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I follow behind her and try not to picture her using the vibrators I’ve picked out for her. I fail.

At the end of the aisle, she stands stock-still and quickly backs up two steps.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sam and Madison will see us at the register. They’ll see what we buy.” She worries her lip between her teeth. “I know I shouldn’t care about it. I just need a moment, and then I’ll do it.”

“Do you want me to ask them to turn around?”

“No.”

She’s cute, this flustered and hot. Her face isn’t the serene, unsmiling picture of beauty she offers when modeling. Now it’s a beautiful kaleidoscope of her emotions. Playing over her cheeks, the green of her eyes, her full lips.

“Want me to buy them?”

Nora shakes her head. “I should do it. It’s not like I’m doing anything wrong.”

“No, you’re not.” I’m strung taut, the pleasure-pain of being on the edge for hours playing at my temples and the base of my spine. So I shouldn’t, but I do it anyway. Reach out and tip her head up. “You’ve got a body with desires and wants like everyone does.”

Her eyes are the deep green of winding ivy and full of trust. I feel heady with it, drunk on the power of it.

I smooth my thumb over her flushed cheek. “You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. What other people think of you doesn’t matter. You’re allowed to be you, trouble. And you’re allowed to be a woman who wants pleasure.”

Her lips part, and warm breath washes over my thumb.

I could kiss her right now.

I want to.

“I’ll buy them,” she says. “What’s your PIN code?”

I smile at her. “That’s my girl. And it’s one-nine-one-two. The year Fairhaven was completed.”

She smiles beneath my thumb, and I’m lost. Maybe I always was. But this is the moment I know it, wholly and completely.

There’s no recovering from her.

CHAPTER28

NORA

When West finally drives through the gates of Fairhaven, I’m an ember. I’ve been burning forhours.I play with the silky straps of the pink bag in my lap.Afterglowemblazoned on the side, and inside, the two vibrators I bought.

Webought.

“You’re about to drop me off at home,” I say. “If this was a real date… and if this was a good date… maybe I’d invite you inside.”

He’s quiet. Looks straight ahead at the driveway. “And has it been a good date, trouble?”

“I think it’s been a good date.” My fingers find the pendant around my neck, smoothing over the gold plate. “Do you?”

He pulls the car up outside the front steps and turns off the engine. Behind us, the security team is meeting up with the others that patrol the grounds.Our targets are back home safe after visiting a sex shop, I imagine them saying.No suspicious activity.

“Stay where you are,” he says. It’s not an answer, and I wait while he walks around the car and opens the door for me.

“You’re going to spoil me with that, you know,” I tell him. “Most guys don’t do that.”

“A man who’s worthy of you should.”