Page 71 of Sweet Oblivion

“But you want to... You want to do this? With me? You want to—” She closes her mouth and rolls her eyes. “You want to teach me?”

“I want to let you learn with me. I want to give you confidence in a safe space where you’d have control.” My words are measured and confident in a way I’m not sure I knew I was capable of. But everything about this woman seems to be a lesson in control.

Her gold-flecked eyes soften as she stares at me for a long minute. Working through something I’m not privy to. In the candlelight, her bruising is nearly gone. Her creamy skin,nearly unmarked. The signs of trauma almost invisible to the naked eye. But I’m not foolish enough to think they’re her only trauma. “Do you want me, Ryker?”

A slow smile spreads across my face. “So much, baby. I’ve wanted you for months.” There’s no hesitation in my answer. “I wish it hadn’t happened this way, but it didn’t change how I felt. Just changed my proximity to you.”

“Why?” she asks, completely clueless and so damn beautiful.

Because you’re everything.

Because you don’t see it.

Because you saw me.

Not my name. Not my career. Not my disability.

“Because you’re kind and sweet and beautiful. You don’t take shit. You don’t need anyone or anything to take care of you. Your sarcasm knows no bounds. And you’re so damn brave, beautiful.” She’s all that and so much more. “I’ve wanted you since the first time we met at the bar. I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you and you shot me down.”

For a second, I think I pushed too far. Too hard.

“I don’t know what to say to that.” The admission hangs between us, and I lean back against the headboard, watching her.

“You don’t have to say anything.”

She nibbles her lip for a hot minute before relaxing. “I’ll see you when you get home, Ryker.”

“You going to be waiting for me, Lane?” My voice is hoarse with restraint as she smiles the sweetest smile.

“I’ll be ready for my first lesson.”

DELANEY

If Persephone can be both the goddess of spring as well as the

queen of the underworld, you, my dear can be both sunshine and chaos.

Stop fighting it and start embracing it instead.

—Delaney’s Secret Thoughts

Ilook at the snacks laid out on the kitchen table, hoping I have enough.

Lexie said she’d bring the sweets, but I picked up the actual game-day food because seriously, what’s a game without greasy food?

Their laughter carries through before I even open the door. The four of them, loud and obnoxious, like I’ve learned to expect. Kyrie throws herself into my arms, and Dillan grumbles something that sounds a lot like she loved me first.

I don’t correct her. Let her have her delusions.

“Okay.” Kaleigh claps, dropping a bag onto the couch. “Where’s the jersey?”

I freeze. Because—what?

“I don’t?—”

“Wrong answer,” Dillan cuts in, already walking into my room. “Where’s Ryker’s stuff.”

“In her closet,” Ashton calls out to her, one hand braced on her lower back, the other holding a forty-ounce pink tumbler covered in cherries. “And you.” She looks my way. “No complaining. You’re wearing it.”