Unfaithful (46 page)

Evan stood there, under my spell. When I moved to one side his mouth followed me, wanting more. This time I was directing the game. “Or”—as I looked him in the eyes I slowly took his hands and slid them down my body to my hips—“when your hands touch me . . .” Evan gripped my waist, slipping his fingers under the hem of my shirt. “. . . and it makes me lose my mind?” I whispered as he half closed his eyes, breathing deeply, holding back.

I’d created an electrical current between us that tingled on the surface of our bodies. I felt his desire for me and wanted him just as intensely. Slowly moving my mouth to his without touching it, I allowed our lips to linger a fraction of an inch apart. The longer I delayed, as if contact were forbidden, the wilder its lack made me feel. My heart pounded in my throat with impatience. My instinct was urging me to kiss him like never before, but I made myself repress the primitive impulse, bend it to my will—and the tension grew even greater.

Our lips touched, just barely. The accumulated energy surged through my body, igniting everything inside me. I brushed my mouth against his again, this time a little longer, but when I pulled away his lips followed me avidly and his hands grasped me firmly by the hips, refusing to let me go.

Something exploded inside me. I wouldn’t be able to control myself much longer, but Evan couldn’t resist another second. His mouth was on mine, hastening my loss of control. He swept me up off the floor. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist, my lips on his the whole time. My head was spinning.

 “I wasn’t joking when I said it: you’re all mine,” he breathed directly onto my mouth. He buried his face in my neck and the contact sent another electrical charge—wilder and more powerful—racing through me, melting me. Evan locked his fierce gaze on me. “No one else is allowed to touch you,” he whispered, tender and commanding at the same time, as if his words were law. His tone made me even dizzier. It was still hard for me to believe Evan could be jealous on my account, and the sensation sent a delicious tingle through every fiber of my body. I was his. Inside, I knew it couldn’t be otherwise, but it was exciting to hear him say what he’d just said.

I surrendered to his arms as he slowly laid me down, one hand under the small of my back and the other caressing my hip. I sank into something soft. It felt strange, and I realized it wasn’t the floor, but I was too wrapped up in Evan to care.

“I want to be with you and no one else,” I whispered against his lips, my breathing ragged.

His mouth slid down my neck and I glimpsed the military fabric beneath us, piled into a fleecy cloud of green cloth. His lips didn’t stop moving against mine for a second and I let myself be guided, giving in to all their decisions. As his hands moved over my body, unfastening my clothing, I grabbed his shirt and pulled it off him. My body was in flames. The only thing left between us was a single thin layer of fabric.

As Evan prolonged his kiss, his hand continued to roam over me. For a moment his fingers fastened on the lace of my scarlet panties as though he wanted to rip them off me and was trying to restrain himself.

I burned with a fire that couldn’t be quenched—not as long as Evan was there on top of me, fanning the flames. Not as long as he continued to press me against him with a sensual single-mindedness that drove me out of my mind. My lips were warm from his breath.

His hand slipped down my back and into my panties, clasping my rear as he kissed me passionately. He pulled down the silky fabric and I felt his knee press against my thigh in a gentle but firm movement that brought down the last of my defenses. And then he was inside me, triggering a hot shiver that swept me into a world of pure sensation. Fire burned beneath my skin—a fire that consumed me. My body trembled, exploding in a wave of pleasure that filled me all the way down to my toes. The flames invaded every part of me. I was burning, consumed in a blaze of passion.

“Jamie,” Evan whispered. No one except him had ever called me that.

I let myself drift away on the current of electricity and his voice enveloped me like warm velvet as his mouth set my neck on fire.

“Marry me.”

A tingle ran over my skin, taking me to heaven again.

They say your first time is the one you never forget. I couldn’t figure out why no one ever mentioned the second or the third because from what I’d already experienced, forgetting such a powerful emotion would be inconceivable. I was also sure that making love with Evan would be just as unforgettable every single time. Forever. There was no way I could touch the moon and return to earth without remembering it. Sometimes, afraid someone up there might notice and decide that so much happiness was too much for just one person, I tried to make myself repress the emotions and keep them locked up inside. But then my eyes would meet Evan’s and I would betray myself.

“I wasn’t kidding, you know.” His voice sent a tingle straight to my heart. Had I really not just imagined his words? Had he actually asked me what I thought he had? “I want you to be my wife, Gemma. I want it more than anything else in the world,” he whispered, stroking my ear with the tip of his nose.

“Evan—” My throat was tight with emotion as I looked into his tender gaze.

“We’ll do it in secret. Simon will marry us and when you’re eighteen we can tell everyone. I don’t care who else knows it; I just want to exchange vows with you before God,” he murmured as the intensity in his eyes made me melt. “Wait—I don’t want you to answer right away. I’ve had time enough to realize that my life used to be meaningless. Now that I’ve found you I don’t need any more time. Still, I know it might be different for you. I’m just asking you to consid—”

I passionately sealed his lips with my own as tears filled my eyes. “I don’t need time to realize you’re the most important thing to me, Evan,” I sighed, resting my forehead on his. “If I had only one day left to live, I would want to spend it with you.”

