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Before I could finish, Rhodes pulled off.

The cold air shocked my system, and my body seized. Something between a sob and a curse tore out of me. I was so goddamn close, everything in my body drawn up tight around an orgasm that had nowhere to go as he left me hanging. My dick twitched, leaking and aching so hard it hurt.

Rhodes’ mouth hovered just out of reach. Every breath fanned over my wet skin. I wanted so bad to thrust into his mouth—to chase the ending I desperately wanted. But he held me there and let me come down until my breathing began to calm.

“Eyes on me, little wolf,” he rasped and waited until I looked at him. “Hand in my hair. This time, you take whatever you want, understand?”

“Yeah,” I breathed out. Reaching out, I threaded my fingers through his damp hair and lightly held on as he pressed the flat of his tongue to the underside of my crown. He didn’t move. He just held his mouth open and waited, letting me understand he’d meant it.

Whatever I wanted meant whatever I wanted.

And so I took it.

I used my hold on his hair to guide him down my length. His throat opened for me, and every time I hit deep, he swallowed. The ripple of his muscles around the crown of my dick made my toes curl against the rough carpet.

I set a rhythm, and he took every inch of me, humming with approval. Spit spilled over his knuckles wrapped around my base. I chased what I wanted the way he told me to—no thinking, no worrying, nothing.

My release came up on me fast all over again. My thighs shook around his shoulders as my pace turned erratic. My hips thrust into his mouth, and my head fell back. Waves of sensations rolled through every part of my body while the room grew unbearably hot.

“Rhodes… Rhodes…” I practically chanted, unable to form a single thought to save my life. He groaned around me, and that was the end of it.

I dragged his mouth down until I was buried deep inside the wet heat of his throat. My hips stuttered, my dick pulsing as I came apart. He swallowed, and his muscles worked around each pulse of cum. He drank every drop I gave him until there was nothing left. Every nerve in me had been stripped raw, and the soft drag of his tongue afterward made me jerk and gasp. He chuckled against my skin and did it again. He licked every inch of my softening dick until I dropped back on the bed, gasping with the overstimulation. Only then did he press a light kiss to my inner thigh.

I couldn’t move as my pulse hammered against my neck, and my rapid breaths filled the quiet room. I was floating, weightless and warm. My eyes slid shut as I embraced the comfort in the nothingness that overtook every fiber of my being.

CHAPTER 87

Theo

BABY KENNEDY: biiiitch I miss you.

WYATT: I miss you, but I won’t call you a bitch.

BABY KENNEDY: I didn’t call him a bitch, I called him a biiiitch. It’s different.

WYATT: Only by 3 i’s.

BABY KENNEDY: Exactly.

You two are weird. I miss you too.

See you soon.

Ifelt better—at least better in the way that I was functional. The numbness had faded, leaving behind something heavier that I couldn’t quite name. If I had to guess, I’d call it a broken heart. Rhodes, on the other hand, said it was grief over everything I’d just lost. The word still felt wrong somehow. It felt like too big for what I was going through when his own grief was far more intense.

The airport was barely alive around us. A few tired travelers sat scattered near the gate, half-asleep over luggage and paper cups. Somewhere nearby, an employee dragged a metal cart across the tile, and the wheel squeaked obnoxiously in the quiet terminal, the sound grating on my nerves. Everything smelled like burnt coffee and industrial cleaner in the worst ways.

I wrapped both hands around the cheapest cup of coffee I’d ever tasted—which was honestly saying something, considering the sketchy places Jude, Wyatt, and I had gone to deal with hangovers. I stared at the departure screen without really seeing it as I zoned out with exhaustion.

Rhodes sat beside me, stretched back in the plastic chair as if he’d somehow made peace with being awake this early. He looked exhausted, with his hair thrown up in a bun and shadows under his eyes. Every so often, his knee bumped into mine. Eventually, his hand found its way to my thigh, setting it palm up in a silent invitation. My gaze drifted around the room before I looked at him. We weren’t exactly alone.

“Are you sure?” I asked quietly.

“I’m pretty sure that guy in the corner is drooling on the carry-on bag he’s using as a pillow,” Rhodes retorted. I snorted with laughter, unable to help myself, and he grinned. “My point is, no one fucking cares, Theo. I can’t hold your hand in Georgia, but nothing says we can’t right now.”

It was hard to argue with logic like that. I slipped my hand through his, enjoying the immediate warmth and comfort that a simple touch from him gave me. His fingers curled around mine as he sighed heavily. His smile faded into something more thoughtful as he searched my face with that intensely analytical focus he got when his brain was working through a problem.

The expression made me nervous. Rhodes didn’t hesitate often, so when he did, I noticed.