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“I hope you’ll join us next month,” said Arizona.

“I... I will,” said Bix.

Surely she would still be here then. She wouldn’t be done with the brewing project, after all.

And that made her feel happy. To know that she was going to have this time in this community, for just a little bit longer.

Because she really loved it. Treasured it. Above all else.

She walked in through the front door, and was greeted immediately by Daughtry. He grabbed hold of her Tupperware container of cookies, and chucked it onto the couch. “Hey,” she said. “That’s precious cargo. I baked those.”

“Awesome,” he said.

“Yeah, it is awesome,” she said.

“I wasn’t waiting for cookies. I was waiting for you.”

A rush of fever need went through her.

That hungry, intense voice doing things to her that she couldn’t even fathom. She would never get used to this. Never get used to him.

He pushed her up against the wall and kissed her. Feral. Hungry.

She was shaking when he pulled away, when she put her hands on his belt buckle.

She undid it, then unbuttoned his jeans, lowering the zipper. “I was promised this,” she said.

She lowered herself down to her knees, drawing his pants and underwear down his lean hips, bringing herself eye level to his glorious arousal.

She bit her lip, wrapping her fingertips around him, stroking him, her whole body on fire.

She wanted this. More than anything.

She leaned in, touching her tongue to the hot head of him. Then she parted her lips. Taking him in deep, as deep as she could.

She didn’t have any experience of this. But she had a deep, dark need rolling through her. It was intense.She didn’t think she had ever fully realized how many emotions she simply hadn’t felt for most of her life. Being in survival mode had cut her off from things like this. And now, she felt the glorious brunt of it. The absolute intensity of it all.

He growled, his hands going to her hair. He pulled, leaving stinging sparks behind. And she loved that too. Because being able to enjoy intensity, this discomfort that had no cost, that was a luxury.

All of this was luxurious, and she never wanted to let go of it.

It was pain and glory and power and so was he.

He was everything.

She worked him with her hand, her mouth, the taste of him, the feral noises he made, driving her forward.

Then he hauled her up to her feet and began to strip her clothes away from her body. Right there in the living room.

She had done it. She had driven him over the edge. Driven past the vestiges of his control.

She was responsible for this. She had brought him here.

Not Andrea. Not any other woman. Not for the last year, he’d said.

She was dizzy as he carried her to the center of the living room and removed all of her clothes. Removed all of his. As he kissed every inch of her body and sent her to the heights before taking her there again and again and again.

It was a revelation, and so was he.