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“Molly, what has gotten into you?” Laura rushed forward. “Why are you barking? Is someone—?”

A knock on her front door stopped her in the middle of her sentence. Had Tanner forgotten something?

She opened the door, and promptly lost her breath. Standing on her porch, looking haggard and gorgeous at the same time, was Hayden. With an excited yelp, Molly ran past her and jumped up against Hayden’s legs. Her heart dropped. Something was wrong. Luke?

“Is Luke okay?”

“He’s staying the night with a friend.”

That was all the butterflies in her tummy needed to really go to town. “Oh.”

“Tanner didn’t stay?”

Unable to talk, she shook her head.

Chapter Sixteen

“Iwant tocome in,” Hayden said above Molly’s barking.

Watching him, Laura opened the door. Because he couldn’t wait to step inside, because he ached for her with every fiber of his being, he put his hands on either side of the frame of the door. He had to be honest with her.

“Nothing has changed. I…can’t promise you anything.”

“So, why are you here?”

“You’re all I think about. I ache for you.”

Without a word, she pushed the door. He stepped inside and, picking up the excited dog, closed the door behind him. Molly tried to lick his face.

“Does she greet everyone like this?” he smiled, scratching Molly behind her ears.

“She somehow knew you were outside,” Laura said. “She wasn’t very friendly with Tanner.”

“Good girl.” He chuckled.

Laura took Molly from him. “Let me put her in her bed.”

He left his jacket on a chair before he followed Laura, mesmerized by her swaying hips and those long, long legs. By the time they got to the living room, he was struggling to breathe.

She put Molly down on her bed. “Can I get you anything?”

“No.”

“So…” As she turned around, he was right behind her. Her soft gasp went straight to his groin.

With unsteady hands, he pulled her closer, dropped his head, and put his mouth against her neck, where a pulse was beating frantically. “If this is not what you want, I’ll leave. It’ll probably kill me, but…”

She slipped her arms around him, and for a moment, he held her close, breathing in her scent, breathing in her very being. What he’d done to deserve to be with her like this, he didn’t know. He was just deeply grateful. “Finally,” was the only thought running through his mind.

He lifted his head, cupped her face. “I’m really here, with you,” he whispered before his mouth found hers. Her lips were soft and warm, and within seconds, he was struggling to hold on to the reins of his self-control. He tried to focus instead on giving her as much pleasure as he could, but she opened her mouth. Hungry tongues met and he was lost.

Urgently, she moved against him, hooking one of those long limbs around his leg. Without taking his mouth from hers, he picked her up. Sliding her arms around his neck, she held on tightly as he staggered toward her room.

Only one bedside light was on, leaving the room full of shadows. Lifting his head, he let her slide down against his body.

“You feel what you do to me?” he whispered.

Nodding, those blue eyes nearly black with passion, she pulled his shirt from his jeans. With a soft smile, she opened the top button, and then the next. By the time she spread his shirt and put her mouth against his feverish skin, she’d destroyed any hope he’d had of staying in control. “Laura…”