Page 174 of Come Back to Me

Somehow, in a move that’s slick yet not slimy, he tumbles us onto the ground. He’s always so precise. It’d be annoying if it weren’t part and parcel of a very expensive training regime that let him fly the planes he loved while also giving him a disorder that paralyzed his arm…

(Go figure.)

Still, I’m the lucky girl who gets all that focus pinned on her, which means that I don’t accidentally knee him in the balls or wind myself by falling back too quickly.

This feels wholly choreographed and, as a result, lacks awkwardness, leaving me to relax even more.

When I’m lying on the ground staring at him, I whisper, “Is this what it’s like to be cool?”

He chuckles, deep and dark and raspy. “You’re cool.”

“Don’t tell Zee, but I’m not.”

He taps my chin with his thumb. “If I say you are, then you are.”

“Cool by association?”

“Not really seeing as we’re not associated, are we?”

Oooh, he doesn’t like this fake un-dating thing.

I don’t have it in me to care, to be honest.

It’s not a punishment, per se, but I’m not about to...

God.

I bite my kiss-sore bottom lip as it registers my wanting to fake un-date has everything to do with me not wanting to humiliate myself with the town hottie.

Not just any town hottie, either.

But a Korhonen.

Who could change his mind again.

This time, my mom would be in the loop, and because she’s terrified I’m turning into a spinster, I just know when she finds out, she’ll be planning our wedding?—

The thought has me clenching my eyes closed.

“Hey, where did you go?”

I swallow at his question, hating that he noticed but grateful that he did.

But how can I answer? I can’t tell him I don’t trust him.

He knows something’s changed though. His gaze has darkened, turned watchful.

“Talk to me, Tee,” he rumbles, pressing a kiss to the tip of my nose.

“I’m on the shot.”

He blinks. “I meant… something hotter, sweetheart.”

I refuse to blush. “Dirty diapers are the opposite of hot. I just made this so much sexier.”

His lips twitch. “Duly noted. I’m clean too. Someone once told me to always wrap up my junk and I made sure that I did.”

When those twitching lips catch mine, I sigh into the kiss.

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