Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (18 page)

I stood on my toes
and kissed him on the cheek.  “There isn’t anyone I’d rather go with, Brand and
that’s the truth.”

I was rewarded
with a smile so bright I knew it lit up the room.

The rest of the
week went smoothly.  Well, at least no one tried to kill me again.  I didn’t
see Will at all, but Brand told me he contacted him at least three times a day
to make sure I was all right.  I was thankful Will didn’t try to come see me. 
It would have just complicated matters.

Brand spent nights
at our apartment but Tara took his place in my bed and made him sleep in her
room. 

“I let it go that
first night you were back but once was enough.  He don’t need to be sharin’
your bed unless you two get married.”

I just rolled my
eyes at her.  “Tara Jenkins, I know full well and good that you are not a
virgin.  Why the double standard?”

 “’Cause I don’t
want you to make the same mistake I did.”  The serious way she said this didn’t
surprise me.

I knew Tara had lost her virginity our senior year in high school.  She had been going out with
Chris Jones at the time.  He was one of the better players on our basketball
team, and Tara had fallen madly in love with him.  After the senior prom, he
took her to a motel room and that’s where Tara lost her sexual innocence. 
After that night, Chris avoided her as much as he could.  Tara was
heartbroken.  She made me promise that I wouldn’t lose my virginity in some
nondescript hotel room with a piece of trash like Chris Jones.  She tried to
make me promise I would be the one to keep true to the purity pledge we had
taken when we were sixteen, but I couldn’t promise her that.  I knew if I truly
fell in love with a guy one day I might not be able to keep a promise like that
to her.  At the time I always imagined Will to be that guy, but now all I could
see in his place was Brand.

That Friday
afternoon Abby, Tara and I made a date to go shopping for dresses.  Abby met us
at our apartment.  Since her car and my Mom’s car were two seaters, we ended up
taking Tara’s old Toyota Camry to the dress shop.  As I knew they would, Tara and Abby hit it off from the first hello.

If you wanted a
really nice dress, everyone knew you should go to
Madame
de
Pompadour’s
in Lakewood.  When we got to the store
there were at least 20 cars in the small parking lot.  The store itself was jam
packed.  I estimated at least 50 people inside the small space.  Almost as soon
as we walked in the door, Tara saw the dress she wanted to wear.  The
material’s pattern was a little bit wild like she was but the style was
somewhat conservative.  It was a shoulder less dress with a
bold
mosaic print in black, white and tarnished gold with a black ruche waist and
long hem.  It was accented with a metallic gold embroidered-ribbon trim around
the top.

I looked through a few racks but just couldn’t seem
to find the right dress for me.  I really wanted something completely different
from what I would normally wear.  Finally, Abby and Tara tossed a few dresses
in my arms and basically ordered me to go try them on.

It wasn’t until I put the last dress on that they
both said, “Wow.”

“That’s the dress, love.”  Abby said looking me up
and down with a slow whistle.

“You got that right, girl.  That’s it for sure.”

When I looked at my self in the mirror, I was
pleasantly surprised at how well the dress fit.  It was a simple dress.  It
reminded me of something you might see in pictures with old movie stars like
Grace Kelly or Ava Gardner.  It was made of black silk with a halter top in a
sweetheart design, which definitely put my upper half on full display.  It was
slim fitting at the top and flared just a bit from the waist to my ankles to
make it easier to walk in.  It was definitely not something I would have picked
out for myself.

My only concern was the bruises from the crash.  They
were fading quickly, but I wasn’t sure they would be gone in a week’s time.  I
had always been a fast healer though.  The bruises would probably be gone in a
couple of more days. 

When I voiced my concerns about the bruises to Tara and Abby, they were quick to find a remedy.  They found a beautifully embroidered
shawl that went with the dress perfectly.

We were trying on shoes when we heard a friendly
voice call out to us.

“Hey guys!”

When I looked up, Michelle was waving at us with a
load of dresses in her arms.  Nora was right beside her with only one dress in
her hands.

