Page 101 of Fast

A knock on the door makes us jump apart, as if we’d been caught with our hands in the cookie jar.

“Zara?” Heather’s voice comes in from behind the door. “Are you there? I’ve been texting you for the past twenty minutes.”

I’m on my feet, running my fingers through my hair to comb it as best I can. “Yeah, sorry.” I shout. “We were watching a movie and my phone must have been on silent.”

Ares has put his t-shirt back on. “Here, princess.” He helps me into a navy blue hoodie, zipping it up to my collarbone. “This should be good. They gave me the wrong size. I was gonna exchange it, but you can keep it.”

“I don’t wanna go,” I pout, my eyes on Ares’s lips.

Mine must look just as swollen as his. I lick them, looking for my lip gloss in my purse in the hopes of disguising the obvious “just kissed” look.

“It’s probably for the best.” Ares sighs, walking me to the door. “I need to get ready for work, anyway.”

We look at each other for a brief, tense moment.

I’m afraid that when I walk out, Ares is going to convince himself that kissing me was a mistake.

But I really have to go. And maybe I need to let him make up his mind about what we are to each other.

Chapter 22

Rush Sleepover

ZARA

“So, did you do it?” Heather asks as she joins the main road after leaving Ares’s apartment complex.

Redness rises to my face, and I squirm in my seat. Maybe my lips are too swollen and she can tell I was making out with Ares, despite how heavy-handed I was with the lip gloss.

“Or did Lev get stuck elsewhere because of the storm?”

Relief floods me when I realize that she’s talking about my date with Lev last night.

Heather and I are on our way to becoming good friends, but until I know if she can keep a secret, I’d rather not tell her about my involvement with my stepbrothers. Until we figure out what the confusing feelings between us really are, we can’t afford Scott and Mom to find out.

I give her a redacted version of last night. “Lev made it to my house before the storm got really bad. He cooked me dinner and then…”

She’s hanging onto my every word. “And then?”

“We went to my room, and it happened.”

“Yay!” Heather squeals. “How was it? Did it hurt? Did you come?”

I let out an embarrassed giggle. “Yes, and yes. Heather! Concentrate, keep your eyes on the road, please?” I scream when she turns to look at me but keeps driving toward the edge of town where the campus is located.

“Relax, Zara.” She laughs, but thank fuck she sets her eyes back on the road. “I know these roads like the back of my hand. But come on, you need to give me more details. How is Lev in bed?”

I look outside the passenger window, looking for a nice way to tell her that I would like to keep the details private. Or at least to find a way to give her some details without giving away that Chance was a part of it.

As if picking up on the fact that I’m holding back some juicy details, she slows the car as we’re about to drive into campus and looks at me again. “Wait a second. Were you two alone at home? Where was Chance?”

The lie rolls out of my mouth a lot more easily than I would have given myself credit for. “He had dinner with us, but then he played video games and we went to hang out in my room.”

She doesn’t question it. “Good. Sometimes I think those two are joined at the hip. Usually you can’t see one without the other. They’ve always been super close, but they have gotten closer since… you know.”

I nod.

The guys and Scott aren’t the only ones who avoid even mentioning Atlas’s name.

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