Page 55 of March 5

"All the veggies. I got it," she said.

She pulled the items she'd need onto the counter and grabbed the loaf of bread. Tension over her current dilemma made her slow, and she dropped the butterknife on the floor and had to get a new one.

Her mixed emotions took away her excitement over Dio making plans to move her into his house. That was a huge step in the direction she wanted to go. If she could ignore what she was doing to Mariah, her heart would burst with excitement.

But she couldn't be happy knowing she'd hurt her best friend.

Mariah meant too much to her not to thinkabout the consequences.

She slapped the top piece of bread onto the sandwich and cut it in half before sliding the plate toward Dio on the other side of the island.

He caught the food before it slid off the edge onto the floor and caught her gaze. "Talk."

"I..." She inhaled deeply. "Nevermind."

She walked around the island. Dio stepped into her path.

The air in her lungs deflated, and she sagged in front of him. He'd accepted her, faults and all, throughout the years, but their relationship was now different and new. Fragile.

She wouldn't want to hurt his feelings by putting Mariah first in her life when that wasn't the case. She loved them both.

"Skye." He framed her face with his hands and lifted her gaze. "What's troubling you?"

"Mariah." She inhaled swiftly. "We haven't lived in the apartment long, but we'd planned to move in together since we were teenagers, and now I'm leaving her. Don't get me wrong— I want to move in with you and I will. But I feel like I'm hurting her to find my happiness, and that's not fair to her. She's important to me, Dio."

He stepped away from her, reaching into the pocket of his leather vest. She swallowed heavily, already feeling that her worries separated them when that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"I'm sor—"

"Stop." He held up the phone and tapped the screen, putting the cell to his ear. "Where are you?"

Skye hugged her middle as he talked towhoever he called. There had to be a way to please Mariah and Dio, so that everyone could be happy.

"Come over." Dio's attention locked onto Skye, though he spoke to someone else. "Bring her, too."

He disconnected the call. She bit her lip, unsure how to get past the problem she'd placed at his feet.

His gaze never left her, comforting her like a warm towel after doing sixty-four laps at the pool early in the morning. "I'll fix it."

"How?"

Within a single breath, he pressed her against the front of the double-sided refrigerator, pinning her hands against the slick surface of the appliance. Taken by surprise, she forgot about her worries.

His nose skimmed her cheek. "You need to trust me."

"I do."

He moved his thigh between her legs until her whole body was pressed against the fridge door. "You don't, but I'll make sure you learn to trust me from here on out."

She quivered, liking when he taught her things. But trusting someone else when it came to one of the most important people in her life was hard.

"Fuck, you smell good." He nuzzled the side of her neck. "Remember last night?"

Her stomach fluttered. He'd wanted her to sit on his face. She'd hesitated, thinking it would be too much for him to accept from her compared to how he'd given her oral sex before while kneeling between her legs. But the roughness of his beard and thefreedom to ride his mouth the way she wanted, hearing his moan, had given her an orgasm that made her inner thighs sore that morning.

"Trusting me will make you feel good." He pressed his knee harder between her legs.

She tilted her hips and moved with the friction of his denim-covered thigh.