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“What kind of sick fuckin’ game is he playing?”

I hate seeing him so upset. The only thing I know to do is go to him. So I do. I climb into his lap and straddle him. As soon as his hands are on my hips, he exhales a breath.

“Baby,” he sighs, his deep voice breaking halfway through. I know this all has to be so hard on him. It’s way more than he ever signed up for.

I cradle his face in my hands and force his eyes to mine. “I’m so sorry, Nix.”

His hands tighten on my hips and he shakes his head. “No, don’t do that. I would walk through fire for you, Emma. I’m only worried about you here.”

Emotion chokes off my voice and makes tears well up in my eyes as I look into his eyes and find nothing but honesty. He means every word he says to me.

“I…” I start to say, I love you, but the words get stuck in my throat. I know he can see it in my eyes. He knows what I was trying to say to him. But I still feel awful that I can’t force the words out. I feel them —feel every single ounce of them, but for some reason I can’t say them.

I’m already vulnerable.

He’s my weakness and he has the ability to destroy me. If Ryan ever knew the depth of my feelings for him, I fear that Nix would be in more danger than I am. I guess, in that sense, I’m lucky. Ryan is so egotistical that it will probably never occur to him that Nix is the love of my life.

Nix’s eyes soften and I do the only thing I can to show him how I feel. I pull him to me and press my lips to his. As soon as we connect, we sigh in unison. His kiss is firm, taking control, and I let him. His lips move with mine and he slips his tongue into my mouth, groaning. His hand slides into my hair and gives it a little tug so my head falls back. He kisses down my face to my neck.

“Nix,” I moan.

He guides my eyes back to him. “I love you, Emma.”

“Me, too,” I whisper and he beams before claiming my mouth again.

A knock at the door drags us apart and we just stare at each other for a second. My chest heaves as I try to catch my breath. I look down to see his doing the same.

“See something you like?”

I nod.

“Emma?” Tucker calls through the door.

“Come in!” I holler back, not moving from Nix’s lap. Nix leans in and presses a whisper of a kiss against my lips just as the boys walk into the room.

“Jesus, can’t you two just knock it off for five minutes?” Tucker growls. Nix’s lips curl into a smile as he pulls away from me.

“No,” I answer, shrugging my shoulders, and Nix’s whole body shakes with laughter.

“Whatever. Why are we here?” Tucker asks, still sounding irritated.

“Sit your grumpy ass down, Tuck.”

His only response is to gape at me with raised brows.

“When did you get all that sass back, Emmy?” Trey asks.

A blush creeps up my cheeks and I shrug. “I dunno.” I stare down at my hands in my lap.

“Shit, sis. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I know.” My voice is barely audible. I hate that I got a small piece of myself back only for it to be claimed by the self-consciousness again.

“Seriously, what’s going on?” Tucker repeats and my muscles tense, remembering the reason we called them over here.

“Ryan left her another gift,” Nix snarls, possessiveness and protectiveness dominating his voice. It does so much for me. On the one hand, it makes me feel safe, cherished, loved, and on the other, it excites me. Knowing that he feels this way about me makes me want to drag him off to the bedroom.

“What is it?” Trey asks.