Page 47 of Apparently, I’m Torture

I tightened my lips. The difference between me and Tristan was he got to be with Nikki. But Lilly was with someone else. I wouldn’t have that same chance.

But he was right. As much as it hurt to be near her, I couldn’t walk away when she needed me. I couldn’t live with myself if this was how we ended it.

“I’ll help,” I agreed, my voice loud enough for Nikki and Lilly to hear. “But we’ll study in the backroom, if that’s okay.” There was more room here… less ‘forced proximity’. And less Mia, which was always a plus.

Lilly’s mouth dropped open. “You want to help me?”

I took in the surprise on her face. After acting like an ass for the past couple of weeks, avoiding her the way I did, I probably deserved her reaction. But instead of answering with an explanation, I widened my eyes and pursed my lips, looking from Nikki to Tristan like, uh yeah, why wouldn’t I want to help?

She folded her arms, eyeing me like I’ve seen people do in shows. The look was supposed to say, I know what you’re up to, but really, she had no clue. I didn’t even know what I was doing at this point.

Then she dropped her hands, and said, “Okay. Just me and you, back here, and we’ll lock up afterwards.”

She met my glance and smiled, and I felt my body stiffen again, my blood heating under my skin. “Good. And make sure you come prepared. My study sessions can get pretty intense.”

I winked before I could stop myself, and the confusion that passed across Lilly’s face was a sharp slap to my fading ego.

Chapter 18

Shawn

Tuesday morning

Tristy’s Coffee Shop

What the shit was I thinking?

I winked at Lilly.

Last night, she sat on that couch with Nikki’s arm around her, with Tristan stepping into big-brother-mode, and the second I finally look at the girl, I start flirting and wink at her.

It was bad enough that Mia couldn’t come tonight. I didn’t really want her there anyway; she annoyed me like nothing else. But I panicked and tried to rope in Lilly’s best friend just so we wouldn’t have to be alone. She had a date with some guy and couldn’t make it.

I should’ve been okay with that. I’ve been alone with Lilly countless times. But on my way into the coffee shop this morning, I pictured all the ways the study session I volunteered for could go so wrong. Or right, depending on–

Fuck no. I wasn’t supposed to hope for alone-time with Lilly. I wasn’t supposed to want something to happen. I was supposed to hold it together until graduation. That was the plan.

But as I stepped inside and watched Tristan say his morning goodbyes to Nikki, my glance snagged on the backroom and traitor-thoughts wedged their way in. Thoughts of Lilly bent over the backroom couch with her leggings wrapped around her ankles. Her peachy ass in the air. Her looking over her shoulder at me, begging me to spread her perfect thighs and fuck her. She’d be dripping wet, trembling, desperate, and I’d take my time. I’d tease her. I’d run my fingers along her soft, warm entrance, slip inside, and draw tight, slow circles around her clit. She’d moan in that fucking cocktease of a voice, and I’d lengthen every second, every moment, until she came.

“You’re a thousand miles away. You okay?” Tristan’s voice startled me back to the bustling shop and queue of customers.

Willing the liquid heat in my veins to settle, I put a hand to my hair, feeling the coarseness scratch my palm as I shook my head. “Yeah, I just didn’t get much sleep. I’m probably going to need one of those double shot lattes you make for Nikki. Actually, can you make it a triple?”

He gave me a smile. “I’ll make you a double. A triple and you’d be too jittery to do anything.”

“Ha. Says the man who burned himself last month.”

He laughed and shrugged. “Got me there.”

Tristan busied himself with the coffee machine while I stepped into the backroom, my eyes roving over the throw blanket, the couch cushions, the overhead heaters.

I didn’t know what was going on with me.

I knew Lilly wasn’t interested. She was with someone else.

But despite knowing that, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining all the nasty, dirty, lip-bitingly bad things I wanted to do to her in here.

Fuck.