Savage Love (Ash and Innocence 2)

I needed to think properly about this.

Breaking someone was an art, and she was going to be my fucking masterpiece.5CharliI was crammed in the corner of a booth, listening to a guy from Zoe’s swim team tell a story about the “legendary swim meet at Calvary High.” It sounded like a story he’d told before, but everybody seemed more than happy to listen to it again. I could see why, too.

The guy’s name was Clint, and he was really cute. He had a nearly perfect complexion with strong, masculine features and the build of an avid swimmer. Most of Zoe’s friends, in fact, seemed to be in near perfect physical shape. I felt a little bit like a melted candle, by comparison.

But like she’d said, they all appeared more than happy to talk to me, and I already felt like part of the group.

I took a sip of my milkshake—it was some kind of chocolate monstrosity with more types of chocolate in it than I cared to remember. It was probably about a million calories, but I didn’t really care.

Clint spread his hands dramatically, then stole a quick look at me as if he was making sure I was listening. His blond hair had that messy, over-dried look of someone who was recently in a pool. “And it spread out like squid ink,” he continued. “Right in the middle of the pool. God. It was so disgusting.”

Kyle, the star of his story, was red in the face but smiling along as everybody laughed. “You could make an argument that it was noble of me to show up when I was dealing with such a serious stomach bug. I just wanted to help the team.”

Clint laughed, then looked at me again as he spoke. I felt a little spark of excitement from his attention. “Yeah, you did help us. We were going to come in third if they hadn’t evacuated the pool and shut it down for two weeks.”

Everyone laughed again, including Kyle.

I listened for another half an hour, occasionally chiming in when someone asked me a question, but mostly just listened and enjoyed the feeling of being somewhat normal. I made a mental note to profusely thank Zoe later.

Little by little, some of the kids headed off for various reasons until it was only me, Zoe, and Clint at the table. She nudged me under the table, then apologized and said she needed to use the bathroom. Once she was behind him, she turned, winked, and gave me a double thumbs up.

I bit back a smile.

Clint grinned at me. “I hope you don’t think we’re too weird.”

“Weird? No. Definitely not. We’ve actually had to move around so much that it’s…” I paused, not sure I wanted to openly admit I’d basically been a friendless nobody for the majority of my life. “It’s nice getting invited to something like this. I’m glad Zoe asked me to come.”

Clint smiled. “And I’m glad you came.”

There was a meaningful silence, and I found myself needing to swallow. Except it felt like swallowing would be comically dramatic, so I just let the saliva build up in my mouth, feeling like an idiot.

Clint was about to say something when his eyes shot up to something behind me.

A shadow passed over our table as Cassian Stone came to stand over us. God. He was huge. The little boy I’d known looked like he’d been eating well. Really well. He was a carved wall of muscle, and when I dragged my eyes up to his face, I felt my stomach sink even further.

He was gorgeous.

Not a little gorgeous. Not textbook gorgeous.

He was the heartbreaking kind of gorgeous. It was the kind of face teenage girls would want on posters so they could stare at their wall every night and daydream.

His jaw was squared off and sharp. His eyes were rimmed with thick eyelashes beneath dark, black eyebrows. And he had full lips that were currently curved into the hint of a cruel smile.

“Cassian?” I said, a hint of hope in my voice. I stood to hug him. I hadn’t planned it, and in any other circumstance, I’d have been too terrified to even speak to a guy who looked like him. But this was Cassian. My little Cassian who I’d spent endless afternoons with lying in the grass and exploring Silver Falls.

He let me hug him, and I couldn’t even get my arms all the way around him. He was like a warm rock. He put his arms around me, then he lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’m having a party tonight. Come find me.”

His words shot through me with an electric crackle.

Come find me.

It should’ve been a ridiculous thing to say. From anyone else, I thought I might’ve actually laughed out loud. But when he pulled back and fixed is blue-gray eyes on me, all I felt was exhilarated.