Page 44 of The Sound of Us

“That was the plan.” I tried to lighten my tone as I stood, but I couldn’t get her words out of my head.Other men. What other men? Was this just a one-off for her? A box to tick in her quest to experience everything she’d missed in her years of training? If so, I should have felt happy. I didn’t do relationships. I was a one-off kind of guy and I’d made that promise to Noah.

So why did the idea of Skye withother menmake my stomach tighten?

“We should go,” she said as I gently lowered her to the floor. “We’ve been away a long time.” She gathered up her clothes and we quickly dressed. She was cool and calm. Detached. I could feelthe distance growing between us even before she stepped out of the closet and into the light. It unsettled me. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t the first one to walk away.

“Skye…” I reached for her hand to pull her back. I needed something. A touch. A kiss. Some form of connection that would ease the strange, pent-up emotion that had knotted my stomach. My hand waved through the empty air. Skye was gone.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN“Riptide” by Vance JoySKYE

Isla was hunched over the kitchen table with her laptop and an energy drink on Saturday evening when I came back from the library. I hadn’t seen her since Friday night after our game of hide-and-seek when she and Haley had left with Nick and Chad for a few drinks at the campus bar, and Dante had gone to the station to do his show. I’d begged off, telling them I needed to get up early to go to the gym and put a dent in all my assignments, but the truth was I needed space. Isla messaged later that night to check up on me and let me know she was spending the night at Haley’s place, and I’d switched to video and told her what had happened, right down to how I’d run away.

I’d had a terrible night’s sleep afterward, tossing and turning and wondering if I’d made a terrible mistake. I knew Dante’s reputation. He’d already ghosted me once after our encounter in the basement. I had hoped my morning workout would help me sort out my feelings, but it was the walk past the social science building to the library later that afternoon that had finally sent my thoughts down another path. Of course, that ended the minute I walked into the kitchen.

“How was the library?”

“Fine.” I dropped my backpack and grabbed a protein shake from the fridge. Old habits die hard.

“Did you stop at any storage closets along the way?” Isla asked.

I groaned and sat at the table across from her. “Don’t make me regret telling you.”

“Did you message him?” She tapped on her keyboard. Isla was a multitasker. She usually had a show streaming on her iPad, two or three conversations going on her phone, and at least six tabs open when she was working on one of her labs. “Or, more importantly, did he message you?”

“No and yes.” I pulled out my phone and opened one of the tabs I’d saved over the course of the afternoon. I’d been looking up information on universities turning to private sector and public-private partnerships to address student housing needs. Dante’s comments about the university’s plans for the empty buildings on campus had given me an idea for an article that would do double duty for both the university paper and my investigative journalism class. Was there really a need for that much student housing? Some of Isla’s science labs had been scheduled for as late as 9:00P.M.because there weren’t enough classrooms. Why, then, close the social science building? Was it possible that once private money became involved, profit would take the driving seat instead of student need?

“Yes?” She looked up at me over the rim of her cup and lifted an eyebrow.

“Yes, but I left him unread. I didn’t want to know what he said.”

“So you’re going to ghost him?”

“I ran away afterward,” I pointed out. “It’s not like he didn’t have a clue that something was wrong. He told me after we kissed in the basement that what happened shouldn’t have happened, so how is this going to be any different? I don’t even know if Noah has rules about stuff like that.” My pulse kicked up a notch. “What if I lose my internship?”

“What if you don’t announce it to Noah?” she suggested. “No one knows except you, me, and Dante. And was it really a bad decision? It sounds like you both had a good time.”

“It was the best sex I’ve ever had,” I admitted. I’d never felt comfortable enough with anyone I’d been with to be as assertive as I’d been with Dante. He’d made me feel safe. He’d been caring,but also controlling in a way that had made me feel free to let go. It would have been perfect except for my concerning reaction when he called me a “good girl.” His praise had sent little sparks through my body, lighting me up inside, making me want to give more, do better. What did it say about me that it turned me on?

“Maybe you should just talk to him,” she said. “Maybe it was the best sex he ever had.”

“I can’t. I still need to process.” I shook the bottle in my hand. “And what if he wanted to tell me he thought it was a mistake? I don’t want him throwing it in my face like he did last time. It’s better if I just assume it was a one-off and act like it never happened. It’s safer that way.”

I had no intention of falling for a brooding musician who ran hot and cold, but life wasn’t sticking to the plan. Although I wanted to blame it on my sudden freedom from the rigors of training, there was no denying our chemistry. Every time we were together, sparks flew and I became incapable of rational thought. I needed to slow things down. Guard my heart. I knew all too well the emotional price for failure.

“How was your night out?” I asked, trying to steer her off a subject I’d been trying not to think about all day.

“Nick asked me out for coffee. Just us. I said no.”

She immediately had my attention. Isla didn’t talk much about her hookups and I’d never heard her talk about a guy in the context of anything other than friendship. “I thought you liked him.”

“I do. He’s a nice guy.” She stared at her screen, but her fingers didn’t move. “Drop-dead gorgeous, super smart, plays in a band, writes songs, makes me laugh, kicks ass on the basketball court. What’s not to like? I invited him to spend the night with me at Haley’s place last night and he said no. He said he didn’t want to ruin things between us. He wants to get to know me first.”

“Add ‘gentleman’ to his list of qualities.” I had to hand it to Nick. If he’d spent the night with Isla, he would never have had the chance at anything more. She would have kicked his ass out in the morning and never looked back.

“I don’t want him to get to know me, so I said no to coffee.” Her hand fisted on the keyboard, so I sat down beside her.

“I know you, and I think you’re pretty great,” I said. “Why don’t you give him a chance?”

“Because…” Her voice quivered. “If he wants to be anything more than a hookup or a friend, then at some point, I’d have to tell him what happened to me and then he wouldn’t want me anymore. He’d look at me with disgust or pity, and I couldn’t take it.”

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