by Talia Vance
My eyes meet Austin’s across the table, and we both laugh at the same time.
Throughout the meal, Blake, Austin, and Haley chat easily while I stare at my plate, pushing cherry tomatoes in circles with my fork. Haley finishes her eggplant something-or-other, not bothered in the least that Austin is eating prime rib, while Blake enjoys a bloody-looking venison steak that may or may not have been one of Rushmore’s recent kills. Hot Lips’ glass eyes commiserate with me from across the room.
My attention is diverted by a shrill laugh. A couple of teenagers drink shots at a table just below Hot Lips, even though it’s obvious they aren’t old enough to drink. The girl’s platinum-blond hair hangs down to her waist, much of it obscuring her face. The guy licks salt off her hand. I recognize his smarmy smile. “Isn’t that Jonah Timken?”
Austin’s face hardens to granite. “What’s he doing with her?”
“Looks like tequila shots,” Blake says.
“Don’t joke about this. You know he’s a bloody bastard.” Austin gestures for Haley to slide over so he can get out of the booth. He strides to Jonah’s table, his body tense.
The blonde looks up as he approaches. Parker Winslow eases her lips into a smile that’s worth every penny spent on orthodontists and teeth-whitening products.
Blake laughs. “Looks like we’re going to get a show after all.”
“Who’s that?” Haley asks.
“That’s Parker, the girl I told you about.”
“She’s pretty.”
Parker does look good. I’ve never seen her with her hair down, and the length in combination with the color is all kinds of fabulous. She giggles at something Jonah says to Austin. Jonah looks back at Parker and winks, sending Parker into fits of laughter.
Austin stalks back to our table. “I have to go before I hurt someone.”
Haley blinks up at him. “Do you mind taking me home? I don’t have a car.” Or a license, but that’s beside the point. Haley doesn’t know how to do anything that requires lessons. Her mother probably wouldn’t have let her go to school if she’d cared enough to bother with home schooling.
Austin looks down at Haley like he’s surprised to see her there. “Fine. I’ll meet you outside.” He storms out of the restaurant without a goodbye, only glancing at the table where Parker and Jonah still giggle.
“I guess I’ll see you guys later.” Haley stands up and shakes out her hair. She tucks her shirt further into her white pants, drawing stares from most of the men in the restaurant. She stops and watches the table where Jonah and Parker each suck on a lime. When they feel her gaze and look up, she lowers her eyelashes, flips her hair back, and strides through the restaurant like a runway model.
Parker crinkles her nose like she smells something bad, creating unattractive lines on her forehead. A date with a needle and some botox can’t be far behind.
Blake slides out of the booth and takes the seat across from me. “Alone at last.”
“So what’s the deal with Parker and Austin?” I ask.
“They went out for a long time. They’ll probably get back together at least twice before it’s really over. Double or nothing on my twenty?”
“No.”
Parker drinks another shot of tequila, looking every inch the gorgeous heiress.
Blake rubs the top of his jeans with his palms. “Can we try this again?”
“What?”
“A real date. Just you and me.”
I almost laugh. “You mean without my friend, your friend, your godfather, and your friend’s ex-girlfriend?” I leave out the waitress he hooked up with, but he gets the point.
Blake grins. “Something like that.”
The answer should be easy. I should insist he take me home right now. Everything about him and me is a bad idea. But I still want to ask about how he knew about Nana’s nickname for me. At least that’s what I tell myself. It doesn’t hurt that his eyes light up when I say, “How’s now?”
Blake throws a wad of bills on the table. “Let’s go make some magic.”
TWELVE
We sit in silence as we head toward the coast. The further we get from R.D., the more I start to question what exactly I’m doing driving off into the darkness with Blake. I almost tell him to turn the car around, but when I look at him, I stop myself.
He’s staring out the windshield, lost in thought. Without the too-confident grin, he looks younger than his eighteen years. My stomach twinges with a familiar little ache of yearning before I can stop it. “I think at least one of us has to say something before we can consider this a real date.”
Blake laughs at my comment even though he still doesn’t look over. “I don’t know. Some of my best dates involved very little talking.”
“I’m not an expert or anything, but I think that talking about your dates with other girls is generally frowned on.” Technically, he’s done it twice now. The count’s in my favor. One more strike and he’s out. “Although I guess that explains your better dates.”
He smiles, and for a second I let myself wish he’d turn that smile on me. He doesn’t. He keeps staring straight ahead.
“Look at me.” It’s out before I can take it back.
To his credit, he turns his head in my direction, but his glance is so fleeting that it’s hardly worth the effort.
“Nice try.”
“Brianna.” Blake’s voice softens. “We’re going to figure this out.”
“I just want to go home.” The only thing to figure out is how I managed to wind up alone in a car with a guy who can’t even look at me. A guy who can only break my heart.
“We’re almost there. I want to show you something that might put things in perspective. Then we’ll talk.” His angelic face is pleading.
I waver.
“You need to know the answers too.”
