by Misti Murphy
My phone beeps in my hand, and I dart free of the all too intense lock of his gaze. I have several missed calls from Adira’s number. And a message.
There are other texts too, but this one in particular makes my heart stutter.
I know you did it.
So my dear older brother finally figured it out.
I chew my lip while I read the words on the screen again and again. It was only a matter of time before he realized that it had to be me who betrayed him. I expected him to connect the dots sooner. That’s the beauty of being shy and so quiet you’re practically invisible though.
And now he knows I’m worried about how he’ll retaliate. Sooner or later, it will happen.
I used to think it was all in my head; the way I felt about him. He’d talk to me like I was an idiot or treat me like I was weak. It made sense because I was both of those things. But now I’m not so sure. Have I always believed that was the truth because it was all I ever heard, growing up? The things he’s said to other people—
“Everything okay?” Rogue asks.
I startle and shut down my phone screen so quick, I don’t even message Adira. “Hmm. Oh, yes.”
Rogue looks at me with concern as the driver pulls the cab to the curb once again. “Are you sure? You look…”
“I’m fine.” Whether my brother deserved what I did to him… whatever his reaction will be… tonight I am Uma, and Ivy’s problems are not mine. I light up my screen and this time I remember to type out a quick note to Adira, letting him know that I’m safe. I tell a little white lie about who I’m with though, because he’ll call and want all the gossip, which will be awkward while I’m straddling Rogue’s lap. I tell him I’m with a friend from college. A girl in my statistics class.
“Still want sushi and tacos and pizza?” Rogue strokes his thumb along the outside of my leg.
“Definitely.” Not as much as I want to keep kissing him though. I wind my arms around his neck and brush my mouth against his.
“Wait for us,” Rogue orders the driver as he tugs me out of the cab and onto the pavement.
Every cuisine we want is on this one block. We pick up sushi first and eat the small seaweed wrapped wheels of rice as we traipse from the taco place to the pizza shop and back to the cab. Somehow, despite the cartons and bags we’re both carrying, he doesn’t stop touching me the entire time.
“Where to?” Rogue asks as he follows me into the cab again.
We share our food haul as we drive through the city and into the park. Rogue offers the driver some of our pizza because we can’t possibly eat this entire picnic. We take turns swigging from the bottle in between food and kissing.
It’s still early enough that there are people milling about as the driver lets us out in the horseshoe driveway. Rogue carries both bottles of champagne in one hand. His other arm stays around me.
I could get used to the way he touches me. But I can’t. I won’t. I have to be careful.
“Everything okay?” He frowns down at me.
I glance down too, only to find I’m hugging my arms around my waist like I’m trying to keep my insides from spilling out all over the lawn. Maybe I am, a little. Enough that it makes the greasy pizza curdle with the champagne bubbles in my stomach.
When I look up it’s to find him watching me so intently… it’s the first time I almost feel naked in front of him. Not naked like in the alley where he got up close and personal with my pussy, but like Ivy is hanging out for the whole world to see and no amount of makeup and bunny ears can change that. Oh crap. I pat the top of my head. “My ears.”
“I’ll buy you new ones,” Rogue says. His Adam’s apple bobs and his brows tic together. “What were you thinking just then? You disappeared on me.”
“Um.” I glance over the rolling expanse of lawn and rub my lips together. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does.” He grips my hand. “Talk to me?”
I tug away and head toward my favorite spot in the park. His big strides keep up too easily. I need space to wrap my head around my thoughts. Things like this, as wonderful as they are, end. Happiness isn’t a constant. And my heart cannot take another slow fracture.
The bright lights of the city shine all around us. They twinkle and blaze and drive back the darkness. “Don’t you just love the view?”
“It’s magical.” His arms wrap around me and draw me tight to his chest. His lips tickle my lobe. “I’ve never seen anything so pretty in my life.”
My heart skips a beat. I don’t think he’s talking about the city below us. But then Rogue Maddox is known for his ability to woo. I’ve seen him in action… I’ve watched the thralled look come over people’s faces when he turns his charm on them. Women. Men. I just never suspected I would be on the other end of it. On purpose.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re thinking,” he says.
“My dad used to take me on these daddy-daughter dates when I was a kid. This was our favorite place to come to. We’d have a picnic and watch the sun fade and the lamps light,” I admit while my breath turns into a lump in my throat that squeezes the oxygen out of me. It’s been a while since I’ve been here. It’s funny. It doesn’t matter how much time and distance you put between yourself and pain it has a way of revisiting you when you least expect it to. “It was our special place, I suppose.”
“Did he pass?” Rogue asks.
“Huh?”
“Your dad. You said it was your special place.”
His tone is too serious. Too laden with empathy. I don’t like it. The last thing I want is to tarnish the contented look on his face. And the other last thing I want is to talk about my dad. I have so much guilt.
“This whole night has been way too much fun to bring it to its knees now. Let’s not talk about it.” I tug free of his embrace and snatch the open champagne bottle out of his grasp. It’s two-thirds empty at this point. We forgot the flutes in the taxi along with my bunny ears. I tip the rim to my mouth and let the cool bubbly liquid flow between my lips. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Like what?” He steals the bottle back for his own mouthful.
