Free Girl Gear 3: Bound to Happen by Alison Kent

and jaw move, felt the brush of his day-old beard on her face.
    "If I'm lucky, yes. With you in my arms, any dreams I have should be damn sweet." Anton pushed to his feet, turned and pulled down the comforter and the sheet. "Hop in, Shakespeare."
    Lauren scrambled beneath, rolling onto her side as the mattress dipped beneath his weight. He switched off the bedside lamp and plunged the room into darkness, a darkness that eased as her eyes adjusted and the light from the full moon filtered in through the room's open window.
    Anton pulled her close, spooning behind her, settling their bodies into the comfortably familiar position. Neither one of them spoke another word, as if the connection they needed could only be made through the intimacy of their heartbeats sharing the same rhythm, their muscles relaxing in trust, their breaths slowing and deepening.
    A soothing blanket of peace stole over their bruised souls and the two friends slept.
    And slowly they began to heal.

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    4
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    R AY MADE HIS WAY to the kitchen the next morning before the housekeeper, Auralie Duarte, arrived from the servants' quarters located in the center of the island. The arrangement afforded her and her husband, as well as Nolan's guests, privacy when the couple's service was needed on Coconut Caye.
    Ray hadn't slept well and needed coffee, a lot of coffee, strong, and in a bad way. He wasn't sure that caffeine was going to be enough to get him over the funk of not getting the rest he needed or the funk of not getting what he needed from Sydney .
    And he wasn't talking about sex.
    If getting her into bed had been his primary goal when he'd stepped out onto the balcony last night, he didn't have a doubt that he'd be even more sleep-deprived this morning than he was. He'd also be a helluva lot more relaxed—but then hindsight was twenty-twenty.
    Having found the supply of fresh coffee beans and the grinder, he went in search of the coffeemaker Auralie hadn't yet pulled from storage. He found it in the back of a lower cabinet, pulled it out and cleaned the thermal carafe.
    He hated grinding the beans, certain the noise would wake the four sleeping beauties sprawled across the sectional sofa in the villa's main room. But a man had to do what a man had to do, and he poured the beans into the grinder's chute.
    With no walls dividing the structure's first floor, he supposed Doug and Jess, Kinsey and Poe were asking to be disturbed by falling asleep here, instead of upstairs in their respective bedrooms. He'd been the first last night to leave the hot tab; the others had obviously stayed and partied, though at least half of the party had moved from the deck on the roof of the villa to the veranda wrapped around the structure's first floor.
    He still wondered who it was he and Sydney had heard beneath the balcony last night. Hell, for all he knew, it could've been Anton and Lauren making up for several months' worth of lost time. But still, the sounds had stayed with him and kept him awake. Kept him thinking of Sydney and their one incredible night together.
    At that time and at that age, he'd never talked to another woman the way he had to Sydney , never made love to another woman as many times in one night, never held another woman while she'd cried over the breakup of her family. Never felt as helpless, either. He hadn't known what to say or what to ask.
    Ray admitted he hadn't done much better last night. He had years of experience pulling people from burning buildings, digging survivors from beneath tons of rubble, cutting through twisted metal to reach victims of accidents.
    But none of those challenges matched the delicate job of probing Sydney 's mind and heart.
    Back in the States, in full CEO mode, she had shut him out and shut him down every time. And now she'd taken things so far in the other direction that he was at a loss. Maybe her seven-year itch was back. The boy he'd been had always had a big head at being the chosen one, even while