Unless he’s got a nice reasonable explanation to replace my pheromone theory, I don’t want to know. “In case you’re wondering, if this is some elaborate plot to get in my pants, it’s not working,” I say.
Blake laughs. “It’s not, I swear. Right now that’s the furthest thing from my mind. That’s part of what we need to figure out.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment? If so, you really need to work on your moves.”
Blake maneuvers his giant car into a small parking lot above the beach. He comes around to the passenger side, opening the door for me. “Come on.”
I follow him down a switchback path that leads to the sand. At the bottom, we head south, following the base of a rocky cliff. Moonlight reflects off the crashing waves, providing just enough light to see by. We go about a quarter mile until we come to the remnants of a fire still burning in a pit that’s been abandoned by its makers. The small fire casts a golden glow along the cliff wall, and Blake stops. There’s a narrow opening in the rock about six feet high. It doesn’t look large enough for a person, but he disappears through it easily enough.
I stand next to the fire, not following.
Blake sticks his head out of the opening. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
I plant my feet in the sand. “I’m not going into some creepy cave with a guy I barely know.”
Blake steps all the way out. “I know I shouldn’t rush you.” He looks up and down the beach. “No problem. We can do it out here.”
I back up a step. “Excuse me?”
He laughs. “Not that.”
“Right. I keep forgetting. I repel you.”
He reaches for my hand, sending flashes of fire up my arm.
“You don’t repel me, Brianna.” His thumb traces a line along the chain that rings my wrist. “It’s this.”
The tingle that slides along my spine in time to the movement of his thumb is a study in contradiction. On the one hand, so
me primitive instinct screams at me to get away. Now. An even more primitive instinct wants to savor the riot of heat his touch sets off, urging me closer. I stand frozen, a victory of sorts for the part of me that wants to melt into him.
When his fingers brush the clasp of my bracelet, I jerk my hand away. “I won’t take it off.” Score one for self-defense.
“If you don’t believe in it, what’s the harm?”
I let out a breath. “You’re not going to let this go?”
“Never.”
I stare at my bracelet. The good luck charm Nana gave me three days after the chem fire.
Derek and Cassidy got out, but not before the flames had circled them, trapping them in the corner. The fire was right on my hands, between my fingers. And then it wasn’t. The fire seemed to dance around me, like I could control it. That’s how I knew I’d gone off the deep end. Cassidy’s screams were what woke me from my psychotic episode. I walked right through the flames to get them out. They said it was a miracle no one was hurt.
After three days of the same questions went nowhere, the doctors prescribed me some heavy duty tranqs and sent me home. Nana came into my bedroom and sat at the foot of my bed. I was out of it, still in a sleepy haze that made everything seem like a fuzzy dream, but I was glad to see her. She put the bracelet around my wrist and told me that I should never take it off. That I would grow out of everything by the time I was seventeen, and then I wouldn’t need it anymore.
I’m not seventeen yet, but I will be soon, and it’s obvious I’ve grown out of exactly nothing. I turn to Blake. “So you think that this flower charm hides me. From who exactly? Guys?”
“Something like that.”
“From all guys, or just players like you?”
Blake doesn’t take offense at my calling him a player. “I don’t know. I only know how it affects me.” He looks back out at the ocean. “Austin doesn’t seem bothered by it.”
So he’s noticed that too. “What do you mean?” It feels good to hear someone else say it. Like I’m not completely insane.
Blake runs a hand through this hair. “Just the way he looked at you tonight. You would know better than me. How do guys normally react to you when you’re wearing that?” He says the last word with definite disdain.
“Same as always.” I sit down in the sand next to the firepit. Before I can stop myself, I add, “Like I don’t exist.”
Blake sits down in the sand next to me. He forces his eyes to meet mine. “You can change that.”
I should stand up and walk back to the car, end this now. With or without the bracelet, I’m still just me. Same crazy, blurting, pheromone-less me. It isn’t like a piece of jewelry can change that. My hand clutches the silver flower, forming a makeshift shield. There is no way this little charm can change me. The whole debate is pointless. And tonight I don’t want any more proof of my complete lack of desirability.
But I don’t get up. I’m alone on the beach with Blake Williams, and he’s watching me. It’s an outlier to the tenth degree. And I like it more than I want to admit.
I force myself to let go of the charm, letting my hands slide to the clasp. I fumble with it, my fingers shaking. When I finally manage to get it undone, I close my hand around the bracelet and lower it to my lap.
The firelight reaches out from behind me, casting shadows on Blake’s face. He extends his hand, palm open.
“Just for a minute.” I place my hand on top of his, my fist still closed tight. My hand shakes harder.
Blake puts his other hand on top, holding my hand steady. “Okay?”
I nod.
He rubs my closed fist. “You have to let go.” His hands are gentle, his touch hot.
I close my eyes. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore amplifies. I listen to the water churning and falling, churning and falling. I can taste the salt in the air. My breath slows to match the rhythm of the rise and fall of the cresting waves. Slowly, I open my hand. At the same time, Blake’s fingers close around the little charms. Then his hands are gone, and my own hand falls back to my side, empty.
