Page 136 of Caught Stealing

The faint sound of metal rattling comes moments later, and then the door to Grayson’s bedroom is pushed open. My gaze dances between Phoenix’s eyes as he intertwines our fingers, pulling me through the threshold, only to be again enveloped in privacy.

His back collides with the wood behind him, and he reels me in until my hands land on either side of his head.

“Do you wanna know what happens next?” he whispers, sneaking his hands beneath my hoodie and linking them behind my back.

From the way he’s looking at me, an intoxicating combination of love and desire in his dark irises, I know exactly what happens next. Even with the gap in my memory, it’s obvious. And if I didn’t already love him, his willingness to take us back to this very night a year ago would have made me fall on the spot.

But it’s not until he offers up the moment I’ve begged for on a silver platter that I realize…I don’t need it.

I don’twantit.

I’m done with the drunken frat-house one-night stands. It might’ve been where we started, but that’s not who we are.

Not anymore.

I shake my head, before pressing my forehead to his. “I want every moment we’ve ever had, no matter how messy. No matter how heartbreaking or fucked-up or stolen they might’ve been. I want all the pieces of our history, because those moments are what make usus.”

Phoenix leans back, his gaze shifting between my eyes. “I feel abutcoming.”

I smile, wondering when he started reading me as well as I do him. “But we don’t need to recreate the past. I just want to build our future.”

“Are you sure?” he asks gently.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

He nods. “Well, I’ll tell you anything you want to know, regardless. You just have to ask.”

“Okay.”

It’s something to keep a pin in for later, though I doubt I’ll change my mind on this. I got the guy in the end, and that’s all I care about.

“And just so we’re clear,” he murmurs, his teeth scraping over his lip, “I paid Grayson to use his bedroom like a motel for nothing?”

A laugh bursts free. “Yeah, I guess you did.”

“Unbelievable.”

“So you’ve said once or twice,” I tell him, cocking my head to the side. “I also vividly remember you saying it was bold of me to assume I could make you happy.”

One of those sinful laughs leaves him. “How long are you planning to hold that over my head?”

I can’t help my smile when I lean in and whisper against his lips.

“The rest of our lives, baby.”

Epilogue

Phoenix

August — Three Months Later

The sunlight warming my skin is disrupted by a blanket of shadow, and I lift my lids to find a dripping wet and sinfully hot Holden leaning over me. He presses his mouth to mine in a feather-light kiss, and I taste tequila and salt on his lips.

“Hey, baby,” I say, giving him a sleepy smile. “You finally left your perch?”

I swear, he hasn’t left that damn flamingo float for a single waking moment since we arrived at the condo with my parents and sister two days ago. Much to Charlotte’s dismay—even going as far as swimming under and dunking him off the thing. Twice.

So then he bought her an equally obnoxious unicorn float to make up for it, and all’s right in the world now.

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