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My eyes dropped to hers.

“Joy?” I croaked.

There was a look of determination etched across her face, then the crazy woman locked those sexy fucking boots around my ass and yanked me forward, piercing her innocence.

Her face flashed with pain.

“Baby,” I rasped.

“I’m fine.”

She wasn’t. She was in pain, and I was struggling to keep from coming like a two pump chump.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“God, you feel so good.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I started reciting Cardinals stats in my head just to hang on. Albert Pujols. Drafted in 1999. Rookie of the Year in 2001 with thirty-seven home runs and one hundred and thirty RBIs.

“Shit, woman,” I finally ground out. “Why would you do that?”

Joy’s eyes were squeezed shut.

“Because.” She sucked in a breath through her teeth. “You were about to be noble.” Another breath and her eyes opened. “And I wanted to do this. With you.”

Fuck.

Couldn’t she see it? I wasn’t a good enough man to be anybody’s first. I wasn’t a good enough man to be anybody’s anything.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Her brows snapped together. “Why?”

“I wanted this to be good for you.”

Her face softened the same way it had down in the lot as she reached up and pressed her palm against my cheek.

“It is perfect, honey.”

Fuck me.

I was going straight to hell in a handbasket for putting my hands on her. I knew that. I knew it when I hauled ass out of there to go after her. I knew it when I had my mouth on her pussy, and I damn sure knew it buried to the hilt inside the one woman on earth I had no right to touch.

But it was done.

She’d given herself to me.

And nothing or nobody was ever going to take her from me now.

Braced over her on my forearms, I held completely still, waiting while her breathing slowed and her body softened around me.

Then, slowly, I started to move.

“Better?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm.” Her eyes were watering, though.

I pulled back and pushed in again, slowly. I did this again and again, angling my hips a little higher each time until I hit something inside her that had her eyes flying wide open.

“Oh,” she moaned.