I don’t want the kiss to be over, not ever, but we’re sort of in public so it kinda ends, but he holds me close, our foreheads nearly touching. “Dawn,” be breathes, stroking my cheeks with his thumbs. One of them brushes along my lower lip, making me shiver.

The way he whispers my name… I could listen to it for the rest of my life and never grow tired. He sounds like a man hanging onto his senses by the thinnest thread. A thread I wouldn’t mind seeing break. The idea that I might be the one to drive him wild is powerful. I could get used to it.

If he’d let me.

“I’m right here,” I whisper, eyes closed, soaking in the moment. Between the sheer magic of him and the magic of the magnificent sensations running through my body, I’m more certain than ever that this is a dream.

If it is, I think I’ll stay asleep forever. I wonder what happened to the attitude I gave Gena today, what happened to my conviction. Why it’s okay for me to want him the way I do, to want there to be more between us than there is.

I guess it’s because my head is spinning and I can hardly think.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he growls softly.

“If it’s anything like what you do to me, I think we’re in trouble.”

We both chuckle as his hands slide down to my shoulders, then to my back. He pulls me even closer, my palms against his chest where I feel his heart beating strong and steady. Wouldn’t it be nice to believe I made it race just a little? It’s one thing to hear a man ask if I know what I do to him, but another to feel the evidence hard against my stomach.

“By the way,” he says, “when I said you were the most beautiful woman at the party tonight I forgot to add that you are also the sexiest, the all-around best.”

A voice in my head wonders if he’s ever said anything like that to Marissa. Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to ask, and it would ruin the moment. “Between you and me, I think you’re the only person at the party who holds that view.”

I’m trying to be funny, to make him chuckle a little, but he doesn’t see the humor. His brow creases as his eyes search mine. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You talk down about yourself and try to make it sound as though you’re joking, though it’s obvious you aren’t.”

I open my mouth, then close it. The thing is, I can’t come up with an answer that won’t sound ridiculous. Why do I do it, anyway, now that he mentions it? “It’s complicated,” I whisper.

“What’s so complicated about it?”

And the thing is, he’s serious. He had no idea why a person would find it difficult to accept a compliment, why it would make me uncomfortable for a man like him to tell me how much more beautiful I am than these obviously beautiful women. He carries on staring at me, waiting for me to explain myself.

“You know something?” I take a step back, leaving the circle of his arms. “I think you’re the only man who’s ever given me a compliment like that and actually meant it. You’re definitely the best-looking one. I don’t get the idea from you that you’re trying to get anything out of me—you know, money or a place to stay or even sex. Because you don’t need those things from me. You can get them anywhere you want them.”

“You’re right. I can. So whatever I say to you, I mean.”

“You don’t understand what that means for a girl like me.” I need to turn away from him for a minute. I can’t look him in the eye right now. It’s all too embarrassing. Too emotional. I almost don’t know why I’m even telling him these things, seeing that I don’t think I’ve opened up this way with any man. Especially not a virtual stranger.

Maybe it’s because he still knows so little about me that I’m able to open up.

I take a deep breath to steady myself. “As you know I just broke up with my boyfriend last night. No, no, let’s keep it real. I didn’t break up with him, he dumped me, but today I held him to his word.”

“You did? Good for you.” His voice is firm and full of satisfaction.

I nod. “I packed him up when I got home today and made him pick everything up.”

His laughter gives me a little extra courage.

“He wasn’t very nice to me. He told me I couldn’t wear this dress, for one thing. He said I couldn’t pull it off.”

Ace lets out a low growl. “He’s an idiot or blind as a bat. I’d like to pull your dress off. With my teeth.”

“I’m serious,” I whisper. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m serious. I’ve never worn this dress prior to tonight because James, the jerkoff, told me I was too fat for it. That I looked ridiculous in it. And I believed him. Do you see what I’m saying? It’s not like he was the first one to ever tell me how fat I am. How crazy it would be for me to ever think I was as pretty or sexy as girls like… well, you know who I mean.”

