Then there was a flash of blonde hair before the door closed, sealing in the only two people left.
My Pixie and me.
She was staring at the closed door, shaking her head.
But she hadn't moved. Not even an inch.
She hadn't moved, knowing such an action would leave her here with me.
Alone.
I reached out, running the backs of my fingers down the side of her arm. She shivered and I watched goosebumps spread across her tanned skin.
Fuck, this was a bad idea.
She was soft and warm and those lips.
“You're doing it again,” she said, a little breathless.
“What's that, Pixie?”
The pads of her fingers trailed down my jaw and I leaned into her touch.
“Growling.”
“You can help me with that.”
The pulse at her throat fluttered. I wanted to kiss that spot. Bite it. Taste it.
Her lashes lowered. “How's that?”
“I'll show you.”
I captured her chin and the fit was perfect as I knew it would be. Leaning forward slowly, I brought our faces together. I stopped close enough for our breaths to mingle, and the sound of my heartbeat pounded in my ears. The alarm was still wailing, but I couldn't hear it and it didn't matter.
Once I felt her lips against mine, that would be it. End of the road. Well beyond the point of no return.
So, I waited, even when she made a noise in the back of her throat.
Even when she squirmed in my grip.
Even when she opened that tempting mouth and said, “Is this gonna happen sometime before old age catches up to me?”
“These are going to get you in trouble,” I whispered, brushing my thumb over her lips.
So fucking perfect.
So fucking mine.
She glanced up at me from beneath fluttering lashes. “That's what I'm counting on.”
Groaning low, I closed the distance.
There were no teasing advances.
No testing the waters.
Our lips sealed together on the first pass and then my tongue was in her mouth, tasting the magic that was her.
We kissed like we had been doing it for years. Centuries. Eons. We kissed like soul mates who had finally found each other again after traveling both time and space.
Kayla pulled my bottom lip between her teeth and sucked, and her hands found their way to my chest.
I hissed into her mouth, hooking my fingers beneath the back of her knee. Pulling her closer to me. When she ran out of chair, I released her chin so I could grab her other side and hoist her onto my lap.
She didn't fight me man-handling her because my pixie was too busy making my dreams come true.
The moment that soft ass landed in my lap her hips did a deep roll, grinding against my hard cock. It felt beyond spectacular. But it was the searing heat I could feel even through my jeans that had me groaning into her mouth while she lapped at my tongue.
“You're burning up,” I told her, fingers sneaking beneath the hem of her dress and getting lost in the spread of warm, smooth skin.
“Whose fault is that?” she purred, doing another hip roll. Twice as slow. Twice as maddening.
“Don't worry.” I kissed a path down her jaw before burying my nose in the spot behind her ear and inhaling her appetizing scent. “I'm a firefighter in my spare time. I know exactly what to do.”
She laughed in my arms and I knew that if I died right then, it would've been with the biggest smile I'd ever formed in my life.
Then I freed the hand splayed against her side so it could climb up the inside of her thigh instead, and the laughter died on a choked gasp.
My heavy gaze should've seared a path into her skin, because I was about to burn alive from the inside out from seeing more and more thigh get exposed inch by inch.
I continued my smooth slide and she watched my hand, breasts rising and falling with each breath.
I could already feel the heat of her pussy on my palm, and I nipped at her ear to keep from rushing.
Building her anticipation only made her more exquisite. I wanted to see her on the edge. I wanted to see her flushed and panting and begging for my touch.
My kiss.
My cock.
Then my fingers reached the promised land, pressing against wet cotton and the softness beneath it that couldn't be duplicated.
“Oh hell,” she breathed, jerking at the contact. She grabbed a hold of my arm with both hands and I paused, waiting to see where this went.
Except she only raked her nails over me, following the path of tattoos and muscles.
I pressed harder, eyes closing as her flesh gave way to my advance. How the hell had I called myself living without this? Without her in my arms?
And why the hell was I still circling over her mound when her bare flesh was one piece of material away?
I reached for the edge of the fabric. When her legs spread, granting me access, I thought for sure my heart would give out.
Then I heard a throat clearing, and it hadn't come from either of us. Kayla heard it a second later, but I was already standing, eyes snapping open with fury as I righted her clothes and shoved her behind me.
I could feel her against my back, adjusting herself with jerky motions while I pinned Professor Crane with a look full of more hate than I'd given men trying to kill me.
Maybe I was meant to roll with my brother's club after all. Because I stood there, staring down this older man I knew was happily married, and I wanted to shake him until he forgot anything he might have seen.
“Sorry,” he coughed out, pointing to his podium. “I forgot…”
My fists clenched hard enough that my arms trembled. He scurried in and out quickly, apologizing the entire time. But the damage was done. Kayla moved out from behind me, headed for the steps.
“Pixie.” I caught her arm in the lightest grip I could manage, and it was still a mistake.
She turned to stone in my grip, and the glare she sent my hand was a butcher’s knife straight to the heart.
I let go and she frowned down at my boots.
“I don’t even know you,” she muttered so softly I barely heard her.
And for all the words that jumbled up in my brain and got backlogged on my tongue, I knew I couldn’t say anything to make this better.
