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I shoot her a sly grin.

I’ve got her right where I want her, and she knows it as well as I do.

I love it when she fights back. I love it when she shows fire and passion. I love everything about her, whether she’s yelling at me or talking to me and everything in between…except maybe when she’s avoiding and ignoring me.

The chemistry is still there despite the divide that’s come between us. That hasn’t changed, and if I can just get her to see it, too, maybe I can change her mind.

I was sure the family day would do it, but then she still wanted me to sign the divorce papers.

I’m not giving up. I can’t. Aside from Harper, I’ve never had something this important before, and I refuse to let it slip through my fingers.

She downs the rest of her vodka soda and looks up at me. “Fine. But just for tonight.”

We’ll see.

I don’t voice those words, but they’re big and bold in the back of my mind.

The party is underway, and we both have friends here—former colleagues of hers from the school where she and Mandy both taught along with three-quarters of the Vegas Aces squad and half the celebrities who reside in Vegas.

Jaxon is a popular dude, and everyone showed up tonight to celebrate him and his bride.

It makes me regret how we did things. It makes me wish we hadn’t rushed into it, that we’d taken our time to plan out whatever dream we wanted.

I guess Mandy and Jaxon are rushing things for their own reasons, too.

“Want to dance?” I ask once we both have fresh drinks in hand.

She glares at me, so I take that as a Fuck yes I do because I still want you but I have to pretend like I don’t even though I’m pretending like I do just for tonight. Or, you know…as a yes.

I lead her toward the dance floor with my hand at the small of her back. She tenses when she feels my touch there, and she doesn’t relax as we start dancing to the beat.

It’s too fast to really pull her close, but I do it anyway, grinding against her—using those sex receptors in her brain to my advantage as we both move out of tipsy to the next stage.

It’s all I can do not to lean down and take her mouth with mine right there in the middle of the dance floor—to really put on the act.

But I hold back. For now.

As the night progresses and we dance and drink and laugh with friends, I start to see little glimpses of what we could have. She loosens up with more vodka, and I see peeks of our life together, the one where we were happy and in love. I’m reminded of those days we were in the Bahamas right after we got married when everything felt perfect and we were building our family and our life together.

It’s all still there just within our grasp…but it’s just a little too far, and if I keep reaching, I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen.

I’ll fall, I guess. I won’t be able to climb out of it, and I have a daughter relying on me to climb out of it and to be present for her.

People start to leave, but I don’t want to. If I leave, I have to let her go. She never agreed to come up with me, but I have to figure out a way.

I grab my chance when Jaxon sidles up to us while we’re dancing. “Are the newlyweds heading up soon?”

“How long are you considered a newlywed?” I ask.

“For the first year,” Victoria says with a shrug.

We haven’t even made it out of the newlywed stage and she’s already trying to divorce me. Should that be telling me something?

Maybe. Probably. But it’s not. Instead, it’s telling me I need to fight harder.

My plan has been coming together. Every second I’m not at the Complex or chilling with my daughter, I’m working on it.

I haven’t told a soul about what I’m doing except my lawyer and my father, but soon I’ll need help. It’ll be an all hands on deck situation, and I know I have the crew to back it up.

“Yeah, I think we’ll head up,” I finally say to Jaxon as Mandy moves in behind him and wraps her arms around his waist.

I feel Victoria’s eyes on me, but even if I just get her up for a few minutes and she sneaks out to get a Lyft home, at least I can shoot my shot.

I grab her hand and kiss her knuckles, and she’s still playing the part. Maybe she’s drunk, or maybe she still wants this, too. Or maybe I’m drunk.

We bid the happy couple goodnight and head toward the exit, her hand still planted firmly in mine. There’s a few players outside the club, and we spot some of her friends as we walk through the casino. She’s sort of forced into walking with me all the way to the elevator, and when we step on, we’re alone.

Thank fuck.

I hit the button for the top floor and don’t wait to see if anybody else is going to join us.

I glance over at her, and she’s staring daggers at me.

“Can’t we just have one more night?” I ask.

She purses her lips and shakes her head. “It’s not a good idea.”

“Remember the night you sat on my face?” I remind her. “I was thinking we could do that again…”

Her eyes widen and her nostrils flare as the memories fall over the two of us.

She wants it. I want it. Let’s just fucking do it already.

“Hell, you hated me back then, and your intention was to just fuck me out of your system. So let’s have one last goodbye fuck to let me fuck you out of my system this time.”

“Because that worked out so well last time,” she retorts.

I take a step toward her. “It did work out well, Hartley,” I say. I take another step, and she backs up against the elevator wall until I’ve boxed her in. I smell her strawberries, the scent that’s become so comforting to me, the scent that means home to me now, and my chest aches. This can’t really be over, can it?

I run my fingertips along her jaw as I push my hips against hers. She closes her eyes and leans into my touch, and the way she does that tells me absolutely everything I need to know.

It’s not over. It’ll never be over.

Not when it’s this strong.

“God, I hate you,” she whispers.

“I hate you, too.” I lean down and catch her lips with mine, and one of her arms comes up to brace herself as she grabs onto my bicep.

She opens her mouth first, a clear invitation, and she ignites that fire that’s always burned between us. I lift her into my arms and she wraps her legs around my waist as the kiss intensifies, only to be broken up as the elevator stops and the doors slide open. I let her down, and as she finds her footing, I’m afraid the moment is lost.

I grab her hand with hope and we race down the hall to my suite. Once we’re in, we pick up the kiss without missing a beat. Her legs come around me again as I drive up against her, pinning her to the door. We can’t even make it into the damn room we’re so hot for each other.

