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“I ghosted him too. He . . .” She looks away. Toys with her rings. Fear of judgement, and her fear tears me apart.

“You don’t have to tell, Syn. I know all about keeping secrets and keeping promises. If you want, I can put in a guess, and if I’m spot on, you shake or nod your head. No talking needed.”

Her brows tug together. “No talking means I won’t be breaking my promise.”

“Yes, baby.” I smooth my finger over the line between her eyebrows.

“The thing is, I never promised Gary anything. My promise is to Beau, and I would like to not talk about him. Not yet.”

“Not being ready is okay in my book, Pixie Dust. I’ll always wait for you even if it takes another four years.”

“Taron. You . . . I like you so much.”

“I like you too, baby.”

Needing to taste and touch her, to show her how much I like being with her, I press my mouth over hers. Slide my mouth back and forth. She trembles. Sighs. I eat up her sigh, coaxing her mouth open with my tongue. She opens to me, and I slide home, tasting the walls of her mouth.

In between our kisses, I ask her to hold on tight to me. It’s time to move this into the bedroom. Time to make her forget the shit that just went down with her ex. Time to forget the secrets she was asked by Beau Huntington, prick and four-time Super Bowl champion, to keep for him.

Inside her bedroom, I strip Syn of her clothes. Get out of mine. Worship her body from head to toe. Eat her out before I slide my cock inside her.

She is wet.

She is making those sex noises that bring me to the brink of unloading inside her before I can make her come. I pump my cock inside her nice and slow. Draw out her pleasure. Her small arms and slender legs wrap around my waist and shoulders. Digging how soft and warm she is and how she likes having sex with me, I press kisses on her forehead, the curves of her cheeks, and down her neck.

Her hands move off my shoulders, and reaching up, she slides her fingers in my hair. Bringing me down to her, her eyes hooded and fixed on mine, she claims my mouth in a kiss that opens up a part of me I haven’t ever given to a girl except for Syn. It’s the softer side of me.

The side where I can drop my guard and openly cry or confess my doubts and fears without fear of judgment and rejection. She brings that out in me again after having buried it deep when she left me.

As though understanding what I am feeling while deep inside her, Syn sighs and comes, her face serene. She is beautiful and she is mine.

No one will take her away from me.

The only person who can is Syn herself.

32

Syn

Taron insists on going straight to bed, but I am not having it. After having my well-planned life threatened by Hunter, finding comfort in my schedule is what will reset the disruption.

“Are you ready?” We missed FaceTime with Beau and Gunner, and glad we’re in the same time zone, I texted Beau asking him if we can FaceTime before he tucks Gunner in bed.

“You sure he’ll be okay with this?”

“Gunner or Beau?”

“Gunner. The first and only time he saw me, I probably had what Andy calls a ragey look.”

I pat his thigh. We are on the bed in our pajamas after showering. It’s so domestic having him stay overnight. I cannot decide whether I like it or I’m still of the mindset that we’re moving way too fast.

“He’s a cool kid, Taron, and understands more than any five-year-old should.”

His hand slides in mine under the covers. “If you’re okay with it, then I am too, Pixie Dust.”

Smiling, I give him a quick kiss, then FaceTime Beau. He answers right away, his handsome face taking up space on the screen of my iPad. Dark mahogany hair and eyes the same color as me.

Youngish, too, for his age. No wonder women my age hit on him left and right at that nightclub we were at, celebrating my twenty-first birthday. But he ignored them and danced and drank the night away with me. It was nice to see that side of Beau, him giving me his full attention.