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  When his eyes locked on her, his expression changed to wonder and surprise. It was as if he had thought she wouldn’t actually show.

  “Fuck,” he said when she reached the edge of the hot tub.

  “Yes?”

  “You look incredible.”

  “Thank you,” she said as she let her sarong drop.

  His eyes practically doubled in size as they took in her nearly naked body. In that look, she could see all the things he was imagining doing to her.

  She set her hand on the rail and then eased down into the water. As every drop of water touched her skin, Pace devoured her with his eyes. It made her really fucking hot and wet…and not just because of the hot tub.

  “This is nice,” she murmured when she finally got into a sitting position across from him.

  “Just like old times.”

  She frowned. “Well, not exactly.”

  “Can’t you agree with me just once?” he asked.

  “I could.” She shrugged her shoulders and splashed a little water at him. “You’re just always wrong.”

  “I thought we weren’t going to argue anymore tonight,” he reminded her. He moved his arms off the back of the hot tub and inched closer to her.

  “I know. I just can’t seem to stop.” She spread her fingers out through the water.

  “Well, let’s give it a rest for the night.”

  Stacia shrugged. “I’d like that.”

  Pace closed in on her, and she glanced up to meet his gaze. His body boxed her in against the side of the hot tub. She had known, on some level, that he was going to make a move on her if she came out here. And she wanted this. God, did she want it. As angry as she was about how he had treated Simon, it had been so hot to see Pace riled up. Now, here he was, in nothing but a thin pair of board shorts.

  Everything was getting muddled. For so long, she had been so defiant about what had happened. Now that she was living with him, she couldn’t ignore all the little things that he did for her. All the times he’d defended her and her friends and gone out of his way for her. Sure, he was a blustering ass a large part of the time, but it was hard to focus on that when he was acting like this the rest of the time.

  His hands ran down her wet skin as his lips dropped down onto hers. He hoisted her legs up and around his body and pushed her back against the wall. Her hands snaked up his arms and wrapped around his neck, as she was dying to get closer to him. Yet buried down in her was this horrible thought, and it rose to the surface—his hands on someone else, his mouth on someone else, his body pressed against someone else.

  “No,” she gasped. “Stop!” She dropped her legs from around his waist and tried to shove against him.

  “Christ! What, Stacia?” he cried. “What the hell is stopping you this time?”

  She pushed further back, stepped up once, and then sat on the edge of the hot tub. Her heart was in her throat as that horrible image kept playing on repeat. Wondering if it had been that way with Madison…

  “I can’t forget about Madison,” she told him. “I can’t…no matter what I feel for you.”

  “What do you feel for me?” he demanded. “Seems to be news to me.”

  “I don’t know, okay? All I know is that you fucked my best friend and ruined our relationship!” she yelled at him.

  Pace released a short laugh of disbelief. “You want to talk about Madison? Fine!” he spat. “Let’s fucking talk about Madison.”

  “Oh, you’re finally ready to not just put it behind us and forget it ever happened?” She nearly choked up. “How could you do it, Pace?”

  “I really don’t even understand that question. Your take on this has always been ridiculous.”

  “My take?” she asked in disbelief. “There isn’t a take. There’s reality. You slept with Madison!”

  “Yes! I slept with her. But only because of you!”

  Stacia jerked back in shock. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Marshall got the starting position last year. You chose him, and you’d been fucking him anyway, Stacia,” Pace accused her. “So, we were done. I got fucked up. Madison’s boyfriend had just broken up her, and we consoled one another. Blame me all you want for what happened, but you are as much at fault in this as I am.”

  “Wait, wait, wait…that’s not what happened,” Stacia told him. Her mind was racing. Was that what Pace thought had happened all this time? He thought I had chosen Marshall over him? “I never slept with Marshall before we got together.”

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not!” she cried. “Who told you Marshall and I slept together?”

  “Besides the entire school knowing?”

  “Who told you?”

  He shrugged. “Marshall.”

  “Fuck,” Stacia whispered. “How could you believe him? How could you not come to me?”

  “Believe him?” Pace asked, throwing his hands up. “Really, Stacia? Everyone already knew it was happening. I was the only fool who thought you weren’t doing it.”

  “You were the only one who was right,” she barely whispered. “I didn’t sleep with him.”

  “You let me think that you did!” Pace cried.

  “I didn’t think it mattered if I corrected you.” She sighed and tilted her head back. “This is what happened. You and I were together. Marshall wanted to be with me, but I cared too much for you, even when people thought I was flip-flopping.” She met his cold eyes as they started to soften. “So, you disappeared that night, and the next morning, Madison showed up on my doorstep, sobbing. She told me everything that happened and begged for my forgiveness.”

  Pace cringed. Yeah, he couldn’t even imagine what it felt like when Madison had shown up.

  “I went to campus, looking for you, because I knew you had practice. When I got there, Marshall told me that he got the starting spot, and I just said, Fuck it. You’d already ruined us, so why should I care?”

