Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Oliver_Rhett: Either way, he’s not in bed with you and you ARE thinking about me. I’m okay with that, Savvy.
SeeSavvyLift: I wasn’t thinking about you. I just couldn’t sleep.
A new text notification pops up on my screen, covering Oliver’s message.
Alec: I know my mom is a lot to take. She’ll warm up to you. Just give it time.
Guilt scrapes through me. My relationship with Alec might be fake, yet chatting with Oliver still feels like cheating somehow. I should tell Alec the truth, but I hate the idea of his looking at me differently. The least I can do for Alec is get through this wedding and save him from some attempt at an arranged marriage on his mother’s part.
I’ll tell him, but after the wedding.
Savvy: It’s not her. I’m still worried about leading you on.
Alec: You’ve made it very clear where you stand. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.
He texts again before I can think of how to reply.
Alec: Sleep well. I’ll see you next weekend.
Savvy: Thank you. You too.
When I close out our text thread, Oliver’s most recent message is on the screen waiting for me.
Oliver_Rhett: If you need help relaxing, just close your eyes and remember that time I found you in the campus library. I know thinking about that night always helps me wind down.
His hands under my skirt, his breath in my ear as he told me to be quiet, the cool metal shelf against my palms as I arched back into him. The memory swamps me, and my entire body clenches in response—needy and wanting. I press my head into the pillow and try to block out all the heat pooling in my center, willing me to do just as he’s suggesting. It would be so easy to lose myself in all my favorite details from that night and so many others from the short weeks when we finally gave in to the chemistry between us.
Instead, I type out a reply.
SeeSavvyLift: Don’t hurt Alec. You two might not get along, but he doesn’t deserve you rubbing our past in his face.
Oliver_Rhett: You still haven’t told him? Interesting. But I get it. Alec would hate knowing I had you first. He’d make himself crazy with it.
Any heat I felt from the library memory is snapped away like a blanket at those words.
Oliver_Rhett: It’ll make him even crazier when he realizes how long you’ve kept the truth from him, but that’s okay. I don’t mind being your dirty little secret. I’m actually pretty good at it . . . among other things.
SeeSavvyLift: A little hypocritical of you to have any opinions about me keeping you a secret from your family, since you kept ME a secret from them.
Oliver_Rhett: Can you blame me? I can only assume you’ve met my stepmother by now. I did you a favor by never subjecting you to that bitch.
SeeSavvyLift: I see nothing’s changed with you.
Oliver_Rhett: Nope. I’m the same cocky asshole who could never get enough of you.
Until you did. I bite my bottom lip, cursing the twist in my chest. I don’t want his words to affect me. I don’t like that I would torture myself just to get answers.
SeeSavvyLift: Still breadcrumbing me, eight years later.
Oliver_Rhett: I can’t breadcrumb a woman who’s committed to her boyfriend. Which begs the question . . .
SeeSavvyLift: Goodnight, Oliver.
I turn off my phone before he can respond. It would be too easy to talk to him all night. And too dangerous.
Part Four
EIGHT YEARS AGO
CHAPTER TEN
SAVVY
Idon’t understand what just happened, but my head is swimming, and between the heat in this room and the smell of vomit in the air, I want to leave more than I want almost anything. I followed Chuck down through the tunnels, and I’m too afraid of getting lost on the way back out if I try it alone.
I look at Oliver’s offered hand and wrap my arms around myself. “Okay.” He gets my message. I’ll go with him, but we’re not leaving together.
Oliver nods and turns to one of the exits I’ve never used before. I follow.
Crossport U was expanding during the Cold War and decided it would be a good idea to create bunkers around campus. The tunnels connecting them have been closed to students for a couple decades, but since this side of campus was sold to a developer who covered it in high-end student housing, “closed” suddenly meant “monitored by people who could be paid to look the other way.” Now, there’s a whole underground world on this side of campus that’s just as seedy as it sounds. It’s home to illegal fights, gambling, and the wildest parties I’ve ever seen—not that I’ve seen many of them. I try to stay far away from the tunnels and only came tonight for Chuck.
Oliver pulls out his phone and turns its flashlight toward a dark stairwell in the corner of the room.