Very Twisted Things (Briarcrest Academy #3) (21 page)

A muscle in his jaw clenched, and I scrambled to explain how Geoff was part of my heart yet he didn’t own it. “Maybe it’s kinda like your sister-in-law Nora. You love her but it’s platonic.”

“Nope. I never dated her. We never even kissed. Not even
close
to the same.” He sighed as he stared back up at the sky. “I don’t want to talk about Geoff. Tell me some of the things your dad taught you about the stars.”

“Okay,” I said, letting it go. I showed him the constellation Leo the Lion. Raising my hands, I traced the triangle of eastern stars that made up the tail and hindquarters. I pointed out Regulus, the sparkling blue-white star. “Because Regulus is the brightest, it symbolizes the lion’s heart. Some of the ancient astronomers called it the King Star.”

He smiled. “If I’m a king, will you be my queen tonight?”

My stomach fluttered. “What happens tomorrow?”

He turned to look at me. “I don’t want to think about tomorrow right now. I just want to hold you while you tell me stories about stars and comets and whatever else you’ve got tucked up there.” He smoothed his fingers over my forehead. “I like hearing you talk about your parents because I don’t think you have in a long time. It—it makes me feel close to you—which is something I’ve never had with a girl. Shit, that’s stupid.” He shook his head.

“No, it’s beautiful. I feel the same. I’ve been barely breathing and now for the first time, I feel like I can take a deep breath. You do that to me.”

“Take all your deep breaths with me, V,” he whispered.

My stomach dipped. He spoke like a man in love, but perhaps he said that to all the girls.

We stared at each other, and I don’t know what he was thinking, but as for me…well,
I was falling in love
. Perhaps the emotion had been there for a while, but it had taken the shooting star to make me see the truth. The intensity between us became sharper, and I reached out to touch his face, wanting to open up to him—but he broke our gaze and looked hurriedly away. I sighed.

He snuggled me close and changed gears. “Okay, let’s hear more about how majestic this lion is. Was he as great as I am?”

I smiled and shook my head. “You are so full of shit, but as it happens, Hercules killed the lion and to commentate the victory, Zeus flung his body into the sky—hence the constellation.”

“Poor dude. At least everyone knows who he is.” He smiled. “Got anymore stories?”

“I’m not boring you?”

“You’re fascinating, V.” He pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “This—this is the happiest I’ve been since I moved to LA.”

My heart stuttered at those words, but I pushed on, not commenting.

I nodded and went on to tell him about the other names of the stars I knew until finally I grew sleepy. He did too, his breathing in sync with mine as we held each other. Once he went to sleep, I gazed at him, my eyes tracing the lines of his face and memorizing them. I feared we’d never be this close again.

I sent one final glance up at the stars and rested my head on his shoulder.

We slept as the heavens watched.

HIS LONE FINGER traced a line from my shoulder blade down my spine, over the crest of my buttocks, and then back to my opposite shoulder blade. Slow and easy as if he had all the time in the world.

I kept the rise and fall of my chest steady and pretended to be asleep as he caressed me. He kissed the top of my shoulders, the puff of his warm breath followed by the gentleness of his nose as he inhaled my skin. Again, he outlined the shape, starting at the top, moving down the center of my back and then back up.

I shivered when I realized what he was writing.
V
.

His voice was gruff from sleep. Husky. Sexy. “You awake?”

My eyes blinked open just as the first peek of sunlight crested the trees on the hill in front of us. “It’s dawn,” I said, not masking the sadness in my voice.

He pulled on my shoulder, but I resisted, my heart still needing a minute to process that this had been a one-night thing.

“V, turn around.” His hand went to the curve of my hip and tugged. “Look at me.”

“No, I can’t. Not yet. I’m going to get up and find my clothes and go shower.” But I didn’t move.

A few beats of silence went by and then some rustling as he stood up. “If you won’t face me, then I’ll face you.” He walked around to my side and bent down to look at me.

I gasped. “Put some clothes on,” I hissed, darting a glance back at the cabin.

“It’s not even six. Spider is probably passed out, and Mila likes to sleep. We’re alone. Plus, you like looking at me.” He grinned and flexed a bicep.

There was that
.

My eyes flared as he took my hand and pulled me up from the blanket. “What are you doing? I’m naked,” I said between my teeth chattering, and it wasn’t even that cold, but it was just him. Being this close to him. Loving him and now losing him.

“Our night isn’t over,” he said.

“I disagree.” I nodded at the obvious sunrise. “Even the birds are chirping.”

“Until I see the full sun with my eyes, it’s not over.
We
are not over.”

“Oh, so we’re just going to disregard the obvious fact that it
is
the next day?”

“You talk way too much, V.” And then he kissed me hard, his tongue exploring my mouth as his hands cupped my ass and pulled me against his already hard cock.

Like a magnet to steel, his lips devoured mine, eating me up, taking everything I had until I was breathless. But I didn’t need air. All I needed was him. His lips, his tongue, his teeth. I returned his fire, my hands clasped around his neck, hanging on.

“You. This. The sunrise. It’s fucking perfect,” he said gutturally as I went to my knees and took him in my mouth. He was too big to take in at once, so I worked him in gently, licking the sides, pressing kisses to his skin. My tongue dabbed at his head and sucked his length, stroking the shaft with my hands. I moaned against him, making him quiver.

“I don’t want to come like that, V. I want inside you.” He pulled me up and swept me up in his arms and carried me over to the swing and set me down on my feet.

