Josh misses his turn. The guy is passed out and snoring.
Eden ended up sinking our one ball, then the eight ball, to win us the game.
I go to take a sip of my drink and find it empty. I’m not even feeling buzzed from the alcohol. Damn adrenaline. Damn Edge. Fucking buzzkill. As much as I want to have another one, I don’t think it’ll do any good, and I’ll be just setting myself up for a shitty day tomorrow.
“I’m going to get some water. You guys want anything?” I ask.
Eden and Bryce hold up their cups. “I’m good,” they say in unison.
A text sounds on my phone. From my uncle:
Rain’s coming hard and fast
Forgetting the water, I quickly return to the poolroom and tell my friends I’m heading home. They try to get me to stay, but the last thing I want is to be stuck in a house with Venom for God knows how long. I say my goodbyes and head to the wall of opensliders leading out to the beach. The sky is nearly black. Not one star is visible.
A throng of slick bodies pushes against me as they rush inside. Flashbacks of the UG erupt in my head. I drive back the onslaught of memories, PTSD striking at the worst possible moment.
“Shit.” Determined to get out of there, I weave through the crowd in the living room, hook a right at the pool, and move quickly down the beach. To make even better time, I take off my shoes and run. A scull of wind and rain rips off the ocean. Damn, I still have a couple of blocks to go. The wind and the rain aren’t the issue. The lightning striking too close for comfort.
Not wanting to take a chance and get struck, turning into a charred Kinsley, I race to the closest lifeguard stand. Running up the planked boardwalk, I pray the door is open. The padlock hangs loose from the metal loop. Grateful for the small favor, I duck inside and close the door behind me. It’s a small, dark room with overriding smells jostling between the rain outside, seaweed, and sunblock. I shiver from the cold rain coating my skin.
When I pull out my phone, the battery light in the top left corner is red, with only two percent left. “Dammit.”
I plop into the seat, prop my legs on the wooden edge, and wait for the storm to pass. My eyes are just about to close when the door bursts open. At first, I think it’s from the wind, but a tall, lean figure is silhouetted in the doorway. The wind rages behind him, whipping his hair.
“What the?—?”
“Fuck,” he finishes my sentence for me. His voice has the rough texture of raw sin and dirty sex. He steps in, closing the door behind him. “Is that your first thought?”
I don’t know what my immediate thought is, nor do I have time to acknowledge it. All I know is every muscle in my bodyseizes at the sight of him. My breath catches on the inhale, getting trapped in my lungs. Of all the people to be stuck in the middle of a thunderstorm with, Ledger Hunt is the last one I trust myself to be with.
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” he says.
I can’t see his face, but it’s evident by the delight in his tone that he’s going to enjoy this.
That makes one of us.
13
EDGE
The torrentof rain has doused most of the raging bonfire. Smoke billows up into the sky like a signal for help. I follow Ninja through the rain. I know it’s a bad decision the moment the idea springs into my head, but despite knowing better, I steer in the opposite direction from my friends. Everything in me is telling me not to follow her. Then there’s that one flicker that instantly grows into an inferno. Call it curiosity, need, lust, instinct—whatever the fuck you want. But I have to go after her.
I climb the steep boardwalk of the lifeguard stand she darted into, then push open the door. She’s sitting in the only chair, staring at her phone. She isn’t as startled as she should be to see me. Probably the least of what she was expecting, which was perhaps nobody. Still, even though her body stiffens, I can tell she’s not scared. I wonder if haunted houses or horror movies give her the creeps. I consider myself a monster, and I have yet to see her flinch around me. It’s almost insulting but impressive all the same.
I rub my hands together. “Yep, it’s just you and me,” I repeat.
“What are you doing here?”
“Same as you, trying to get out of the rain.” The answer is too simple to be the complete truth and too obvious to be a complete lie. She has to know I have an ulterior motive. But I don’t even know what it is. All I know is my gut, and possibly dick, guided me right to her like a lost boat to a lighthouse.
“Really? You couldn’t just follow your friends into the beach house and continue partying there?”
She’s right, of course. That would have been the logical thing to do, but where’s the fun in that?
I ignore her question. “Where were you going before you ran in here?” I ask instead, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor near the door. I want to call a truce with her, but this game between us, this head-to-head contest of push and pull, cat and mouse, is way more exciting. Even when she never runs, she only challenges me. I want to chase her, see fear in those bright blue eyes, and feel some semblance of control over her. But whenever I’m close, she pushes back a little harder and counters with more angst. And each time she does, I get harder for her.
“Home.” She twists the ring in her eyebrow.
