Kiera smiled at me as I stood and handed presents to her family. I gave Kiera hers, and she pointed to the Christmas tree. “Don’t forget yours.”

She didn’t need to get me anything. She’d already given me everything I could ever want. And she knew that. With a smirk, I grabbed her gift, then sat down by her. I could hear her family opening my gifts, but I was too absorbed in Kiera to watch. I wanted her to open mine, but I was a little unsure too. Would she take it the wrong way? Would it seem more desperate than heartfelt?

Kiera stared at me too, both of us watching each other instead of opening anything. “Together?” I suggested.

She nodded, and we started opening our gifts. Sort of. We were still mainly staring at each other. She laughed, then motioned at mine. “You first.”

That made me frown. I wanted her to go first. Then I laughed. I could wait. Kiera’s gift was more like multiple gifts—and they all cut deep into who I was as a person. There were journals for lyrics, sheets for music, a personal CD player, and a bunch of CDs with the names of all my favorite songs written on them. It blew me away that she could delve so deeply into my brain.

And then I found the photo. It was a picture of an outfit lying on her bed. An incredibly sexy outfit, that I was already picturing on her body…and then on my floor. Lingerie? She’d actually bought lingerie for me? I peeked over at her with a raised eyebrow. Did she want me to have a hard-on in front of her parents? Apparently, she did, because she pointed at something I hadn’t noticed in the picture…there was a fuzzy pair of handcuffs in the top corner. Oh my fucking God…she actually bought handcuffs. Why weren’t we at home?

I tucked the photo away before my thoughts turned truly indecent. Tease.

And that was when I spotted one more thing in the box. My smile dropped as I picked it up, and a surge of something wonderful, yet painful swept through me. It was a Hot Wheels muscle car. But it wasn’t just that fact that was knotting up my insides. It was the Hot Wheels muscle car. The exact same one I’d had when I was little. The exact same one that my parents had thrown away. The exact same one I thought I’d never see again. I had never told Kiera that story before. How could she possibly know about this car? How could she know it would be important to me? How did she know to get this for me? I looked over at her, absolutely stunned. She’d always teased me about reading her mind, but could she read mine?