Page 152 of Hunting Pretty

And Lisa. Once she found out, she’d be pissed. Beyondpissed. She’d invent new cuss words to chew me out with. She probably wouldn’t talk to me for weeks.

“Okay,” I said slowly, “you’re right. I’d only reach out to them a few months after everything’s blown over. They’d be pissed but—”

“No.” Frustration flared in his eyes. I don’t think he realized it, but he was shaking me. “Never. You canneverspeak to them again.”

“W-what?” I flinched as his grip became painful. “You’re hurting me.”

“Shit.” His eyes flared open and his hands loosened instantly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Ava. It’s too dangerous.”

“But… I…”

“You don’t know how long this person might keep looking for you. And if I were them, looking for you? The first thing I’d do is bug Ebony’s phone in case you called her.”

Cut offallties.

Lisa wouldn’t understand. She’d be devastated. I remembered Aisling when I met her at Poe’s Last Stand and imagined Lisa taking her place—her best friend vanished without a trace.

It would kill her. I couldn’t do that to her. She’d never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.

Oh God, and Ebony. My heart squeezed when I imagined the police coming to her door and telling her they were sorry but there was no trace of me.

I’d have to go missing.

I’d have to become a missing girl. In order to prevent myself from becoming one.

“Think about it, Ava,” he whispered as he leaned his face into me. “You and me. Forever.”

He kissed me, his lips moving torturously slow.

My heart began to race, my body trembling all over for him as goosebumps broke out up and down my arms.

When he ran his hand over my ass and squeezed me onto his hard cock, I bit into my bottom lip.

His feathery touch left a trail of fire along my skin and I yearned for more. I knew what he was doing.

He was showing me what I could have.

Whatwecould have.

Him.

This.

Us.

I could be free of my past. Leaving the horrors in the darkest corner of my mind, never to be opened again.

My eyes fluttered closed when he began to press kisses down my neck and down my cleavage.

He pushed open my top to expose my breast. “I’m leaving, Ava. Tomorrow.”

He swirled his tongue over my nipple and I let out a moan.

“Come with me.”

All I had to do was relent. Whisper a single word.Yes.

His arms snaked around me and held me tight as he breathed in the scent of my hair and ground himself against me. Skin buzzing, heart thudding, thighs clenching.

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