I can’t believe she’s here. I mean, why? Part of the reason I came camping was to get away from all the shit that is spinning inside my head about her. After her boyfriend barged in on us, my mind just got more fucked up. I don’t care what she says about him, a friend wouldn’t do that. I saw the way he looked at us, at her . . . so she’s only lying to herself.

“Would you sit?” Mia scolds Chandler, and I can’t help but grin. He’s dying without his phone. Like, I think it is literally killing him. And every noise in the distance has him looking around, scared that a cult of witches is gonna jump out.

“How is there not a cell phone tower close by?” He doesn’t even miss a beat as he holds his hand a bit higher in the air. I want to ask him what he will do if he finds a signal but has to hold his hand like that, but Mia laughs at his desperation. The sound hits me in a way it shouldn’t.

“We’re camping, that’s how,” she says in response to him.

“What if we have an emergency?”

“The witches wouldn’t let you make a phone call, anyway,” I tease him, and he walks farther away.

It’s late as hell, the girls crashed in their tent about an hour ago. I’m not sure how they feel about Mia and Chandler being here, but they seemed okay about it.

“Dude, sit the fuck down,” I yell at Chandler as his pacing makes the smoke billow in my direction.

“This blows,” he says.

“What did you expect?” I don’t want to be rude, but he doesn’t have to be here. He made a choice to come out here with Mia in tow.

“I don’t know, I expected more than . . . this.” He waves his arm, gesturing to our surroundings.

I open the cooler next to me, pull out a beer, and toss it to him. Maybe if he gets drunk, he’ll calm down and just chill a bit.

“Fuck that, I’m going to bed.” The beer comes flying back in my direction, and I catch it in one hand.

“Sleep well, the witches will be here soon to take you to your séance,” I tease to his retreating back.

He flips me off. “You coming, Mia?”

“I’ll be there in a bit. I’m gonna finish my drink.” He nods, and then he’s gone.

I’ve been in a lot of uncomfortable positions in my life, but this is by far the worst. I have no idea what to say to her. Mia is sitting across from me, and the campfire is casting her in an orange glow that makes her even more gorgeous.

I pick at the label on my beer as the tension between us gets thicker. It shouldn’t be there at all. I shouldn’t be mad about the guy who walked into her apartment. I have no right. Everything should be kosher between us. She is not mine in any way. We had a one-night stand so fucking long ago, and we are both adults. We . . . I should be able to just get past it. But fuck . . . she makes me want so much more.

“Roan?” Her voice is just a whisper, but every syllable awakens my insides.

“Yeah?” I respond, holding her gaze.

“Will you take a walk with me?” My mind spirals as all sorts of thoughts run through it. From my pinning her against a tree and fucking her to her falling asleep in my arms, sated. I don’t know why I’m all over the place when it comes to this woman, but I am.

It’s probably better if we don’t. That’s what I should say, but instead, I nod and tell her, “Sure.”

She stands and stretches. A tiny moan leaves her body as she lifts her arms high above her head, causing her shirt to ride up. The skin of her sexy stomach peeks out at me, and I almost tell her to stop.

I get up myself and focus on staying in the moment. Mia sticks her hands in her hoody pocket, and then we both begin to head away from camp. The stars, the moon, and a few dying campfires are all that light our path.

“Thank you,” she says.

“For what?”

“For giving me a chance to explain things.”

“You don’t need to explain anything, Mia, you know that, right?”

“But I do. That guy at my house the other night is not my boyfriend. He really is only my friend.” I want to believe her, but for some reason, I can’t.

“Okay,” I tell her and let her keep talking. She’s the one who asked me to come on this walk.

“He and I did hook up in college, once. We were drunk and somehow got carried away. Regardless, he’s gay and in a relationship and one of my very best friends.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I ask her, not giving a shit who she has or hasn’t been with. Though, I’m sure her sleeping with a guy who turned out to be gay is an interesting story.

“Because I want you to know that I’m not with anyone.” I open my mouth to tell her that where she’s about to go is a bad idea, but she keeps talking. “Yes, you and I had one night of completely mind-blowing sex that I can’t seem to forget. But when you stormed out the other night, I realized that, even if we are never together again in that way, I couldn’t stand the thought of you not being in my life. Roan, I’ll always be here for you if you need me.”

“I appreciate your honesty, but my problems aren’t yours to deal with, they’re mine and mine alone.”

She stops walking as we reach a bench and exhales, looking up at the night sky before taking a seat. I sit next to her and can tell she’s thinking about her next words carefully. Then, when she says them . . . I’m shocked. “Roan, I’m done playing games. Don’t you see that I want your problems to be mine, too?”

“No, Mia. Please don’t go there.”

“Why? Because Georgia fucked you up so royally that you can never move on and love again? What she did really sucked, Roan, but we’ve all been through some shit in our lives, and what happens to us, doesn’t make it okay to just roll over and give up.”

“I’m not giving up,” I challenge back, hating how fucking well she knows me.

“Then what are you doing?”

“I’m trying. I really am. Every day, I fucking try. You think I want to be this way? You think I want to feel stranded and alone, as if I can never love again because I’m too goddamn scared that person will leave me, too?”

She shakes her head, her gorgeous fucking head with that long hair piled high and those big eyes, those big innocent eyes that do things to me. I grab the sides of her face, holding on to it as she breathlessly says, “I don’t know what to think because you won’t talk to me.”

“I tried that night we were together, and . . . I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Do what?”

“Ask you to give up your life for me.”

“I wouldn’t be giving up a thing. Being with you is something I want, Roan.”

“Why?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

“There are so many men in the world, Mia,” I whisper, and she nuzzles closer against the palm of my hand. I’m still holding onto her face as she closes her eyes like she’s fearful that this is all going to end.

“There are, but all I see is you.” She opens her eyes, watching me. Since Georgia, Mia is the only woman to make me feel anything, and in this moment, I know she sees all the things I’ve held back. “Like I said earlier, if nothing ever comes of us, I just want to be there for you.”

“I can’t be your friend,” I tell her with a chuckle. But it’s the truth. “You deserve better than me.” I keep trying to push her away, knowing I shouldn’t let her sacrifice herself for me. Hating that fate keeps trying to shove us back together.

I should pull away and walk off. It would be the right thing to do. Before I can pull my palms away from her face, she runs her hands up the front of my chest. Electricity charges everywhere she touches. Then she’s sinking her hands into my hair and tilting her face just a bit as I lean in closer to her.

I groan and drop my gaze to her lips, remembering what they taste like, what she tastes like. And like that, our mouths collide with as much force as a jet taking off.

Fuck, there is no stopping this.

I hold her tightly, and she climbs on top of my lap, straddling me. She tastes just as I remember and feels the same, if not better, in my arms as she did that night. God, she is so fucking perfect that it terrifies me. It’s part of the reason I left. If things end badly, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.