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I gasped and pressed backward into his hand.

“So, fucking wet for me.” His lips moved against my pulse while his finger settled into a ruthless rhythm. “After all this time, your body still remembers exactly who I am, doesn’t it, mami?”

I couldn’t answer. I buried my face against his shoulder as he added another finger, giving me the rough, unfiltered version of himself he once believed I was too fragile to handle.

I wasn’t fragile now.

My body moved with his hand, accepting the demand inside every stroke and answering with one of my own. He remembered what made me gasp, where to curl his fingers, and how firmly to hold me when pleasure weakened my legs. Nothing about the way he touched me felt like fifteen months had passed.

Footsteps crunched closer along the path.

Ryan’s hand stilled. His fingers remained inside me while his body pressed mine deeper into the hedge, shielding me from whoever approached. His mouth stopped beside my ear, and the arm locked around my waist silently ordered me to remain still.

Every nerve inside me strained toward the movement he had stopped.

“Ryan,” I breathed.

“Quiet, shhh.”

The command sent another pulse of need through me while the approaching voices grew louder.

Ryan pulled his hand free and pressed his body against mine, shielding me from whoever approached while we fought to quiet our breathing.

Rider and Elenore appeared around the corner.

Elenore looked at Ryan, then me, before studying the section of hedge crushed behind my shoulders.

“Are we interrupting?”

“We were discussing directions,” Ryan said.

Rider’s gaze moved toward Ryan’s hips pinning me against the greenery. “With your dick?”

“It has strong opinions.”

Elenore held up three wooden hearts completely clueless to what was going on. “We have half the word.”

Ryan finally stepped away from me. “You already have three?”

“We followed everyone who looked confident.”

“That’s cheating,” I said.

“It’s observation,” Rider replied.

“You haven’t completed the challenges.”

Elenore opened their basket, revealing three photographs and a ribbon. “I am quite pleased with my own sportsmanship.”

Rider pointed behind him. “The center is that way.”

Ryan waited until they disappeared before looking at me. My shirt had twisted around my waist, and his hand had left a warm imprint beneath my shorts.

“I told you we should’ve gone right.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“I’m trying to preserve what remains of my judgment.”