Page 21 of Flynn

Chiara

Present Day…

I wanted to smack Flynn up the back of his head, but right after selling our romance to the table was not the time to do it.

What thehellwas he thinking?

“What do you mean you were her first kiss?” Ellis gritted out.

“I mean out of the two of us, I was there first.”

“You’re lying,” Ellis returned.

Flynn cocked a brow. “I’m not. I was her first kiss… and her second… and her third, now that I think of it,” he said musingly, his smile meant to needle Ellis.

I yanked my hand from his grip, and he turned to look at me with a small frown.

Ellis shook his head. “Chiara and I kissed at the party. Everyone saw it. Everyone knew she’d never kissed anyone before because her parents wouldn’t let her date. It was a huge thing everyone knew.”

“And Sofia mentioned knowing Ara kissed someone at the party who obviously wasn’t you. That someone was me,” Flynn continued, turning back to Ellis.

Ellis’s gaze jerked to mine, and I sighed.

“Chiara?”

“Does it really matter?” I asked a little desperately. “That was all high school stuff, and you’re about to marry my best friend and love of your life. Can we leave all that in the past?”

“I know who I’m marrying and who I’m in love with,” Ellis saidsharply. “But I want to know if the beginning ofourrelationship was a lie.”

“I never lied to you,” I defended.

“The hell you didn’t. I spent years thinking I was the only guy you’d kissed, and now Flynn tells me different. So, which is true, and what else don’t I know?”

I turned my desperate gaze to Sofia who spared me a sympathetic smile, but when her gaze slid back to her fiancé, I saw the sliver of hurt in her eyes and my anger at Ellis grew. None of this even mattered anymore, so why was he making it such a big deal?

“Well?” he prompted angrily.

I sighed and shook my head. “Flynn isn’t lying, and neither did I. That night I panicked when the bottle landed on me because I’d never kissed anyone, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about you. I went inside to catch my breath, and I was about to leave the party altogether when I realized the room I’d taken refuge in was Flynn’s. He was there and he asked me if I was okay, and I told him everything. He told me I didn’t have to kiss anyone or pay the price for refusing to go through with the rules, but I wanted to be like every other person at that party for once.”

“Drunk and kissing randoms?” Ellis snapped before turning his angry glare on Flynn. “You were eighteen, she was a minor, and you convinced her to kiss you while she was under the influence. You’re a fucking predator, Flynn. You should be locked up.”

Flynn stiffened beside me, but Trevor snapped at his son to watch it before anyone could say anything.

“I wasn’t drinking,” I said before anyone else could. “I never drank at those parties, and you know it. You were the one always trying to get me to loosen up and rebel a little, but I didn’t want to drink. Flynn hadjustturned eighteen. That doesn’t magically make him capable of grooming me when a few weeks prior he was considered a minor as well. He even made sure I hadn’t beendrinking. I told him I didn’t want an audience for something so personal, and he offered to be my guinea pig so that I’d have privacy. He didn’t force me to do anything or take advantage of me. I was completely of sound mind, and to be honest, Iwantedto kiss him.”

Ellis glowered.

I shook my head and took a steadying breath. “Flynn and I had a connection whether you believe it or not. It was what made it so easy for him to talk to me. Somehow, we clicked. But I knew he was angry at the world and liked to break the rules, so I never let myself get carried away with feelings for him. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t times where I wondered what it would be like to be with him or allow myself to recognize that I was attracted to him.”

Ellis frowned. “So, all those years I thought there had only been me were, what? Funny for you?”

I bit back a frustrated sigh. “First, there weren’t that many years. Second, I never said you were my first kiss, and you never asked, you just assumed. Never once did I think such a thing could be such a huge deal foryou.I never lied to you about anything, Ellis.”

A heavy silence fell on the table and Flynn tried to take my hand again, but I jerked it away, angry at him. We’d talk later about his actions tonight, but now was not the time.

“Look, all of that is in the past,” Trevor said calmly. “We’re here to celebrate Sofia and Ellis getting married, so maybe we should just focus on that?”

There were small agreements among our group, and I watched as Ellis scowled at Flynn again before turning his attention to Sofia and pressing a kiss to her cheek. She smiled, but even from where I sat, I could tell it didn’t reach her eyes. What the hell was so wrong with Ellis that he couldn’t let the past go and appreciate what he had now? Sofia was not a consolation prize.She was amazing.

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