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“The owner of the…real thing,” I whispered, pointing at the neat rows of penises in front of me, “is here with me and I don’t want him to know what I’m buying.”

Ed lit up like I had just personally bought his entire inventory.

“Oh, but that’s wonderful news! We can compare and make sure you have exactly what you need!”

“You can give me exactly what I need right now,” I said quickly.

“Excuse me?” The voice came from behind me, riled up and combative. I spun on my heel and meeped when I saw Ryan standing there, my bag in his hand and a smaller linen sachet hung next to it.

“Ryan…” I gasped, shaking my head.

“I leave you for three seconds and this is what you get into?” he said, pointing between me and Ed accusingly.

“It wasn’t…” I tried, bile rising in my throat because this was all just so familiar.

“He was trying to get something very specific from me,” Ed said to Ryan, but it only made things worse.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Ryan said.

“Hot-bodied and hot-headed,” Ed said. “No wonder my kitten was trying to buy a replica of your cock from me.”

“I’m not hot. No, I am hot! But he…” Ryan started but then he paused, closing his eyes and shaking his head as if to clear his ears. “He tried buying what now?”

“Ed—” I started, but he wouldn’t be stopped.

“Kitten—”

“Stop calling him that,” Ryan growled.

“Owain,” Ed amended, “came here looking for something that was as close to your little soldier as I could make it.”

“It’s not little,” I said at the same time as Ryan, who snapped his head to the side to look at me.

And in that split second it was as if a switch had been flicked inside of Ryan. I had never seen this look on his face before, and it made my mouth dry and my knees quiver.

He took a step toward me, then another. All I could do was tilt my head back as he drew closer.

“That true, love?” he purred, eyes dark. “Did you try and get something like me?”

“I…” I flushed so hard I could feel my skin burn. “I just wanted…”

Ryan hooked his arm around my waist, pulling me as close to his body as he could.

“You wanted what?” he asked, voice so deep it made me shiver. “Because you never asked for anything and we’ve been together all morning.”

“I didn’t want to assume.” My voice broke. He was just so hot, so strong as he held me.

“Assume?” He leaned down and brushed his nose against mine. “Love, I’ve been as obvious as I could possibly be since I met you. One fucking wink and you can have the real thing. Why waste money and time on copies?”

“I had a dream,” I admitted on an exhale, fingers clutching his jacket.

“You dreamed about me?”

“Yes.”

He moved his mouth around to my ear. “And what were we doing to get you so hot and bothered, hm?”

My toes curled in my boots. “I…I… My brain won’t work when you have your tongue in my ear.”