“I’m sorry I didn’t realize.”

Giana groaned then, her head lulling back as she rolled her eyes up to the sky. “I don’t want it to be a big deal.”

“Well, it kind of is,” I said with an amused smile. “Especially when I’m pawing you like an animal in a crowded party.”

A laugh bubbled out of her, and she pulled her gaze back to mine. “Sometimes I just wish I could just do it with someone and get it over with, you know?”

That feral monster inside me bashed against its cage, and all I could do to stomach it was tuck her under my arm and walk her back toward campus.

“Tell me what happened with Shawn,” I said, ignoring her comment, though I knew it would be burned into my brain for the rest of my fucking life.

Giana eyed me like she saw right through my not-so-subtle dodge of the subject, but apparently, she was eager to move on, too, because she sighed, leaning her head against my chest as we walked.

“I don’t know how, or why, but I did everything you said and he…” She shook her head, laughing a bit as she buried her face before peeking up at me. “I think if you wouldn’t have showed up, he would have kissed me.”

I laughed despite the way those words made anger flare in my gut. That was a side effect I hadn’t been prepared for when we’d entered into this fake relationship, how kissing and touching Giana would blur that line and make me feel like she was actually mine. I didn’t have a right to feel any sort of possessiveness over her, so I shoved it down and remembered why we did this in the first place.

For her to get Shawn.

For me to get Maliyah back.

“Let me guess — he said something along the lines of you deserving better than me?”

“Basically,” she said. “I’m just… in awe. He went from not even knowing I’m alive to… I don’t know… wanting to save me from you.” She barked out a laugh at the audacity.

I, on the other hand, swallowed against the vitality of his concern.

“So, what’s next?” she asked.

When she looked up at me, the tears had dried on her face, and her smile was just as bright and genuine as the one she’d given me when we walked into the party at the beginning of the night. Just like that, she’d bounced back. And even though I’d crossed the line, she watched me with the same unwavering trust in her eyes, looking to me for guidance like I wasn’t the devil himself.

“So eager,” I teased, smiling as I pulled her under my arm and rubbed my knuckle against her skull.