“Hey,” I said to Michelle.  “What are you doing
here?”

“We’re looking for a dress for Nora.” Michelle smiled
and tried to reposition the dresses more comfortably in her arms.

“Who are you going with Nora?”  I’ll admit I really
didn’t care who she was going with but tried to act friendly anyway.

“Well, I had a couple of guys ask me but I chose
Ricky Norris.  He’s in my world civics class.”

“Who’d you turn down?” Tara asked.

“Can you believe Elliot Manning tried to get me to go
out with him again?  It didn’t take me but a second to tell him no.”

“Well, I need to put these dresses down before I drop
them.  See you guys later,” Michelle said making her way to the changing rooms
before she fell down under the weight in her arms.   

Tara
and Abby talked me into buying a pair of shoes with two inch heels.  I told
them I’d probably end up breaking my neck but they assured me flat shoes
wouldn’t look good with the dress.  I knew I’d have to practice wearing the
heels before the dance.  However, I did buy a pair of flats, just in case.

Chapter 10

When Brand came over that night, he tried to get me
to model my dress for him, but I told him he had to wait until the dance. 
   

“Don’t you want to
be surprised?”  I asked cuddling up next to him on the futon.

“You won’t even
let me see the dress without you in it?  At least give me a hint about what it
looks like.”

“Why do you want
to know so badly?”

“How else will I
know how to dress you in my dreams?”

If he hadn’t been
so sincere and looking at me with those smoldering silver-grey eyes, I might
have laughed at what sounded like a bad come on line.  As it was, I was having
a hard time not just falling against him and making out.  Luckily, Tara came into the room with the Monopoly game.

“Come on, Mr. Big
Bucks.  Let’s see if you can beat me.”

Tara won about two
hours later.  Of course she did her little ‘I won’ dance in front of us.  I
just threw what was left of my play money in her direction and stuck my tongue
out at her.  Brand abstained from such childish behavior but couldn’t help
laughing at us.

I really didn’t
want to spend another night in the same bed with Tara.  She was a horrible
person to sleep with.  I pitied the man she ended up marrying.  She tossed and
turned and flailed like a dead fish on a hot sidewalk when she dreamt.  Not to
mention all the mumbling in her sleep.  I could only make out a few words here
and there but it seemed like she dreamt about food a lot. 

By eleven o’
clock, she finally went to bed and left Brand and I alone.  We cuddled on the
futon with some movie playing on the TV in the background that neither of us
was paying much attention to.

“I thought she
would never go to bed,” he said in my ear gently kissing the sensitive flesh.

“That is so
unfair,” I moaned leaning my head to the side exposing my neck for his further
exploration.  He was quick to follow my lead.

“I’ll stop if you
want,” he said trailing small electrifying kisses from my ear to my shoulder.

“No,” I took in a
shuttering breath.  “Don’t stop.”

Before I knew it,
we were laying on the futon.  He was to the side and slightly on top of me.  He
continued his exploration across my throat and slowly made his way to my other
ear.

“What are you
thinking?” he whispered in my ear, taking his time to slowly kiss his way back
down my throat. 

“I’m having a hard
enough time just remembering to breathe,” I admitted threading my fingers
through the hair at the back of his head.  I could feel him smile and chuckle
at my statement against my neck.

He stopped kissing
my neck and looked down at me.  I knew what he wanted.  I wanted it too.  I
desperately wanted to kiss him so hard neither one of us would have a doubt who
it was I loved.  But I couldn’t.  His declaration of love to me earlier in the
week made me realize I needed to be sure I loved him and only him.  I wanted to
be able to give him all of me without having any nagging doubts about my
feelings for Will.  I didn’t want our relationship to be built on false
promises. 

So instead of
kissing him on the lips, I brought his head down to mine and slowly kissed
every inch of skin on his face but his lips.

After a while, we
just laid in each other’s arms on the futon.

“Do you want to
play a game?” he asked.

