You’re always reading. It’s so boring to be around. Is that really what you think a real man wants in his life?
Look, you’ve always been hot, but sometimes that just isn’t enough.
Don’t get crazy about this. Nobody likes a crazy chick.
That gaslighting motherfucker’s voice was a constant ghost hovering over my shoulder, trying to stop me from living my life. He’d made me question far too much in such a few short years. I couldn’t afford to let anyone else make me feel like I wasn’t good enough for them.
Men like Henry.
Still, my gaze drifted down to his muscular chest as he sat there with one hand wrapped around his beer while the other rested on his parted thighs, his chin tipped up to the blazing sun as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
Had I really been pressed against that body and been too out of it to remember? I knew the answer to that was yes, because the moment Bailey and Rhea ventured down to the pool, I made sure to ask them all about it, warning them to never let me get that bad again, only for them to give each other that annoying side-eye again and press their lips together at exactly the same time.
The two of them chatted away in the background now, but their voices were muffled as my brain buzzed with thoughts of what it would be like to spend a night with someone like Henry Cohen. Just one night. Would his hands be as rough as his voice? Would he teach me things I’d never dared to fantasise about before? Would he drive into me with the same intensity as his eyes burned every time they looked my way?
As if he heard my thoughts, Henry slowly turned my way.
Despite both of us wearing sunglasses, I knew without a doubt that his eyes were as locked on mine as mine were on his. Everything around us seemed to fade away except the desire I felt tugging me towards him—the kind I’d only ever read about in my favourite stories. The kind I highlighted with a peach-coloured pen every time it sprung off the page to smack me in the heart, reminding me thatthat’swhat I wanted in life.That’swhat had always been missing with Rob: the insatiableneed to devour someone based purely on the way they looked. The willingness to allow my guard to drop and release my wild edge with someone I’d never see again. Someone who wouldn’t judge me for my fantasies, my needs, and my undiscovered recklessness.
That insta-kinda lust.
I understood it now.
If I never had to see Henry again, I could imagine taking him to bed, laying down and looking up at him, begging him to destroy my body like no one had ever dared to before.
Henry raised his beer to his lips, never looking away from me as he took a slow, long drink before lowering it back down to the table in front of him and licking his lips carefully.
My skin prickled, and my nipples tightened, sending a jolt of electricity from my chest to the very pit of my stomach. I imagined those lips on me. My neck. My mouth. Covering my breasts before trailing down to find the aching desire between my legs, and?—
“What do you think, Bee?”
I blinked at the sound of my name, sucking in a sharp and heavy breath.
“Bee?” Bailey said again.
Reluctantly turning away from Henry, I hoped and prayed the girls hadn’t seen my ogling. “You… erm. Sorry?”
Bailey’s smile rose slowly, just like her brows, and her attention fell to my chest. “Cold, babe?”
My nipples were painful despite the heat, and a rush of blood purged my cheeks. Clearing my throat, I shook my head and sat up to cross my legs on the lounger. “I’m fine.”
Bailey glanced at Henry for just a moment before she looked back at me. “Sure. Right.”
“Donotstart this again.” I gave her a pointed look.
“Oh, Phoebe.”
Pushing my sunglasses on top of my head, I ran my hands down my face, groaning into my palms before I let my arms fall back into my lap. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But—”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it, Bailey.”
“I don’t think she wants to talk about it, Bailey,” Rhea chimed in.
“Okay.” But I could tell from the look on her face that this wasn’t the last I was going to hear about it. I knew my friend well, and Bailey loved to bide her time with things like this. For now, though, she’d acquiesced, and I’d never been more grateful. I needed my body to calm down, and talking abouthimwasn’t going to allow that to happen any time soon.
“What did… um. You were asking me something before?”