“I don’t know.” I throw my arms out and spin. Giggle, because maybe Uma Cookie is a little intoxicated and Ivy Love would never, ever be in this situation. It’s all so big and weird and bright and out there like the city lights below. And that’s coming from a girl who spends all her free time with drag queens. “Whatever we want. Or nothing at all. Or everything.”
“You’re crazy,” he says.
“I am not.” I snag the bottle and step onto the short wall. Put the heel of one foot to the toe of the other. Then do it again. And again. I know he doesn’t mean to offend me. He says it with awe. But the thing is… I’m maybe just a little bit obsessive and sometimes it can be a problem.
Like the first time I saw him; I knew I would never be able to get him out of my head. Not the way he smiles. Nor those quiet moments when he thinks no one is paying attention and his smile crumples and the weight of his worry shrouds him. But tonight we’re free and as bright as the stars. This is the way I want to remember him when I daydream about him in my real life. “I always wonder how Adira walks like he does.”
“Adira’s your friend?”
“A very good friend.” I hiccup and cover my mouth. We’ve finished the first bottle of brut. The champagne might be getting to me a little bit. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.” Rogue chuckles.
“The way he sashays.” I try to emulate my bestie. I fail miserably. “I’ve tried sober a million times and I still suck.”
“You’ll fall,” he warns.
“Probably.” I smile. “But you’ll catch me, won’t you?”
“I’ll be your knight. Your prince. I owe you for saving my life.”
“I don’t need either of those things.” I don’t want someone to try to save me. “That’s not how it really works.”
“I beg to differ,” he says. “You saved me.”
“Maybe.” But all I did was show up at the right time.
I lift my arms above my head and try to pirouette. The stars spin. Beautiful, bright, flaming balls of gas.
“Oh, Christ.” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into him. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“You’re not scared,” I say as I stare up into his eyes. My heart is pounding so hard. I can only imagine that he feels it too. But I’m worried that I’m making this into something much more than it is. I am scared of how I feel about him. “You can’t be.”
He huffs out an amused breath. His lips dip to mine like a hummingbird stealing nectar. “Little bunny, you terrify me.”
Chapter Eleven
Rogue
I cup her face between my hands and peer into her eyes. I can’t see her freckles. I wish I could smudge away the white face paint. I can only imagine how beautiful she is when she’s not in costume, but so far every time I’ve seen her she’s been someone else. She’s fascinating. And also completely terrifying because I can’t imagine not seeing her again. “Tell me something.”
“Okay.” She licks her lips. “Do you have a particular something in mind?”
I nod. My heart is beating hard and fast. “Uma Cookie isn’t really your name, is it?”
She snorts a little. “What gave it away?”
“Because as sweet as you taste”—And boy do I want to taste her again. Take her home. Keep her in my bed until this spell she’s put on me wears off. However long that takes—“you are definitely not a cookie.”
“I could be.” She nibbles my throat. Fuck, I love the way her teeth feel on my skin. “If you use your imagination.”
I clear my throat as my dick jumps like it’s all in on this role playing idea. She can be the cookie. I’ll be the cream she’s stuffed with. “What’s your name?”
“You don’t really want to know,” she says.
“Uh, yeah, I do.” I am so not above begging. She’s sweet and sexy and quirky as fuck. Hell, she’s a whole lot of weird wrapped up in a cute ever-changing package that makes her a mystery and a riddle that I want to solve. She’s also serious and uncertain and for some reason that makes me feel a bit like a caveman. Show me the reasons her smile falters and I will crush them with my mega fists of death. Or at least attempt to make her smile again.
She giggles. Presses a finger to my lips. “I can’t tell you. Because I don’t exist. Uma does, though. And she is brave and wild and very happy to meet you, Rogue Maddox.”
“Surely, I’m not that big and scary.” She’s clearly more drunk than I thought, if she’s having an existential crisis. “And I can promise you, little bunny, you are so real. I just want an opportunity to get to know you better.”
“You say that now,” she says. “But you don’t know…”
“I’ll…” I’m not above bargaining either. Whatever guarantees results. I take a deep breath and expel it. I have secrets too. Some. Things I’ve managed to keep from public knowledge by literally never acknowledging them in the same way no wizard acknowledges Voldemort. “I’ll tell you my middle name if you tell me who you truly are.”
“Your middle name?” She breathes like I’ve just announced that it’s Multiple Orgasm Friday.
It isn’t, because it’s Saturday. At least for a little while longer. But I’d absolutely move heaven and earth to give her all the orgasms she wants. “Uh-huh. You want to know what it is, don’t you?”
“I-eee.” She bunches her hand in my shirt. Shakes her head. “I don’t care what your middle name is. And you shouldn’t care that I don’t want to tell you my name.”
“See, now we have a slight problem.” I grip her ass in both my hands and crush her closer. “Because I need to know who you are.”
“It’s just one night,” she says.
That’s the thing. I was just going to find her to say thank you for getting me to the hospital and hopefully remove the whammy she put on me. Then I was just going to reciprocate because that blow job was phenomenal. Then I was just going to blow off my crew and my date because I didn’t dare watch her disappear so soon.
