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“What if I want to keep my competition around?” I wrap my arms around her generous waist and pull her onto my lap, burying my face in her hair. “Compete with me. Win. I don’t care. I want you.”

“It’s changing me,” she says. “Staying here, where my father grew up, in the cottage where ghosts reside. I don’t know if I’ll still be the person you love.”

“I’ll love you no matter who you become.” I pull away and look at her seriously. “That’s what love does. It grows. It stays. It changes. I love you, and you…”

She loves me too—I think—but I can’t bring myself to say it. She said it, but what sort of mindset was she in?

“I love you,” she says back, so softly, her fingers brushing against my jawline. “That will stay with me, no matter where I go. I need you to know how much I want to be with you, but I just got my family back. We’re finally hanging out and talking again, and I don’t know if I can stand to live hours away from them.”

“I get it. I couldn’t be away from my family either.”

She nods, looking down. “Then I won’t ask you to.”

This isn’t like with Wendy. Aurora isn’t begging me to stay, to be there for her when I can’t. She doesn’t need me at all, I realize—she may want me, love me, but she’ll always be fine on her own. And I will be too.

So, I won’t beg. I won’t doubt her. She’s telling me what she needs—to be with her family—and I’ll let her go, even if it means losing her. How long could we have lasted anyway, knowing what we know about my magic?

“Promise to stay in touch?” I ask instead, my heart splintering.

She leans down and brushes her lips against mine. “I promise.”

We kiss, soft and desperate. It isn’t supposed to last, but it does, her fingers weaving into my hair to keep me in place. Even as we gasp against each other’s lips, chasing air, I can’t pull away.

Then she grinds onto my lap, and I’m gone. I tighten my fingers on her waist, trying to stop the motion before she gets me hard.

That’s not what we need, is it? We’re on Jewel’s couch. She’ll be back any moment.

But Aurora is leaving, and I’m aching for a piece of her. Something I can keep. A taste. A touch.

“Please.” I groan. “We shouldn’t.”

“Do you want to?” She presses her forehead to mine, gazing into my eyes in a way that makes me feel stripped bare.

“Yes.” I weave my fingers into her hair and hold on tight, brushing my nose against hers. “I want to, and I never want to stop.”

“Then don’t.”

This time, when she moves, I meet her motions. Aurora must feel my length pressing against her, but it doesn’t stop her from kissing me again, from undoing my pants, from slipping off her shorts and pushing her underwear to the side as she sinks onto me, gasping.

“I love you,” she says.

The words are strong enough that I could come there.

But I don’t. Won’t. If this is our last time together, I’m going to make her feel everything.

I flip her onto her back and push my length deep inside her, back home, right where I belong. My teeth sink into her neck, claiming, bruising marks that I hope will be there tomorrow.

And though she’s already shaking beneath me, I slip a hand between us and rub her clit, forcing her closer to the edge.

“I was the first one to make you come,” I whisper. “And I’m going to be the last. You’re mine.”

It’s an echo of a game we used to play, when I pretended she belonged to me. With me. Now, even though she’s thinking about leaving, it’s not pretend anymore. It’s true.

“You’re the only one I want. The only one I’ll give myself to.” She wraps her legs around me, keeping me close as I spill into her, and I muffle her sounds with my mouth.

I hope she knows I’m hers, too.

Chapter 46