When I finally got the snug-fitting dress in place, I had the joy of barely being able to breathe, in order for her to zip it up. I could breathe, but if I held it in too long I’d probably pass out.
Looking down, I touched the low, rounded neckline. I was nearly spilling out of the dress as it clung to the curves that I’d somehow developed without my knowledge. I ran my hands down my narrow waist and over the flare of my hips and looked up.
“Maybe I should wear the other dress,” I told Nina, feeling self-conscious.
“Why?”
“Don’t you think… it’s kind of small?”
“It’s fine. Besides, the other dress is the same size. Here, brush your hair.” She shoved the brush in my hands.
Once I was done, she dabbed a drop of her perfume on my neck and wrists. I must have had a weird look on my face because she snapped.“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just…” I lost my nerve. “Nothing.”
What I didn’t say was that she’d never treated me like this before. Although the artificial fruity smell wasn’t to my liking, this was the first time I felt she treated me like a niece rather than a burden.
“Part your lips.”
If she had told me there was a cat tap dancing behind me, I wouldn’t have been more surprised.
I pulled my head back and frowned. “Why?”
“Do you have to question everything I tell you to do, Araya?” she snapped. “Just do it! We’re going to be late.”
I parted my lips and sat there while she smeared a sticky layer of moisture over them. The scent of something sweet filled my nose. The smell was distantly familiar, but I had a hard time figuring it out. I frowned.
“Is all of this necessary, Nina?” I didn’t understand why she was going overboard with my appearance.
She sighed impatiently. “Yes! No more questions!”
“I thought you said she was in high school?”
“I also said no more questions!”
“I just don’t think she’ll care if I’m wearing—”
“Roll your lips,” Nina ordered.
“What?”
“To even out the lip-gloss, roll your lips.” She sighed impatiently.
I rolled my lips together from front to back, smoothing out the lip-gloss, and I could taste the artificial flavor.
“What’s the flavor?”
“Sugar cookies.”
“Doesn’t seem like a flavor you would use.”
“The girl at the store said it was a favorite.”
I wanted to ask her more questions. For one: why would she go out of her way to buy me lip-gloss, but not a dress that actually fit me? I knew I was pushing my luck as it was, so I bit the inside of my cheek and swallowed my curiosity.
It took another thirty minutes before we were downstairs waiting at the bus stop. I didn’t ride in cars anymore.
Once we were on the bus, I stared out the window. The closer we got, the harder it got to keep from throwing up. I was so nervous I could barely sit still. A couple of times I debated throwing myself out the doors when they opened for someone’s stop, but that thought terrified me even more than what I was about to face.
It seemed like an eternity had gone by before Nina nudged me in the arm to let me know this was finally our stop. Apparently, the speed I took to get off the bus wasn’t fast enough for her, and she took my arm, pulling me off with her. I nearly missed one of the steps in her haste.
“Where are we?” I asked.
It had been over an hour since my last question and I figured I was due one.
“The upper south side, Cherry Grove,” she replied absentmindedly.
I’d never been on this side of town before. We were no longer in the city; that was for sure. The air seemed lighter, fresher. It filled my lungs, instantly clearing out the pollution from the city. It was quieter here too. There were no sounds of angry horns, blaring car alarms, or the roar of an overpowered engine.
Nina navigated us in the direction we needed to go, and I tried not to be obvious as I dragged my feet. As we walked down the sidewalk, tall trees shaded me, making me feel small. Every now and then, the curious bark of a dog would send off a chain reaction of the rest of neighborhood dogs.
“It’s just a few more houses down. Stop walking so slow, Araya.”
She tugged me along with her, and I had no choice but to speed up or be dragged along.
I attempted one last try to get out of this.
“I don’t understand why I have to do this. How is this going to work?”
“You listen; you learn; you do what she tells you to do. It’s not going to hurt you to make a friend, Araya.”
Where was that logic during the last three years? It’s not like she made it easy for me.
“She’s close to your age, so you’ll have things in common.”
I wanted to ask her what she possibly thought we’d have in common, but she turned us in a different direction, announcing we were here. I suppressed the urge to turn around and run and never look back.
We stopped and Nina grabbed my shoulders, facing me in her direction. She fussed over me for a few seconds and then rang the doorbell.
“I hate those sunglasses,” she hissed quietly.
I wanted to tell her that I hated what she was making me do, and if I had to suck it up, so did she, but the door opened and we were greeted by a friendly woman named Annie.
Nina introduced us, and Annie immediately knew who we were. There was something about the older woman’s voice that I was instantly drawn to.
She said she would show us into a sitting room and Cara would be in shortly. Sitting room? My nerves only increased when I realized how lavish everything here was.
As she ushered us through the entryway, I quickly became aware of how sleek the floor was under my one-inch heel. I walked slowly, trying not to make a complete fool out of myself by falling. Looking up, I focused on the light inside the room. It was a bright white, not like the natural sunlight. It was warm inside the entrance; the heat made the room seem small.
“These are such lovely flowers,” I heard Nina say, and the tone of her voice took me by surprise. I had never heard her sound so polite before.
