“I understand.”

I walked past him, but turned once my hand was on the handle. “Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you there tomorrow. And I didn’t finish last. I’m first in my class.” I watched that sink in.

He simply nodded his head. “I’m not surprised. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I watched him get into a rental car parked across the street and drive off, probably to the hotel Mom and Mia were at. Then I took the stairs two at a time until I got into my room.

Heaven. Sam stood with her back to me, tugging at the zipper. She glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, do you mind? I’m borrowing a shirt and some boxers.”

A surge of possessiveness overwhelmed me at the thought of her in my clothes. “Not at all.”

“Good.” She laughed. “Then get over here and unzip me.”

I rubbed my hands together to warm my fingers and then pinched the small zipper between them. When it wouldn’t budge, I slipped the back of my hand inside her dress to get a better grasp, and the zipper gave.

My dick hardened with every inch of exposed skin, and I groaned when the dress parted to the top of her ass, revealing the tiny bow at the back of a blue thong. “You’re. Good. All unzipped.”

I ran my fingers up her spine and relished in her gasp. “Thank you.”

My own clothes felt foreign as I handed her the shirt and boxers she’d pulled from my dresser and turned my back. Every muscle in my body clenched when fabric rustled to the floor. I crossed the distance to my dresser and pulled out a pair of sweatpants, quickly stripping to my underwear and pulling them on.

“So you leave your clothes on the floor now?” Sam asked, already sitting on my bed.

Stop thinking about how naked she is under those clothes. What the hell? She was always naked under her clothes. Everyone was. I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, well, maybe I’m just anxious to join you.”

“No sex,” she reminded me, sitting up on her knees.

“Even if you beg,” I reminded her as I slipped under the covers, and then pulled her against me. She tucked under my chin perfectly and gasped when our hips meshed. “It doesn’t exactly stop me from wanting you, Sam.”

She kissed the underside of my jaw. “Yeah, me, either.”

Fuck, I wanted her. It had been so damn long, and now she was here, dressed in my clothes, pressed up against me in my bed. But if she needed to realize I wanted her for more than sex, I could make that happen.

I just might be a corpse before morning.

“Tell me about Colorado,” I said. She sighed, intertwined her smooth legs with mine, and then started to talk. She told me about the upcoming hearing, the other girls who had come forward, and that her transcripts had already been corrected.

“Once the news got ahold of it, I had a hard time. They tried to keep our faces out of the story, but they haven’t exactly been successful.”

“I’m proud of you.” I rubbed lazy circles along her back. “I know it wasn’t easy to come forward.”

“We’re stronger together, the other girls and I. We have a stronger case, and I think I have a chance of getting back into classes after the hearing in January, even though I hit him.”

My palms itched to do the same. “I want you in my life.” The words were out before I could stop them, and then it was like a stream of vomit I couldn’t contain. “I love you. This right here, holding you, tells me everything I need to know about my future, because this is where I want to be. I don’t care if I’m in Colorado, or you’re in North Carolina, or if we move to North Dakota.” I pulled back so I could look into those green eyes that I prayed would show up on our future daughters. “I know you can’t stay, and I can’t go. So I don’t know how, but we have to figure something out. I swear I can’t breathe when you’re gone.”

Her lips found mine, and she gently stroked my lower lip with her tongue. “I know, and I feel the same. But I can’t walk out on what I’m doing right now. And as much as I miss you, and need you, I have to see this through on my own. The hearing will be over in January, but no college is going to take me until everything is cleared up. Maybe it’s selfish, but I want to graduate there.”

“Look at you, all accountable.” I kissed her, but kept it quick. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. Just don’t walk out that door again without giving us a way. I almost didn’t survive last time.”

Her fingers ran through my hair, and I arched into her touch. “Me, either,” she whispered. “We’ve been apart for months with almost no contact, and I still love you. I crave you every moment. I don’t see that changing while we work through all of this.”

The tiny spark of hope that flared to life when I saw her at the ball caught fire, and I burned with need for everything she was. “Long distance? I can do it.”

She laughed. “Yeah, you’ve proven yourself there. Grace?” Her expression fell. “I can’t help but feel like I ruined your miracle.”

I shook my head. “You’re all I see, all I want. No one else has this effect on me.” I dipped my head and kissed her, running my tongue along the seam of her lips until she let me in. The kiss was slow but full of so much love that I couldn’t help but sigh. “Sam, you’re right. I got my miracle, but it wasn’t Grace. It was you. You kick-started my heart and brought me to life the minute you opened your mouth and dished my own shit back at me. You gave me something to fight for, a reason to see beyond the shit hand fate had given me, and start to imagine a future. And when I think about my life, you’re all I see. You’re it. You are my miracle.”