Evan pulled my hip and rolled me on top of him. My hair hung down, forming a curtain around us that shut out the rest of the world. We both smiled, our lips still touching. The feeling in my chest was so intense it almost hurt.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I wish I could have done things right—with a ring and everything. I wasn’t planning on what happened with Drake last night.”

“It’s already perfect,” I whispered. “I don’t need a ring. I already have you—I don’t need anything else.”

“No, I want to give you my mother’s ring.” Evan looked into my eyes. “It’s belonged to my family for a long time. It would mean a lot to me if you wore it from that day on, forever.”

“Evan, I—” His words and penetrating gaze were so intense that for a moment they left me speechless. “It’s really too much.”

“You mean the ring or my proposal? You still haven’t given me an answer, you know.” He smiled.

I returned his smile and let my weight fall on him, burrowing into his body. His warmth was so wonderful, it made me feel like the cold didn’t exist. “You’re wrong. I gave you my answer before you even proposed.” I kissed him on the lips and rested my head on his chest, forgetting the outside world.

Late October

I got out of bed and a shiver ran down my back. The temperature had dropped drastically over the last few weeks, but this morning my body was particularly sensitive to the cold. I guess I’d been more sensitive in general lately.

When I looked out the window I saw Evan already waiting for me, leaning against the hood of the BMW. I smiled at him and my breath left a mark on the glass, a white halo that lingered even when I walked away. Minutes later I was outside, my green backpack slung over my shoulder.

“Good morning,” I said, kissing him lightly on the mouth.

His lips smiled against mine. “It is now,” he whispered sweetly before opening the passenger door. It was a habit he’d never lost.

The recent weeks had been easier to bear. Though I could never forget Death’s icy breath on my neck, the connection between Evan and me took my mind off everything else. Thinking of him—
being
with him—was like having a hideaway somewhere far from the rest of the world, far from danger, a place where I could be safe because the very thought of Evan made me feel that way.

We knew that the Angel of Death, whoever it was, was not going to give up the hunt and we were all waiting for him to make his next move. Sooner or later he would strike again and we would be ready. That’s what everyone kept telling me.

In a little corner of my mind I harbored the hope that there really was a chance everything would work out in the end. But maybe it was just wishful thinking; there was another part that wasn’t entirely sure.

Almost a month had gone by since we’d seen Drake. There had been no message, no phone call, no unexpected appearance. As far as I knew, he’d disappeared from our lives. The thought that it was my fault left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a strange churning sensation in my stomach. All my attempts to persuade Evan to forgive his brother had failed. Each time, though, the regret I glimpsed in his eyes persuaded me to keep trying and so I did, with the feeble hope that one day I might be able to set things right.

When I got out of the car something cold touched my neck. I looked up and saw snowflakes drifting down from the sky like soft feathers cradled by the air. I held out my hand and stared at the flakes, enchanted. The first snowfall of the season, when the wind blew away the remaining leaves, always had this effect on me. Every time felt like the first time, despite the fact that Lake Placid was almost always covered with snow as soon as the weather turned cold.

“You like the snow?” To Evan I must have looked like a silly little girl, my hand held out to catch the flakes, my chin raised toward the sky. His mocking smile confirmed my suspicion.

I lowered my damp hand and wiped it on my jeans. “You don’t?”

He laughed. “Now I know I do.”

“Why?” I asked, my breath freezing in a cloud in front of my mouth. “You don’t have to like everything I like, you know.”

Evan smiled as if I’d just said something nonsensical. “Actually, that’s not why. You know I don’t like Strawtella,” he shot back teasingly.

“Then why?” I asked, puzzled.

His smile softened and he looked at me tenderly, the sexy little creases under his eyes making an appearance. “The cold air brings out your eyes. It’s stunning. I didn’t know that before,” he whispered in my ear. “But I do now.”

Although my face was freezing cold, I felt warmth spread over my cheeks. Evan smiled. It was bizarre how he still managed to make me blush. There had to be something in his tone of voice that caused this instinctive, uncontrollable reaction in my blood.

Snowflakes continued to drift down, increasing in number as the morning progressed. From time to time I would stop to watch them through the school windows, mesmerized when a few crystals landed on the glass and let me admire them.

By the time classes were over, a blanket of white covered the whole campus and every surface. I hurried to the car, dodging the snowballs the students were throwing every which way across the parking lot. One of them was heading straight for Evan. I tried to warn him but he’d already noticed it. His arm shot out to grab it, but the snow melted a split second before it hit his hand. Incredible. Attempting to figure out where it had come from, I noticed a grin on his face and followed his gaze. Ginevra was across the street.

“Just wanted to cool you down a bit, little brother,” his sister teased.

Her subtle innuendo—unless I’d misunderstood—made me blush again. I hoped neither of them noticed. Damn it, with all this snow it was even easier to see the color rise in my cheeks.

“It’s a shame you didn’t hit me then!” Evan was quick to reply, bending down. I blinked as I watched a snowball form without his even touching it. He threw it at Ginevra who in the meantime had whipped up an arsenal. The white spheres began to fly toward us at a speed I could barely follow, but none of them hit me—they all melted inches from my body, so close I could feel their chill. I didn’t understand what the two of them found so amusing, since neither of them managed to hit their target even once, though one time, while Evan was protecting me, an unexpected snowball hit him right in the head. All three of us burst out laughing as he shook his damp hair.