Page 117 of Ever With Me

“I mean, I’m not going to complain.” He lifted his hands and squeezed her breasts, her head dropping back as she arched into his touch.

“You poor sex-starved man. Went a whole—what—twenty minutes without it?” She rocked against him, lifting, then lowering herself.

“Fuck, you feel so good.” Her pussy clenched around his cock at his words, and a smile spread across her face. “And I’m not the only one who kept waking up last night.”

“You’ve ruined me, you know. I can’t spend my life in bed with you in a luxury lake house. And from now on, all I’m going to think about is how much I love fucking you.”

He’d never believed in fate or destiny before, but dammit if that deer jumping in front of his car didn’t come close. Crashing into her store might just be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Release came quickly this time and as he left her on the bed to grab her a warm washcloth, he memorized the sight of her there, flushed, satiated, and beautiful against his bedsheets. She murmured and smiled at him, reaching lazily across the bed to grab her cell phone.

We’ve ruined each other.

He was just in as much risk of not being able to recover from this night with her. But at least he had a plan. No way he could walk away from her yet.

He washed up quickly, then squeezed out a washcloth for her.

“Oh, I just wanted to tell you. I saw Jason Cavanaugh yesterday, and he extended my rental to this coming Friday,” he said as casually as he could as he started back to the bedroom. “And then for the remaining weekdays in September. Weekends were unfortunately booked.”

Maddie was seated on the bed, frowning at her phone, her expression frozen.

A thunderclap of alarm went through him.I know that look.“What?”

“Uh . . . don’t freak out.” She turned her phone toward him and held it out as he approached.

The screen had a picture of the two of them kissing on the stage the night before.

A tabloid article.

He blinked at it and pulled on a pair of boxer briefs, a knot of tension growing in the pit of his stomach. “What does it say?”

“Bad boy rocker Brooks Kent finds love with a small-town sweetheart . . . but will he break her heart?” She looked up at him anxiously.

Thank goodness.His shoulders relaxed. “That’s not actually so bad.”

“W-what do you mean?”

He sat beside her and handed her the washcloth. “There are a hundred ways they could have spun that photo, Maddie. Believe me when I tell you that’s tame by comparison.”

“And . . . you just live like this? With your every move being torn apart by people who make up whatever they want about you?”

“Pretty much. Yeah.”

She shook her head in disbelief, the wide-eyed innocence of her questions cute. “Doesn’t it ever get to you?”

“I can’t do anything about most of it. So what’s the point of worrying about it? I can practically see the next headline they make about us: Saint and Sinner.” He winked. “Little do they know the truth about you.”

“Har-har.” She shook her head and climbed down from the bed, heading to the bathroom. “It’s crazy to me. How did that picture get in the news so quickly? What, they work overnight?”

“Yup.” He grabbed his own phone.Shit.He’d missed a phone call from Ava.

About the pictures?

Probably.

“Wait—” Maddie popped her head out from the bathroom door. He loved that she was still naked. Her eyes went wide. “Did you say that you’re extending your rental?”

He smiled. “Took you long enough to hear me.”

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