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“Whatever. The point stands.” She took a hard breath. “I think we should have a little stardust, you and me. A handful even. Something magic. Because this feels magic to me.”

She looked up. He could see the stars reflected in her eyes.

He was done fighting. Himself, and everything else.

And he didn’t need to be asked again. Right there beneath the stars, he pulled Bix Carpenter into his arms, and kissed her with all the feeling he pretended he didn’t have.

Chapter Sixteen

Bix thought she was drowning. He was finally kissing her. She had never really dreamed about her first kiss. It had seemed silly. Abstract. She was still stuck on dreaming of school dances and other things that she had never experienced. That first flush of attraction, and crushes.

Daughtry blew through all that. It wasn’t just that his mouth was sexy; it’s that it felt necessary. His lips were firm and insistent, and she loved being held by him. He was so strong and hot, and...

He had been holding her for the last two months. In all these ways that mattered. But now he was holding her for real, and it made her feel like she might be, herself, entirely made of stars. Glimmering, burning, shining out in glory.

She clung to his shoulders. They were so broad and strong. And the way that he held her, pressed against his body, made her feel...

She had never in her life been appreciative of being small. It felt like a weakness. It felt like losing.

But not now.

Because she felt powerful, the way he was kissing her, the way he was holding her tight like he didn’t want to let her go.

And it felt nice to be small. To be able to be cocooned entirely in his arms.

Her heart was pounding so hard she was nearly dizzy. Need gathered between her legs, her breasts feeling heavy. And when he moved his hands down a little bit lower and tightened his grip, she could feel an answering hardness pressed to her.

“Do you want me, Sheriff?” she asked, wrenching her mouth away, needing to ask the question.

“God forgive me,” he said, his voice rough. “I do.”

“Not an act of charity,” she said.

He huffed a laugh. “I’m not egotistical to think that my dick is an act of charity, Bix.”

She couldn’t help it; she grinned wickedly. Because her gorgeous sheriff had occasion to talk about his penis with her, and that felt perhaps like the biggest win of all.

“I don’t know about that. It might be.”

“I need to know,” he said. “Do you want me? Or do you feel like you have to make payment. Because I get what you’re saying. About shitty guys. You told me right in the beginning that you expect that I wanted a blowjob in return for what I was given, and I need you to know that I don’t.”

“You don’t want a blowjob?”

He narrowed his gaze. “Not as payment.”

“I don’t think I have to pay you.”

He held her face steady and looked into her eyes. “Did men ever do that to you?”

He was looking at her, so earnest and handsome in the dim light, and she didn’t want to talk about other men.

Even though there were no other men, so it was all theoretical. It was just that... she didn’t exactly want to tell him that she was a virgin. Because she didn’t really... she didn’t care about it. All she had ever wanted was to feel like she was free to give it to somebody when she was good and ready. Somebody she wouldn’t regret.

She didn’t believe in forever. She’d never seen it.

But she knew that there were versions of this that she could still walk away from with her head held high.

Daughtry King would be the first.