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JUNE'S POV I woke up in my own bed alone, the sheets cool and empty where he should have been. At some point in the night, three or four a.m., we had crept back inside like criminals, hearts hammering at every creak. He had kissed me once more at my bedroom door, slow and devastating, then disappeared into the guest room without a word. I had not slept. I had just drifted in and out of feverish half-dreams while the ceiling fan spun above me and every bruise on my hips throbbed like a second heartbeat. Between my legs I was swollen, tender, deliciously sore. When I shifted, the ache bloomed sharp and sweet, and I hated how my body responded, how I pressed my thighs together and felt myself get wet all over again remembering the way he had stretched me, filled me, owned me for those frantic minutes. 6:47 a.m. Gray light through the blinds. The house still asleep. I sat up too fast and the room tilted. I could still feel him inside me, like my body had not let go yet. I stumbl
JUNE’S POV The moment his mouth crashed into mine again, up in that moonlit room, I knew the word “tonight” was already crumbling between us. It was not a promise anymore. It was a plea, a desperate little fiction we kept whispering so we could pretend there was still a line we had not crossed for good. His hands slipped under my blouse, palms hot and sure against my skin, fingers spreading like he needed to touch every inch he had been denied for weeks. I arched into him without thinking. *God, I wanted this.* I wanted the hollow ache inside me filled with something raw and loud enough to drown out Marlene’s name, Adrian’s soft breathing down the hall, Franklin snoring in the guest room like nothing in the world was breaking. We never even made it downstairs properly. I think I was the one who tugged him toward the garage, some frantic animal part of me that knew the house itself would choke us if we stayed inside. Luca’s mouth was on my neck, teeth dragging slow and deliberate
LUCA’S POVI leaned in the doorway, just watching for a minute. The proud line of her shoulders was gone. She just looked tired. And it was my fault.“You don’t have to clean up tonight,” I said. My voice sounded rough from disuse.“Someone has to.” Her voice was flat, eerily calm. “And you’ve done enough.”The words were a small, precise dagger. She didn’t even turn around.“June.”“What, Luca?” She finally turned, and the weariness on her face hit me like a punch. The party mask was gone for both of us. She just looked raw. Real. It made my chest ache.“We need to talk.”“We did talk. In the kitchen. You made your point. Loud and clear.” She bent to grab a cup, and I saw the fine tremor in her hand. That tiny shake undid me.“That wasn’t talking.” The confession tumbled out, ugly and necessary. “That was me being an asshole because I saw you looking and I just lost it.” I dragged a hand over my face. The fatigue was bone deep. “I shouldn’t have done that. The kiss. Using her like th
LUCA’S POVThe second I saw June look over, something cold and sharp settled in my gut. There she was, halfway across the room, holding a tray of drinks like it was a shield. But her eyes were locked on me. On Chloe’s hand on my arm.Finally.All week, I had been trying to get a reaction from her. Any reaction. A flinch, a sigh, anything. I had even mentioned Marlene needing help with her car, hoping for a little spark of jealousy. Nothing. Just that polite, infuriating mask she wears around the house lately. She was better at this cold war than I was.So I had switched tactics. If she could pretend I did not exist, I would make sure I was impossible to ignore.Enter Chloe. Look, she was not my type. Everyone knew Chloe. She had been making eyes at me all night, and I had been politely deflecting. But then I saw June watching, and a plan, this ugly, desperate thing, just clicked into place.Fine. If being good got me nowhere, I would be the villain she clearly wanted me to be.I turne
JUNE’S POVA white-hot bolt of jealousy seared straight through my chest. It was so intense it stole my breath, a real, physical wrenching right under my ribs. My fingers clenched around the tray of sodas I was holding.No. You ended this, remember? my mind reminded me. You told him to forget. He’s free. He’s a young, single man at your son’s party.The logic did nothing. The sight of his hands on another girl’s body felt like a violation. It felt like something of mine was being taken from under my nose, and I stood helpless, unable to do anything to stop it.And then, as if he’d felt my gaze burning into him, Luca looked up. His eyes found mine, locked right on through all that noise. The easy smile vanished. His gaze held mine, dark and unreadable.Then, deliberately, slowly, without breaking eye contact for a single second, he dipped his head and kissed her.It wasn’t some deep kiss, just a brush of lips, a party kiss. But it was a message. A retaliation. A brutal demonstration of
JUNE’S POVMy heart began a slow, heavy thud against my ribs. No. It was impossible. It was my own paranoia, my miserable life looking for shadows everywhere. Sarah was my best friend. Franklin was… well, Franklin was a cheater, but with secretaries like Karen. Not with my best friend. Not for nineteen years. The sheer scale of that was too monstrous to even hold in my head.But the seed was planted. And in the fertile, poisoned soil of my broken trust, it didn’t need much to start growing.I stood up too fast. My chair scraped loudly on the floor. “I should get going,” I said, my voice oddly tight. “I told Marlene I’d help her with… something.”Sarah’s happy glow faded into pure worry. She stood and hugged me tight. “Promise you’ll think about what I said. And call me anytime. I mean it.”I hugged her back. I breathed in her familiar perfume. That scent had always meant safety, gossip, solidarity. Now it just made my stomach twist.“I will,” I whispered into her shoulder. But I wasn’







