Valley of Fire (Valley of the Moon Book 2)

by Bronwyn Archer

  He pursed his lips. “I mean, I promised your dad I’d take care of you. But not, you know, that way.” He shook his head and drummed his fingers on the arm rest. “This whole cousin thing . . . it’s complicated, right?”

  “Very.” Do not drive off the road. Do not drive off the road.

  “I mean, your dad would kill me, and my family . . . Well, it would be a bit of a mess.”

  “Hey, what happens on the road stays on the road, right?” The surviving bits of my smashed heart struggled to pump blood to my brain. The effort to focus on driving was suddenly exhausting.

  I tried to tuck my hair behind my ears out of habit, but there wasn’t enough hair. The car was suffocating. I rubbed my eyes under my sunglasses and took a deep breath, which was another mistake, since all I smelled was the heady scent of his cologne. Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry.

  “Lana, listen: a year ago I vowed never to hurt another girl. Last night I might have taken advantage of a situation and I should have known better. I’m sorry.”

  I would happily have spent the rest of my life in that hotel suite with him.

  “Lana! Did you hear me?”

  “What?”

  “I said, I’m sorry. Can we please be friends? I’m scared I messed everything up. Did I?”

  “Hey, you don’t need to apologize for anything. You were drinking, you hadn’t touched a girl in a year. You saw an opportunity and you took it. I could have been anyone. Gotcha.”

  He stared at me, his eyes wide. His jaw clenched.

  “Is that what you think?” he asked in a strained voice. I stared back at him, my face stony. He tried to touch my hand and I yanked it away. “Lana, come on! This is not about you—it’s about the fact that you are totally off-limits!”

  “Then why are you even here!” I cried. “I told you before we started, I can get myself to New York. I never needed this kind of help.” A storm of tears gathered behind my eyes.

  The gas light came on with a high-pitched ding.

  He pointed at a sign for a rest stop at the next exit. “Get off here. We can talk better if you’re not driving.”

  The exit was just ahead but I kept driving straight. I didn’t want to stop and talk to him. I couldn’t bear the idea. “Hey, what are you doing? I said to take this exit!”

  “Fine!” I jerked the wheel hard right. The tires squealed. I veered onto the shoulder and barely made it off the exit ramp.

  “What the hell!” he yelled, gripping the hand rests.

  “I’m just doing what you told me to do!” I sped down the ramp and stopped at the intersection. It was a rural area with a sprawling gas station at a deserted intersection and thick woods in every direction. When the light turned green I smashed my foot on the gas. The car engine roared with what sounded to me like fury. I took a left turn going too fast.

  “Lana! Slow down!”

  I slammed on the brakes full force. We skidded and spun out in the middle of the road, right into a giant puddle I hadn’t seen. We hydroplaned to a full stop in the opposite lane, and a wave of water flew through the air outside the windows.

  “Can you use your inside voice please?” I said, exasperated. “Look what you made me do.”

  “Lana! Get out of the fucking road! Are you crazy?”

  I deftly steered through the deep puddle like nothing had happened and made it to the gas station. I jerked to a stop in front of one of the pumps and practically kicked the door open before walking away to the bathroom.

  I was so utterly sick of gas station bathrooms.

  I was so utterly sick of our trip.

  The filthy bathroom smelled like urine and sea water. My jubilant mood from the morning had crashed and burned, leaving me feeling empty and sick. What a giant waste of time. My stupid fantasy, my jealous over the notary, the silky gray dress I’d worn to dinner in New Orleans. Letting that frat boy at the bar flirt with me.

  All lame, pathetic attempts to get Alexander’s attention. And for what?

  A kiss and a diss.

  I was the biggest idiot on the planet.

  When I got back to the car, Alexander was hanging the gas nozzle back on the pump. “Give me the keys. I want to get to New York in one piece.”