The soft rustle of hurried footsteps sounded behind me.
“I’ll be back, Annie.”
As surprised as I thought I was with Nina’s voice, I was completely floored at hearing his voice.
Detained in my own distraction, my hip caught the edge of the table, knocking me off balance, and my shoes couldn’t find their footing. I tried to grab at the table, but my fingers couldn’t grasp what I was looking for. I heard the slow sound of the mocking rock on the tabletop and the whiff of fresh flowers swarmed me.
I knew what was coming next. Any minute now the piercing sound of shattering glass would echo throughout the house and I was going to be on the floor, covered in it. The room shifted and I was thrown back. I landed against something firm, but it wasn’t what I expected. An arm slipped around my waist and pulled me tightly against his chest.
I was all too aware of the way his arm tensed around my ribs, stretching my dress and exposing more of my cleavage. He was warm, and I could feel the rapid beating of his heart. His head dipped and I felt his lips move along my hair.
“Easy there.” His breath trailed along the curve of my neck and I shivered.
The teeter of the vase seized, and I realized I’d been spared at least some of my humiliation. Nina and Annie rushed to my side and I was pulled from his grasp. I wanted to protest, but I doubt they would have even heard me.
They were both calling my name, and worried questions followed, but his question was the only one I focused on.
“Araya?”
At first I thought I was hearing things, using the phantom voice to attach to any male I heard, but when Annie spoke again, I knew I wasn’t.
Ryland
Six
I woke up tired and grumpy, and that only pissed me off more.
Araya had managed to keep me company for most of the night, but it wasn’t exactly the way I wanted. Her innocent smile, the alluring call of her soft skin, had me aching in more ways than one this morning.
After spending most of my morning in a shower cold enough to form icebergs that could take down the Titanic all over again, I found myself sitting in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in my hands.
I don’t really remember getting here, but I did it with clothes on, so the details didn’t really matter. The house was pretty quiet and I was glad I hadn’t had a run-in with either of the parentals. J.D. was probably already at the office, and if Coraline had taken reprieve with the entire bottle, I wouldn’t see her until late afternoon.
Careless had mentioned a friend or something coming over so I didn’t have to worry about her today. Annie was probably off fussing over Sebastian, who was guaranteed to be battling his own demons with a different bottle.
We were a couple of pill poppers away from a clinic with twenty-four-hour security. My family was a weapon of mass destruction all on its own, and I couldn’t wait to take Careless away from here before she was lost in the aftermath.
I was on my own today and usually I didn’t mind that, but I had a feeling I was going to do something completely unlike me and possibly even borderline stalkerish. Much to my irritation, I was still thinking about Araya.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t already know her skin was as soft as it had been in my dreams. Or that her lips were able to drive me past the point of crazy, hearing the soft sighs she made when saying my name as I tasted the mysteries of her body.
I growled, digging the heels of my hands into my eyes, rubbing my forehead before sweeping my fingers through my hair. Why couldn’t I get this girl out my head for more than five minutes?
Logic wanted to argue that it was the classic want what you can’t have scenario, but there were a lot of things I wanted and couldn’t have, and I didn’t obsess this much.
I didn’t believe in dwelling over a lost cause or playing games. Especially with women. For that one who said no because she thought she could change me, there were three more who would say yes, willing to take what I offered. I respected women, but I didn’t stick around long enough to waste that kind of time.
Araya was different, though. She’d made herself stand out and made me take notice because she was different. She planted a piece of herself in my mind, and the more I thought about her, the more I obsessed, the faster she grew, and now she was slowly taking over my every thought.
Maybe I needed to see her one more time, figure out what it was that continued to pull me back to her, and I could move on.
The echo of the doorbell was like a warning bell, and I knew what I was going to do before I left the kitchen. Making my way toward the front door, I wanted to make my getaway before I got stuck making small talk with Careless’s company. I wasn’t in the mood to play nice, so I was hoping to slip out after Annie showed them in.
As I rounded the foyer, I heard their voices and caught a flash of color before I ducked behind the wall again. I frowned instantly.
It couldn’t be, I thought, shaking my head.
I felt ridiculous and prepared myself to slip out easily. Annie was showing them into the sitting room and with their backs to me, I could escape.
“I’ll be back, Annie.”
I cursed the automatic response, and with a quick sweeping glance toward Annie, I reached for the door.
It only took a split second for the fear of being caught to wear off, for it to register.
The sound of my voice shocked her as much as seeing her standing inside my house stunned me. She’d been staring at the ceiling, and she knocked into the table in the center of the rounded foyer.
The long vase filled with fresh flowers from Coraline’s garden rocked dangerously, threatening to fall over. I knew the vase was fine; it was light enough it wouldn’t follow through. Araya wasn’t going to be that lucky, and I watched as she struggled to stay upright.
I got to her, pulling her against my chest and wrapping my arm around her ribs. The soft curves of her breasts brushed across my arm, and instinctively I pulled her tighter to me. Feeling her against me had images of my dreams flashing inside my head. I was torn between spinning her in my arms and burying my face into her sweet flesh or carrying her off to my room.
