Hey guys, TBS has a new cover! Do you like this one better or prefer the old?

Comment of Chapter Twelve goes to fluffy-waffles 😅

I've been so excited to post this chapter 😩💖 hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

He tasted like sugar from the cola he'd ordered and his lips were soft against my own. I wanted to moan in relief, to lose myself in just kissing him for a moment. To forget about everything that happened and just transport myself back to that night at the beach house.

My fingers trailed through his hair and his dipped beneath my overalls, playing with the bottom of my shirt. His hands were rough and warm against my skin, and I found myself unbuckling the seatbelt to get closer, to take every tame encounter we'd had since the beach house and transform it into something raw and hungry. I wanted to rip apart everything creating our fragile connection and instead forge it with unsatiated kisses.

He kissed me until my lips were hot and my breath uneven, my hair a mess of wild tendrils.

"Stay with me tonight," he said. He didn't need to ask me now, he already knew.

I ignored every thought of Penelope that tried to spring into my mind—and there were a lot of them. I couldn't afford to worry about that now, not when every other part of me was breaking. All I wanted was to embrace the one tether I had to normality. No, it wasn't even normality. Felix Bradford was anything but normal.

When we arrived at his, I dumped my purse onto the counter, our arms already linked around each other as we breached the threshold, entwined as he led me up the spiral stairs to his bedroom, too busy to admire the décor as I pulled him onto the bed. It wasn't like the various Tinder hookups I'd had over the last few months—physical and short-lived—it was so much more, a deep chasm of emotion opening in my heart, filled with pain and stress and vulnerability and now flushed with something else. A momentary heat that welded me together. Felix.

On his bed, my fingers pulled up the cotton of his shirt, his skin hot. He'd turned on the lamp, a golden glow filling the room, but this time I could see more than I did in the candlelight of the beach house. I kissed his ribs, letting my hands wander across the muscles of his back. He turned over so he could turn on another switch, one that ignited lanterns trimming the walls. My eyes caught on a shadow on his back.

"You have a tattoo."

Felix gave me a wry smile, flexing so his skin stretched, showing me the entirety of the thin branches. I traced the cords of black, spiraling down from a flat circle at the top.

"Is it a tree?" I asked, moving closer so I could get a better look.

"Roots," he said. Suddenly it made sense, roots curling and fraying over the muscles of his left shoulder blade.

"Something to ground you?"

"Kinda." He rolled over so he could look at me, sparkling dark eyes warming me, enticing me and making me burn with hunger. "I think it's sort of deep. Everyone always gets plants or flowers drawn on their skin, but you can have the most beautiful, greenest, blooming plant, and it can still be yanked from the ground. It's the roots--the stuff you can't see--that makes it strong. It's sort of a reminder that you don't know people. Not from the stuff they present on the outside, anyway."

"You're..." My whisper dissolved, Felix had stolen any words I might have had. How could he be the guy Penelope spoke about? What was I going to say to him, anyway? You're incredible. Unbearably beautiful. Impossible.

It didn't matter, anyway, because he kissed me again, so deeply that I knew we didn't need words to speak anymore. Our communication was in breathless gasps and the grip of our fingers. This was so dangerous—such a temporary vice. But one I couldn't resist any longer. Not when he seemed to feel the same.

"Fuck, Josie," he murmured into my shoulder as my shirt landed on his floor and I was left in my underwear. I was straddling his thighs as I pulled his lips to mine again."Are you sure?"

"Uh-huh," I murmured against his skin as his fingers slipped beneath my bra strap. "Are you?"

He hesitated, just long enough for me to doubt him.

"Entirely," he finally said, before rolling us over so I was beneath him.

The next morning I woke to the sound of buzzing. I wasn't sure where my cell was, or even where I was, for a few long moments. I was so comfortable, soft blankets tucked beneath my chin. And arms around me. Bare legs intertwined with my own.

            Felix moaned and patted around him. I peeked out of the corner of my sleep-filled eyes and saw him fish his phone from the pocket of last night's jeans.

            "Hello," he said croakily after bringing it to his ear. "What do you mean she—"

            He screwed up his face, catching my eye and pausing. He leaned forward to kiss my temple, and then threw the covers off of himself to walk to the ensuite, grabbing a towel along the way and wrapping it around his hips.

            I heard him continue his conversation, and then the shower turned on. I was starting to grow salty, when he stuck his head through the door, phone-free.

            "Want to join?"

            After one steamy shower and a make-shift outfit of Felix's sweater over my overall dress from yesterday later, I was in his car with a keep-cup coffee and we were on our way to class.

            "Is everything okay?" I asked. I'd meant to ask once I'd reached Felix in the shower, but his naked and wet body had... distracted me.

            "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" he challenged. He patted my knee as he circled for a park. We'd be fashionably late to class, as usual.

            "The call this morning seemed urgent," I said lightly, waiting. I'd immediately wondered if the she he'd been talking about was me. Or Penelope. Or worse—another girl. The thought made me feel nauseous, even though Felix and I hadn't even discussed exclusivity.

            "Oh," he said. He paused in thought, which meant he was either pondering his answer or pondering his reverse-parking. He put his hand on the back of my seat and twisted to look behind us.

