Page 75 of If You Dare

“It was the best thing that happened to her too.”

The shock of his words nearly knocks me off my feet. If she’d never met me, she’d still be alive. “I don’t know how you can say that,” I whisper. “I’m the reason she’s dead.”

“You are,” he agrees. Maybe we’ll both spend the rest of our lives trying to forgive me for that. “But she loved you like a sister.”

My eyes flood with tears. Chloe was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister. But I don’t have the right to mourn her. “I loved her too. I still do.”

“I need you, Violet.” His throat is hoarse, pain etched into his features. “If we’re going to get through this, we need each other.”

I nod, wanting that more than anything. All I’ve wanted since she died is to find comfort in Wes’s arms.

He cradles my cheek, managing a smile. “She would be talking so much shit right now if she found us alone in here together.”

“Something about how we’re gross and she’s going to go barf now.”

He laughs, and my god, I’ve missed that sound. “Even though she secretly wanted us together the whole time.”

I shake my head, grinning. “Yeah, I don’t know how I was so blind to her scheming.”

He swipes a strand of hair behind my ear, sending a shiver all the way down. “Or how you were so blind to my advances.”

“What advances?”

Wes rolls his eyes, amused. “I was flirting with you from day one.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t actually mean anything by it.”

His brows furrow. “How does that work?”

“You were just a flirt. You flirted with everybody.”

“Not everybody.”

“I saw you flirting with Edith.”

“Okay, but that’s because I have a thing for cougars.”

I laugh, smacking his arm.

“Seriously, though, you were different from the beginning. I couldn’t get you out of my head. Followed you around campus—”

I hold up a hand. “Wait. You followed me around campus?”

A lopsided smile. “How do you think I found out your favorite candy?”

“I knew it! I knew you were stalking me,” I tease.

He steps closer until there’s no space between us, and I’m forced to crane my neck to peer up at him. “Yeah, I was. I was fucking obsessed.”

A shiver races down my spine.

He bends down and picks me up by the backs of my thighs in one swift movement. In my ear, he murmurs, “I still need to find out how your pussy feels around my cock.”

Oh mygod.

Wes tosses me onto the bed, and I expect him to climb on top of me like he did last night, but instead, he grabs me by the hips and pulls me onto his lap. His erection intimidatingly hard between my legs.

His eyes are glued to my face. I’ve never felt sexier, more powerful, than when I’m burning under Wes Novak’s piercing blue gaze.

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