27

Well, maybe life was too short for me to give up on Josh. I was lucky to love Ben, but he's gone now. And Josh… he's definitely not gone. He made my body feel like no one else did, and he made me want to be daring and excited and adventurous. I haven't felt like this in a long time.

All of this was so complicated. I wish someone could tell me what to do . But that was the old Pietra talking, the one who accommodated everyone else's needs at the expense of herself. The one who didn't go to Cambridge and leave her country school in a Sicilian village for the wet and miserable forest of Crookshollow. I wasn't sure it was that girl anymore.

I got out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel, and walked down the hall to my room to find clean clothes. I was digging through my underwear drawer when I felt a strong finger slide down the side of my neck.

“I love a girl who's wet for me,” a husky voice whispered in my ear.

I leapt a mile into the air, my heart pounding against my chest. My towe