*Lauren*

The secret weighed on me like a stone in my stomach, but as Lucas's lips met mine, the weight seemed to dissolve, if only for a moment. I could feel the truth bubbling up inside me, threatening to spill over with each heartbeat, but I pushed it down, burying it under the taste of him, the feel of him.

"Lauren," he murmured against my lips, and the sound of my name on his tongue was enough to scatter my troubled thoughts like leaves in the wind.

"Lucas," I ...