Hearts and Thorns

by Ella Fields

  His brows were lowered, his cheekbones and jaw rigid with restraint. I reached up, stroking his jaw, and felt it loosen a little beneath my touch. “Perfect.”

  “You tell the sweetest lies,” he said, kissing my finger when it reached his mouth, all the while his body never stopped moving, never stopped loving mine.

  “It’s not a lie,” I said, cupping his face. “It hurts, but I never want you to leave.”

  He huffed, his nostrils flaring as he moved faster. “I love you.”

  “I love you.”

  Then with a groan, his mouth parted, his eyes stuck to mine while his body seized and jerked as he came.

  In a daze, I absorbed every shudder from him, every quick breath, and every quiet curse, and then he was kissing me, our bodies still fused in every way.

  Later, as the sky began to lighten, and Jackson drew lazy circles on my back while I laid sprawled over his chest, he asked, “Will you ever get sick of hiding?”

  We were trying not to fall asleep, as we had to pack everything up soon and get back inside before Mom and Dad woke up. It wasn’t hard. One kiss too many, and a new game of pleasure chasing began anew.

  “No,” I said. I’d known before we started this, back when all I could do was dream of this, that I’d be happy as long as I had him. “What about you?”

  I both feared and wanted his answer. “If hiding is all we’ve got, I’ll happily hide forever. But we won’t have to.”

  I traced his belly button, and he twitched, ticklish there. “We won’t?” I failed to see a day when that would be true.

  “College,” he said a heavy minute later. Squeezing me to him, he kissed the top of my head. “We can be together for real in college.”

  “Is this not real?”

  “It’s real, Bug. It’s as real as real can get.”

  Daphne Morris was popular. Possibly one of the most popular girls in school.

  Before my birthday, and before school had let out for the summer, she’d waved to me and Peggy as she and her cheerleading friends had walked by our lunch table.

  “I didn’t think…” I’d stammered with an unsure scrunch of my nose.

  “That she’d acknowledge us now that the art project is finished?” Peggy nodded, eyeing the direction in which Daphne had gone. “Yeah, same.”

  I removed the wrap from my ham and cheese sandwich. “Jackson said to be careful.”

  Peggy’s eyes narrowed. “Of Daphne?”

  “Yeah,” I’d said, taking a bite.

  “Huh,” she’d said. “Well, it’s not like she’s our new bestie.” With an unconvincing smile, she then added, “She’ll probably forget all about our existence once senior year arrives.”

  But she hadn’t. Daphne kept in touch and hung out with us over the summer. Then she shocked not only us, but also most of the student body, when she took a stand—or rather, a seat—at our lunch table on the first day of senior year.

  “She said something about not wanting fake friends anymore,” I told Jackson that night.

  Jackson, an arm tucked behind his head, flicked his eyes from the new anime episodes he’d downloaded to me. “For real?”

  I nodded, my eyes tracking the fanning motion of his lashes. “Yep.”

  After staring up at me for a moment, he murmured, “And she’s good to you?”

  “She is. A little bossy sometimes, but…” I tried to find the words. “But in a way that shows she cares.” Grinning, I flicked his nose. “Kind of like someone else I know.”

  He grabbed my finger, twisting his around it, and gave it a little tug. Our noses touched, and so did our eyes. “Then I guess that’s okay.” And then our lips did too.

  Jackson

  Eighteen

  The return of school made things somewhat more bearable after a summer spent trying to ignore how fucking starving I was every time Willa so much as blinked at me.

  My dick felt bruised, battered, and exhausted, even when it had been inside her. Now, it grew hard at a simple flick of her hair or just the sound of her in the shower.

  It was thankful for the reprieve.

  My heart, however, was not.

  We took only a few of the same classes, so it was lunchtime before I could even glance at her for longer than a couple of seconds most days.

  And I feared my jaw would grind to dust as I noticed the other assholes who took too long a look at her.

  “What’s eating you, Gilbert?” Dash prodded.

  I tore a chunk from the salami and salad wrap Willa had made me. “Just can’t believe we need to be here for another year.”

