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My confusion turns to relief when she yanks out a small pink phone. Then another one, sparkly and purple.

I get it.

Sable plasters on a smile for the girls, and I do the same, crouching to tie a loose shoelace on Rae’s sneaker like that’s what I came in here for.

“Back in a second, guys,” she chirps.

We head back to the study, side by side, the door clicking softly closed behind us.

“Just being careful,” she says, holding up the phones like proof. “It’s not like he calls to check on them anyway.”

That gets under my skin in a way I don’t expect.

“So he wants you dead, doesn’t care about his daughters,andhe won’t fuck you? Sable, sweetheart, why are you married to this motherfucker?”

It’s too much, but I knew that even as the words were shooting out of my mouth. She jerks back like I slapped her, and I immediately regret it.

“Sorry,” I mutter. “That was—“

“No,” she says, cutting me off. “It’s fine. It’s…you’re not wrong. At all. That’s why I was planning to leave.”

I frown. “That’s the kind of information you should be sharing with me, don’t you think?”

“He didn’t know,” she says. “It’s a recent development. Very recent. I’m trying to get my ducks in a row, that’s all. He doesn’t know.”

I scrub a hand down my face and wait.

“Me and Brett…” she trails off, shaking her head. “That’s a long story.”

“Then start telling it,” I say. “Maybe that’ll help us figure this shit out.”

She stares at the slashes of light, her body tense, her eyes glassy. I watch her, noticing the light brown streaks in her hair, and the way her brown eyes look amber in the light. She looks delicate, but also dangerous—like trouble. My platoon captain used to warn us about women like that. “Those bitches are worse than the enemy at the gate,” he would say. “Because we open the gate and let them in. We never see the blade coming.”

She sighs, and it’s nothing. A whisper. A nanosecond in time. But the sound of it makes me want her.

I shouldn’t.

God help me, I want her more every second I’m around her.

Just one taste of her lips would be enough. Maybe. One stroke of her hair. One swipe of my fingertips across her nipples, just enough to feel them harden. And I wanna hear her moan. Just for a second. Just to know what ecstasy sounds like. But I probably couldn’t stop there. Knowing what I know now, I’d have to make her cum. She deserves that, at least. Who knows how long it’s been? I don’t even have to be inside her. I’m not selfish. I could get her there with my fingers. My tongue. I’m not picky.

Fuck.

My dick is hard.

I shift in my seat, crossing a leg over the other. Not that I need to. She’s still staring at the light, still off somewhere, thinking.

When she finally comes back to me, I’m calm. I’m rational. I’m focused.

“Where do you want me to start?”

I sit up a little straighter.

“From the beginning.”

8

Sable