“No more Monopoly,
please.  I think I’m Monopolied out,” I laughed.

“No, it’s a game
where we ask each other questions until one of us refuses to give an answer. 
Then the other person wins.”

“What will I
win?”  I was pretty sure I’d win this one.  I was practically an open book as
it was.

“The person who
wins gets to pick what we do tomorrow.”

“Ok, I get to go
first.”  I decided to go easy on him to start out.  “What’s your favorite
color?”

“Black.  What’s
your’s?”

“Red.  What was
your first pet?”

“A Persian cat
named Aphrodite.  What’s your favorite food?”

“Pizza.  Which of
the countries that you’ve lived in did you like the best?”

“England.  What’s the best memory you have from childhood about your mother?”

“Sure you don’t
have another question you’d rather ask?” I prompted.

“Nope. Do I win?”

“No.  But I need a
minute to think of one.”

If only he had
asked me a favorite memory with Utha Mae.   I could have come up with a hundred
about her.  But my mother?  Well, I had to rack my brain to try and remember
one.

“Well, every once
in a while she would take me and Tara to the park to play.  Then we’d go to
McDonald’s.”  I couldn’t think of any better memory of Cora so I moved on to my
next question.  “What is it about me that you love?”

He smiled at that
one.  “What don’t I love about you would be easier to answer, or do you really
want me to list everything?”

“Ok, what about me
do you not love then?”

“You don’t trust
your heart enough.”

“What do you
mean?”

“I think if you
trusted your instincts more you would have kissed me a few minutes ago.”

I couldn’t think
of anything to say to that.  He was probably right.

“You’re turn,” I
said instead.

“Do you really
plan to wait for marriage before you make love with someone?”

I could feel my
cheeks grow hot immediately.  “I’m not sure, but I think I would like to wait.”

“I’d like to see
you in a wedding dress.”  He smiled.  “You’d make a beautiful bride.”

If it were
possible, I think my face grew an even brighter shade of red.

“Your turn,” he
gently reminded me.

“Do you love me?”

“Why would you ask
that?  You know I do.”

“I just wanted to
hear it,” I admitted.

“I love you, Lilly
Rayne Nightingale.  Never doubt that.”

I kissed him on
the cheek and said, “Your turn.”

“Do you want to
have children someday?”

“I don’t know. 
Maybe.  I suppose so.  That’s a little too far in the future for me to say for
sure.

“Do you think it
would bother you if you couldn’t have a baby?”

“That’s two
questions.”

“I’d like to
know.  You can make your next question harder.”

I thought about it
and finally said, “Well, if it turns out that I can’t have children of my own
for some reason, I would probably just look into adopting a child if I really
wanted one.  But like I said, that’s too far into the future for me to worry
about right now.  I wouldn’t even think about having a child until I was
married and knew I could provide for them.”

He seemed to be
satisfied with my answer.  “Ok, ask a hard one since you answered both my
questions.”

 “What’s your
deepest, darkest secret?”

 The surprise on
his face wasn’t hard to miss.  He hadn’t expected me to ask a question like
that. 

 “You win,” he
said. 

 “It can’t be that
bad,” I tried to joke.  But the look on Brand’s face was very serious.

 “It’s not a
secret I can talk about with you right now.  I want to, but it’s not just my
secret.  Other people are involved and I can’t break their faith in me.  So,”
he said,  “what do you want to do tomorrow?”

 “I want to spend
the whole day with you.” I snuggled my face against the side of his neck
kissing him in a spot I found earlier in the evening which seemed to make him
putty in my hands.  “And I mean 24 whole hours.”

 “Ok,” he said
through a ragged breath.  “What else?”

 “I want you to
show me your favorite things.  Your favorite movie, favorite things to cook,
your favorite hobby, favorite sports, everything we can fit into a twenty-four
hour period.”

 “I can do that.” 
I could hear the pleased tone in his voice.  I knew he was flattered I wanted
to know him so intimately.