Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1) (19 page)

She leaned in just a little bit closer and let her hand drift over and settle on Ethan’s leg.

“Lucy, what are you doing?” He didn’t move.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I want to kiss you right now.”

He shook his head
. “We can’t do this anymore. That ended a long ti…”

She cut him off by closing the gap between them. Their lips met and he immediately responded to her, opening slightly. Suddenly he took hold of Lucy’s arms, holding her firmly in his grasp and hauled her into his lap.

Lucy ran her fingertips over his bicep, feeling the hard muscles built from construction work and fight training.

His arms slid around her back, holding her tightly against him, as if he were trying to savor each second of the moment he knew would
n’t last.

Even as his hands wound their way up into her hair, the pangs of guilt began. She was using him. She was positive that he knew she was using him for something, but his feelings for her were so much that he didn’t care and would take what he could get.

This man loved her.

Why couldn’t she love him the way he loved her.

As the urgent kisses continued, Lucy fought to send Jack out of her mind. Kissing Ethan didn’t feel wrong, but it didn’t feel right either. When Jack had kissed her before, back at his house, there had been a sense of perfection that just wasn’t there with Ethan.

Finally, it was Ethan who broke away and gently pulled back. “Lucy.” His breathing was heavy and his voice huskier than usual.

She tilted her head down so her forehead pressed into his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I just … I’m sorry.”

She felt his hand smooth down her hair. “It’s all right, I understand.”

With her head still against him she shook it back and forth. “No, no, it’s not all right.”

“Is something going on that you need to talk about. What brought this on?”

Pulling up her head, she looked into his eyes and said nothing. Right then, she knew that he could tell she was hiding something. “It’s nothing,” she told him and then scooted off his lap, back over to her spot on the window seat. “I guess I’m just messed up from all the commotion lately.”

He reached over and took her hand. “I am here for you
always
. Do you understand that? There is nothing you can’t tell me.”

Yeah, she highly doubted that.

“I won’t push you, but I’m not stupid. We stopped this kind of thing a long time ago, and something had to have happened for you to kiss me.”

Damn, when he said it like that it made her look like a big asshole. She was the worst friend in the world.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again. “I don’t know what happened.”

Finally he smiled. “Well, I’m not going to complain too much. It’s certainly nothing to be sorry about. I’m not.”

Yup, she was right, he would take what he could get, which only made the whole thing even more fucked up. Maybe she should just tell him and get all this shit off her chest. Maybe he would be all right with the whole thing. On the other hand, it could make things worse and he would take his bodyguard job even more seriously than he already was.

P
robably best just to keep it to herself … even though she sort of owed him an explanation.

She flashed him a small smile in return and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m so glad that you can always find positivity. That’s one of your best qualities.”

“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my lifetime, it’s that you have to make the best out of bad situations, and that you don’t always get what you want. If you don’t keep a good attitude during those times then all the bad things will eat you alive.”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”

Ethan stood and stretched. “Well, as awesome as this little visit has been, I have to go find some food. I haven’t eaten yet today.”

“Go on, I’m going to stay here and read some more of this.”

He gave her a wave and a smile then opened the door and stepped out.

After he was gone, she let out a huge sigh and leaned back on the wall behind her. Well that didn’t work for shit and only made her feel worse than she had before.

Fucking wonderful.

She turned her head and gazed out at the graveyard. She could barely see the faint blue glimmering from some of the souls. A sudden movement at the edge of the woods caught her eye. Directing her gaze to where she had seen the rustle within the trees, she searched until she saw it again.

When she focused, she realized that she was looking directly at a face hidden among the trees and bushes.

With a gasp, she pulled back away from the window and yanked the curtain in front of her enough so that she could still peek around it.

Oh God, what if that Reaper had come back?

She could, indeed, see the misty red aura floating around the face. He wore a hood and a pair of sunglasses to try and conceal his presence, but if you looked close enough you could still see it.

He was watching her, she realized, because after he saw her pull back from the window, he lowered his sunglasses and nodded to her. She saw the dark brown eyes focused on her and let out a long breath filled with relief. It was Jack.

Yeah, it was Jack
, and he was watching in the window where she had just been kissing Ethan.

Son of a bitch.

She nodded back and then motioned for him to get back farther into the woods. Without waiting to see if he complied, she quickly got up from the window seat and hurried out the door.

Even though he was protected by the shade of the trees and brush, he was still roasting his ass off. In order to stay concealed, he had worn a thin hoodie and gloves, as well as sunglasses. This shit was crazy. It had to be at least a hundred degrees out and here he was, standing in the woods baking like an idiot.

To make matters worse, he was waiting here to make sure that Lucy was safe and what did he get? Front fucking row to her make
-out session with another Keeper, that’s fucking what.

