“You complaining?” he mumbled against my breast.

“Never,” I squeaked incoherently as he kissed his way down to my stomach. He lavished attention on me with his mouth, finding the soft skin behind my knees, the dimples on my lower back. He worshipped me, pleasing only me, and I watched, stroking his hair, my hands tracing his tattoos. My heart ached to tell him how I felt, but I was scared.

Later after I was a quivering mess, he stood and nodded at the swing. “Put your hands on the chains and bend over.”

I blinked. “What? Are you going to spank me?”

His eyes went heavy-lidded. “Do you want me to? You like that?”

“No. Maybe? I don’t know.” I felt a flush start at my toes and work its way up to my face.

He chuckled at my embarrassment and kissed me gently. “V, all I want right now is to fuck you from behind.”

“Why?” My heart thundered at the image.

“So I can see every detail of you wrapped around my cock and use my hands—anywhere I want.”

I grasped the sides and bent over, presenting my backside to him. He let out a low groan and shuffled around, taking a few steps back to look at me. Then, he moved forward and ran his hands down my spine and back up, tracing my name again.

His chest heaved. “V,” he said softly, saying my name like a benediction.

I watched over my shoulder as he curved his hand over my bottom and slid his finger inside me. I closed my eyes. Yes, yes, yes. Heat flooded my face, and I cried out his name, my body going limp, moving with the steady rhythm of his hand. My body tingled, needing more, needing him in me.

My eyes flew open when he spread my legs further apart, his fingers ghosting over my clit and then easing back inside me. “You’re so ready…you make me drunk with need,” he said in a gravelly voice.

“Hurry,” I said. “Please don’t tease me.”

He scrambled around in the pocket of his jeans, his hands visibly trembling until he found what he wanted and rolled the condom on. He kissed my lower back, his scruff the perfect roughness. “I should take you back to the blanket, and make love to you there, but I can’t.”

I shivered. “Yes, here.” Anywhere. I let out a sharp moan as he lined up behind me and slid in, my wetness and the angle helping him go deeper than he’d been last night. He stirred around inside me and then started a slow pumping. I bent my head to watch as our bodies melded. His hands were busy too, ravaging my body, spreading me and touching me in taboo places I’d never dreamed, his fingers knowing just the right thing, just the perfect touch to make me whimper with need. He stoked my desire, he built it up and up, igniting me until I wanted to scream.

“Never like this before, V. Never,” he growled as he held on to my hips and pumped, his tempo speeding up.

Sensation built. Fire burned. I loved.

Fireworks went off in my head, and I called his name when I went over. His own body tightened and swelled, the friction the perfect balance of pleasure and pain. He roared, the noise reverberating against my skin as he bent over and buried his face in my neck.

Our hearts beat in sync, nature hummed, and the world was right.

Panting, I gazed back at him and realized that fear had chased me for too long when all I needed to do was be brave. Just this one time.

“I love you,” I whispered. “Sebastian, I love you, I love you, I love you.”

With every molecule, every atom, every tiny piece of me. Insanely. Madly. Completely. The truth was, he’d sparked life in me the day I saw him move in, and I’d tried to harden my heart against love, but in the end my dad’s sacrifice had been too loud to stifle. Sebastian’s pull toward me had been too strong, his connection too visceral.

I held on to the chains, chest heaving as he withdrew and took several of his own deep breaths. Finally, he came around to face me, unclasped my hands from the chains and gathered me in his arms. “Thank you, V.” And then he kissed me. Sweetly.

Oh.

We dressed and walked hand-in-hand back to the blanket where he got a fire going. As the seconds stretched into minutes, and he didn’t comment on my confession, my shoulders tightened and cement settled in my stomach.

“Do you have anything to say about what I said to you earlier?” I asked a bit later as we packed up our backpacks for the trip back down the mountain. I tried to keep my voice light, but I was hurting.

He paused, a muscle working in his cheek, as if what he was about to say was difficult. “No.”

And I saw that we were done. Our night was over.

WE RODE BACK down the canyon the next day, a more subdued bunch than the day before. Spider and Mila seemed out of sorts, and Sebastian was unusually quiet. Both he and Spider had ridden off ahead of us to get back to the stables—something about calling Harry to check on the latest. It hurt to see him so distant. My body still vibrated at the memory of how he’d taken me.

No regrets, I told myself.

Mila rode up next to me, her glare on Spider’s horse as it turned the bend ahead of us.

Ouch. Someone else was in the doghouse this morning. “Everything okay between you and Spider?”

She squirmed in her saddle. “We had this huge argument last night about Dovey—that’s his first love from BA.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s funny, I knew him in high school, but was never attracted to him. Mostly because I was intimidated by his bleached-out hair and tats. He even dressed all Goth with chains and piercings. But the one person he loved was Dovey Beckham, and she broke him.”

“Yikes, she sounds like a bitch. Will I get to meet her at the reunion?”

Mila nodded. “She isn’t, though. She’s sweet and worked hard to hang in there with all the rich girls at BA. Anyway, in the end, when her adoptive mother got sick, she chose Cuba to be with—the guy who’d broken her heart the year before. Spider was left out.” Her shoulders drooped. “It’s just, we’re complete opposites. His tattoos alone should scare me, but I want him. Am I crazy?”

“Something in you is drawn to him … you can’t control that. Maybe you’d like Geoff? I can always set you up?”

She let out a squeak. “Oh God, Spider hates him.” Her eyes flicked to me. “Oops, sorry. He was your fiancé at one time, so he must have some good points.”

“He’s a good guy. I think Spider and Sebastian brought out the worst in him.”