5. Vineyard + Vixen

Presley and I have taken to my living room with pizza, beer and small cigars this Saturday night. We go through these phases where sometimes all we want to do is sip wine, eat ice cream and snuggle in fuzzy blankets on the couch while watching romantic comedies. Other times, we just want to gorge ourselves on pizza, chug beer and smoke like fat, fifty-year-old, balding men. Tonight happens to be the latter of the two. Don't ask me why, it's just what goes on around here.

Mom,for obvious reasons, can't tell us that we're not allowed to smoke inside, so we light up our mini cigars and pop open our porters.

We're about to press play to kick off our Riverdale binge when the door bell rings.

"I dare you to answer the door holding the beer and cigar," Presley laughs and says something under her breath that sounded like 'Papa Fallon,' which cracks her up as I walk toward the door, clutching my beer and cigar in one hand, my paranoid, rule-following heart praying it's not an officer.

I swing the door open to find Jayce standing on my damn front porch, leaning against the door frame like the owns the fucking house.

He's wearing a backwards ball cap with an orange Nike tank top and dark jeans, and ugh. He's delicious and beautiful.

The knot in my stomach lurches as he slowly looks me from top to bottom and back again. He smirks and says, "You wear the hell out of that little outfit."

"Thanks," I say with a straight face, "but I actually didn't dress for your viewing pleasure."

I begin to close the door but his hand flies up and stops it.

"What do you want, Solis?" I growl at him, opening the door again so I can glower at his smug smirk.

"I'm-uh," he lifts his cap and ruffles his hair, almost nervously, and looks at the ground for a moment like he's trying to remember why the actual fuck he's standing on my damn front porch. "I'm here for my jacket," he finally says, his fiery brown eyes looking up to meet mine.

"Oh, right," I say, embarrassed that I had just made such a scene over him simply returning to pick up an important article of clothing. "You can, uh... you can just wait here. I'll be right back." I promptly slam the door in his face and run toward the stairs, embarrassed and heated. I collide into Presley, who has clearly been eavesdropping from around the corner.

"Shit!" I yip as my beer almost spills. I glare at her, but she's obviously too giddy with Jayce-craze to care.

"You better invite him the fuck in, Fallon!" Presley hisses under her breath as she runs up the stairs after me.

I rip his jacket off the back of my chair and look at it accusingly.

"Fallon!" Presley pinches my butt painfully hard, effectively pulling me out of my over-analyzing thought process.

"He literally just came to get his jacket, Pres," I say, reminding myself of the truth. He just needs his jacket back. I turn to face her with a serious expression, "That's all."

She pouts and folds her arms, "You're full of shit, and you know it. Invite him in."

"No," I say, determined. "I don't need him in my life, he'd just be a distraction," my voice is matter-of-fact and blunt.

I head back to the front door, chugging the rest of my beer and tossing the empty bottle into the waste basket along the way. I take a deep breath and open the front door again.

I shove his jacket towards him with a fierce look and take a puff of my cigar.

He raises an eyebrow as he slowly takes the jacket from my hand. "Smoking can kill you, you know," he scolds.

"Yeah, so can riding a motorcycle," I reply, taking another puff. Smoking a cigar is mainly for the taste, not the nicotine, but whatever. There's no point in keeping him here any longer than he needs to be.

"So, if you're into life-threatening activities," he laughs and runs his fingers through his hair again.

I just want to reach out and wrap my fingers in his thick locks and feel his biceps, which are golden and bulging and perfect in the sunlight. But I restrain myself. His lips are upturned into a handsome, mischievous smile. I wonder what it would be like to kiss those lips, have my hands on his strong chest and arms...

"Do you want to ride it?" He smirks and shrugs his jacket on, pulling me out of my brief fantasy with a start.

"Excuse me?" I sputter, flustered.

"My bike," he points over his shoulder, but his eyes never leave mine. "Do you want to go on a ride?"

So did not think he had been talking about his bike.

"I've ridden it already. Yesterday," I remind him, still embarrassed by my dirty mind.

Jayce looks me up and down one more time, pausing on my lips for a moment so brief, I must have imagined it. "Whatever you say," he shrugs and turns away, walking back down the steps.

I begin to turn back into the house, but Presley roughly spins me around and pushes me onto the porch, "You go on a fucking ride with him right now, damn it!" She hisses and slams the front door. I hear the lock click into place.

Smooth, Pres. And also, what the fuck?

