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Charlee makes a face. “Either way, it could have been much worse. Thank you, by the way.”

The last words are spoken so softly, as if she meant to say so much more in those five little words.

My gaze is still on her face for my own sanity, but also because I can’t seem to tear myself away from her electrifying green eyes.

“I couldn’t lose you again, now, could I?”

Her throat bobs. “There you go again with shit you shouldn’t say.”

My eyes soften as I watch the war raging inside her, those emerald eyes catching fire while she weighs whether she likes that I’m being bold or wants to push me away. And maybe she wants to push me away because she likes it too much.

I understand. Oh, I understand how difficult it must be for her to admit to herself what I’ve known all along. But damn it, I can’t be the only one feeling that taut thread vibrating between us.

“Maybe I should say that shit,” I counter, not daring to look away. “Maybe that’s exactly what I need to say. Maybe that’s what you should hear.”

Charlee looks at me, truly looks at me, like she’s stripping me naked and holding my soul in her hands. Her stare presses down on me with a delicious weight. “Maybe.”

The air thickens, barely breathable, as her admission dangles in the space between us. Her gaze slides from my eyes and burns its way to my mouth, and I can’t help but do the same, watching as her lips part when my eyes linger too long on that full, luscious bottom lip.

I swallow hard, my throat drier than the hottest sand.

Charlee looks away first, tucking her hair behind her ear. The gesture would almost look shy if it weren’t for the heat in her eyes. A diversion, then. To shift my attention elsewhere. To make me lose my train of thought so I won’t notice how affected she is.

A valiant effort.

And what makes me tumble even farther into the spell she has me under.

Charlee is beautiful. I don’t think anybody would contest that. But it’s her mind, her brilliant intellect, that has me aroused like I’ve never been before. God, that’s the sexiest part of her. That mouth, that wickedly smart mouth, irreverent and full of promises of trouble if I ever dared to go toe to toe with her, pushing her past what she’s comfortable with.

I won’t.

I would never.

I’d only take her hand if she’d let me, and only then would we walk out of her comfort zone. Together. I’d show her she can trust me again.

Charlee clears her throat, and I snap out of my thoughts. “I knew you’d be like that.” A smile tucks her lips upward.

I return it. “Like what?”

“Lost in your thoughts. Making sure you looked at every angle and left no stone unturned. I’m not saying this in a bad way,” she adds when she notices my scrunched brows. “It’s just . . . I had this image of you in my mind, of how you’d be, how you’d act. It’s satisfying to see I was right.”

“Don’t look so smug,” I say, a chuckle escaping my lips. “I think I might have given you a clue or two to help you get to that conclusion.”

“You mean like bearing your heart and soul to me in countless letters in the span of a year?”

Her blunt reply threatens to steal my breath. There’s no malice in her words, no harshness, but the truths behind it remain too heavy to stomach.

“Something like that, yeah.”

Silence settles between us. I’m moving to grab a snack bar from my bag when her hand falls on my knee and stops my movement.

As if the contact is too much for her, or maybe she realizes she’s crossing a boundary she set for herself, Charlee snatches her hand back and lowers her eyes to her fingers. “I remember, you know. Everything. Every little thing you told me, I remember. Even if I don’t want to.”

My throat works overtime in a struggle to push my words past the knot growing there. “I haven’t been able to forget a single thing about you, Charlee.”

Heat colors her cheeks in a beautiful shade of dark pink. I want to trace the path of that warmth with my fingers down to her collarbone, explore every inch of her meticulously. Find out what turns that steady blush into pure fire.

“Some very annoying part of me is glad that our paths crossed,” she muses, toying with a hair tie around her wrist.