third book in the Evelyn Black series
• • mature - language, drugs, alcohol, sex • •
• slow slow-burn friends to lovers •
• soft burn romance •
[ all books listed in prologue via chronological order ]
George can't take the silence any longer, and he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She wraps the cord around her finger again, letting the plastic suffocate her skin until it's bright white. She unravels it once she hears a bright laugh in her ear.
"Shut up, he did not," Nell says.
"He totally did," Evelyn says. "I'm telling you, Nell, he has never been so forward with me and not followed it up with anything." She peers out the window and down the pavement to where George and Fred are playing with a muggle bouncy ball they found in an alleyway down the street. She blushes from the phone box just watching him laugh. "It's so weird, but so hot— Hell, why is he so hot?"
"Because you love him," Nell coos in a soft, sing-song voice. "And he's always acted like that around you, you just were too naïve to see it. What's got you so hot and bothered about it now?"
"Maybe because he's not acting on it as much as I want him to," Evelyn sighs, ignoring the stab at her awareness.
"Makes sense..."
George peaks over his shoulder at her, and he waves. A dopey smile covers his face until Fred smacks him square in the stomach. "Would it be weird if I just asked him to touch me?" She asks Nell awkwardly, the dead skin of her thumb becoming wedged between her teeth. "Like... just in general?"
"No," Nell tells her. "I think it's reasonable, all things considering."
Evelyn crosses an arm over her stomach. "And what are 'all things'?"
"The snogging," Nell explains.
Evelyn scoffs, peering down at her red, prickly cuticles. "Okay, we've necked twice, that isn't 'all thing considered'."
"Still warrants wanting to do it again," Nell tells her. "And more. If he's gonna kiss you goodnight, he should be kissing you good morning, and at every other time of the day when it's convenient!"
Evelyn sighs. She continues watching him from afar, her heart gets stuck in adoration palpitations— he's so damn cute with his hair and his hands and his...
"I literally wore nothing but a t-shirt and knickers to bed last night," she admits quietly. "He hardly reached for my bloody thigh."
"Sounds like he has more self control than we'd thought," Nell quips.
"Ugh, but I don't want him to have self control!" Evelyn whines, "I want him to let all those stupid teenage hormones take over so he can just kiss me like a man!"
She can't stop herself from imagining how he must feel pressed against her front, his hands anywhere and everywhere all at once. She wants to be overwhelmed by his existence with hers. She gets herself worked up over it at the most inconvenient times: always.
"He's a boy, Evie."
"A stupidly hot boy," Evelyn crows. "A stupid, hot, compassionate, tall, funny boy— damnit, Nell, why won't he snog me?!"