Lowering my head, I breathed in her saccharine scent. She smelled just as sweet the day I met her, like sunflowers. She was like spilled honey in my hands and it made me want to explore the rest of her skin to see if every part of her was just as heavenly.
“Easy there,” I whispered, and her hair tickled my lips.
Suddenly she was pulled from my arms by Annie and whoever the other woman was. The woman, although trying to look sincerely concerned, had a weird look of both annoyance and satisfaction.
Annie gushed over Araya in a way I didn’t understand, but it didn’t seem to override the fact that I wanted to snatch up Araya and pull her back to me. That surprised me and I took a step away from the three of them. I wasn’t possessive; I didn’t get jealous. That implied wanting more than I was willing to give. That implied I wanted…
“Araya?” I hadn’t realized I said her name out loud until I noted everyone staring at me.
“Do you two know each other?” the woman with Araya asked.
She held only a slight resemblance to Araya, not enough to be her mother, but I figured they were probably related. Her red hair, dulled in age, wasn’t nearly as bright and vibrant as Araya’s. Her skin was pale with a yellow undertone. Her baggy clothes hung from her body in an unattractive way, proving life had taken a toll on her body.
Her green eyes shifted back and forth between us, but I had the feeling she already knew the answer. I wondered if Araya’s eyes were the same color, but sunglasses in place, I was left to only wonder.
“We, uh… we met… I met…”
“Ryland.”
I finished for her when she hesitated. Why bother to remember my name when she had no plans to ever see me again?
“Ryland, of course.” She blushed and turned away from me. “We met in the park the other day,” she explained.
The woman’s eyebrows lifted and she extended her hand toward me. “I’m Nina Davis. Araya’s aunt.”
I took her hand, gave it a quick shake, and pulled mine back.
“Nice to meet you.”
My eyes found Araya again, but she wasn’t looking at me. No one said anything for a full minute. Finally, Annie spoke.
“This is Cara’s guest. She’ll be tutoring Araya for a couple weeks.” At the mention of a tutor, Araya’s blush deepened.
I nodded, but my eyes never left Araya’s face. If she noticed, she didn’t show it. I could sense Annie’s frown, but I didn’t acknowledge it.
“Come on, darling,” she said, taking Araya’s arm and turning her toward the sitting room. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine,” Araya said. “I’m sorry—”
“Nonsense.” Annie shushed her. “It was an accident. Come on, let’s go sit.”
Araya turned back toward me, but her gaze never quite reached mine.
“It was nice to see you again, Ryland,” she said softly.
“I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.” I liked watching the color spread across her cheeks.
“Come on, honey.” Annie pulled Araya with her, glaring at me.
Araya’s aunt caught my attention before she followed them, and I tried not to be completely creeped out by the way she looked at me. It wasn’t even an exchange I could explain.
When they were gone, I took a step forward to follow them but stopped. Annie was on watch-guard mode now and she would probably stop me before I got anywhere close to Araya.
I wasn’t into causing scenes and I especially didn’t want to get any more knowing glances from her aunt.
Running my fingers through my hair, I dropped my head back and th
e bright light made me squint. Araya had been staring at the ceiling when I walked in and it made me wonder what she’d been looking at. The ceiling domed and windows wrapped around in a skylight. I couldn’t see anything past the blinding white glare and my eyes started to water.
I tried to tell myself that if I saw her one more time, I could move on to the next girl without looking back, but I was a damn liar.
If I were being honest with myself, I wouldn’t deny the spark of excitement I got when Annie said Araya would be around for the next couple of weeks.
If I were being honest with myself, I would acknowledge the fact that I was already trying to figure out how I could get her alone.
If I were being completely honest with myself, I would admit that I was far from ready to put Araya behind me… but that was only if I were being honest with myself and I wasn’t.
Right now, I had to figure out how I was going to get Araya away from everyone. It wasn’t going to be easy. Annie had seen the way I was looking at Araya, and I had seen the way she looked at me before she walked out.
She was daring me to try something, and I rarely disappointed when it came to a dare.
“Sebastian,” I started slowly, “what part of this easy as hell plan are you having a hard time understanding?”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose, pacing the floor in front of his bed for the twentieth time. Apparently enlisting the help of my brother, who was obviously incapable of following a simple plan, was a dumb idea.
He could barely brush his teeth I realized as I watched him struggle to push the toothpaste out of the crusted-over hole. He cursed when he squeezed too hard and it spewed from the tube and over everything but the actual bristles.
He made a face as he shook his fingers in the air, somehow expecting the sticky paste to come off. It was sad when your older brother couldn’t do something a three-year-old could.
“Don’t get smart with me, Ryland,” he mumbled around a mouthful of toothbrush. “I’ll kick your ass and you can figure out how to piss off Annie on your own.”
He spit into the sink, brought a handful of water to his mouth, and then spit again. He leaned on the edge of the marble counter, lifting his eyebrows in warning.
The Edge Of Darkness Page 5
