Wicked Love | √

Twenty Four

I wake up next to Preston and my body feels like it's on fire. My skin is damp with sweat. My stomach is twisted in heavy knots. My thighs are clenched tightly. My entire body is throbbing with an ache I've never felt before.

I feel as if the flame is so close I can taste it, but it never burns me. It only stokes the need deep inside of me.

My mind is torn between pressing my body further into Preston's and never letting him go or fleeing his room before he wakes up to save myself from having to face him.

I do the latter. I'm too confused and too on edge to face him in the bright light of morning.

So I quietly untangle myself from his body and head home with a restless heart. I enter my apartment only to find my roommate and her cousin sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for me with raised brows and suspicious smirks hanging on their lips.

With a sigh I tell them that nothing happened. Just as I had suspected. But of course that doesn't appease my nosy friends so I tell them everything else that surrounded the nothing. The fight. The drunk dial. The clean up. The talking after. The falling asleep.

It all meant nothing, and yet it meant everything all at once.

It's confusing and maddening.

It's distracting as all hell honestly. So I shove it aside and pretend none of it happened. Because at the end of the day I told Preston I'm done and I need to act on that or I'm always going to be hanging on to him waiting for his half truths.

And I deserve more.

So after spilling all the details and swearing up and down that nothing happened between Preston and myself I finally head to the shower to try and cool down my overheated skin. But even the cool water doesn't help. If anything it only makes the blood in my veins run hotter. The heat is overwhelming and sweltering and it feels as if nothing can fix it.

I'm not accustomed to being so warm.

But in a twisted way it's fitting for the night ahead of me.

Lust night.

After last night a part of me wants to find an excuse to back out of the evening. But I know I can't. I promised Elizabeth I would go and I can't go back on my word to her.

Plus we went shopping for stupidly expensive lingerie that if I'm being honest I'm extremely excited to wear. It's like nothing I've ever owned. It's exquisite, delicate, and sexy. It makes me feel beautiful in a way I've never felt and it's something I know my mother would hate.

Which only makes me love it even more.

The day passes quickly as we all take our time preparing for the night. We shower, shave, exfoliate, pluck and tweeze away in attempts to look our absolute best. We even do face masks while sipping on rosé together. It's the perfect girls day that will end in a night that already has goosebumps tattooing my skin.

The sun is setting before we know it, and my heart continues to race in my chest with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

I take another sip of the wine Elizabeth keeps pouring into my glass. It helps to keep the nerves that want to swallow me whole at bay.

I've finally finished getting ready and my fingers can't help but play with the gold pendant resting on my chest as I glance at myself in the mirror. I almost don't recognize the woman in the mirror.

The black bra I wear is opaque and covered in intricate black lace with an open strappy back. The lace extends below the wire of the bra in a pretty scallop shape before connecting to a sheer piece of black fabric that flows from my waist and ends at the top of my thighs.