  “Well,” Lars said, wiping his chin. “Technically, it’s not a year—”

  Dash threw a piece of crust at him. “We know, Einstein.”

  Lars returned to his food, throwing not very subtle eyes to Daphne.

  Which was probably why he didn’t notice I was staring at their table too, and Dash, well, he was too self-absorbed to notice much of anything.

  Raven didn’t miss a beat. “Something in sister dearest’s hair?”

  I forced a smirk. “Probably. She was up late baking.”

  Raven wrapped his knuckles on the table. “Queen Cold is sitting with her.”

  “I know,” I said, chewing more of my wrap. I swallowed and took a swig from my water bottle. “I suppose she’s ditched her bitch posse.”

  Dash snorted. “If that putrid look on Kayla’s face is anything to go by, then yeah.” Okay, so maybe he wasn’t as self-absorbed as we sometimes wished he was.

  I peered over at the cheerleaders table, regretting it instantly when Ainsley’s gaze smacked into mine. Unflinching and unperturbed, she smiled.

  Frowning, I didn’t even see Kayla and dragged my attention back to the table. I wouldn’t put it past Ainsley to follow my line of sight to Willa.

  “Wonder what she wants from Peggy Sue and Willa Grace?” Raven mused, stroking his clean-shaven chin.

  “Probably to be their friend,” Lars said with heavy sarcasm. “She is their friend, after all.”

  Dash laughed. “Simmer down, Mr. Obsessed.”

  “Rave’s got a point,” I said. “She might be friends with them, but she’s never sat with them before.”

  Lars looked exasperated. “Guess she’s changed her mind.”

  I suppose she had. Every day for that first week, Daphne was always with Peggy and Willa and hadn’t even been seen talking to her former best friend, Kayla.

  Willa seemed happy about it, so I didn’t quiz or warn her, and chose to just keep an ear out whenever Kayla and her friends were nearby.

  No one fucked with Willa. No guys and no chicks, either.

  Ainsley’s eyes seemed to stalk me wherever I went as the first weeks of senior year dragged on, and Peggy’s birthday approached.

  “She’s still so into you,” Willa said, getting ready for Peggy’s surprise party. Tossing her brush to the dresser, she grabbed a hair pin, dragging pieces of her hair back from her face.

  It didn’t hold, and after a minute, she grew frustrated and threw the pin to the dresser with a clang.

  Laughing, I climbed off her bed, where I’d been reading until she was ready, and checked the hall before I moved in behind her.

  My hands glided up her bare arms, goose bumps rising in their wake, and scooped up her long, heavy tresses, dropping them so they’d fall against her back. Leaning down, I pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. She was wearing some fluffy cocktail dress, black pumps on her feet making the drop for my mouth shorter. “It doesn’t matter what she is.”

  “It doesn’t?” she asked, her voice quiet air.

  My mouth moved side to side, ghosting over her smooth skin, then pressed. Wrapping my hands around her stomach, I pulled her ass flush with my erection. “Nothing matters but this.”

  She smirked at me in the mirror, her cheeks tinting. “Nice, Jack. Real sweet.”

  I chuckled. “I didn’t mean that. But yeah”—I grinned, kissing her neck and then the side of
her jaw when her head tilted—“that’s pretty damn important too.”

  She turned in my arms, her eyes darting to the empty doorway for a second before her lips visited mine in a brief but firm kiss. “I love you.”

  “And I you.” I kissed her forehead, then stepped back, my hands reluctant to let her go. “Leave your hair loose.”

  Her cheeks bloomed, and she smiled at the ground as I left the room to get my keys and wallet.

  Raven followed a blond chick around the side of Peggy’s dad’s house, so I went inside in search of Willa even though I couldn’t exactly hang with her.

  I made it to the kitchen before a hand grabbed mine and a familiar voice whispered, “Meet me upstairs in two minutes.”

  Then Willa was gone, bounding up the stairs. Dash had warned everyone with not a small amount of grit that we weren’t to leave the first floor. Most people would listen.

  I wasn’t most people, and it wasn’t like he’d find out.

