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I drag a hand through my wet hair again. “Eli gives me work when he has it. But I’ve got bills that never seem to get smaller, and everybody around me is building something while I’m standing in the same damn place. When I’m on a bull, I don’t have to think about any of that. For eight seconds, I know exactly who I am again.” I look away from her, because saying the rest while she’s staring at me feels a little too much like peeling my own skin off. “Since I stopped riding, it feels like half of me got left behind with it.”

There. I said it. I may have left out the part about Nana and exactly why I need the money so badly, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been more honest with anyone in my life. And now Addie knows I’m the pathetic asshole standing still while everyone around him moves forward.

She doesn’t look away from me. I wait for her face to change, for that familiar look of pity to settle in. The one people used to give me when they found out my mother abandoned me and died of an overdose a year later. The same look they gave me when my shoulder was wrecked, and my career was over. But Addie doesn’t look at me like that. She just stands there in the rain looking at me exactly the way she always does. Like I’m the dumbest asshole she’s ever met. Not someone she suddenly has to feel sorry for.

And fuck, I like that more than I should.

“I still think what you’re doing is fucking stupid,” she says. “Understanding why you miss it doesn’t make an underground bull ride a good idea. But you could have told me this instead of disappearing and leaving me to wonder what the hell is going on with you.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“It is that easy, though.” She shakes her head, but there’s no anger in her voice anymore. “You make everything harder than it has to be, Walker.”

A humorless laugh slips out of me because I don’t have any damn argument for that. For a second, neither of us says anything. I just gave her more of myself than I ever imagined I would, and somehow she hasn’t treated me any differently. We’re standing close enough that I can see the rain caught in her lashes, and her wet hair plastered across one cheek. Before I can think better of it, I reach up and brush the strands away from her face.

God, she’s beautiful.

She goes still, looking at me with an expression I can’t read. My hand lingers against the side of her face, my thumb brushing over her cheek. Her skin is cold from the rain, but warm beneath my touch. I’m suddenly painfully aware of the heat simmering between us.

For one horrible second, I worry this is when she steps back. Where everything I just told her finally catches up and she decides I’m more trouble than I’m worth. Her eyes drop to my mouth instead. Then her fingers fist in the front of my soaked shirt, she rises onto her tiptoes, and kisses me hard enough to wipe every other thought from my head.

She kisses me like she’s fucking done thinking about it, and the force of that realization hits me almost as hard as her mouth does. After everything I just told her, everything I expected to change the way she sees me, Addie’s answer is to drag me closer.

For half a second, I’m too stunned to move. Then my hand slides from her cheek to the back of her neck and I kiss her back, pulling her against me until there isn’t an inch of space left between us. She grips my shirt tighter and kisses me as if she means it, like everything I just told her didn’t scare her off at all. I spent the entire drive back convincing myself I needed to end whatever this thing between us had become, and now Addie is standing in the pouring rain choosing me.

Fuck it.

Fuck Eli. Fuck every reason I can think of as to why I can’t have this woman. Fuck pretending what we’ve already had was enough—or that it ever will be.

I want her. All of her.

I kiss her again, and this time neither of us holds back. Her hands fist in my soaked shirt while mine find her waist, pulling her against me until there’s no space left between us. We stumble toward the camper with our mouths still locked, rain running down our faces and between us, and I barely manage to get the door open before she’s dragging me inside with her.

The second it closes, I’m on her again. My hands roam over her sides and beneath the wet fabric clinging to her skin while she pushes my jacket from my shoulders, both of us trying to get closer faster than our clothes will allow. I back her toward the counter, catching her around the waist and lifting her onto it. Something clatters into the sink beside her, but neither of us bothers looking.

Addie breaks the kiss just long enough to breathe. “This is just sex.”

My hands are still on her, her legs around my hips, her mouth swollen from kissing me, and just sex is about the last words I’d use for what's happening between us.

“We get it out of our system,” she adds, already pulling me back toward her. “Nobody needs to know.”

I hesitate. Not because I don’t want this. But because I know damn well the backseat of my truck didn’t get anything out of my system. If anything, it made the problem worse. Maybe this won’t be any different. “Just sex,” I agree as I kiss down the side of her neck, pulling a moan from her mouth. Fuck, I like that sound. I want to hear it again.

Whatever’s left of my control goes the second her hands fist in my hair. I get my hands under her shirt and drag the wet fabric up her body between kisses. I finally get the damn thing free and toss it somewhere behind me. My mouth is back on her throat before she’s caught her breath, working lower while her legs lock around my waist and haul me closer.

I reach behind her, flick the clasp of her bra, and let it fall. Then I stop and look at her. Half naked on the counter, cheeks flushed, rain still clinging to her collarbone, and her dark hair clinging to one shoulder. I’ve pictured this more times than I’ll ever admit out loud, but not one of those versions comes close to the reality of having her right here in front of me.

“Chace,” she begs. She’s impatient. Of course she is.

I lean in and take one nipple into my mouth. The sound she makes goes straight through me and lands south, my cock going painfully hard against my jeans. I suck harder, letting my teeth catch lightly as I pull my mouth off. Her spine arches away from the cabinet behind her. I give the other nipple the same attention until she’s squirming against me. Finally, I let one hand slide down between her thighs and press against her through the thin cotton of her sleep shorts.

Soaked. Straight through the fabric. “Christ, Sunshine.”

I rub her slowly through the cotton, and she immediately rocks into my hand, chasing the pressure every time I pull away. She gets louder with every pass, and every noise that comes out of her mouth just makes me want more. When I finally stop, she makes a wrecked, furious little sound and grabs for my wrist.

“Patience.” I hook my fingers into her waistband. “Lift.”

She plants her palms on the counter and lifts her hips, and I drag the shorts down her legs and off. There’s nothing underneath them. For a second, I can’t do anything except stare at her, spread open on the counter, wet, pink, and waiting for me.