I gulped. That was so not what I meant. Here I thought I was being cute and flirty, suggesting he remove a shirt or something. Nope, here I was in way over my head.
“You don’t do this a lot, do you?” he asked.
Play strip-HORSE, or strip-anything for that matter? Definitely not. Traipsing around an abandoned playground in my skivvies with a naked boy? Haven’t done that either. Feeling like a deer in headlights, I retreated several steps. “Do what?”
Alec advanced, keeping up with me. “You don’t go out with a bunch of guys.” He sounded torn between laughing at my obvious nervousness and taking pity on me.
Not trusting my voice, I shook my head. My foot scraped across a rock, and I knew I had backed off the basketball court.
Alec still followed. “You don’t pick up on hints very well,” he continued. “Bluntness might work better for you. Fortunately, I’m good at being blunt.”
I bumped into the picnic table. With nowhere else to go, I took a stance there as he drew closer, and tried to remember how to breathe.
“See the thing is, Kris, I kind of like you.” He stood in front of me, splayed his hands on the table, one on each side of me, and leaned close. Really close. He smelled of cigarettes, beer, expensive cologne, and bananas for some mysterious reason. It was an intoxicating blend that was so perfectly Alec.
Somehow, through the sensory overload, I found my wit. “Blunt nudists aren’t really my type.”
“What about sexy blunt nudists?” I pretended to consider the revision and he chuckled, “You’re not at all what I expected.”
What was that supposed to mean? “What did you expect?”
He looked at me like my innocence was adorable. “For starters, not to want to do this so badly...” The words reached my ears as a whisper as he dropped his head to mine. He paused, a breath away, as if to make sure it was okay to proceed. I tipped my chin up, and he closed the distance, finally pressing his lips to mine.
He was much more skilled than I was. Dully, the thought occurred to me that he had probably kissed a lot of girls, but that didn’t matter because I was the one he was kissing now. He kissed me slow and sweet, and didn’t push me faster than I was ready for. I relaxed into him, fully enjoying the moment, and, when he pulled back, a smile was left on my lips.
I opened my eyes to see him looking down at me in wonder.
“Wait a minute…” He placed his hands on my waist and pressed me against the table gruffly, startling me, but in a good way. “Let me see something.”
Our second kiss was a bit more heated than our first. I let him claim and explore me as he wanted and, when the metal from his tongue ring clanged against my teeth, I nearly combusted. My back arched beneath his weight, his hips ground into mine, and his fingers dug into my skin as he kissed me fiercely at first, then slowed, as if remembering it was me, the all-too-inexperienced Kris, he was manhandling.
We were both winded when he pulled back and our eyes locked. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time, or was seeing something he hadn’t anticipated. Maybe I was actually a decent kisser, and he was as amazed as I was? Whatever it was, Alec was pleasantly surprised.
He took my hands in his, and pulled me from the semi-reclined position he had pushed me into. “Nothing at all like I expected.”
Why did he keep saying that? I shifted to see his face better. He was staring over my shoulder, beyond me and the playground, but I didn’t think he was really seeing anything. His eyes were dark and full of a turmoil I didn’t understand. In that moment, I glimpsed a part of him that ran much deeper than his playful, flirty exterior, and I knew that Alec had secrets.
“You alright in there?” I asked him.
His eyes shifted to mine and he grinned. “You ever do something you didn’t want to do?”
My throat constricted. “Like...kiss me?” Was he regretting it already? It had only been thirty seconds ago.
“No, I wanted to do that.” He shook his head like he thought I was crazy for thinking that. “Are you kidding me? No, I’m definitely not talking about that.”
“Taking your clothes off?” I teased. “Because I won’t make you.”
His eyes twinkled when they leveled on mine. “Not talking about that either.”
I didn’t press. He’d share what he wanted, when he wanted, and with whom he wanted. I knew how it was. Only one person knew my secret, and he was the secret. If Alec wanted to tell me his, he would.
