She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the floor. “I . . . um, I don’t know to be honest. It’s just one of those things I can’t explain. He makes my stomach go woozy when I see him.” Placing a hand on my arm, she met my gaze with a worried expression. “You . . . um, he’s not the guy you’re crying about, is he?”

I laughed. “Oh God, no. After the ball, we decided to stay friends just so things wouldn’t be awkward if we ever bumped into one another. But that doesn’t mean he’s right for you. In fact, I know he isn’t. And Grayson . . . he’d freak out if he thought his little sister wanted to date a Matthews.”

“I know, right? What is it with Grayson and the Matthews brothers? I understand about Hawke . . . but Seth’s done nothing to offend him, except to be Hawke’s brother. I honestly don’t get it.”

“Testosterone. Male rivalry. It’s as old as the jungle. Ever watch any episode on Discovery? Male animals have been fighting since forever to show their superiority—it’s built into their genetic code. Nothing we can do to change that any time soon.”

We both chuckled before Taylor’s expression grew more serious.

“Anyway, I came to get you to go down to the party. Grayson’s gone to pick Sloane up and Mum sent me to get you. She knows you hate these things, so she wanted me to check on you.”

My eyes grew wide. Sometimes my mother could be so damn annoying. Or was it the guilt of knowing that I was planning to escape soon that ate at me? She’d ranted for a few minutes when I’d returned earlier, complaining that she’d been worried I wasn’t going to be home in time to get ready for the party.

“You’re kidding, right? Of course I’m coming down to celebrate Milton’s birthday. It’s a big deal to him, so I even dressed up—”

“And you look stunning. That dress looks like it was made for you. Every guy tonight is going have his eyes on you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, nobody will notice me. As for the dress, actually, I bought it in London.” As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, I regretted them.

London.

Grayson.

Just the two of us.

My heart ached from the memory.

I swear I wasn’t wearing the dress to remind Grayson of the night he took me to dinner. It was just that I couldn’t face shopping these last few days and I owed it to Mum and Milton to at least make some effort.

The dress was a little tighter than when I wore it in London, especially around my ass and boobs, but I knew I had eaten and drunk too much in London. The three course meals that Grayson ordered and were delivered to our hotel room were from some of the best eateries in London. And the restaurants he took me to on the last few days were to die for. I was never one to shy away from good food—especially dessert. I loved the sweet stuff even though it was loaded with sugar and dollops of clotted cream the English were so fond of.

“You never talk much about that trip. I’m still waiting to see pictures you know. Grayson promised to take me to the city of my choice when I graduate as well. Isn’t he just an awesome big brother . . . well sometimes.”

I swallowed hard. Yes, he’s the best a girl could ever want.

“Um . . . I actually forgot to take photos. But it definitely was the best week of my life . . . I don’t need pictures to remind me how amazing it was.” I hesitated for a few moments as I fought the lump in my throat. “I’ll never forget it,” I added wistfully, meaning every damn word.

Thank fuck Taylor had already turned toward the door. “Time to party. Let’s forget about guys for a while and just have fun,” she said as she reached to the stairway outside my room.

Blinking back a few stubborn tears, I followed her blindly. Dammit, I didn’t want to spoil my carefully applied eye liner and mascara it had taken me forever to get it just right. I was aiming for sophisticated and smudged make-up would ruin it all.

Sloane would no doubt be a knock-out and had gone all out to look her best. She’d babbled on and on about it for weeks, making my damn head hurt with her obsession about Grayson. She couldn’t string two sentences together without using his name. She had it bad—almost as bad as me.

Guilt ate at me. I’d listened with growing dread of how she was fantasising about having sex with Grayson. Every nerve in my body wanted to scream out and tell her that he was mine.

Only he wasn’t. Our stolen times together were just that.

Stolen.

Illicit.

Dangerous.

But I was too far gone to want it any other way. I’d take every crumb, every second he’d given me. I could feast for nights to come on those memories. When I was all alone in my bed, my body ached for his, my soul longing for him.

28: Grayson

I’d raced to Sloane’s house to pick her up and then made it back to the house in record time. She’d called me nearly every single fucking day for a week after Dad invited her, asking me questions like what was my favorite color and fragrance. It seemed she was going all out to try and please me. She was sweet, and very lovely—for some other lucky guy.

The more I tried to act casual and be evasive, knowing that it didn’t matter what the fuck she did to try to impress me, the harder she persisted. If only I could tell her that it wouldn’t change how I felt about her because I was already in love with her best friend.

Sloane made small talk all the way, the best I could do was to nod or answer her back in monosyllables.

“Alice has let me help her plan this party. It’s going to be spectacular. Milton is such a lucky man to have found her the second time around.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” I agreed. Only because it brought Layla into my life.

In my opinion, it was the smartest move my father had ever made.

I parked the car and frowned as I rounded the front of it to open the door for Sloane. The whole damn Matthews family had just arrived and the valet was busy helping them get parked. I clenched my teeth. How I was going to stay calm all night with both of the brothers there I didn’t know. One was bad enough, but two? Disaster waiting to happen

If Seth lays as much as a finger on Layla . . .

Sloane took my hand and climbed out of the car. She followed my gaze to where the Matthew’s family stood before waving at them, all cheery and smiley, as if she wanted them to notice us together.

“Oh, look, Seth is here. I bet that will make Layla get out of her funk. She’s been acting strangely ever since the ball. She won’t tell me anything about what happened between them two. Yet I’m damn sure something big happened.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? What makes you say that?”

Even though I knew Layla wasn’t into Seth, I still couldn’t control the wave of jealousy that flooded my veins. He was probably going to try his best to charm the panties off of her in front of me and there wouldn’t be much I could do about it. Fuck.

“I’m sure she lost her v-card that night. But she insists she didn’t let Seth fu . . . um, you know.” She laughed awkwardly. “She has a glow that wasn’t there before. You know, the kind a girl only gets when she’s crazy for a guy. She can’t fool me.”

“Is that right?” I couldn’t help the smirk that crossed my face. If I was the guy who made her glow—fuck yeah.

The fact that Layla had been avoiding me like I had the plague since I returned from the U.K. didn’t help much. I needed to talk with her and find out if she was okay. I needed to tell her that London had been the best experience of my life and I’d missed her when she left. Since the moment she waved goodbye at the airport, London seemed dark and gloomy, a perfect reflection of my mood.

Seven years wouldn’t have been enough time to explore each other completely and do all the things I wanted to do to her, never mind seven days. I had to finally tell Layla that I wanted her and only her, that I couldn’t think of anything else besides her.