Once I get home, I put the water in the shower as hot as I can handle it, letting myself stand under the spray until cold starts to take over. My body aches from her brother shoving me into the wall. Tiredness lives in my bones now, swims in the marrow, and I can’t ever seem to get it out of my system.

My cell rings, Colt’s number lighting up, but I don’t answer it. I put money on it being Cheyenne and I don’t want to play the friend game with her today. Don’t want to remember seeing the wheels turn in her head or the hope in her voice that someone’s going to come along and save me the way she did Colt. He wanted to be saved. I don’t.

When knocking comes from my door hours later, I almost ignore that, too, but something about the gentle rap, rap, rap lulls me, calls to me until I stand up, walk over, and jerk the door open.

My eyes travel up from the pink, fluffy jacket to Delaney’s face with the unsure smile and eyes she’s trying to shield from me. There’s nothing there. Not the pain or the desire, and I think about the words going through her head right now. Wonder if she’s trying to talk herself out of her thoughts, hoping not to show them to me.

And as much as I don’t like to admit it, as much as I want to bury this part of myself, deeper than the earth covering Ashton, I can’t. I’m glad she’s here. Glad she came because I wanted to see her and I wouldn’t have gone to her. But it’s not my fault she came to me. When I wanted to have her, to take her, that was different. It’s not like I don’t still want that. Want to swallow all those little cries of pleasure. Taste the sweetness she offered to me last night. There’s a part of me that feels a little less alone right now and alone is all I’ve known for so long.

“It’s cold out here. Think you could let me in?” she asks.

“I could.” My arms cross and I slip back into my façade. “What are you doing for me if I do?”

Instead of answering, her hand moves toward my face. “Your eye…”

“Eh.” I step back and open the door. “It’s not like I’ve never been hit before. My dad was an even better shot than your brother.”

“Adrian…”

“Don’t. It happened, can’t change it. There’s no point in pretending words will make it go away.” I close the door behind her. Delaney walks into the room but doesn’t sit down. I go right back to where I was on the couch, putting my arm on the back as springs creak under the cushion.

“Maddox can be a jerk, but you have to admit, you didn’t do much to plead your case. You made it sound like more happened than it did. You’re lucky he didn’t do more, and honestly, I don’t really appreciate it either.”

She crosses her arms, and Christ, as much as I don’t want to, I smile. She looks like a marshmallow, her arms puffed up because of her jacket. “Come here.” When she raises an eyebrow at me, I say, “Please.”

Delaney walks over and stands between my legs.

“Just last night I was standing in front of you this way.”

“I remember.” Her cheeks squeeze in and I think she’s trying to hide a smile. Sitting forward, I reach for the zipper on her jacket. A sharp gasp slips past her lips.

“Don’t worry, Little Ghost. I’m only taking your jacket off.” The name came out when I was talking to her last night, but it fits her more than Casper really did. It feels like it’s her, even though I don’t think I should be giving her any kind of name like that. I don’t need to be close to her. I shouldn’t be close to anyone.

We both study the teeth of her zipper pulling apart. She’s wearing a sweater, but it’s short, showing me a sliver of her stomach. She’s thin, but soft, too, little dips and valleys that I remember exploring. After pulling the jacket off, I toss it to the couch. I’m hard already but try and stamp it down. As much as I want her, I don’t think she’s here for that right now. “What’s going on?”

She fidgets, transfers her weight from her right foot to her left, showing me her nerves and that she knows what I’m asking.

When she doesn’t answer, I again say, “Come here.”

“I’m here,” tumbles from those cherry-red lips.

“Not close enough.” I tell myself it’s because I want to touch her. She’s gorgeous and feminine, and what guy doesn’t want to get close to that, but there’s more. I’m hoping when we’re closer, she can’t keep her secrets from me. Can’t cover the windows into her soul.

I take her hand and give it a gentle pull. It’s all I need and she’s climbing on my lap, straddling me. My cock’s nuzzled right between her legs and I know she feels it, feels how much I want her, and fuck if her heat doesn’t seep right through me. My hands hold her hips and I wish we were both bare. Wish we were skin to skin because bodies don’t lie the same way mouths do.

“What are you doing?” She turns her head. Every time she does, I move mine the same way, not letting her escape. Funny how I don’t want her to retreat, how I want to be inside her and know everything that lives there, though I know there’s so much of me she’ll never see. So much I’ll never show her.

“Your eyes don’t lie. Even when this”—I rub my thumb across her bottom lip—“doesn’t want to talk, your eyes do.”

“Why is it fair that you get to know what’s going on inside me if I don’t know about you?” She doesn’t shield her face from me this time, like she wants me to know she’s serious.

“It’s not fair… but…” The words I want to say won’t leave my lips.

“Maybe you will… be able to.”

“What are you doing here?” I should tell her I’m glad she came. I am, and it makes me feel like an asshole grilling her like this.

Delaney shrugs, playing at a nonchalance I don’t think she feels. “I work tonight… I wanted to make sure you were still coming. You know… to keep me safe.”

“Your brother seems to like protecting you.” My hands squeeze her hips and I pull her a little closer.

“I don’t want him to protect me.”

With that, I fuse my mouth over hers. Her arms wrap around my neck. Each time she moves, my cock jumps at the feel of her moving against it. I don’t want to want her this much. I don’t know why I do, but instead of pulling away, I kiss her deeper. Suck her tongue into my mouth and move my hips with hers.

Christ, my whole body is on edge because of her and I don’t know what I’m feeling. “I should tell you to leave,” I say against the skin of her neck. “I need you to leave.” But I don’t stop kissing. I take her earlobe into my mouth and suck it gently before nipping it with my teeth.

Laney’s head drops back, giving me more room to explore. “I should go. I didn’t mean for us to end up this way again.”

My hands move to the curve of her ass. I grip her, go to turn her, when her cell rings from the couch beside us. Delaney stiffens, and I know the moment is over.

“I have to get that. It could be my mom.” She scrambles off my lap, making it feel empty, the way I should.

I can tell by the conversation it’s not her mom. It’s a quick call but enough to part the lust in my brain.

“I have to go,” she says reluctantly.

“I’ll be there tonight,” I tell her, not sure how I feel having said it.

“Okay. Thanks.” She stands and pulls her jacket back on. Grabs her hat and slides it into place next.

She gives me a quick gaze before walking to the door.

“Hey,” I say when she’s halfway out. She turns and looks at me, really looks this time. “I’m glad you came.”

A smile.

And then she’s gone.

* * *

“We are so slow tonight.”

I look up at Delaney as she leans against the bench seat across from me. I’ve been at the diner for the past few hours. I ate pancakes and watched as she cleaned every table twice.

“I’ve noticed.” I close The Count and set it on the bench next to me. I almost try to hide it, but it doesn’t matter. She knows I read it and I’m not sure why I don’t feel the need to pretend I don’t anymore. “And your cook hasn’t come out of the kitchen once to check on you. That pisses me off.”