Free #Selfie (Hashtag Series Book 4) by Cambria Hebert Page B

“I know. I love you, too.” I hooked an arm around her and pulled her in. It wasn’t a full-on hug because she was holding two coffees and I was holding one, but it got the job done.
    I felt her shock at my words. That I actually said I loved her out loud like that.
    I cleared my throat. “You know, as a sister.”
    Her giggle was muffled against my shirt. “I love you, too.”
    I didn’t think those words would mean so much to me. Hell, I hadn’t really thought I’d be telling her I loved her in the middle of the airport.
    But her willingness to say she cared touched me. It dug underneath the pissy mood I was in and the annoyed feelings I had toward Ivy.
    For a long time, my family consisted of just my mom and me. Romeo and his parents were main constants in my life, too. But this was the first time I’d let in a girl. No, it wasn’t romantically, but it still meant a lot. In fact, the shock Rimmel just displayed I felt, too. Maybe that’s why I was so protective over her. Because letting in people was just as rare for me as it was for her, and because I wanted to protect it.
    “I leave you two alone for five minutes,” Romeo drawled as he came up behind us.
    Rimmel pulled away and went to him. I wasn’t a relationship guy, but the devotion I saw in her eyes when she looked at him sometimes made me feel like I should be.
    “Got you a coffee.” Rimmel held out the cup to him.
    Romeo took it and leaned down to kiss her on the head. “Thanks, baby.”
    “Car returned?” she asked.
    “Yep.”
    “I’m gonna miss that convertible,” she sighed.
    “Hey now, don’t be saying that around the Hellcat.”
    “Well, at least I could drive the convertible,” she cracked.
    Rome grimaced. “The Hellcat is probably gonna miss that convertible.”
    “Hey!” Rim admonished and poked him in the ribs.
    Laughing, Romeo pulled her close.
    I turned away from their disgusting, lovey displays of affection. Rome was so whipped. How the hell he got so twisted up inside for some girl—no offense to my little sis—was a damned mystery.
    I wasn’t ever going to get twisted up like that. Being whipped was the last thing I ever planned to be.
    Without meaning to, I looked at Ivy. She was laughing along with Missy at something Trent was saying.
    Letting women in, letting that kind of emotion in was dangerous. I knew all too well the kind of damage a relationship with too much of anything could cause.
    I was better off alone.

Chapter Ten

    Ivy
    I needed a shower.
    For more than one reason.
    Sitting on a plane full of crowded people wasn’t fun. Sitting next to Missy, my best friend that I betrayed, was worse. Still feeling Braeden on my skin?
    Torture.
    All I could think about while I hobbled through the parking lot of the airport with Missy and Trent in tow was a shower. I didn’t care it wouldn’t be a private bathroom like I’d been using for the past week. I didn’t care I was going back to the dorm, back to classes, and back to regular life.
    I just wanted these feelings to go away.
    This war inside me needed to stop. What Braeden and I did had been so wrong, but oh my word , it felt so good.
    I couldn’t stop thinking about it. About the way the orgasm, my first one, was like a riptide inside my whole body. It circled and circled, gaining momentum, and then everything in me collapsed and was pulled into the swirling center of unmatched pleasure. My whole body splintered apart. I didn’t know it could be that way.
    Why?
    Why did I have to experience something so powerful with him?
    And then I had to sit next to Missy—the girl who wanted him—on the plane home. Trent sat in the same row, and that thankfully curtailed any girl talk, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid it forever.
    Maybe after a shower, after some space and time to think, I would be better prepared. Prepared to shove what happened into the deepest recesses of my mind. I would be able to talk to Missy about him and the way she felt without