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It felt like the entire night had been one giant avalanche to this point. He’d known it was coming, but he hadn’t been able to escape it. Jules was too damn good for him, and if she didn’t know it after that clusterfuck, then he was luckier than he deserved.
“Do you trust me?”
She huffed out a breath. “What kind of question is that? Of course I do, even when you’re acting like an idiot.”
“Good.” He turned off the highway, taking a little dirt road that hadn’t gotten much use in high school and didn’t appear to get much now. The truck bumped and shook over the potholes, but eventually spit them out in a field with nothing around for miles. “Come on.” He got out, grabbed the two blankets from beneath his seat, and walked around to lower the tailgate. Jules followed, but she didn’t look too happy with him. He laid the blankets out in the bed of his truck and turned to her. “I’m sorry. I was out of line.”
“You think?” She frowned up at him. “What was that? I know Grant’s an awful person, but he’s not worth getting brought up on assault charges.”
He let go of the steering wheel and realized his hands were shaking. “He shouldn’t have said that about you.”
“You’re right. He shouldn’t. But they’re just words.”
Except he’d seen her face the moment she registered what Grant had said. If there’d just been anger present, maybe Adam could have let it go—maybe—but there had been shame there, too. He reached for her, slowly, giving her time to decide if she’d let him touch her.
Jules didn’t move, allowing him to cup her face. He stroked her cheekbones with his thumbs. “I don’t want you to regret what we’ve done. There’s no shame in any of it.”
“Guess I can’t be scandalous without seeing some negative effects, huh?”
He shook his head. “Take everyone else out of the equation. Do you regret what we’ve done?”
“I…” She sighed. “No. I’ve managed to become a town scandal, at least temporarily. It’s going to change the way people look at me, and that’s something. These last couple of weeks with you…I’ll always look back on them fondly.” Her smile was a little bittersweet. “Though I think I’ll keep most of this out of the stories I’ll tell my grandbabies one day. They’re not exactly appropriate for tiny ears.”
There it was again—the ever-present reminder that this thing between them wouldn’t last forever. The knowledge that there would be another man Jules would fall in love with, a man who’d put a ring on her finger and who’d be there in the delivery room with her when she delivered their children. A man who’d get to spend the rest of his life by her side.
And it wouldn’t be Adam.
His chest clenched so tightly, he couldn’t draw a full breath. So he did the only thing he could think of.
He kissed her.Chapter Twenty-OneThere were so many things left to say, but Jules let Adam sweep them both away. She couldn’t ignore what he’d done to Grant, just like she couldn’t ignore the fact that when he touched her, her entire body lit up. And then he looked at her with those dark eyes and actually cared about the things she found important.
God, he cared more than he’d ever let anyone see.
Let me in. Please, just let me past those walls you’ve built so thickly around yourself.
She couldn’t let the words out. They were the keeping kind of things, and he’d told her time and time again that he wasn’t staying. Expecting him to suddenly fall for her and change his mind wasn’t fair to both of them. She was the one messing with the rules after she’d assured him she’d be fine with the boundaries he set.
This was never meant to be more than a crazy footnote in my life.
Except it didn’t feel like a footnote.
It felt world ending.
So she let him kiss her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, needing to be as close as they could be to settle the fears rising in the back of her mind.
Fears that, when he walked away, he’d take a bloody piece of her heart with him.
He lifted her onto the tailgate. “Let me make love to you, sugar. Just this once.”
Her heart leaped into her throat, blocking the words she had no business so much as thinking. Jules nodded, because there was nothing else left to say that wouldn’t ruin it. She felt absurdly like crying as he pulled off her boots and lifted her dress over her head. “Adam—”
“There’s time for that tomorrow.”
He was right. They had tonight, and everything could wait for sunrise. She nodded. “Okay.”
“Good.” He stripped quickly and set both their clothes in the bed of the truck. Then he kissed her again, backing her up and laying her flat on the blankets. “Never lose you, sugar.” His lips brushed the sensitive spot behind her ear. “There isn’t anyone like you out there—I’ve been around the block enough times to know—and the world would be a dimmer place if you compromised any part of yourself to appease someone else.” He eased her bra off, his lips moving over her skin, saying words she never knew she wanted to hear. “You’re better than a goddamn eight-second ride, Jules Rodriguez, and I’ll never meet your like again.”
