by Ruby Vincent
“Sweetie, are you okay?” A woman with light-pink hair tips to match her pink dress pointed at me. I glanced down at the blood staining my shirt.
“I’m fine,” I replied.
I took off after Cameron. He stormed out of the room and was gone when I stepped out. There was no one in the lobby. The only sounds were the gentle splashing of the wishing well.
I went into the bathroom and did the best I could to get the blood off, but all my scrubbing was leaving a huge, pink wet stain on my shirt.
The door banged open and I jerked. My hand slipped beneath the spray and wet the front of my pants.
“Zee? Zee! Are you okay?” Landon took my face in his hands. “I saw you get into it with Cameron.”
I kissed the tip of his nose. “No. For once, Cameron didn’t do anything to me. Except bleed on me. I’m a mess. Do you mind if I wait in the car? I can’t go back in there like this.”
“No way.” Landon released me and yanked out some paper towels. He took up the task of drying me off. “I’m not leaving you in the car. Let’s just get out of here.”
“But what about the people you wanted to talk to?”
His cheekbones were sharp, sculpted perfection. Sometimes I wondered if they would cut me if I trailed my fingers along his dips and curves. But not when he smiled. Landon’s smile softened him and made him the regular boy I fell in love with once again.
“I talked to them, got a lot of great advice, and now I want to spend the rest of the night with you. Let’s go.”
He didn’t have to ask me twice.
I texted Derek on the way out that I was leaving. In the car, I stripped off the jacket, shirt, and finally my bindings. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was down to my tank top.
“Don’t stop there.” Landon tugged the hem of my tank. “Not when it’s getting good.”
I smacked his arm. “Will you behave yourself?”
“I’m so tired of behaving myself, baby.” He caught my fingers and threaded them through his. “Do you still want dessert?”
I hesitated, unsure of how those two sentences connected. “Yes. I never got to mine.”
“I know just the place.”
The drive was short, but the route unfamiliar. Landon drove through a part of Evergreen I had never been. We pulled into a tiny plaza housing a grocery store, daycare, and an ice cream shop.
“You can stay in the car,” Landon said as he unbuckled. “I’ll be quick.”
My phone buzzed in the depths of my pocket.
Jordan: How is it going? Everything okay?
Me: It’s great. I got to talk to him. Just the two of us.
Jordan: You got the great Jonathan Grayson alone? Wow. Is he what you expected?
Me: I don’t know what I expected. Mom used to say he was arrogant, selfish, and full of himself. That’s when she’d speak of him at all. He doesn’t seem to be that guy anymore.
A few minutes passed before her reply came through.
Jordan: Are you hoping that is true because you want this guy to accept you? He can be all nice and smiles to his son’s best friend. But what will he do when he finds out you’re his daughter?
Her text settled like lead in the pit of my stomach. I felt my good mood leaking away.
Me: Where is this coming from?
Jordan: I’ve just been thinking of all you’ve done to find him and what it’s cost you. But he’s always known you’ve existed, Zee. If he’s a different man now... why didn’t he find you?
I stared at the screen for a long time.
Me: JoJo, what’s going on? What happened?
A couple of minutes passed before she replies.
Jordan: Malcom called.
I hissed low under my breath. Malcom St. James. Jordan’s ex-boyfriend. All-around bastard.
He cheated on Jordan and then made her feel like the crazy, distrustful one when she confronted him on the rumors. Their break-up was nasty and, unfortunately, public. She caught the piece of trash upstairs with some girl at a party.
Me: What the hell did he want?
Jordan: He heard I was seeing someone and “it finally hit him he could lose me for good.” He tried to get me back but I told him I wouldn’t trust his cheating ass even if he cut his dick off.
He turned the charm off real fast after that and said all this horrible stuff. Including how he spent a month while we were dating hooking up with Lucia.
My jaw dropped. That can’t be true.
Lucia Reine was one of Jordan’s best friends since Chesterfield Middle. She wouldn’t do that to her.
Me: He has to be lying. You know Malcolm. He’s a manipulative piece of shit and he wanted to hurt you for rejecting him.
Jordan: I don’t know. I called Lucia but she hasn’t called me back.
Me: Where are you?
Jordan: Home. I ended up canceling on Adam.
Me: I’ll be there in an hour.
I peered over the hood, looking for Landon. He accepted his card from an employee in a bright yellow shirt.
My phone went off again.
Jordan: No, Zee. Seriously, no. I love you, but I’m a mess right now. I’ve already picked a fight with Adam and got on you about Jonathan. I’m not good company right now.
Me: I don’t care. You need me. I’ll be there soon.
Jordan: I swear you’re the best cousin in the world. Come over tomorrow and cheer me up, but tonight, I need to talk to Lucia and I have to do it alone. You get it, right?
Me: I get it. I’ll be there tomorrow first thing.
Landon let himself in and put our dessert behind his chair. He saw my face as he drew back. “Everything okay?”
“Come here.” I gripped his lapel and pulled him in for a kiss that tasted like chocolate cherries. Someone sampled a few before they bought.
He hummed low in his throat. “Better than okay.”
