Chapter 27
Saturday mornings were usually spent untangling myself from last night’s toys, but lately it’s been spent working out and then hanging quietly at my house.
I sat out on the terrace, watching the waves crash against the shore, my thoughts a million miles away.
The night before had left me feeling lonely. I’d been obsessed almost all my life with someone I’d never be able to have.
And then I’d had her. And it just made things worse.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her, replaying the whole scene.
The guilt was killing me. I’d almost fucked her.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if I’d done that. Would she have spent the night and we’d fucked like rabbits all night? Would she be here now?
I’d almost lost control completely. But fuck, she’d been tempting me like crazy. I went back and forth between blaming her for being so sexy and me not being more in control of my emotions. I’d tried to get her to stop, but she never did anything she didn’t want to.
If anything, Everleigh always was and always would be her own person.
Nobody told her what to do. And in the end, last night, she was the one calling the shots, basically blackmailing me into pleasuring her. My cock twitched as I thought about it again. I’d woken up with a raging hard-on after dreaming about her all night.
Since it was impossible to avoid thinking of her, I opted for a bit of exposure therapy, and pulled out my phone and opened the secret folder I had hidden in my photo app.
Over the years, I’d saved dozens of photos of Everleigh. Nothing creepy, just old photos of our outings together and some fun snapshots from our time as kids. Flipping through them, I couldn’t help but smile at the remnants of our past.
A photo of West jumping into my parents’ pool with Everleigh in a pink bikini laughing in the background.
A photo of my parents and me at my graduation reception, West holding a slice of cake behind me, while Everleigh steals a bite from it.
My old prom tickets. Only one of them was torn in half because I’d ended up going alone and dancing with Everleigh half the night because her date, a senior who’d asked her at the last minute, had spent most of the night puking in the bathroom after drinking too much tequila.
Another photo of my mom and Everleigh baking Christmas cookies. West and I, barely fourteen years old, were stuffing them in our mouths faster than they could bake them.
She’d been there all along. Beautiful, and shy, and magnetic, just like she was now. Maybe not so shy anymore, though. She hadn’t spread her legs on my couch and beckoned me to her out of shyness, that was for sure.
Putting the photos away, I realized that the images of her that now swam in my head by far surpassed any of the photos I’d taken of her long ago. I laid back on my bed and let those images float through my mind, reliving yesterday in minute detail. My cock throbbed between my legs as I relished the memories.
My phone buzzed beside me, pulling me from my reverie.
I picked it up and read the incoming text with dread.
Such dark secrets you’ve been hiding.
If you want them to stay hidden, you’ll have to pay.
“Fuck,” I muttered, staring down at it.
A wave of guilt washed over me when I realized we hadn’t discussed the last text Everleigh had received. I’d been too caught up in my feelings, like a total asshole.
Fuck whoever was doing this. It was beginning to really piss me off. A nagging twinge of fear swelled in my chest. This was just like the texts Everleigh received. So, the sender had my number now, too. What was previously an annoyance was turning into a much more significant problem. Mostly, I was worried for Ev’s sake. There were a lot of crazy fuckers in the world and the urge to protect her welled up in me.
I texted Everleigh, hoping to ease her mind a little. I didn’t want to tell her that I’d received one, too. The last thing I wanted to do was worry her even more.
Don’t worry about those texts. I’ll handle everything, okay?
I pulled up the text I’d received and replied to the prick.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Fuck off.