Maybe I wouldn’t have had my breakthrough. Who knows.
“I never meant to hurt you,” I told him.
“I know.”
“I don’t want anything to change,” I almost begged.
April was the one to answer.
“Luna, we always wanted you to win. We just didn’t know we weren’t on your team.”
Before I slipped out of the club, Ryan clutched my arm in a bruising grip.
“We thought you were different, not just another rich, spoiled, holier-than-thou Todos Santos bitch. Turns out, you’re exactly like the stigma. Self-absorbed, beautiful, and a liar. It’s over for you, Rexroth. Boon’s over for you.”
“Ryan!” April jerked him away, pushing him back.
“Ryan’s wrong about you, but not about Boon. Go to Knight,” Josh signed. “You’re his. You belong there. With him.”
He was right.
He was right, and Knight was here. At Boon.
I planted a soft kiss on Josh’s cheek, then my legs carried me outside on autopilot. I tumbled over a stair, righted myself against the wall, and lurched forward, like there was an invisible line, pulling me.
I didn’t want to waste any time calling an Uber. I started for the water tower, tears stinging my eyes.
I was going to tell Knight I wanted everything.
Every single drop of him. No Poppy. No Arabella. No clingy girls he threw crumbs of attention to. I wanted to devour every single bite of the Knight Cole cake, and I wasn’t going to settle for less.
The water tower was across Boon’s football field. I jogged through the dewy grass, flinging myself over the tower’s ladder, not even bothering to check the time. How late was I? An hour? Probably more. Maybe he wasn’t even here anymore.
With every trembling move of my feet, my hands choking the cold, rusty metal bars, I became more aware of the abyss beneath me. The water tower was three stories tall. I could fall. But instead of fear, I was filled with determination.
No, this was like the treehouse.
That’s what we did.
We met high. In the sky.
Above everything.
And everyone.
I climbed up with careful precision and slid through the white metal bannisters surrounding the water tank. The surface beneath me was all rusty metal, cold and damp. I flung myself over the railing, out of breath. Panting. I closed my eyes, too chicken to see if he was still here. Silence cocooned me. I exhaled a shaky breath.
Please be here.
But then I felt our invisible rope, loose around my neck, and knew, without even opening my eyes. He was no longer tugging.
“Remember this game?” Knight’s husky, gritty voice boomed in the air.
My eyes snapped open. The planes of his deity-like face registered, and, like all the other times I’d seen him, my heart flipped in my chest, nosediving to my stomach like an Olympic diver.
He was sitting with his long legs crossed, a lemon cut in half between us. I looked down at it, realization sinking in. I smiled.
“Fair warning: I practiced all day.” Knight grinned, his eyes raking up my body until they met mine.
I tried to swallow the ball of excitement in my throat. He was so beautiful. And so here. I wanted to ask him a thousand questions: Why was he here? When had he landed? When was he going back? What about Poppy?
But all I could do was shrug.
“I have a good track record of winning. What are we betting on?”
We used to play this all the time when we were kids. There was always a bet involved. He’d always let me win—a mischievous smile playing on his lips as I shoved the victory in his face. He was going to let me win this one, too.
Knight stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“If you win, I promise to leave you alone,” he said gravely, holding my gaze, letting his words sink in.
“And if I lose?” I croaked, ignoring the pain dull in my chest.
“If you lose…” A boyish, devastating grin found his pink, full lips, making my knees stutter, bones hitting bones. “I fuck you.”
Lethal silence. I didn’t know what to say. That’s what he’d come here for? To screw me?
Distress, anger, and lust warred inside me. I opened my mouth, choosing my next words carefully, reminding myself this was Knight. That he had a special flair for self-destruction, and when he felt wounded, he fought back. I reminded myself that Knight always let me win this game, despite his poker face.
“Are you still with Poppy?” I asked.
“No.” His eyes didn’t waver from mine.
I let out a shaky breath. “No?”
He shook his head slowly.
“She finally dumped you,” I tested the waters.
He