Lost King Piper Lennox (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📖

in deciding, until I’m touching his erection through his dress pants and adoring the moans he washes down my neck.

His fingers skate underneath my dress. When he feels how damp and impossibly hot I am there, he swallows hard and breathes my name against my mouth. “Fuck....Ruby.”

“Oh, fuck…Aria.”

My instincts want to yank me away from him. Instead, I make myself do it gradually, everything coming to a safe and unsuspicious stop.

Theo sits back in his seat, panting through nervous laughter.

I shut my eyes and imagine the grossest, darkest, worst things I can think of. Anything to stop the fire between my legs. That’s not where I need it.

I need it to sit in my chest, where I’ve quietly nursed it all these years—raising it from a baby burn to full-fledged incinerator.

“Goodnight, Theo,” I whisper, reaching for the handle and stepping out.

“Good morning, Ruby.”

He doesn’t look away until I’m back in my own vehicle. My safe, Durham-free bubble, shivering and burning under his stare.

My townhouse is far too warm.

I don’t even have my heat on; the neighbors crank theirs so high, there’s no need. Before my roommate bailed last month to go star on some reality show, we’d sleep with our bedroom doors and windows open to make a cross-breeze, even when it was snowing.

Now I keep her door firmly shut, too pissed to tolerate that empty room, and this place becomes a perpetual toaster.

Strangely, it doesn’t bother me right now. There’s a chill nesting deep in my bones I can’t shake, even after I go upstairs and boil myself alive in the shower.

Briefly, I look at the detachable spray nozzle and think, What would be the harm?

His kiss left me wired. His touch took all the heat my body had and concentrated it in my core. Even while the rest of me is shivering, that ache won’t leave me alone.

I almost orgasm, the second the jet of water touches me.

No.

I open my eyes and chase the memories away. Every last fantasy my traitorous hormones started to concoct washes down the drain.

In the streaked mirror, I flash myself Character Ruby’s smile, just to know I can still do it: sweet, innocent—and in control.

Getting caught up in sexual attraction is as bad as what happened in the restaurant, when I got all emotional and pathetic because he called me interesting. Again.

Both are too risky to entertain. My past with Theo is behind me. It can fuel me; in fact, it should. But it can’t control me.

And fantasies are no better, because they make me think of a not-so-distant future with him—what it will feel like in his bed. In his arms.

There is no future there.

Maybe I should forget the whole thing. This was never a real plan, after all. Just a furious and aching daydream, some kind of self-defense mechanism. I never thought I’d act on it.

But, then again, I never thought I’d get the chance.

Well—now you have. And you took it.

I swipe my hand through the fog until I get a clear view of myself. The girl staring back at me doesn’t have the tears in her eyes I think I feel in mine.

“Finish what you started,” she tells me. And I nod, because I know she’s right.

Yes, Theo Durham broke my heart.

Then he broke the rest of me, my entire life, piece by piece.

But I’m done crying over it. I’m done waiting for a miracle, some magical day when he’ll grow a conscience and seek me out to apologize. Not only do I know it won’t happen, but I don’t even want an apology, anymore.

I want revenge. And by God, I’m going to get it.

Over the next few weeks, Theo Durham will fall in love with me. Completely. Inescapably.

So far gone, he can’t recognize himself anymore.

And then I’m going to shatter whatever he’s got in that chest, until I’ve left him every bit as broken as he once left me.

6

Seven Years Ago

“You’re sure you don’t want to come in?”

Callum yanked up his parking brake and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Positive. I wasn’t invited, first of all. And second, I don’t give a fuck about these guys.” He dropped his hand and swept his eyes over my outfit again, a black skirt with a faded gray tank top. “Since when do you dress like that?”

Since I learned I don’t pull off low-riders, I thought. Anxiety promptly drowned my excitement. Was this outfit okay? Did it look like I was trying too hard?

I tugged my shirt until the rolls on my stomach were hidden, then assured myself the clothes were a good choice. True, they were different than my usual outfit of jeans and tees—but they also highlighted a couple assets I wanted front-and-center tonight.

“This is how everyone dresses.”

“Not you.”

“Yeah, well...it is now.” I popped the handle on my door and hurried out of his Camry. Music pulsed down the street, swallowing me whole as I checked my clothes one last time.

“Have fun with your new besties.”

I slammed the door without answering. He didn’t understand. But he should have.

Callum was just like me: living on the fringes of this carefree, elegant, exciting world, growing up with parents who worked ten times as hard as the people who employed them, without any of the same rewards.

And it wasn’t just our stations. We were geeks. Awkward. Uncool and unpopular. At least he was strong enough to fight off his bullies back home. I had to deal with the likes of Vivi and Cate year-round. Same bitches, different zip codes.

But not anymore.

Not tonight.

If they can just get to know me....

The crowd filled Theo’s home like trendy herds of cattle. My trip from the foyer to the living room took five minutes,