Riley:
I laughed, sharp and brittle, the sound cutting through the air like broken glass. “So that’s it?” My voice cracked, too loud in the stillness. “You want me, but Logan said no, so you’re just going to—what? Pretend this doesn’t exist?”
His shoulders stiffened, every muscle taut, but he didn’t look at me.
Something inside me splintered. The wine made me reckless, but it wasn’t just the wine. It was this push and pull, of the way his eyes burned and his hands lingered a second too long, of the way he made me feel like maybe I wasn’t broken, only to shove me back into pieces again.
“You’d rather hurt me than risk him,” I whispered, softer this time, and that landed—because he flinched.
The silence that followed was unbearable. My throat ached. My hands trembled against the couch c
