Page 103 of Zero Chance

And…

Looks like a W to me, Alec’s words invaded my head.I looked back down at my note and swallowed thickly.Was that an M for Mistress, or a W for Waverly?

Shit.

But it couldn’t be her.Not Waverly.It could beanyonebut Waverly.

In answer to my silent plea, Waverly lifted her hand to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, and I caught sight of the tattoo on the side of her wrist when the loose long sleeve of her shirt sagged enough to reveal a black feather.

Panic seized me.

You mean, I make you combust?she had taunted.Right up into flames.Poof.

She’d even tried to tell me who she was that night; she’d used my very taunt about her not attending parties.And I never fucking caught on.

Jesus.Waverly Frank was Mystery Girl.

24

KEENE

Ineeded two full days to process the shock.

I distanced myself from my friends because I didn’t want to answer any questions about why I was being quiet and contemplative, and I stayed away from the grandparents because—well, they’d ask the same question.

That had to be the biggest downside of liking to talk.Everyone fucking knew something was wrong whenever you went silent.

So I ended up at the campus stables each evening.They were located on a farm near the edge of town.Mainly only Aggie students went there for their agricultural courses.But occasionally, when I was in the mood, I’d pop in and ride some of the horses to exercise them or help with feeding and cleaning and shit.

It was good, honest labor that made me feel like I’d actually accomplished something after I was done, plus, sometimes I missed horses from back in my rodeo era.And while I was there on Thursday, I actually ended up getting offered a job by one of the professors.I didn’t immediately accept, but I said I’d think about it.

What Irefusedto think about was Mystery Girl.

AKA Waverly.

But holy shit.Waverly?

She was an untouchable.Hell, she wasTHEuntouchable.

I did not like learning I’d fucking touched the untouchable.That I’d stuck my dick in her mouth and eaten her pussy.

That was just…

I didn’t know how to feel about it.

There was a reason why I kept a certain kind of distance from her, why I never flirted or even entertainedthoughtsin her direction.

She reminded me too much of my mother.And my mother had been the most important person in my world.She’d been my everything.

From the very moment I’d glanced up in the library on the first week of freshman year and seen Waverly Frank standing on the other side of that checkout counter, I’d seen the potential.I’d known what she could do to me.And I’d kept my pecker fuckingawayfrom her.

It was like that intrinsic knowledge you had at night in bed when your foot started to slip out from under the covers and off the side of the mattress.You had to pull it back as quickly as possible before the bogeyman snatched it.Or the resistance you felt about sliding your hand into a dark hole because a spider or snake was inevitably waiting inside to bite you.

I avoided sexualanythingswith Waverly Frank because she was too much like my mom—she looked sort of like her, she worked in the same building as Mom had, she had the same quiet calmness about her—and I knew deep in my bones if I ever went down that path, I wouldn’t be coming back.

And no way in hell was I ready forthat.

I was only twenty fucking years old.The prime of my life.I was getting to experience sex with all kinds of different women, learning what they liked and didn’t like—hell, learning whatIliked and didn’t like.I was having fun and experimenting, answering to no one but myself.I was free and happy, and I liked it.

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