Page 121 of The Wrong Play

His lips curled in the faintest, most heartbreakingly tender smile I’d ever seen. And he leaned in, his forehead pressing against mine, our breaths mingling…our souls stitched together in the silence.

“Always.”

A promise. A truth. A love so deep it felt inevitable, like gravity itself had brought us here.

And as I held him, as his arms tightened around me like he never intended to let go, I knew—he wasn’t just saying it.

He meant it.

I dozed off against his chest, feeling our hearts beating, basking in the glow he brought me.

But there was a shadow that crept in. The one that always hovered over me. And now that I’d given myself fully to Jace, that shadow rooted to me with real fear.

Because he loved me.

But he didn’t know my secret.

And he never could.

CHAPTER 21

JACE

Ileaned back in my chair, staring at my laptop screen, frustration burning a hole in my patience. The party hadsomehowfailed to get Riley kicked out of her dorm. I blamed her hotness. And her sweetness.Andher overall perfection. Campus security would have had no choice but to let my baby angel face off.

I should have thought of that.

Planted a body in there or something. I bet they would have had to kick her out then. Except I was trying to get her kicked out of the dorms…not the school…so maybe murder was a bit too extreme.

And then I’d thought after I’d taken care of her that she would justwantto move in at that point, unable to part with the love of her life.

But nope. Riley was nothing if not stubborn.

So, I was on to my next plan.

“I thought the World Wide Web was supposed to be helpful,” I muttered, scrolling through another article titled “How to Get Evicted From Student Housing Without Actually Committing a Crime.” It was shockinglyunhelpful. And possibly fake, because these ideas were really bad.

“Why do you always call it ‘World Wide Web’? Why don’t you just call it the internet?” Matty mused.

He was across the room, lying on our couch, eyes glued to his phone, idly scrolling through whatever nonsense occupied his tiny attention span.

“Because that’s not its name. What do you think ‘WWW’ even stands for, Matthew?” I drawled, clicking out of yet another worthless article. He let out a half-hearted grunt, which evidently was about as much effort as he was willing to put into this conversation.

I sighed, rubbing my temples because it turns out thinking was hard.

I was too pretty for this.

“What’s your worst nightmare as far as sleeping arrangements go?” I mused, willing my big brain to wake up.

Mine was clowns. Waking up with one of the freaky devils leering over me with those red balloons. Not sure they all came with balloons, but they probably did. That would be sure to get Riley out of her room.

And possibly into a mental institution.

An image of Emma’s poster came to mind then. Riley had to look at that every day. Apparently, clownsweren’tactually an issue for her.

I shivered thinking of the poster…and Emma.

I would still only go there as a very last resort. Just in case. There were some things you just couldn’t come back from.

---