Chapter 14 #5
I feel Everly shake as she covers her laugh and turns bright red. The kind that crawls up her neck and into the apples of
her cheeks. Gorgeous.
“Sorry about my boyfriend,” Everly says, her tone more confident than before. “He just can’t help but bark at bitches.”
All three girls’ mouths gape as they glare back at us, and I can’t help but smile with pride. Ruthless. Cutthroat. And completely
unapologetic. It’s a nice change of pace from the sweet people-pleaser who was panicking only moments ago.
“Did you have to buy this guy like you tried to buy us?” the Taya girl asks, and Everly inhales sharply, her body hard as
stone beneath my arms.
“I never tried to buy you.”
“Mm’kay, girl.” Her eyes flash over to me, dark and full of hate. “My guess is he’s just with you for your money too.”
Everly pushes off me and steps forward to snap back at her, but I grip her by the wrist, stopping her from getting too far
away from me. “You’re the one with a history for transactional relationships.”
The girl’s lips curl in disgust, and to prove Everly’s point, I pull her back into me and spin her around with a force that
knocks the air out of both of us. Her breasts crush against my chest as her delicate hand braces on my pec.
“Besides, the truth of it all is I’m really just with her for her sexy arse,” I say cheekily. Before Everly can argue, I slide
my hand down her lower back until it curves over the swell of her round bottom. With a grunt, I massage her through the tight
denim, and she lets out a warm exhale of shock on my lips as the pressure brings our two groins together in a way that’s positively
indecent.
Her eyes half close, giving me the impression that she likes me claiming her like this.
I’m afraid I like it too.
Her peach lips part, and I catch sight of her tongue, and like a starved animal who hasn’t eaten in weeks, I grab her by the
neck and tilt her chin up to crush my mouth to hers.
It’s a hard, hungry scorcher of a kiss. One I didn’t even remotely think through.
At first, this was just going to be a cheeky bottom squeeze. Something to send the bitchy girl on her merry fucking way.
But Everly’s full, lush lips were just too tempting, and my primal instincts took over. I descended upon her like a madman,
and the moan she utters against my lips makes me think this was a good risk to take.
Everly’s fingers curl around the front of my T-shirt as she pulls me closer, arching into me as her tongue meets mine with
a desperation that I feel all the way down to my balls.
She tastes like cinnamon and peaches. Like a sweet, delectable fruit I should have never taken a bite of. Because now that
I have, I might not ever want to stop biting, stop devouring, stop feasting on this person. This maddening woman that I’ve
circled around for years and managed to never touch.
All because she said please.
Christ, this girl makes me weak.
Our mouths finally break apart for air, but we don’t move, both of us frozen as we pant into each other’s mouths like we just
ran bronco sprints on the rugby pitch at six-thousand-foot elevation.
Everly breaks free from me first and looks around to find that our audience is gone—who knows for how long. Did we even need
to kiss that long? We’ll never know.
“Are you going to slap me?” I croak, knowing that I very well may have fucked things up properly here.
She inhales deeply through her nose as she backs away. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Fair enough.” I push off the counter, willing my cock to settle down. “Let’s get out of here.”
She nods and takes my arm, hanging on to me for balance, and to possibly maintain the illusion that we’re together as we make
our way through the party and out the door. Hilow’s devastated eyes follow us the entire way out, and I can’t help but tip
a smug grin his direction. I’m not proud.
The summer air does little to calm the pulsing in my body, and as I usher Everly into the passenger side of her vehicle and
close the door, I stab my fingers through my hair and murmur under my breath, “What the fuck have I done?”
Everly
“Can you drive?” I ask Wolf as he slides into the driver’s side of my vehicle.
“Of course I can drive. What do you mean?” he asks, his eyes avoiding mine and causing a pit to form in my stomach.
“I just . . . didn’t know if you knew how. You’re planning to take the bus to Denver for training.”
“I know how to drive. I just don’t have a car here, and a rental costs too much.” His tone is sharp and dismissive as he mutters,
“So American,” under his breath.
“Okay, sorry,” I murmur as I hand him over the keys, careful not to let our fingers touch. How did things go south so quickly?
I really managed to fuck this up.