            I waited until he'd pulled the hand-break before unclipping my seatbelt.

            "It was Cole on the phone," he said finally. "He's just got stuff going on."

            I'd heard that so many times now.

            "His girlfriend?" I pressed. I had to take a slow breath to stop myself from sounding too desperate. I didn't want to come across as nosy, after all.

            "It's not really your business."

            My stomach sank.

            "I'm sorry," I said quickly, but too quickly. My heart was racing fast. Had I ruined this? Was doing Penelope's dirty work going to push whatever fragile comfort I had in this thing with Felix away? I couldn't lose it now. Not when I'd just lost Sebastian.

            Felix didn't say anything, he just stepped out of the car and I did the same. We walked to class in silence, and I kept trying to think of ways to start conversation again, to test whether things were okay or not. But nothing seemed right.

            There was only one seat left on each aisle occupied by his friends. I shuffled into the one beside Poppy while Felix chose Cole and Professor Malcolm muttered something about locking the doors after ten-am.

            "Cute jumper," Poppy said knowingly, pinching my sleeve. I smirked at her and opened my notebook, aware of Cole and Felix's hushed whispers in front of us.

            I was starting to scribble ideas for the final semester project when the doors opened again. I looked up from my paper only half interested, until I saw who it was. It wasn't a fellow student or even anyone I'd ever expected to see at college.

            Penelope Algate practically took command of the room the second she opened the door. I lost grip of my pen and it fell to the floor. I looked to Poppy and Jada beside me. Poppy's mouth was agape, but curled in the corners, like she was amused. Beside her, Jada's face had paled.

            Cole and Felix had already risen to their feet in front of us, and Professor Malcolm was looking pretty damn pissed.

            "Are you a student here? I don't recognize you." he said to Penelope.

            She gave him a dazzling smile. "No, sir, sorry. I'm just here because I forgot something that was mine."

            The professor narrowed his eyes, but her words were enough to have Cole slam his laptop shut and storm down the rows towards the door.

            "I'd suggest watching your grades, Mr. Kensington," Professor Malcolm muttered as the door closed beside them. I was gripping the fold out table tightly, my knuckles turning white.

            "That was Penelope," Poppy whispered, as if I hadn't already worked it out. "I can't believe she's back."

            That made two of us.

            I couldn't concentrate for the rest of class. I kept watching Felix fiddle with his phone in front of him, like he was waiting for something. I couldn't stand the thought that I'd pried too far this morning and now he'd lost interest. It was like that for him, wasn't it? From what Penelope said. He liked to keep things casual, after all.

            By the time the professor had ended the lecture I'd already packed my things, the inside of my lip raw from biting it.

            "Well, that was something," Felix said with a sigh. His eyes were on Jada and Poppy.

            I stopped myself from saying something—asking another probing question that would make Felix dislike me. I shoved my things in my bag and made my way down the aisle.

            "I need to go home," I said over my shoulder at Felix, whose figure I sensed following me.

            I waited for him to stop me, to try and reconcile whatever tension was now between us. Why did I have to pry this morning? Why did it have to be when Penelope was here? She should see me be on the ball, keeping a good watch on Cole so she could keep paying me. What if she fired me after this and I had to find another shitty job? Would Felix still like me if he really knew how I lived?

            The bus ride home was miserable. I kept wondering if Penelope would want to speak with me, or if she was too busy devouring precious time with Cole.

            I buried my head in my hands, wishing I could fall asleep and escape the buzz of thoughts through my mind. My brother. My mother. Felix. It was starting to feel like I was in too deep.

            But, I'd managed worse. By myself. I could do it again.

            I kept thinking over my financial situation. How, without Penelope's money or Sebastian to fall back on, I was in a pretty bad spot. I didn't like asking Seb for money, exactly, but there had been a few patchy months where I needed a few hundred dollars extra for rent. He'd easily sacrificed it, of course, always offering more, but I knew it was dirty money. It was money from my parents.

            I was such a hypocrite.

            Sebastian had called me several times, twice last night and already three times this morning. I'd muted his calls, instead choosing a moody playlist and turning my cell over in my hands. It stung bad that he'd tried to trap me with mom. I thought he was on my side.

            The familiar odor of alley trash and mildew told me nothing had changed in the apartment in my absence. It had felt so nice to sleep in a bed that wasn't falling apart last night, and to not worry about balancing the cold and hot tap on the shower this morning. I found myself daydreaming of the way it felt to wake up in Felix's arms, the scent of his sheets, the way his fingertips had bitten into my back as our bodies intertwined...

            I dozed off into the afternoon, and spent a while lying there afterward trying to convince myself to catch up on the college work I was missing. But I was too stressed. I kept checking my phone, waiting for something—anything—from Felix.

            I started writing out notes, my eyes checking the screen every so often, until it finally did ring. My heart swelled in relief as I lunged for it, until I saw the number on the screen. It was too late. I'd already pressed answer.

            "Joselyn," Penelope said. "Where are you?"

            "Oh—I'm at home," I said, trying to gauge the cause for the urgency.

            "I'm coming by. We need to talk right away. I'll pick you up in a half hour."