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I want to protest that I’m not some damsel in distress who needs protecting. But lying here in his arms, feeling more secure than I have in months, the words won’t come. Instead, I let myself melt into his warmth, my head finding the perfect spot on his shoulder.

His breathing evens out first, becoming deep and steady. But I lie awake longer, memorizing the feel of his arms around me, the scent of his skin, the way his heartbeat sounds under my ear.

I try to burn every detail into my memory so I can hold onto this feeling when I’m back home.

And then, when sleep finally takes me, I dream of mountains and pine trees and a cabin with a wraparound porch where no one can find me.

FOUR

AUDREY

I blink awake,disoriented for by the unfamiliar room. Then, I feel it. The heat of a body pressed against my back.

Reign.

Memories flood back in a rush of sensation. His mouth on mine, his hands everywhere, the way he made me feel things I’ve never felt before. For one perfect moment, I let myself sink into the feeling, into the warmth of his body cradled around mine.

Then, reality crashes in like a bucket of ice water.

I’m leaving today.

I turn my head slightly, careful not to wake him, and check the clock on the nightstand.

7:47 AM.

I need to be at the airport by ten, which means I need to leave here in the next hour if I want to go back to Violet and Iris’s place to get my stuff.

Reign shifts behind me, and his arm tightens around my waist in his sleep.

His face is relaxed and peaceful, younger-looking without the intensity that marked his features last night. Dark stubble shadows his jaw, and his hair is messed up from my fingers running through it.

My chest tightens with something I don’t want to name.

I should wake him up. I should say goodbye and thank him for the most incredible night of my life.

But looking at him now, I can’t bring myself to do it.

What would I say?

Thanks for the amazing sex, but I’m going home to get engaged to another man.

The thought makes my stomach churn.

Carefully, slowly, I start to ease out from under his arm. He makes a soft sound in his sleep, and I freeze, holding my breath. But he just shifts again and settles back into deeper sleep.

I slip from the bed like a ghost and gather my scattered clothes from around the room. My dress is wrinkled beyond salvation, and my panties are nowhere to be found. I remember now that Reign tore them off me somewhere between round one and two. Or was it three and four? The night is a blur of sensation and pleasure and Reign’s hands and mouth on every inch of my skin.

I pull on my dress without underwear, cringing at how obvious it is that I’ve spent the entire night getting fucked. My hair is a disaster and my makeup long gone. I look exactly like what I am. A woman sneaking out after a one-night stand.

I find my purse and shoes by the door where I’d dropped them in our desperate rush to get to the bed. My phone shows three missed calls from Violet and a string of texts asking if I’m okay, if I’m coming back tonight, if they should send a search party.

The last text, sent twenty minutes ago, just says: “Get it, girl. See you at the airport.”

Despite everything, I smile. My friends know me too well.

I take one last look at Reign, memorizing the sight of him sprawled across the king-size bed, the sheets tangled around his waist, one arm flung over the space where I’d been sleeping.He looks like a fallen god, all golden skin and muscle and raw masculine beauty.

My throat closes up.