Page 2 of Ashes of Us
His mouth moved to her neck. Her head tilted back, exposing her throat, and his free hand dropped to her waist, sliding under the hem of her shirt. She arched into him, and he lifted her—actually lifted her—onto the edge of his desk. The same desk where we'd eaten Thai food two weeks ago, where I'd sat and told him about the end-of-year field trip while he'd smiled and nodded and said all the right things.
Her legs wrapped around his waist.
His hips pressed forward.
It was too much. My fingers went dead, and the container slipped from my hands.
It hit the floor with a plastic crack that sounded like a gunshot in the quiet hallway. Eighteen perfect cupcakes exploded across the linoleum, buttercream and vanilla bean and hours of work scattered in a mess of plastic and frosting.
They broke apart.
Liam's head whipped toward the doorway. His face went white. Then red. Then something worse: guilty.
“Piper—”
His voice felt like barbed wire someone had tightened around my heart.
I turned and ran.
My feet hit the stairs too fast, and I grabbed the railing to keep from falling. Behind me, Liam was still calling my name.
“Piper, wait! Please, Piper!”
But I couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop.
The common room blurred past. The bay doors were open and the sunlight was too bright, too normal, too much like the world hadn't just split open. My hands shook so hard I dropped my keys twice trying to unlock my car. The metal bit into my palm when I finally got the door open.
“Piper!”
Liam was in the doorway now, shirt untucked, hair disheveled. Looking exactly like what he was.
I threw myself into the driver's seat, slammed the door and locked it. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely get the key in the ignition.
He reached my car and pressed his palms against the window. "Please. Please just let me explain!”
The engine turned over.
I looked at him then. Really looked at him. At the man I'd been planning to marry in five weeks. The man I'd woken up at five in the morning to bake for.
His mouth was still red from kissing her.
I put the car in reverse and drove away.
CHAPTER 2: PIPER
Ididn't remember the drive home.
One moment I was pulling out of Station 47's parking lot, and the next I was sitting in my car outside our apartment building, engine still running, hands locked on the steering wheel. The sun was still shining. A woman walked past with a stroller. Somewhere nearby, someone was mowing their lawn.
The world was exactly the same as it had been an hour ago. Except it really wasn’t.
My phone buzzed in my purse.
Then again. And again.
I turned off the engine and ignored it.
The stairs to our second-floor apartment felt steeper than usual. My legs were shaking. Or, maybe,Iwas shaking. I couldn't tell anymore. I got my key in the lock on the third try, pushed the door open, and locked the deadbolt behind me.
