Chapter 91 Aria
I sat cross-legged on my bed staring at the last text from Sienna: Movie night tomorrow? Just us girls, like old times? My thumb hovered over the keyboard and I sighed because “old times” didn’t exist anymore. I loved my best friend, her laugh, and her ridiculous playlists but I also loved the way Luca looked at me like I was the only person in the room like I was oxygen and he was drowning. And now I was the one drowning, caught in the middle with lungs burning with guilt.
“Baby?” Mom’s voice drifted up the stairs.
I wiped my eyes fast, even though she couldn’t see me. “Yeah?”
She appeared in my doorway in her fuzzy pink robe, hair in a messy bun, and holding two mugs of hot chocolate like peace offerings. “You’ve been quiet since dinner. And that usually means boy trouble or best-friend trouble or both.”
I took the mug, the warmth seeping into my palms. “Both. And I’m the worst human alive.”
Mom settled on the edge of the bed, tucking one leg under her. “Tell me.”
So I told her the whole ugly, tangled story, how Luca had been Sienna’s boyfriend for eight months before we moved to Silverpine, and how Luca had asked me to be his girlfriend and I accepted. Mom listened without interrupting and when I finished, she set her mug down and pulled me into a hug that smelled like vanilla and home.
“Sweetheart, loving someone doesn’t make you a villain. But you have to choose soon. Your heart’s not built for this kind of war.”
I nodded against her shoulder. “I just don’t want to lose either of them.”
She kissed the top of my head. “Sometimes the bravest thing is telling the truth before it tells itself for you.”
After she left, I curled under the covers and replied Sienna’s text.
Me: Can’t wait.
I hit send before I could chicken out then turned the screen off and stared at the ceiling. At 1:47 a.m, my window creaked and the latch clicked open. A dark figure slid inside, rain dripping from his hoodie, and his sneakers squeaking on the hardwood.
Luca.
He pushed the hood back, his dark curls plastered to his forehead, and eyes wild and desperate in the faint glow from my string lights. Water ran down his jaw like champagne.
“Aria, hey.” He whispered, voice rough.
My stomach flipped and I bolted out of my bed. “You can’t be here. My mom—”
“Is asleep. I checked. The light in her room went out twenty minutes ago.” He stepped closer. “I’ve been sitting in my car for an hour trying to talk myself out of this but failed.”
I should’ve told him to leave, thrown a pillow at him and locked the window. Instead I stood there in my oversized sleep shirt and shorts, heart sprinting and every cell in my body screaming yes and no at the same time.
He crossed the room in three strides and cupped my face, his rain-cold thumbs brushed my cheeks. “I can’t stop thinking about you every second. When I close my eyes it’s your face I see.”
“Luca…” My voice cracked.
“I know.” His forehead dropped to mine. “I know we’re both going to hell for this.”
I couldn’t lie that I wanted him right now not with him this close, smelling like rain and that stupid cologne that always made my knees weak.
So I kissed him instead. It was messy and perfect. His mouth crashed into mine, hot and urgent, like he’d been starving for weeks. I tasted mint and rain on his tongue as it slid against mine, deep and demanding, pulling a soft whimper from my throat. My hands fisted in his wet hoodie, yanking him closer until there was no space left between us.
We landed in a heated tangle on the bed, his body pressing me into the mattress. Rainwater from his clothes soaked through my thin sleep shirt, making it cling to my skin but I didn’t care. His fingers skimmed under the hem, tracing teasing circles over my bare stomach then higher, until they brushed the underside of my bra.
“Aria...” he breathed against my neck.
His teeth grazed my collarbone hard enough to make me shiver and I tilted my head back, giving him more. My hands shoved his hoodie off his shoulders and it hit the floor with a wet thud. Underneath, his t-shirt was damp too, molding to every lean muscle and abs I’d tried so hard not to stare at for months. I tugged it up, palms sliding over the warm, smooth planes of his back, feeling him tremble under my touch.
He shifted, knee nudging my thighs apart so he could settle between them. I could feel how hard he was through his jeans, pressing right where I ached most, and a desperate little sound escaped me. His mouth found mine again while his hand slipped fully under my shirt, pushing it higher until cool air hit my skin. The fabric bunched above my breasts and he broke the kiss just long enough to look down at me with his stormy eyes.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.
Then his head dipped and his lips closed over the lace-covered peak in a way that had me biting my lip to keep from moaning too loud. My fingers threaded through his damp curls, holding him there as heat coiled tighter in my belly. My phone buzzed on the nightstand twice. I reached for it without thinking and the screen lit up with in the dim room.
It was Sienna’s Instagram post that was posted twenty minutes ago. A blurry photo of Luca’s car parked under the streetlight outside our house taken from a window across the street. The caption read: My boyfriend’s at my best friend’s house rn. Guess the movie night is never happening.
I whipped around to him, voice cracking like thunder. “Luca did you really break up with her? You swore to me you ended it months ago before I even moved to Silverpine and that we’re truly a couple. Was that a lie? Was everything a lie?”
Luca’s face went ghost-white. He opened his mouth but nothing came out at first. When he finally spoke, it was barely a whisper. “Aria, I tried. I swear I’m truly sorry but I just couldn’t...”
My chest caved in. All those stolen kisses, and whispered promises in the dark, they’d been built on quicksand. Hell, what if the mate bond he told me about was also a FRICKIN’ lie?
His eyes met mine terrified and pleading but I couldn’t move or breathe because the girl I’d loved like a sister lied to me and the boy I’d risked everything for had just admitted he’d never really been mine to begin with.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
OMGGG WAIT— LUCA NEVER ACTUALLY BROKE UP WITH HER?! 😱😱 The lie just exploded in Aria’s face while Luca’s just standing there... All these while they both lied to Aria about being each other’s exes? Colour me shocked😱. Comment and add to your library cause next chapter is gonna be HOTTT!!! 💥🥵