  I dug the keys out of my pocket and threw them at him as hard as I could. He caught them and glared at me. I collapsed into the passenger seat and stared out the window. He got back into the car, started the engine, and handed me a granola bar. I shook my head and stared out the window.

  He started driving away from the highway down a quiet one-lane road away from the highway. I looked around, confused.

  “Where are you going?”

  He spoke in a low, angry voice. “To talk.” I quietly wiped a few bitter tears.

  I was jealous of the Lana from the night before. I wanted to be her again.

  The winding road cut through dense woods. After a few minutes, he pulled into a small parking lot surrounded by tall oaks and groves of weeping willows. There were signs pointing to a hiking trail, but there were no other cars. A soft rain thrummed on the roof. My shoulder ached and I rubbed it a little. He didn’t say anything.

  “Well? What is it?” I demanded. He ripped the fresh bandage off his right hand and tossed it to the floor. His eyes flicked over to my face and down my body. His lean, muscular body was relaxed, leaning back in his seat.

  “Lana, if you want me to finish this trip with you, you need to stop being mad at me. Did I do something last night you didn’t want me to do?”

  I just glared at him, defiant.

  “Didn’t think so,” he said. “So stop acting like I did. It was a mistake—that we both made. I’m not the bad guy here.” Translation: His family is going to hate you if they know you kissed their precious boy. “I’m just telling you that as fun as that was, it’s better if it doesn’t happen again. For a million reasons. You know I’m right, don’t you?”

  My heart was beating faster than ever. The windows were fogging up. I couldn’t breathe. My chest heaved. Gasping for air, I unclicked my seatbelt and shoved my door open. He yelled “Hey!” as I slammed the door behind me.

  I jogged to where the trail disappeared through the trees. I was just in a t-shirt and jeans—I’d left my jacket in the car. A car door closed behind me and he yelled my name. I ran through a grove of weeping willows. Dead leaves squished under my sneakers. Long, wet willow branches raked my face.

  “Lana, stop!” I turned around and he was right there, running towards me. His cheeks were flushed red and his eyes sparkled. His shirt clung to his chest and arms. He grabbed my forearms and shoved me through a thick curtain of wet willow branches.

  “Go away!” I cried.

  “No.”

  Inside the massive tree’s umbrella-shaped canopy, it was almost totally dry. The steady staccato of rain falling on the branches echoed in the space. Alexander pushed me up against the tree trunk. His tractor beams were on high. Every nerve in my body repositioned themselves to get closer to the source of all the pleasure they had so recently experienced. Heat bloomed in my stomach.

  “Leave me alone,” I whispered unconvincingly.

  “Way too late for that. You asked me why I’m still here.” He put his hands on my cheeks and smoothed wet hair away from my face. “The truth is I’m not sorry about last night. And you’re not, either.”

  I met his eyes with what I hoped was defiance and resolve. “It doesn’t matter. It won’t ever happen again. You’re right, it was a horrible mistake. One I’ll never make again.”

  “I told you, I vowed never to hurt anyone again.”

  “But you didn’t hurt me last night! You’re hurting me now!”

  Impenetrable willow branches hung down all around us, almost to the forest floor. The light was dim but everything looked extra sharp, like I was wearing new glasses for the first time. We were in a world of our own, and there was nothing else. For now. What about tomorrow? And the next day?

  He reached out and cupped my fa
ce in his hands. I pushed his hands away. “What are you doing? You just gave me a speech about how it was a mistake and this can never happen again! Make up your mind—or leave me alone.”

  He groaned and grabbed onto the waistband of my jeans so I couldn’t wiggle away. “I know what I’m supposed to do. I know what I have to do. But I’m starting to realize—I can’t.”

  “Can’t what?” I said, barely able to breathe.

  “Stay away from you.” He pulled me towards him until our hips touched. “What do you want me to do? Just tell me.” He slid his hands up to my face. He took my chin in his hand and turned my face to his. Those gorgeous eyes burned into mine and his full lips parted slightly. He ran his thumb over my lower lip and tugged it down. My mouth went dry.

