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My heart twisted in my chest. I wanted to say it wasn’t like that, I didn’t mean for it to be this way, but every excuse felt thin and pathetic on my tongue. I hadn’t told him because part of mehad been terrified of how he’d react. Another part of me, albeit small and shrinking, had wanted to handle it with the girls, prove I wasn’t just some fragile girl who needed saving. Now, I realized how badly I’d miscalculated. I had hurt him.

I forced myself to hold his stare. “I didn’t tell you because I thought I could handle it, and I didn’t want to drag you into something I wasn’t even sure of myself.”

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway drove right through the tension. Doors slammed. Laughter spilled out, drifting closer.

“They’re back,” I rasped, panic sparking in my chest. “Let me up.”

Instead of moving, his body pressed even harder into mine, a dark smirk tilting his lips. “What’s wrong, Sass?” he murmured, low and taunting. “Don’t want them to see how fast you fall apart for me?” He rolled his hips once, slow and deliberate.

A strangled sound clawed free before I could stop it, my head tipping back.

His grin sharpened into something feral. “If I couldn’t feel how much you want this,” he drawled, his gaze dragging down between us, “I could sure as fuck see it.”

I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted blood. Frustration and want tangled into something scorching, almost unbearable. My thighs clenched around him, desperate and instinctive. He rocked forward again, harder this time, and I felt all of him, thick and unyielding against me.

Jesus.

I’d seen the outline before, plenty of times. Feeling it? There was no preparing for that.

“It’s mutual, by the way. I want you so fucking bad it hurts. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

His words detonated something low in my stomach, heat flaring across my skin.

“You said we wouldn’t,” I whispered, my voice catching. My lashes fluttered, everything in me trembling from the effort of holding back. Not just the tears pricking at my eyes, but the need that had been gnawing at me for years, patient and endless.

“No crying,” he warned softly. “I’ll break my promise, and we’ll destroy your pretty bed.”

My thighs clenched again at the threat. He hadn’t even touched me where I wanted him most, and I was already ruined. Like flipping a switch, he kissed my cheek before taking my hands and lifting me upright with careful, deliberate gentleness, so at odds with the dark edge that still lingered in his voice.

“Tell me what your note said.”

The sudden shift left me rattled, unsteady. He reached down, easing his hoodie back over my bare thighs, smoothing the hem like he hadn’t just been seconds from ruining me.

“I… I don’t remember, honestly.”

It wasn’t a lie. I truly didn’t know where the original note had gone. I hadn’t thought about it until now. He studied me, his expression giving nothing away.

“I believe you. Is there anything else?”

I hesitated, my mind still scrambled, heart hammering.

I could barely think straight, let alone come up with more confessions. He disarmed me so easily, with every word and touch.

“I… I don’t think so.”

He held my gaze a moment longer, then gave a small, firm nod. “Okay.” He leaned in, pressing a warm kiss on my forehead, then dragged his lips across mine, a whisper-soft touch, a promise of everything he hadn’t yet taken. “I have to go,” he murmured, “But if anything else happens… I better not hear it from someone else.”

I didn’t get a chance to reply.

He turned and walked out, unhurried. A few seconds later, the front door slammed shut behind him.

CHAPTER TWENTY

RYDER

I considered blocking Ashton’s number from her phone before I left, but that would’ve been too generous. He was going to feel their separation in every aspect. The distance. The fallout. Every inch of what he lost. Thanks to him being a fucking idiot, I didn’t have to lift a damn finger thus far to deal with him.

The night air was cold, but useless against the fire burning inside me. Roxxi, Arianna, and Cloe were climbing out of Ari’s car when I stepped off the porch. Their conversation tapered off the second they saw me. Roxxi and Cloe eyed me suspiciously. Arianna offered a small wave, like it might soften whatever storm was sitting behind my eyes.

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