"Uh—" I start stupidly. "Actually, looks like I'm going on a ride with you after all," I step off the porch, slightly annoyed at Presley for forcing this. But admittedly, there's an addictive mixture of excitement and adrenaline that's beginning to fill my insides.

Jayce spins around with a gleaming smile on his face and my stomach knots violently.

"Good," he smirks and swings his leg over the large bike with ease, patting the space behind him.

I very un-glamorously clamber my way onto the back of Jayce's bike but then hesitate. Now comes the part where I have to touch him - without being drunk.

I clearly hesitated too long and too awkwardly because he laughs and says, "You can touch me, Tink. I don't bite," he removes his cap and flips his hair before placing the hat on his head again. "That is, unless you want me to," he winks at me over his shoulder with a pleased smirk.

I roll my eyes and scoff in response, ignoring the dance my stomach is doing. I scoot myself against his rock solid back and he passes me the helmet. I shove it on without putting up a fight, having learned from last night.

I tighten my arms around his torso and shove down the desire to feel more parts of his tanned, strong body. Just being in contact with him has me lit up like a damn Christmas tree.  He revs the engine and I can't help but appreciate his strong looking hands as they grip the handles.

"Where are we going on this ride?" I ask as I breathe in his scent of clove and perique. Damn. I can hear a hint of craving in my voice, and I really hope he doesn't pick up on it.

"Exactly," he says mysteriously as he speeds out of the drive way.

He expertly weaves us through town and soon we're racing through the hills, our surroundings blurring into streaks of green, brown and blue as we hug the corners and curves of the road.

I feel the exhilaration and adrenaline pounding through my veins, but this time, I kind of like it. Jayce's body is hot and firm beneath my touch. Simply being close to him is enough to give me butterflies, but actually touching him sends bolts of lightning through me.

After about twenty minutes of pure adrenaline, we finally start to slow down as we make it to the other side of the hills. Jayce pulls off the road onto a gravel driveway that's blocked by a huge gate.

A four-foot tall wall of white stone stretches as far as the eye can see to the left and right. A huge, black gate is blocking the drive, and in the center of the gate is an intricate 'D' that looks like it's made of shiny, golden vines.

Beyond the wall, there are rows and rows of grapevines, stretching for acres in every direction. A ways up the drive, I can see what looks like a large Spanish villa settled in the middle of the fields. With the warmth of the sunset painting everything in a golden glow, the scene looks like it belongs in a high-end travel magazine.

"You know, my mom always told me to not ride with strangers, but this isn't too bad." I smirk as I peer over Jayce's large shoulder at the brilliant land. I notice him reaching into his pocket. "Where are we, anyway?"

He chuckles and pulls his hand back out of his pocket to lift the hat off his head and run his fingers through his hair. "A vineyard, I think," his voice snarky as he smiles teasingly at me over his shoulder.

"Smart ass," I mumble under my breath as he laughs.

"Have you ever been to one before?"

"Nope."

"What?!" He drops his jaw open dramatically, "That's about to change." He suddenly lurches forward and parks his bike in the grass off the side of the gravel driveway. He hops off his bike and I follow suit. When my feet hit the ground, my eyes are at the same level as Jayce's chest.

"We're going inside?" I question, my voice at a whisper.

"Sort of," he walks up to the wall, which comes to his abdomen and motions for me to join him.

"What are you doing?" I whisper quickly, shuffling toward him, my heart rate picking up as I start to worry that I see where this situation is heading.

"You ask a lot of questions," he remarks with a teasing smile. "We're sneaking in," a devious grin spreads across his olive face.

I reach the wall, which is at shoulder level for me, and I suddenly feel Jayce's warm, large hands gripping either side of my waist. His hands almost completely encircle my waist. I feel my cheeks flushing and heat pulsing through my entire body at his touch.

"Jump!" He says as he lifts me off the ground with zero effort.

I didn't even have a chance to jump, but I scramble my way to the top of the wall, my breath catching in my throat as I take in the stunning, unblocked view that seems familiar somehow.

The next moment, Jayce is swinging himself over the wall like he's Spiderman, nimbly landing on the other side. He extends his hand toward me for balance and I take it, the familiar electricity igniting inside me at his warm touch as I hop down next to him onto the rocky ground.

"You know we could get arrested if we're caught, right?" My voice is a harsh whisper as Jayce ducks down and sneaks along the wall. I reluctantly follow him, deciding that if we are discovered, I'll claim that I was kidnapped.

