Page 52 of Only Be Mine

“John,” I breathed. “I-I love you.”

I kissed him without opening my eyes, desperate, reckless, and beyond relieved that he came.

As he pressed into me, I realized something was off.

His scent was wrong; his taste was wrong.

I pulled back and saw Trevor’s face just inches from mine.

I slapped him hard enough to sting my palm.

“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted.

“I… I thought…”

“No,” I said, backing away. “You don’t get to think.”

He reached for me again. “Please!” he pleaded. “I’m sorry. Don’t tell John.”

I didn’t respond, turning instead to run.

Back to the cabin. Back into the noise. Back into the lie I’d now have to live with.

I reached the cabin steps and stopped.

Laughter spilled through the open windows, loud, careless, and untouched by what had just happened. Cards slapped against wood. Someone whooped. Someone swore. John’s laugh threaded through it all, bright and unguarded.

My hand hovered over the doorframe, but I couldn’t make myself cross the threshold. I couldn’t walk back into that room pretending nothing was wrong.

Gravel crunched behind me.

I turned just in time to see Trevor slowing, his face pale now, stripped of whatever courage had carried him there in the dark. He stopped a few feet away, hands lifting slightly like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

He nodded once, like he finally understood that this was past the point of fixing, then turned and went inside.

The door swung shut behind him.

Seconds stretched. My pulse roared in my ears.

A minute later I heard the door creak open. I looked up and saw John standing there, his expression shifting the moment he saw me. The noise inside my head, the panic, the guilt, the fear, cut out completely.

Because when John looked at me, really looked, all I saw was concern.

Not anger. Not betrayal.

Love.

“Cate?” he said.

I turned away before he could see my face. I didn’t trust myself not to break apart.

He was there in seconds.

One moment I was standing on my own, arms wrapped tight around myself, and the next his hands were on my shoulders, firm and familiar, turning me gently back toward him. I barely had time to breathe before he pulled me into his chest.