DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete Second Book

PART 13, SECTION 15

"Ashley." Ian grabbed me gently by the shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere. I haven't gone anywhere yet, have I? Everyone else is gone. How do you think I'm still alive?"

I sobbed. "I don't understand. What are you saying?"

Finally Ian looked away and stared out at the distant horizon.

"I've been trying to tell you this for a long time," he said, barely above a whisper. "That night at the fair." He glanced at me, then looked away again. "You really don't remember anything about that night at the fair?"

I shook my head. "No. I remember nothing." Some strange mixture of hope and lust rose up from my groin through the misery clogging my chest, then sank back down again. "What are you saying? What do you mean?"

"I didn't mean for it to happen," he said distantly. "But I just . . . I couldn't help it. . . "

I grabbed his chin and turned his head, forcing him to face me.

"Ian? What are you saying?"

He looked at me and swallowed. He was about to cry.

"You and me," he whispered. "We slept together that night."

Suddenly the warm sunlight pouring down all around me seemed twice as bright, the new growth on the hillsides twice as green.

I got up onto my knees. I wanted to take Ian's hand, but I was afraid that what he was saying couldn't be true.

"How is that even possible?" I said. "We couldn't have."

"We did, Ash," he said emphatically. "Before you left the bar with Bryce, you and I took a walk. You wanted to talk to me about what was going on in town, but it was too loud in the bar. And we just kept walking. I don't think either of us planned it. We just kept walking, through the fairgrounds, out into the parking lot. Until we reached your car . . ."

Suddenly I remembered Ian's hoodie. He'd left it in my car. Why would he have left his hoodie there unless he'd been in the car with me? Unless he'd . . . taken it off.

He was telling the truth. Ian and I had slept together that night in my car.

And suddenly I understood what he was trying to tell me. He hadn't died yet because he wasn't going to die. Not any time soon, anyway.

He was TGVx positive, too.

I wasn't the only one. I'd passed it to him that night. We were both immune to the airborne pathogen.

I thought about my sister. I thought about Tyler and Haley. I'd betrayed them all. Ian and I both had.

Then I thought about how Ian had found me later that night with Bryce. A sickening feeling jetted through my stomach. What must Ian have thought of me when he'd found me in the hotel with Bryce, only hours after sleeping with him in my car?

But I hadn't ever loved Bryce. Did Ian know that? I'd just been so drunk and under the strange spell of my own TGV and Bryce's, working in irresistible combination. I hadn't slept with Bryce. My TGV had.

But I had slept with Ian. I loved him. I still did. I always would.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "I forced you to do it. It wasn't your fault. It was the pheromones, Ian. You weren't thinking straight."

Ian took my hand in his.

I couldn't help but feel as though I'd melt from the pleasure and happiness that radiated from this touch.

"Ashley," Ian said firmly. "I didn't sleep with you because of the pheromones. Or the drinks. Or anything else. No matter how well I knew that I shouldn't, I wanted to sleep with you. It wasn't your fault."

"Just tell me this, then." I squeezed his hand. "Tell me honestly. Did you regret it?"

He looked out into the horizon.

"I've never once regretted it," he whispered. "Because, here's the thing, Ash. I love you." He turned to me. "I've always loved you."

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You've reached the end of Part 13: Falling to Pieces

DEAD IN BED continues with the final installment, Part 14: Heavenly...