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“When you took off after we kissed.”
I stared down at my lap. “I was scared.”
Ryker lifted my chin with his finger, and I looked into his blue eyes. “You can talk to me. Your thoughts are safe here. What were you scared of?”
I looked back at him, and I felt vulnerable. “I don’t want to care too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to care too much about you, Ryker. Not like this.”
“You mean, romantically?”
I nodded.
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“It is if you’re used to protecting your heart.”
“Is that why you stayed with Austin so long? Because your heart wasn’t into the relationship?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t given it a lot of thought. I think that was probably on purpose, though. I didn’t want to see the truth because it would mean I was in a relationship that was a sham. It seemed a lot easier to keep pretending that I was with the awesome guy everyone seemed to think he was.”
“Are you worried that I’m going to forget about you when I get to California?”
How was he so in touch with my emotions?
“I’m terrified. You’re going to be so busy with your filming and then all the promotional stuff like awards ceremonies and photoshoots. I don’t want to invest in something with you, whatever it may end up being between us, if it means that you’re only going to get tired of me when you get to California.”
“I don’t care how glamorous California ends up being. I will never get tired of you.”
My heart filled with warmth as he cupped my face with his hands and leaned in to kiss me. I reached up and ran my fingers through his soft curls as he tasted and explored my mouth. I sighed in happiness and pulled him closer to me.
We kissed until Ryker pulled back. “As nice as this is, I think we need to be done for the night.”
“I didn’t know you could kiss like that,” I said, snuggling into him. “Ryker?” I asked. “What are we going to do when you leave?”
“I don’t know. We just have to take this one day at a time.”
I nodded. I just wasn’t sure how well my heart would survive.