Summer lay beneath Joe, listening to him breathe. Her heart was still beating so wildly in her chest she thought maybe her ribs would crack.

He’d said he loved her.

She’d spent the last twelve years avoiding emotional attachments. She hadn’t put a name to it, or really even made a conscious decision to do so, but that’s exactly what she’d done. Until now. Now she faced the very dilemma she’d never wanted.

She’d let a man into her life, and not just any man, but one that knew her better than anyone else, giving him the tools he needed to break her heart.

How did they move on from here? Could they really pretend he hadn’t said what he had in the thick of the moment? And surely, that was all it had been.

Though she’d been in the moment many times and had never felt the urge to let those three little words fly.

Joe rolled with her so that she lay sprawled over the top of him. He slid a hand down her back to cup her butt. “Now you can cut off the circulation to my legs and other vital parts. Seems only fair.”

There was a teasing light to his voice, thank God. “Complaining?”

“Hell, no.” He added his other hand to her ass.

From outside the wind still whistled and howled, brushing tree branches against the windows. Even with all the noise, she could still hear his heart still pumping strong and steady beneath her cheek with enough force to provide electricity to the entire town. She lifted her head and stared down into his face. “Do you need a glass of water?”

“Sure, if you could give it to me intravenously.”

Okay, good. Lighthearted fun, which happened to be right up her alley. She went smug. “Can’t move, huh?”

“That would be because you’re holding me down.”

“Which is handy if I want round two.”

He laughed and she licked his nipple, and his laugh turned into a moan as she felt his body stir.

“I need a recovery period,” he said.

“You’ve had it.” Because her world felt right again, or at least not upside down anymore, she sat up on him.

“Ooof,” he said, but his hands went gamely to her hips.

She looked into his face. Unlike her, he was not still grinning broadly. In his eyes sat his entire heart, and it made hers clench. He’d tried to warn her, he’d even tried to joke it away, but she was doing the one thing she’d meant to never do again, and that was hurt him. Her smile slowly faded. And her own heart began to swell until it felt like she might pop a rib. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and got up.