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I feel like I might.

He shifts up, less than an inch. My body seizes, and I release all my breath in a shuddering gasp. His fingers part, turning to push between my lips. Like that last time, I wrap my tongue around them and suck, and this time, to my shock, I crest the pounding wave and cry out as I come around his cock. His hips pump hard. Someone is whimpering—it’s me, coming out strangled around his fingers.

“Oh, fuck,” he groans.

He pushes deep, covering my mouth fully again. A shudder rolls down his body. His face falls against my neck.

We both fall still. A chair scrapes downstairs, the back door opens and shuts. Another round of laughter wafts up the stairs. He brushes his mouth over my shoulder and kisses it, smiling against my collarbone.

“How are we supposed to get out?” I whisper.

Gently, he disengages his hips and pulls out. I’m almost disappointed, and a hollow forms as I briefly wonder how long until the next time our bodies tangle together like they did today. It’s a constant ache, has been since the first time. When he’s with me, his mouth and hands on my body, the ache dulls and pleasure replaces it like a balm.

I’m addicted already.

He takes the condom off and fastens his pants. I pull my clothes back on.

“There’s a hall bathroom, right?” he asks.

“Yeah, down at the end.”

He pushes open the spare room door and waits. “Hold on. It sounds like they’re leaving.”

We both wait, breath held. The door slams once, then a second time. I scurry across the room and pull back the curtain. Down below is what looks like the entire AG club standing around with their hands on their hips. I don’t see my dad, though, and that makes me nervous.

“I’m gonna go down first,” I say, slipping out into the hall. “I’ll get him out in the yard. You go through the side door and around.”

He reaches into the hall and pulls me back in, kissing me hard.

“Thanks for that,” he murmurs, eyes roving over my face.

“Anytime,” I whisper before I can bite it back.

Before I have to face that, I dip back into the hall and go halfway down the stairs, stopping to listen. It doesn’t sound like anyone is around. Stepping on the sides of my shoes, I creep down and enter the empty kitchen. There’s nobody here, but they did leave a lot of dusty, muddy boot prints on my floor.

Scowling, I make my way to Dad’s office and find the door open. He’s setting down a folder and reaching for a metal cane he uses sometimes when his hip bothers him.

“Hey, Brina,” he says. “I wondered where you were. Serena was asking when we got back.”

“I was just looking for some…of my old clothes,” I say. “In the attic. Where is Serena?”

He skirts around me, and I follow him through the living room to the back porch.

“I think she went outside. Said something about needing to grab something from the bunkhouse.”

Behind him, I roll my eyes. Then, I feel silly, because…I was doing the same thing she’s doing right now, just with a lot more risk and heavier consequences. A weight shifts to my shoulders. Dad pushes the door open, and I grab it, holding it so he can get through. Then, I follow him out to the back porch.

“Where you all headed?” I ask.

“Gonna go to the other barn and look at some seeds,” Dad says.

Sounds riveting. I stand and wait for the men to wander off, chattering as they go. Then, I glance up at the spare bedroom window. Through the thin curtain is the outline of his body. Quickly, I give him a thumbs-up, and he melts out of view. I loiter, hands on my hips like I’m just hanging out, just in case somebody is watching from the barn or something.

Far away, I hear the side door slam.

I circle to the front door and go inside, treading back down the hall again and peering through the back. There he is, with a spring in his step that wasn’t there the last time I saw him.

I’m left in the quiet of the house. It’s been a long time since something excited me or piqued my interest the way this man does. My chest is tender, confused with excitement and dread for when he disappears. Inevitably, he will. He’ll go back to Nashville, to concert halls full of faces that distract him, and I’ll be nothing but a girl he met one summer when he went west.