Page 38 of First Verse

“Goodbye, Fairy.”

Then he’s gone, striding from the bedroom. He doesn’t look back.

“Eva?” asks Rye in a tone that tells me he’s been talking but I haven’t heard a word he’s said.

“Sorry. I’m here.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

I force confidence into my voice. “Yep.”

He hesitates. “Are you guys talking now? Is this going to happen again?”

A sudden gust of wind throws my hair across my face and whistles through high branches. I shiver, then grab my tea and stand.

“No. It was a one-time thing.”

Rye says nothing.

He doesn’t have to.

I’m not sure I believe me, either.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

wilder

You gave me what I asked for

Then took it with you out the front door

Now I’m broken open

Everything unspoken

pouring out of me

So I spin… spin

On this carousel of sin… sin

A game I’ll never win… win

Without you

Six long weeks have passed since Evangeline’s gasps and moans became my favorite soundtrack. I’ve replayed our night together so many times the vinyl is worn out. Muffled and muddy, the melody distorted.

Sometimes I’m not sure it really happened.

The only time it feels real is when I’m asleep. In my dreams, I experience it all again. The silky slopes of her hips under my hands. Her arching neck. Sweat-slick spine against my chest, her hair in my mouth, in my fist. The graceful, serpentine waves of her moving body as she matched me note for note. Bright, lust-drunk eyes and her voice sobbing my name.

Evangeline is a perfect song, but she’s stuck in my head like a bad one.

Kendra isnothappy.

I’ve successfully avoided having sex with her, but I’m running out of excuses. Thus far, she hasn’t confronted me. As much as I need her, she needs me, too. The threat goes both ways. She’s not willing to risk losing all the perks of being my girlfriend, so she’s pretending everything’s fine while I pretend I’m not revolted by the idea of touching anyone but Evangeline. And that, of course, is off the table.

Evangeline did what I told her to and blocked my number. I may not be a good person, but I’m not enough of an asshole to push her or show up at her house uninvited again. Even if I fantasize about knocking down her door a hundred times a day.

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