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She shivered. The exact opposite.
“No, I think I want everyone here to know you’re mine.”
Sure she’d misheard him, she drew back to study him in the dwindling sunlight. The last rays were fading, but all the booths and stands had lights of their own, as did the midway itself. His face was strobed a rainbow of colors from the dizzying array of lights around them, but all she could see was potent, focused green. His eyes were like lasers, burning into hers. Chasing away everything but him in her mind.
He rubbed her ass through the pocket of her jeans, his idea of subtlety. “You’re staring, Colorado. Keep those feet moving.”
Swallowing hard, she forced herself to keep going. People nudged them from all sides, and the laughter and shouts from the other fairgoers diminished any chance for real conversation. Just as well, because this probably wasn’t a chat they should have here. Or anywhere.
They were supposed to be friends with benefits. That was the deal. Possessiveness had no place in their equation, outside the agreement to be exclusive while they were involved. But that wasn’t what Ryan meant. If she’d had any doubts, the intensity in his eyes had answered that question without hesitation.
He wanted more. She’d suspected as much almost right away, though she’d tried to tell herself she was imagining things. Because if she acknowledged he was looking for a real relationship, that meant she needed to put on the brakes. She could give him her body, but the rest wasn’t open for negotiation. It wasn’t only her job on the line.
She wouldn’t risk him. Even if that risk was so tiny as to be infinitesimal, she’d never take the chance.
“How do you feel about foosball?” He nudged her shoulder and inclined his chin toward a tent a few feet ahead with myriad game tables. “Bet I can smoke your ass.”
“Yeah, right. You know I whip your butt at everything even resembling a game. Including answering Jeopardy questions.”
“Dream on. C’mon.” He stopped stroking her ass long enough to snag her hand and aim for the tent. “We’ll see who ends up on top,” he added over his shoulder, waggling his brows.
“We should let the others know we’re splitting off.”
“Mike,” Ry yelled, catching Michael’s attention. Michael glared back at him, and Ryan laughed. He knew Michael hated being called Mike, so he did it now and then just to piss him off. “See ya in a few.” He pointed at the tent and Michael nodded.
“There. All notified.”
Once Michael had been tugged away by Elle toward an archery booth on the opposite side of the midway, Ry stopped them just outside the shade of the tent and wrapped his arm around Denver’s shoulders. Then he pulled off his hat and laid his mouth full on hers.
She gripped a handful of his shirt and inched up on her tiptoes to get as much of his mouth as possible. He slanted his head, delving deeper, and she couldn’t stifle her moan. His answering one echoed in her head, and she couldn’t keep from tormenting them both by tilting her hips against his. Rocking into him while their tongues tangled under the warmth of the setting sun was like a fucking slice of heaven, and she couldn’t get enough.
Even the niggle of awareness along her spine, as if they were being watched, wasn’t enough to make her pull away from him. Nothing was.
“Jesus.” He pulled back after a moment and rubbed her lower lip with his thumb. “Let’s just skip the show and go fuck.”
She had to laugh as she grabbed his hat and put it back on his head, adjusting his wayward curls. “Such a romantic.”
“That’s why you love me.” He grinned and tugged her into the tent.
Her heart sped and she tried to swallow over the sudden grit in her throat. In the old days, if he’d said that, she would’ve taken it at face value and thought nothing of it. Now every comment had a weighted meaning. She had to be careful not to miss any signs.
She had before, and she’d nearly lost everything. Including herself.
Not that Ry was a danger to any part of her but her heart. It was the possible danger she represented to him that had her waking up drenched in sweat. If the past found her, if what her uncle had done and all the steps she’d taken to protect herself and her family weren’t enough, she wasn’t the only one directly in the crosshairs this time.
Now there was Ryan.
The bad dreams didn’t put Ry off. Nothing seemed to. And because she wasn’t strong enough to resist, she clung to him when he whispered soothing things to her in the dark. Always making sure she was okay, no matter how many times she tried to nudge him away.
Always being her best friend, even if she didn’t deserve it. She was lying to him, after all, and
had been since the day they’d met. It was getting harder by the minute to convince herself that what he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him.
“Red or blue?” Ryan asked, circling the only free foosball table in the back.
“Red.”
He deposited some coins in the slot and gave his guys on their rods a testing spin. “Oh yeah, nice and smooth. Prepare to be decimated.”
