Page 52 of Twisted Violet

My fingers knot in his shirt.

There’s nothing sweet about the kiss. It’s all heat and pressure and months of tension finally snappingloose. I melt into it. Because this isDallas. Handsome, charming, cocky, infuriating Dallas. Who’s so sincere sometimes it hurts.

When we finally pull apart, we’re both breathing hard.

Ollie barks once, proud of himself. Like this was the plan all along.

Dallas grins, a little sheepish.

“Guess he’s a fan of a slow burn.”

I shake my head, smiling despite myself.

“Come on,” he says, voice warm against my skin. “Let’s go home.”

EIGHTEEN

VIOLET

The rain starts around dusk.

Soft at first. Nothing more than a whisper against the windows. Then it gets heavier. Louder. Until its pounding drowns out everything else.

I don’t know where the guys are. Rome said he had paperwork to do. Dallas probably went out somewhere with Ollie. And Niko… well, Niko never really tells anyone what he’s doing.

I’m alone in the kitchen, blasting music through my headphones while whisking whipped cream in a half-hearted attempt to drown out the noise in my head.

The beat is loud, the lyrics, numbingly upbeat, but it’s not enough.

I crank the volume higher and whisk harder, letting the repetitive motion do what it can to distract me.

There were more texts today. Three, maybe four. I didn’topen them. Only glanced at the previews before swiping them away.

But he sounded…different.

Angrier.

Like he could tell I was ignoring him. Like he could sense it.

So, I threw myself into baking.

I told myself it was just a distraction. That I needed to keep my hands busy to stop from checking my phone.

But somewhere along the way, the distraction turned into cheesecake - a vanilla bean cheesecake to be exact.

Dallas’ favorite.

I didn’t do that on purpose.

At least; I don’tthinkI did.

But maybe, underneath all the noise in my head, some desperate part of me wanted to impress him.

As if that matters.

As if winning him over will somehow make up for the fact that I’ve been hiding things from him.

Lying by omission, pretending everything’s fine when it’s not.