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His eyes stayed on mine for another beat before he moved again, slower this time. When I relaxed beneath his hand, his mouth curved against mine like he’d noticed that too.

He kissed his way down my neck and found the place below my ear that had made me lose track of my thoughts earlier. My fingers tightened in his hair, pulling him closer. Cole made a low sound against my skin, then went back to the same spot with enough patience to make my breathing turn uneven.

The loveseat had not been built with a man his size in mind. When his foot hit the armrest for the second time, he muttered something under his breath that made me laugh, then hooked an arm under my hips and shifted us both until I was sunk into the cushions and he had something solid to brace against. The scrape of his stubble trailed along my collarbone and lower, slow and deliberate, until I stopped laughing entirely.

For a moment, the intensity of being this close to someone again caught up with me. Cole felt me go still and stopped. I wrapped my arms around his neck before he could ask.

“I’m okay,” I said. “It’s just been a while since I wanted anyone this much.”

The heat in his expression softened without disappearing. “Emmy.”

“I’m not telling you to slow down.”

“Good.”

I laughed, and he kissed me again. The loveseat shifted under us, but neither of us cared. My hands moved over his shoulders and down his back while his mouth and hands learned what made me lean into him, what made me catch my breath, and what made me forget there was an entire shop on the other side of the office door.

He stopped long enough to reach for his wallet, and the practical little interruption made me smile. Of course Cole Maddox was prepared. A minute later, when he came back over me, the humor disappeared under another kiss.

“Still okay?” he asked against my mouth.

“Very.”

This time, when I pulled him closer, he followed without hesitation. He eased into me slowly, his forehead dropping to mine, and the fullness of it pulled a sound out of me I didn’t recognize. Cole went still, every muscle in his back locked under my hands, holding himself there while I adjusted to him.

“Breathe, Em,” he said against my mouth, his voice wrecked.

I hadn’t realized I’d stopped. When I did, when I rolled my hips up to meet him, he let out a low curse and finally moved, deep and unhurried, like he had all night and intended to use every minute of it. I held on to his shoulders and let myself feel all of it—the warmth of his body, the rough sound of my name in his voice, and the strange relief of choosing something because I wanted it instead of because it fit a plan I’d made years ago. When my release finally broke over me, I gasped his name, and he followed a heartbeat later with his face buried against my neck.

For once, I wasn’t trying to figure out what came next.

Later, I lay curled against his chest under the throw from the back of the loveseat. His flannel hung over a chair, my shirt was somewhere near the door, and one of my boots had ended up under the desk. I should have been embarrassed. Mostly, I was impressed.

Cole traced his thumb along my shoulder. “You okay?”

“I’m very okay.” I lifted my head. “Are you going to get weird now? You pulled away after the kiss at your house, and I’m not interested in spending tomorrow wondering whether you regret this.”

“I don’t.” The certainty in his voice loosened a knot sitting in my chest.

“I don’t know what this is,” I admitted.

“Neither do I.”

“That should probably bother me.”

“Does it?”

Strangely, it didn’t. “No.”

His hand moved slowly up and down my back. “You don’t have to try to figure it all out tonight.”

He couldn’t have any idea what those words meant to me. For months, I had been trying to figure something out about everything: the broken engagement, my future, the shop, my finances. Maybe one night without a plan wouldn’t destroy me.

I settled against him. “Okay.”

Outside the office, the wishing tree stood in the front window with two folded tags hanging side by side. I still didn’t know what Cole had wished for, and I wasn’t in a hurry to find out.

CHAPTER 8