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“I just… I feel so guilty for leaving him,” she said, a choked cry punctuating her confession.
“Kenz…” I groaned, lifting my other hand so I could cup both her cheeks and hold her face higher. “You left to get help—to get better.”
“I know.” Her bottom lip quivered. “But I still left him there with Stan all this time…”
“And if you hadn’t left, how much longer would you have survived there?”
Her eyes dropped, and I felt her swallow. “I don’t know,” she said, but what I heard was‘not much longer.’
“Jake will be okay,” I promised her, catching a tear that landed on her lip without even thinking. “Jake’s a smart kid. A strong kid. A swimmer. He knows how to keep his head above water for a little until things calm down and get better. That’s all this is. One summer without swim camp. One summer playing soccer. A couple months treading water, so you could get better.”
She took in a slow breath, letting it out like the world rested on her shoulders.
“I’ve never seen a kid more worried about making sure you’re happy and okay.”
The corners of her mouth quivered in the faintest smile. “He has the biggest heart.”
“So do you.” The words were out before I could stop them, landing like a match in a bottle of propane.
Her gaze collided with mine, and suddenly everything was on fire. The air ignited with our proximity. Our breaths combusted in the small space between our mouths.
I wanted her, and there was no denying it. No fighting it, really.
“Kenzie…” I begged, my voice low. She needed to step back. To tell me to take her back to Blooms and thank me for my help.
She shouldn’t want any more from me like I couldn’t want any more from her.
No matter what my sister or Callie or any of the women at Blooms argued, I wasn’t a saint. I was a gentleman and a workaholic and overwhelmingly protective and respectful after everything I’d watched my sister go through… but I wasn’t a goddamn saint.
And there were only so many times I could be so close to Kenzie’s mouth before I couldn’t stop myself from taking a taste.
“Kiss me,” she said with a husky whisper. “I’ve dreamed of it for so long.”
Christ.
I groaned, her soft plea twisted the knife of desire into my chest. “I can’t,” I protested even as my head drifted lower.
She was an adult. A sober, consenting adult. And after today, no doubt the most level-headed and strongest woman I’d ever met. If this were a court case—if we were standing in front of the judge—there were a million ways to defend what was about to happen. A million ways to prove I was innocent of abusing my power—abusing my position over Kenzie. Innocent of everything except the way I wanted her. To that, the whole of me pleaded guilty.
“You said I could never take advantage of you.” Her eyes found mine, and I lost myself in their lavender haze.
“I did,” I choked out, losing this battle.
“Do you promise?” she whispered, her eyes lowering to my mouth.
I knew why she was asking, and I knew what was going to happen if I said yes. I knew it all, but it changed nothing. I’d meant every goddamn word I’d said, and if she wanted this as much as I did…
“I promise.”
Then fuck the rules.
Her lips pressed to mine, and I came undone.
* * *
A deep groansplit from the seams of my chest as I slid my fingers back into her hair, tipping her head and claiming control of the kiss.
I wanted to erase every memory she had of every other mouth. Every other kiss. Every other man.
