Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (24 page)

Everything about Bree is amazing, but what I feel for her now is beyond any attraction I’ve had toward other girls before. Don’t get me wrong, she’s smoking hot, undeniably irresistible, and I can’t seem to say no to her sexy pout or those soulful eyes. But more than that, she has this smile that makes me want to kiss her lips every single time she flashes me a grin. I want to run my hands all over her body all of the time, and not even in a dirty way, but just because I love the way she feels. It’s ridiculous! I’ve never felt this way before; all consumed and unable to contain any emotion I feel. Adrienne never made me feel like this. Not even at her sweetest moments did she make me ache for her by simply smiling in my direction. Bree, though, I can’t even think about her without feeling like she’s the reason I live and breathe.

I look at my watch. 4:26. Yeah, it’s time for a break.

I get up from where I’m crouching down next to a shelf full of canned goods, and start toward the back of the store.

As I’m walking to the break room, I see Bree rushing toward me from the corner of my eye. At first I think something’s wrong, but as soon as she shoves me into the storage closet I’m passing in front of, I realize that’s not the case at all.

“What are you doing?” I ask with a laugh, as my back smashes into the far wall of the closet.

She grabs my shirt and pulls all of me to her, using the weight of our bodies to close the door of the storage closet behind her. I don’t resist, allowing my body to slam against hers. The minute that it does, she runs her hands through my hair, pushing her mouth onto mine. I grab her ass with both of my hands, and she responds by jumping into my arms and wrapping her legs tightly around my hips. I let out a low groan the minute I feel her rubbing a certain part of her body against a certain part of mine.

Holy fuck, this feels too good!

I move further backward into the darkness of the storage closet, away from the now closed door. She scratches her nails lightly up and down my back and I have to do everything in my power not to let the action make me convulse with excitement.

I start trying to think of things that will calm me down.

Blood. Guts. Gore. Extreme death.

Nope. Not working at all.

She brings her lips to my ear and nibbles softly on my earlobe.
Oh fuck, it’s too much.
“You have to stop, seriously.”

She giggles into my ear, making me wish we were not in a public place right now so I could act on the impulse that is currently coursing through my entire body.

She continues to rub her body against mine and a moan escapes my lips. “Bree,” I say, not really knowing if I am trying to get her to stop or if I want to encourage her to continue. I’m not even sure if my body can handle her continuing.

“Umm,” is the only sound that escapes her lips, and it’s the most amazing sound I’ve ever heard her make. I take one hand off of her ass and slide it under her shirt, moving up her back slowly. When it reaches the straps of her bra, I grab ahold of the middle where the bra connects together and I unclasp the little hooks with an impressive flick of my fingers, a talent I worked very hard at to master when I was with Adrienne. Bree lets out a small gasp of breath into my mouth as the bra comes undone.

I pull away from her lips. “Is this ok?” I ask, praying to God she says that it is because I want this so bad. But I need her to say it first; I won’t go further till she does.

“Yes,” she says, and even though I can’t see anything in the pitch-blackness of the closet, I can tell she’s smiling as she says it.

I smile too, pressing my lips happily to hers.

I move my hand around her, gently gliding it toward her left breast. I move it so slowly that the anticipation makes her begin to whimper. “Please,” she begs between unsteady breaths. The sound of her voice begging me to touch her in a place my hands have yet to explore makes me want to rip her clothes off right here in this closet and fuck her up against the wall.

Whoa!

The thought surprises me the instant I think it. I usually have way more control than this. I want to have sex with her, so bad, but I won’t. She deserves a perfect first time with a guy, a romantic one, not a spontaneous fuck in the storage closet of her place of work.

My hand is now completely covering one of her breasts. She moans loudly as I stroke the nipple with my thumb, and the minute the sound escapes her lips, I eagerly slam my mouth onto hers so that I can
feel
the moan in my mouth. I want to feel every reaction she’s having to my touch. I want to feel every shiver her body makes, every breath her mouth takes, and every moan that she can’t contain. All of it.

A brightness flashes over us suddenly, and we both pull our mouths away from each other to look toward the source.

The door has opened and someone’s standing in the entrance. I pull my hand out from under her shirt.

We’re caught.

Bree

“Spencer!” I exclaim, pushing off of Evan and standing back on my own two feet. I wipe my lips with the back of my hand and look up at him in absolute horror. “Please don’t tell Skylar.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” he yells, before slamming the door so hard that the cleaning supplies mounted on the wall fall down to the floor around us.

I kick a bottle out of my way as I storm out of the closet after him, “Spenc, please.”

He turns around abruptly and glares at me, his eyes burning deep into mine, telling me that begging for his silence will get me absolutely nowhere because right now he hates me. He grabs ahold of my wrist and yanks me into the staff room, slamming the door behind us so that Evan won’t follow.

“Ow! Jesus, Spencer, rip my arm off, why don’t you!”

“Right now Bree, don’t even tempt me because I’m so pissed at you that I just might try!”

“It just happened,” I blurt out. It’s a lie, obviously, but it feels like the right thing to say.

“It just happened?” he returns, unconvinced, “Like, right now?”

I nod. “Yes,” I whisper.

So many lies.

“Yeah, I bet.” He throws the door open. “Let’s see what
Mr. Home Wrecker
says. Daniels, get the fuck in here.”

