Ever After Awaits

    bChapter /bb111/bb: /bbLa /bbPOV /b

    The kitchen is loud.

    Not in the annoying way. It’s just full. Filled with voices,ughter, the scrape of cutlery, and the smell of garlic still thick in the air. But my skin feels tight over my bones, like my body forgot how to contain everything simmering beneath the surface.

    I need air. I need a moment. I need a beat of calm.

    No one questions it when I slip out the back door with the trash bag dangling from my one hand. I don’t even bother with shoes. I just pad down the porch steps, the cool wood beneath my bare feet,

    and cross to the side of the house where the bin sits like a tired sentry in the dark.

    The second I drop the bag inside and flip the lid closed again, I lean back against the house and

    exhale like I’ve been holding my breath all night.

    The breeze ghosts across my arms, slipping beneath the t–shirt I had slipped on this morning before heading to sses. The same shirt Hunter fisted at the waist while pinning me to the brick wall outside campus.

    God. My pulse stutters just thinking about this morning. And this afternoon. And earlier this

    evening.

    I tip my head back, thumping it gently against the siding, my eyes slipping closed. iSo /iclose. We were so close. First, Hunter and I this morning. Then Xavier and I, during dinner prep.

    Yes, Cade took some of the edge off of the fire Hunter stoked into existence this morning, but I wanted imore/i. And I honestly don’t care how greedy that sounds.

    If Cade hadn’t walked into the kitchen as Xavier teased me earlier… If we all hadn’t sat down for dinner… If we didn’t keep pretending dessert meant ianything /ibut me. So many ifs, and still I’m burning from the inside out, my skin as sensitive as if a parmesan grater has been run over it multiple times, and my lungs as tight as if a python has me in its chokehold.

    The way Hunter looked at me across the table tonight? It just confirmed that he’s still as ‘hungry‘ as

    I am.

    I press my palms t against the cool wall behind me, trying to ground myself. “Get it together,” I whisper. “You’re not allowed to spontaneouslybust.”

    14:29 Wedb, /bSep 10

    Chapter 111: La POV

    But my body disagrees, wholeheartedly.

    :

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    I straighten slowly, about to head back in and maybe imaybe /ifind an excuse to drag Hunter down the hallway towards the guest bathroom, hell, even the walk–in linen closet/storage room would do right about now…when headlights sweep across the driveway.

    Cade’s voice drifts through the open kitchen window. “If that’s not the Girl Scouts with their

    Caramel Choc Chip cookies, I’m not answering.”

    Another voice

    –

    Tessa’s

    —

    rings out from around the corner in response, “Then you’re missing out

    on Thin Mints and backup.”

    I blink, and my shoulders slump as I mutter, “Oh no.”

    Toote.

    The front door opens and ms again, followed by Mason’s excited voice echoing through the propped open back door, “Inspection time, boys! I need a clipboard and a shlight!”

    Fantastic.

    I round the corner of the house and skip up the back steps, just in time to see Xavier being drafted into Mason’s security sweep while Tessa unloads a bag full of board games and snacks like we’re hosting family game night on a si.

    “You guys are hopeless,” she says, grinning as she sets chips on the counter. “No house isplete without at least one night of Uno–induced warfare.b” /b

    AJ tosses her azy salute and offers Mason a fake walkie–talkie. “For coordination, little man,” he says, deadpan.

    Hunter meets my eyes across the kitchen, and in that second, everything else around us fades away.

    The tension between bus /breturns like a match to dry grass, and my body acts on instinct as I step towards him, refusing to break eye contact.

    He steps toward me as well, with intent and determination, just one step, and then Masonunches himself between us to interrogate Hunter about emergency exits and proper shlight usage.

    I could scream!

    Chapter 111: La POV

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    Cade ends up wedged between me and AJ on the couch, his arm slungzily behind my shoulders as we bicker over the rules. Tessa and Mason take the bean bag, while Hunter leans against the armrest on my far side–close enough to feel, but not close enough to feel.

    The game goes on longer than it should. Tessa wins every round, and Mason deres himself ‘Chief Security Overlord‘ and demands we all salute before our next turns. Cade cheats–constantly. AJ flirts -shamelessly. Hunter broods–beautifully. Xavier tapped out a few rounds ago, taking a call from his

    football coach.

    And me?

    Iugh, and I joke. I keep it together, as if I were a responsible adult.

    But on the inside? I’m nothing more than a horny teenager that’s still back in that alley. I’m still beneath Hunter’s hands, his thigh wedged between mine. And I’m still riding the edge of something I don’t want toe down from anytime soon.

    It’ste when the games and theughter finally end.

    Three rounds ago, Mason fell asleep against my side like a warm, floppy napping golden retriever. As the others help Tessa clear up, I hold on to Mason for a bit longer, watching everyone jovially move

    around like a well–oiled machine.

    As Cade and AJ pack the dishwasher, Tessa packs up all the games, leaving Hunter to brush past the back of the couch I’m sitting on, on his way to bed. His fingers softly and slowly draw a line from my

    one shoulder to the other, almost like an afterthought. And I feel that touch everywhere.

    “Sweet dreams, Beautiful,” he murmurs, low enough that only I hear it, his breath dusting the shell

    of my ear.

    My breath catches as he straightens and heads up the staircase.

    But I don’t move. Not yet.

    bI /bjust sit there, tangled up in nkets and Mason’s soft breathing, and the scent of Hunter still clinging to my skin like a promise.

    Chapter 111: La POV

    So close. So goddamn close.

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