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My eyebrows drew together. Was she being serious right now? Mags was a bombshell, and the extra flesh of her thighs, her chest, even her stomach? It was a turn-on, because I knew how fucking good it would feel to have her on top of me, pressing me into the bed, surrounding me in every way. “Why would you be worried about that?” I asked.

She set her beer down, then focused on casting for a minute. Her fingers slowly spun the reel, making sure it caught. “You clearly haven’t tried online dating as size twenty-four.”

I raised my eyebrows. “People say shit?”

With a sigh, she backed up and sat on the couch, careful not to get her damp feet on the upholstery. “Some guys are really into bigger girls. It’s like they have a fetish or a bucket list item to check off.Sleep with a fat chick.” She rolled her eyes like what she told me wasn’t making me see red. “Other guys will date you, fuck you, never introduce you to anyone in their life. Keep you as their dirty little secret, like it’s embarrassing to date a bigger girl.”

I swore I was getting tunnel vision from all this anger.

“The worst are the guys who say they’re okay with your size, but when they see you naked for the first time...” She blinked quickly. “They act like they didn’t know you were fat under all your clothes.”

My voice scraped out of my throat as I said, “I had no idea. Mags, I’m sorry.”

She shrugged, looking down and fiddling with her reel. “I’ve thought about losing weight, tried some diets, but in the end, I’m a big girl. Even if I lost fifty, a hundred pounds, I would still be a big girl.” She lifted her chin. “I figured if a guy wasn’t okay with me, a relationship shouldn’t move forward, because odds are, if I have a daughter, she’ll be my size too. I wouldn’t want her to be raised by a dad who wasn’t supportive of women of every size.”

“Wow,” I breathed. I couldn’t believe she’d had to worry about that, had to feel like someone might not like her, or her future children, because she had some extra pounds on the scale. “Maggie, I don’t want you to think I’m blowing smoke up your ass, but those guys? They’re a bunch of fuckin’ dumbasses if they think you’re anything but drop-dead fucking gorgeous.”

The laugh that passed through her lips warmed my heart. “You didn’t have to say that.”

“But I mean it.”

She glanced toward me, a hint of skepticism in her gaze.

We were getting rid of that real fucking fast.

“You know what I did Friday night?” I asked.

She looked at me, eyes wide, curious. “What?”

I held her gaze, knowing there was a chance she’d think I was a fucking creep, but she had to know there was no part of me that didn’t likeeverypart of her.

“I got away from that game as fast as I could because when you were bent over, helping Tessa, I got a view of that lacy thong you wore under your shorts, and I went fucking feral. I know you want to take things slow, so I got out of there before I could mess anything up. And when I got home, you texted me. Your picture came up, and I stared at it as I fucked myself, thinking of tasting you, being inside you, making you scream my name as you came on my cock.”

Her full lips parted, her cheeks full of color.

“You don’t have to say anything back, and if you want me to take you home, I get it, but I need you to know, Mags, you’re sexy as fuck. Every inch of you.”

Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips in the most tantalizing way. “You really did that?” she asked.

I gestured down at my crotch, at the erection growing against my jeans. “I’m like a horny fucking teenager around you, Mags. Holding back is taking all of my willpower.”

Her voice was so soft, it almost disappeared in the wind. “Then why are you? Holding back?”

“Is that an invitation?” I asked, my own voice raw.

Her chin lifted. “Don’t make me beg.”

My lips curled into a smirk, but it didn’t last long because I was shoving my fishing pole aside, taking hers out of her hands, and crossing the couch to kiss her like I’d been dying to from the moment I saw her at the salon her first day home.

I tried to hold back all the crushing force I wanted to use on her, but her kiss was frantic as she gripped my shirt in her fists and worked her pillowy soft lips against mine. I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck and gripped her hip with my other hand.

I slid my tongue along the seam of her lips, and she let out a little whimper.

Fuck, I was hard, feeling her body against mine, her skin hot and sweaty under the summer sun. I slid my hand down, cupping her ass and pulling her closer to me so she could feel my length through my jeans.

“Rhett,” she moaned against my lips.

I dipped my head down, kissing, biting, licking her throat, her collarbone. I shoved her tank top aside, taking a nipple into my mouth and sucking until she moaned and gathered my hair in her fists.