I watch her, working my fingers inside her, but I can’t take it. I want to kiss her down there. Her thighs fall open, and I pull the sheet off, sliding myself down her body.
But then my phone rings, and I stop.
Dammit. I grab it off the floor, knowing Liv’s awake already, but I don’t want her disturbed.
She gives a little groan in protest, grabbing me back, but I just laugh. “Shhh…” I tell her.
I see my mom’s name on the screen, and I answer. “Morning.”
“Where are you?” she bursts out.
Liv pulls me into her arms, and I kiss her. “Still at Liv’s,” I say.
Liv takes my other hand, putting it back where it was between her thighs.
I keep my laughter quiet.
“Okay, since I know you two are dating now, this changes things,” my mom tells me. “Are you sleeping in separate beds?”
Liv rears back, having heard that, and looks at me like she’s wondering if I’m aware how dumb my mom is.
“Of course not,” I say without shame. “You’re being homophobic.”
“Don’t you use that word with me!” Mom growls. “If she were Callum, there’s no way I’d allow it, either. Sex is big deal, Clay. You can’t just start treating this house like a hotel and practically living with your girlfriend!”
I roll my eyes, tipping my head back as Liv dives into my neck.
“I don’t care if you’re eighteen or not,” Gigi goes on. “I need to meet her. She’s coming to dinner tonight. Do you understand?”
My body is throbbing, Liv so warm under my hand.
“Clay?” Mom yells. “Are you being safe? You are still under my roof, you know.”
The room spins.
“Give me back the phone!” Mom cries. And then I hear my father’s voice. “I’ll handle your mother. Bring Liv to Coco’s at seven, okay?”
I nod, excited because that’s my favorite restaurant. “’Kay. Thanks, Dad.”
“Love you.” And he hangs up, letting me go.
I drop the phone and cover her body with mine, needing this more than food. “Let’s stay in bed all day,” I tell her.
“Just try to leave,” she threatens.
I straddle her, sitting up, and I can’t stop smiling. It’s probably all over social media, so if nothing else, I’m going to enjoy this one day before everyone else does their damnedest to infiltrate my peace of mind.
I stare down at her and pull off my T-shirt—her T-shirt—and grab her leather jacket from the end of the bed. If she’s going to see anyone naked in it, it’s going to be me.
I pull it on, leaving it unzipped, a strip of my bare skin visible down the middle with the hint of the curve of my breasts. I pull my hair out from the back and let her look.
She kneads my hips, shifting underneath me as her heated gaze falls down my body. “You definitely need a leather jacket.”
“We can go shopping later,” I tell her.
Any excuse to go shopping…
But she shakes her head. “No. You’ll wear mine.”
Yes, I will. No more hiding our little trinkets of each other.
My eyes fall on the bruise on her cheek again, and I take her hands, holding them in mine. “You should’ve posted that audio.”
She looks up at me, her smile slowly dissipating as a thoughtful expression crosses her face. “Maybe I will,” she tells me. “Or maybe I want to see what happens next.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Callum has slept in this house more nights than you. Did you know that?”
I freeze. What?
She inhales and exhales. “He and Dallas…” she almost whispers.
“What?” I exclaim, dumbfounded.
But she nods. “Last summer, for about a month.”
I gape at her. He and Dallas what? Is she serious?
“Dallas broke it off,” she tells me, “and Callum was not happy.”
Oh my God. I think, trying to find any clues I had, but there are none. Nothing that I picked up on, except…
Is that why he targeted Liv? Because she was a Jaeger he had access to at school every day and could hurt?
“I didn’t know Dallas was…”
“He’s bi,” she says. “But don’t bring it up. Dallas doesn’t like anyone in his business.”
I’d gathered as much.
“Callum, I’m pretty sure is not bi,” she tells me, almost as if she’s breaking some bad news. “Or straight.”
“Fuck…” I breathe out, thinking about all his taunting and the other girls at school.
But then a thought occurs to me. Last summer, Callum would’ve been seventeen. Dallas was at least twenty then. Callum could’ve gotten him into a lot of trouble, but of course, he would’ve outed himself in the process.
So, Callum went after Liv instead. It wasn’t random.
“It doesn’t excuse his behavior,” she says, “but the more I look around at the world, Clay, the more I realize that villains are a lot more complicated than we want them to be. Sometimes, they’re just people who are really afraid.”
It definitely doesn’t excuse anything.