  A tear leaked out of her eye, and she hastily swatted it away. She had cried too much over Pace and what had happened. Cried and cried and cried. Tears and energy and pain that she could not get back. Things she still had not recovered from.

  Pace opened his mouth, like he was going to say something, and then he closed it. He just stared at her. And it was like looking into a mirror. Every pain and ache she had just revealed to him…he felt. It was written all over his face.

  “Fuck,” he murmured. He ran his hand back through his hair. “I totally fucked up.”

  “You think?” she asked sarcastically.

  “I totally, totally fucked up everything. I was so pissed about what Marshall said.”

  Stacia shook her head. “I didn’t play you. I might have joked about it with my friends, but it was just because I didn’t want them to see what I felt for you.”

  “What did you feel for me?”

  “Pace, I don’t want to get into this. Can’t you see we’re broken?” she asked.

  He moved forward, placed his hands on either side of her thighs, and stared into her eyes. “What did you feel for me?”

  She bit her lip and glanced away.

  He reached out and cupped her chin, forcing her to look back at him. “Tell me.”

  “I thought I loved you, all right? Are you happy?”

  “I love you, too,” he said without hesitation.

  “What?” Her eyes widened in surprise.

  “Why do you think you drive me so crazy? I’ve been in love with you since day one. I did stupid things because I loved you so much that I went crazy.”

  “Pace,” she whispered, “we can’t.”

  “What? We can’t what? Love each other? Why the hell not? Don’t you think we deserve this?” he asked.

  “I—”

  “Just stop thinking for once and kiss me.”

  Stacia lunged forward, falling into the water, and kissed the breath out of him. Their lips melded together, as if they’d been made for each other. All those months of anger and pai
n fell off them, and only their need and love were left.

  She felt like an idiot because everything that had happened came down to pride. Pace wouldn’t come to her about Marshall, and she wouldn’t come to him about Madison. Now, here they were, with a second chance that she refused to lose.

  She jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist. He grabbed them and held her against him before moving forward and pressing her into the side of the hot tub. Bubbles blossomed all around them, but they were oblivious to everything.

  “God, I’ve missed you,” he groaned against her mouth.

  “I know.”

  “Having you in my house,” he said, sliding his hands up and down her body, “it’s been fucking impossible.”

  He tugged on the strings of her bikini bottoms.

  “Yes,” she gasped. “Impossible.”

  Then, he found the string to her top and pulled that loose, too. “All I’ve wanted is this and you. Fuck, look at your body.”

  Pace lowered her ass to the edge of the hot tub and eagerly removed the two scraps of material she had been wearing moments earlier. She felt exposed and yet not at all. This was Pace after all. There was nothing that she hadn’t given to him. Nothing he hadn’t seen.

  “Lie back for me.” He eased her backward, so she lay flat. Then, he knelt before her legs and spread her wide for him. “I have missed your pussy. I want to give it all the attention it deserves.”

  Stacia whimpered from where she lay, looking up at the stars. Then, his mouth started in on her clit, and she was certain, by the end of it, she’d be seeing a whole different kind of stars.

  His fingers dug into her thighs, pushing her further open for him, as he sucked on her clit, making her scream out in pleasure. “Too much?” he joked, flicking his tongue against her again.

  “Not enough,” she got out.

  He laughed, clearly enjoying having control. His hands trailed down her legs before reaching her most sensitive spot. He spread her lips before him and then dipped two fingers into her, all while rolling his tongue gently between his teeth. Her pussy clenched around him as he entered her, and it took everything in her not to scream out again.

  “That’s not all you want either, is it?” he asked.

  Then, he took one slick finger and slid it lower. Her whole body tensed in anticipation. Without warning, he inched his finger up her asshole, leaving her squirming and aching.

  “God, you’re dripping.”

  “Pace,” she groaned.

  This wasn’t the first time they had done anything like this, but she was so fucking hot for him that, if he didn’t stop teasing her, she was going to find the muscle to bully him onto the floor, so she could fuck him.

  “I’ll let you come. Don’t worry.”

  Then, he started working his fingers in and out of her while flicking his tongue on her clit, and there was no holding back. Stacia came undone with practiced ease, her pussy sucking his fingers as he slid them out of her. Her shouts could probably be heard down the street.

  Without saying anything else, Pace dropped his board shorts. Stacia wasn’t even sure how they were still intact, considering how much he had been straining against them. He hooked his finger in her direction and then took a seat on the edge of the hot tub. She crawled over on top of him, and she was sure, by the glimmer in his eyes, that he was thinking about the night they had fooled around on the couch. This was exactly what he had wanted at the time. She pressed her wet core against him and then slid down on top of his dick.

  “Jesus…fuck…fuck,” Pace groaned. He grabbed her hips and forced her all the way onto him. “You feel…fucking perfect.”

  “You, too,” she gasped as he stretched her further.

  Then, he picked her up, as if she weighed nothing—truthfully, he could bench more than double her weight—and started bouncing her up and down on his dick. She braced her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes as they both took what they had been yearning for far too long.

  “You coming with me?” he asked through gritted teeth as he tried to keep it together.

  “Oh, yes,” she moaned.

