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I hold my breath. Sally knits her brows.

“Jack and Coke.” She glances up at me, her eyes lit up with something that looks a hell of a lot like joy. “Wyatt, did you get a slutty little thigh tattoo to commemorate?—”

“The day you showed up for me when I needed you most?” I swallow, my throat thick. “Yeah, Sally, I did get a slutty little thigh tattoo to commemorate that.”

She laughs, but her eyes are wet. “I wasn’t expecting you to admit it so easily.”

“I wasn’t either. But…yeah. There it is. It’s stupid, I know?—”

“It’s perfect.” She leans in and presses her lips to the tattoo. My dick pulses when she tongues the sensitive skin. “When did you get it?”

Oh Lord. She’s pushing me to confess even more.

No one ever pushes me. They know better. I don’t budge. I don’t open up.

I open up for her though. How could I not?

“I got it when you were away in veterinary school. Think I hit an all-time high of missin’ you. Or would it be low? Either way, you’d been gone for so long…” I take her face in my hand, my heart thundering. “I had to keep you with me, I guess. In my own way.”

She blinks. Then she turns her head and presses a kiss into the center of my palm, eyes locked on mine.

The gesture is tender, and suddenly so is the stuff inside my chest. Feels like she’s touched on a bruise—an injury old enough to be familiar, but severe enough for the pain it causes to feel fresh.

Only I’m not sure it’s pain. Or maybe it is pain, but Sally’stenderness slices right through it. Underneath, I feel…relief.Not the endless pit of agony I thought I’d find, but a calm so steady and so potent that it’s like my body’s been filled with pure oxygen.

Go there. Follow that feeling.

“You saved my life, you know,” I huff out.

Her teeth find my palm. Her eyes flash with something I don’t recognize. “Maybe you’re saving mine too.”

Before I can ask what she means by that, she wraps her fingers around my swollen length. I see stars as she firms her grip and gives me a tug.

“Talk to me. Tell me what you like.”

I close my eyes. Silently count backward from ten while I try to breathe through my nose. “Think about the things I did to you. Think about what you liked.”

That gives her pause.

“Trust me?” she asks at last.

My chest twists. I open my eyes. “Of course I trust you. I always have.”

She smiles at her line, her eyes taking on a mischievous gleam. “Good.”

Then she rises to her feet. She takes off my jacket and unbuttons my shirt. She drops them to the floor, and she guides my undershirt over my head.

My bodypoundswhen she puts my hat back on my head before reaching for the rope. “Hands behind your back, cowboy.”

Holy fuck.

Sally is gonna tie me up. The girl who told me she forgot how to kiss isbinding my hands behind my back.

Other guys made her lose her confidence. I’m helping her get it back.

She also called mecowboy.

My heart swoops.