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“What does that mean?”
The corner of his mouth lifted, not quite a smile, more a secret given form. “You’ll figure it out someday.”
“Someday in the next month?” I teased, but then it felt serious. “Because after that…”
We were descending now, the world rising to meet us. The lights grew closer, louder, more real. I could make out faces again and smell the fry oil and sugar stronger. We rocked as the wheel suddenly paused again.
He turned his head, his gaze dipping to my mouth for the briefest, most agonizing second. Everything in me went very, very still.
I could feel the heat of him along my side, the press of his thigh against mine where the metal seat forced us close…the rough brush of his knuckles where his hand rested on the bar beside my own.
“Sienna,” he said quietly. “I’m going to convince you to stay.” His voice brushed over me. “You just don’t know it yet.”
I temporarily forgot how to breathe.
“Excuse me?” I finally managed. “You—wow. Okay. You really shouldn’t be that cocky, cowboy.”
His smile didn’t budge. If anything, it deepened, like he’d just heard exactly what he wanted from me. “Not cocky,” he murmured. “Just right.”
Heat crept up my throat, and I pretended it was the altitude, the cold air, anything but him. I drew my hand back an inch, mostly so my pulse wouldn’t jump straight into his palm. “It’s pretty bold to assume I’m…convincible,” I said, trying for unimpressed and landing closer to breathless.
“Everyone’s convincible,” he said softly. “If you show them the right reasons.”
“Yeah?” I fired back, desperate to regain some ground. “I don’t think any reason would be enough to make me miss those sunsets.”
His gaze held mine, focused and unblinking as if he was already imagining the answer. “We’ll see,” he said simply.
Before I could think of something witty or defensive or remotely sane to say, he shifted, just a small lean, a slight drift closer…but enough to tilt the world. His thigh pressed more firmly against mine. His hand slid a fraction closer on the safety bar. And then—
Sterling’s mouth brushed mine.
It wasn’t quite a kiss. It was more like the faintest sweep of his mouth against mine, a whisper of contact, like he was testing the outline of a possibility rather than claiming it.
The world narrowed to that single, weightless moment, and every coherent thought I’d ever had simply…evaporated.
I inhaled sharply, the sound catching between us. His breath mingled with mine, warm and devastating, his face still close enough that I felt the ghost of a second touch he didn’t quite give.
“Sienna,” he murmured, the word grazing my mouth like a promise he hadn’t decided whether to keep or break.
My heartbeat stumbled. “You—can’t just do that.”
A faint smile touched his lips, so close it nearly counted as another brush. “Seemed like the right reason to start with.”
I had no idea if he meant convincing me to stay or convincing me to want him.
Both felt alarmingly successful.
CHAPTER 18
SIENNA
The Ferris wheel car swung back to ground level. The bar lifted with a clank as the employee reached us, his gaze flicking between Sterling and me with idle curiosity. “Watch your step,” he muttered.
Sterling climbed out first, then held his hand up to me again. I didn’t need it, but I took it anyway.
The moment my shoes hit dirt, he let go, shoving his hands back into his pockets like he was afraid of what they’d do if he didn’t.
We stepped away from the wheel, and the night felt different than it had when we’d gotten in. Like something had opened inside me, uninvited, and I was trying very hard not to see it.
