Page 30 of Sins and Secrets

Alana shrugs. “Because she stole my boyfriend.”

“WHAT!” Izzy jumps to her feet and yells, “Is she still alive?”

Alana laughs. “Yes, they both are. They only lasted six months together. They broke up and are still friends. Hell, they’re thriving.” She walks to a cabinet that’s actually a fridge, pulls out an open bottle of wine, and yanks the cork out of the bottle with her teeth. “In fact, they run through my head way more than I wander through theirs. They’re both at the top of their game.”

“Damn,” Izzy drags out the word then jumps a little. “Are they clients? Like your sister?”

“You think I’m charging top dollar to my former best friend and my ex-boyfriend for their own personal security? A job where I would have to track their every move and run background checks on anyone they sleep with? How unprofessional and masochistic.”

Alana passes the bottle over to me. I take a sip and pass it over to Izzy, who says, “Let’s circle back to Waverly. Do you think you’re going to make a clean break from Angie and her family after the wedding?”

I shrug and curl inward a little. “Well, that’s the thing.” The thread on the seam of my shirt has suddenly become very interesting. “I think I might have, potentially…kind of opened a door for ‘something’ with her other brother.”

Izzy and Alana exchanged confused glances. “Lukas?”

“DAMNNNNN!” Izzy repeats herself. “And Angie knows… wait a second.” The smile from a hot cup of spilled tea changes. “Is this the mother fucker who made you cry years ago?”

“Um, well…”

I explain all about the journal and the receipt.Izzy seems like she’s fully on team Lukas, but my super scary other friend stays neutral and quiet for a second.

Alana take the bottle and stares off into space before recorking the wine and putting it back in the fridge. No day drinking for her.

“Sex with Adam, how was it?” Conversations with her never came with logical transitions. Just BOOM, lane changes, no easy merges or blinkers. But it’s the sudden shift that makes me honest. I don’t have enough time to think of lies.

“Meh.”

“Did you ever talk to him about that?”

Humiliation burns my cheeks. “Yes, and he made me feel shitty about it.” My stomach tightens recallingall of Adam’s words to me.

Alana doesn’t ridicule me, instead she sits behindher desk and squints. “If this is a road you want to pursue, you should have an open and honest conversation with him about it. Wave, you’ve been searching for something for as long as I’ve known you, and maybe it’s because Adam was blocking the path.”

ChapterFourteen

SIX YEARSAGO

Waverly

Another summer at Angie’s beach house. She’s off shopping with her mom and I opted to stay in and read and listen to music. It’s Waverly time. I’ve worked hard my sophomore year of college, I can take one day for myself. Read, relax and recharge.

The house is quiet, the only sound is the distant roar of the ocean at war with the land. My fingers glide between my legs, breaking past the barrier between my bathing suit and my skin. I spent the last hour on the deck reading one of my romances, and after three books of a slow burn, it was a forest fire. Nearly thirty incredibly hot pages of releasing five hundred pages of sexual frustration for the fictional character and the reader.

I replay the scene in my head, substituting the dark Fae with wings for Lukas. My fingers slide over my clit with ease, my hips roll, trying to hold off the pleasure as long as I can. But the thought of Lukas’s tongue, his hand, and his body send me over the edge. I lay in bed satisfied, albeit a little lonely, longing for the real thing. Stupid college fuckboys can’t do in nine months what Lukas can do to me in two weeks. And the video chats and late-night text messages only make me crave his touch more.

Hisflight was delayed and he was trapped in Denver. I hate it. Each summer, his time here gets shorter. How much time do we really have left with each other?

The door catches behind me as I head into the bathroom for my post self-love routine. The humid air hangs thick in the hallway. The house is supposed to be empty, but it’s weird walking naked to the bathroom. My T-shirt barely covers my ass, only one thin layer of cotton separating me from the rest of the world.

“Evening, Waverly.”

I jump, and my breath gets caught in my throat. Lukas stands, his arms crossed, foot resting on the wall. His black shirt is rolled past his elbows, exposing the fresh tattoos on his arms. The shirt’s missing a few buttons, and a black, leather pendant fills the space over his exposed chest. As far as I’ve seen, his chest remains a blank canvas for his art. His expression is almost unreadable to me, but his lip curls at the corner into a sarcastic smirk. He’s laughing at me.

A part of me wants to run right to him, but something’s off. Am I still coming down from my post organism buzz?

“When did you get in?”

He shrugs. “About an hour ago. I thought I was alone. Imagine my surprise to see you deeply engrossed in your book.” Lukas juts his chin out toward my room. “You’ve been going on about that book series for months now.” He grins. “I knew not to interrupt Waverly time.” He uses air quotes around the last two words.

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