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Riley kissed him again and again.
* * *
Justin was the best man Riley had ever known. In so many ways. Kind, patient, tender... Even now, when she could feel how tense his body was, how every sinew was strained tight, his lips were gentle against hers, as if she was fragile and must be handled with care.
Perhaps she was.
Not physically, but emotionally.
“What I’m about to do may not work, and you may not forgive me,” he warned.
Before she could do much more than register what he’d said, much less wonder what he planned, Riley gasped as Justin rolled them so he was on the bottom and she lay across him.
“I’ve no idea how you did that without us falling out,” she admitted, holding on to his shoulders as if she thought they might still topple.
“That was the part you might not have forgiven. If we’d ended up on the ground because of my miscalculation.”
“You calculated well.”
“Apparently,” he agreed. “As I have you against me.”
“It’s where I want to be,” she admitted, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Riley...” he groaned, his body contracting beneath hers, his hips arching upward.
Pulling him so his lips hovered just above hers, she smiled. “You know those skills you mentioned earlier...?”
He nodded.
“You’re going to need them.”
His eyes widened. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. I want you.”
“No regrets?”
Regret was inevitable. Surely he knew that? She wanted peace and contentment in her life. Being with him was utter chaos. At least it felt that way to her nerves. Yet she couldn’t stay away—much as a moth was drawn to a flame, knowing it was flying to its demise, but flapping its wings with all its might to go down in a blaze of glory.
“I want you,” she repeated. “Now.”
“Here?” he clarified, still seeming afraid to believe her and giving her plenty of time to change her mind if that was what she wanted.
It wasn’t.
Going in for another kiss, then another, she whispered against his lips, “You have those skills, right? Show me...”
CHAPTER NINE
“I’M NOT SURE what I did to my knee,” Cassie mused, carefully climbing onto Justin’s examination table. “Sam and I were at a restaurant that had steps and my knee started to hurt. I didn’t feel or hear any pop prior to the pain hitting.”
Justin dried his just washed hands and turned to his patient, doing his best to focus on her and not on the woman who’d brought her to this appointment. The woman he was absolutely crazy about and had spent every spare moment with over the past few months.
There were times when he still felt those walls she refused to let go of, that he longed to knock down completely, and felt her clinging to them as a protective shield, but they’d come a long way from her sneaking out of his condo.
“How long ago was it that you first noticed a problem?” he asked, sitting down on his stool and rolling toward Cassie, where she was sitting on the examination table.
“A week ago.”