"We aren't going to get arrested," he says as he dodges in between vines, moving farther away from the wall.  He plucks a grape off the vine and pops it into his mouth as he moves past.

"Do you do this often?" I ask, starting to get angry at his disregard for other people's property. "Break onto people's land and eat their crops?"

He laughs and his smile sends my stomach into a flurry, "Yeah, I've been here before," he pauses in front of one of the vines, plucks off a particularly plump grape and offers it to me.

"Jayce!" Disbelief swells in my gut and I slap the grape out of his hand. "We're already breaking and entering, I'm not doing anything else to these people's land!"

Jayce chuckles as he pick up the grape from the ground, wipes it off on his shirt and holds it in front of my face. "Just try it, they have millions of these little guys."

I roll my eyes and grudgingly pop the grape into my mouth. As I chew, it explodes into an extremely pleasant variety of flavors. I inadvertently smile because of how yummy it is.

Jayce smiles back, still crouching. "That's a Tempranillo grape," he tells me. "Soon, this harvest will become some of the best wine you've ever tasted."

"So, what? You're suddenly a wine expert now?"

"Wine is a powerful aphrodisiac, Fallon," he explains and I hate myself for how my heart jumps when he says my name. "So, naturally I know a thing or two about it. Also, my dad is a bit of a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur, so I grew up learning about it," he shrugs and starts off through the vines again.

I try to remain stoic and unimpressed at the fact that he knows about something other than soccer and douche-baggery 101, but I am a bit taken aback. For some reason, Jayce and wine seem to be setting off bells of familiarity in my head, but I can't quite figure out why. I huff as he leaves, his sculpted ass at my eye level. "What the fuck are we doing here, Jayce?"

"You've never been to a vineyard!" He says over his shoulder. "We're fixing that!"

I groan, equal parts frustrated and curious. I follow him through the vines and soon we are standing in front of a tall, wooden barn-esqe building that I hadn't seen from the road.

He crouches under one of the back windows, pressing his body against the wall.

"Jayce, you—"

"Shh!" He hold his pointer finger in front of his lips and listens. "Okay, I think the coast is clear."

I roll my eyes at his childishness as he slowly stands up to peek into the window. After a few moments, he's sliding the window pane up and gesturing at me to stand.

"Okay," he looks at me with an excited, enchanting glint in his brown eyes. "I'm going to help you through the window, and then you're going to open the door for me, because I don't think I can fit through this," he gestures to the window.

"You're literally insane!" I whisper-scream at him. "There's no way I'm continuing this fucked up field trip with you."

His smile falters slightly and it kind of breaks my heart. "Oh, I'm sorry, Tink. I thought you'd enjoy this."

I have to admit, I am kind of having fun and enjoying feeling rebellious. But I'm also terrified as shit that we're going to get caught.

I think of what Presley would say if she were here. She would be absolutely loving this, soaking in every ounce of adventure and risk. I internally sigh, deciding to let myself be inspired by my best friend's passion, and let my cautiousness go. 'Just enjoy the moment,' as she says.

"I am enjoying it," I tell him, my mental decision causing anxiety to melt away and excitement to swell inside my chest. "Help me in!" I lift myself off the ground and into the window, somewhat gracefully dropping onto the cement floor on the other side.

Inside, there are towering rows upon rows of huge barrels, large metal vats connecting to all sorts of complicated machinery and tubes going everywhere. The strange surroundings seem to ping at my subconscious mind.

I find the door handle and twist the lock, throwing it open to let Jayce in. Damn, he looks like a fucking chiseled-ass god in the golden light.

He strides into the room, clove and perique filling my nostrils as he breezes past. He makes his way to the back of the huge room and pulls two wine glasses down from an overhead rack. He fills them with a small splash of a deep red wine that comes from a spicket on a nearby barrel.

"Do you work here or something?" I ask with an eyebrow raised at him. He offers me a glass and I accept it. "You said you've been here before."

"You caught me," he raises his hands in the air and smiles guiltily. "I give tours here sometimes."

"So you tricked me," I say smoothly, swirling the wine in my glass and tipping it towards my nose. I inhale the scent and realize that I'm hoping I'm impressing him with my attempt at seeming posh. People do this on TV, so hopefully I'm actually doing it right and not just looking like a complete idiot.

"I wouldn't say 'tricked,'" he laughs and takes a sip from his glass. "More like, 'withheld information for the sake of adrenaline.'"