  I waited outside the kitchen, feigning interest in my phone when a set of blue stilettos appeared in front of my shoes. “Hey, Jack.”

  I tried not to cringe, being that Willa was the only one who called me that. It sounded too personal and all wrong in someone else’s voice.

  “Ainsley,” I clipped, sliding my phone into my back pocket. “What are you doing here?”

  Her lip curled, her hands twisting in front of her. “Dad’s friends with Peggy’s dad, and well, I like Peggy.” She shrugged, the puffy sleeves of her black dress reaching her diamond studded ears. “So I thought I’d stop by for a little while.”

  That was bullshit, and we both knew it. I was sure she liked Peggy just fine, but I was also sure it wasn’t enough to attend her surprise eighteenth birthday bash.

  Saying any of that would be futile, and despite the way her eyes gleamed, I still didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She’d never done anything to warrant that.

  “Cool,” I said for lack of anything better. Willa was waiting for me, but if Ainsley saw me head upstairs, I wouldn’t put it past her to think she could follow and try something, being that Dash repeatedly told everyone it was a no-go zone. “Well, have fun. I need to use the bathroom.”

  I headed that way before she could say anything else and waited a full minute, staring at the time on my phone before I washed my hands and made sure the coast was clear.

  She’d thankfully moved on, so I didn’t waste another moment, racing up the stairs as if my life depended on it.

  The frosted glass doors to Peggy’s dad’s office were cracked open, and I slid inside, quickly shutting and locking them behind me.

  Her arms over her chest, seated atop the mahogany, paper-strewn desk, Willa scowled. “What happened?”

  She always knew, as if she had some type of sixth sense. Or maybe, like me, she lived her life in a perpetual state of desperation and paranoia.

  It wasn’t what I wanted for her, but I wanted her more than I wanted anything else in this life, so I was okay with being that selfish.

  “Ainsley’s here.”

  Her brows relaxed, but sorrow tensed her delicate jaw. “She saw you.”

  I nodded, ensuring the doors were indeed locked, then crossed the room. Grabbing her thighs, I wedged myself between them. “Yeah, then I hid in the bathroom until she wandered off.” Willa sighed, and I tipped her chin up, grinning down at her. “You don’t need to be jealous.”

  “I can’t help it,” she whispered. “Even though I know you don’t want her, even though I know you only want me, I still freaking am.”

  “Fucking am.” Her head tilted, brows pulling with confusion. I laughed. “Stop saying freaking. Fucking, Bug. Repeat after me…”

  She slapped at my chest, then grabbed my shirt, pulling my chest to her nose, and inhaled. “God, you always smell so good.”

  “So fucking good,” I teased.

  She gazed up at me, her arms tight around my back, and my heart swelled to three times its usual size, stealing all the air in my lungs. “Can you do what I invited you up here to do now?” She pouted, batting her lashes playfully and then puckering her lips. “Kiss me stupid.”

  Shaking with quiet laughter, I did just that, then gently eased her back over the desk, papers scrunching and pens rolling beneath her, and tore her panties to the side.

  “Jack,” she breathed. “Not here.”

  “You can’t say that after I’m already nose deep in your cunt.” I ran it over her, inhaling. “I’ll tell you what else smells so good,” I said, then licked slow, so slow, through her folds. “This.”

  Giving in, she wrapped her legs around my neck, and I lowered to my knees, gripping the tops of her thighs as my tongue feasted on her.

  Her head rocked side to side as her quiet mewls filled the small space, bouncing off the bookshelves and the portraits on the walls. I brought her to the edge, then reveled in the sound of her tiny growl as I rose and unzipped my jeans, shoving them and my briefs over my ass to free my angry cock.

  Willa, flushed and with feral eyes, sat up and moved to the edge of the desk, open and waiting for me. “You always get me to the point of no return.”

  I grinned, my pulse thundering. “You would say no?”

  Her teeth scraped over her bottom lip, her thighs opening more in answer. “I should, but I can’t.”

  Without any further preamble, I entered heaven, gripping the back of her head as I seated myself as deep as I could get, and took her lips.

