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“I wanted to introduce Daddy to the boy bees,” Pais informed me, throwing her arms out and then zipping back along the flowers toward the hives.

“What she said.”

“Of course,” I managed, trying to follow her as close as I could without running. I’d just shown her the first hatched drones the other day, pointing out their larger eyes and no stinger so she could pick them out on her own.

“Harper, why are their eyes so big?” Paisley spun and asked.

“So, they can see the other queens as they fly by.”

Paisley stopped at the first hive. “Daddy, did you know the boy bees don’t make any honey?”

He folded his arms. “That sounds very lazy of them to not have a job.”

“No,” she drawled with a little giggle. “They do have a job. They are there to make friends with other queens.”

“Their job is to make friends?” One perfect eyebrow popped up. “They have to do something else. Making friends isn’t a job. What about guarding the hive? Do they do that?”

Like a train wreck happening before my eyes, Paisley answered blithely, “Nope”—she popped the ‘p’—“They make friends with the other queens and that’s how the queen knows to make more sisters.” She stomped ahead then, not realizing she’d pulled the pin on a grenade before walking away.

I wanted to say something else—change the subject to anything but the mating habits of honeybees—but in that moment, my mind wasn’t blank but it was wholly consumed by Blaze.

“Is she…” He lowered his voice. “Are you telling me that male honeybees are basically sperm donors?”

My heart catapulted into my chest, a blush exploding in my cheeks as I blurted out, “Well, technically they’re more than donors because they mate with the queen, unless that still counts as a sperm donor? I’m not familiar with the technicalities of sperm donation, but I guess you’re right⁠—”

“Harper—”

“Their only purpose is to breed other queens so they can lay eggs and expand their hives.” I finished with an exhale, the thought like a runaway train from my lips.

One that had just gone and crashed into…something. Something that was fragile and had just been destroyed.

“I-I didn’t tell Paisley any of that,” I stammered. “I figured bee breeding isn’t appropriate⁠—”

“Stop,” he hissed, a tremor running through him.

“Sorry,” I said softly, wondering why he suddenly looked so much in pain.

Seconds of silence stretched, his jaw flexing and releasing until finally he uttered, “I was joking.”

“Oh.” My chest lowered a good two inches from my exhale. But then why did he look so pained by a joke? Every muscle I could see was tense. His shoulders. His arms. His fists were flexed. And lower, below his waist, even the dark-wash of his jeans couldn’t hide⁠—

“We should pick one of the photos for you to post,” he rasped, spinning the conversation into a U-turn away from sex. Even bee sex.

I nodded, just as eager to focus on something else—even if that something else was hot photos of the man I’d begged to kiss me. Drawing out my phone, I opened the gallery that Blaze had shared with me earlier, scrolling to the few that I’d favorited. For marketing reasons.

“I was debating between these three,” I said and showed him the screen. “I was thinking to first post one with you and the cinnamon honey. I just…want to get the reveal out of the way.”

Not that I expected Adam to pull another celebrity out of his back pocket, but the way he’d responded and attacked me made me feel like if I didn’t do something first, I wasn’t allowed to do it at all.

“Out of the way?” He arched a brow.

“I’m afraid if I don’t, and if he somehow does something or gets someone⁠—”

“Harper,” he cut me off, and I bit my bottom lip. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” he asked, his voice taking on that rough tenderness that had, up until this point, been reserved only for Paisley. Along with that question.

I took my phone back and scrolled to a different image. “I’d post this one,” I said and showed him.

It was one of the first couple that Marc had taken and it was just of Blaze walking toward the hives, his head turned just enough over his shoulder that you could see his face but his purpose was still a mystery.