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“Thank god! I thought it may have been too much.”

I laugh. This is what he thinks is too much—a nice dinner—yet spending so much money on my sister isn’t enough? I really do not understand these men sometimes, but I’m glad I get to try.

Dinner is all four of us. Noa retells my first day back to me, having gathered intelligence, as he calls it, from Khodi and Vesper, who reported to him I didn’t cry. When I tell them about Harvest Moon, Noa lights up like a kid at Christmas, Cipher nods, and Cave goes still.

“Nixie wants you back for it,” I tell him straight. “She asked me to help run your evaluation. The cornfield is the headliner, and I know you’ll be ready not to murder anyone.”

“I don’t understand why people would even want to run through there, but it happens every time we do a Harvest Moon. One person out of all of them becomes the target, and last time he strapped them to his post and threw corn at them. How is that a good time?” Noa snickers.

When our plates are empty, Cipher stands and starts stacking them, and then the least subtle thing I have ever witnessed happens.

“So, Cave, that thing we discussed needs doing now. At another place.”

Cave rises and takes one lingering look at me, then claps Noa’s shoulder on his way past, leaving Noa and me alone under the string lights surrounded by candles.

“They think they’re smooth,” he says.

I chuckle. “They’re really not.”

“I’ve got you all night—well, evening. We played rock, paper, scissors for it. Cipher always goes rock and still hasn’t figured out that we know. I missed you. I know it was only two days you were gone, and I know how that sounds, but I’m told I love hard, so . . .”

“The text limit was a bit much,” I reply with a laugh.

He groans and drops his head. “The betrayal, who told you?”

I snort. “You did, remember? You told your own secret.”

“That does sound like me.” He lifts his head with a grin. “You’ve been on your feet all day. I have a proposal, and I want you to hear the whole thing before you laugh.”

“I’m listening.”

“Hot water, me washing your hair, candles, and simply being with me, in any way you want. I need to feel your skin against mine.”

I stand and hold out my hand. “Bring a candle.”

He grabs four and we go into the bathroom. He places them around the room, and we leave the lights off as he runs the water, steam filling the room.

I take a washcloth and help him remove his zombie makeup, revealing underneath the man I’m falling for, all sun-brown skin, a crooked nose, and a big smile full of pearly white teeth.

“There you are.”

“Here I am,” he says. “You’re staring.”

“You’re gorgeous.”

“I know, it’s a burden.”

I lean forward and kiss the joke right off his lips. Our pace increases—everything is zero to one hundred with Noa. His hands find my shirt, he peels it up, and he mutters, “Goodbye shirt,” against my jaw, and I’m laughing while he strips me naked.

He pulls back and strips off his own clothes as I step into the shower; the water is hot and melts away the day. Noa gets in and I tip my head beneath the spray, then he picks up the shampoo and does what he promised. He washes my hair, his fingers working slowly against my scalp until my knees go weak.

“Good?” he asks.

“If you stop, I’ll have you buried in your own cemetery.”

“That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

He rinses my hair, and his mouth lands on the curve of my neck, his hands roam over my breasts, his thumbs dragging until I gasp, trailing down my stomach, gripping my hips, and pulling me into his body so I can feel how hard he is.