BAD WICKED TWISTED: A Briarcrest Academy Box Set (105 page)

“You never love the same way twice, but the love of a lifetime only comes once.”

—from the journal of Violet St. Lyons

HE EASED ME down on the blanket and pressed a kiss to my forehead as if I were a piece of fine china, his gentleness a sharp contrast to the fierceness of his lovemaking. He pulled the ends of the blanket around us while my eyes bored into his, searching for his soul.

Could he tell that things had been irrevocably changed between us?

I glanced up just as a brilliant light raced overhead, zipping through the heavens and leaving a glittering trail. I took it as a sign, and my mouth parted as I recognized the beautiful truth. No matter what happened after this, he and I
were
meant to had met. We were destined for this moment.

“A shooting star,” I breathed.

His full lips tilted up, his gaze tender as he tweaked my nose. “You’re welcome. Always knew I had the heavens in my pocket. Wanna see a comet next?”

Feeling oddly euphoric, I slapped his shoulder while he pretended to be hurt. “Hey, that’s no way to treat the master of the universe.”

I chuckled and traced my finger around the Superman tattoo on his chest. “You know, I was born the night the Violette-Sells comet went across the Manhattan skyline. My parents joked that I was lucky it wasn’t the Hyakutake-Bayshi comet or else my name might have been super weird. My dad…he loved to point out different constellations to me, especially if we were in another country where the view of the sky was different. He said we’re all made up of dust from the universe. We’re all born from stars.”

“Sounds like a good line for a song.”

I looked up at him. “Will you write a song about me? About tonight and what we did?” There was no mistaking the heaviness of my question or the hesitation in my voice.

“V, I could write a million songs about you, and none of them would have anything to do with having sex with you, but everything to do with how unbelievably mysterious you are. You’re like a rich red wine, dark and bittersweet and so damn intoxicating that I want to guzzle you down.”

A puff of air escaped my mouth. Since the moment we’d met, he’d gotten the essence of who I was.

A look of yearning crossed his face. “I wish I could have met your parents, to tell them
thank you
for having you and just, I don’t know, making you
who
you are. My parents would have adored you, by the way. Music was everything to our family. Plus, you’re hot. Dad always liked brunettes.”

“Are brunettes your favorite too?” I said as I kissed his bicep, letting my tongue drift over his arm and up his shoulder where I traced his lion tattoo. My hands drifted down to his length, stroking him. He hardened immediately.

“V, you make me crazy,” he murmured, his hands slipping through my hair to pull my lips to his for a long kiss. I moaned into his mouth.

He pulled back to stare at me with a sheepish smile. “God, I want you again, but my legs are still quivering.”

I laughed. “I don’t think many women get to have sex on a swing. Huh, I guess we’ve ruined that poor thing for the next people who come here. Maybe we should take it with us? I’ve never had sex anywhere except in a bed—”

He put his finger to my lips. “Don’t. Please. I don’t want an image of you with someone else in my head.”

“Why?” I couldn’t stop the question.

His lips tightened. “Because it makes me want to fucking beat the shit out of something—namely Geoff.” He seemed to gather himself and took a deep breath. “Do you still love him?”

“I do, but not in the way you think. At one time, I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with him, but people change. He’s part of my past—and I hope someday part of my future as a friend. There’s not a lot of people who knew my parents the way he did.”

A muscle in his jaw clenched, and I scrambled to explain how Geoff was part of my heart yet he didn’t own it. “Maybe it’s kinda like your sister-in-law Nora. You love her but it’s platonic.”

“Nope. I never dated her. We never even kissed. Not even
close
to the same.” He sighed as he stared back up at the sky. “I don’t want to talk about Geoff. Tell me some of the things your dad taught you about the stars.”

“Okay,” I said, letting it go. I showed him the constellation Leo the Lion. Raising my hands, I traced the triangle of eastern stars that made up the tail and hindquarters. I pointed out Regulus, the sparkling blue-white star. “Because Regulus is the brightest, it symbolizes the lion’s heart. Some of the ancient astronomers called it the King Star.”

He smiled. “If I’m a king, will you be my queen tonight?”

My stomach fluttered. “What happens tomorrow?”

He turned to look at me. “I don’t want to think about tomorrow right now. I just want to hold you while you tell me stories about stars and comets and whatever else you’ve got tucked up there.” He smoothed his fingers over my forehead. “I like hearing you talk about your parents because I don’t think you have in a long time. It—it makes me feel close to you—which is something I’ve never had with a girl. Shit, that’s stupid.” He shook his head.

“No, it’s beautiful. I feel the same. I’ve been barely breathing and now for the first time, I feel like I can take a deep breath. You do that to me.”

“Take all your deep breaths with me, V,” he whispered.

My stomach dipped. He spoke like a man in love, but perhaps he said that to all the girls.

We stared at each other, and I don’t know what he was thinking, but as for me…well,
I was falling in love
. Perhaps the emotion had been there for a while, but it had taken the shooting star to make me see the truth. The intensity between us became sharper, and I reached out to touch his face, wanting to open up to him—but he broke our gaze and looked hurriedly away. I sighed.

He snuggled me close and changed gears. “Okay, let’s hear more about how majestic this lion is. Was he as great as I am?”

I smiled and shook my head. “You are so full of shit, but as it happens, Hercules killed the lion and to commentate the victory, Zeus flung his body into the sky—hence the constellation.”