“Let’s get out of here,” he finally said.
“And go where exactly?”
Alec lifted his eyebrow and shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “There are a few places I would like to go...” The look he gave me fed the fire burning inside of me that his kiss had started. “But what I’m going to do is drive you home,” he continued slowly, like it took a tremendous effort to say the words, and smiled shyly. “That’s how much I like you.”
“You like me so much you’re going to take me home?” Part of me was curious to know what else he’d had in mind. A bigger part of me knew I wasn’t prepared to find out.
“Hey, this is huge for me. Don’t make me question myself.” He slipped an arm around my shoulders, and led me back in the direction of the party.
It was still going on strong when we returned. I managed to find Callie, seated suspiciously close to Josh, and I wondered if they had finally realized what everyone else has known for months. I wanted to ask, but stuck to informing her of Alec’s intentions to drive me home, and promised to call her in the morning with more details. She grinned at me, and I knew we were going to have a nice long chat tomorrow, full of juicy stuff, and, this time, I would have something to add.
“Ready?” Alec asked when I found him waiting at the mouth of the trail that led to the parking lot. It was a narrow poorly lit path, bordered by a tall rock wall on one side, a flimsy wooden fence on the other. It wouldn’t do much to prevent someone from stumbling off the side of the cliff that got freakishly high as the path ascended to the parking lot. Being as afraid of heights as I was, I secretly hated this trail.
I jutted a thumb over my shoulder. “Didn’t you come with friends?”
“No, I met them here. I drove myself.”
“Ah, I get to ride in style tonight.”
Alec had a silver Mustang with black accents, a black leather interior, and a big engine. It was much nicer than Callie’s Civic or the junker Gran let me borrow from time to time. I loved it, loved riding in it, and wanted one just like it, though I knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Or never. I had given up trying to figure out how Alec managed to afford it. Won the lottery? Rich family? Drug dealer? Hit man? I was afraid to ask.
“You want to ride in style with me tomorrow night, too? Maybe go to dinner?”
My foot scraped against a rock protruding out of the ground. I hadn’t seen it, with the trail not being lit, and stumbled. Or was it Alec’s question that had rendered my feet useless? I slanted my eyes to him, but I could only see the shadow of his outline beside me. Even if I couldn’t see his face, I had a crystal clear mental image of him trying not to laugh at me.
“I don’t know if I should take your silence as a yes or a no,” he said.
“Not a no.” I didn’t trust my voice to manage more than a whisper, and was surprised he heard me.
I swear I heard him grin. “It’s a date, then.” He slipped an arm around my shoulders and hugged me to his side as we continued up the path.
So...my first real date, aside from ridiculous group dates to dances with a mix of your boy and girl friends in someone’s mom’s minivan. This would be a real date, alone, with Alec. Hell, he’d already kissed me. I didn’t know what I was so nervous about, but I was.
So much so that I didn’t notice the figure standing in the shadows at the end of the trail until Alec froze in his tracks beside me. Blocking our path to the parking lot was the large ominous shape of a man. The dim lighting prevented me
from seeing him clearly, but I would recognize him anywhere, just like I knew, without seeing them, that his eyes were blue.
CHAPTER 4
“Shit,” Alec muttered under his breath as his arm dropped from around my shoulders.
It was him—my mystery guy, my secret, my whatever-he-was. He stepped forward, into the eerie glow cast by the parking lot’s lone street light, and I saw his face. In faded jeans, a grey long sleeved thermal shirt, and a tattered blue baseball cap, he didn’t appear threatening. Yet, he had Alec on edge...
And me confused. Aside from his unexpected presence at the school a few weeks ago, that I still think he hadn’t meant for me to know about, he only showed up when I was in some sort of trouble. Surely, he didn’t think I was in danger now.
His eyes moved from me to Alec, shifted from curious to menacing. From the way he stared at Alec, and the way Alec glared in return, it almost seemed as if they knew each other. From the tension radiating off both of them, it was clear they were not friends.
