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“Their families are the richest of the rich. My parents are well-off, and I’m…” She shakes her head. “I’m the lowlife around here.” “You’re not.” I brush off invisible dust from my skirt. “I’ll take that honor, thank you very much.”
“Better see my name on your paper, little lamb,” Caleb whispers. “We’re inevitable.”
He touches Savannah’s shoulder, but not in a friendly way. He pushes her aside and sweeps past her, still zeroed in on me. I don’t love where this is going. “Oh dear.” Riley gulps.
He leans down. “You okay, hon?” “Just woozy,” she lies. “I think the past week is catching up to me.” He nods, sympathetic. Hon? I want to strangle him.
“Mmm,” he murmurs, releasing his digit with a pop. “You taste like…” “Like what?” He smirks. “Like sin, baby.”
Lenora tuts and touches my forehead with the back of her hand. It’s so… well… motherly, that my eyes burn for the fifteenth time this afternoon. And, unfortunately, it’s the kindness of the small gesture that breaks the dam. Or maybe it was the onions. Either way, I can’t stop the flood of tears. My face crumples. “Oh, Margo,” Lenora whispers. “It’s okay, honey.” She hugs me again, tighter, and I try to remember how to breathe. And then Robert is joining in, chuckling to himself. “I felt left out,” he whispers above our heads.
I don’t want to cave… but I really would love nothing more than for Caleb to leave me alone. Would you really? Okay, well, I don’t know.
Pleased with my terrible attempt, I sit on my bed with a leg folded under me. “Well,” I say softly, “I’m sorry to disappoint—” His laugh kills the words on my lips. When he faces me, I get a better look at his chest. It’s all muscle, which is so unfair. His abdomen flexes, and he eyes me with renewed interest. “Disappoint?” he echoes. “I think I’ve been waiting my whole life to ravage your mouth like that. How am I supposed to let you go now?” Well… that’s not good.
Caleb When you wear that skirt, I’m tempted to haul you into a supply closet and taste you again. But this time, with my face between your legs instead of my fingers.
“You want to know what your role is, Margo? You want to steal Caleb away from me!” I laugh. It’s ridiculous. “I don’t want him.” My volume is inching up, matching her escalating crazy. “I don’t want anything to do with him. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I had him first.” She gasps. Okay, everyone gasps.
Damn girl has a magic mouth. How many guys has she blown? And why do I want to kill all of them?
People who do math with pencils just don’t know how to commit.
“You’re unnerving,” I say. “You don’t look like a soul-sucking demon when you’re concentrating.”
Theo has Caleb against the far counter, one hand on his chest. With his other, he points at me. “You. Leave.” You know what? I’m totally on board with that plan.
“Food made with love.” Lenora sighs. “Always tastes good to the stomach and the soul.”
“How does the game work?” He glances over at me, his eyebrows rising. “What?” I motion to… well, him. “How does the game of hockey work?” I scoff. “You should’ve asked if I knew anything about it before you invited me.” “Jesus, Margo.” “What? I mean, I get the concept. Get the puck in the net. Hit people.” He laughs. “Yeah, that about covers it.” Lovely.
If my head was screwed on straight, I’d be shoving Caleb back into her arms. But he’s mine. A girlfriend isn’t going to change that. His antics toward me aren’t either. He’s always fucking been mine.
His slow chuckle vibrates in his chest. “I love how you think you can get rid of me with a little pain.” “Well, a girl can dream.” “Dream about me.” He smooths my hair out of the way, shifting me closer. “Go to sleep.” And the most surprising part: I do sleep. Caleb curled around me wards off the bad dreams, and I wake up once, in the middle of the night, to find that I’d flipped around in my sleep. My cheek is plastered to his chest, head tucked under his chin, and I’m wrapped around him like an octopus. As much as it disturbs me, I let his quiet shush drag me back under. In the morning, he’s
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I open the coffee shop bag and eye the muffin. “Okay, the bribery might work,” I say. “Knew it.” Riley grins.
“Out with it.” She taps her nail on one of the paper cups between us. “And this coffee is yours.” See? Bribery totally works.
“He didn’t fight for you. Remember that when he’s promising you the world. Shit gets real, and he gets lost.”
“I’ll swear to God, Margo, I have the urge to kill whoever touches you. I don’t give a flying fuck if they’re a friend, because all that matters is how I can possess you. My touch. My words. You’re mine.”
He cups my cheek. His thumb strokes across my lips. “I don’t want to pull your strings, baby. I want to cut them.”
“You might think so, little lamb, but you’re mine. No one else’s. Stop fucking testing me.”
We approach the door that I burst through in a mad rush last time. Slower now. More in control. Except, I can almost smell my mother’s cooking. There’s grime on the windows, weeds and vines crawling up the siding. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now its state is clear. It has been abandoned. Just like me.
me. His face swims in my vision, concern drawing his brows together. Or I’m delusional, and he’s just clinically fascinated.
Can I manage to have one normal interaction? No.
He’s had his arm around my shoulder for the last twenty minutes—about the time I started shivering in my sweatshirt. His sweatshirt, I guess. Technically. But since he’s warm, I don’t mind the closeness. That’s the only reason. Pinky promise.
“Yo.” Liam grins at us. “You two a thing now?” “Yes,” Caleb clips out. I stare at him, leaning away. “What?” “I don’t really care to hear your protests right now.
Ian got in a few punches, but I’ve suffered worse at the hands of my best friends. Or family. That’s a weird marker for me, perhaps, but I shrug it off.
He finally rocks back on his heels, and his eyes search mine. He’s still holding my wrists. “Wow,” Riley mutters, a few feet away. “That was hot.”
“You’ve always been mine,” he says against my lips. “This just fucking confirms it.”
The haunted feeling I got when I walked into his house is still surrounding me, thicker than smog. He wanted to banish a few ghosts. I guess that includes me.
His exhale is loud and sharp. “I’m going to kill him.” He presses a kiss to my temple. “He’ll pay for this, baby.” There’s something to be said about having my own personal monster. I know he’ll avenge me.