In a way, he actually hoped that Aiden would just try and attack so that he could get the hell out of Summer Hollow and away from Lucy. Hopefully, like she suggested, the feelings would fade the farther away from each other that they get.

But for now, it was just getting worse with each passing moment.

He had watched her in the window, reading or something and then that mother fucker had come in and sat down with her. It had been agonizing watching the whole thing take place. The kind of agony where you don’t want to watch, but
, at the same time, you can’t look away.

Watching her kiss another man had brought up the kind of feelings that were on the same level as when Aiden had attacked her. Yeah, he wanted to rip the guy limb from fucking limb. No one touched her
… except for him.

Well, that’s how he felt
, and he couldn’t help how he felt, so he’d forced back the urge to smash that Keepers face in and just watched. Luckily for him though, it didn’t last long. If it had, he wasn’t sure he could have controlled himself at all, and that was the last thing that any of them needed. He could see it so clearly, him busting into the house and running up the stairs to beat the shit out of that guy.

He shook his head, trying to get the vision out of his head. Yeah, that would have only gotten his ass killed since none of the other Keepers, aside from Liv
, knew what was going on.

Then, he’d been staring up there when she fucking saw him.

Awesome. Just awesome. Busted, staring into her window like a peeping tom or some shit.

“Hey.”

He turned and spun, reaching for his gun at the same time. Of course he was prepared to fight. Sitting outside of a place that housed a hell of a lot of Keepers was not a place that he was going to go unarmed.

Before he could even draw his weapon his eyes met with Lucy’s.

“What the fuck are you doing out here? Go inside!”

She lifted her chin. “What the fuck are
you
doing out here? This is my property and you are the trespasser.”

He turned and backed off into the trees a bit more. “God dam
mit, Lucy! You’re lucky it’s only me out here.”

His red haired Keeper was not about to back down. “Every time I see you, you tell me that I need to be careful and stay safe and all that other bullshit, but did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m worried about your safety as well.”

Uh, no. “This isn’t about me.”

She waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, I’m the Chosen One … blah, blah, blah. Well it isn’t about just me. Now it’s about us. I don’t want my family to kill you just as much as you don’t want your buddy to kill me. So fucking deal with it. If you’re going to be running around out in my yard I am going to come out and talk to you.”

“Not a good idea.”

“Says you.”

Their eyes were locked in challenge. “And I know what I’m talking about. Go home, Lucy.”

“And, you know,” she continued “it’s kind of stalker
ish that you’re out here lurking about in the woods outside my house too.”

“You know why I’m here.”

She nodded. “Yes, I do, but that doesn’t mean it’s not creepy.”

Shit. It was creepy. “Sorry
,” was all that he could think to say.

“No need to be sorry, just stop trying to feed me this bullshit about keeping
me safe when you’re putting yourself at risk too.”

He hadn’t really thought about it that way. All he knew was that he had to make sure that she was all right. He didn’t care about himself. The fact that someone else
might was not factored in.

“So who’s the guy?”

She didn’t pretend to be surprised. “That’s my best friend.”

“Ah, well, that’s a pretty good benefit for being friends.” He broke a small branch off one of the trees and fiddled with it.

“Shut up, he’s like a brother.”

Jack smiled, unable to keep his expression serious. “Yeah, that doesn’t make it better.”

“Dammit, you know what I mean.” She threw her hands up in frustration. “It’s nothing.”

He picked some of the little leaves off of the branch and dropped them absent
-mindedly to the floor of the woods. “I’m so happy to see how you view that sort of thing.”

Jack could not believe what was coming out of his mouth. What was he, sixteen? And to top it off, he’d slept with several women in town already and he was giving her a lecture on kissing her best friend.

“You sound jealous?” she countered, her eyes wide and questioning.

He tossed the whole branch down to the ground. “Of course I’m jealous. I told you what was going on with me. I told you how these feelings were fucking me up! I don’t want to see another man touch you ever again, regardless of
if it’s to hurt you or to fuck you, it’s all the same to me.”

He expected her to realize just how fucking nuts he was and get the hell away from him.
To his surprise, her reaction was completely the opposite. Her eyes softened and she came toward him so that there was only about a foot of space between them. “I was trying to see if kissing him would get you out of my head,” she admitted.

He had been ready to tell her that he didn’t want to hear any more about it, but her last words stopped him. “You wh … did it work?”

She shook her head, her red hair swaying with the movement. “No, it made it worse.”

“Worse?”

“It only made me feel bad for using him. I realize that, even though the only time you and I kissed, you were trying to prove a point … but, it was still a kiss that felt like it was meant to be … it was perfect in every way.”

Stonewalled. He couldn’t find the words to respond, mostly because he felt the same way.