He presses the start button on my SUV and pauses. “But it would help if you stay quiet while I drive because navigating this
bloody expensive car on the opposite side of the road is going to take all my concentration.”
I nod and press my lips together, my face burning with mortification because whatever flirty vibes he was giving me inside are well and truly gone now.
As Wolf drives out of the neighborhood, I can’t help but chew my lower lip. I can still taste him. Salt, heat, cinnamon, and something sharp and wicked.
What the hell happened in there? Conri the Convict, six-foot-five behemoth of a man, pressed his mouth to mine in front of
Taya and a good chunk of the city of Boulder. And he seemed to like it.
Right?
I didn’t dream that?
I’m not on an Ambien trip right now?
This wildly validating feeling of kissing a hot boy in front of my nemesis certainly feels very real.
I turn away from Wolf so he hopefully can’t see how red my cheeks are or how much my hands are still trembling. I’ve kissed
a few boys. Not many. But none felt like that.
It wasn’t real.
It wasn’t real.
It wasn’t real.
Except whatever was happening in his jeans felt real. I swear something manifested between us that didn’t exist at the beginning
of that kiss. How long did we even kiss for? Felt like hours and seconds all at the same time.
I wanted it to go on forever. I wanted to commit it all to memory because I’m not sure I’ll ever experience something like
that again.
But it was fake. It was performative. Wolf read Taya like a book, and a kiss was the only way to shut her up. And he was right
because she scurried away without another snide remark.
Although if she did say something, I wouldn’t have caught it. All I could hear was my own heartbeat thumping in my ears as he lit my whole body on fire. I swear I could even hear my vagina calling out for Ireland.
But it was all an act. An act I should be grateful for. I should tell Wolf thank you and tell him I owe him big. Keep it light
and easy breezy. Cool, not cringe.
But as we traverse the winding roads toward Jamestown, my stomach starts to churn with disappointment.
Because it wasn’t just a spiteful revenge kiss . . . It was a pity kiss.
Of course, Wolf pitied me. I was downing double shots of Fireball one after another as I was losing my mind over high school
bullshit. After I confessed how pathetic I am to him in the car earlier tonight.
To him, I was a stray dog he offered a scrap to. A sad girl he had to rescue.
The most humiliating part is that I wanted it to be real. I wanted him to want me. For those few seconds our lips touched,
I let myself fantasize that Conri Reilly could want me. What a joke.
I can’t even stand up to my high school nemesis, so what must someone like Wolf, who I had to beg to be my momentary boyfriend,
think of me now?
Will you be my boyfriend? Just for pretend so I don’t look like the same old Everly they fucked with. Will you do that, Conri?
Just for an hour. Then we can get out of here, and I will owe you the most massive favor ever. Please, please, please?
I seriously begged. Now he’s angry at me—repulsed by me—which I’m not surprised about. Obviously.
And then there’s Taya’s words.
Did you have to buy this guy like you tried to buy us? . . . My guess is he’s just with you for your money too.
God, her words are so mortifying. Memories of high school flood me. Stupid memories. Memories that don’t deserve my emotions. I lived a good life. I’m a privileged kid. I don’t deserve pity.
My throat tightens as we turn on the road that leads up to Fletcher Mountain. I dig my nails into my palms, staring hard out
the passenger window as I focus on the trees, the gravel road, the signs of nocturnal wildlife. Every breath I take burns
in my throat as I fight back what I feel coming.
Don’t cry.
Don’t cry.
Don’t cry.
Wolf drives past the red barn, and I can feel his eyes on me, but I refuse to look at him. If I show him what a mess I am,
he’s just going to pity me more. I can’t take any more pity. I’m sick of feeling pathetic.
Before he even fully stops the car, I unbuckle my seat belt and fling the door open, sucking in a huge breath of mountain
air as my vision blurs with tears. I slam the car door harder than I intended as I beeline for my front steps, my sandals
crunching over the gravel as I squeeze myself inside my leather jacket.
“Thanks for the ride,” I exclaim cheerily without looking back, my garbled voice likely giving me away.
If he says anything back, I don’t hear it.
I close my front door behind me and rush into my bedroom to hide as tears fall freely down my face, my nose running, heart
racing, head spinning like a snow globe blizzard.
Four words come to mind: Poor little rich girl.