“Hey, Kris,” Alec said without looking at me. “Why don’t you go wait in the car?”
He held out his car keys to me, but I didn’t take them, hesitant to leave the two of them alone on a dark empty trail. It didn’t seem like a good idea with the way they were sizing each other up. Anyone with half a brain could smell the fight brewing.
“She’s not going anywhere. I know your buddies are lurking around here somewhere.”
“There’s no one else,” Alec returned.
The guy snorted and, in a flash, lunged at Alec and pinned him against the rock wall as I watched with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. “What do you want with her?” he growled, and shoved Alec’s head against the hard earth wall.
It looked like it hurt, a lot, but Alec barely seemed fazed. If anything, he looked annoyed. “So…you’re the one?”
The one? It wasn’t possible. Alec couldn’t know my secret. Yet, he knew something...
“I’m surprised you kept such a distance until now.” Alec’s gaze fell on me and, in that second, he didn’t look like the Alec I knew. He looked dark, dangerous even.
My eyes flicked between the two. Both of them, both of whom I thought I knew, in different ways, at different times, were strangers to me.
“You let me get so close...” Alec continued his icy taunt.
“Long enough for me to realize you’re up to something.” The other guy slipped a hand under his shirt and produced a knife, which he pressed to Alec’s neck. Alec pushed against the wall, in an attempt to put distance between him and the blade, but he had nowhere to go.
It took me a stunned moment to register the appearance of the knife, and now that I saw it, I realized it didn’t look like any ordinary knife. Its sharply curved blade caught the faintest light, and seemed to sparkle with an unnatural radiance. It was actually a pretty knife. Aesthetics aside, it was deadly, and currently pressed to Alec’s neck.
I stepped forward in Alec’s defense. Both sets of eyes turned to me, both looking as if they had forgotten I was there.
The one with the knife looked irritated. “Stay out of this,” he said.
“Like hell I will.”
Before I could take another step, I was shoved to the side, and fell to the ground several feet away. Sounds of a struggle reached my ears as I got to my feet. Apparently, after my mystery guy had pushed me out of the way, Alec had tackled him. The two toppled over in a deadly wrestle for control—fists flying and connecting. The occasional flash of the blade caught the light.
Someone was going to get killed.
I looked around helplessly. It was just the three of us, alone on the trail, and they and the knife were blocking my way to the beach, to others who could help. I turned for the parking lot. For what, I wasn’t sure. It was one of those I-would-know-when-I-saw-it kind of things, but when I got there, I knew I wouldn’t find anything helpful.
No one was there to help. It was just me. Or was it?
A streaking dark shadow moved in my periphery, near the back of the lot. I zoned in on it and thought I glimpsed someone slipping between two cars, before moving behind the cover of a large black truck. I focused on the area, straining my eyes as I looked for more movement, while trying to convince myself I had imagined it. A second shadow moved nearby, closer, and I backed up into the cover of the dark trail.
Whoever was there wasn’t someone that was going to help. My eyes scanned the parking lot suspiciously. What had my mystery-guy said about Alec having buddies nearby? Alec had denied it, but there was definitely something menacing going on in the parking lot.
It was too quiet. Only the grunts of fighting behind me reached my ears. I didn’t look back, fearful of what I might see. Besides, I was more alarmed by the formation of additional furtively moving shadows around us. Real or not, they were freaking me out.
I started to retreat another step when an arm hooked my waist and pushed me forward, into the parking lot.
“Go, hurry.” It wasn’t Alec, and I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or worried. “There!” He pointed at a familiar black Jeep, and pushed me toward it. Weakened by confusion and fear, I didn’t protest.
“Get in,” he ordered.
That was when I planted my feet. A shadow darted to my right, scarily close, but I held firm. Somewhere out there, Alec had been left. Was he okay? Was he hurt? Was I safer with him, or with the one standing in front of me—this guy, who I really didn’t know after all?
