Page 125 of Nothing to Fear

“Baby—”

“If I’m not pleasing you, I’ll stop,” she teased, arching her back to grind against him. “You want me to stop?”

“I want you to marry me.”

She kissed him again. “One thing at a time.”

Their next kiss was longer, slower, more learning? Sure. But it helped they were skin to skin and neither of their hands missed the opportunity to explore.

Sometime, whenever, eventually, his phone rang again.

Again, she broke their kiss. Their eyes questioned, begged, worried.

He exhaled, stroking her hair, tempting her mouth back to his. “Leave it.”

“It could be important.”

If they didn’t understand the value of being present and available, they hadn’t learned anything in recent days. He groaned as she wriggled from his arms and down the bed.

“More likely it’s Caber or Ward messing with me.”

“Messing with you how?”

“They’ve met my girlfriend,” he said as she leaned off the end of the bed to snag his hoodie. “And they know we’re doing this.”

“How do they know we’re doing this?”

“I boast.” Her flat expression prompted his laugh. “I’m kidding, Cherry. I’m kidding. They know you’re hot and we’re spending the night together. If we weren’t doing this, I’d have to hand back my Man Card.”

The phone stopped ringing as she dug it from his pocket and turned to walk on her knees up the bed on her own side.

“Angie,” she said, stopping halfway up. “Two missed calls from her and—” She frowned. “I thought you phoned your phone from mine. There’s only one other missed call and it’s from Anna.”

“Babe, forget the phone,” he said and tried to grab it, but she held it out of reach. “Come here.”

“Just a second.” Dialing her number, it was weird that the glitch erased her number and no one else’s. Except when she pressed call, the phone on her nightstand lit up. And there it was on his screen again: Anna. He had her number saved in his phone under Anna for… the answer came in the two smaller pale gray letters beneath the name. LD. Lighting Darkness. Anna. Lighting Darkness and…

“Baby—”

“Oh my God,” she whispered and threw the phone to her pillow as both hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my—”

“Let me explain.”

“You’re nineteen oh eight. You’re… you’re Jacob.”

“Baby—”

“No, no, no—” Scrambling off the bed, her hands still stifled her words. “No, it can’t—I can’t—”

“Listen to me.” Throwing back the covers, he was on his feet in an instant. “Baby, it wasn’t a—”

Maybe he was still talking, saying words or… One man, two men, no, one man, listening to her secrets, asking her to bare her soul, telling her she was safe, and all the time—

She swept his clothes from the floor and dumped them on the bed. “Get out.”

“No!” His adamance might mean something to him, but it changed nothing. “I’m sorry, Cherry—”

“Stop it!” Squeezing her eyes closed, she scrunched her hair in her fists at her temples. “No more. No more! God, I was an—the things I’ve said—the things I—” Words blocked her throat. There he was, at the side of her bed, standing there in his underwear like… “I don’t know who you are.”

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