Page 42 of Her Every Fantasy

Heat filled my face and I was glad my skin was dark enough for it not to show. Not that it would’ve mattered.

Bryce saw my discomfort and, of course, compounded itby raising my chin to stare into my face. ‘Tell me, Savvie. You obviously like sex so what am I missing?’

I expelled a breath. ‘I do like sex. I just...usually need a little bit...more.’

He frowned. ‘Explain.’

‘Why? So you can gloat?’

‘If there’s gloating to be done, I will indulge. Right after I express the appropriate sensitive emotion.’ Despite his joke, his eyes were serious, prompting the truth from me.

‘I’ve never come with just penetration,’ I blurted. ‘Not until just now.’

Slowly, a smug smile spread across his face, once again filling my heart even as I rolled my eyes. ‘While I curse all the arseholes who’ve left you high and dry, I’m glad to be the one who did it for you.’

Before the moment could be ruinedby dwelling on one particular arsehole, I rolled my eyes again. ‘My turn.’

He kissed me short and hard before he drew back and nodded.

‘What did you mean earlier when you said the fire’s been raging longer than I know?’

He slanted me an assessing look. ‘What do you think I meant?’

I took a breath, willing my thumping heart to slow even as I accepted there was no way to avoid the past. ‘Are you referring to what happened three years ago?’

He gave a laugh that sounded eerily self-deprecating. ‘For someone who’s as clever as her illustrious parents, you’re not very astute, are you, Savvie?’

My lips twisted. ‘I think my parents will disagree with you on that score.’

He nudged me onto my back and raised himself on his elbows to look down at me with a fresh frown. ‘What are you talking about? I know you had some issues with your family but your parents couldn’t wait to flaunt your school report in my face every time I came to dinner.’

‘Yeah, they were good at window dressing.’

His brows pleated. ‘Window dressing? I saw some of those reports myself, Savvie. You were top of your class every year—’

‘And they were good at singing my praises in public but behind closed doors was an entirely different story, Bryce!’

His eyes narrowed at my outburst and my stomach dropped, knowing he’d heard the anguish in my voice. ‘How?’

‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’ I tried to pull away. His fingers tightened.

‘No, Savannah. Don’t play that card with me. Yeah, I know it wasn’t perfect, but if I’ve been totally hoodwinked I want to know why.’

‘Trust you to make it all about you.’

‘No, it’s not about me. I can see the pain in your eyes and, yes, I want to know if I should be kicking myself for something I missed.’

The anger I’d been scrambling to cover my pain with melted away, and when he pulled me closer, I went. ‘Don’t blame yourself. They were experts at the game.’

His frown deepened but he didn’t push for more. He simply waited me out.

After a minute of furious debate with myself, I sighed. ‘I know you have your issues with your family so you’ll probably know how it feels to wonder if you were born into the right family.’

He stared at me for a few heartbeats before he shook his head. ‘Weird as it may sound, I think I was born exactly where I needed to be. There’s no point wishing for things you can’t change.’

‘Well, in that case you have no clue what I’m talking about but the gist of it is that I’ve felt like a...like I don’t belong for most of my life.’

A puzzled look replaced the frown. ‘But...all the times you invited me home...things were that bad?’

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