Page 82 of Villainous Summer

If he were to find out about Cory, what would he say?

I loved the way Van saw me. The strength and confidence I had when I was in his presence.

He couldn’t find out about how foolish I had been. The stupid girl who sent naked pictures to a man I didn’t really know.

Van would never respect that woman. I couldn’t even respect her.

“You’re wrong about that.” Huffing out an enormous sigh, he placed a hand on my lower back and led me across the parking lot. “I like your mess. I like everything about you.”

The late summer wind was picking up off the salt water, cooling my skin. The waxing crescent moon hung low in the sky, scattering shadows along our path as we made our way to his truck.

He paused at the passenger’s side, his hand on the handle. “I’m gonna take a wild guess that was the ex.”

“It didn’t end well.” I shrugged.

My arm stung, but I fought the urge to rub the sore spot.

Our romp in the woods had created new scratches, and I was pretty sure a sliver of a pine cone had gotten stuck in my hair.

“And that’s all you’ll say?”

“And that’s all I’ll say.”

“Summer, why you got to be so . . .”

I waited for him to pull out the words so many men used on me. Stubborn, difficult, bitchy. Crazy.

Reaching under his arm, I pulled the passenger side door open myself, then climbed in and slammed it shut in his face.

I didn’t owe him an explanation. There were no promises made between us. Van didn’t want labels. I didn’t want to trust my shame to him.

He glared at me through the window before walking around the truck and hopping in.

Once the engine started, I turned to him. “You told me you didn’t want me to lie, but that doesn’t mean you get to know everything about me.”

“I know.”

His voice was low and dangerous, as if rage had been simmering underneath it.

We drove in silence for a long time.

“Do you still have feelings for him?”

“No. Definitely not.”

“So, why talk to him? Why would you give him the time of day if he was so terrible?”

“Are you saying I deserved to be hurt like that?”

He huffed loudly. “For fuck’s sake, Summer. Of course not. No woman deserves to be grabbed like that. I wanted to punch those veneers out of his face. But I don’t understand why you couldn’t ignore him. It makes no sense.”

“No sense to you. It does to me. He deserves to be knocked down. He’s a piece of shit, and he needs to be as miserable as I was.”

I realized that, once the words left my mouth, I had said too much. Gave it all away.

I waited for his outrage, his disgust over my venom, but there was none.

“Did you love him?”

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