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“You’re half asleep,” he whispers once he breaks from the kiss.

Dreamily, I look up at him. Stars hover in the sky around his head, blending with his dappled cheeks, glittering in the deep brown of his eyes. “I’m still asleep.”

Tender, he kisses my forehead. “Are you?”

“Mm.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I told myself not to do this. But—” He lets his eyes drink me in, then he swears. “This is pretty.” His fingers slip down the fuzzy edge of my gauzy robe.

“It’s not the warmest,” I say.

He pushes the fabric off my shoulder, revealing the thin strap of my pj top. “It doesn’t look warm at all.” Hot breath touches me as he bends and kisses my neck. His rough cheek settles against my shoulder as his arms circle and pull and trap us together. “I want to warm you up. I want to bring you home. I want you in my bed in this. I want to take it off.”

He has succeeded in warming me up, that’s for sure.

Flushed, I murmur, “Wynn-Wynn…I’m not still sleeping at all, am I?”

“No.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I think I’m obsessed with you.”

I flutter. “Oh? Really?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s wonderful. I’m so happy.”

His breath puffs against my throat. Lifting his face, he cups my cheek in his warm palm. “It’s not a good thing for you. I’m scared of losing you again, and I’m trying not to convince myself to make you do things that’ll hurt you. I hate this plan of fake dating some other guy to buy time to tell your parents about us.”

My heart sinks.

“I hate that you care about them.” He lifts his other hand to my other cheek and squishes my face. “I hate that I’m making you sad right now. I understand that they’re your parents and there’s more to them than the things I see and know, but I can’t stand the idea that anyone you care about would make you cry or feel sick or deflate like you have so many—” He swears. “—times since we’ve met. You break a little of yourself off for them. So often. And I hate it. I hate it, but I love you enough to endure your decision to try. You know them better than I do. You have a bigger picture of what they are. And you’re brilliant, so maybe you’ve got something figured out to ease them into the idea that you’re gonna be with someone who crawls under houses and fixes toilets and cleans up other peoples’ messes…but I had to see you, because I couldn’t sleep with all of this weighing on my chest.”

Lifting my hands, I touch his wrists.

A frigid breeze whips by, and I shudder.

Without prompting, he shrugs off his coat, wraps me in it, and scoops me up into his arms, princess-style.

My stomach lurches. “Wynn—”

He mutters a curse, stepping us back until his rump hits his truck. Leaning against it for stability, he cradles me. “You think I can’t handle you?”

“I…” Look at his shoulders. Yeah, no. He could probably dead lift me seven thousand times. “I’m not light.”

“I know that. You’re cute and chubby.” He nibbles my cheek, stubble scratching. “Adorable, rather. I want to eat you up.”

I want to be eaten up. Dazed, I look at my Wynn in the moonlight. Freckles bathed in starglow. He’s so handsome. He’s so everything. “Should…I just give up on my parents?” I hug myself in his coat. “You could just take me away right now. I could start over with you. From nothing.” My shoulders bunch. “That’d…probably be a pretty big financial burden on you, though. I have no skills, and I wouldn’t even have clothes.”

“I’d get you everything you need. That wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the emotional burden on you that I’m most worried about.” He wets his lips, sighs, tilts his head back to look at the sky. “Your mom. She sounded happy for you on the phone.”

“Yeah.”

“And Forrest isn’t a creep.”

I tuck against his heart. “Yeah.”