I wait to feel something, anything. I don’t.
It’s official, Blake is a lunatic. I don’t want to open my eyes. I don’t think I can bear to see Blake’s face.
“Yes! I knew it!”
My eyes open to Blake’s smile. I look down to make sure that I haven’t missed something. Same blue shirt and vintage Calvins. I grab a curl of brown hair, examining it closely in the firelight. The only thing that’s changed is the way Blake looks at me.
And it takes my breath away.
Blake’s eyes glow in the firelight. But it’s the flames behind his eyes that make my whole body run hot. I can feel myself blush as he brings his hand to my cheek, branding me with his touch.
“Brianna Paxton.” He lets his fingers rest against my skin, stroking just beneath my chin. “You are even more beautiful than I remembered.”
My blood rises against his thumb. “You know you’re crazy, right?”
He laughs. “Possibly. I still can’t believe it. It’s amazing. You’re amazing.” His eyes scan me from head to toe, full of wonder and admiration. I soak it in, reveling in the rush of power that comes with the certainty that he sees me. Wants me. He leans closer, so close I inhale a heady combination of vanilla and mint. His voice is low, his breath warm against my neck. “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
The fire crackles and sparks, blue flames flickering in sync with the flame that rises along my skin. Blake takes a handful of my hair in his fingers and brings it to his lips. “Incredible,” he whispers.
I breathe the word in, savoring it as my own breath comes faster.
Still clutching my hair, he pulls it back gently, tilting my head at an angle that invites him in. He brings his lips to mine. Just as our lips touch, a sharp ocean breeze swirls around us, blowing my hair and creating a small electric shock where our lips meet. I laugh, a little startled.
Blake pulls back, his hand still holding my hair. “What was that?”
“Static electricity? The imbalance of positive and negative charges caused by friction? For a guy who plans to be a doctor, you don’t know much about science.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“Not this,” I admit. I can’t explain what’s happening now. My theory is officially dead. And I don’t even care. I just want him to kiss me again.
As if he hears the thought, he does.
“Zap,” I say, my lips moving against his.
He laughs, sending warm vibrations against my mouth. His tongue licks softly against my lips. The hand that holds my hair pulls my head back further, allowing him to move deeper into the kiss, into me. The electricity in the air fills me completely. I would describe it as an out-of-body experience except that everything about it is so in body. My hands come up around his neck, pulling him closer. The wind swirls around us again, the cool air sending me further into his warmth.
We sink back into the sand. His fingers travel down my side, blazing a trail to my hip. The warmth of his touch sears through my jeans. His thigh comes between my legs as the kiss intensifies. He moves on top of me, his weight bringing him blissfully closer.
There’s a brilliant flash of silver as his body pushes me into the sandy earth, a fact that barely registers as I urge him closer. My hands move down his back, clawing at his shirt. He breaks the kiss long enough to pull the offending polo over his head, and our eyes meet in the silvery blue glow of the fire. I smile as he puts his hands on each side of my head and leans down to rain kisses along my neck. My fingers explore the hard contours of his back.
And then his mouth finds mine again, and I’m pulled along on a tide of pure sensation. There’s another silver flash, so bright I can see it with my eyes closed. When I open my e
yes, we’re surrounded by a dark mist, so thick I can no longer see the ocean. A thread of silver light dances in the fog, weaving in and out of the darkness, circling us.
In the silvery light, I see his face above mine, his green eyes ablaze, a half smile on his lips meant only for me. “Mine,” he says softly.
Then he kisses me again, and for a second everything is black, so dark that I wonder if my eyes are closed again. A small sliver of light grows in the center of the darkness, moving just over us. The silver ribbon grows brighter, meeting the dark until the beach is a swirling mass of shadow and starlight.
Darkness and light together. Souls fused and melded. Forever bound.
THIRTEEN
The sound of crashing waves wakes me from sleep. Rough grains of sand scratch at my back. A damp breeze raises goose bumps on my bare skin. Bare? I sit up in a rush. My clothes are strewn around the sand. Blake is on his stomach next to me, mooning the moon.
I scramble to my feet and grab my clothes, not even caring about the sand that scratches my skin as I pull them on. Everything is a blur of silver light and darkness. Blake kissed me. I teased him about static electricity, and then he kissed me again, and then … there is more, much more. It’s all mixed up in the fog and mists. It doesn’t make any sense. Was I on some kind of drug? I grab my bracelet from where it’s still tangled in Blake’s left hand and fasten it around my wrist. I kick his hip. “Wake up!”
Blake’s eyes blink open. He looks groggy and out of it.
“Blake!!”
“What?” He pushes up on his arms and looks down at his bare chest. He spins around and grabs his jeans, pulling them on with record speed.
I look out at the ocean, not wanting to make eye contact. “What just happened?” I know I’m not exactly experienced, but I’m pretty sure that whole silver-light-and-mists thing was not supposed to be a part of it.
“I’m not sure.” His voice is shaky; no sign of the cool, confident charmer.
I kick the ground, sending sand smattering across his legs. “You’re not sure?”
