Page 75 of The Summer We Fell

“Answer the question.”

“No,” I snap. “It wouldn’t bother me.”

“You’re a liar.” His hand slides beneath the sheet, up my thigh, beneath my shorts. “I thought so.” He laughs, and I stiffen as his fingers slide inside me.

“Get out,” I hiss for the third time, but he’s already removing my shorts.

“I didn’t kiss her,” he says, sliding down the bed, his hands on the inside of my thighs, pressing them open. His tongue flickers between my legs.

I gasp, and there’s a huff of breath against my clit as he laughs. It infuriates and excites me at the same time, and it barely takes him two minutes to make me come exactly the way he knew I would, arching upward, digging my hands in his hair.

He climbs back up my body, shoving his pants down, already certain I won’t say no to this either.

“Admit you were jealous.” He pushes inside me.

I meet his gaze and say nothing, but I grip him tight just in case he’s considering walking away.

“Admit you’re the one who gave me the money,” he says, his mouth running over my neck, his hand sliding beneath my tank to pinch my nipple. I arch into him, wanting more.

His hand fists in my hair. “You’re still in love with me,” he says, thrusting harder.

I clench around him. I’m so close to coming. I’m so close to breaking open in a hundred different ways.

Yes, I was jealous. Yes, I made that donation. Yes, I’m still in love with you.

Those words swirl inside me, begging for release. I bite my lip as I come to keep them from escaping.

30

THEN

MARCH 2015

“Where’d you go last night?” Danny asks when we wake. The sun’s barely rising, but the house is already in motion. I’m still not clear on why they all surf so early in the day.

I swallow. “I couldn’t sleep. The mattress sinks every time we shift.”

He sighs. “Yeah. This was a cool idea, but I wish we’d just stayed with my parents. I’ve never eaten so much pizza in my life.”

It feels like a subtle dig, a “You could have cooked for us but you didn’t.”

Only guilt keeps me from saying something back.

I fall asleep after he leaves, and when I wake, the sun’s been out for a long time and there’s music blasting in the kitchen. I make a sandwich and head to the beach with Caleb’s girlfriend, shivering in my hoodie. When I’ve seen spring break in movies and on MTV, it was clearly never in Malibu. We’ll be lucky if hits seventy today.

Danny exits the water just as I arrive. “You want to go to the house with me?” he asks, but he isn’t even asking, really. He fully expects me to do it.

“I just got here,” I reply.

He stands there for a moment, waiting for me to give in. Of course he does. I let him think he could dictate my schedule for years because I just felt lucky he wanted me, and now…I don’t feel lucky. I’m angry I ever did feel lucky. I’m angry he encouraged me to think it.

When he gives up and walks away, I drop into the sand next to the other girls. I haven’t even gotten fully seated before Luke’s head turns and he rides a shitty little wave into shore…coming straight toward me.

My stomach tightens as he walks out, easily ripping the leash off his ankle and tucking the board beneath his arm. There’s something in his face that wasn’t there before: possession. He knows that I’m his, even when no one else does. I’ll jump if he tells me to jump. I’ll beg if he tells me to beg. I’ll walk out of the house with him in the middle of the night and let him fuck me, again and again, after claiming it can’t happen anymore.

“Come into the water,” he says, looming over me. A command, not a request, his eyes daring me to say, “No.”

I have no desire to try surfing again. It was hard and the water is cold, and I’ll look like an idiot, especially next to him, the surf champion. Except…it’s a chance to be near him, and I will suffer anything for that.