Somehow we ended up out of the shower, my back against the cool floor and Cam over me, his body rocking with mine, my thighs squeezing him as the shower still ran. One hand was on my breast, the other buried deep in my soaked hair. His mouth was hot and demanding, consuming.

“Cam!” I cried out, my back arching as my release powered though me, explosive and crashing. His arms went around me as he lifted me up, seating me in his lap. My knees skid over the now wet floor. Lightning zinged through my veins. His body shook as he held me to him tightly, thrusting once more, grinding my hips against his as he came.

For a while, the only sound was our ragged breathing. We were limp in each other’s arms, my head on his shoulders, my hand resting above where his heart was pounding.

“You—”

“I’m okay,” I cut him off, giggling. “I’m not going to break.”

“I don’t know.” He brushed my hair back from my face. “You—” A knock on our hotel door cut him off. “Shit. The food’s here.”

I wiggled off his lap and he climbed to his feet, slipping in the puddles we’d left on the floor and almost wiping out. He made it to the door in one piece. “Cam!”

“What?” He looked over his shoulder.

Throwing him a towel, I giggled. “You’re about to answer the door with your junk hanging out.”

“Good call.” He wrapped the towel around his hips as he cast me a wicked grin. “Although the masses would love to see my junk.”

I laughed as I dipped back under the luke warm spray. His junk was rather impressive.

Molly’s house was in a decent part of town. Middle income, neat and clean. We stopped in front of a one story rancher and I scanned the numbers on my phone to make sure we had the right house.

“This is it.”

Cam parked the car along the curb, a slight frown on his face. “Are you sure you need to do this?”

“Yes. I owe it to her.”

He turned the car off. “You don’t owe her anything.”

I looked at him. “I do. It’s not that I blame myself for what happened to her, but if I don’t talk to her, she’s never going to understand why I didn’t say anything. And I need her to.” Because I really would like to go one week without getting a nasty message from her.

Drawing in a shallow breath, he pulled his hands off the steering wheel. “And of course you want me to stay out here?”

I nodded.

He sighed. “I don’t like this.”

Leaning over, I kissed his cheek. “But you like me.”

“I love you.” He turned his head toward me. Sliding his hand around the back of my neck, he brought his mouth to mine. “Doesn’t mean I’m happy about sitting out here while you go into some random, possibly psycho chick’s house.”

“She’s not psycho.”

“Says you.”

“Says me.”

His lips curved up on one side. “If you’re not out in five minutes, I’m coming in, guns blazing.”

“You don’t have a gun.”

“She doesn’t know that.”

I laughed softly. “I’ll need more than five minutes.”

“Six.”

“More,” I replied.

“You don’t need this, sweetheart.” When I said nothing, he groaned. “Seven.”

“You’re being ridiculous. I’ll be okay.”

Cam sighed again. “Okay. Please be careful.”

“I will.”

Before I could slide out from his grasp, he tightened his grip and captured my mouth. The kiss started off softly, turning deeper and hotter as his tongue slipped inside, moving in ways that reminded me of what he’d done last night and this morning. I moaned into the kiss, and when he pulled away, I was panting.

A wicked glint filled his blue eyes. “The faster you are in there, the faster you get more of that.”

“That is so wrong.” I slipped away, but I was grinning.

“I love you.”

I would never get tired of hearing that. “I love you too.”

Pulling myself from that car was almost impossible, but I did it. My sandals smacked off the cracked pavement as I hurried to the front door. I’d been out in the late morning sun for only a few seconds and sweat already dotted my brow.

I raised my hand to knock, but the interior door flew open, revealing a short, skinny girl with black hair and large gray eyes—wary eyes. They shifted to me and then over my shoulder. She was a pretty girl, one that looked bone-tired and weary.

“Who’s that?” she demanded.

I recognized her voice immediately. “That’s Cam. My boyfriend.”

Her face puckered as if she tasted something sour. “He can’t come in here.”

“I know.” I was quick to reassure her. “That’s why he’s staying in the car.”

Molly’s expression slipped into a scowl, but she stepped aside. Opening the screen door, I followed her inside the dark living room.

“Is this your parents’ house?” My eyes scanned the many pictures lining the walls and the well-worn furniture.

“Yes.” She stalked into the living room and picked up a remote. Turning the TV off, she tossed the remote onto the couch beside her. “They’re at work.”

“It’s nice.”

She smirked. “Says the girl who’s from Red Hill.”

The jab at the stretch of road my parents lived on wasn’t missed. I sat in a chair, crossing my ankles. “Okay. I’m glad you wanted to see me.”

Molly didn’t sit, but stood only a few feet from me. “Are you really?”

