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He groaned and pressed into her from behind. “Don’t tempt me.” Then he just as quickly added, “I don’t want you to get into trouble with her.”

Paige snorted. “Don’t worry. If she knew what I wanted to do right now, she’d probably run out and buy me an entire case of condoms.”

“She would, would she?”

“Oh, yeah.” She rolled around to face him. Though she could barely see him in the dark room, her lips found his without a problem.

He didn’t break away until her hand smoothed down his bare chest and discovered the waistband of his boxer shorts. “We probably shouldn’t,” he said, his voice strained as he caught her wrist. “You have to be sore. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Wiggling her fingers, she tried to break free to tempt him some more. “I don’t mind. Really.”

“But I do. Please, Paige.” His lashes fluttered against his cheek. “Let me be a gentleman, this time at least.” Then he set his mouth by her ear and whispered, “because I have a bad feeling that after I’m sure you’re healed, I’ll be attacking you every chance I get.”

Though the last part of his explanation heated her to the core, the importance of his wanting to be a gentleman struck her as special, showed her how much he cared and wanted to treat her right. She honestly didn’t mind a little soreness, but she sighed and kissed his chin.

“Oh, all right.”

She let him work her back around until they were spooning again. When he returned to stroking his hand down her arm, she relaxed against him. “What time is it?”

She felt him lift his head off the pillow before he said, “Just after two,” and then he nestled his face back into her hair.

She let out a sad sigh. “I wish tomorrow didn’t have to come so soon. I wish we could stay here like this until…I don’t know. For a long time.”

“All right then. I forthwith suspend time until the lady wishes to move on.”

Wrinkling her nose, she laughed. “Forthwith?”

“What? What’s wrong with forthwith?”

“I’m definitely getting you a thesaurus. No one uses forthwith anymore.”

Logan chuckled with her. “Did anyone ever?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe in the eighteen hundreds.”

“While drinking tea and eating crumpets in the blue salon,” he suggested, affecting a British accent, which made her giggle.

“And talking about dukes and earls who might be attending the upcoming masquerade ball,” she added.

He played along, building to the story. And she felt the need to outdo him until soon they had a ridiculous tale created that no longer had anything to do with the word forthwith.

They talked deep into the night, teasing and whispering, kissing then touching. By the time Paige drifted into a dreamless sleep, she felt happier than she could ever remember feeling in her life. Just before unconsciousness claimed her, a pair of warm lips pressed against the back of her head.

“I love you,” he whispered.

And that was all she needed to feel content.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“PAIGE, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE—” The bathroom door to Paige’s room flew open and Bailey exploded inside with Tess hot on her heels. “Dorian Wa—oh my God. Paige is in bed with a guy!”

Jerked from a deep sleep, Paige sat straight up, making her covers slide down to reveal the Minnie Mouse t-shirt she’d worn to sleep. Beside her, Logan lurched sideways and tumbled to the floor.

When he landed with a thump, Paige scurried forward to peer over the edge. “Are you okay?”

Lying flat on his back, he groaned and opened his eyes. “Does everyone blow in here like that each morning without knocking first?”

She winced. “Actually, no. I think you’ve just gotten lucky.” She held out her hand to help him up.