Chapter 20

Caroline

*****

This feeling was like being on fire with a fire-resistant cape on. My skin burned as bright orange embers on the verge of catching. It was all the deep-bone melting heat without any of the pain, the injury, the scarring.

Scalding water tumbled down my naked body. I'd never stood naked in front of a man before. My hands itched to cover myself but I focused on bathing myself. I wanted Marshall like a drug. I secretly hoped I pushed him too far. He didn't think I was ready, but I'd waited for what felt like forever to experience this. For years, other people my age coupled up, found love, reveled in freeing their sexuality. I waited! Waited to meet someone I wanted to do those things with. Someone who didn't think I was a freak or a nerd. I never met anyone who made me want more until Marshall. He took one look at me and set my world ablaze. And I was dancing in the flames.

You don't know who you're seducing. His words rang through my skull repeatedly. He wasn't wrong.

I d