Page 3 of Wicked Pursuit

I shiver. “I, uh, just had sex with some guy in a private booth at the bar down the street. That’s why I was late.”

Michelle lets out a whoop that turns several heads in our direction. “So you finally broke it off with the wet blanket. That calls for a toast and some shots.”

For the first time, guilt takes proper residence inside me, overriding the other emotions. “We didn’t break up.”

She freezes.“Ruby.”

“I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” She nudges my wine toward me. “Look, I get it. Luke is hot as fuck, and he knows his way around a clitoris. So do a lot of people. You’re bored with him. Worse, in my opinion, you’reboringwhile you’re dating him. Or at least you are lately.”

I jerk back, stung. “Wow, tell me how you really feel.”

“I only do it out of love.” She sips her wine. “I understand the urge to play daddy’s little girl, especially since you have two dads, but aren’t you tired of pretending to be someone you’re not? I threw that shit away years ago.”

Yeah, Michelle had. The second we turned eighteen, Michelle buried her last give-a-damn and went to town. She partied everywhere except the Underworld—there are some lines not even she was willing to cross—and slept her way through half of Carver City.

I was so jealous, I could barely breathe past it.

There was nothing stopping me from doing the same thing. Nothing except myself and the expectations I set up. As if by carefully not stepping out of line, I could keep my parents from intervening and pushing even harder for me to take up my role as heir—I never realized that the strongest chains a person can be bound in are those of their own making.

“It’s different.”

“If you say so.” She shrugs. “Look, I understand exactly how exciting it can be to do something you’re not supposed to. You get no judgment from me there. I just don’t understand why you’re staying with Luke if you’re out riding someone else’s cock.”

I toy with my wine glass, not sure if I can fully explain what I don’t entirely understand. “I care about him.”

“See my last point—you don’t care enough tonotcheat on him.”

My phone buzzes on the bar and I shudder. “I don’t know, okay? I’m just not ready to break up with him.” I drop my phone into my purse.

“Is it your parents? You know they aren’t going to think less of you that the first boyfriend you ever had isn’t your end-all, be-all.”

She’s being logical, and there’s nothing about this situation that’s logical. “If I break up with him, there will be questions. I’ll have to move home, and then Aunt Sienna will be in my business. She already doesn’t believe he’s good enough for me, and if she thinks he did something—because she’d never believeI’mthe issue...”

Michelle grimaces. “At that point, we might as well kill him and save him from her locking him up in her murder basement and torturing him for months.”

“It’s not a murder basement,” I say faintly. “It’s a lab.”

“Two terms, same result. Besides, the alternative is for you to stay with Luke forever, becoming the cliché of a bored housewife. What’s next, sleeping with the pool boy?”

“We don’t have a pool in our apartment complex.” The protest is weak, even to my ears.

“Then tennis coach, tutor, fill in the blank. You know what I mean.” She nods at my glass. “I think we need something stronger to continue this conversation.”

I’m already motioning the bartender over. “Agreed.”

Several hoursand far too many shots later, I still don’t have a good answer for why I’m climbing the stairs to the apartment I share with the boyfriend I... love? I don’t know if that’s even the right word.

When Luke and I first got together, we were like a wildfire. I was drunk off the freedom of living on my own and having hot sex with a partner who showed every evidence of being completely obsessed with me. He was handsome and sexy and wanted me more than anyone ever had. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, and there were more than a few times we were caught fucking in places we shouldn’t have been. I don’t know when things changed. Maybe when we moved in together. Maybe when he got his new job and started working longer hours and traveling out of town for extended periods of time, selling insulation to companies. Things arefine, but fine feels tepid at best.

Maybe my standards are too high. Look at my parents, after all. They’ve been together for nearly thirty years, and they still flirt and play grab-ass and make regular trips to Hades’s kink club. The fire never burned out between them, and gods help me, but I want that fiery love.

I thought I had it with Luke. But then, I was never completely honest with him, was I? It’s no wonder we fell apart along the way.

I stumble through the front door and stop short. I expected the apartment to be bathed in shadows. He has an early morning tomorrow. A meeting with... someone. He definitely told me, and I definitely forgot as soon as the conversation ended.

Except he’s not in bed like I expected. He’s sitting on the couch with a tumbler of whisky and a paperback. He’s so fucking handsome that the first time he approached me, I couldn’t believe he was even talking to me. Now I wish he were less perfect. A few scars. A crooked nose. Something to make him feelhumanand fallible.

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