Page 78 of Deal Breaker
I nod, but I’m not sure it’s very convincing.
“I meant what I said earlier,” he murmurs. “We can take this slow, but I’m not going to pretend I don’t want you. That I don’t feel all of it, just like I used to.”
I turn in his arms, eyes meeting his in the dim light. “I feel it too.”
A beat of silence. “But?”
My lips part and I think maybe I’m going to tell him but I can’t get the words out. Not now. “We need to talk,” I say finally.
“We will. Tomorrow. Let’s just live in this moment a little longer, yeah?”
I exhale. “Okay.”
He tilts my chin gently so that I’m looking at him. “Let’s not ruin anything. Let’s just…lie here for now. No promises. No expectations.”
I rests my head against his chest again, and I feel his whole body settle. Like I’m his. Like I’m still that safe place for him. And I realize something in the quiet, something I haven’t let myself fully acknowledge until now.
I don’t just want tonight.
I want everything.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Landyn
I wake to rain tapping softly against the windows. It takes me a second to remember where I am—the way the morning light slips through the curtains, the quiet rise and fall of his chest beneath my cheek. Ford’s arm is wrapped tightly around me, his palm splayed low on my back like he’s anchoring me in place.
For one long, blissful moment, I don’t think about the truth I haven’t told him. I just breathe and remember last night. God, we were reckless. God, he’s still good at it.
The way his mouth moved down my body like he didn’t care how long it took to make me come, only that he got to be the one to do it. His hands pinning me to the bed. His tongue stroking me until I was panting his name. I had forgotten what that kind of pleasure felt like. And when he finally pushed inside me, it was like my body had been waiting for that exact moment, that exact stretch, that exact man. It wasn’t just the best sex I’ve had in years—it was the best sex I’ve had in my life. It was more than just chemistry,just desire. It was history. It was what we used to be, what we still are, even if we don’t know how to name it anymore.
But as incredible as it was, the secret I’m still carrying feels heavier than ever in the morning light.
“Hey,” Ford murmurs, voice still thick with sleep, lips brushing the top of my head.
“Hi,” I whisper back, but don’t look up at him. I don’t want to move. I’m not ready for this to end.
His hand slides up my spine, then down again, slower. “You sleep okay?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
He shifts so I’m facing him, and for a second, I think,this is it. The moment I tell him. The moment everything changes.
I open my mouth?—
And his phone rings.
He groans, dragging a hand down his face. “I’ll ignore it,” he says. But a few moments later, it rings again. He sighs and grabs it, squinting at the screen. “It’s Noah.”
I sit up, clutching the bedsheet to my chest as he swipes his phone screen to answer the call.
“Yeah?” A pause. Then his tone shifts, sharpening. “Wait, what? When?”
He glances at me. “I’ll be there in 30.”
The pit in my stomach forms fast as he hangs up and sits up fully, rubbing the back of his neck. “One of the factory reps flew in early. The walk-through that was supposed to happen tomorrow is now happening this morning. They need me there… now.”
“Oh.” I try not to sound as disappointed as I feel, but he seems to sense it anyways.