“More swing sex?” I murmured as he ran his mouth down my neck and captured my nipple between his lips and pulled.

“You complaining?” he mumbled against my breast.

“Never,” I squeaked incoherently as he kissed his way down to my stomach. He lavished attention on me with his mouth, finding the soft skin behind my knees, the dimples on my lower back. He worshipped me, pleasing only me, and I watched, stroking his hair, my hands tracing his tattoos. My heart ached to tell him how I felt, but I was scared.

Later after I was a quivering mess, he stood and nodded at the swing. “Put your hands on the chains and bend over.”

I blinked. “What? Are you going to spank me?”

His eyes went heavy-lidded. “Do you want me to? You like that?”

“No. Maybe? I don’t know.” I felt a flush start at my toes and work its way up to my face.

He chuckled at my embarrassment and kissed me gently. “V, all I want right now is to fuck you from behind.”

“Why?” My heart thundered at the image.

“So I can see every detail of you wrapped around my cock and use my hands—anywhere I want.”

I grasped the sides and bent over, presenting my backside to him. He let out a low groan and shuffled around, taking a few steps back to look at me. Then, he moved forward and ran his hands down my spine and back up, tracing my name again.

His chest heaved. “
V
,” he said softly, saying my name like a benediction.

I watched over my shoulder as he curved his hand over my bottom and slid his finger inside me. I closed my eyes.
Yes, yes, yes
. Heat flooded my face, and I cried out his name, my body going limp, moving with the steady rhythm of his hand. My body tingled, needing more, needing him in me.

My eyes flew open when he spread my legs further apart, his fingers ghosting over my clit and then easing back inside me. “You’re so ready…you make me drunk with need,” he said in a gravelly voice.

“Hurry,” I said. “Please don’t tease me.”

He scrambled around in the pocket of his jeans, his hands visibly trembling until he found what he wanted and rolled the condom on. He kissed my lower back, his scruff the perfect roughness. “I should take you back to the blanket, and make love to you there, but I can’t.”

I shivered. “Yes, here.”
Anywhere
. I let out a sharp moan as he lined up behind me and slid in, my wetness and the angle helping him go deeper than he’d been last night. He stirred around inside me and then started a slow pumping. I bent my head to watch as our bodies melded. His hands were busy too, ravaging my body, spreading me and touching me in taboo places I’d never dreamed, his fingers knowing just the right thing, just the perfect touch to make me whimper with need. He stoked my desire, he built it up and up, igniting me until I wanted to scream.

“Never like this before, V. Never,” he growled as he held on to my hips and pumped, his tempo speeding up.

Sensation built. Fire burned.
I loved.

Fireworks went off in my head, and I called his name when I went over. His own body tightened and swelled, the friction the perfect balance of pleasure and pain. He roared, the noise reverberating against my skin as he bent over and buried his face in my neck.

Our hearts beat in sync, nature hummed, and the world was
right
.

Panting, I gazed back at him and realized that fear had chased me for too long when all I needed to do was be brave.
Just this one time
.

“I love you,” I whispered. “Sebastian, I love you, I love you, I love you.”

With every molecule, every atom, every tiny piece of me. Insanely. Madly. Completely. The truth was, he’d sparked life in me the day I saw him move in, and I’d tried to harden my heart against love, but in the end my dad’s sacrifice had been too loud to stifle. Sebastian’s pull toward me had been too strong, his connection too visceral.

I held on to the chains, chest heaving as he withdrew and took several of his own deep breaths. Finally, he came around to face me, unclasped my hands from the chains and gathered me in his arms. “Thank you, V.” And then he kissed me. Sweetly.

Oh.

We dressed and walked hand-in-hand back to the blanket where he got a fire going. As the seconds stretched into minutes, and he didn’t comment on my confession, my shoulders tightened and cement settled in my stomach.

“Do you have anything to say about what I said to you earlier?” I asked a bit later as we packed up our backpacks for the trip back down the mountain. I tried to keep my voice light, but I was hurting.

He paused, a muscle working in his cheek, as if what he was about to say was difficult. “No.”

And I saw that we were done. Our
night
was over.

WE RODE BACK down the canyon the next day, a more subdued bunch than the day before. Spider and Mila seemed out of sorts, and Sebastian was unusually quiet. Both he and Spider had ridden off ahead of us to get back to the stables—something about calling Harry to check on the latest. It hurt to see him so distant. My body still vibrated at the memory of how he’d taken me.

No regrets
, I told myself.

Mila rode up next to me, her glare on Spider’s horse as it turned the bend ahead of us.

Ouch. Someone else was in the doghouse this morning. “Everything okay between you and Spider?”

She squirmed in her saddle. “We had this huge argument last night about Dovey—that’s his first love from BA.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s funny, I knew him in high school, but was never attracted to him. Mostly because I was intimidated by his bleached-out hair and tats. He even dressed all Goth with chains and piercings. But the one person he loved was Dovey Beckham, and she broke him.”

“Yikes, she sounds like a bitch. Will I get to meet her at the reunion?”

Mila nodded. “She isn’t, though. She’s sweet and worked hard to hang in there with all the rich girls at BA. Anyway, in the end, when her adoptive mother got sick, she chose Cuba to be with—the guy who’d broken her heart the year before. Spider was left out.” Her shoulders drooped. “It’s just, we’re complete opposites. His tattoos alone should scare me, but I want
him
. Am I crazy?”