And that’s the thing with her. When there’s the hot sex aspect combined with the emotional element…that’s something I’ve never had before, and that’s the thing I know I need to hold onto. Add that on top of the fact that she’s been the mother figure my daughter has needed, and it’s everything I know I can’t let go of.

I lower my lips from hers to trail down her jaw to her neck then to the hollow of her collarbone. “God, I love you,” I murmur against her skin as I trail down, and she shoves her tits toward my face without answering.

I carry her through the suite and to the bedroom. I toss her down onto the bed, and then I proceed to yank her clothes off as I toss them in every direction until I have her naked—exactly how I want her. I leave mine on for now even though my cock is straining against my jeans and demanding freedom. Jesus, the things this woman does to my body.

We didn’t bother with the lights, and instead the room is lit with the glow of lights from Las Vegas Boulevard outside my window.

She whimpers and moans as I slide along her body. She opens her thighs for me so I can slide in between them, and I stop to suck her tit into my mouth. She grinds her pussy against me, and I move up her body. She moans as she feels my skin against her clit.

I move off her and climb up the bed, settling in on my back and staring up at the ceiling as the demand falls from my lips. “Sit on my face.”

Her eyes light up with something. It’s passion combined with lust and heat and need, and she does as instructed, clamoring to get up and toss a leg over me before she settles in where she belongs—straddling my face with her hot cunt.

I drag my lips along her swollen clit, and she moans when I lick her with long strokes before dipping my tongue inside her. She starts rocking against me until she’s fucking my face with each jerk of her body. Her breathing picks up as I worship her pussy with my tongue, and I reach around to slip a finger inside her.

“Oh fuck, I’m gonna come!” she screams, and then her thighs clamp over my ears as she rides out a long and hot climax. I reach up with my free hand to stroke her nipple as she comes, and her moans and cries are a pure symphony of sounds I never want to stop hearing.

As the wave starts to subside and her movements start to slow, she pulls back off my face and moves down a little until she settles in with her head on my chest. I wrap my arms around her as she comes down from the high, and heat pricks behind my eyes as the reality hits me that that could be the last time she’ll ever sit on my face.

It can’t be…can it?

She shifts down as she starts to come down from the high, and she rubs against my cock. I’m so hard it’s fucking painful, but I revel in the feel of her—of her tits dragging along my skin and her naked body as it writhes against me. I don’t have any other choice but to memorize every single second of this night.

I allow myself to drink in her touch, the weight of her on top of me, and I give her a minute before I slide my hands down to cup her ass. It’s the hint she needs to slide down and pop the button of my jeans. She fingers the waistband of my boxer briefs before she slides her hands up to my abdomen, still covered by my shirt. She lifts it up and pushes it over my head as her greedy hands find purchase on my stomach.

Fuck, I can’t take it. I force a patience I definitely don’t feel upon myself as she runs her fingernails back down toward my cock, and finally, finally she pulls it out. She backs up and leans down to suck it into her mouth, and Jesus I’m going to lose it here with the way she’s sucking on the head before sliding my entire cock to the back of her throat.

I want to fuck her mouth forever, but I want to fuck her cunt more, and my cock is going to explode in her mouth if she stays where she is much longer.

“Stop,” I demand, and she freezes, confused for a beat as my cock falls out of her mouth and she looks up at me. “I want to fuck that sweet cunt until you can’t walk straight, and if you keep sucking my cock like the beautiful expert you are, our night is going to end way too soon.”

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand then stands. She pulls my pants off with my boxers and tosses them on the floor, and then she slides her way up my legs until her hot cunt is poised right over my aching, leaking cock.

The heat is unbearable as she slides her pussy along me, and I grind my teeth together to keep from coming too soon.

She reaches down between the two of us and fists my cock, holding it as she slides down onto it. Her eyes close on a soft whimper as I impale her. I watch and feel, and it’s the hottest and most erotic moment I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience.

She slides up and down excruciatingly slowly, the hot, wet slide of her cunt pushing me closer and closer to the edge of total oblivion. I grip onto her hips while she moves, my fingers digging into her flesh as she claws at my chest while we both luxuriate in the feel of the other.

She starts to pick up the pace. She might’ve just come from my mouth, but she’s about to come again from my cock.

My grunts pick up as the heat brews within me and moves me closer and closer to my orgasm, and then she slows down again. She’s teasing me, and I hate it as much as I love it. She’s doing it to her own damn self, too, as her moan of disappointment that she brought us so close only to slow us down filters over us.

And that’s when I decide I’m going to take control.

I lift her by her hips and push her beside me, and she looks confused for a beat. “Get on your back,” I demand, and she does. Eagerly.

I stand and pull her to the edge of the bed, and I lift her legs until they’re poised on either of my shoulders.

I play near her asshole for a few beats. It’s still uncharted territory in this relationship, and as strange as it is, I feel a little sad that she never gave that to me. I don’t know if she ever gave it to anybody. We never really covered that other than for me to say that someday it would be mine.

And maybe it won’t be.

Maybe this is it. She claims it is—our final goodbye.

She also claimed the first time would be the only time.

It wasn’t.

I hope this isn’t, either.

I line my cock up with her pussy, and then I fuck her senseless.

I hold onto her legs for support as I bang into her over and over. I reach down to rub her clit, and her eyes roll back at the feel of all the sensations coming together at once.

She starts to lose it first. I feel her pussy contracting over me, and that’s what sends me into my own oblivion. “I’m coming!” she screams, and I yell back something similar but also incoherent as both of us are hit with a brutal orgasm at the same time, my come taking off and burying deep inside her as I spend it all on her.

I slide out of her and collapse beside her as we both come down, our bodies slick with sweat as a warmth fills my chest.

This can’t have been our last time together. I refuse to believe it.

And yet…what happens next tells me it is.