  Then, he thrust once, twice more, inside her, and they both came hard. Stacia was woozy with effort as she came down from what had just happened. She collapsed forward over Pace. Both of them were breathing hard.

  “Wow,” she murmured.

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “I could…I could do that again.”

  “You took the words right out of my mouth.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re staying in my bed now.”

  She nodded. “That can be arranged.”

  “And you’re never leaving it again.”

  STACIA WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING, fairly certain she’d had the best dream of her life. But then she rolled over and found Pace still in bed with her. She sighed and snuggled into his side.

  “You’re not a dream,” she whispered.

  He squeezed her tight. “Morning, gorgeous.”

  “I was worried that I would wake up, and all of this would have been a fantasy.”

  “Did you often fantasize about this?” He peeked down at her.

  She shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “You should tell me more about that,” he said, dropping a kiss on her lips.

  “As much as I’d love that…don’t you have morning practice?”

  His eyes shot to his clock. “Fuck. Yes, yes, I do.”

  He jumped out of bed in lightning speed while Stacia wrapped the sheet around her chest and grinned at him.

  “How late are you going to be?”

  “Late enough.” He threw on some clothes and reached for his backpack at the same time as he tried to tug on his shoes.

  “I do not miss the seven a.m. workouts for cheer,” Stacia told him.

  “It’s not the time I would have chosen,” he agreed. Then, he bent down and brushed a hasty kiss on her lips. “You’d better be in my bed when I get home.”

  “I have class,” she reminded him.

  “Bed, woman.”

  Stacia rolled her eyes. “So demanding.”

  “I didn’t hear any complaints last night,” he called before rushing out the door.

  She dropped back into his bed with a sigh. How the hell had all of this happened so quickly? Or maybe it had just been coming for a long time. At the moment, she was perfectly okay with that.

  The rest of the day went as well as planned. She turned in her journalism paper, had lunch with Whitney, and managed to apologize to Simon another dozen times about how Pace had acted the night before. Simon blew it off, like it didn’t matter, and it was the first time she saw that maybe he did like her, and she had been so into getting him with Whitney that she hadn’t noticed.

  She left campus as quickly as possible and was in Pace’s bed again when he came home.

  And everything else that followed was even better. Living with Pace definitely had its advantages. Like the fact that she didn’t really have to tell anyone about what was going on with her and Pace just yet. She needed to talk to her friends before the news got out to everyone, but in the meantime, she was perfectly happy to stay in the honeymoon stage.

  She and Pace were lucky to have the bye week for football. Since there were restrictions on the number of hours Pace was allowed to practice, he had the weekend off. They spent the remainder of it locked up in a hotel room in wine country. He’d sworn that he brought her there to pamper her with good food, good drinks, and a kick-ass spa. But they were only in there long enough for them to make good use of the sauna before returning to their room.

  Of course, it wasn’t all sex. Though…there was a lot of awesome sex. She really felt like they slowed down while they were away. It had been a long time since they had just relaxed together, and reconnected without a million arguments. Truly, getting away from the distractions of everyday life made her feel like she had really made the right choice.

  Yes, Pace had fucked up.

  Yes, she had fu
cked up.

  But they had each owned up to it, and they were finding ways to move on from what had happened. The miscommunication had brought them apart for this long. They’d agreed to be more open with their relationship and try to take it one day at a time. It might have been fast to start over again, but they had both acted like idiots and rightly admitted it.

  If Pace had come to talk to her about Marshall or if she had come to talk to him about Madison, then all of this could have been avoided. And she didn’t want their relationship to fray just because of something like that. So, they had lounged around the weekend filling each other in on their lives in the past year.

  No arguments.

  No demands.

  Just two people trying to figure out how to make all of this work. And without the stress of the outside world, the feelings that had been rekindled came fully to life. And spending the much needed time together mended some of the wounds of their relationship. Wounds that definitely had needed attention.

  All in all, it was a blissful weekend.

  One she wouldn’t soon forget.

  She knew that, when they returned, things would be different, but she was ready to face everyone now that she knew where she and Pace stood.

  “So…” Bryna said. She crossed her arms over her Halloween pinup doll costume and eyed Stacia with curiosity.

  A week had passed since Stacia’s romantic rendezvous with Pace, and it was Halloween. Bryna was throwing the famous Slutfest party for the senior class, a fact that Stacia knew Lindsay loathed, as the honor typically went to a cheerleader.

  “Yeah, what exactly are you saying?” Maya asked. She looked super hot in a skimpy classic nurse costume that made her legs look crazy long and showed off her gorgeous skin.

  “Why do you both always have to jump down her throat?” Trihn asked, sashaying forward in her skintight black leather Catwoman costume, complete with ears and a tail. “She’s obviously nervous.”

  “I’m dating Pace,” Stacia spat out.

  Bryna’s eyes met Trihn’s, and then she winked. She rubbed her fingers together in the sign of money. “Hand it over, bitch.”

  “I hate you,” Trihn said. Then, she pulled a twenty out of her purse and passed it to Bryna.