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“It was perfect.” Until it wasn’t—then it was again. I closed my eyes while remembering the light in Sky’s expressive eyes, the softness of her touch. How she’d insisted on helping me quickly pack for my red-eye flight across the country.
The softest of kisses we shared before I’d left for the airport.
Obsession seemed the right word for what I felt. I definitely hadn’t done a good job of guarding my heart like Rhett had insisted upon.
“She’s even more beautiful in person,” I said, needing him to want her in the same way I did. “There’s an innocence about her, and it’s sexy as hell.”
Rhett tensed slightly, which tightened my own stomach again. “Did you kiss her?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Zing.”
He snorted at the word Skylar had used—the same I’d told him after the first time our lips had met all those years ago. His eyelids lifted, allowing his dark orbs to peer into mine. “You like her.”
Rhett hadn’t asked a question, but I nodded.
“She’s truly amazing—but her twin doesn’t understand that fact.”
“Skylar has a twin?”
“Yes.” The truth of the statement made me smile, but the memory of the snob who’d shared the womb with Sky caused the happiness to fade from my face.
“What?” Rhett pushed, reading me as easily as he always did.
“Her sister is a bitch. She came home while we were eating dinner and lit into Sky over inviting a stranger into her house, accusing me of being a sick stalker and rapist and calling Sky stupid…”
I clenched my jaw shut, my still-churning stomach hardening at the memory of Nora’s hurtful words. “She kicked Sky out of the house right then and there.”
Rhett’s brow furrowed, and I could hear his mind working. “What did you do, Ash?”
I inhaled deeply and glanced at his chin since I couldn’t hold his gaze. “I told her she could stay in our guest room until we helped her figure something else out.”
Rhett tensed against me. “I really wish you had discussed it with me first,” he stated, annoyance more than leaking from his words.
“I know I should have, but I had to make a decision on the spot and didn’t want to burden you with another person’s issues when you have enough going on. With how hurtful Sky’s sister had been, I couldn’t allow her to stay there another minute. I was going to call you to explain the situation after I got Sky settled but then I got your text and could only think about getting here to be with you.”
“You don’t know this woman—”
“I do!” I insisted, lifting my gaze back to his. His dark eyes had closed off completely. “We have a connection I can’t explain any more than I can mine with you.”
“You have one with me because of the twenty-three years we’ve spent attached at the hip,” he snipped.
“What we have is more than being close for so long, and you know it. It’s always been more. Fate intended us to be together, same as she did for Skylar to complete us.”
A hint of vulnerability flitted across his face and disappeared just as quickly. “I never felt we lacked in any way.”
“Neither did I,” I assured him, cupping his scruffy cheek, “until I met her. Trust me, Rhett. She’s going to change our lives for the better. We’ll be happier than we’ve ever been.”
“I’m already happy.”
I searched his face, wishing I could sift through the emotions he kept buried deep inside. “She’s delicious, Rhett. Smells like coconuts.”
A frown furrowed his brow, but I settled in against him and pushed on, desperate to change his mind toward a woman he’d yet to meet and had already judged.
“Sweet and addictive—but you don’t have to be afraid I’ll leave you—”