: Chapter 27

ThunderStruck: Meet me out in the hall.

I wait anxiously as the message shows as read, and then I watch as the wheel spins while she types a response.

For the past two nights since my parents’ Halloween party, I’ve been trying to stage every rendezvous I can. So far, we’ve kissed in the downstairs gym locker room, had a hot and heavy make-out session in the elevator, and messaged back and forth—of the deliciously dirty variety—through our bedroom walls.

I’m chomping at the bit for more, but so far, this is all we’ve been able to manage. Strangely enough, I almost sent my contractor a thank-you email when he told me my move-in date for my house had been pushed back again. Something about June’s and my bedrooms being a wall apart feels too good to give up.

ElizaBeth: Avery is still awake. What am I supposed to tell her?

ThunderStruck: Take out the garbage again.

ElizaBeth: Okay. I’ll be out in five minutes.

I jump up from my bed as I hear motion on the other side of the wall that I know houses June’s bedroom. To think we spent all these nights talking and flirting and sexting with nothing more than a wall between us is nearly enough to drive me crazy.

I jog to my front door and step out into the hall, propping the door open behind me and leaning against the wall.

I listen closely to the muffled voices inside June and my sister’s condo and wait not-so-patiently for their door to open.

When June appears two minutes later holding a half-full bag of trash, I laugh out loud, and she jumps forward to cover my mouth.

With her in close proximity now, I grab her by the hips and back up into my apartment, pulling her with me until the door falls closed behind us. I don’t pause before pushing her against the wall and moving my body to hers, sealing our lips together in a hot and burning clash of tongues.

She gets up on her toes, and I reach down to pull the trash bag from her hand, tossing it down on the floor. With her hands free, she sinks them into the hair on the sides of my head, and I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her in tight.

Damn, she feels like heaven.

We’re out of breath when we finally pull back, and her blue eyes dance like the shallow waters of the Atlantic Ocean out my balcony window. “We’re doing this,” I tell her in no uncertain terms.

She snorts and then worries her bottom lip with her teeth. “I want to,” she whispers then, her voice a little shaky. “Obviously, I want to, Beau. But how? I don’t have that much of a social life to use as an excuse at the moment—at least, not one that doesn’t include Avery—and there’s only so much trash I can produce per day.”

“Let me worry about that part.”

“Beau—”

“Say yes, June,” I tell her, desperate to get the answer I want. I can’t go back to the way things were. I know too much. I’ve seen too much. We come together too much.

“All right,” she agrees hesitantly. “We can try. But I’d better go take this trash to the chute and get back in there before Avery notices something weird is up.”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Beau!” she snaps on a laugh. “I’ve already been gone for, like, five minutes. She’s going to think I fell down the chute.”

I press my lips to hers, and she gives up the fight immediately, melting into me and kissing me back all over again. She tastes so fucking good it hurts. When I finally pull away again, we’re both pretty much panting.

“Go ahead,” I allow, smirking as she rolls her eyes. “You can go now.”

“I have to run this trash down. I don’t think it’ll really sell the story if I go back in with it.”

“I’ll take it,” I offer, placing a peck to her lips again, unable to get enough. “But only if you promise to meet me out on the balcony later. I’ll message you.”

She shakes her head on a laugh. “You’re insatiable.”

“Oh, you have no idea, Juni. You think you know, but you’re going to learn some things about me that’ll shock you.”

“Oh yeah?” Emboldened, she winks. “Well, maybe I’ve got some things to teach you about me too.”

“I have no fucking doubt.” I grip her hips and press one more long, lingering, deep kiss to her lips. “And I can’t wait.”