Page 44 of Burn for You (Flirting with Forever 3)

“But what about Damon?” Quinn sends me a questioning look, her face drawn.

“I. Don’t. Know. This is why I need to do this. I can’t handle not knowing which path to take. I feel like maybe if I meet this guy, my mind will be clearer.”

Madison’s eyes widen. “Or it’ll make things twice as complicated. You have a fifty-fifty shot, I guess.”

“Right. I’ve spent so much time pondering all the what-ifs, this is the only logical next step I can think of.” I sigh. “And I like this other guy. He’s kind and fun and we seem so well-suited.”

Hadleigh tilts her head to the side. “But do you think you like him better than Damon? Who you seem to already have, like, freakishly hot, angsty chemistry with?”

I hold up my hands. “I have no idea. But I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.”

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out, and everyone stares at it like it’s a ticking time bomb. “That’ll likely be a message from Professor Moriarty. I sent him a photo right before you all got here.”

Sophia asks, “A photo, sweetie? Of you? I thought you weren’t doing that.”

Zoey asks another question before I can even answer Sophia. “Oh, you mean so he can find you tomorrow?”

I shake my head. “No.” I look up at the ceiling before I murmur, “Just my legs. Propped up against the edge of the bathtub.” It’s quiet in the room until my gaze travels back down, meeting each of theirs.

Madison’s hands cover the lower half of her face, eyes wide. “Wow,” she says from behind her hands.

Hadleigh leans in. “Whoa. Wait, so, like a sort of naked photo? Like a whoever this is can imagine the rest of you in the tub kind of photo?”

I shrug. “I guess so.” I glance down at my phone, tapping the Tryst app and opening it. I blink. Rapidly. What I see on the screen has my head spinning. That’s a very delicious-looking man. I look up at the girls and back down to the image. “Wow.” I swallow, my heart racing. “I don’t know if I was ready for that.”

The silence in the room is deafening as everyone waits for me to process what’s just happened. I steal another look at the photo, biting down hard on my lip as I do. It’s angled from above, a snapshot of a sweaty torso in a pair of workout shorts, a tattoo inked on the rib cage. Miles and miles of glistening skin. Hard pecs. Defined abs. A trail of dark hair disappearing inside the waistband of the shorts where there is a very enticing-looking bulge. Something in my brain short circuits. And that tattoo. Wait. That tattoo. I’ve seen it before.

With a gasp, my pulse flies through the roof. I must look a sight because Hadleigh, Sophia, Quinn, and Zoey all set their wine glasses down, and before I am able to say a word, they’re kneeling in front of me in a semicircle. Madison still sits at my side and has resumed rubbing my back.

My hands shake violently, and I hold the phone out for someone else to take from me. Quinn plucks it out of my hand and studies the photo.

Hadleigh whispers at her, “Please tell me it’s not a dick pic. Or are we hoping for a dick pic? I’m confused.”

“It’s just a sweaty man chest with a tat—”

Sophia snatches the phone from Quinn, glances at it, and passes it on.

By the time the phone gets to Madison, I think maybe, just maybe, I’m seeing things. Maybe I’m overreacting.

Or maybe it’s Damon.

“Um.” Madison side-eyes me. “I recognize that tattoo.” She holds it up. “Quinn, look again.”

“Oh. Shit.”

I nod. “So, I’m not wrong. What am I going to do?”

Zoey holds her hands out. “Stop. Fill us in. Some of us are still lost here.”

My heart is pounding so hard, my head hurts. I whisper what I know to be true without any further analysis of the facts at hand. “Professor Moriarty is Damon.”

Maybe I black out for a minute because when I snap to, everyone has been calling my name again.

Hadleigh’s voice finally registers with me. “Piper, what are you going to do?”

My hands flail in front of me. “I don’t know. I guess … I guess I go meet him, and try not to die slowly inside when he realizes it’s been me all this time.”

“Piper! Why would you think he wouldn’t be excited she’s, well, you?” Sophia studies me, gritting her teeth.

---