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I gave him a slow blink. “I don’t remember inviting you to spoon with me, Mr. Montgomery.”

Because Rex was the goodest of the good guys, I expected him to apologize. I thought I could burn through the awkwardness, and maybe tease him a little, and I’d be back on solid ground.

Instead, Rex crinkled his sleepy eyes at me and adjusted himself with brazen confidence. My eyes followed the movement, and along the way, I saw the muscular chest, the flat male nipples, the solid pack of his stomach, and thetrail of dark hair that covered his upper chest and arrowed down the center of his stomach down below his navel to disappear beneath the sheet. His lips curled into a cocky smile, and he shrugged. “Did I mention I was a cuddler? And for the record, you’re the one who backed that ass right into me last night.”

My jaw dropped open. “I didnot.”

“Wiggled it back and forth a few times too.”

My cheeks flamed. “You lie.”

Turning onto his side to mirror my position, Rex propped himself up on his elbow and stared at me. “You kept squirming until I put my arm around your waist and pulled you close, Abigail Stone. Which tells me one thing.”

This was not solid ground. This was the wobbliest of wobbles. This was danger in every direction, because Rex’s hair was sleep-mussed, his eyes were half-lidded and sultry, and he had a big ole boner in his pants. A big ole bonerfor me.

I scowled at him. “What does it tell you?”

“You,” he said, moving slowly toward me, “are not as tough as you pretend to be.” He put his hand back on my waist and rolled me slowly to my back, his eyes steady on mine. I flopped onto my pillows and watched him shift above me, all that surprisingly dark attention focused on me. His leg nestled between mine, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe.

I wanted this. I wantedhim. I wanted to forget about all the reasons we shouldn’t and see how far we could go. There were sides to Rex I could never have imagined. He wasn’t just a pillar of our community and the guy everyone could rely on.

Rex wasbad.

I liked bad. I liked it a lot. Loved the way he shifted mybody where he wanted it. Loved how he wasn’t afraid to show me that he craved me.

For once, I didn’t have to be the strong one. I didn’t have to be the one to make the first move. I was “intimidating” and “scary” to people usually, but right now, Rex didn’t seem to be intimidated or scared of me at all.

He seemed like he knew exactly what he wanted, and what he wanted was me. There was something so unbearably sexy about that, about not having to put myself out there, for once—but still I whispered, “We’re not supposed to be doing this.”

Rex’s gaze dropped to my lips. “I know.”

My hands found their way to his bare chest, and I traced the edge of his collarbone with my fingertips. “You should’ve slept on the floor.”

He huffed. “Definitely,” he said, voice scratchy and rough—and then he dipped his head and?—

The doorbell chimed.

With his lips an inch from mine, Rex froze. He blinked, eyes flicking up to mine as if he realized what he’d been about to do.

Reality was a bucket of cold water to the face. My phone rang, and I scrambled out from underneath Rex to answer the call.

“Gabe?” I asked, breathless, putting a hand to my forehead and keeping my back to Rex.

“Hey,” my brother replied. “Good—you’re up. I’m outside.”

I turned and saw that Rex was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching me. “You’re outside?” I repeated. “Outside where?”

“Outside your house. You wanna let me in?”

ELEVEN

ABIGAIL

I turnedto Rex as blood rushed in my ears. “Hide.”

“Hide?”

I pointed to the closet. “In there. Quick. Gabe’s here.”