Before & After You by Michelle Chamberland

Author:Michelle Chamberland [Chamberland, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798620789238
Published: 2020-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

Thirty-nine Before

JAYMES LAUGHED AND bellowed in the middle of Maddie’s Diner. He could hardly catch his breath.

“When I finally sleep with Jess, you’ll damn well know it! It’ll be plastered across my face like a fucking tattoo of bliss and happiness, because I’m pretty sure her p—”

I slapped my hand over his mouth, mildly mortified. I looked at him pointedly, shut up, shut up, shut up! written plain across my face. When I was sure he would, I peeled my fingers from his lips.

“—would be like holy water, cleansing me of all my sins,” he finished anyway.

The guys laughed, and Sara’s eyes brightened in a way I hadn’t seen in a while. In a few weeks, at least.

But I didn’t care about any of that right then. Not really.

Not when my heart was beating a mile a minute. Not when Greyson was sitting at the end of our long table, searing two identical, matching holes into the side of my face.

I had let him believe that I’d slept with Jaymes—willingly. But now that it was out there, that I hadn’t? I could feel the tension crackling between us like an atomic bomb getting ready to explode. Thick enough to strangle every person that sat between us.

I scooted my chair away from the table and stood up, quickly making my way to the bathrooms, avoiding the inevitable confrontation of Greyson’s knowing eyes. I felt like such an idiot, far beyond embarrassed and straight into humiliated.

But he was faster than me, already two steps ahead.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

He pulled me around the corner, fingers gently biting into my arm, forcing my back against the wall with the amount of space he was giving me.

I sucked in a breath. I could barely breathe. Could hardly muster up the words I knew I needed to say because of the way he was staring at me, like he was staring straight into me. It threw me off-kilter.

He’d never looked at me like that before. Had never seemed that angry before, either…or this close to breaking.

“What do you want?” I finally managed. But the words lacked their intended weight, coming out as a soft breath instead of the angry growl I’d felt churning inside.

“Why would you lie about sleeping with Jaymes, Jess?” he asked. There was a layer of hurt and betrayal beneath the anger in his tone.

“Screw you,” I said. It didn’t matter why. It was too late, and it was none of his damn business, anyway. He didn’t get to care now. Not when he’d practically forced me into Jaymes’ bed in the first place.

He moved closer, his mouth inches away from mine, and I choked back the desperate need for him to close that distance between us. Those last two, maybe three inches between his lips and mine.

“Why, Jess?” he asked—almost desperate.

I swallowed thickly, refusing to answer. My breaths had picked up, and I focused all my energy on trying to hide that fact.

He tilted his head to the side and lowered it, whispering into my ear.

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