AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She knows she’s hot.
I know she’s hot.
We all know.
I bite the corner of my lip. “Fine…um, just…fine.” I shake out a mental image of kissing October. My face on fire. “I don’t apologize for wanting to touch you.” I can’t believe I haven’t even shoved a cookie in my mouth yet.
She notices too. “You’re not going to eat them?”
“You’re better than any sweets.” It just came out! I stare at the canoe and beach glass trinkets, grimacing. “Yeah, I’m not taking that back.” Roll with it, Zoey. “So sue me.”
I swear her lip twitches upward. “I think I’d win the lawsuit.”
“Probably.”
“You give up so easily.”
“To you,” I say pointedly. To you, I’d give up everything. God, am I that willing to just lie down for October?
Yes.
I hate and love that I would. Just like I think she hates and loves that I’d surrender to her too. October casts a glimpse down my body. “Eat your cookies, sweets.” Her voice is a breathless whisper, somehow still compelling me.
I grab a cookie. “Did you just call me sweets?” I’m smiling like I’ve been awarded a Pulitzer for the fake book I’m writing.
She doesn’t deny. “You’re the sweetest of sweets, and you think I’m better than you.”
She does have a point. “I don’t just think it, you know. You are better than me.”
“I’m not.” Her face sobers. The slight smile just gone. Light vanished.
I decide not to dig deeper (which is exactly why I’m never winning a Pulitzer in journalism on the Life of October Brambilla). But I just can’t prod as she focuses her gaze elsewhere. Like away from me. Far away. My stomach knots and grumbles again.
As I bring the cookie to my mouth, I smell the familiar scent of sweet fried dough. “Fucking hell, I’ve missed this.”
October eases at the change of topic. “You’re not the only one. Baby nearly drooled over them this morning.”
I pause.
She almost, almost smiles. “Don’t worry, I didn’t let her drool on any of yours.”
“These are all mine?” I hug the pretty box closer to my chest.
She nods like it’s nothing.
It’s not nothing.
My heart floods with hope.
Amelia made me think October would be cruel to me, but in reality, all October really wants is to protect me. Sure, October would probably love to banish me out of town like Brian tried to, but she knows better.
I’m strong-willed.
She’s the one who helped forge my strength after all.
“So what’s the cover story?” October asks as she watches me devour the cookies. I haven’t had anything to eat since the plane ride yesterday. Just a snack-bag of pretzels. I keep using a hand gesture to make sure she knows they’re perfect because there’s no fucking way I can speak as I shovel them in my mouth.
“Easy, Zo,” October says. “You’re going to choke.”
“Am not,” I mumble with a mouthful, then swallow to show off my success at not choking. But I proceed to eat another cookie, then another and another. I lick my thumb, not wasting any crumb.
October watches. “If I remember correctly, I’m the one who held your hair back after a Fourth of July party because you ate an entire tray of scones. By yourself.”
“And you should have made them less delicious. It was really all your fault.”
She snorts with a slight smile. “It’s my fault you have no self-control?”
“Yeah.”
The room stills for a second. Neither of us taking our eyes off each other. And then she pulls her shoulders back like she’s reinforcing barriers and walls. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” she whispers with frost.
“Doing what?” I frown.
“Flirting.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
I smile. “I thought we were talking.”
She gives me an aggravated look. “Zoey. You’re staring at me like you’re ready for me to drop to my knees and eat you out.”
Fuuuuck.
Am I?
I definitely am.
Would she?
My whole body heats and almost trembles at the thought. “You only did that once, so I don’t expect it to happen again.” Although, I have imagined the overwhelming act. About a million glorious times.
“Good because it’s not happening again. I don’t know what beds you’ve been in or who you’ve slept with—”
“I could tell you.”
“That would break Rule #2. And I don’t think we should be shattering anymore of those. Your time here has an expiration date.”
My stomach twists, powdered sugar thick on my tongue. “You’re right…I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t hurt me,” she refutes swiftly, almost too nonchalantly. “But you’ll hurt yourself if you fall for me again and then leave.”
I let out a frustrated noise. October will tell you she’s made of unbreakable things. But she’s not built solely of steel and iron. She might be a diamond. Powerful and coveted and pleasing to the eye. Yearned for.
But steel and iron and diamonds—they don’t care. They don’t love. And I’ve never been loved the way that I know October used to love me.
