Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“Hang out with me tonight,” he whispers against my lips, his breathing shallow as I steal his air with gulps of my own.
I lean back to look into his eyes, searching for answers to all the questions I’ve had since I met him. Our game is a tug-of-war of hot and cold, but right now, his eyes look like glazed chocolate fresh out of the oven.
With the progression of the last few weeks—with how much I know I should protect myself from another temperature swing from Finn—my answer defies logic. “Yes.”
Trouble’s on the horizon, shining like the bold colors of the sunset, but my heart shoves sensibility out of the car and recklessly pushes the gas pedal to the floor. Ready or not, I’m headed right for it.
Scottie
Julia sits on Ace’s bed while he sits on the floor in front of her, her calves draped over his shoulders as though they’re a footstool. Blake is splayed across their futon in the corner, while Finn shoves in behind me on his bed with a bag of popcorn.
His face is clean after his shower, and his wet hair curls around the top of his neck. I toss the crust from my last piece of the pizza we ordered down into the box on the floor and flop back onto Finn’s pillow, my stomach freaking tap-dancing from the highs and lows of the night.
“That motherfucker didn’t even know what hit him,” Ace regales again, pretending to be dazed by an imaginary punch and passing out. Julia laughs as her legs twist around his corpse, and Finn chuckles lightly behind me. I can feel the warm air of his breath in my hair, and it takes everything inside me not to turn around.
Blake pulls a photo album out from the shelf below Ace’s bed and flips through it, pausing to hold it up with a guffaw as soon as Ace is done with his little show. “Hold up. You know Snoop Dogg?”
Ace shrugs like it’s no big deal. “My dad helped him with some financials, and my mom did some photos for the inside of his last album.”
“That’s insane,” Blake says with a shake of his head and a laugh.
Ace rolls his eyes. “Julia’s dad is the reason half the celebrities in Hollywood are together, with his discreet version of the TapNext dating app.”
Finn and I are both silent. I know he thinks my family life is different from his, but I think he’d be surprised by the fact that I feel like I can relate more to him right now than anyone else in the room.
Julia blushes before shoving Ace in the shoulder. “All our parents know famous people. What’s it matter?”
“Well, fuck me,” Blake cries, shoving to standing. “That’s it. I have to go back to my apartment and cry over how uncool my parents are.” He clasps his hands and looks to the white textured ceiling. “I hear you, Lord. I’m a nobody.”
We all laugh—even Finn—at the thought of Blake Boden being a nobody.
Blake gives Finn, Julia, and me a fist bump before ruffling Ace’s hair and leaving with a flick of his hand. I sit up and shuffle my back toward the headboard as Julia removes her legs from Ace’s shoulders. “I need to go too,” Julia remarks. “I’m exhausted.”
Ace climbs to his feet, a yawn making his long limbs stretch nearly across the room. “I’m fucking wiped too. Just sleep here so I don’t have to walk you back to Delaney.”
“Scottie and I can walk together,” Julia suggests, to which Finn pipes up.
“You can both sleep here. Scottie can sleep in my bed, and I’ll take the futon.”
I start to protest the idea, but Finn scoots up on the bed so my legs are crunched into him and his eyes are on mine. “People saw you with me tonight. People who lost a lot of money because I beat Donnie. I don’t want you walking out there by yourself.”
My head jerks back. The thought of someone being mad enough at Finn to hurt me never even occurred to me. He looks at Julia. “Same for you. I’ll feel better if you guys just sleep here and wait for daylight.”
Julia shrugs. “Fine by me.” She turns to Ace. “Do you have a T-shirt I can sleep in?”
Ace digs in his closet and tosses out a shirt, and Julia smiles at me as she trots into the bathroom to get changed.
Finn looks at me as I shift awkwardly to take my shoes off. “Do you want a T-shirt?” he whispers gently, seeming to sense that I’m absolutely losing my shit inside. It took a year of dating Dane before I slept in his bed for the first time, and I wasn’t feeling nearly the things I am now.
My whole body aches with the tease of arousal.