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“Where’s my tie?”

“On the chair.”

“Not that one. My bowtie.”

I hid the snort as I stuck my head out of the hotel bathroom.

My boyfriend stood in the middle of the bedroom in shorts and socks, looking perplexed, grumpy…

And sexy AF.

I tucked the end of my towel between my boobs, resigning myself to blow-drying my hair after dealing with the current crisis.

If it was any other guy, I would’ve called him crazy. But for Riley, stressing about things like clothes was how he showed his nerves.

“You don’t need a bowtie,” I said, stopping in front of him and taking his face between my hands.

His arctic-blue gaze came to land on my face. “What do you mean?”

“You need to take the edge off.” I rose up on my toes and pulling his mouth down to mine.

It worked like a charm.

Riley’s a mouth guy. He likes to talk with it, smile with it, and…

Yeah.

The point being, the best way to shut Riley up is to kiss him.

It’d never been a hardship. Not once in the year-and-a-half we’d been together.

He lifted me easily, and my greedy hands dug into the muscles of his back as he carried me across the floor until we hit the wall.

“Good. Idea.” He groaned it in my ear, sending shivers down my spine as I grinned with anticipation.

Considering my boyfriend spends so much time at a desk, there’s no way he should be this hot. It’s some kind of dark voodoo he cracks up to rock climbing.

Regardless, I’m just the grateful beneficiary.

I could barely remember a time before this guy had turned me on.

How I’d ever walked away from him I’ll never know.

Actually, that was a lie. I walked away because I’d been hurt. The kind of hurt that’s amplified by teenage drama, hormones, and questioning whether you’d ever be enough for someone who shines so brightly.

The only thing that could get us past it was time.

Time, and love.

I reached for his shorts, managing to shove them down as my towel came off. The white fluffy cotton hung off my body, wedged between us for a moment until with a grunt, Riley threw it to the ground.

My fist closed around him and I bit my tongue at the feel of his hard length, my thumb wandering to play with the metal ball that blew my mind every time.

Sometimes I regretted Riley hadn’t been my first.

But then I remembered he was my first at everything that mattered.

“Have I told you lately how sexy you are, mi sirena?” he whispered in my ear.

“Reminders are good,” I moaned.

He murmured in my ear, and if I was wet before, I was soaked now.

If it wasn’t enough to be dating a guy who was smart and quirky and charming and—as advertised—never forgot a special occasion? The fact that he was learning Spanish for me clinched it.

Riley lifted me in his arms, using the wall for balance as he pressed his cock between my legs. He slid inside and we groaned together, a feat made easy not by his size but the fact that I was slippery as hell.

An alarm went off in the background. “Shit,” I panted. “Max and Payton and Tristan are going to be here soon to pick us up.”

“I can hurry,” he rasped against my throat. “Can you?”

I nodded, and when he changed the angle so he ground against my clit, I cried out.

If I’d known in high school that getting naked with Riley McKay would’ve been this monumental, this physically and emotionally overwhelming, nothing—including the look of horror on his face in the theater that night—would’ve stopped me.

But sometimes, you need to wait for the things you want. To work for them.

To build to them…

My mouth fell open as he filled me, deeper than before. “Shit, that’s good,” I gasped.

Our hips matched one another’s rhythm, racing to a sweaty finish.

When we both went over the edge together, we took a second to come down, panting.

“Your bowtie’s there,” I said, shifting out of his arms and pointing over his shoulder.

He blinked back at me, clearing his throat. “My what?”

I smiled as I tugged his lips down on mine. The taste of him was heady and familiar and one hundred percent home.

“Perfect. We’ve got this.”

“You realize you can’t change anything now,” I murmured.

Riley shifted in his tux in the next seat over. “But what if people don’t like it.”

“It’s gotten great reviews. Rotten Tomatoes is eating this up. And you’re forgetting something.”

“What’s that.”

“We’ve seen it and it’s amazing,” I whispered.

Riley and I had seen the final cut, though it’d been a favor from David who insisted we weren’t supposed to get a sneak peek.

Max had waited until now to see it, which was testament to the way he’d mellowed since having Tristan. The kid—hard to believe he was more than a year now—bounced happily in Payton’s lap on my other side.

“You ready for this?” Payton leaned toward me, her voice a conspiring whisper.

“Do you ever get used to it?” I asked her, taking a moment to look around the theater. There had to be two hundred people there, including most of Titan’s staff, the directors and Epic’s senior management, and of course, the cast headlined by Jane Casey who was all smiles in the front row.

“Nope.” She shifted her son her in her lap and he beamed at her.

It was incredible to see their success, and their friendship, evolve. Still, it wasn’t as if Titan’s future in Hollywood was riding on this movie. Riley had already sold options to not one but two other Titan games, and he’d admitted to me last night that Epic was planning to move ahead with an Omega film in the next year.

Like me, Riley had been through his own shit, and it changed him. Most of the time, it made him better; he didn’t like letting people down, or leaving them behind.

Yet I’d also witnessed him become more willing to take his own chances. Opening up about what he needed and wanted.

I’d learned from him too.

In the past year, I’d started to build a name for myself, both my landscapes and my commercial art.

I’d always thought falling was too great a risk.

But really? It depends who you fall with.

The lights dimmed and Riley’s hand tightened on mine. I glanced over at his profile in the dark. The angles of his hair. The sharp outline of his nose. The full lips, drawn with nerves.

Excitement raced through every part of me until my skin tingled. “I still can’t believe the premier ended up on my birthday,” I whispered to him.

“Uh-huh.” He sent me a distracted smile.

The opening credits started and I felt Riley shift beside me. “Hey Sam?”

“Yeah.”

“I have to tell you something.”

I turned toward him, eyes wide. “It can’t wait?” I murmured, glancing behind us at the next row of VIP’s.

“No. It can’t.”

His mouth came down on mine and my brows shot up.

I couldn’t protest that we were in a public place. Couldn’t do anything but give in to his lips, hard and warm and knowing in a way that made me wet instantly.

I felt his fingers stroke mine, then…

Something cold.

I pulled back, glancing down at my hand.

It sparkled in the dark.

My chest tightened, my stomach twisting into knots. “What the hell?”

I lifted my hand, jaw agape as I took in the giant solitaire.

Riley’s handsome face looked down intently at me. “I figured if getting you to be my wife was half as hard as getting you to be my girlfriend, I’d have to apply some pressure.” His low voice was warm, filled with love and a hint of uncertainty. “Ring notwithstanding, the final say is still yours.”

I glanced behind us, realizing everyone in the next row was watching us, not the movie. Not a single person looked annoyed. Behind me, Payton grinned.

I turned back to see Riley take a breath, bracing himself. From that moment, it was all him. The theater fell away. The lights, the room, the people, the movie we’d both helped make.

There was only him.

There’d only ever been him, I realized as I lost myself in the depths of those blue eyes.

“Sam Martinez. I’ve loved you as long as I can remember. I intend to keep doing that. What do you—”

“Deal.” I said the word before he could finish, and kissed him before he could breathe.

I’m lucky enough to say I’ve been in love not once, but twice.

When you know there’s someone to help you get up? That’s a fall worth taking.

Every damned time.