.

Ivan, for whatever reason, needed this woman pregnant. It was my job to get her pregnant, and training her, touching her, wasn’t doing the trick. I could no longer attempt to flirt or take my time. I needed to get into her pants, fast.

“Peter?” she asked.

“Is there another guy?” I asked. “Is that why you don’t want me? There is someone else you want.”

“I don’t know what to do with this. I’ve never been put in this position. I … I…”

She was struggling and that was when I realized something. Niamh didn’t have a clue what was happening right now. Even though her father was Finn Byrne, and I had been under the assumption she knew exactly what was going on—sex, fucking, making love, whatever word people wanted to call it—Niamh didn’t have a clue. I was attempting to seduce a woman who’d never experienced it. Did Ivan even know this?

I didn’t know the extent of the abuse she’d suffered at the hands of her father. All I could do was make assumptions.

Sinking my fingers into her hair, I decided to just go for it, and I took possession of her lips, kissing her hard. She gasped, and I used that to my advantage, plunging my tongue into her mouth, and hearing her moan. She tasted like mint toothpaste. She’d not even gotten to sip her coffee, and her cereal wasn’t eaten.

Niamh smelled good, and she tasted good. I ran my other hand down her body, and knew she felt good as well.

My arousal wasn’t forced. I wanted to be inside her. This was not going to be a hard task.

All too soon, Niamh pulled away and nibbled the corner of her lip. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.

I think it could be the most honest she had ever been with me.

“Normally, you kiss me back.”

“I, uh, Peter, I … Pickle Quest is not my home. I don’t intend to stay here too long.”

“You’re moving on?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.” She frowned. “I don’t know, when it’s the right time. I’m traveling, you know. Making enough to be able to move on.”

Now that was a lie, but I wasn’t going to call her out on it. Niamh wasn’t leaving Pickle Quest alone.

“Then how about you and I have some fun while we’re at it?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I can’t have fun.”

I wasn’t going to be swayed. Winking at her, I pulled her in and kissed her again.