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He eased back just enough to fix his gaze on mine. The rink lights reflected in his dark eyes. His real smile played on his lips, the one few saw. Everyone saw it now. The whole world saw it. His lips brushed mine. I heard the gasps, caught the camera flashes in the corner of my eye. Oh no, gay kissing. It was about to get spicier. I flung my arms around his neck and pulled him down into a savage kiss that would leave no doubt in the mind of anyone watching that Ren and I were involved. There was nothing ambiguous about this kiss.

I’d have thrown my legs around him, but I figured the cameras might cut away then, and this was too good to miss.

I heard clapping close by, and as we separated, saw that the clapping came from Zoe and Tamsyn. Our number one fans.

“You’re an idiot,” I told Ren.

“Now everyone knows it.” He kept his arm tucked around me as we faced the cameras, smiled and waved.

I had no idea how I’d gotten here, to this moment. It shouldn’t have been possible. But here I was, holding a gold medal with Ren next to me, his kiss tingling on my lips, in front of the whole world.

Saga would have loved it.

I raised my medal toward the arena roof. “I won, Saga. One of us did reach the stars, mon beau.”

Ren’s gentle follow-up kiss on the top of my head hit me hard in the chest.

This was me; this was us.

Ren Hasegawa and Camden Navarro. Ice dance’s prince and skating bad boy. Olympic medal winners. Deeply, madly in love.

Who’d have thought it?

FORTY

REN

It had been right. The kiss. The right time, the right place.

No more pretending.

It had been me.

I’d been free off the ice for the first time in . . . forever. Free to choose my life and what I wanted. Free to be the man I’d always wanted to be. The truest version of myself. A man in love.

Finally free to choose Cam.

As the kiss in front of the world’s media ended, I knew everything would change, but it had needed to. At least for me.

The nearby reporters flung questions our way, but the media team shut them down. The after-medal interviews would come soon, but not yet. The organizers escorted us back behind the scenes. I released Cam’s hand, fingertips the last to go, and we parted, pulled back to our teams. Casey, Cam’s friend, launched himself at him, almost tackling him to the ground in a wrestling embrace. The whole Canadian team mobbed him and Zoe.

I walked away. Reluctantly.

“Do you feel better now you’ve got that out of your system?” Tamsyn asked, walking alongside me toward the press pen.

“I do, actually.”

“There he is.” She tucked her arm around me and pulled me close, hips bumping in a quick embrace. “You’re amazing, Ren. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to be your partner.”

I stopped, making others veer around us. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“It . . . Your words mean a lot. I’m sorry for the unnecessary stress of all this, regarding my father.”

She smiled warmly. “Now we have to face the fallout of that kiss.”

“Ah . . . yes.”