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She takes a step closer to me.
“You’re not focused,” she says, moving closer still.
“No,” I bark, giving into the temptation to blow off some steam. “I’m fucking not. My head isn’t in the game. And do you know why?”
I search her eyes as she stares right back at me, not showing a single ounce of hesitation.
“Tell me,” she demands, stepping so close her breasts brush my chest.
A bolt of something powerful and potent shoots through my veins at her proximity.
“It’s you,” I breathe. “You’re driving me fucking crazy.”
“Good,” she states, her lips pursing in anger. “I’m glad you know how it feels. Now take that, and imagine how you’d feel if we lied to you about what was happening tonight and fucked off without you.”
“Uh…”
“Exactly. Out of fucking control. Abandoned. Lied to. Betrayed.”
My chest constricts and my heart aches as I see the pain of what we—what I—did pass through her eyes.
I swallow thickly, hoping she can see my apology in my expression.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair to leave you out of something so huge.”
Her entire face softens with acceptance.
“But I’m not sorry for protecting you, for keeping you safe.”
“You can still do that and tell me the truth. I’m not fragile, Reid. I can handle all this.”
“I know you can. Trust me, I know. I just don’t want you to fucking have to. You’ve already been?—”
“No,” she says, reaching up to press her fingers to my lips to stop me from talking. “It doesn’t matter what any of us have been through to get to this point. Our pain isn’t a competition. We’ve all lost things, all suffered because of those men. What is important is us working together to put an end to it.
“What’s important is our future.”
She stares up at me with so much hope and trust in her blue eyes, it makes a rare lump crawl up my throat.
“Fuck, Pet,” I rasp, ducking lower to press my brow against hers. “I want it,” I confess. “I want you.”
Her eyes flood with tears.
“So do I. I know it’s crazy this thing we’re all building b-but—” Her voice cracks with emotion. “But I really want it.”
I don’t move, despite my desperation to do so. Instead, I wait for her.
For the first time in… possibly forever… I’m handing over control to someone else.
To my girl.
The seconds drag out as I silently beg her to do something; my body aches with my need to feel her pressed against me, to taste her on my tongue.
It feels like an eternity before she makes a decision, and the second she reaches up on her toes and brushes her lips against mine, all bets are off.
Wrapping my hands around her waist, I lift her, and the second she wraps her legs around me, I spin us around and press her against the wall.
Our kiss is filthy. We’re all clashing teeth and tangling tongues. It’s everything I’ve been craving since I forced myself to back away yesterday.