"Oh, so you deceived me! That's much better, you're right," I say sarcastically as I roll my eyes and sip the wine. It's yummy.

Just like the goalie standing in front of me.

Oh my god, chill.

He laughs, "What do you think?"

"It's really good!" I reply, realizing that he had, yet again, caught me thinking about him. "I don't know much about wine, though."

"I could teach you a bit about it sometime, if you'd like," he says with a warm smile.

"That could be fun," I muse, wondering why he's being so kind and almost, dare I say it, sweet. There must be something coming. He's never this un-cocky for too long.

"Want another glass?" He asks, his big brown eyes peering playfully at me over the rim of his empty glass.

"Sure," I'm already intoxicated by his gaze. He fills up my glass until it's almost at the brim. "Damn, Jayce. What're you planning to do with me once I'm drunk?" I tease.

His entire body tenses and he lets out an empty laugh. "You're safe with me," he says with seriousness as he hands me back the glass. "I'm not like that," he mutters under his breath, clearly hurt by my joke. His eyes look like they're filling with memories and appear haunted for a moment, but he sobers quickly and looks up at me with one of those effortlessly charming smiles. "Come on, I want to show you something."

I follow him behind a tower of wine barrels, where there's a narrow, metal staircase that would never have been seen unless you knew it was there. At the top of the steps, a trapdoor style hatch lifts up and out, and next thing I know, I'm standing on the roof of the building, overlooking the fields as the sun sinks lower and lower in the sky. I can see the villa about a quarter mile away and I could swear I've been here before. A soft, aromatic breeze tickles my bare skin as the temperature slowly drops with the sun.

Jayce sits on the roof and takes a deep breath as he looks out over the land. His profile is flawless and his sharp jaw line looks irresistible. I sit next to him, wanting to be close but deciding to leave some space.

"So, Tink," he says when I sit down. "How long have you played with balls?" He smirks at me, laughter in his brown eyes.

"Excuse me?" I shove him, the knot in my stomach returning.

"Soccer," he laughs. "How long have you played?"

"Basically since I was born," I explain. "My dad played growing up and then for Brixton when he was going to school there. After he graduated, married my mom and had Haven and me, going to the games was me and Hav's favorite thing ever. We'd all play in the backyard together, too. So yeah. I've played for a long time."

"Sweet," he nods once. "Do you want to play in college, like your dad did?"

I shake my head. "Not really. I mean, I might, but I want to focus on studying when I'm in college. I want to go to Brixton, like he did."

"What do you want to study?"

I pause for a moment before responding and give him a questioning gaze. I'm not entirely sure what he's hoping to get out of all of this spontaneous adventure and personal conversation. "Business."

"What'd I do?" He asks innocently in response to my look, his eyes slightly widened and a small smile on his lips.

"Nothing," I say with a laugh. "I'm just still confused as to why the Jayce Solis is spending his Saturday evening with me, when he could be picking up chicks or something."

"But, you're a chick? What makes you think I'm not picking you up?" He looks at me with a glimmer of laughter shining in his brown eyes.

I roll my eyes and sip my wine. "Oh, please. You wouldn't be able to get me to come home with you no matter how hard you tried."

He cocks an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge?"

"No, it's a promise," I flash him a big grin.

He throws his head back and laughs, removing his cap to run his hand through his thick, wavy hair that I really want to feel in between my fingers. "Whatever you say, Tink. So, why business?"

I take a deep breath. "That's a loaded question."

He shrugs. "I've got time."

"I love what I do," I begin. "It sounds cliche, but starting my business has literally changed my life. It empowers me, and gives me a confidence that I don't think I could get from anything else. I want to help other girls do that same thing and start their own companies, but I need to learn more about it first. That's what I want to do. I want to move people to accomplish their dreams." I feel like I could launch into a speech about how America was built on entrepreneurialism and how I think that we need more good people running small businesses that they're passionate about, but I decide to quell it. "What about you? What do you want to do?"

Jayce looks away and laughs halfheartedly. "That's a loaded question."

"I've got time," I smirk, using his line as I take a long sip from my glass, feeling my body and mind starting to buzz.

Jayce shakes his head with a smile that has a hint of sadness behind it. "I'm not sure yet," he says unconvincingly.

A heavy moment of silence passes between us as the sun sinks completely beneath the horizon. I'm still very confused as to why he brought me out here and is talking to me so damn much. Doesn't he have better, more stereotypical bad-boy things to do?