I smiled despite myself. “That was for being wonderful. You’re so good to me, Landon. Never let me take advantage of you.”
“You don’t and you wouldn’t.” He kissed me again. “Tell me what happened.”
I shook my head. “The human garbage my cousin broke up with couldn’t resist another chance to bring her down.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, babe. Do you need to go back?”
“She said she needs space so I’ll give it to her.” I rubbed his forearm. “Let’s have dessert.”
I twisted around to reach for the ice cream and Landon stopped me.
“Not here. We’re having dessert somewhere else. It’s not far.”
I relaxed as Landon started the truck. “Do I get a hint about where we’re going?”
“Nope.”
“Can I sneak my ice cream on the way?”
He laughed. “We’re five minutes away.”
“Five minutes is long in ice cream time,” I said. “What did you get me anyway?”
Landon took his eyes off the road to grin at me. “You have a hard time being surprised, don’t you?”
“Jordan and Aunt Bev tried to throw me a surprise party once. I screamed and ran out of the house.”
“It’s a good thing we’re in a moving car.”
Laughing, I attacked his side with tickles. He yelped, trying to squirm away from me, and almost crashed the truck.
“Stop trying to kill us,” he said, chuckling. “We’re here.”
The car veered off the road and climbed a gently sloping hill. There was nothing around us but grass, trees, and the road we took to get here. My confusion rose the higher we did.
“You’re taking me to the top of a hill?”
“That’s right.”
He sounded very proud of himself. I didn’t understand until the truck crested the hill.
Beneath us, couples, families, and friends stretched out on blankets. The movie screen rose stories high, the fresh-faced actors clear even from our private spot overlooking the clearing.
“We can’t hear anything,” he admitted, “but we used to come up
here and make up our own stories.”
“We?”
“Me, Henrietta, and Declan.”
“That’s so cute.”
“It was when I was little,” he added. “I come up here alone now when I need some space. Do you like it? If you want to watch the movie for real—”
I stopped him when he reached for the ignition. “I want to be up here with you.”
My heart pounded as he leaned in to kiss me.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he whispered against my lips. “I’ve got blankets. We can lay them out in the back.”
I flicked his nose. “You knew you were going to get me here, didn’t you, Foster?”
“It was all a part of the plan.”
Landon drove around and faced the truck bed toward the screen. We got out and I rifled in the ice cream bag while he spread out the blankets.
“Is this...?” Beaming, I popped the lid off the container. “Cookie dough ice cream with chocolate syrup and gummy bears. How did you know this is my favorite?”
“I heard you tell Derek once. You guys get into your own world sometimes, but lucky for me, I sit right next to you.” He winked. “I pick things up.”
I strode around the car, meeting him before the trunk bed. “What else have you picked up?”
“I’m not saying,” he whispered. Landon gently pushed my wig and cap off. I shivered as his fingers tickled my scalp. “I’m going to save it for times like this so I can impress you.”
“Crafty move.”
Landon gripped my thighs and lifted me on to the bed. “I gotta be crafty. I’m competing with two other guys for your affections.”
“You’re not competing.” I snuggled into his side. “You already have my affections.”
An old black and white movie played down below. An actor fitting the tall, dark, and handsome type in every sense of the stereotype gazed intensely through an office window, monologuing.
I nibbled on a gummy bear. “Do you know this movie?”
“Oh yeah. The guy is an amnesiac. He wakes up one day in that office but he doesn’t know how he got there. The door says private investigator and the man in the pictures are him. But when he asks the people around him, no one knows who he is. Is he the fake, or is the life created for him?”
“Wow. That sounds interesting. I have to—” I leaned back and caught his grin. “And you’re messing with me.”
He laughed. “I don’t know this movie, but half the fun is pretending we do.”
“Okay, I’ll play.” I sat up, squinting at the screen. “His life isn’t fake... he just isn’t a part of it yet. He moved to a new place but ran into an old enemy.”
Landon picked up the thread. “An enemy determined to finish what his bash on the head started. Our hero has to find a way to stay ahead of a killer he can’t recognize.”
“Plot twist,” I cried. “Our hero is actually the killer and the target his identical twin brother. He attacked him in his office, got knocked out, and assumed the man in the photos was him.”
“And she”—Landon pointed at the curly-haired beauty giving an impassioned speech to the hero—“is the woman who set them on their dark path. Only one can have her hand.”
I snapped my fingers. “But she loves the first brother, so our forgetful killer goes after his twin so he can steal his life and the girl.”
We took one look at each other and fell into a fit of giggles.
“We have to pitch this to Jonathan Grayson,” I said. “I’m really into this idea.”
Landon stretched out the width of the trunk. He propped up against the hump over the tire and patted his chest. That was all the invitation I needed to lay on top of him.
We didn’t see much of our silent movie. I fed him chocolatey gummy bears in between dropping kisses on his jaw. Every now and then he’d twist at the last second, capturing my lips.
Landon nipped the tip of my nose. “What do you think they’re saying?”
“I think she’s saying... she loves him,” I whispered, “and she’s happy that despite everything they’ve gone through, they made it here. Together.” I wasn’t looking at the screen. “What is he saying?”
