From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 429

Chapter 429

Chapter 242: He Was Shot

Reese

I don’t know what unsettled me more.

The fact that I’d been outplayed by a nerdy girl whose idea of

rebellion was probably skipping class once in college?

Or the fact that I was the one unraveling over it.

This made no sense. None at all.

I’d woken up this morning expecting regret. Maybe irritation. Maybe the usual detachment that followed sex when it meant nothing more

than release and distraction.

Instead, I’d woken up wired. Tense. Hyper–aware of every sound in

the house. Of every movement. Of her. Elizabeth.

She’d moved through the morning like yesterday hadn’t happened. Like we hadn’t crossed a line that two people who were practically

still considered strangers should never cross.

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Chapter 429

She hadn’t spoken to me since that happened. Not even once since

yesterday.

She’d instead brushed past me in the hallway to get to the kitchen,

barefoot, hair tied back loosely, wearing one of her faded concert t-

shirts like everything was okay. No awkwardness. No hesitation. No

lingering glance.

Nothing.

She’d poured herself coffee. Toasted bread. Sat on the couch and

turned on the television yesterday like this was her house and I was

just background noise. Like we hadn’t been naked together a few

hours ago. Like she hadn’t trusted me with something I never

should’ve touched.

Like I wasn’t losing my fucking mind.

I leaned against the doorway now, watching her from a distance. She sat cross–legged on the couch, bowl balanced on her thigh, spoon moving steadily from cereal to mouth as she watched what looked like a gruesome crime documentary. There was blood spatter. Chalk

outlines, Grainy footage,

But she didn’t flinch. Instead she welcomed each spoonful hungrily, letting her upper lip glide across the spoon. Almost in slow motion.

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I swallowed hard.

I’d slept with a lot of women. I’d walked away from all of them clean.

No complications. No attachments. No guilt. I’d learned early what

emotions cost. I’d learned the hard way what happened when you

blurred lines you had no business crossing.

That was why I had rules. Clear ones. No virgins. No attachments. No

hard feelings.

Just fun. Just business. Just bodies that didn’t leave marks or

memories. Until her.

Until I’d been standing in my bathroom last night, staring down at a

bloodied condom in my hand, my chest tightening like someone had

wrapped wire around my ribs and started pulling.

I’d never been with a virgin. Except once. And that disaster had

rewritten my entire fucking life.

So how had I missed it? How hadn’t I known?

Her insistence. Her planning. The way she’d been so precise. Too

direct. Too bold.

God.

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Why hadn’t it occurred to me that she wasn’t experienced–that she

was merely performing experience?

That she wasn’t nervous because she was shy, but because she was

calculating?

She’d known exactly what she was doing. And I’d walked straight into

1. it. Hook, line, sinker.

The thought made my jaw tighten. I dragged a hand down my face

and exhaled slowly, trying to get control of the chaos spiraling

through my head.

Get a fucking grip, Reese.

I shouldn’t be thinking about last night. I shouldn’t be dissecting it

like it meant something. I should be doing exactly what she was

doing–acting like it was nothing. Like it was just another Tuesday. I

should only be focused on what mattered.

Roman. My brother.

That was the real reason my nerves were shot. The real reason unease

clung to me like a second skin.

Yesterday, Roman had called sounding… wrong. Worried.

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Chapter 429

He sounded very tight and controlled over the phone like he was

forcing calm over something volatile.

He’d said things had gone sideways in Savannah’s hometown. That

what he’d expected to be a confrontation had turned into a full–blown

gun party. That bodies were down. That blood had been spilled. And

he’d said names.

The two women he’d come back with. The ones in the bus that night.

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