"So, Tink," Jayce peers down at me with his classic smirk and subtly shifts himself so he's sitting closer to me. His voice is confident and nonchalant, as if he didn't just shrink back at my previous question. "What do you usually do when you want to have fun?"

I'm very aware of his proximity to me. I laugh, embarrassed to admit that fun for me is either hanging out with Presley or being by myself. "Oh, well, you know," I swallow, not sure what to say. "I get around."

He raises an eyebrow as his lips part in surprise. "Okay," he chuckles and ruffles his hair. "Didn't realize you were into that, but alright."

My stomach lurches."Oh, shit!" I shake my head vigorously, realizing what I had just said. My cheeks are on fire with embarrassment. "I definitely did not mean it like that. I don't sleep around. Well, I mean..." I trail off, not caring to explain the details of my sex life to Jayce Solis. "I just don't have time for relationships, but sometimes a girl has needs, and I had friends that were really good at filling those needs. Until they started getting too clingy, that is."

Jayce throws his head back and howls with laughter. I feel my cheeks turn red and I fold my arms across my chest, glaring at him. Also, his belly laugh might just be the best damn sound I've ever heard.

"You mean to tell me," Jayce says, his eyes alight. "That you are a no-strings-attached, casual sex, fuck buddy kind of girl?"

My cheeks reach a whole new level of red. I can hear my heart beating in my ears. I force myself to straighten up and look him straight in his shining eyes. "Do you mean to tell me that it's fine for guys to be that way, but it's wrong for a girl?" It drives me mad how a guy is a legend if he has slept with a ton of girls, but if a girl has someone she can reach out to when she's itching, it's somehow a bad thing.

"No, not at all," he leans away from me, like he's trying to get a good look at me. "I just completely misjudged you, and kind of wish I had known this little fact before I left your house last night." He raises his eyebrows and winks at me, that smirk never leaving his lips. My stomach jolts at the memory of his hot breath tickling my ear.

And just like that, I'm reminded of why I can't let this exquisite, chiseled hunk of man into my daily life. He's far too captivating, his presence alone is a magnetic field that makes me want to be near him and have his focus. Having him in my life at all, even as a friend, would be a diversion, and one that I'm not willing to take. I've worked too hard to get to where I am, and I'm not going to let a man, no matter how devilishly attractive and suave, divert me from the future that I've desired for so long.

"It wouldn't have done you any good to know that. I would never give you the pleasure of sleeping with me, anyway," I say, tightening my arms across my chest and staring at him defiantly. "You definitely wouldn't make my list."

"Shit, Tink," he feigns a hurt expression. "You cut me deep," he shakes his head solemnly. "My one goal in life was to make your fuck-it list."

I roll my eyes, still embarrassed as hell but trying to play it cool. "Let's just talk about something else," my stomach has twisted itself into a knot the size of a damn soccer ball. "I need some more wine," I announce.

Jayce brings out the bottle and fills my glass with more of the exquisite, smooth red beverage.

"You know," Jayce says casually as he stares out at the vineyard. "I seem to have a big effect on you for someone that you'd never sleep with."

I fight the urge to smack him. His nerve is unbelievable.

"Believe it or not," I say with bite. "There are more important things in my life than sleeping with the hottest guy in school."

He looks at me with a prideful smirk, raising an eyebrow and lifting his hat to ruffle his hair. "You think I'm the hottest guy in school?"

Shit.

"I just mean," I try to recover from my Freudian slip, my heart feeling like it might stop from humiliation. "You're a stereotypical bad boy. Every girl in school drools over you."

"But you don't?" He's still got that damn smirk on his lips.

I glare at him. "Damn straight." I hope that my words are able to penetrate his dense skull. I wish he could understand the idea that not every girl on the planet would jump on his dick whenever he wants.

He smiles and shakes his head. "So you're determined to not like me just because I'm a quote, 'stereotypical bad boy?'"

I nod solemnly. "You're a player. And I have a strict 'No Womanizers Allowed Inside' policy," I say, gesturing to my crotch.

He raises an eyebrow. "If that's really the case, you were working awfully hard to get me to notice you at the party. Especially if you're not going to - what was it? Drool over me?" He looks me over with his smug smirk. "And besides, I still meant what I said last night. Eventually, you won't be able to resist me anymore."

