taking a swig straight from the bottle. The damn jacket came unbuttoned again, exposing her curves and the almost see-through bra.
I swallowed hard, regretting my question. I didn’t want to know what had happened. I didn’t know if I could bear to think about her loving him. Touching him. Letting him touch her.
I turned to my dresser, found a clean shirt, and handed it to her.
Taking it forced her to set the brandy down, which I took the opportunity to grab.
“Poor sport,” she said with her eyes flashing again, this time with as much humor as fire.
“Just saving you from yourself. You’ll thank me in the morning.”
“I don’t need saving.”
She took the coat off, and I forced my eyes away. So much skin. Snowy delight. Her voice was muffled as she pulled my shirt on. “Let’s just say…Silas and I wanted very different things. I broke up with him, but he thought I was just upset about Dad, so he followed me here. Even after watching me build the lab, after seeing Jersey ship my things to me, he still thought, somehow, I was going to go back with him. I don’t know why.”
I snorted.
“What?” She glared, pulling her braid out of the collar.
“Vi, there is no man in their right mind who would ever choose to walk away from you.” The words were out before I could take them back.
“You did.”
As soon as she said the words, she realized she’d said them aloud, and I knew she wanted to take them back, because she flushed a soft pink. She stood up and came closer, and I didn’t budge from my spot. The warmth and scent of her rushed over me again. She reached out a hand and tugged the brandy bottle back.
I wanted to tell her she was wrong. I hadn’t walked away. I’d actually run. But it wasn’t because I didn’t want her. It was because I wanted her too much. I’d wanted her so much I thought I’d break in two with the need. I’d been afraid I’d do all the stupid things I dreamed about doing to her, and then she would have hated me. I would have hated myself. Jersey would have hated me the most, and Truck would have felt the need to be on my side, and everything would have gone to hell between them. Between all of us. But I couldn’t say any of that because I still couldn’t have her.
Violet
BACK TO YOU
“Everybody knows we got unfinished business,
And I'll regret it if I didn't say this isn't what it could be.”
Performed by Selena Gomez
Written by Gomez / Van Elsas / Allen / Premnath / Warrington
I wanted to kiss him so bad my body was shaking, but I wouldn’t be that girl again. I refused to be the lovesick puppy dancing around him, purposefully tempting him like I’d once done.
I pulled the brandy from him and started for the door, but he put a hand on it. His body bent slightly over me, caging me in a way that shouldn’t have appealed to me but did. I wanted to be surrounded by him.
He’d carried me up the stairs, arms burning into me, and brought me to his room, and the tiny teenager inside me had gone batshit wild, screaming for joy. What I wouldn’t have given at sixteen to have had him do this same damn thing. Back then, I wouldn’t have resisted kissing him. If he’d brought me to his room, and I’d had on nothing more than the bra I had on now, I would have refused his T-shirt. I would have been tempted to finish disrobing.
I lifted my chin, glaring at him. “What are you doing?”
His husky voice and warm breath coasted over me with his reply. “You’re drunk and have a bump on your head. I don’t think you should be alone.”
He grabbed my wrists and tugged me back in the direction of the bed. I sat down, suddenly tired. Tired from the emotions that flew through me when I was around him. Tired of feeling guilt for Silas, and hating Dad, and frustration over an entire town despising my sister.
I tugged off my boots, tucked my feet into the sheets that were all asunder as if he’d been tossing and turning, and lay down on my side, facing him. He was still by the door. The pillow beneath my head smelled like him. Pine and sea mixed together. I wondered what I could use to make my own