I stood, but they both quieted as they got to me. “You were running.”

Sam didn’t reply. Her eyes narrowed, and a shadow appeared underneath them. It was me. She knew something was wrong, and bags formed under her eyes. My mouth pressed flat. I hated being the cause of it. I couldn’t lie, but I knew that I couldn’t tell Sam about Nate. Those bags would become permanent, and she’d only worry.

She started to say something but waited, glancing at her roommate.

The girl continued to stare at me. Her eyes widened a fraction.

Sam cleared her throat.

“Oh!” Her roommate blinked rapidly, jerking forward. “Sorry. Um…” She pulled out her keys for the door but dropped them. “Shit.” Grabbing them, she tried to insert the right key, but it wouldn’t go. It took three more tries before she slid it inside and grimaced to us over her shoulder. “Sorry about that. I’ll be, uh…I’ll be in here.” She paused in the doorway, still looking between me and Sam. “Oh, yeah. Okay. Bye.” She went inside, and the door slammed shut.

Sam was frowning at it.

It opened again. Her roommate poked her head around it, biting down on one side of her lip. “Sorry. It slipped from my hand. Okay…again. Bye.” She waved at us, her hand right next to her ear. “Take as long as you want. I’m going to bed.”

Sam moved into me. I leaned against the wall, holding her to my chest, when their door opened again.

The roommate slipped out, holding a shower caddy. “Sorry.” She kept her head bent, and her eyes forward. “I have to go to the restroom first, and then I’m off to bed. For real. Take your time.”

I could feel Sam’s silent laughter, but she didn’t respond. We waited until her roommate made the trek to the restroom and went inside.

Sam whispered, looking up to me, “Maybe we should go somewhere private?”

I nodded, letting her take the lead, but when she started to head toward the parking lot, I caught her hand and motioned for the basement. “You have some rooms down there, right?”

Her eyebrows lifted high as she nodded. “A computer room. The movie room, and the kitchen are down there. There’s another smaller lounge, too.”

“Let’s go down there.”

“But…” She cast a confused look outside.

I entwined our fingers and started for the basement. “If we go to my place, you won’t be leaving until morning.”

I was already hard, imagining how it would feel to slide inside Sam. It would be heaven to me. I could forget about Sebastian and how he’d gotten to Nate. All of that shit could be forgotten, but that wouldn’t be fair to Sam. She deserved normalcy. Spending time with her at her dorm was normal. Hearing her laugh with her roommate was normal. She’d get pulled into our war. I knew it was inevitable, but I wanted a little bit more time. That was all I was trying for. I was just holding that off.

She was happy.

I couldn’t be the reason that went away.

No one was in the small waiting lounge. I headed inside, but Sam checked the movie room.

“Mason,” she held the door open, going inside, “this is more private.”

A large screen was on the far end of the room. Plush, large seats were placed in rows in front of the screen. The back of the room was made up with couches, and a side door opened to a back kitchen.

We picked a couch in the farthest corner, but Sam went to turn the kitchen light off. A small amount of light filtered in underneath the door from the rest of the basement. I watched as she made her way to me.

She was confident. She moved with purpose.

It hit me how much she changed from when she’d moved in with Analise. She’d lost everything. She hadn’t cared about anything, and she had been a badass because of it—striking out, not giving a shit. Logan and I took her in, and then she had something to lose—me. She got scared. She was pushed around by the girls and bullied by her own mother, and through all that crap, she’d still fought. She’d clawed her way back up, protecting and loving Logan and me at the same time.

Good god. I wanted to pull her on top of me. I wanted to lose myself in her.

When I sat on the couch, Sam had a knowing grin, and she sat right where I wanted her, right where maybe she shouldn’t have. My hands held her hips as she straddled me. She looped her arms around my neck and rested her forehead to mine.

Her grin never dimmed, not even as she teased, “Why do I feel like we’re in high school, and I don’t want my mom to catch us making out in the basement?”

Shit, I love this woman.

A smooth and lazy low laugh flitted from her lips. I waited for her to find my mouth with hers, but she didn’t.

She held back and her eyes traced over my face. “What happened today?”

I wasn’t going to tell her. More time. I needed more time. “Logan took us out of town. He heard about some park or something, but we got lost, and we didn’t have cell phone reception. I’m sorry.” I cupped the side of her face. My thumb rubbed down over her cheek, falling to linger at the corner of her mouth. The ache to kiss her was building—along with another ache. Well, that ache was just permanent. I had an eternal hard-on for the woman I loved.

“Logan took you out to some park?”

“That’s what he was trying to do.” The lies came so easy, and I smiled, knowing I was a dick. “We never found it. Said some swimming hole with a waterfall was there.”

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