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"Mallory"

Opening her eyes, she stared up into his, her heart clenching hard His hands slid up to her hips, positioning her exactly as he wanted, and when he thrust again, she gasped as pleasure swas around his waist, she whispered his na him to move

Instead, he lowered his head and traced her nipple with his tongue, causing her to arch her back and shaers ski a trail of heat that she felt all the way to her toes, until his hands gripped hers on either side of her head "I’ her exactly where she needed to go without words And that was it, the beginning of the point of no return for her He was exactly what she’d wanted, what she’d never had the nerve to reach out and grasp for herself before Ironic, really He didn’t want her to depend on hiiven her the security to be who she was If only he’d keep looking at her the way he was right now

For always

It wasn’t going to happen, she knew that She had to settle for this, for the right now Telling herself she was stronger than she knew, that she could do it, she cupped his face and let herself go, e-old dance of lovers And her release, when it came, shattered her apart and yet somehow ht, Ty woke up wrapped in o to hiled in her crazy hair, the other on her bare ass, holding her possessively and protectively to him

Jesus

The night of the orchestra had been a mistake, and everyone was allowed one ht, it would be mistake number two

He didn’t make , but he athered his things and walked out of her bedroo at his feet to sort, he hesitated In his real life, hesitating was a good way to get dead And yet he did just that, turning back to her bedroom door, his hands up on the frao back in there

Bad

Don’t do it, man He looked down at his shit No shirt One sock Fro Frances, he knew Because she and Josh had finally connected The gig was up; she kneas cleared His last et your sorry ass back to work This had been accompanied by a text with a confirmation number for a one-way, first-class airplane ticket back to DC

He stubbed his toe on his own shoes Swearing softly, he kicked one down the hallway, then went still when the bedrooht ca sleepily, tousled and ru but his shirt "Hey," she murmured "You okay?"

"Yeah Sorry Didn’t ?"

"Yeah, I…Yeah, I’ to wonder hoas going to leave Lucky Harbor at all

Malloryat his jeans still on the floor, and the two things that had spilled out of his pockets His keys

And the empty Vicodin bottle

She bent and picked up the bottle, staring at it for a long ti in the two-month-old date of the prescription, the fact that there were refills available to him which he clearly hadn’t used Finally she handed the bottle back to hiht Just tonight"

He couldn’t Staying would be a ers, then took his hand in hers, drawing him back into her bedroom and into her bed, and into her warm, soft heart

Chapter 20

Exercise is a dirty word Every time I hear it

I wash my mouth out with chocolate

The next day Ty and Matt spent tiym, then Matt went home with Ty to pick up the Jie "You’re leaving"

"Alas" Ty held out the Jimmy’s keys but Matt didn’t take them

"The lease on this place is paid up until summer," Ty said "Use it if you want And I want you to take the tools"

"I’ll keep them for you You’ll be back"

Ty looked at hiusted sigh "Tellto vanish on her and not coht?"

"You want to test drive this thing or what?"

"So you are that big a dick"

"Look, she ood-bye"

"And you believed her?" Matt asked "Shit, and I thought I was stupid o Matt no choice but to catch them

They took the Jiuy who knew the roads inti out of thehway that led al, isolated peaks, so lush--thanks to a wet spring--that they resembled a South American rainforest

When the road ended, Matt cranked the Ji his own trail

"You knohere you’re headed, City Boy?" Ty asked

Matt sent hi look "What, you think you can find your way around these mountains?"

"I could find et us dead out here, I’ll follow you to the depths of hell and kill you again"

"Told you, not everyone’s going to die on you I’m sure as hell not"

"See that you don’t"

Matt drove on, until eventually they caree vista was staggering The jagged es were covered in a thick blanket of green And to their immediate west, the Pacific shimmered brilliantly

"Beaut Point," Matt said

The plateau was about the size of a football field, giving a very decent view of the ocean s into a valley of rocks hundreds of feet below "Good spot," Ty said

"I chase a lot of stupid teenagers off this ledge They coet laid Then the geniuses get lost, and I end up having to save their ers off the streets of Chicago any day of the week," Matt agreed "And I ihanistan or Iraq this tiet South A coear"

"Pussy"

"Sure If being a puyfor a stupid adrenaline rush in soodforsaken Third World country"

Ty shook his head and stared out at "Paradise"

"Ever cliestured with his chin out to a sharp outcropping at least three miles across the way "Widow’s Peak Cliht kind of spot"

"Was your head crooked?" Ty asked

"Yeah, actually But today I figured that was you"

"My head’s on perfectly straight, thanks"

"Yeah?"