“You shouldn’t have packed up his things,” he snarls. “You should’ve set them on fire.”

Even though all kinds of emotions are churning inside me I have to laugh at that. Imagine James’s face if he had come to the charred remains of his stuff. “Yes, I wish I had. But then where would I live? He’s not worth burning down an apartment for.”

“He’s lucky he came to get his things before I showed up to get you tonight,” Ace mutters, sliding a gentle arm around my waist. “He’s a worthless piece of shit, and beating him to a pulp would’ve been a nice way to close out my year.”

“Watching you do it would’ve been a nice way to close out mine,” I have to admit, “but you look so nice. I wouldn’t want you to mess up your clothes.”

“Nice?” he says with an amused smile. “Very kind of you.” He places a sweet, tender kiss on my shoulder. “However, he did me a favor, this jerkoff who used to be yours.”

“What did he do for you?”

“He was stupid enough to let you go. And you’re mine.” He steps behind me, and runs his hands down my sides before resting them on my hips. Funny. I used to hate being touched there, like the presence of hands on my fat would make them real to the person touching me. As if denying myself the pleasure of being touched would make my imperfections disappear.

I lean against him. He leans against me, too, and the scent of his cologne is basically an aphrodisiac. It wraps itself around my head and makes me wonder why we’re still wearing clothes.

“You’re a beautiful woman,” he whispers, his breath hot against my ear. “Just because some ass didn’t see you for who you really are doesn’t change who you are. It’s his loss. I know that makes me sound like a parent trying to encourage their sad kid, but it’s true.”

“It does.”

“Only small people try to make other people feel small, to drag them down to their level. He made you unhappy, so he doesn’t deserve my sympathy, but I almost feel bad for the poor bastard, knowing how miserable he must be to try and make you miserable. You’re worth much more than what he put you through. I hope you finally figured that out.”

The funny thing is, I’m starting to do just that. And it’s all thanks to him. The deep breath I take fills my lungs with cold, clean air that I could swear feels like it’s cleaning out all the old garbage and making room for something new and better.

“I guess this is as good a time as any to start changing my ideas about myself,” I reason. “New year, new me, all that jazz.”

His soft laughter sends warm breath over my neck—funny how something so warm makes goosebumps rise up over my skin. “So long as you don’t change too much about yourself, since I kinda like you the way you are, but if there’s a way you can be happier, I’m all for it.”

With him behind me, literally, I get the feeling there’s nothing I can’t do. God, what is it about him that brings out the corny fool in me? He makes me think all these things that I would never normally think. Like all of a sudden, my thoughts are coming out sounding like cheesy greeting cards.

I could forget everything in the past. If not forget it, at least get past it. Leave it. Baggage like that is too heavy to carry around with me. I want to be happy. I want to move on.

Just one thing holds me back: knowing that tonight is just tonight. A party is just a party. No matter how sweet he is, no matter how hot the sex was last night, it is what it is. There’s nothing more. If I want to let go of the past, I’ll have to do it on my own.

At least I’ll know he wanted me. I’ll know I managed that. And it’s as good a starting point as any.

With that in mind, I decide to enjoy the moment. I won’t have anything left of him after tonight. Marissa was right, even if she is also a bitch. Nobody would ever accept us together, and he would end up looking like a joke because of me. I’m not fat, not the way she made me out to be, but I’m not like her, either. I’m not like him.

“I have an idea.” I turn in his arms, forcing a smile I don’t quite feel. I want him to remember me fondly, not as the girl who made him freeze half to death on the balcony of his friend’s house.

“What’s that?” he grins. He has no idea what I’ve been thinking about, no idea of the turmoil in my head and heart. He doesn’t know how dear he’s already become to me, the sneaky jerk. He has a way about him. He ought to bottle and sell it if the whole gym endeavor tanks.

“I think we ought to go in and enjoy the rest of the party, instead of standing out here and freezing our asses off.”

“I feel pretty warm right now,” he informs me with a sexy smirk.

An icy breeze touches my bare legs, making me shiver. “Yeah, well, I’m a lot more naked than you are.”