  “This,” I whispered.

  He knelt his head down and pressed my body into his.

  “What are you doing?” I tried to sound in control but my voice was a strangled whisper.

  “Giving in,” he whispered in a low growl. Then his mouth was on mine, and everything else was forgotten.

  The thing about kissing him was, it was like eating and starving at the same time. Each kiss made me hungry for more. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my body slowly caught fire. It was happening again. His hands found my back, wet under my damp t-shirt, and started to slide up my body. I was lost in a haze of euphoria and wild abandon. His wet hands slipped around to my waist. The cold shocked some consciousness back into my melted brain.

  “Let’s go back to the car,” I murmured.

  #

  He pulled a clean shirt out of his bag on the backseat and handed it to me. I used it to dry my face and hair, then I handed it back to him and watched him do the same. He balled the shirt up and tossed it into the back. His mouth twisted up into a wry smile.

  “Well, I’m glad we cleared all that up.”

  But it was like I’d swallowed fire. An acute ache deep down grew more insistent.

  “You can’t keep doing that to me,” I said. My gaze was steady and frank. The tension in the car was a high-pitched scream only I could hear. My skin tingled under his molten gaze. His eyes narrowed.

  “You mean, this?” He ran his hand down my arm. My brain ceased to function as a sentient organ. It was too busy dealing with a hurricane of dopamine and hormones. I was moving slowly and inexorably towards him and there was no stopping it, like a glacier moving towards the sea.

  Both his hands found my waist and gripped it tightly. Then he pulled me onto his lap, facing him. He held my waist tight and supported me there as my knees found the seat. The low roof forced me to lean into him. His chest pressed against mine. The air in the car got superheated and the windows fogged up. Outside the rain pelted down.

  “I thought this was a mistake,” I whispered.

  He reached up and raked his fingers through the short hair at the nape of my neck.

  “Just so I’m clear, I want to go over all the mistakes we’ll never make again. So there’s no more confusion.”

  His mouth parted. I could feel his heart beating against my chest as my body melted into his.

  His eyes turned dark and intense in the low light of the car. What happens on the road stays on the road. And you’re still on the road.

  “First, I promise never to do this,” he said, tugging my shirt and bra strap down off my shoulder. He traced his fingers around my stitches, then kissed up my neck to my ear. I closed my eyes, my senses too flooded to speak. His fingers grazed the top of my breast and his breath hitched.

  I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and arched my back towards him. He groaned and slid his hand inside my bra. His warm palm burned my skin.

  “Next, I promise I will never, ever kiss you like this.”

  His mouth found mine and just like that, it was all happening again.

  My reality and my fantasy had blurred in a magical, surreal, slightly terrifying way.

  I stole a glance at him. He looked gorgeous—his hair was tousled and his cheeks were flushed pink. He met my eyes and I felt exposed. Not about what was happening physically—but about my feelings for him. For him, I knew whatever this was, was just physical—he hadn’t touched a girl in a year. I was convenient.

  But to me, my whole heart beat to the sound of one word.

  “Alexander,” I moaned, between kisses. The cut on my lip ached, but the pain was blotted out by the feeling in other parts of my body.

  “Tell me to stop and I’ll stop,” he said, his voice low and ragged.

  “Don’t stop.”

  His hands gripped my bare waist. “What do you want me to do?” His voice had a sharp, almost brutal edge to it.

  I whispered the only thing I could think of. The only thing I wanted at that moment. “Take care of me.”

  His eyes widened. “Okay. I can take care of you, Lana.” He was breathing hard. “Will you let me touch you?”

  “You are touching me.”

  “No,” he said. His hand slid down from my waist to the crotch of my jeans. He ran a finger softly down the seam of the fly. “Here.”

