Rock the City: A Midnight Fate Novel (22 page)

I don’t give him a chance to respond before I’m walking down the hall toward Lemon’s room. I can hear the shower running in the bathroom, so I leave the shirt on the bed and say a little prayer that she’ll be able to get some rest tonight. Who knows how long it’s been since she’s had a good night’s sleep in a safe place.

I stand in front of his door for at least a minute, not wanting to bother him, especially after running my mouth before I walked out—even if it was the truth.

“Baby, get in here,” I hear him say though the wood.

I look up at the ceiling, wondering if he has some kind of security system he’s watching on the laptop. When I can’t find anything noticeable in the dark, I put my hand on the knob and slither inside the bedroom, shutting the door with my ass pressed against it.

He closes the laptop, setting it on the table next to the bed. With little indication of what he’s thinking or feeling, he just points to the empty bed next to him and says, “Come ‘ere.”

“How did you know I was out there?” I ask him as I slide into bed.

“I have my ways, but I could see the shadow underneath the door.”

I’ll have to ask him about the cameras in the morning, but right now, I need to make sure we’re okay. When I get situated underneath the covers, I look up at him and shake my head. “Don’t give me that look, Lane.”

“What look? All I’m doing is asking my girl to get in bed with me. Since when is that a crime?”

“It’s the way you said it.”

He rolls on his side and props his head up on his hand, peering down at me with a smirk so sexy I can’t help but laugh. “And what was so offensive to you?”

“What you
didn’t
say to your sister is offensive. Now you’re just trying to get in my pants so I come so hard I forget why I was ever miffed at you in the first place.”

“I don’t know, baby. That sounds like a win to me.”

“Your methods are dangerous, Lane, and very inappropriate given the circumstances.”

He runs his hand up my thigh and over my hip, his fingers inching their way up my stomach underneath my T-shirt. “You’re wrong, Noelle. So very wrong.” I try to interrupt him, but he places a finger over my lips, shushing me. “I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong if you give me a minute.”

“By all means, enlighten me, Mr. Lewis.”

“For starters, you don’t have any pants on for me to get into.” He dips a finger underneath the elastic of my panties, tickling my skin until he gets to my clit. Rubbing soft circles light enough to tease me and make me crave more, he says, “Secondly, I’ll talk to Lemon, but I’ll warn you right now there’s no way in hell she’s going to come between us, Noelle. I’ll do everything I can to help her, and I’ll keep you both safe, but I can’t put us on hold to make that happen. I’m going to need you even more—every day and every single night.”

Another finger joins the other and they both slowly slide inside me, the pressure so perfect it takes all I have not to roll over and climb on top of him. “Yeah?”

“You’ll always be my number one, Noelle. No matter what we’re facing or how long it takes to figure out, I’m never going to risk losing you. Lemon’s playing by my rules now.”

“That’s fair,” I practically moan.

Laughing, he says, “I went from asshole to fair pretty fast.”

“Hmm, I guess.”

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with where my fingers are right now, would it?” he whispers against my cheek.

“Not the slightest bit, lover boy.”

Just as he moves to hover over top of me, he pushes a third inside, taking my breath away. “I’ll have to try harder,” he whispers with each thrust of his hand. “When I get back, you should be naked.”

“Naked? Okay. How long are you going to be?”

“Not long, but by the time I get back, there’s a damn good chance I’m going to need to relieve a little stress. Think you can help me with that?”

I snake my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to my lips. After a quick peck, I decide to strike a bargain with him. “I’ll tell you what. If you can smooth things over with Lemon and make it back here without punching a wall or raising your voice, maybe even coming up with a plan for tomorrow that doesn’t involve you taking
all
the power from her, I’ll give you those three wishes you wanted.”

“And I can pick anything I want?”

“Anything.”

As I knock on Lemon’s door, I remember the words Noelle said to me.
“Come up with a plan that doesn’t take away all her power.”

Sometimes I wish my girl talked more shit out of her ass because that makes actual sense—and it amazes me how much she cares when she doesn’t have to be invested at all.

“Come in.”

I open the door slowly and find her lying in bed with the TV on. “Whatcha watching?”

“I don’t even know. I’m not used to getting so many channels. I can’t keep one thing on long enough to actually watch it.”

She’s not trying to make me feel bad for all I have and how little she’s lived with, but something as simple as too many TV channels still makes me feel like shit. “I’m sorry, Lemon.”

Tossing the remote on the bed, she pats the blanket next to her, silently asking me to sit down. When I do, she looks at me and smiles. Her eyes are still red and a little bloodshot, but I look past the cut and the bruises, desperately searching for my partner in crime. Lemon’s been dealt a shit hand in life, but all she’s ever really wanted is for someone to love her.

“Don’t, Lane. I’m okay.”