“That she is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.” Landon caressed my bottom lip and my mouth parted for him. “He’d bash a million brothers over the head for her.”
I wrapped my lips around his finger and moved down to his knuckle. He sucked in a sharp breath as my head bobbed.
“What else will he do for me?” I asked softly.
“He’s... not so good with words. He’d rather show her.”
Our lips met in the same breath. I clung to Landon as he tipped me over on my back, lying me on the blanket. I ran my hands up his chest and pushed the jacket off his shoulders. Our clothes came off in a feverish rush.
Landon broke our kiss only to trail soft pecks down my neck and through the valley of my breasts. He reached my lower belly and stopped. Glazed sapphire eyes locked with mine as he lowered his head. His tongue teased and tugged out moan after moan. Pressure built in my core at a fever pitch, faster than before. It was wickedly hot and I didn’t try to quiet myself. My cries echoed over the hill as he brought me to the edge and then pushed me over.
My heel dug into the grooves of the truck bed as my body contorted. I came down with black spots dancing in my eyes like fireflies in the trees.
Landon grasped my thighs and spread them apart, pulling them off his ears. “One of these days, you’re going to pop my head like a grape. But damn, what a beautiful way to go.”
I laughed hoarsely and held out my arms. Landon came. He licked a stripe up my belly before claiming my mouth. He wrapped my legs around him and I gasped in the middle of our kiss.
This is happening. It’s happening right now.
“Ready, baby? We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“She says she wants to,” I rasped. “She really, really wants to.”
The final word barely passed my lips before he pushed inside. Crying out, my nails dug into his back as sharp pain broke through my high.
Landon kissed my cheek, nose, and pressed two soft kisses on my closed eyes. He whispered sweet nothings as he waited for me to adjust.
My body slowly relaxed and he moved. Landon whispered in my ear as I clung to him.
“I love you, Zela,” he said hoarsely. “I loved you first, and I’ll love you last.”
“L-look at me,” I forced out. “Please.”
His lips brushed along my cheeks as he raised his head and pressed our noses together. Hot, molten pleasure hummed beneath my skin. I felt every sensation so keenly as though my nerves had just come alive. The cool breeze drying the sweat on my temple. The hard ridges of his back, slick and smooth beneath my palm. His warm breath on my lips as I swallowed his moans. I can’t believe I waited this long to be with him.
Pressure built in my core and I got louder as my body was wracked with waves and waves of mind-bursting sensations.
Landon collapsed on top of me. Our chests heaved, pushing against each other. I lifted his head and grinned into his dazed eyes.
“Let’s do that again.”
“Okay,” he croaked. “I might... need a minute though.”
I tossed my head. “No minutes. No more waiting. Again. Right now.” I grasped his shoulder and threw him on his back.
“Fucking hell, woman,” he cried. Landon gaped at me as I straddled him.
I settled on top of him and smirked as I placed his hands over my breasts. “Think we can make this big truck bounce, baby?”
His eyes darkened. “We’re gonna fucking try,” he growled. “Minute over.”
I shrieked happily as he reared up and put the challenge to the test.
LANDON PULLED UP TO the curb and parked the car. He leaned across and kissed me mid-giggle.
“Is that what it’s like to be drunk?” I asked as I nuzzled his neck.
His laugh rumbled against my cheek. “Before the pukin
g starts.” Landon tangled in my hair and pulled my head back. “Are you okay? I know we said we wanted it to be perfect—”
“It was perfect.”
“We did it on a hill in the back of my mom’s truck. It was hard and dirty and we could have been caught.” He pressed a lock of my hair to his lips. “You deserved music, candles, and a real bed for your first time.”
“I didn’t need all of that stuff, Landon. All I wanted was me and you together with no interruptions. It was special because it was you.”
“I love you.”
We kissed long and slow. The need for air eventually pulled us apart.
Landon glanced at the dash. “You should go in. It’s almost eleven.” He smirked at me. “Wipe that goofy grin off your face before your mom sees you.”
“I can do that, but tomorrow night, I want you to put it back on.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I said goodbye and practically floated inside. It was incredibly sweet that Landon wanted my first time to be flowers, candy, and candles, but I couldn’t think of anything better than hard, dirty, and dangerous with him in the back of a trunk. Tonight had gone better than I could have ever imagined.
Flickering light poured out of the living room. I peeked around the corner and found Mom engrossed in her show.
“I’m home,” I called.
She replied without looking away. “Did you have a good time?”
“It was great, Mom, and I think they raised a lot of money.”
“Wonderful. Literacy is the first step to success. Especially for young women. If you give me their information, I will look into donating as well.”
“That would be awesome.”
I meant it. Their pretenses for luring the board out were false, but the organization and the money raised were real. I hoped a dent was made in offering more resources to improve literacy worldwide.
“Good night.”
Mom finally turned around so I could get the full effect of her smile. “Good night, my only one.”
A familiar twinge ached in my chest.
I wish I could tell you that I met Jonathan. I want to talk to you about how amazing, sweet, kind, dickish, irritating, and annoying my brother is. There is so much I need to say, but we have never been a family who talks, and honesty isn’t what you taught me to expect from you.