  My eyes widened and my throat went dry. I bent my head to kiss him in silent approval. He groaned with what sounded like relief. He tugged my t-shirt up, so it was riding just under my bra. His fingers deftly unbuttoned the top of my jeans and slid the zipper down.

  Holy shit.

  He tugged the waistline down as much as he could around my waist, then eased his hand down the front of my pants. His fingers slipped underneath the thin elastic of my panties and then they were touching me. I pressed against him, burying my face into his neck. My breath caught as his fingers slipped inside me.

  Holy shit.

  I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out. The shock of the intense pleasure stunned me. I knew where this was going, but it was too late to stop it. The glacier was melting.

  “Is this what you wanted, Lana? Tell me,” he said, his voice ragged.

  I moved my mouth to his shoulder and leaned against it. “Yeah,” I whispered, so low I could barely hear my own voice. His incredibly talented fingers owned me. My body knew what to do, even though I didn’t. He slid his other hand up the front of my t-shirt and cupped my breast, then down to the seat of my jeans, sliding them off as far as they could go. Then he gripped me firmly by the bottom and pushed my hips down, hard, on his fingers.

  It was the end of me. I gasped and arched my back as the waves of pleasure broke across me. I collapsed against his chest, trembling. How had he done that to me so easily? Again? I breathed hard against him, smelling his gorgeous scent. I was floating, dizzy with the afterglow. I fixed my pants and eased myself over the center console and collapsed into the driver’s seat. The windows and windshield were completely fogged up.

  I smoothed my hair back and stole a glance at him.

  “Do you . . . I mean, don’t you want me to touch you, ever?” I asked. He flashed me a smug smile. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “I still have a few days left.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My penance. It’ll be a year in four days. Do you think you can find some way to survive without my body until then?”

  My mouth dropped open. “But . . . didn’t you break the rules last night?”

  His dimples were killing me. “Maybe my penance technically doesn’t apply to second base, or whatever base that was.”

  He took my chin and turned my face to his. Those eyes burned into mine. His lips parted. He ran his thumb over my lower lip and tugged it down. My stomach muscles twisted up.

  I gently pushed his fingers away from my mouth so I could talk. “What about your family? The fact that we’re distantly related?”

  “We’re not actually related.”

  “The world doesn’t know that.”

  He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I’m starting to understand I have no choice.” He rubbed his forehead and grinned. “And maybe what our families don’t know won’t hurt them.”<
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  Which meant—he didn’t want to stop whatever was happening between us.

  But it would have to be our secret.

  “Now get your seatbelt on. Let’s hit it.”

  I was about to start the engine when a familiar sound made my heart stop. It was the whine of a supercar.

  A Lamborghini Aventador, to be exact.

  Chapter 14

  Sinus Aestuum ~ Seething Bay

  Alexander rubbed a clear patch in the fogged-up window.

  “Do not get out.” He climbed over the console, scooted under me, and lifted me into the passenger seat. Before I had a chance to buckle my seat belt, he was backing out of the parking lot at full speed. The tires screamed when they hit the main road. “Hang on.”

  He sped around a sharp curve and shot past a black Aventador heading towards us.

  “How in the world did they find you?” I turned around to see if they were behind us. A plume of smoke blasted out of the rear of the Lamborghini as the driver braked hard and then made a fast U-turn.

  The car inched up right behind us until I could read the license plate. SAVITCH 1.

  “Go faster!” I screamed.

  We rocketed threw a red light at the empty intersection by the gas station and peeled around a corner to get on the highway.

  “If they found me . . . it means they found my dad!”

  Alexander pressed his lips together. “Call him.”

  My hands shook as I picked up my phone. Alexander told me his home number and I dialed.

  It rang and rang. “No answer.”

  Alexander calmly eased the Vanquish between two semis, and when we were almost past the next exit, blasted across the shoulder and down the off-ramp.

  “Why are you getting off the highway?” I yelled.

  “I’m losing them!” he yelled back.