Ivy My heart was slamming so hard I could feel it in my ears, and my face was burning because yeah, I’d just put it out there and now I wanted to crawl into a hole. But he didn’t laugh or brush me off. He just looked at me straight, phone still in his hand but forgotten, and for a second the whole place felt smaller.“I could’ve been your dad, Ivy,” he said again, quieter this time, but then he stepped in closer, close enough that I caught the faint smell of him, clean but with that edge that made my stomach flip. His hand came up slow, fingers brushing a strand of hair off my face, tucking it behind my ear like it was nothing, but the way his thumb grazed my cheek for half a second longer than it needed to? That wasn’t nothing. It sent this jolt straight through me, hot and annoying because I wasn’t supposed to want that from him. Not yet. Not after signing that damn contract where I said he doesn’t touch unless I say.He gripped my chin then, just firm enough to tilt my face up so
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