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Actually, fuck that. Yes it fucking was.

Bett McNeely was my business.

Every damn inch of him.

“You could have come to me if you needed money, baby. I have some saved up.”

He shoved his wet face deeper into the crevice between my neck and shoulder and tightened his arms around me. “Why did you come tonight? Why didn’t you just let me fight Spanner? I didn’t need to win. I could have just gone down and taken the fighter’s fee.”

“Spanner might have hurt you,” I said simply. “I’d never let that happen.”

He pulled back to look at my face, then surged forward, pressing his lips to mine… except this time, he tried to stay over on the unhurt side, and half the kiss landed on my cheek. “I love you.”

His voice was shaky as fuck. Terrified.

But the words slithered into me, soft and sweet.

I cleared my throat and pulled away just enough to meet his eyes. “If you’re saying that out of some kind of misplaced sense of⁠—”

“I’m not. And I… I know it’s stupid. And fast. And whatever else. And you don’t need to say it back because obviously you⁠—”

“I love you, too, sweetheart.” I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, then the lips, softly enough not to hurt either one of us. Then I grinned at him. “And I agree it’s fast and stupid and whatever else.”

Another tear slid out of one of Bett’s eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on. I just…” He paused and blew out a breath. “Believe it or not, I was trying to protect you. Protect… us. I didn’t want you to go back to hating me.”

“Alright,” I said slowly. “Will you tell me now?”

He reached for my hand and led me over to my bed. “I will. I’ll tell you all of it. But first, let me take care of you. You look like shit.”

I bit back a smile. “Lost a fight.”

He snorted as he moved to the mini-fridge to get out his ice packs. “More like threw a fight.”

“You did better than I expected. I suddenly wished I’d been there last summer, when you knocked out that guy at the bar.”

Bett shrugged. And when he moved back over toward me, I could see he was moving gingerly, too.

He held one of the fabric-covered ice packs to my jaw. “Dalton actually helped. He gave me some tips and calmed me down. But then you showed up.”

“And then you were really scared,” I teased, pulling him into my lap and palming his ass to hold him close.

“Scared you were angry, yes. Scared that you wouldn’t give me a chance to explain. But scared you’d hurt me? No.”

“Oh yeah? You didn’t think I’d want to beat your ass? Because I promise you, for a minute there, I did.”

He held the other ice pack on the red spot over my ribs before leaning in to drop his head onto my shoulder.

“Arden’s pregnant,” he whispered.

My hands moved up under his shirt to the familiar warmth of his back. “I know, baby. I’m sorry.”

He sat up quickly and looked at me with wide, terrified eyes. “How the fuck do you know?”

“Grace overheard you in the dining hall.”

“Shit. Shit.” He ran a panicked hand through his hair. “Does anyone else know?”

I shook my head. “No. Grace hates gossip. She barely told me, and only because she knew I was losing my shit after hearing you were going to fight tonight.”