He’d never meant me any harm before. He’d also never attacked a boy I liked and trusted. He had been downright scary on the trail, and was currently visibly annoyed with my defiance. He responded with brute force, by opening the passenger door and shoving me in. Considering he was nearly twice my size, the end result was not in my favor. My face planted ungraciously into the center console. I sat up and rubbed my forehead as he climbed into the driver’s seat. He didn’t bother to look at me as he started the engine, and missed the glare I threw him.
He pealed out of the parking space as three shadows raced toward us. The Jeep’s headlights swept over them, illuminating the eyes that fixated on me. Those eyes, that seemed capable of peering into my soul, sent a shiver down my spine. The sight of their faces, filled with rage, would forever find a place in my nightmares.
Looking over my shoulder as we turned out of the parking lot, I saw them disperse. They were gone, but where to? And where was Alec?
“Who were those...” I trailed off, not sure of the appropriate word. There had been something not right about their eyes. Normal people’s eyes didn’t look like that, didn’t...gleam like that.
Even if I had managed to ask, I doubt I would have gotten an answer. My new companion’s attention was focused elsewhere—not saying that was a bad thing, considering how fast he was driving. He maneuvered the Jeep efficiently, turning onto one road after another as fast as the vehicle was capable. His eyes flicked between the road and the rearview mirror. From what I could see, no headlights followed. Not yet.
I watched him, watched as his eyes took everything in, and was filled with a sense of security. I had no idea who he was or what he did—aside from rescuing me—but whatever it was, I got the impression he was good at it. For a moment, I stared at him in awe. He was the greatest mystery of my life, and he was right there, close enough to touch. The opportunity I had been waiting my whole life for was here. I had my chance to get the answers I wanted.
And my tongue was tied. All I could manage was to stare and wonder for the hundredth time who he was.
His eyes turned to mine and, oddly, he seemed to be pondering the same thing about me. He looked at me like he didn’t recognize me, like he didn’t know who I was, and he was bothered by it.
Something about that rubbed me the wrong way. So, after years of thinking about what I would say to him—of all the things I should have said—I let my attitude get the best of me, and spit out a haughty, “What?”
He blinked and turned his attention to the road.
He didn’t look at me again.
“Does your little friend know where you live?”
The accusatory tone of his voice put me on the defensive. I squinted at him, wondering what his problem was. None of my previous interactions with him had been like this, filled with this much hostility. He wasn’t exactly the amazing hero I had built him up to be my whole life. I certainly wouldn’t expect a guardian angel to go around threatening people with knives.
He’s not my guardian angel. That had been somewhat acceptable to believe when I was three. Not anymore, especially not now. It was sad, really, that my childhood fantasy was shattered after only a few minutes with this guy.
“Does he know where you live?” he shouted, interrupting my train of thought.
“Yes, he knows,” I answered quietly. Boy, was he intimidating. Not to mention, short tempered.
He muttered a few choice words under his breath and sped up, negotiating the narrow streets heading into town faster than anyone safely should. As an afterthought, I strapped on my seatbelt, shut my eyes, and tried not to remember the last time I had been in a car going this fast.
A soft ringing pulled me from my reverie. When I peeked at him, I saw that he had his cell propped between his cheek and shoulder. He took a sharp turn skillfully, the phone not affecting his ability to handle the Jeep at all.
“Come on…come on…” he muttered to himself as the ringing continued.
I jumped a moment later, when he hurled the phone into the center console, and spit out a string of curse words. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten an answer.
He took another hard turn, ignoring a stop sign, and I was glad I had thought to put on my seatbelt. If anything, it had kept me from being tossed into his lap. He screeched around a second turn, and I had to grab the dashboard to keep myself from flying into the door. I shot him a nasty look. From the familiar houses I saw passing by his head in a blur, I determined we were heading for my house. I stared at the road in front of us as he turned into the development without slowing down, and the white split-level appeared in the headlights. I pictured Gran sitting inside, working on one of her knits or watching David Letterman.
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