“He said I was bad in bed.” The words landed like a stone of indignation in my gut.
“That’s not possible.”
As if I hadn’t spoken at all, she laughed a drunk-girl laugh like she was having some kind of conversation in her head that I wasn’t privy to. “But I’m going to prove him wrong. Someone else will get to enjoy how not boring I am.” Her voice faded as her breathing evened out.
How the fuck could he think she was bad in bed? There was no way.
I’d watched her dance enough to know her body moved with an innate, stunning grace that would make any man worship her. I remembered seeing her at the gym once, practicing a sequence of moves—the power, the flexibility, the absolute command she had over her own body. A woman like that couldn’t be “bad” at anything physical. It was impossible. If their sex life was bad, I was putting that all on her ex for not getting her out of her head enough. It was his failure, not hers. He was likely too self-absorbed to notice the nervous, beautiful woman beneath the surface.
To make her feel safe enough to be open and vulnerable with him.
Fuck, I needed to get out of here—get away from her before I did something stupid. But I wouldn’t leave until I was sure she was okay or Sydney got back. I moved to her desk chair and was getting ready to pull out my phone to pass some time when my gaze caught on the open notebook on her desk with the words “Spicy Bucket List” at the top in Ava’s girly writing.
Her spicy what now?
I read the list.
Then read it again.
My throat dried up and my body reacted instantaneously—a surge of unbidden desire.
Fuuuck me.
SIX
One thing being a twin had taught me was how to hide in the background. Although, maybe that wasn’t so much a twin thing as it was beingDrew’stwin. While we were both loyal to a fault and protective of the people in our lives, Drew had gotten the popular and competitive gene while I…hadn’t. Not to say I wasn’t popular growing up, but I was popular by default. Drew was the one who had everyone flocking to him like moths to a flame, and since I was always right there, I got swept up into his circle. But I’d never been the focal point.
I’d gotten comfortable—perhaps too comfortable—being in the background.
But as I started the ten-minute walk from the student union building to Sterez Hall where all the marketing classes were, it hit me that blending in wouldn’t save me today.
Not when Liam had discovered my secret.
Each step dragged, heavy with the kind of dread that made my stomach feel hollow, as if I were walking toward a spotlight I never asked for. I wasn’t ready to face him.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I never should’ve written that list. I never should’ve gotten drunk. And I definitely never should’ve let Liam carry me home. I was also not going to let my mind linger on the strength of his arms as he’d carried me with ease, as it had tried to do all damn weekend.
I wasn’t sure which choice had been my ultimate downfall, but when I’d woken up with the hangover from hell the next day and found two aspirin, a glass of water, and a note with Liam’s neat handwriting—take these for the headache—I knew I’d made a mistake there was no coming back from. His note had been written on a sheet of paper from my notebook that had my stupid, stupid list in it.
The purple lines had mocked me as my brain cleared enough to realize those five words written on that single piece of paper meant my brother’s best friend—the guy who’d never looked at me as anything but a buddy—now knew all the ways I wanted to be sexually satisfied.
At least the ones I’d thought of during my spur-of-the-moment idea.
I stopped outside the classroom door and took a steadying breath. Okay, I could do this. So what if my heart was racing at what Liam’s reaction would be or the comments he might make.
Oh my fucking God, what if he told my brother?
Before the thought could sink to the pit of my stomach like an anchor being dropped in water, I shook my head. No, he definitely hadn’t told Drew. If he had, Drew would’ve been banging on my door and telling me over his dead body would I be doing anything as salacious as half the items on that list.
I really did love my brother, but sometimes he could be an overbearing pain in my ass.
I pushed into the classroom and scanned the seats. Our usual spot was three rows back, near the window, but I didn’t even look that direction. Now that I was in the room, I couldn’t face Liam. My cheeks flushed hot at the thought. I spotted an empty seat in the far back corner and made a sharp turn toward the back wall—buta low, rough voice with the faintest hint of an Irish lilt stopped me before I could get within five feet of the corner.
“Aves.”
I stopped as my back tightened.
