Page 40 of Cinderella Is Faking It

“What?”

“You look a little flushed,” Defne whispered as she ducked past me.

“Have fun.” Tabitha winked at me.

They shouted their goodbyes towards the kitchen as they huddled down the doorway, whispering and giggling. Well, at least I knew what they thought of Beck. “Traitors,” I hissed. A glance at my reflection in my dark phone screen confirmed Defne’s words though. My cheeks had gone bright red, and my hair stood up in the back of my head from leaning against the fridge.

I shook my head. No matter what happened with Beck, I had no doubts about Parker’s future in my life. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hey babe, I’m so glad you called. I’m so sorry for-”

I didn’t let him finish. “I’m breaking up with you.”

“Wait, no, I’m apologizing.”

“Don’t bother. I doubt you’d do it right.”

“I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, Delilah. Please, let’s talk about this.”

“Like I said, you didn’t do it right.” I sighed. Sorry for hurting my feelings, but not sorry for making assumptions, for pinning his insecurities on me. “If you left anything at my place, I’ll mail it over.” I hung up before he could say anything else and closed my eyes for a moment. He made that so much easier than I’d anticipated.

When I turned around, Beck leaned in the doorway, one hand braced along its top. His eyes lazily traveled down my body, and the sliver of guilt I felt over breaking up with Parker on the phone vanished. One second of Beck looking at me like he didn’t know where to touch me first as soon as he had permission, and I was over my breakup. If that wasn’t telling.

I dropped the phone on the sofa and shrugged. Might as well embrace being a horrible person who did horrible things, since I spent the summer being a different person anyway.

“Do you want me to keep touching you?” He repeated his question from the kitchen, but it held a lot more weight now.

“Yes.” My voice came out smaller than I meant for it to.

“Take your clothes off.”

“You just want me to get naked?” I stemmed my arms into my sides. “That’s a little unfair. What about you?”

“You want me to touch you. I want to touch you. That premise doesn’t require me to take my clothes off.”

“What if I want to touch you?”

“You’re not ready for that. Now,” he crossed his arms in front of his chest, dropping sideways against the doorframe, “take your clothes off.”

I rolled my eyes but pulled my shirt over my head, throwing it on the sofa. “Is this what you want?” I asked, opening my arms. To be fair, my boobs weren’t that much to look at anyway. When he didn’t reply and just let his gaze roam over my bare skin, I sighed and shimmied out of my leggings and panties in one fell swoop. I tossed them onto the sofa, too. And then I just stood there. Naked. In the middle of the living room. “This feels weird.”

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Blondie.”

“Okay then.”I cleared my throat. Flexed my toes. Pursed my lips. And counted the spotlights on the ceiling. Eight.

“Look at me.”So demanding. I ran a hand over the back of my neck and forced myself to meet his burning gaze. “I said, you’re fucking beautiful.”

“Thanks.”

He finally walked over, but he didn’t touch me yet. He stopped just short of our chests colliding with every inhale. “Just to reiterate, you say stop, I stop. I remove my hands from your body. Full stop.”

I nodded.

“Do you need any other safe words?”

“I don’t know.”

“The most basic ones arewait, useful if you need a moment to adjust but don’t want to stop overall, and thenslowerwhich is self-explanatory.”