I feel the heat of his eyes trailing up my frame. I'm extremely annoyed at this point, because he still doesn't seem to understand that it's possible for a female to not want to sleep with him. The combination of annoyance, wine and wanting to prove Jayce wrong gives me a simultaneously brilliant and stupid idea.

Thankful that I have enough liquid courage in me to be bold enough to do this, I set down my wine glass and swing my leg over Jayce so that I'm straddling him, face-to-face. I place my hands on his shoulders as his hands instinctively fly up to hold my hips. I make sure our fronts don't touch, hoping that will add to the tease.

I lean my face in so close to his that I can feel his hot breath on my lips. His fingertips on my skin is literally so electrifying, I have to work hard to keep my voice from sounding needy.

"Jayce Solis," I whisper, looking up at him through my lashes. My heart is pumping so fast, it's threatening to explode. "Keep on working your absolute hardest to convince yourself that I somehow like you." I arch my back and move myself forward so my boobs barely press against his chest. I bring my head closer to his so that our lips are literally millimeters from touching. "But nothing is going to change the fact that you want me, and I don't want you."

I promptly swing myself back off of him and take a long, victorious sip of wine, feeling sexy, dangerous and proud, even if I was lying through my teeth.

"Damn, Tink," he exhales with a strained laugh and looks anywhere but at me. He runs his fingers through his messy hair. "You're playing with fire."

"Make sure you don't get burned," I wink, raising my glass like I'm giving a toast.

By now the sun has set completely.

Jayce checks the time on his phone, still looking a bit flustered. "It's almost ten," he says, standing to his feet. "Let me give you a ride home."

"Okay," I giggle, totally tipsy and still on an adrenaline high from my bold actions.

He glances down at me with a smirk and chuckles. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Rhodes."

"I know what you're going to do with me," I tell him smartly as we climb back down the stairs. "You're going to forget about me."

He doesn't reply and we make our way through the vines and back to the bike in a silence that I probably would've thought was awkward if I wasn't intoxicated.

Time passes quickly once we're speeding back to town. I press myself against his warm, solid body, wrapping myself around him. The bike shoots through the hills as Jayce expertly leans around corners. I feel myself smiling as I press against him, the combination of butterflies and adrenaline ruling all my senses. I'm pretty sure I've finally stumped the most alluring man I've ever met. And I couldn't be prouder.

Soon we're in my driveway and Jayce is helping me off his bike.

"What did you mean when you said to forget you?" He asks without looking at me.

I feel the knot in my stomach tighten. In a split second, I realize that I only have one option if I'm truly serious about wanting him out of my life: I need to cut the hot, irresistible goalie off for good. He needs to know that I wasn't joking about anything I said. As much as I find him attractive and as much as my physical body wants to feel all over him, I said everything tonight for very good, true reasons. Maybe I'll actually be able to be the one girl that Jayce Solis couldn't have.

"Thanks for the ride and for taking me to that vineyard, I had a great time," I admit. "But it'd be best if we don't hang out anymore."

When I finally glance up at him, there's a storm brewing in his eyes, and I can't tell what it's made of. Anger? Disappointment? Rejection? Maybe all three.

"No problem," he says quickly, his voice uncharacteristically flat. "I'll see you around, Fallon," he gives me a curt nod and peels out of the driveway before I can say anything else.

My throat feels like it's closing up as I watch him speed away, but I know it's for the best. He's dangerously addictive. I refuse to be one of those girls who ends up holding a guy higher than her own ambitions and dreams. I feel oddly hollow as I walk into my home. I know that the second I enter, I'll have to answer to Presley's fangirling over Jayce.

Luckily for me, she's passed out on the couch, so I sneak up to my room and start working on my Tinkerbell costume. I realize with a sigh that I will have to stay up all night to finish it in time for the party tomorrow.

I get to work immediately, pushing Jayce's expression out of my head and ignoring the pit in my stomach.

~~~

And there you have it! The first 5 chapters, just for you. If you made it here, I literally love you so much. Like, so damn much. I just do. There's nothing you can do to change my mind. THANK YOU for reading! Thank you for taking an interest in these characters and their story, it truly means the world to me! Can't wait to give you MOREEE.

Who wants to go to a vineyard with a hottie now tho? 😉

Hit that ⭐️ if you want chapter 6 to come soon!

What's been your favorite moment so far??

I gotta say, I am having such a blast writing this story, and I really really hope you're having fun reading it, too!

Will be back with an update in the near future !

♥️