“It kills me that Rusty did this to you. And it shreds me even more that it wasn’t the first time. I’m out playing my drums and drinking beer while you’re being knocked around. I’m so sorry, Lemon.” No matter how many times I say the words, it’ll never be enough. There’s not enough time left in the world for me to ever stop feeling guilty.

Like the angel she’s always been, she leans her head on my shoulder and says, “I’m the one who should be sorry—and I really am. I didn’t mean to come in here and mess things up for you. You told me Noelle was great, but Lane, she’s so amazing.”

“You didn’t mess anything up. Noelle’s already on your team. She was about to kick my ass for you.”

Lemon giggles, and I can tell she’s not used to having someone stick up for her the way Noelle has. “I think she’s pretty badass.”

“She
is
badass. That’s why I’m keeping her around for as long as she’ll have me.”

Lemon reaches for my hand and wraps her pinky around mine just like I used to make her do to keep her from lying to me or telling our uncle things I wanted to stay between the two of us. Even back then, it was a game of hide and seek.

“I’m proud of you, Lane. Maybe I did hide from you, but I followed Midnight Fate every step of the way. You deserve all the success you’ve found, all these nice things, and you deserve to have a girl like Noelle love you.”

I think back to all the times I searched Sea Port and came up empty, signs of Lemon nowhere to be seen. It could have been so different for her—for us. “I swear I wanted to share it all with you. I promise you I tried.”

Even though I can’t see her face, I hear her sniffle. She’s probably cried enough tears to fill an ocean with the kind of life she’s been living.

“Just because I have
nothing
doesn’t mean you owe me
everything
, Lane,” she whispers, her voice so full of emotion it cracks.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I tell her, “I’d give it to you anyway.”

One of her tears dampens my shoulder, and I hold on tighter to her pinky. “You gave me more than you think. I saved every single note you left for me at the diner. Dottie always made sure I got them.”

“Did you read them?” I ask her, praying she at least did that much.

“Every single one. My favorite part was always on the back. You’d scribble your cell number or your schedule so I’d always know where you were or that you were only a phone call away. That meant more to me than anything you could have written inside. It made me feel close to you even when you were clear across the world.”

“Fuck, Lemon.” The more she says, the more she guts me.

She lifts her head and though her eyes are teary, we make a silent promise that she’s never going to be alone again. That I’m not letting her go back to Lola’s or Rusty’s. As far as I’m concerned, Sea Port is already in her past.

“Pinky promise me,” she whispers. “That’s all I need from you.”

My throat threatens to close up and my head starts to throb. I’ve said it to her a million times before, but tonight, I mean it more than ever. “I promise you’re going to be okay, Lemon drop. We’re in this together.”

“Even if you can’t make it better this time, it would still be the best lie I’ve ever heard.”

I let her words sink in as she rolls onto her side and pulls the blankets up to her chin. With a click of a button, the light shining from the TV fades away and the room fills with darkness.

“Night, Lemon,” I tell her as I close her door and lean against it. I feel like the whole world has changed, yet nothing’s out of place or much different than I remember it being.

My heart is still thumping in my chest when I open my door and find Noelle curled up with a book in her hands. I have to laugh when I see her reading with only the light from her cell phone shining on the pages.

“You’re even more amazing than I thought,” I tell her as I slide into bed beside her.

She looks at me, her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Not many people can tackle a book that size, let alone read it upside down and backwards.”

“Shit,” she whispers. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

“What were you really doing when I came in here?”

“Research,” she states, just like I said earlier, evading my question.

“Something tells me your research was a little different than mine.”

She sets her phone and book on the table before snuggling against my side and resting her hand on the center of my chest. “Do you have any wishes yet?”

Her voice hits me right in the dick, but I’m so wiped from the past forty-eight hours, I just want to lie here and hold her for a while. “At least ten.”

She must be able to hear the exhaustion in my voice, because she doesn’t try to do anything other than what we’re doing now.

“Are you okay?” she finally asks.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll save all my wishes for the morning.”

She traces the tip of her finger over the scar on my chest with her cheek pressed against my skin. “After what happened today, I think it’s time we talk about this instead.”

“Even if I told you it doesn’t matter?”

She lifts her head, searching my eyes for answers. “It matters because I love you, Lane. I don’t want secrets between us, and considering Lemon is a pretty big one, I need to hear the whole story.”

I debate what to say and where to start. Instead of jumping into my past or Lemon’s, I take it back to one of the nights we shared together. “Do you remember the other day when you told me my scar made you feel safe?”

Without hesitation, she says, “Of course I do. I still feel the same way.”

I run my fingertips across her back, making mindless patterns over and over, as I tell her the honest-to-God truth. “I cared about you so much before you said that to me, but it was in that exact moment I knew you were mine for all the right reasons—and not because of Midnight Fate.” She stiffens in my arms and tries to roll onto her back, but I don’t let her. I need her close for this.