We fall into a brief silence, the city lights flickering below us. The distant hum of traffic and occasional honk of a horn fills the gaps. I close my eyes for a second, letting the cool air wash over me, grounding myself before I have to face the next step: getting back in the car with Phoenix.
“Lee.” Jeremy’s voice cuts softly through the quiet. I glance up. “Did you accidentally join some sex cult while I was gone?”
I take a deep breath. “No, idiot. I just...I don’t know. He feels right for me. I don’t know why, but he does. And I like it. I like that he wants me. That he’s… obsessed with me.”
Jeremy hums. “Sounds intense. But also hot.”
I laugh fully. “It is very hot.”
“Then, I can’t blame you. Just watch out for yourself.”
Before I can respond further, I hear Phoenix’s voice from down below. I glance down, heart skipping. Phoenix is standing outside, leaning against the hood of his car in the parking lot, phone in hand.
“Hey, Lee,” he calls up, voice casual but carrying that sharp, magnetic edge that makes my stomach knot. “You almost ready?”
My chest tightens. Jeremy looks at me, squinting. “Who’s that?”
I swallow hard, panic rising like a tide. “Uh… that’s…” My voice catches. I glance down at Phoenix’s grin, so perfectly teasing, and my knees feel weak.
“I’m the boyfriend,” Phoenix calls out, smirking, the words meant to tease but landing like a spark in my chest.
Jeremy raises his eyebrows, stepping closer, eyes narrowing with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. “Boyfriend? That’s the guy?”
I freeze, caught between laughing, denying, and wanting to disappear entirely. My brain scrambles, heart pounding. “Uh… yeah,” I mutter finally, voice tight.
Phoenix leans casually on the hood, tipping his head back to grin at me, clearly delighted at my reaction. His eyes sparkle with mischief, and my stomach twists in ways I can’t describe. He’s done this before—pushed me to the edge, tested my boundaries, made me squirm. And it’s working now, just like always.
Jeremy exhales, clearly trying to process the new information, and I can feel the heat creeping up my neck.
I glance at Phoenix, whose smirk has widened. “C’mon, Lee. You almost ready or what?”
I nod, biting my lip, still panicking inside but unable to resist the pull of Phoenix’s gaze. I take a deep breath, glancing back at Jeremy. “I’m heading out again,” I mumble, my voice tight, heart racing.
Jeremy shakes his head, amusement and curiosity battling on his face. “Alright… just don’t get yourself into too much trouble, Lee.”
I shut the balcony door behind me, my hands trembling slightly as I descend the stairs. Phoenix is waiting, grin wide, leaning against the car like he owns the night. My pulse hammers in my ears.
“Ready?” he asks, voice teasing, dangerous, full of that magnetic pull I can’t resist.
I swallow hard, forcing my knees to hold me steady. “Yeah,” I murmur, climbing into the passenger seat, my thoughts still a mess from the balcony encounter, Jeremy’s teasing, and Phoenix’s smirk.
He glances at me from the driver’s seat, eyes glinting with a dangerous mix of amusement and possession.
“Good,” he says softly, but I know it’s just the beginning of what’s coming next.
13
PHOENIX
Ican’t stop smiling.
The words keep replaying in my head like a favorite song:the boyfriend.
Yeah, I said it half like a joke just to make Leander squirm in front of his roommate, but the thing is—it’s real now. It’s mine. He didn’t deny it, didn’t push me away, didn’t look at Jeremy like he was trapped. He owned it. My chest still buzzes with that memory, his wide eyes, the way his cheeks flushed pink like he’d been caught naked.
I called him my boyfriend, and he didn’t run.
Relief isn’t even the word. It’s like I’ve been white-knuckling a steering wheel at eighty miles an hour for months, fighting the skid on black ice, and suddenly—I’ve hit dry ground. The car steadies. My lungs expand. I can breathe again. And underneaththat relief, something steadier spreads through me. Like quiet. Like stability. Like him.
