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“You need to stop being stupid and think, honey.”
Aunt Pat’s advice floated through her brain, as brusque and loud as she normally was in real life.
Raven froze.
Because...it was exactly what she needed as her palms hit the metal bar, fingers flexing to depress the metal panel, legs tensed to run. It was the smack across the face she needed to stop, to not push, to not leave.
Instead, she paused, dropped her chin to her chest, and sighed.
A hand on the back of her neck she knew instantly belonged to Connor. Warm fingers lightly massaging the taut muscles there. “You can go if you want,” he murmured, stepping closer, his big body surrounding hers, his voice gentle in that way of his. “No one would blame you if you needed some air.”
Stop and think.
Accept that this man saw her, warts and all, and still wanted her.
Stop andthink.
She did.
His body surrounding hers. His gentle touch. His soft words. Their time on the couch together. The beach. Dinner. Waking next to him. Making brownies together.
Building something important and lasting and—
Shewantedthat.
Not just now.
Forever.
“If I go,” she admitted. “I’d never stop running.”
Twenty-Six
Connor
“I’d never stop running.”
He froze.
Resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her, to drag her against him, to hold him so she couldn’t escape, couldn’t run.
Instead, he held perfectly still.
For so long that panic began to eat away at his insides.
“I’m tired,” she whispered.
His throat seized.
“So fucking tired.”
A breath, trying to stay calm, to let her talk.
She was here. Shewasn’trunning—
Except her fucking hands were on the door. Her body was stiff, ready to push out. To do that running. To never stop. To leave his life with a giant hole that would never be filled.
Her headthunkedagainst the door.
