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you.”
    Obviously, he still wanted more because he made a circling motion for her to continue.
    She sank down onto the porch swing and hoped she could get through this without tears. They wouldn’t be of the happy variety, either. Not with the emotions still raw and too close to the surface.
    â€œMy mother has breast cancer,” she explained. “She’s had the surgery and the treatments. That’s why she’s so thin.”
    He shook his head, cursed softly. “I noticed the weight loss, but since I hadn’t heard anything about her being sick, I just thought she’d been on a diet.”
    â€œShe didn’t want anyone in town to know. I’m not sure why. But she’s going for her treatments in San Antonio.”
    Kane sat down beside her. “Will she be all right?”
    â€œHer odds are good. The treatment seems to be working.” She swallowed hard, trying to ease the lump in her throat. Eliza wanted to add more, but she needed a minute to compose herself.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said, slipping his hand over hers.
    Eliza appreciated that more than he would ever know. She’d been through an emotional wringer with her mom’s health, but Kane had a way of easing the pain with just a simple touch.
    â€œ Seize the day ,” he repeated. “I get it now. Is that also the reason for Dax and Violet’s hasty wedding?”
    Eliza nodded. “We both just realized how short life can be. And Violet really does love Dax, and he loves her.”
    Kane nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. But it was a gamble for you to break up with your boyfriend. You guys had been together for—”
    â€œI didn’t love him,” she interrupted. “I wanted more.”
    There. She’d said what she wanted to say. Almost. But she should have just admitted that “more” was “Kane.” Or maybe it wasn’t necessary. When Kane looked at her, she could see that he got it.
    He cursed. Groaned. Scrubbed his hand over his face.
    Eliza decided to give him an out. “Look, I don’t expect anything from you. I broke up with Brett knowing full well that nothing might ever happen between us. I just didn’t want to go on, well, settling. So, no pressure on your part.”
    Kane cursed again. “I kissed you. That’s pressure.”
    She supposed in a way it was, so Eliza went with a second out. “We got caught up in the moment, in a hangover haze.”
    He nodded as if giving that some thought. If he truly wanted an out, she’d just handed him one, and it was right there for the taking—
    Or not.
    Because Kane cursed again, turned to her, pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
    Eliza wasn’t sure who was more shocked because both of them made sounds of surprise. Sounds that got trapped in the kiss. Actually her hand got trapped, too, between Kane’s chest and her breasts, but Eliza didn’t move it. Instead, she turned her palm to his chest and inched in even closer so that it would make it easier to deepen the kiss.
    And deepen it he did.
    Oh, my. He was so good at this.
    Despite the heart-tugging conversation they’d just had, all of that hurt vanished. Kane was apparently the cure for plenty of things. Not the cure for the tug below her belly, though.
    That only got worse.
    He slid his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her even closer. Not that he had to put up much of an effort to do that because Eliza wanted to be closer. And somehow, the fingers on her trapped hand worked their way into the gaps between the buttonholes of his shirt. Finger foreplay. It didn’t have nearly the effect that the scalding kiss did, but touching his bare skin took her from the tug stage to needing much, much more.
    And Kane gave her more.
    He kept on kissing her, kept on moving against her until she was certain the planet had spun out of the galaxy. When he pulled back, he left her with that raging fire that