Gavi smiled, then leaned sideways to bump her hip lightly against his. “Too bad. Should have been me.”
“Drafting the lawsuit?”
“Writing that tell-all. You know I have lots of interesting stories.”
“Please don’t,” he replied dryly.
“What? I wouldn’t embarrass you.” She reached up to rub his shoulder lightly, and his skin tingled. “I’d tell only the good stuff.”
“That would be impossible, because every good thing in our relationship was poison.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.”
“We were nothingbutdramatic, Gavi. Drama defined our entire relationship.”
“Not theentirerelationship.”
“You seriously don’t remember the headlines?‘Drama Defines Winter and Gavi’s Entire Relationship.’Ring a bell?”
“Fine. Maybe. But we had fun too, didn’t we?” she said, smiling into her mug.
He knew she was baiting him, so he didn’t answer.
She turned to face him, biting her lip. “Mm,” she said. “Of course, my stories about you would need a content warning.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Would they?”
“Like our first time?”
Baiting him. Winter’s jaw tightened, even as her words beckoned the memory back. A party hosted by a mutual friend, followed by a series of increasingly rowdy games. Gavi had gone, giggling, into the bathroomwhere Winter was washing his hands, and when he’d tried to go around her, she’d stumbled right into him and knocked them both against the sink. Gavi had blurted out a ridiculous swear that caught Winter off guard and made him laugh so hard he cried. They’d teased each other about it all evening, had gotten touchy. They’d gone back to her place, and Winter could only remember the rest of that night in pieces—their clothes in a pile by the door, a lamp knocked off her nightstand, her legs straddling him and his hands gripping her bare hips, her labored breathing hot against his neck as she gasped his name, the shudders that racked his body in response.
It would be so easy to fall back in, he thought as he looked down at her. Too easy to relapse.
“What are you really doing here, Gavi?” he asked her.
“Same reason you let me in,” she replied. “Can’t we just let it be that?”
“Be what, exactly?”
“Selfish for a night.” She shifted her weight to one hip so that she brushed against him again. “No strings attached.”
He laughed humorlessly. “There are always strings attached with you.”
“The undatable Winter Young,” she whispered. “Always so wary.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Are you afraid people are going to find out we hooked up again?”
“I’d prefer not dealing with a fresh round of headlines about us getting back together, if that’s what you mean,” he said tiredly. “Today’s interview was enough.”
She smiled and touched his cheek. “You care too much what other people think.”
“So do you.”
“Wrong.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I don’t care at all, as long as people are talking about me.”
“Oh, I know.”
