“Anything else?” I asked slowly.
“Nope! You get back to doingnothingwith Wes! We’ll see you soon. Can’t wait to see you in Ro?—”
I hung up before she could say Roman’s name. “Oops, finger slipped.”
Wes laughed, and I delighted in the sound’s warmth. “AndI’mthe rude one?”
“That phone call was unnecessary. A text would’ve sufficed.”
Wes opened his mouth.
“Don’t you dare call me a Zoomer. This was specific to Maisy.”
His teasing smile grew. “Whereas ifIwere to call you?”
My heart fluttered. “I’d pick up.”
“You’ll be hearing from me soon,” he drawled.
“Is that a threat?”
Wes leaned closer. “You’d know if something I said was a threat.”
Just when I thought the shattered moment had reconstructed itself, Wes slowly pulled back.
“You want to DJ? I don’t have Bluetooth,” he said.
“I always want to DJ.” A lingering feeling of disappointment swirled in my stomach, but it melted when Wes’s fingers brushed mine on the seat between us.
As I connected to the car’s sound system and played the Belle and Sebastiansong he’d recommended,If You’re Feeling Sinister, I waited for him to move his hand.
But he never did. His hand stayed with mine. When the lines came that spoke directly to me, just like he knew they would, I met his eyes.
He smiled. His thumb moved in a circle over my hand—maybe absent-mindedly. Maybe with intention.
I remembered all those times he’d stared too deeply inside me, much too deep for comfort.
Despite my best efforts to hide, Wes had seen something. Wes had seenme.Even if just a glimpse.
“I finished the rest of your books,” he said. “They only got better and better.”
My chest warmed, and I resisted the urge to deflect or joke away his praise. “Thank you.”
“When can I read the next one?”
I shook my head, my heart speeding up. “You can’t,” I said quickly.
“Oh?” His brows lifted.
I averted my eyes. “It’s not finished, and it’s… different. It’s not like the others.”
“How so?”
Oh, God. I couldn’t explain it to him. I’d hardly admitted to myself what this book had turned into. What it was revealing about me… and worse, what it was revealing about…
I couldn’t face it. Not yet. “It’s darker. More explicit. If I publish it as it is currently written, it will ruin the brand I’ve built.”
Wes considered this. “But are you in love?”
