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We finish together, lips against lips and heartbeat against heartbeat, and a realization hits.

Everything in my life, good or bad, has led me to Gio. This new eye-opening journey has made me certain about what I want in a partner.

Who I want in a partner.

Before I board that plane tomorrow, I will tell him.

I don’t want us to end.

“I think you left teeth marks,” Gio hollers from the bathroom the next morning.

I lean on the door frame to watch him inspect his skin in the mirror. I prop a hand on my hip and smirk. For someone so strong, he’s a bit of a baby.

“It was only a love bite. You going soft on me?” I ask.

“Nah, always hard for you.” From over his bare shoulder, he grins at his own joke. The corded muscles on his back flex as a white towel hugs his sculpted back end.

“Don’t tease me.” My arms slip around his middle so my hands can roam his abs.

“You start that again, and the Jeep will be stuck in the parking lot forever.” In the reflection of the mirror, he raises a brow in warning.

“Fine.” I huff and move to the mirror to inspect my face.

My lips are bruised, and my hair is rumpled. I rub my cheeks, contemplating the day, but then I hear a familiar buzz. I pause and turn slowly to the noise. At the sight of Gio, all the blood drains from my face.

He’s brushing his teeth with an electric toothbrush. The problem is that it looks like my electric toothbrush. The one I’ve never used to clean my teeth.

“Where did you get that?” My words wobble as the light catches the disco-plated base. It vibrates on high as Gio digs into his pearly whites in a circular motion. The same circular motion I used in a different way.

“Wha—?” Gio says with a mouth full of foaming paste. It drips to his chin, which would be adorable in any other scenario.

“Where did you get that toothbrush?”

I cover my mouth with one hand and lean on the vanity for support with the other. I may die of embarrassment right here, right now. My cheeks catch fire.

I stepped into a pharmacy weeks ago, desperate for something, anything, that might buzz my V team out of its stupor. I went straight for the trusty electric toothbrushes. When they had one with the sparkly base, it felt like kismet. I blame Gio, of course, and his hypersexualized cooking posts.

It was his fault!

Gio spits into the sink and turns on the water. Mint foam slips down the drain before he washes the toothbrush beneath the stream. He flashes me a look of confusion and wipes his face with a hand towel.

“This?” He waves the toothbrush, which looks ridiculously small in his grasp. He glances between it and me as if every person in the world has a disco toothbrush handy for surprise overnight jungle trips.

I nod. I can’t even speak.

Does he just steal random toothbrushes and use them?

“I forgot I put it in my backpack.” He moves closer with a little bounce in his step. The sudden change in his demeanor confuses me.

I drop my hand from my face and step back.

Gio hooks the toothbrush in his mouth and bites down. A fiendish grin spreads over his lovely, villainous face, and then he flashes me his teeth, brilliant and wide. Too wide.

He knows. He can probably taste me on that thing.

White-hot heat explodes on my face. My eyes sink shut. I can’t even watch the fallout. The next sensation is Gio’s warm breath near my ear. He lightly presses a kiss to the spot below.

The buzz reactivates. Gio moves the vibrating head down my neck and drops it to the towel wrapped around my body, where he drags the fabric away from my breasts and tortures my nipples in a new titillating way.