Now it belongs to me.
And I hate that it signifies something.
Stupid.Sentimental.Real.
This really shouldn’t matter.
But it does.
My heart’s pounding against my ribs as if it has something to say.My head’s a jumble of unfinished thoughts.
Reece Wilson doesn’t talk like that.He hooks up, he pushes people away with that confident mouth and never sticks around for the consequences.But now I’m standing here holding his ring, and nothing makes sense.
I feel unsteady, like I’ve stepped off the edge of the world and haven’t hit the ground yet.Everything inside me is tilted toward him, and I don’t know how to claw my way back.
I open my hand.
That ring sits there like it damn well belongs to me.
“Fuck,” I mutter, throat dry.
Part of me wants to throw it after him, slam it into his chest, and demand answers I’ll never accept.
But my fingers close instead.Then I shove it into my pocket as if I’ve already made a choice, even if I don’t know what the hell it is.
Chapter 16
Reece
Jace’strailerreeksofweed and stale energy drinks—the same old smell as always.The couch sinks halfway to the floor the moment I sit down, and there’s a suspicious stain on the armrest that I don’t ask about.
Jace is slouched across from me in a busted camping chair, one leg kicked up on the coffee table, wearing that permanently stoned grin that makes me want to throw something at him.
I’m not here to hang out.Just passing time between pretending I’m fine and showing up at Sam’s place with notes I definitely didn’t rewrite three fucking times.My head’s still spinning from the way she came apart on my cock, then ghosted me as if none of it mattered.
I drag a hand down my face, jaw clenched, every nerve still frayed and raw.I haven’t jerked off since before that night.Not because I haven’t wanted to, fuck, I’ve tried.More than once.But every time my hand moves, she’s there.
The way her lips parted when she came, her breath catching just before she shattered, the way she whispered my name.
And then I lose it.
My cock goes soft.I get angry because my hand’s not her.There’s no heat, no taste, no breath against my throat.Just sweat, frustration, and a reminder that I’m alone.
No amount of friction can shake her loose from me.She’s everywhere.Under my skin.In my sheets.In my damn bloodstream.
And now I’m stuck—hard for a girl who doesn’t want me.Obsessed with a memory I can’t replace, ruined by the only fuck that ever meant more than it should’ve.
A bottle cap hits my chest.I look up and see Jace grinning at me.
“You look like your dick got rejected and your puppy ran away.”
I huff out a breath, dragging a hand across my jaw.“Fuck off, Jace.”
He just grins wider, slumped back in his busted chair like he’s watching the best kind of train wreck.
I don’t give him the satisfaction of reacting more than that.My head’s a mess, and he knows it.Hell, anyone would, with the way I’ve been walking around this week like my skin doesn’t fit right.
I lean back, eyes fixed on the yellowed ceiling, trying to let the silence drown her out.It doesn’t.She’s there anyway.In every thought, every beat of my pulse, every fucking breath.I thought that coming here would shake her loose—kill the ache and ease the pain.
