I blink, half wondering if I’m just imagining things. I must be more tired than I thought, right? Because there’s no way Lily Trueman’s lying down on my bed, still in the same clothes she wore at the Wyvern Den, the denim a little damp after her dip in the pool.
She sits up as I walk in.
“One of the sharks showed me to your room,” she says, as if that’s the most natural thing in the world. “We need to talk.”
I say nothing, shutting the door behind me.
“Claire’s super nice. Sweet. Look, I—” She bites her lower lip. “Someone was sweet to me last year when I was down. She told me women should stand up for each other. I agree.”
“Isn’t that nice?” I tell her, amused.
“I don’t want you to make her life hell. Tell me what it’ll cost.”
I remove my jacket, then my watch, wishing I weren’t this tired.
“Cross?”
“Claire’s not mine to punish,” I tell her finally.
I half expect her to leave. Say, so long, then, I’ll go hunt down the guy in charge and sit on his bed, offering myself up on a platter for my roommate’s sake for him instead of you.
But she doesn’t move.
“Because Keller likes her?”
I nod, shedding my shirt, then my shoes, and jeans.
Lily doesn’t move.
“It’s not looking good for her, is it?” she whispers.
I shrug. “She’s objectively not cut out for our side of town.” I recall Keller’s qualifiers. “Sweet, naive, ignorant. Unlike you.”
She holds my gaze. “Can you promise me you’ll do what you can to help her?”
I snort. “So, what, you’ll offer yourself up on a platter for Barbie’s sake? Sweetheart, I had your lips around my cock. You’re not worth the bother.”
She blushes, narrowing her eyes. “I wasn’t trying. And I’m much better.”
“Practiced, have you? Good girl. But you already owe me two blowjobs. I could have you sucking me right now without having to coddle your Barbie,” I remind her.
“Sure,” Lily says mildly. “But I don’t owe you anything else, now, do I?”
I watch as she brings her hand to her collarbone, tracing it, slowly lowering her sleeve to her shoulder, green eyes fixed on me.
My Adam’s apple bobs. She got me, and she knows it.
“I’m listening.”
12
LILY
Fake it till you make it, they say, and I fake away, willing myself not to shiver as I watch the intensity in his golden eyes.
“So many possibilities,” I purr. “What would it take?”
I’d like to paint myself as a self-sacrificing saint in this story but the truth is a lot more nuanced than that, especially as heat gathers between my legs while I watch his ridiculous, lean, perfect body stalk to me.