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“Still with me, baby?” I whispered.

She nodded against my throat, her fingers tracing shaky patterns on my shoulder. “Still here,” she said weakly. “I just…need a minute to remember how bones work.”

“Good,” I growled. “Because one taste isn’t enough. I’m already thinking about the next time you come apart for me.”

Her breath hitched, and she jabbed a finger at my chest like she was scolding a misbehaving dragon. “Sir. I am fragile right now; you can’t just say things like that. My soul tried to leave my body. It’s hovering somewhere above this pond, judging us.”

I tightened my hold just enough to make her breath hitch again.

For a long moment, we just stayed there, the waterfall roaring around us like it was trying to drown the rest of the world. Eventually she shifted, her legs loosening from around my waist.

“I should…probably get back to town,” she whispered.

“I disagree with that statement,” I murmured. “But we can go if you want.” I started walking her toward the shore.

“Let me go right now, cowboy.” She pushed away from me and held up both hands as though she was fending me off with invisible holy water.

My brow furrowed. “Why?”

She exhaled shakily. “Because now that my brain is functioning again, I’ve realized this was a one-off. A blip. A…mountain air-induced lapse in judgment. And the way you’re looking at me is going to make me forget all that.”

“That wasn’t a one-off,” I growled. “And you know it.”

She squeaked, actually squeaked, and scrambled the last few steps through the water until she hit the rocky shore. The second her bare feet touched solid ground, she spun on me.

“Turn around!”

“What?” I blinked. “Why?”

“Because I’m naked,” she hissed, scooping up her scattered clothes like a panicked woodland creature. “And you’re staring at me like—like—some kind of feral lingerie model scout.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Baby, I just had my face in your pussy. I think we’ve passed the point of modesty.”

She gasped so sharply you’d think I’d confessed to being a serial killer. “Sterling!”

“What?” I held my hands out innocently. “I’m just stating facts.”

“Turn. Around.”

I gave her a sigh that felt earned, then turned, the cold stone biting at my bare soles, water sliding down my legs as the roar of the falls filled the space between us.

Forward focus became a survival tactic. Every rustle, every drip of water off her skin, made my body tighten with the urge to drag her right back into me.

“Okay,” she said finally, still breathless. “Your turn.”

The second I stepped out and grabbed my pants, she spun away like she’d rehearsed it, pretending the pine trees were suddenly riveting. My smile curled at the edges as I tugged everything back on. “Done,” I said.

She turned cautiously, her gaze snagging helplessly on the way my shirt molded to my wet chest like a second skin. Color flared across her cheeks. “Right. Great. Good,” she stammered.

I offered her my hand, and she eyed it suspiciously. “You’re not going to yank me into your arms again, are you?”

“Only if you ask.”

Her breath caught again, and she slid her hand into mine without another word.

We started down the narrow trail, dripping water and breathing the same charged air, but something in her shifted as we walked. I felt it immediately, like someone had reached into my chest and twisted.

She was retreating.