Page 160 of Pretty Little Lies

“You can’t even keep your conversations appropriate around my sisters to be my boyfriend, Baby Wildes. How do you expect me to take you seriously?”

“Because I just offered to pay your dad’s hospital bills either way. You say no, I’ll continue to work at it, and if you say yes, I’ll take care of all your problems because I want to.”

“Because you want to,” I repeat slowly, as if those are the stupidest words he’s ever spoken. “Out of the kindness of your little ol’ heart.”

He shakes his head. “No…because I care about you.” I stare at him, at a loss for words. “I know it’s hard to believe,” he whispers back at me through my silence. “But I like your mouth. I like your shitty comments. You drive me absolutely fucking crazy, and I look forward to it every time. Despite how we started…I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t alter a goddamn thing because that’d mean something would change everything we are and have. That knife to my throat the night we met again…I knewyou were gonna be trouble. I just didn’t realize that I was going to stand by your side and make sure no one hurt you.”

My face burns with gratification and slight denial, but that’s my paranoia working itself into a fester. He doesn’t have to do all this. He wouldn’t need to cake it on so hard. He wouldn’t need to spend thousands of dollars either to make me like him because I already do.

“You don’t have to lay it on so thick,” I half tease, half mean it.

“It’s the only equipment I have to work with. And I’ll keep saying it until you believe me, Wildfire. I’ll take care of his bills. I just want you to spend time with me.”

“Does that include you telling me things about you?” He bobs his head. “Do I get a trial subscription to this? I might not like you afterwards and want to cancel.”

He rolls his eyes, but smiles. “I hate peas and chocolate ice cream.”

My brows rise to the sky. “You hate chocolate?—”

“Loathe it. Won’t eat it. Vanilla, I can do but, no, fuck chocolate. It’s not my deal.”

“Huh.”

“Deal breaker?”

“Not quite.”

“Good. I’ll divulge more as I go.” He leans in and presses a chaste kiss to my lips, to which Mae notices andewwsoutloud.

Ellie blushes, but smiles, comfortable with the boy from the opposite side of the war who just wants me to give him a chance.

He gets one.

He fucks me over, I will cause significate damage to everything he’s ever given a fuck about.

“You stayin’ for pizza, Pretty Boy?”

“I’m stayin’ forever, Wildfire.”

FORTY-FIVE

bay

“Doyou know how long I’ve waited to get you alone?” Torin mutters in my ear as his two fingers pump in and out of me with slow and easy strokes. “How many times I’ve thought about being the only source of dick you were gonna get?”

I bite down on my lower lip, suppressing an evil chuckle. Torin sounds so dead serious about fucking me solo that I’m not sure if he’s really bothered or if his male pride is speaking up for him.

“I’m assuming?—”

“Don’t assume,” Torin clips back with venom in his tone. He dips his fingers deeper into me in warning that he’s not fucking around. That everything up to this point has been him being dead serious all along. “Know. Know how much you’ve been torturing me, Bay.”

“You psychopaths think I’m just gonna allow you into my life after finding out all the things I have.”

“Yep.”

One word.

Zero doubts about it.

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