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Her fingers stop.
I grin. “Jealous?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Ryder.”
“Nothing serious. I’d meet somebody. Go out. Get close enough that they’d start wanting something real.”
“And?”
“And I’d leave.”
Her expression changes. “Before you slept with them?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Because sex stopped being simple somewhere along the way.
Because after Cole, I got good at leaving before anybody had the chance to matter.
Because I built an entire fucking life around needing nobody.
I look at her.
“Didn’t want anyone close enough to have something to lose.”
She doesn’t pity me.
Thank fuck.
She just settles her chin on my chest.
“And now?”
I run my thumb along her lower lip. “Now I apparently let librarians spend twenty grand on me.”
She smiles. “Dodging.”
“Yep.”
“Coward.”
“Careful.”
“Or what?”
I roll us until she’s beneath me.
She laughs and it does something to my heart.
I could get used to it.
That’s the problem.
