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"What? Doesn't he have brothers? There has to be at least one other hottie with a naughty body who wants to use it for dirty, dirty fun."

"I'm sure you'll find someone." I was laughing too hard to explain that Jackson's available brothers were too young for her.

"Yeah, I will. Okay babes, I gotta go get dolled up. I'm drinking all of Seth's good liquor and Annalise and I are going to share all the gossip and then I plan on making him lose his damn mind when I get Annalise to fall asleep in my bed instead of his. It's going to be a good time."

I missed those parties, but I was quickly realizing that was about the only thing I missed from my old life.

"Wait,why would Annalise fall asleep in Charley's bed?" Jackson was adorably confused as we laid in our bed, all arms and legs tangled in different ways.

We had the windows open, the candles lit, and the sounds of nature as our backdrop.

I twined my fingers with his as I stared up at the ceiling. "Seth and Annalise have this small mansion and Charley has a room. Charley, as you will soon know all too well, loves pushing people's buttons. Especially men happily dating her friends."

"Because of the horrible marriage, deep betrayal, and nasty divorce, I'm guessing."

"I mean, Charley is over the top all the time. It's her personality. But yeah, the divorce has sharpened her focus for sure."

"Great. Just great."

I rolled closer to kiss his cheek. "She only does it out of love. Once she sees who you are for herself, she'll back off."

"Then why is she still torturing Seth?"

I thought about that for a minute. As close as Charley and I had become, there was something different about her dynamic with Annalise and Seth. She didn't just tease and torture him because she wanted to make sure he was good enough for Annalise. She did all that because they were best friends too. "Seth and Charley are actually a lot alike. It's more like Travis pulling a prank on you."

"Ohhhh...so the trick here is tonotbecome friends with Charley."

"Well, notbestfriends anyway."

"We've only met through the computer, but she already feels like another little sister. I don't think we're going to have a problem with that." Jackson tossed the sheet aside and rolled on top of me. "How was breakfast with Maeve?" He was hard again.

And impossibly, I wanted him again too. I would never get used to this constant need to be with him. "Entertaining. She's more psychically attuned than I expected."

He arched an eyebrow and ground his hips against mine. "What does that mean?"

"She's all about auras and vibes. And she thinks you're one of the very best people she knows." I wouldn't come right out and tell him exactly what she said.

He stopped all that lovely grinding to scowl at me. "And what the hell does that mean?"

He was adorable when he got all disgruntled. "Exactly what I just said. She practically raved about how kind and good you are to your friends and family. Gave me an inferiority complex if I'm being honest."

He pressed a kiss to my lips and hitched my knee up higher. "I think this is how myths are made. You leave town and they stop remembering all the bad stuff. The story about the fish just gets bigger and bigger until they believe their own lies. Condom." He jerked his chin towards the nightstand where we now kept a hefty supply of condoms, lubricants, and a few toys.

I patted my hand around until it landed on a packet, tore it open, and then sheathed his cock. One thing I really, really quite liked about Jackson spending the day hiking was that he came home horny, demanding, and decisive. There would be no gentle lovemaking, no questions about this or that. Just hard fucking.

He also generally liked to keep a two-to-one ratio on orgasms. When I asked him about the fairness of that, he told me he got almost as much satisfaction out of making me come as he did from orgasming himself, to accept that this was the way it was going to be, and to spread my legs again so he could demonstrate.

"It was real pretty out there today. Summer is here for sure." He massaged my clit, ran his fingers down my seam, dipped inside and pumped. "Oh, my girl is just begging for more of my cock now, isn't she? So wet and ready even after I fucked you so well an hour ago?"

My inner muscles clenched around him in answer. But as usual, Jackson wanted to hear it. "I'll never get enough of you, Jackson Finn."

He growled, fisted the base of his cock, and sank inside me. "Sometimes I just need to please you, Lee. Need to know you're happy and satisfied. But sometimes, like right now, I physically ache because being apart feels wrong." He rocked his hips slowly, making me feel every thick inch of him. "I used to move from place to place because I was restless. I didn't belong. I had no idea what Iwanted."

I traced his forehead and cheek and chin with my index finger. The intensity of his gaze took my breath away at the same time the wordbelongbroke my heart. "Jackson."

"You made me stop running. Made me realize Icanhave all the things I want. And at the top of that list is you. You make me so happy I forget about all the things that used to make me not happy."

I opened my mouth to return the favor. To tell him he gave me the courage to start over. To meet new people and stop hiding. But he kissed me before I could.