“Let’s say we go grab some breakfast at the Shack,” Declan announced.

The clinks of mugs being set down on the counter did nothing to break my concentration. I stood staring at her with my ragged breaths struggling to fill my lungs.

“But I’m still in my pajamas,” Olivia griped.

“Let’s go.” Colm took her arm and everyone filed out. Mak stood beside Avery, who nodded at her.

Mak walked past me then stopped. “If you hurt her…” She trailed off, her threats dying on her tongue when I stared into her eyes.

“I’ll be fine.” Avery’s voice broke the standoff between me and Mak.

The grim turn of Mak’s lips went even deeper before she let out a sigh, shaking her head and backing away. The front door clicked behind them.

“Tell me what you meant,” I ground out.

“There’s nothing to tell. You know it all, right? You know every single thing that happened. Since that’s the case, maybe I should just leave too.” She spun away from me, only making it two steps.

Like she was waving a red cape, I charged toward her.

“You’re not running away from this.” I closed the gap between us in less than a step. “You don’t say something like that then tell me to forget it. What did you mean by ‘Neither did I’? That I don’t know what really happened that night? I was there. I saw it.” My voice boomed in the room and she squared her shoulders. Her back was ramrod straight, but she didn’t move. “He had his hands in your hair, his fist wrapped in it—intimately. You were on your knees in front of him with his fly open. What the hell do you call that?” The scene replayed in my head. Like going a round in the ring with a championship boxer, each second was like a blow straight to the chest, knocking the wind out of me.

“I didn’t cheat.” The words came out as short, forceful, slow-motion punches straight to my gut. I was against the ropes.

“No. Maybe you hadn’t cheated yet, but you were about to. That’s what I walked in on, and I’m not going to let you do this to me. I don’t believe you.” My words came out raw and ragged. My confusion didn’t stop the sawing pain from my cracked-open chest, my heart pounding so hard I thought I might puke. If that were true, why had she let me believe she’d cheated? Why had she let me stand there, begging her to tell me it was a mistake, and refused to say anything in front of everyone in my house?

“Yeah, you said that already, but here’s the thing: I’d already been on my knees that night begging for an ounce of human fucking decency, and I wasn’t going to do it for you too. I wasn’t going to if you couldn’t even trust me and give me the benefit of the doubt. It shouldn’t have mattered how it looked—the truth should have been the important part.” Her voice wobbled.

Charging ahead, I wrapped my hand around her upper arm, careful to not squeeze too tight, but this conversation wasn’t over and I wouldn’t let her bail out. I caged her between my arms, my hands pressed against the wall over her shoulders.

I stared down at her, looking for a trace of deception in her eyes. There was nothing but anger and hurt—or maybe that was wishful thinking, hoping the prayers I’d sent up for so many nights had been granted and it had all been a big mistake. Those pathetic pleas had gone on for way longer than they should have.

Hers was the same look I’d seen in my eyes every time I looked in the mirror. My brain tried to make sense of it, tried to figure out what the hell kind of angle she could be playing, but I came up with nothing.

She lifted her chin, waiting for an insult.

“Why? Why would you do that? Why would you let me believe something so terrible? Something that made me hate you?” My voice cracked. I tried to swallow past the years of pain at her hands.

Someone had sucked the air out of the room. I felt like I should be floating in the vacuum of space because I couldn’t hear her words. My fingers pressed into the drywall so hard I swore there would be handprints left behind.

“You didn’t listen—”

I slammed my fist against the wall. “It wasn’t just that. It wasn’t. You’re going to stand here and tell me in the heat of the moment, when my worst nightmare was coming true, when in my pocket—” Tears I hadn’t felt since that night clouded my vision. I blinked hard, willing them back. “I was that easy to watch walk away? One mistake, one messed-up night and you let me walk away. No, you pushed me right off a fucking cliff.” The bite in my words made her flinch. So many emotions raced through my head it was hard to catch just one, but the hurt radiated deeply and powerfully.