To show her I meant no harm.
To brand her heart with the certainty cemented inside my own.
So, I took a step back, memorizing her features while she stood there looking unsure.
And when she turned away, darting from the classroom, I stayed where I was. I stayed there until I knew she was far enough away I wouldn’t catch sight of her. Because if I did, I would go to her.
I had to give her time. Because when I saw her again, I didn’t know that anything under the sky would keep me from claiming her as mine.
Chapter 4 - Kayla
Pressing the escape button on the rest of the day was the only thing that helped me keep my sanity.
I ditched Lizzy, walking right by her spot in the gardens just so she would see me ignoring her and refusing to stop even when she called out for me.
It was petty and mean and unlike me, but I did it anyway.
I didn’t go to any of my other classes. How could I? This wasn’t a large town. Word would’ve spread the moment Rain chose the seat beside me. Them not knowing what else had happened in that room when the two of us were alone should’ve been helpful. It wasn’t. The rumor mill would swirl, and I would be the center of it no matter what. Might as well give myself some time before I started running that hamster wheel.
And that also meant skipping work.
I called Aster at the diner and pulled the ever-faithful cramps card to get out of my shift tonight. There was simply no way I could go in there and put on the tiny uniform we wore when I couldn’t stop feeling Rain’s hands everywhere on my body. The thought of a bunch of hornball guys ogling me felt like a be
trayal that even outrageous tips wouldn’t make up for.
And you would think that knowing how crazy that shit sounded would’ve been helpful.
Yeah.
Think again.
So that’s how I ended up scaling the latticework on the side of my own house and climbing into my bedroom. There was no way I was risking a run-in with the Ice Queen. Not when my normally solid emotional walls were a patchwork of their former selves, held together with duct tape and glue.
Not when every mean thing she had said about the way I dressed was swimming to the forefront of my brain, whispering about how maybe—just maybe—she’d been right all along.
I threw myself on my bed, bouncing once before I could grab a pillow and smash my face against it.
“Fuck!” I screamed as loud as I could into the soft fabric that smelled like my blueberry shampoo.
Then I screamed again.
And again.
And again.
I wasn’t sure I was forming actual words and I didn’t care either. I screamed until my throat was raw and achy, forcing me to cough and come up for air. Only then did I feel the wetness on my cheeks that I angrily dashed away. I hadn’t cried since I realized my parents only loved the idea of having a puppet of a daughter instead of a real one, and I wasn’t going to start now.
Not because of him.
Not because of some cocky, overbearing asshole who kissed me like there was no one else in the world but the two of us and held me like he was never going to-
No! Stop thinking about him!
Although maybe stopping to think was exactly what I needed. After all, I’d had a front-row seat to where my body took me when the place between my legs was in charge. A place that was warm and safe and burning with desire for those damn impressive forearms and-
“Oh, God.” I buried my face in the pillow again, kicking my legs wildly in the air.
“Are you having a seizure?” A laughing voice asked behind me. I knew it immediately, so I didn’t turn. But I did try to go still and salvage what I could of my dignity.
And let’s be honest. There wasn’t much to salvage. When I got done pulling the pieces together, I looked like the Queen of Scrap Land, home to junk, junk and over there on the left? More junk.
“I’m not having a seizure.”
“Are you sure?” Lizzy asked, still sounding like she was on the verge of breaking into a fit of giggles she would never escape from. “Because you’re like, still talking into a pillow so I can’t actually understand you. All I heard was: mwap mwap mwap mwap. I don’t think there’s a translator for that.”
I grabbed the pillow and turned, throwing it as hard as I could at her face. Except her face wasn’t where I expected. She was chilling on the chair at my dresser, legs curled beneath her, instead of her normal spot on the lounge right by the window. So, I watched with a mixture of shock and outrage as my pink pillow—my favorite pillow, by the way—flew straight outside and down towards the waiting lawn.
“You’re picking that up right after I toss you out on your conniving butt,” I told the smiling blonde, pointing a finger at her.
She snickered, covering her mouth.
I scowled. “What?”
“You remember when we were girls and we found your mom’s makeup kit and decided to play soldiers? Except we put the eye shadow around our eyes in giant, smudgy circles instead of the cool, tactical lines they were supposed to be?”
“Yeah…”
“That’s how you look right now, Kay.” She couldn’t hold it in any longer. The laughter spilled from her mouth in a mess of giggles that left her hunched over, holding her stomach. “I wouldn’t even call it a raccoon type deal because it would be an insult to woodland creatures everywhere.”
“I hate you. You know that?”
I looked for more things to throw but there was nothing to choose from except more pillows. Seriously? I pretty much lived in a castle. Why were there no maces or shields or even pretty golden goblets anywhere to be found when I needed one?
Pillows will have to do.
Somewhere between the first one I threw and the one that completed the impromptu fort surrounding my best friend who was now on the floor, trying to catch her breath, I cracked a smile.
She was way too hard to be mad at.
Even if she did need to stick to selling arts and crafts online instead of playing matchmaker.
Lizzy rearranged herself until she was on her side on top of the pillow fort, meeting my eyes with a wide grin. “Don’t lie. You love me and you know it. In fact, you lurve me.”