She continued since he stayed silent. “So, there are a few things I want to know. One, do you believe that people are meant to be together? Like … um … soul mates or fated partners? Second, if this,” she gestured to herself and to him, “doesn’t go away and space doesn’t get rid of it, what will we do?”

He closed his eyes, trying to picture a life without Lucy in it. Not that she was in it to begin with. He barely knew her
, and had only spent moments with her, yet it wrenched his heart to even think of never seeing her again.

When he opened his eyes,
his gaze locked with hers. “No, I have never believed that every person had someone who was meant for them. And for the second question, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Jack, that bridge is right in front of us.”

She was right. He leaned against a tree and wiped his hand across his forehead. God, it was fucking hot outside. He couldn’t wait to get out of the heat and into some air conditioning. “I know.”

Lucy pushed twigs and rocks around in the dirt with her toe. “This is weird
, and I feel like a dumbass even saying this, but maybe you should think about leaving now.”

He totally should. Yup, pack his shit and go. “I can’t. It wouldn’t feel right until we take care of the guy who’s after you.”

“We talked about this before. If the one who attacked me is taken out, the Empress of the Reapers will only send another and another after that. She won’t quit until I am gone. It’s not going to stop, Jack.”

“I am not just going to leave you here to die. I won’t do that.”

“But,
you
came here to kill me.”

He felt his heart speed up a few beats. “Things have changed
. If anyone else even comes close to you now, it will be them who dies.”

“It’s time to try and end this, Jack. I can’t concentrate on anything but you
, and that’s not good.”

She wanted him to leave and he knew that he should, but damn if it wasn’t harder than he expected to actually do it. “Is this what you really want?”

For a moment she only stood there staring into his eyes and then she offered him a slight nod. “Yes. It is.”

“Well, if that is the way you want it, then I’ll be gone in the morning.” Even as he said the words it felt so wrong. For one, he never gave in when there was something he wanted and for two, he had never felt so much emotion for a woman and now he was just going to leave her to die. But, it was what she wanted and she needed to focus on keeping herself safe.

“It has to be this way. Both of us keep putting ourselves at risk in the name of the other, and that is what is going to get us killed.”

He turned away from her and looked off into the woods. “I said I would be gone by morning.” He knew that he sounded angry and didn’t care.

“We both know this is the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, I know, but it doesn’t
feel
right.”

An awkward silence filled the space between them. “I’m sorry
,” Lucy blurted, like she had to say something … anything to rid them of the silence.

Jack tilted his head wondering why the hell she was apologizing. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t need to be sorry
,” he told her in a low voice. “You should probably go back inside though.”

She
was still pushing the debris around with the tip of her shoe. “Yeah, probably.”

There it was
again, the awkward silence. “It…” she began and then paused, “I want to tell you it was nice to meet you, but it hasn’t been exactly the most awesome of meetings. But, I feel like you deserve more than a ‘cool, I’ll see ya later.’ You know?”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean
,” he told her. He did, indeed, understand what she was talking about because he felt the same way. Knowing that she was going to walk away, and he was going to go pack his things and leave town, seemed impossible.

She gave him a little smile and turned toward the opening in the trees. “I’d better get back before someone notices that I’m gone. Jack, it has not been a pleasure meeting you, but I am glad that I know not every Reaper is the heartless being that we have always thought they were.”

But he was, before he met Lucy, he was heartless. She didn’t know what she was talking about. “I’m happy to hear that,” he told her coldly. “I can’t say I’ve been exactly thrilled with our unexpected situation either, but it sure has been a learning experience, if anything.”

Lucy nodded, her eyes never straying from his. “Well … goodbye … Jack.” Then, she turned and stepped toward the opening of the trees.

No, no, no. There was no way it was ending like this.  “Fuck it.” He lunged forward and grabbed her arm, turning her quickly so that she was facing him. Then, his arm snaked around her, crushing her body to his. Without giving her anytime to resist, he lowered his head until his lips found hers.

She responded immediately, her lips parting to let his tongue urgently meet with hers. She let out a soft moan and her arms went around his neck.

He didn’t know how long they kissed, but he could have stayed like that forever. Even with the heat and the danger all around them, he didn’t care, she was fucking perfect.

She was first to come up for air, pulling away and taking a deep breath.

“Was that the type of goodbye you were looking for?” he teased as he stared down into her dark brown eyes.

She smiled. “Something like that.”

They still had their arms around each other, both unwilling to release the other.

“I’m sorry
,” he told her. “I couldn’t let you go without doing that.”

She shook her head so vigorously that her hair swayed around her shoulders. “Don’t be sorry
.
Never
be sorry for that. That was the most epic kiss I have ever had in my life.”