She swallowed and licked her lips. “You think it was easy? Seeing that hurt in your eyes…the hate in your eyes…” She shook her head.

“You’ve had four years to say something—four long years.” The muscles in my neck were painfully tight.

“I wasn’t going to beg you to believe me. I didn’t want pain for you, but you didn’t believe me, wouldn’t listen to the truth because you didn’t want to hear it. I told you that night and you shut me out. You thought I was capable of cheating. What was the point? It would have ended anyway. I wasn’t going to let you throw everything away because you were so hell-bent on staying behind for me.”

My eyes got wide. “Throw what away?” There wasn’t anything I’d wanted more than her.

“You’d have stayed behind with me and then what? Not gone off to college? Not joined the NHL?” She stared back at me like I was an idiot to suggest staying with her and not going to college would have been the right choice.

“I told you before, that didn’t matter to me.” So many times, I’d said those words to her.

A humorless laugh burst out of her lips. “I keep forgetting you don’t live in the land of mere mortals.”

“Why the hell would you say that?” I slammed my hand against the wall again. “I was happy. We were happy.”

“We were kids, playing pretend, and guess what? You got to live a life most people can’t even imagine. You got to go to college and play pro hockey, so don’t tell me this didn’t all work out for you. You got to live your dream!”

“No, I didn’t.” My tone was biting and caustic. “You were my dream, Avery. It was you!” My hands were on either side of her face, the rough pads of my fingers pressed against her cheeks. I wanted to curse her one second and take her to bed the next. “I didn’t need any of it. I didn’t want any of it. All I needed was you.” My voice was hoarse. The emotions collided in my head and made it hard to think, the anger and hurt rioting, but biggest and brightest of all—so bright I wanted to shade my eyes—was the overwhelming happiness, so intense I nearly broke down. She hadn’t cheated. I didn’t know why she’d done it, but the truth of it was so sharp. The stinging pain sliced through the years of fog that had settled over me like alcohol on an open wound, cleansing it.

“Emmett…” She stared up at me with tears in her eyes. There were no words…no words between us to make this better.

Before I could stop myself, my mouth was crashing down on hers. Hard and fierce, this wasn’t a sweet kiss between two lovers—it was a punishment, a taste of the pain inflicted on me tinged with the unending desire that nearly brought me to my knees. Our lips gnashed together, and a gasp shot from her lips when I slammed her up against the wall with my body.

My hands were in her hair, fisting it, letting the silky smoothness of it cascade through my fingers as my tongue delved deeper into her mouth.

“Emmett—” Her hands clenched the fabric of my shirt, pulling at my back.

“You stole our future.” Those words had unlocked the fantasy I’d had for so long—that it had all been a mistake, that she hadn’t done the unthinkable—but it warred with so much fury I could barely contain it. I needed to show her what she’d done.

Her lips parted and she held me just as close as I held her. It was coming home—breathing her in, tasting her, feeling her. Sandwiched between me and the wall, I snaked my hand under her shirt and whipped it up over her head.

Fumbling with the button of her jeans, I jerked them down over her hips. Her small gasp of shock and desire increased the coursing carnality between us. Keeping my hand behind her head, I gripped the hair at the base of her neck. She wasn’t getting away.

“We weren’t over. This isn’t over. We’re not over,” I growled against her skin.

Shivers shot through her body and goosebumps rose along her arms. She wasn’t immune to what was happening between us either.

“Emmett—” My name on her lips, her voice so clear and needy. “Yes, please.”

Her hands clawed at me. Shoving my sweats off with one hand, I released her long enough to take my shirt off. Her reprieve from my touch didn’t last long. Caging her between my arms, I lifted her legs up, hitching them around my hips. Her molten hot center rested just above my straining cock, so hard I could feel the blood pulsing and pounding between my legs.

Palming her ass, I didn’t think, didn’t stop when her hips shifted and the tip of my head met her opening. I wrapped my hands up and over her shoulders then slammed into her in one solid, fierce thrust. Stars exploded in my head.