“Yes.”

She laughed harshly. “I somehow doubt that considering our last conversation and the fact you’ve spent a good nine months or so ignoring me.”

Okay. This was not going to be easy. “I’m not a big fan of reading emails from people I don’t know after being in high school and getting bombarded with hate mail. And there’s the fact that you sent me a ton of not too pleasant messages.”

Crossing her arms, she lifted her chin. “You know why I sent you those messages.”

“Because I didn’t respond in the beginning and because you blame me.” When she didn’t say anything, I leaned forward. “I wasn’t lying when I said I knew nothing about you until I spoke to my cousin in January of this year. I didn’t check the first emails. That’s the truth.”

She pressed her lips together. “So you’re still sticking with the ‘not a lying whore’ story?”

I exhaled through my nose as I stared up at her. Anger pricked at my skin, but like with my mother the day before, I kept my cool. “Like I told you on the phone, I hadn’t lied to the police.”

“Then why did you drop the charges?” she demanded.

“It’s a long story.”

She spread her arms out. “Obviously I have time. Tell me.”

Her demanding tone was making it a struggle not to be bitchy back. Keeping my voice level, I told Molly everything about that Halloween night and the days afterward. For the most part, her expression remained unyielding and as unforgiving as a seasoned cop. The only crack in the exterior was when I told her what Blaine had done. I didn’t have to ask her to know that it was the same. When I was finished, she turned away, shoulders bowed but spine straight.

“I’m not allowed to tell anyone this, but I needed to tell you.”

“Did you tell your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

She kept her back to me, silent.

“I wish my parents wouldn’t have agreed and I wish I hadn’t either. I wish I was as strong as you are and that I—”

“You don’t know anything about me.” She spun around, eyes a flinty gray.

I held up my hands. “But I do know you are strong—stronger than me. You did the right thing and I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t easy.”

“I know.” I think this chick just wanted to be argumentative.

Her sharp chin jutted out. “Nothing about this was easy. Talking to the police—the detectives and then the lawyers. Having to keep going over every fucking thing he did to me? In detail? Wasn’t easy. And I wouldn’t have to have gone through any of that if you had stuck with the truth!”

“I’m sorry—”

She moved so fast and I was so unprepared for it that I just sat there.

Molly smacked me, snapping my head to the side. Tears of pain and surprise pricked my eyes.

She had smacked me right across the face.

I almost couldn’t believe it. The entire side of my face burned red-hot, stinging. Damn. For someone so skinny she could deliver one hell of a good bitch slap.

Fury stamped down the shock and my hands itched to replay the favor. But I got Molly’s anger. Her pain was still so fresh and it was cutting too deep. I’d been in her shoes, was still there every so often. The anger never really left. Maybe it never would. So I got why she was so furious.

That was one of the reasons why I wasn’t currently introducing my fist to her face.

“You deserved that,” she said, voice shaking.

My cheek stung as I stood. “Maybe I did. But I didn’t deserve what Blaine did to me and I don’t deserve all the shit you’re giving me for something I decided when I was fourteen and had very little choice in.”

“Your parents didn’t put a gun to your head and make you sign those papers, did they?”

I shook my head. “What would you have done if you were fourteen and your parents demanded that you do that?”

Her mouth opened.

“Don’t even answer that, because it doesn’t matter. I am sorry—but if you hit me again, I will hit back—I’m sorry that this happened to you. And I’m sorry that you have to go through a trial and all of that. And trust me, the biggest thing that I’m sorry about is signing those fucking papers and agreeing. But I can’t change that. All I can do is let it go.”

“Well, you have fun letting it go then.”

Standing here, staring at the girl that I shared a terrible commonality with, I felt… empty. There were no harking angels or golden light of revelation. I felt the same way I did walking out of my parents’ house. Nothing. In a sudden instance, I knew Cam was right. I didn’t need to do this to move on. I hadn’t really even needed to confront my parents. Although that had felt terrific.

I had begun to move on the moment I had told Cam the truth.

It just hadn’t happened overnight. Letting go had been a slow process that took a bitch slap in the face to figure out.

I didn’t need to be here.

I needed to be out there, with Cam, and back home, in West Virginia, with my friends. I needed to continue letting it all go.

I started for the door.

“Where are you going?” Her bony fingers dug into my arm, stopping me. “Avery?”

Removing her hand from my arm, I kept my voice even. “I’m leaving, Molly. I’m going back out there to a man who loves me no matter what happened in my past or what stupid decisions I’ve made. I’m going home, which isn’t the house on Red Hill, and I’m going to go see my friends. That’s where I’m going.”