I rolled my eyes, but my smile stayed in place. “We’re tabling this until I can decide how I feel about you.”
“Fine with me. Now spill the beans. How successful was I on a scale of one to ten? Ten being he absolutely freaking rocked your world.”
“When did your mind get so dirty?”
“When I became a tramp and embraced it,” she said serenely. “I’ve seen the path to the fun side, and it involves motorcycles, muscles, and guys who act like total and complete cavemen.”
“You sure we don’t need to get your head scanned? You might’ve bumped it when I wasn’t looking.”
Lizzy held her nails up to her face, blowing on them for reasons beyond my knowledge. “You’re stalling. And blushing. So, I’m gonna go ahead and say he was at least a six.”
“A six!” I said, tone more offended than I wanted it to be. I was determined to never cross paths with him again not even an hour ago, and now I was upset she was underestimating how...skillful he was. “He’s a jerk, but he’s a jerk that’s at least an eight or nine.”
And that’s without doing more than rubbing me over my clothes.
I was so screwed.
“Knew it,” she said victoriously. “You’ve got it bad for the bad boy.”
“No one said he was a bad boy.”
“No one needed to. Most people show up to class with backpacks instead of wrenches and they find seats other people aren’t currently using.”
Yeah, I couldn’t exactly disagree with that.
“Look on the bright side,” she added. “We probably won’t have to talk to Gibson the rest of the school year, at the least. You missed him slinking away from the building and throwing glances over his shoulder like Rain was going to show up at any moment to finish the job.”
Damn it, why did she have to go and tell me that?
How was I supposed to get over how hot he was long enough to think clearly when I saw the entire scene playing out in my mind’s eye again like it was on the big screen?
I chewed on my lip. “I wonder how they know each other.”
Lizzy raised her hand in the air, waving it back and forth. I thought about ignoring her, but she would probably do it until the limb went numb and then I would feel bad.
“You’re not cute,” I lied.
“I did some asking around while you were busy failing at your disappearing act. Turns out your new beau runs a garage on the other side of town.”
“He runs it. As in, he owns the whole thing?”
She nodded. “That’s not even the juiciest bit.” Lizzy looked at me, and for the first time, her smile fell, lips thinning into a line.
“Tell me.” Her mouth opened and I held a hand up to put her on pause. “No. Wait. If you’re about to tell me he’s part of the Seven Sinners I don’t want to hear the words out loud. Write them down or something so I can fetch my go-bag and get the hell out of town.”
“You don’t have a go-bag. Do you?”
I mimed zipping my lips and she gasped.
“O-m-g. If you packed a go-bag without telling me so I could have one ready too, we’re going to have problems.”
“I don’t actually have one.”
“Good, you won’t need it. He isn’t part of the Sinners…” Lizzy looked away again before she said, “Technically.”
I almost screamed in frustration. I did grab my phone and send her several middle finger
emojis which she read a moment later before smiling again.
“There is no technicality here. Either he’s a member of the scariest biker club—or do they go by gang?—in the area and I’m totally screwed. Or he isn’t and I’m only mostly screwed because I don’t know if I can cross paths with him without kissing him and losing myself. Again.”
“Aww. Kay.” Lizzy lunged onto the bed, tackling me. I fought her off so that we were lying side by side and kept my eyes on the ceiling.
There were glow in the dark stars above us, cheap and out of place. But they were one of the first things I had purchased with my own money instead of a black card provided by my Warden and the Ice Queen. The many, many pillows were the second.
“I don’t know what happened,” I whispered to her, forcing the words out. “Or how. One second I was enjoying our little back and forth and the next his tongue was down my throat, I was in his lap, and then his hands were going under my skirt.”
“Did you guys...?”
I shook my head, making the bed shift. “No. He never even touched that part of me directly.” I closed my eyes and let the truth come out. “But I wanted it. Bad. Worse than bad. Had Professor Crane not come back into the room when he did, I don’t think I would’ve stopped myself. I was lost.”
“Found,” she said softly, linking our fingers together. I turned towards her and found blue, sympathetic eyes on me. “That’s what it was like for me, anyway. The moment Texas looked into my eyes and held me in his arms, it felt like...stepping out of the bath and slipping on a familiar robe. Like I had been wandering without even knowing and finally, there was a destination in sight.”
“That’s insane,” I complained, kicking my feet again.
“Says who?” she challenged. “Who decided what we can and can’t feel and how quickly those feelings can form? We didn’t question that we were meant to be best friends for life when you helped me find my hair bow.”
I huffed, blowing a stray lock of hair from my face. “That was different. We were kids. Kids don’t have to worry about this kind of thing. They can let themselves feel everything without a single care for the end result.”
“You’re scared.”
I wanted to hit her with another pillow, but I was seriously out at this point. “Of course I’m scared. I’m terrified, and Rain 'technically’ isn’t even part of the Sinners, whatever that means.” I looked at her. Really looked at her. Studying her features and pretending it was the first time I had seen her. Whatever I was looking for wasn’t there. “How are you not scared? Texas is one of the baddest of the bad.”
Rain Page 3
