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He rolled his eyes. “So, now you don’t listen to me?”

“You just said you wanted fuck me and didn’t care about my arm.”

“And?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“You annoy me,” he said, straightening. “There’s a difference. You’re still really attractive.”

I smiled softly. “You don’t have to lie to me, Briar.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“It’s hard to believe sometimes, okay? I’m not always confident and sexy and—”

With a scoff, he grabbed my cheeks and crashed his lips against mine. He pulled back as quickly as he kissed me. Silence filled the air for a moment. “Thank God, you shut up.”

My lips parted, still tasting him.

We looked at each other for a second until I moved to the edge of the rock and cupped his cheek. Our lips touched again, and we both sighed.

I never knew Briar felt like this. Unlike Beck, he didn’t show too much of his emotions.

Briar reached up and cupped my hair. “Would you like to swim with me?”

I blinked, eyes looking at the creek behind him. “I can’t swim.”

“It’s waist deep. But you’re pretty short, so I guess you’ll drown.”

I hit his shoulder. “You can’t compliment me and then insult me.”

He shrugged, standing. He proceeded to shred his shirt and kick off his shirt.

My eyes wandered and dropped over his body. He was a bit wider than Beck, with another row of abs. His hips had a nice happy trail and v going down his pants. He dropped his pants… but kept his boxers on.

“Come on, Ashbourne. I am not shivering by myself,” he said, moving to the water.

I kept my sports bra on and just dropped my shorts to keep my boy shorts on. I kicked off my shoes before moving to the water.

He was already hissing about how fucking freezing it was.

I was right behind him, hissing as well.

The water only reached my sternum, so I didn’t need to swim. I dunked under the water before standing and looking up. He did the same, letting his chestnut hair move over his forehead.

Then his eyes moved to my right arm. “Can’t you take the rest off? It’s broken. Might as well.”

I swallowed, looking down as I reached over. My hands worked without much thought, getting what was left of the mechanical arm off.

Briar took it and chucked it over to the side. His cold hands moved to space where my arm should have been. “I don’t think it should be this red and bruising.”

“Yeah. the arm was too small and pinched a lot.”

“Damn,” he muttered. “I know you are getting a new one, but if you ever need it off, take it the fuck off. I don’t like seeing you bruised.”

I looked up at him, and his eyes were on the waterfall behind me. My eyes dropped to all the scars on his chest, the burn mark, and all the small cuts. I reached up and touched the small cuts.

His eyes moved to me slowly.