  Her nails scratched at my scalp, her legs vises around me, and her body arched into mine as I began thrusting hard and fast, knowing she was close.

  Her cunt quivered and squeezed, tight and unbearably hot, and her velvet tongue lapped at mine, her teeth nipping at my lips if I even dared to draw a breath.

  It was insatiable, this feeling of euphoria that always had us seeking more and more and more.

  Tearing her dress off, I picked her up, holding her to me so hard, I’d leave bruises. She did the same, struggling to breathe, gasping and gripping at my shirt and hair.

  Despite living together, we couldn’t be with each other whenever we wanted. We’d sneak into each other’s rooms and took daring risks only a few times a week when we couldn’t handle it anymore.

  Around the room we went, crashing into bookshelves as my hips jutted with little finesse and too much desperation.

  Need and love were a force we couldn’t contend with and forever lost the battle to. We were nothing but its willing subjects, begging for more even as it was handed to us.

  That was how it felt to be with Willa, as though I was swimming ashore after being stuck at sea for years, only to have the coastline move farther out of reach every time I neared it.

  We weren’t an itch we could scratch. We were fire that would never extinguish, and we’d burn anything in our path to keep getting what we wanted. What we needed.

  A hunger like ours didn’t leave a lot of room for caution.

  Slamming into the rattling doors, I gripped Willa’s thigh and face, pounding in and out of her so hard, my name was shaken from her lips.

  Together, we moaned into each other’s mouths, the flames settling as cold waves of pleasure crashed into me. I shook and grunted her name, filling her completely, thanking god Mom had put her on the pill over the summer.

  We ended up on the chaise, where we made out until the noise downstairs began to dissipate, and we were ready to do it again, slower this time.

  Willa

  Eighteen

  Daphne and Lars were together, I was sure of it, yet she wouldn’t confide in Peggy or me. I tried to empathize, to see why she wouldn’t, but I guess I just couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t admit it.

  She didn’t need to when the rumors began to circulate that Lars had knocked up Annika after they’d supposedly hooked up at a party before summer break. The despair that leeched off Daphne in the days after said everything she was never willing to.

  She might not have been with him—or maybe she
had—but she had feelings for him.

  Peggy and I did our best to comfort someone who refused to admit she was breaking, opting in the end to be silent pillars of support, ready for when she might need us.

  “How’s Lars?” I asked Jackson.

  He turned down the music, scanning the lot for a decent parking space. “As good as any guy who finally landed his dream girl, only to have it ruined, can be, I guess.” He pulled into a spot in the back where there were less cars, then turned the truck off. “And the whole dad thing…” He opened the door. “I don’t know, Wil. He’s not handling that part at all, let alone handling it well.”

  I waited for him to round the truck and help me down, knowing he’d be annoyed if I didn’t. Lars had gone off the rails, missing classes and showing up high, but maybe he just needed time. I said that as Jackson handed me my purse, then closed the door.

  “Yeah,” he said, sounding unconvinced. “Maybe.”

  In Seaside, a tiny town about forty-five minutes from Magnolia Cove, was the French restaurant and patisserie Jackson and I had begun to frequent.

  Over oysters, soup, and quiche, we could smile, laugh, touch, and almost forget that a world outside this small town would frown upon us doing so.

  “Are your applications filled out?” Jackson asked, offering me a spoonful of soup.

  I wrapped my lips around the spoon, letting the fragrant creamy spice sit on my tongue before releasing the silverware and swallowing.

  His eyelids lowered, and I dabbed at my chin with a napkin. “Yeah, they’re done.”

  “I’ll check them later tonight then,” he said, hand in mine, thumb caressing my own.

  I nodded even though I knew I’d filled them out correctly. He needed it to help him feel in control of a situation that had the power to obliterate everything we knew and loved beyond each other.

  “This time next year, we’ll be able to do this all the time.” I took a sip of lemonade. “But what if we get accepted into the same school, and one of our friends is there?”

  Jackson’s knee bounced beneath the table, and he shrugged. “They’ll find out sooner or later. I’m not as worried about them knowing now.”