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“We have to get back downstairs,” she whispers. She’s pulling away, and I allow it.

“I know. But remember this, every time I see you. Every time I’m near, I’m going to be counting down the minutes until I can bury my face between your legs, until I can lick every scar on your temple of a body, and I do mean every fucking time. So when you see me, and you worry that I won’t like what’s under these clothes?” I press my cock into her hip and grind. “Just know that I went home tonight with this in my pants. Because of you. For you. And when I finally get myself off? It will be to visions of you.”

I step back, then catch her when she falls forward. Pride cheers loudly in my mind when her legs wobble for a minute before she gets her bearings.

“And for the record?” I lower my voice, and it takes on a gravelly texture. “I love how you come for me, sweetheart. I look forward to doing it again and again.”

Leaning forward, I kiss her on the forehead, and then because I need her to know how much I mean every damned word, I grab her ass with both hands and squeeze. Hard. Pulling her flush against me again as I do.

“Okay?” I ask with a grin that makes me feel twenty years younger.

“You’re asking me if I’m okay after all—after all that?”

“Yes.”

Her head does a weird twirl. Like she wants to shake her head no and yes at the same time and it ends in some version of a circle.

Good.

Sometimes, she needs to get out of her head, and I’m just the man to take her away.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” I say, ushering her to the left so I can open the door.

“Dillon?” she whispers.

I glance over my shoulder and give her a soft look. “Yeah?”

“You just had one of my firsts.”

What? I scratch at my jaw, trying to figure out what she’s talking about. The way her face flushes tells me it’s something big.

“What’s that?”

She nibbles on her bottom lip. Fresh heat flushes across her cheeks. “Um, that,” she says, gesturing to her body.

Turning around, I walk back to her and keep my voice low. “You mean you never fooled around through your clothes when you were a teen?”

Penny bites harder on that lip, and worry starts to worm into my chest. When she won’t make eye contact, I take a deep breath. “Penny?”

She searches behind me in the hallway, probably to ensure we’re still alone. “No,” she says quietly. “No one’s ever made my body do—that before.”

Understanding slams into me like a bullet.

Sweaty fucking Eddy never made her come.

I have a lifetime of fuck-ups to undo, but I’m more than up to the challenge.

“My hands are very excited to have had that pleasure, Penny. And thank you for trusting me with that information.”

Kissing her forehead one more time, I turn to head down the stairs.

“My life is complicated,” she says to my back like the words are a reminder for herself. “I’m constantly protecting my boys from more heartache. It’s eighteen-hour days and—”

“I’m not here to make it more complicated, Penny. I’m just here for you.”

With that, I leave her standing in the hallway. Happy to have had one of her firsts. Relieved that she isn’t throwing me out. And for the first time in my life, excited for the future and all her firsts I can have.

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