LOGINFlynn took a deep breath, his gaze locking onto me with an almost predatory intensity. "Do you really not know why? It's because I like you. Why else would I drop hockey and come running to you without a second thought?"I stared at him in disbelief and asked again, uncertain, "When you say you like me, do you mean as a friend, or…""I mean that I like you as a man. I want to be your boyfriend, and I want to have a future with you. I want to kiss you, hold you, and do everything intimate there is to do with you." Flynn looked straight at me. "Do you still not get it after I've spelled things out like that?"I started to wonder if I really was drunk. Why else would he be saying something like this to me when he'd always hated any kind of physical intimacy with the opposite sex?"But you said before that you hated having any physical relationship with anyone.""That only applies to other people, not you," he said. "I've had those desires for you for a long time now. I just never dar
Kieran sat beside me and started reminiscing on his own. "In high school, you were everyone's dream girl. So many guys had crushes on you, but Flynn was like a flyswatter—anyone who got close to you, he smacked them away."He blocked every single guy who tried to give you love letters or ask you out for meals. If you were to tell me that he didn't have feelings for you, I wouldn't believe it for a second."I pressed my lips together as I listened. I knew Flynn had always been possessive of me, but our relationship could never go beyond the boundaries of friendship."It's complicated," I said. "I'm not ready to come clean with Flynn yet."If telling him how I really felt meant we would fall out for good, then I would rather stay friends with him for the rest of my life.The corner of Kieran's mouth lifted. "Since you and Flynn never got together, does that mean I'm allowed to pursue you now?"His sudden confession caught me completely off guard. I looked up at him, stunned.He sw
Flynn kissed me until my knees went weak and buckled. When I lost all strength and collapsed, he caught me by the waist, pulling me up and deepening this burning kiss.His other hand slipped under my shirt, roaming back and forth over my skin. Maybe it was hormones messing with my brain, but I didn't resist him at all. I just silently let myself sink into it.I felt something big and hard pressing against my lower abdomen through our clothes. The second I realized where this was heading, my mind snapped back into focus. My rational side woke up again, and I pushed him away at once.My face was burning crimson as I gasped for air. I knew that once we crossed that line, whatever we had would fall apart fast, and there would be no going back."Juliette?"Flynn reached out tentatively, trying to steady me, but I dodged him.My reaction clearly stung him. The look in his eyes was tinged with hurt."Nothing happened tonight. Let's just pretend it was all a dream."I threw those words
After what I'd said to him that day, Flynn became even clingier than usual. If he wasn't at training, he was practically glued to my side, as if the second he took his eyes off me, I'd run out to be with some other man.Even when I went to the library to study, he would insist on sitting across from me, slumping over the table and staring at me with these pitiful puppy-dog eyes. He actually asked me if I was tired of him and if I'd secretly found someone else.I frowned at him. "How did you even come up with that?"He drooped his head, looking exactly like an abandoned puppy. "You said you were going to get someone else to be your boyfriend. You must be having thoughts like that because I'm not treating you well enough."Don't worry, though. From now on, I'll treat you twice as well and make you get rid of that idea. I'll make sure you feel like having me is more than enough."At first, I didn't really get what Flynn meant by that. Then, every morning when I woke up, my toothbru
Savannah lifted her head, her expression twisted with malice. "Juliette Gadberry likes you, too. So why are you still so close to her?"Her voice shot up several octaves, making it sharp and shrill. The people in the stands around us all turned to stare, their eyes homing in on us like spotlights.But Savannah didn't feel embarrassed in the slightest. She wanted everyone, especially Flynn, to know that the friend he trusted most had the same disgusting thoughts about him that every other woman had.I didn't try to argue because everything she said was true. I lowered my head, too scared to look at Flynn. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to handle it if I saw disgust on his face.Flynn was taken aback for only a few seconds, but that silence felt excruciatingly long to me. I felt like a criminal quietly waiting for the final verdict."Well, it's not one-sided. I like her, too."My eyes flew wide open. I jerked my head up and stared at Flynn in disbelief. The dark, stormy lo
Flynn had a point. But the problem was, when someone acted that familiar with another person and had no sense of boundaries around them, that made it way too easy for others to get the wrong idea.Back when we started college, Flynn would show up outside the lecture hall from time to time to wait for me after class. We always ate together, and he would walk me back to my dorm at night. In other people's eyes, we looked just like a couple in the honeymoon phase.But whenever anyone asked if we were dating, Flynn's face would immediately darken. He would answer with open disgust, "Juliette and I are just friends. We're not in the kind of relationship with lust and desire mixed in."We had done almost everything a couple could do, but because of his emotional hang-ups, I never dared confess my feelings to him.Thinking of that, I let out a helpless sigh. Was I really going to stay stuck with him in this "more than friends but not quite lovers" limbo for the rest of my life?"What a







