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Lou goes completely still, her breath catching as it grows shallow. In that moment, I can feel it—she’s just as affected by me as I am by her. Her nails catch my shoulder, sharp and defiant. It stings, but it lights something in me—something desperate, something hungry.

“All this back and forth makes me so damn hard.” I trail my nose against her jawline and I can feel her tremble slightly against me. “God damn, I want you. I want to tie you up and taste every inch of this fucking body again with my tongue until it’s burned into your skin.”

A cold, humorless laugh slips from her lips. “Don’t forget my favorite part,” she sneers, making her full top lip curl. “The part where you look at me and tell me I’m a mistake. Or will you at least wait until your cum is done drying and trickling down my leg before you say it this time?”

I release her and step back. Angry at myself for being a stupid fucking kid and at her for pretending not to know me better than that.

She lifts her chin, eyes locked on mine. Amber—bright, wild, furious. Lou doesn’t flinch or blink, just tightens that jaw like she’s daring me to deny it.

She crosses her arms across her chest. “Don’t leave me in suspense, I’m dying to know how it will play out this time.” I clench and unclench my fist at my sides as she tries to flay me open.

“I was a stupid kid, Louisiana,” I confess, my voice thick with regret as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I just wanted to give you a chance to live life, figure out who you were. You’ve always been too big for this place, Lou.” Too big for me; I don’t say it but it sits on my tongue all the same.

“So, you thought what, you fucking idiot?” Her pale brows knit, mouth twisted in something dangerously close to heartbreak. “To obliterate what was left of my already shattered world?”

“Lou—”

“No, Henry. You broke me,” she whispers, her voice barely audible, and I watch as a tear slides silently down her face, glistening in the moonlight. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to grieve someone who’s still alive? To have to keep seeing them, to be so damn deeply woven into their family that you can’t escape? And then, because you decide you want me, I’m supposed to shove all this devastation aside and bend to your will?”

She squares her shoulders, ready to tear into me again—but a quiet voice cuts through the air. I glance past her.

Two figures stand just beyond the clearing. Maddox’s glasses glint under the moonlight, unmistakable even from a distance.

Shit. I remember where I am. Today isn’t about us, and even though everything in me wants to stay locked in this moment, I know I can’t. Not like this.

Still, I can't walk away without saying it. Not this time.

“No, Lou,” I say, quieter now, but every word tight and raw. “I don’t want you to bend.”

I step closer, hands trembling as I reach up, thumbs brushing her cheeks like I might never get another chance. “I just want you. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted in my God damn life.”

She doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. But the frantic pounding of her pulse against my fingertips tells me everything.

“You fight me so damn hard because you love me, wildflower. And it hurts like hell because you know it’s real. You know me better than anyone, and the fact that you can’t see through all this bullshit and just see me standing right here, loving you…”

My throat burns. I press my forehead to hers for just a breath.

“…breaks my fucking heart.”

For a heartbeat, I feel the world stop. Then just as quickly, I pull away.

I turn on my heel, the sound of my boots crunching against the dirt sharp in the stillness. This time, it’s me leaving, and I don’t look back.

Not even when I know she’s watching.

Chapter One

WHO’S CUTTING ONIONS IN THIS BITCH?

HENRY

“Insufferable at best, but lately he’s been downright unhinged. Like, definitely a few more screws loose.”

I sigh and take a long pull from the beer I’ve been nursing for the past thirty minutes while helping man the grill. “Can you blame him?”

“Well,” my baby brother says with a shrug, “as long as Evie keeps distracting with that smoking body, we might actually survive him until the baby gets here.”

“Talk about my wife like that again and I’ll smoke your ass.”