“Marriage?” Reed gaped at his friend. “Dude. Were you abducted by aliens? Who are you and what did those bastard aliens do to Gage Holt?”

The other man just chuckled. “I already told you, this is forever. Skyler’s the one.”

“But…” Reed found himself sputtering. “How are you so sure of that?”

“She’s the one,” Gage repeated.

His conviction was downright beautiful.

As Reed unhinged his jaw from the floor, Gage moved away from the desk. “Anyway, I just wanted to share that little bit of good news. Gotta find Jesse now and go over the security assignments for tonight.”

With that, Gage slid out the door, leaving Reed to shake his head to himself. Wow. Well. Gage had always been an intense motherfucker, so maybe it made sense that the man extended that same intensity to his relationships.

But to be that confident about the future? To know without a shred of doubt that Skyler Thompson was the woman for him?

As Reed rose from the chair, thoughts of Darcy crept into his head. It had been two days since he’d almost told her he’d loved her, and in those two days, he’d nearly blurted it out a hundred more times. Fear and insecurities had stopped him each time, but now, as he stood in Gage’s office and replayed his friend’s words in his head—she’s the one—he realized he needed to quit being such a coward.

Because he was Gage. And Darcy was Skyler.

And she was the goddamn one.

A smile stretched across his face. Darcy was the only woman for him. He’d known it from the moment he’d met her. So why the hell was he so scared to tell her?

She hadn’t uttered the word fling in a long, long time. And the other night, when she’d looked at him with honest-to-God love in her eyes…yeah, he didn’t think he had a damn thing to be scared about. Darcy might not have said it out loud, but he knew she felt the same way he did.

Being the first one to show vulnerability was a terrifying notion for him, but he realized it needed to be done. If he opened himself up and told her how he felt, he was confident she’d find the strength to do the same.

Fueled by that confidence, Reed left the office and headed out to the parking lot. The club didn’t open for another hour, which gave him plenty of time to drive over to Darcy’s, tell her he loved the shit out of her, and make it back in time for opening hour.

Twenty minutes later, his heart pounded as he climbed the front stoop of her building. Rather than wait to be buzzed in, he punched in the code she’d given him and strode through the door, making a beeline for the elevator. When the doors dinged open on the fourth floor, shaky legs carried him all the way to her apartment.

Okay, he could totally do this. So what if he’d never professed his love to a woman? He was thirty years old. It was about time he introduced three new words into his vocabulary.

He reached her door, frowning when he heard Darcy’s voice drifting from the apartment. Figuring she was on the phone, he quietly let himself in, not wanting to interrupt her. He’d taken two steps when another voice wafted out of the living room.

“Yes, it’s an impulsive move, but I love him, and this feels right.”

Shit. It was Skyler.

Reed suppressed an aggravated groan and hesitated in the front hall. No way in hell was he going to do this in front of an audience. His palms were already clammy enough without the added torture of seeing Skyler smirk at him while he dropped an L-bomb.

“Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” Skyler teased after Darcy murmured something Reed couldn’t make out. “I bet it won’t be long at all before you’re the one moving in with your boyfriend.”

He edged back to the door, then froze when Darcy’s protest echoed through the apartment.

“Reed’s not my boyfriend.”

The pain that ripped through his chest was strong enough to shred his heart to pieces.

Reed’s not my boyfriend.

His body went colder than a glacier, little pinpricks of agony digging into his skin. No, of course he wasn’t her boyfriend. He was nothing but her goddamn fling.

How could he have forgotten that?

There was a long pause, and then Darcy spoke again. “He’s just…”

Another pause.

This time Reed didn’t wait for her to go on, because he was perfectly capable of finishing that sentence all by himself.

He’s just a f**k.

He’s just the bad boy I’m killing time with until I find my real boyfriend.

The jagged pieces of his heart tore up his chest, leaving him bloody and destroyed as he ducked out of the apartment and gingerly latched the door behind him.

In the corridor, he sagged against the wall and dragged both hands over his scalp. Lord, he was such an idiot. He must have misinterpreted all those tender looks she’d given him, all the unspoken words that he’d assumed meant she felt the same way.

ASS. U. ME.

Yup, what a perfect f**king phrase, but luckily the universe had stepped in before he’d made an even bigger ass of himself by confessing his love to a woman who thought he was…“just…”—he wasn’t even going to bother filling in that heartbreaking blank again.

Setting his jaw, Reed stalked to the elevator and punched the down button, then waited for the doors to open and marched right through them.

All without a backward glance.

…

Darcy bit her lip as Skyler’s knowing blue eyes twinkled from the other end of the couch.