Ignite (Legacy) by Rebecca Yarros Page A

through the crowd and took a tall table at the back, sitting so I could see Avery at the bar.
    Fuck, she was beautiful. Her hair was up in a ponytail, swishing with her every movement as she poured drinks.
    “So you and Avery, huh?” Jessie said, grabbing the empty chair to my right.
    “How did you know?” I asked, my eyes still locked on Avery. She went up on her tiptoes to grab a bottle off the shelf, giving me a perfect view of her ass, and I sucked in a breath reflexively. We were in a room with at least thirty of our neighbors. Common sense told me that this wasn’t the place for me to ogle, let alone fantasize about propping her up on the bar and sliding her jeans down her thighs so I could taste her. I’d never had an issue controlling myself around Avery. Sure, my body had always reacted to the sight of her, but now that I’d had a taste and knew that she wanted the same thing…well, my body was trying to overrule my common sense.
    And the bar really was perfect height.
    “Please. Like you can keep a secret in this town? Just about everyone has seen the way you guys have been looking at each other these last few years. We were just waiting for Avery to find the courage to say something and you to stop fucking around in Fairbanks with co-eds.
    “The way we look at each other?” I parroted, focusing in on Avery. I could see how I’d been obvious. Hell, I couldn’t take my eyes off her if we were in the same room—hence my cycle of breakups—but Avery had never once hinted that she wanted more than what we had. If she’d so much as breathed in my direction, I would have jumped before she said how high.
    But she’d never thrown me signals. Maybe that was one of the reasons this whole situation was terrifying. Was she only kissing me back because she didn’t want to lose her best friend? Was I pushing her for something she didn’t really want?
    Feeling unsure of myself was a foreign concept and damned inconvenient seeing as I had less than a week in Colorado to convince her to uproot her whole life for me.
    “Please.” Jessie snorted, playing with her beer bottle. “You look at her like you’re ready to eat her alive.”
    “Fair assessment,” I admitted, done hiding how I felt about her. I swallowed, my throat suddenly tight. “And her?”
    “Seriously?” She arched an eyebrow at me.
    “Seriously.”
    “She looks at you like you’re everything she’s ever wanted, dipped in chocolate and ready for a tasty bite. Always has.”
    I ripped my eyes from Avery to look at Jessie. She nodded slowly as she laughed. “You should see your face right now. If your jaw was any lower you’d be hitting the floor.”
    My gaze went back and forth between the two women. Avery looked at me? Why the hell hadn’t I noticed? Was I blind? Or was she really that good at hiding her feelings?
    “Never thought I’d see the day where River Maldonado was speechless.”
    “First time for everything,” I said softly. Maybe this would work. Maybe she really did want me enough to leave. My mind raced with different scenarios as I swiped open my phone. She could stay through the school year if Addy needed that much time, or just to give her dad a few more months to come around, and be in Colorado by summer. I’d have the house set up by then, and they could stay with me until they figured out what they wanted to do.
    Or maybe Avery would never move out. Maybe my house would become our house.
    My chest tightened to the point of pain as she smiled at Maud. I couldn’t push her too fast—just because I’d been in love with her for the last seven years didn’t mean that she felt the same. But I didn’t exactly have another option with the deadline for the Legacy crew.
    As much as I loved watching her, I also couldn’t wait another minute to get my arms around her.
    River: what are you up to?
    I hit send and watched as she pulled out her cell phone, grinning as her thumbs worked on the small device.
    Avery: working.