Evan glares at Spencer, looking as though he might punch him in the face, but he steps into the room and shuts the door behind him anyway.

“Did it just happen?” he asks Evan, pointedly. Evan looks at me then back at Spencer. He drops his eyes to the ground.

Please don’t tell him, please don’t tell him.

“No,” he mumbles finally, and I close my eyes. I let out a long sigh.

“Lots of lies, B,” Spencer says with a shake of his head.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” I tell him, deflated.

“Looks like it happened anyway. So now what are you going to do about it?”

Evan plops down on the couch next to where we are standing and looks up at me expectantly. He wants to know what our next step is too.

“I don’t know!” I snap.

“So how long has it been going on then?” He demands, kicking Evan in the foot.

“Ow, jeez Spenc, lay off, man.”

“Why should I? You think what you’re doing is fine?”

“It’s not fine,” I interject. “But it happened. It’s happening.”

“This wasn’t an accident,” Evan adds. “We want to be together.”

Spencer’s brows narrow into a scowl. He looks as though he might throw a punch at Evan, and even though I’ve never seen Spencer do something like that before, I have no doubt in my mind that it’s something he would do if provoked enough. He stops glaring at Evan and points his finger in my face. “You’re going to fucking tell her!” he hisses. “Tonight! I’m sick of the lies.”

“She’s not ready,” I say in a small whisper, barely getting the words out.

“You mean
you’re
not ready!” he snaps.

“I mean Skylar!” I counter. “This will destroy her.”

“Well, if you ask me, she’s better off not having you in her life anyway.”

“Spenc,” I say dejected. His words puncture a hole into my heart and I bite down on my lip, attempting to hold back the tears that I can feel creeping up on me.

“No!” he growls, seeing the tears well up in my eyes. “No fucking way are you going to give me that look and try to make me feel bad for you.”

“I can’t tell her. She’ll have no one,” I say through my fit of tears.

“She’ll have me!” he hollers, his dark eyes piercing into mine with so much intensity that I instinctively back away. I’m not scared, but the intensity of the gaze is unsettling. This is not a Spencer I’ve ever seen before.

“Ok, Spencer.” Evan gets up off the couch and positions himself in the middle of us, “you’ve made your point, man, now leave her alone.”

“You think I’m going to hurt her?” Spencer demands, astounded. “Bree and Skylar are
my
girls
! I
take care of them, not you. I’m not going to fucking hurt her, I’m just pissed at her, all right?”

“Whatever, man. Just leave it alone already. She’ll tell Skylar. Right Bree?” He looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to agree with him. Like it’s just the easiest thing in the world to agree to.

I’m trapped, and Spencer knows it. He shoots me an almost gloating look, obviously enjoying the position Evan has so conveniently put me in.

“I’ll tell her tonight,” I mumble, glowering at Spencer. “I promise.”

“You have till ten, if you haven’t told her by then you better fucking believe that I’ll be calling her to let her know,” he says with no amount of sympathy in his voice.

“Fine.”

He storms out of the staff room without saying another word.

Skylar

I
spend the entire day at Bree’s house watching TV and chatting with her mom. When she decides that she should get started on making something for supper, I climb the stairs to Bree’s room to take a little nap before I’m expecting her home at six. But as I’m about to take off my jeans and climb into her bed, I hear a tiny ticking sound at her window. I curiously move toward the sound and once I push the curtains aside, I see Parker in the yard below, tossing tiny pebbles at the glass.

“What are you doing?” I ask with a chuckle as I slide the window open.

“I went to your place first,” he says. “But your aunt said you were here.”

“You went to my place and Cecelia was actually co-operative and told you where you could find me?” I ask, bewildered. That’s incredibly unusual.

He shrugs. “Yeah. She was nice,” he replies, adding to my confusion.

“Nice?” I repeat, unconvinced. Cecelia is never nice. “What exactly did she say?”

“She said you were probably here, that Bree’s a waste of your time, and that she’s rooting for me.” He shoots me a confident smirk. “I have to say, I tend to agree with her,” he adds, his smirk turning into a huge grin.

I can’t help but laugh. “Well, aren’t you Mr. Self-righteous,” I say.

“You going to come down to talk to me, or what?”

I sigh, pretending to be annoyed, but I’m anything but. His smile captivates me and I can’t help but to be charmed by it. “I’ll be down in a second.”

Before heading out the door, I call out to Alice, “Going for a walk, tell Bree I’ll call her later.”

“Ok honey, be good,” she says back in a singsong voice.

“I will.”

Parker is sitting beside the trellis that runs from the top of the gazebo, next to Bree’s window, all the way to the ground. When I round the corner, he gets up from where he’s sitting but stays where he is, waiting for me to approach him.

“What’s up?” I ask once I’m standing directly in front of him.

He reaches for my hand. “I was wondering how you were.”

“I’m fine,” I reply, gently pulling my hand away from his grasp.

He sighs. “We’re back to that again?”

“I’ve already told you that I can’t be yours,” I say quietly, avoiding his gaze and looking toward the brook that runs behind Bree’s house instead. I start walking toward it, and motion for him to follow me.

When I take a seat on a rock right next to the water, he doesn’t hesitate to sit on it next to me this time. He’s more comfortable with me now, almost like how we used to be. Almost. Things will never be exactly how they were; they can never be that way again.