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His tongue on her face.

The terror in her eyes.

Something dark shifts inside me.

“I've never been so angry in my life.”

When I look at her again, there's no hiding anything anymore.

“Why did you protect me?” she asks softly. “Because I'm your friend?”

“No.”

The answer comes without hesitation.

“I wasn't protecting a friend.”

I swallow hard.

“I was protecting the woman I haven't been able to stop thinking about.”

“Micah...”

She says my name like it's something sacred.

Like a prayer whispered in church.

Her hands flatten against my chest.

I suck in a slow breath.

God.

She smells sweet.

Tempting.

Delicious.

She's standing there, wearing my shirt, touching me like she wants to be here, and I'm hanging on by a thread.

“I don't know what happens after tonight,” I confess. “I don't know if you'll decide this is all too much. And I don't know if you want me the way I want you.”

“I want you,” she answers immediately.

No hesitation.

No uncertainty.

Just...

Truth.

My pulse pounds.

Every muscle in my body locks.

Christ.