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“That doesn’t make it hurt any less,” I continued. “And it doesn’t make being lied to okay, either.”

Her eyes searched mine, uncertainty flickering through them.

“None of that was on you,” I said. “A kid should never have to carry a parent’s addiction. That’s too much weight for anyone.”

Silence settled between us, comfortably this time.

This was a side of Red I’d never seen before. The sharp edges she’d always worn had slipped away, revealing someone who had been carrying old hurts for far longer than she had ever let on. The fact she’d trusted me enough to show me made something shift in my chest.

She folded her arms across her middle. “That wasn’t me before.”

Wasn’t her as in how? “You need to be a little more specific.” I said curiously.

“I didn’t mean to yell. You just …” She turned away, staring at the couch pushed against the side wall. “That kiss, it… that night… at the graveyard.” Her dark nails drilled her forearm as if trying to find the right words.

I held my breath at what she would say next. It seemed important to her.

She walked over to the couch, sitting down, pulling her knees to her chest. “Did you feel it too, or was it just me?”

Of course I felt it. I felt it all. But I couldn’t tell her that. “It was a great kiss.”

Liar. It was fucking phenomenal.

She deadpanned me. “Great.”

I scratched my head. “Yeah.”

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?” Her face screwed up, causing lines to form on her forehead.

Shit.

“I mean, yeah, it was pretty damn good,” I said, trying to reassure her as best I could without giving her too much hope. Because hope was a dangerous thing. It lingered like unfinished business, made you stagnate your life, waiting for something that might never happen. If you held on for hope for too long, you could miss out on something good, something better that was meant for you.

I ran a hand through my hair, frustration getting the better of me. She lowered a leg to the ground, her gaze moving around the room again. I took advantage of the moment, eyeing the length of her shapely leg to where her pajama shorts hid the rest. The parts, dare I say it, I wanted to see most. This was not helping my boner.

She mindlessly drew her fingers in a line over her thigh, and my attention was like a missile lock. Sole target. She caught my gaze, snatching my attention once more. Hers crawled lower, and I felt it hit my chest, my neck, as if her eyes exhaled their own breath, breezing over me.

“You know this can’t happen. I can’t touch you like that again,” I said.

Her nails continued to trace a circle at mid-thigh, and a rift of goosebumps flared over her skin. Small peaks pinched at her cotton singlet.

My mouth went dry. I ran my tongue over my lips to moisten them.

“Reid…”

My heart punched against my ribcage like a bassline thumping within me. My magic hummed, vibrating throughout me. I felt it streak through my veins, wanting to do what I’d done to no person before. Something I’d told only one person about. Another fucking secret, but I shoved it down. Tapered it off.

“Red?”

I wasn’t sure where she was going with this, looking at me the way she was. Cautious, curious. Her eyes crawled over me ever-so-slowly. I wish I knew what was going on in that mind of hers. What she was thinking.

“What do you need?” she said quietly, using my own words from back at the graveyard.

I swallowed deeply, watching as her other hand drifted up her neck into her hair.

This was the part where I sank or swam. Two choices, two different outcomes. But what if there was a way we both got what we needed, just in a different way?

Her thoughts seemed to mirror mine.