“More, I need more.” Her teeth grazed my cheek.

Her head slammed back against the wall. Her screams were sealed with my lips, which demanded repayment for years of deprivation. I wanted her unadulterated pleasure. Shifting my hand, I tugged on her hair and tilted her head up to meet my mouth. We worked together and against each other in a savage battle waged with our bodies. Desperation pulsed between us in a heady wave filled with the sizzling spark of everything that had happened since that night.

Rolling and grinding, the flickers of intense pleasure had my cock thickening inside her. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” I rasped into her mouth.

Our lips and teeth were colliding and unable to keep up with the pace of our bodies. Her hips and legs egged me on, falling into the rhythm I knew so well, capped off with a clinging, clutching edge that drove us both toward that inevitable cliff.

I pushed her harder and higher. The rattle and bang of the framed beach scene pictures falling off the wall didn’t deter me. I didn’t care who knew, who heard. I wanted everyone to know she was still mine—had never stopped being mine.

My eyes burned with unshed tears. She’d stolen this from us. Her thighs tightened around me and her walls clamped down on my dick. I hissed out a sharp breath. It was so good. Her arms wrapped tighter around the back of my neck and she screamed my name. Her body rigid, I kept pumping into her.

I wanted to follow after her, wanted to join her in that place where a blissful climax awaited, but I couldn’t. My cock thickened, filled with a helpless lust I couldn’t control.

She clawed at my back as her climax stretched out. Her trembling increased. Her body jerked.

“You left me.” My voice was hoarse with desire and a rawness that had always been under the surface. Accusation hung heavy in my voice.

Her eyes glazed in the unending pleasure sizzling across her skin, shooting into mine. A flicker of remorse battled with the desire in her eyes.

“You let me leave.” I lifted her away from the wall and carried her to the bed. Bracketing her between my arms under me, I was moving again, tumbling toward a yawning precipice. My body remembered every curve, dip, and hollow. Her tawny-tipped breasts I’d spent hours laving with my tongue were even fuller in my hands.

“Emmett, I’m going to—”

I reached between us. Pinching and tapping her clit, I clenched my teeth together and slammed my lips onto hers.

Her back shot off the bed. Gasping for air, she writhed under me. Her thighs tightened around me, squeezing desperately. My strokes were uncontrollable, and my cock buried inside her couldn’t stop. The orgasm I’d been chasing was still outside my grasp. I gritted my teeth.

“I can’t. I’m going to—” Her words were cut off as she gripped the nape of my neck and screamed out my name again.

“You made me let you go.” The tears clouded my vision, but I couldn’t stop.

She stared into my eyes, their softness nearly making me collapse. She lifted herself from the bed, using my neck as leverage, her breath fanning across the beaded sweat on my skin.

“I’m sorry, Em. I’m so sorry.” Her words were soft and gentle against my lips. With her eyes open, she pressed her lips to mine. The tenderness contrasted with the visceral, crude slamming of my hips. Like a damn bursting, spasms gripped me at the base of my cock.

I held her close. Pulling her into my arms, I crushed her to me as I rode out an orgasm so strong my vision blacked out. Pinning her beneath me, I gulped down air that had been squeezed from my lungs.

Slowly, I came back from the brink. Resting my forehead against hers, I panted and rolled to my side, taking her with me. I couldn’t break the connection yet. I didn’t want to let her go. What happened now? What did this mean? I couldn’t figure out the answers to those questions, but this was a moment I wanted to live inside.

The panting breaths slowed. A chill from the AC breezed across her skin and she broke out in goosebumps. I needed to get her warm. We groaned as I slipped free from her body, and my head snapped up as I realized what had been missing between us. Our combined essences were plastered to our skin.

“I’m on the pill.”

My gaze shot to hers. “And I get an annual checkup. No issues.” She looked away.

“I’ve never not used protection, and my last physical was clean.”

She nodded and pushed up off the bed.

I reached out, encircling her wrist. “Where are you going? We’re nowhere near finished.”