“I do know, because I did the same. I followed your social media.”

“I followed yours! It was like a lifeline.”

“Right?”

“I kept waiting to see you with a new guy. I wasn’t sure how I would deal with that.”

“There couldn’t have been anyone else while you were still out there somewhere.”

She launched herself into his outstretched arms.

He caught her and hugged her as tightly as he could without hurting her. With her back in his life, he felt like he could truly breathe again for the first time since he last saw her.

“Eli?”

“What, honey?”

“Will you please take me to bed? All I want is to be with you the way we used to be—and with no worries about getting caught this time.”

“There’s nothing I’d rather do.” He stood and helped her up. “I’m not going to wake up and find out that I’ve dreamed about you again, am I?”

“You dreamed about me?”

“All the time. It was torture. I’d wake up, hard as a rock, thinking you were here, and it was crushing to realize it was only another dream.”

She reached up to put her hands on his face and drew him into a kiss that nearly made him whimper from the need that overtook him. “Does that feel real to you?”

“As real as anything has ever been.” He lifted her into his arms and walked into the bedroom, putting her down next to the bed. As they kissed and laughed and pulled at clothes, Eli realized he was truly happy for the first time since the last time he’d seen her. Yes, he was still dealing with heartbreak and grief over the senseless murders of his father and stepmother, but with Candace back in his life, even that became easier to manage.

She made everything better, like she had from the first day he met her. She was just as he remembered her, only curvier. Her breasts were fuller, her body that of a grown woman now, and as he’d been before, he was dazzled by her.

They landed on his bed in a jumble of arms and legs that quickly sorted themselves into perfect alignment for what they were both dying for.

“Shit, I need a condom.”

She stopped him from getting up. “I’m on long-term birth control. I did it two weeks ago. We’re covered.”

“How could you do that when you weren’t eighteen yet?”

“I lied.”

Smiling, he kissed her with three years’ worth of longing and desire. “This might be quick.”

“Who cares? We can do it anytime we want now.”