Twisted Love (Modern Romance #3) - Piper Lawson Page 0,52

myself to focus on one twin at a time. “I’m not leaving you alone."

"I can take care of myself."

"Sure, but it would be irresponsible to let you loose on the student body looking like that. Let’s go to my car.” She shot me a look, and I let out an exasperated huff. “I’m not driving home. I just need somewhere to think. You look like you could use that too.”

She followed me to the parking garage, where I stopped in front of the Mustang I’d bought the year before with the proceeds of my first venture. I shifted in and reached over to get her door.

My body buzzed through the seat. I stared out the windshield at the concrete parking structure around us. Every breath was painful. For the first time, thanks to the alcohol or my state of mind, my own agitation sank in.

“What’s your problem?”

Her voice cut the quiet, and I turned to look at her. “My mom went to the hospital tonight after overdosing.”

Whatever she expected, it wasn’t that. “I'm sorry."

Being in my car with this girl was weird. If anything, I’d been hanging out more with her sister.

“We all have our problems. Don’t say anything to anyone. About my mom.”

“Who’m I going to tell?” Her voice was softer than usual. Self-deprecating.

I leaned over the console, catching her hair where it stuck in the door.

Instead of pulling back, I lingered there, our faces inches apart. It wasn’t her makeup or her dress, it was the look in her eyes, like she wanted to run from it all too, that fucking called to me.

That was why I kissed her.

There was nothing first-kiss-like about it. Nothing tentative or exploratory.

It was a raw truth, a moment of weakness I saw reflected back at me. As if two people who normally had their shit together could find solace for a few seconds in a darkened car.

She welcomed me, opened under the crush of my mouth. I dragged her across the car and into my lap. It was every bit of wild desperation in me, crude and angry.

If a few seconds was good, a few minutes had to be better.

She was fire in my arms, clawing at me as if she was just as needy as I was.

I didn’t have to justify this or explain it. I dragged her shirt over her head, and she moaned against my mouth as I stroked her sides, her breasts. I was hard for her, grinding against the soft spot between her thighs I suddenly wanted more than my next breath.

Her hands were on my zipper as if she wanted that too.

“You sure?” I rasped as she worked my jeans down, me shifting to help.

Her tight nod had my abs clenching harder. “Yeah. I’m on the pill.”

This is wrong. A voice that sounded like mine echoed somewhere deep in my mind.

But it was too late. She shifted over me, taking me inside her on a long stroke.

I understood the appeal of casual hookups when everyone was on the same page, but this felt more complex, and the feelings ricocheting through me weren’t about sexual gratification. It was as if she had the same emotional brittleness, the same fragile pride masquerading as strength.

Before tonight, I’d never been tempted by her advances, but from the moment she’d turned to look at me tonight, something had changed. I couldn't hold her away.

What changed was the world fucked you over when you weren’t looking.

“Ben. Oh my God.”

My hands tangled in her hair, stroking a thumb down her cheek, the line of her jaw. I thrust up into her, needing to take her like she needed me. Needing to forget everything that wasn’t this.

“Fuck, Vi.”

She stiffened, pulling back to stare at me.

Something was wrong. Awfully, horribly wrong.

When my heart was still hammering against my ribs, she shifted off me, straightening her clothes. “This was a mistake.”

“Wait.”

But she was out of the car and across the parking garage before I could argue.

17

The morning after I slept with Vi, I woke in my car—where I'd fallen asleep—to a call that I could see my mom in the hospital.

By the time I returned to school the next semester, Vi was gone.

Daisy, though… Daisy was there.

And I gradually realized what I wished I’d known all along—that she was the one who called to me, who got me, who I connected with.

I was too disgusted with myself to do a thing about it other than be her friend, living in the fallout of sleeping with her