I’m not that guy. If a woman isn’t interested in spending time with me it’s not a big deal. I don’t chase them. There’s not enough time in the day or mystery in their ways to keep me that interested when there is a buffet out there just waiting. But the idea of saying goodnight to Uma and never seeing her again is sitting less and less well with me as the evening progresses.
Fuck, I’m obsessed with her. “You hexed me, didn’t you?”
“What?” Her dark lashes flutter against the white paint on her skin.
I never saw her coming.
“I need to know how to find you. Tomorrow. And the day after that.”
“We agreed,” she says. “We agreed to just tonight.”
“It can’t be.” I growl, holding onto her tighter when she tries to tug free. “It’s not enough time.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” she says.
I don’t know why I’m so desperate. I don’t know what it is about her that is making me lose my mind. Every moment with her makes me greedy for another. Everything I learn about her makes me want to know more. “Tell me you’ll see me tomorrow.”
“I can’t.” She gestures at herself. “Uma isn’t who I will be tomorrow.”
“I know.” I let her go and she totters back a couple of steps as I race a hand through my mane. “I know that. But I don’t care if you’re Uma Cookie or Karen from Finance. I have to see you again. I need to. This isn’t enough.”
“I’m not Karen from Finance.” She giggles.
“What?” I don’t understand—
“Karen from Finance is an Australian drag queen.” She smiles so big and wide.
“I did not know that.” Her smile is contagious. I find my lips curving despite my fear that I’ll never see her again. “My point is… let me take you to breakfast in the morning?”
“Breakfast?”
She steps back into my space and it feels so right. I slide an arm around her waist before she can change her mind. Rebel was right when he said it was impossible to stop touching a girl when you’re really into her. “Yes.”
“Just breakfast?” Her hand lands on my chest. She can’t stop touching me either. Because she wants this thing between us too. Even if she won’t admit it.
That means I have to move slowly. One meal at a time. One meet up at a time. “We’re talking about a plateful of waffles. A little syrup. A dusting of powdered sugar. Maybe some blueberries. That’s all.”
She stares at my lips and swallows. “Waffles. I can… do that.”
“Thank you, God,” I yell to the stars above our head. “Thank you for getting this gorgeous creature to have breakfast with me.”
She giggles as she presses her hand over my mouth. “People might hear.”
I capture her wrist and pull it away from my mouth. “Thank you for giving her the sweetest pussy in the world.”
“Oh my freaking God.” Her eyes are so wide as she shoves both hands at my mouth again. “I can’t believe you yelled that. People will think you’re crazy.”
“There’s no one here. But if anyone does hear me, they’ll think I’m fucking lucky that you’re having breakfast with me tomorrow.” I tug her hands down. “You should try it.”
“What?” Her eyes widen.
“Yell, princess.”
She shakes her head and her breath quivers as she tries to tug free. “I-I couldn’t.”
“You could.” I keep hold of her hands as I remind her, “You’re dressed as a bunny and no one knows who you are.”
“B-but…” She glances around.
I vacuum in a breath and let it out in one long and loud ode to her oral abilities. “Thank you for blessing her with the ability to suck cock like a superstar.”
“Holy shit. Shut up.” She jumps into my arm
s. Her legs wrap around my hips and her hands around my neck as she shuts me up in the best way she knows. With her tongue so deep in my mouth it makes me think of fucking.
I stagger a couple of steps from the force of her. Groan as my cock turns to granite from just her kiss as I sink to my knees on the lawn. She pushes me down on my back and straddles my hips.
“Go on,” I urge, with my hand on her hips. “Your turn.”
She presses her lips together but I can see it in her eyes. That same bright spark in her gaze that she had right before she got on her knees in that dressing room.
“Sing for me, princess.” I push my aching hard-on up to meet her.
“Oh my God, am I going to do this?” she asks herself before she nods. “I’m going to do this.”
Holy shit, I think I’m in trouble here. Mayday. Mayday. I’m going to fall all the way down the rabbit hole with her. “You are so damn sexy.”
Bracing herself on my chest she tosses her head back and howls, “I want to make a throne out of this man’s tongue.”
“Nice.” Warmth spreads in my chest.
“I want to ride it like a wild stallion. All the way to orgasm-town.” She claps her hands over her mouth as she starts to giggle.
“Fuck yeah, you will.” I curl up to claim her mouth.
Our tongues slide and thrust. Her breathing grows ragged and her hands are eager. They push at my shirt and tear at the buckle on my belt. All the while our mouths are locked together.
I roll her under me. Propping myself up on one arm, I scrape my hand up her bare thigh from the rim of her boot to her hip, gathering her dress as I go. I want to shove her panties to the side and bury myself so deep in her sweet pussy. I want to put my tongue on her again.
One of her hands slips under my waistband and inside my boxers. Her fingers wrap around my erection and demand my capitulation with each stroke. I bow my head into the crook of her neck as sensation washes through me. “Fuck me, Uma. Your hand feels so good.”
How she can have so little confidence and then turn into this sex kitten, I don’t know, but I will find out. It’s going to take baby steps though.