“Poor dude. At least everyone knows who he is.” He smiled. “Got anymore stories?”

“I’m not boring you?”

“You’re fascinating, V.” He pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “This—this is the happiest I’ve been since I moved to LA.”

My heart stuttered at those words, but I pushed on, not commenting.

I nodded and went on to tell him about the other names of the stars I knew until finally I grew sleepy. He did too, his breathing in sync with mine as we held each other. Once he went to sleep, I gazed at him, my eyes tracing the lines of his face and memorizing them. I feared we’d never be this close again.

I sent one final glance up at the stars and rested my head on his shoulder.

We slept as the heavens watched.

HIS LONE FINGER traced a line from my shoulder blade down my spine, over the crest of my buttocks, and then back to my opposite shoulder blade. Slow and easy as if he had all the time in the world.

I kept the rise and fall of my chest steady and pretended to be asleep as he caressed me. He kissed the top of my shoulders, the puff of his warm breath followed by the gentleness of his nose as he inhaled my skin. Again, he outlined the shape, starting at the top, moving down the center of my back and then back up.

I shivered when I realized what he was writing.
V
.

His voice was gruff from sleep. Husky. Sexy. “You awake?”

My eyes blinked open just as the first peek of sunlight crested the trees on the hill in front of us. “It’s dawn,” I said, not masking the sadness in my voice.

He pulled on my shoulder, but I resisted, my heart still needing a minute to process that this had been a one-night thing.

“V, turn around.” His hand went to the curve of my hip and tugged. “Look at me.”

“No, I can’t. Not yet. I’m going to get up and find my clothes and go shower.” But I didn’t move.

A few beats of silence went by and then some rustling as he stood up. “If you won’t face me, then I’ll face you.” He walked around to my side and bent down to look at me.

I gasped. “Put some clothes on,” I hissed, darting a glance back at the cabin.

“It’s not even six. Spider is probably passed out, and Mila likes to sleep. We’re alone. Plus, you like looking at me.” He grinned and flexed a bicep.

There was that
.

My eyes flared as he took my hand and pulled me up from the blanket. “What are you doing? I’m naked,” I said between my teeth chattering, and it wasn’t even that cold, but it was just him. Being this close to him. Loving him and now losing him.

“Our night isn’t over,” he said.

“I disagree.” I nodded at the obvious sunrise. “Even the birds are chirping.”

“Until I see the full sun with my eyes, it’s not over.
We
are not over.”

“Oh, so we’re just going to disregard the obvious fact that it
is
the next day?”

“You talk way too much, V.” And then he kissed me hard, his tongue exploring my mouth as his hands cupped my ass and pulled me against his already hard cock.

Like a magnet to steel, his lips devoured mine, eating me up, taking everything I had until I was breathless. But I didn’t need air. All I needed was him. His lips, his tongue, his teeth. I returned his fire, my hands clasped around his neck, hanging on.

“You. This. The sunrise. It’s fucking perfect,” he said gutturally as I went to my knees and took him in my mouth. He was too big to take in at once, so I worked him in gently, licking the sides, pressing kisses to his skin. My tongue dabbed at his head and sucked his length, stroking the shaft with my hands. I moaned against him, making him quiver.

“I don’t want to come like that, V. I want inside you.” He pulled me up and swept me up in his arms and carried me over to the swing and set me down on my feet.

“More swing sex?” I murmured as he ran his mouth down my neck and captured my nipple between his lips and pulled.

“You complaining?” he mumbled against my breast.

“Never,” I squeaked incoherently as he kissed his way down to my stomach. He lavished attention on me with his mouth, finding the soft skin behind my knees, the dimples on my lower back. He worshipped me, pleasing only me, and I watched, stroking his hair, my hands tracing his tattoos. My heart ached to tell him how I felt, but I was scared.

Later after I was a quivering mess, he stood and nodded at the swing. “Put your hands on the chains and bend over.”

I blinked. “What? Are you going to spank me?”

His eyes went heavy-lidded. “Do you want me to? You like that?”

“No. Maybe? I don’t know.” I felt a flush start at my toes and work its way up to my face.

He chuckled at my embarrassment and kissed me gently. “V, all I want right now is to fuck you from behind.”

“Why?” My heart thundered at the image.

“So I can see every detail of you wrapped around my cock and use my hands—anywhere I want.”

I grasped the sides and bent over, presenting my backside to him. He let out a low groan and shuffled around, taking a few steps back to look at me. Then, he moved forward and ran his hands down my spine and back up, tracing my name again.

His chest heaved. “
V
,” he said softly, saying my name like a benediction.

I watched over my shoulder as he curved his hand over my bottom and slid his finger inside me. I closed my eyes.
Yes, yes, yes
. Heat flooded my face, and I cried out his name, my body going limp, moving with the steady rhythm of his hand. My body tingled, needing more, needing him in me.

My eyes flew open when he spread my legs further apart, his fingers ghosting over my clit and then easing back inside me. “You’re so ready…you make me drunk with need,” he said in a gravelly voice.

“Hurry,” I said. “Please don’t tease me.”

He scrambled around in the pocket of his jeans, his hands visibly trembling until he found what he wanted and rolled the condom on. He kissed my lower back, his scruff the perfect roughness. “I should take you back to the blanket, and make love to you there, but I can’t.”