I looked down at my outfit. Black fishnet tights under black shorts, a black band T-shirt that I was sure none of them had heard of. My makeup was dark, edgy, and artfully applied to keep people away.
“So Tommy Riscuto dared Sebastian to hook up with you last night at the bonfire. Tommy didn’t think he could do it. I think there’s a six-pack on the line or something, so now I have to find out who won. Is that a yes or a no to hooking up with Sebastian?”
My vision went fuzzy.
I was a dare?
A game he was playing to win a six-pack of budget beers?
I turned in the opposite direction of my class, the exit doors suddenly calling my name. I needed to get out of here. My stomach turned with humiliation, warring with the red-hot anger that flared in my chest.
“Is that a yes or a no?” Sunday asked to my back.
“Fuck off, Sunday,” I all but growled.
And Tommy Riscuto, the sensitive-ego baby who didn’t like being told to pound sand when he tried to feel me up at that house party.
And Sebastian fucking Devereux.
I got to my car with tears streaming black lines down my face. Everyone was going to know that I was stupid enough, naive enough, to let Seb take me in the most intimate way. I was going to be the laughingstock of Calla Bay, all because of Sebastian fucking Devereux.
How dare he.
Nope. Not happening. I wasn’t sticking around to watch my name, my reputation, my dignity, be mocked by thesesmall-town assholes.
I was getting out of here as soon as I graduated. I would be swallowed up by the big-city life where no one knew your name, nor did they care. Where no one knew that I gave everything to a man who only wanted to win a dare.
1
Sebastian
“Are you going to be my New Year’s kiss, little wild?”
Lydia Wilder’s glares could cut through glass, but that didn’t stop me from baiting her. She was here, within ten feet of me, for the first time in forever, making my heart trip over itself to get to her. Even on her rare visits home, she did her damnedest to avoid me. It was impossible to avoid me altogether with how close Luke and I were, but her ignoring game was just as strong.
God. She was as beautiful as always, her silvery hair framing her face, dark makeup making her green eyes shine. I didn’t know what to do with her contempt back in the day, but I’d gotten used to it over the years, even if I never did understand it.
“In your dreams, Devereux,” she shot back.
She wasn’t ignoring me tonight though.
Maybe it was the lively atmosphere of New Year’s Eve or the happiness that permeated the air being at the youngest Wilder’s pop-up wedding with his new wife. But whatever the reason, Lydia had spoken more words to me tonight thanshe had in the past ten and a half years, and I was here for it.
I shot her my most charming smirk, the one that made my dimple pop and the corners of my eyes crinkle, and stepped toward her.
The clock struck midnight, cheers and shouts ringing out throughout the house in a cacophony of noise. Everyone around us was coupled up. Reid had his eyes on his bride, Claire. Wyatt was wrapped up in his fiancée, Maeve. Luke was trying to suck the face off his soon-to-be baby mama, Scarlett, and wasn’t paying a lick of attention to anything else.
“Just a little peck. Right here.” I tapped my cheek, slowly moving closer and closer into her space. “For old times’ sake.”
Her pearl-gray hair fell into her face. The silky strands slid through my fingers as I pushed them out of the way, tucking them behind her ear.
Shit. The copious amount of alcohol I drank tonight was clearly affecting my ability to think straight or maintain any measure of self-preservation. I had barely gathered enough brainpower to wonder why she was letting me touch her when she wrapped her delicate fingers around my wrist.
Dark green eyes stared unblinking into mine, and I wasn’t smirking anymore. She lowered my hand from her face, and I tried to pull away. I think I did anyway. But maybe not. Maybe the feeling of Lydia Wilder’s skin on mine, even in the smallest way, was too appealing for me to break it.
“I don’t remember any peck on the cheek from our old times. I guess I just remember it differently,” she said. Her eyes danced with danger. Warning bells blared through my skull, but when Lydia turned and walked away, tugging me along with her, I silenced those annoying fuckers and went willingly to whatever awaited me.
“You’re about five months too late,” I told her as she swayed her perfect ass in front of me out of the house and across the dirt lawn.
