Thirty-Eight

CORA

“Three minutes,” Lander says before he fusses with Everett’s hair. “Hm. You need a haircut.”

“Absolutely not,” I object before swatting Lander’s hand away.

Immediately, Lander surrenders and takes an emphatic step back.

Seated on the surface of his dining table, Everett chuckles. “Are you getting territorial? That’s so hot.” His hand dips under my skirt, and he clicks his tongue. “Commando. You’re supposed to wear panties to a press conference.”

“Is it a press conference if you’re livestreaming from your kitchen?” Lander chimes in.

I shoot a look over my shoulder. “Your fiancée makes thousands of dollars a night livestreaming from her bed. You tell us what this is.”

“Fair enough,” Lander concedes before he walks to the other side of the table.

Beaming, Everett looks me up and down. “I love when you’re out of fucks.” His eyes drop to the hem of my skirt once more. “Do you think we can be quick?”

Behind me, Lander clears his throat. “We’re live in two minutes. And Cora, if you’re allowing this guy to finish inside you in two minutes flat , we should stage an intervention.”

“He’s right,” I agree, facing Everett. I put my hands on his cheeks. “We’ll play after you’re done telling the whole world you don’t support the unsubstantiated lies about Felix J. Worthington and your platonic friend Cora Flores.”

That’s the official line. Everett worked with Lander to craft a statement that he’s going to deliver live on one of his social media accounts in a minute or two. It’s straightforward—admittedly more straightforward than the governor’s request for Everett to cut ties with me and find a nice Kennedy to marry—but it’ll do.

“Give me something to look forward to,” Everett requests. He grabs a marker from the stack of campaign materials strewn over his table and passes it to me.

The way we both know what’s about to happen is the most twisted and delicious mind meld I’ve ever experienced.

Everett slides down the zipper of his suit pants before reaching in and taking out his cock. I write on it: Cora Flores , and he grins before tucking his cock back into his pants.

Lander, still seated at the other end of the long dining table, is watching us without shame. I cap the marker and toss it aside. “Are you going to make Valeria do this?”

“I just bought a pack of non-toxic markers,” he replies, holding his phone in the air before he faces Everett. “Are you ready?”

Everett sits while I set up his phone on one of my tripods. He smiles at me—somber, no teeth—and nods.

I start the livestream.

“Thanks for joining me this afternoon,” Everett begins. “Obviously, there’s been talk about me and someone close to me, so I’m here to set the record straight. I’m supposed to explain that Cora Flores, the woman who saved my life, didn’t blackmail Felix J. Worthington. However…” He exhales. “However, that statement would be a lie. I made a promise I wouldn’t lie anymore.”

When he glances at me, my stomach drops—no, plummets .

“What is true,” Everett goes on, “is that Cora didn’t blackmail Felix. I would wager my entire campaign on that if anyone asked.” He looks at me again. “The thing I’m supposed to lie about is whether Cora Flores is my friend.”

Oh my god. Alarmed, I look at Lander. His arms are folded across his chest, and he’s watching Everett with an even expression on his face.

“Cora has never been my friend, and frankly, I don’t want to be friends with her. Cora is—” He looks at me and this time it’s longer than a glance. “She’s a part of me I didn’t realize I was missing until I met her. She’s the beginning and the end for me, and if you take anything away from what I’m saying, let it be this: I would do anything for her—literally anything. A month ago, she took a bullet for me. Tonight, I’m going to take one for her.”

My hands tighten on the table. Stop . I want to tell him. Stop it. You’ve worked your whole life for this .

“I love her,” Everett goes on, staring at me while he speaks. “I love her so much that I’m not sure how much my life meant before her. And if loving someone with every fiber of my being makes me unfit for office, then so be it. But I’m done apologizing for the things I love.”

Everett turns off the livestream. Then he stares at me, waiting.

He told the truth.

He told the truth to the entire world.

Lander rises from his chair and the three of us are silent until his phone starts vibrating. He clears his throat. “That was great, Ev,” he comments, sounding incomprehensibly casual, before he leaves the kitchen. As he goes, I hear him say, “Baby, I know. He did amazing…” until his voice fades under the sound of his footsteps heading upstairs.

“Valeria must have called him,” Everett says, still sitting in his dining chair with his spine straight.

Horrified, I face him before I shoot out of my seat. “What are you thinking?” I question, resting my hands on the back of my neck before I start backing away. “Are you out of your mind?”

“What do you mean?” he asks, rising out of his chair to go to me.

My eyes are welling, and I can’t even remember the last time I cried in front of someone who wasn’t Valeria or Essie, but here I am, crying. “Everett,” I begin when he places his hands on the curve of my neck. I shake my head. “You didn’t have to—”

“Please call me Ev,” he interjects, tilting his head to put us at eye level. “And I did have to. I love you. I love you .”

I’m shaking my head even more vigorously. “You can’t—”

“Yes, I can,” he insists. “What did I write on you? Two weeks ago at my father’s house, what did I write?”

I think back to that night. “Everything.”

“And what does that mean?”

“That I mean everything to you.”

“Yes, you’re everything,” he reiterates. “But it also means I would give up everything for you.” He puts his hands on my cheeks. “There’s nothing about you I would change. There’s nothing about you I want to hide. The person you are is perfect for me—she’s enough for me. The best thing about you, the thing that keeps me obsessed with you, is how much I don’t deserve you. And if you let me, I will spend every day of our lives trying to be good enough for you.”

The words land in a place I didn’t know existed in me. They start in my chest and spread to the far reaches of my body, lighting up my nerves and my skin in a gilded network of tingles. I feel it—I actually feel it : the inimitable sensation of being someone’s everything. Everything they’ve wanted, everything they’ve needed, everything .

I wonder if he feels it too. If he doesn’t, he should—because that’s what Everett has become for me: everything.

“You’re enough for me too, Ev,” I tell him.

His face breaks into a smile. “I am?”

I nod, wiping away a tear before I swat his arm. “Yes, you impulsive asshole.”

“Impulsive? Lander and I spent all night writing that statement. It’s all true. I’m obsessed with you. I love your terrifyingly brilliant brain, your quick wit, and your powers of perception. I love how much our four best friends love you, and I love how all the food in your fridge is now vegan, and I love the way you say the word cunt with your full chest. And yes, I love you, Cora.”

Cora. He called me Cora.

“Please call me princess,” I reply. “And I love you too. Surely the evil shadows you control can dissipate long enough for you to see the way I look at you. The way I smile at you. The way I love you, Ev.”

The corner of his mouth rises. “I knew you did. I knew you loved me when you sat me down at your kitchen table and told me you didn’t believe in revenge, even though you pretended you did when I gave you my kompromat.” He leans in. “You’ve been looking for reasons to love me. I hope I finally gave you one.”

“Hundreds,” I clarify. “You’ve given me hundreds.”

He pulls me into his arms and the security of his touch unwinds the lingering tension in my body until I’m one with him —until the support of his embrace feels as integral to my being as air itself. “I’m not hiding us anymore,” he murmurs into my hair. “If what I did cost me the election, fine. I made my bed and I’m willing to lie in it—as long as you’re with me.”

Pulling back, I place my hand on his cheek. “Baby boy, when have you and I ever just laid in a bed? Yes, you made your bed—and I’m going to fuck you in it.”