by Nikki Lane
His fingers brushed the edge of my shoulder, and I leaned my head against his chest. “I don’t know,” he said with a long breath of air. A few silent seconds ticked by before he said, “That would be crazy, right?”
I peered up at him. “Not that crazy.”
His eyes cut to my face. “Really?”
“Really.” I smiled.
I leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his lips. His lips parted as I glided my tongue into his mouth. I pressed into him, feeling his hands reach for my legs, helping me to maneuver so that I was straddling his waist. His hands caressed my thighs and made their way to my backside. His fingers entwined with the thin strap of my panties. They eventually found their way past the thin material in the front, and I groaned into his mouth. He held the back of my neck, keeping my mouth steady on his. When Kieran kissed me, I felt a surge of energy buzz through my body. It was like touching an electrical socket with wet fingers. He kissed me with purpose, like he was never sure when he would get the chance again. It made me want him more, something that made me giddy and scared shitless.
The hand Kieran held to my neck traveled down to the zipper of my dress. He gave it a few tugs but failed to pull it down.
“The zipper’s stuck,” he said through heavy breaths. “I’m going to rip it.”
“It’s okay,” I panted. “It was on clearance.”
I heard a faint chuckle before I closed my eyes and hunched my shoulders forward. Kieran took hold of the material with both hands and ripped the zipper like a piece of paper. The loose material fell forward, exposing my shoulders and chest. I drew my arms out as Kieran pulled it down around my waist.
I felt the firmness under the zipper of his pants. Our kissing grew more desperate as I undid the buttons of his shirt, moving as fast as I could with trembling fingers. He dropped his arms as I struggled to pull his shirt off. I slid off his lap onto my knees and unbuckled his belt. I gave it a few good tugs and threw it beside me. He undid the button, and I didn’t bother waiting for him to pull down the fly before I was tugging his pants off. He leaned over to kiss me and guided me back up to a standing position.
“Here,” I said, reaching into the drawer of the coffee table. I handed him a condom out of the few I left there from Kieran’s stash.
His eyebrows pulled together. “You put them there?”
“They were so many.”
His hands slid back up my legs, clipped my panties with his fingers, and slid them down to the floor.
I wasted no time in unclasping my bra and letting it drop. “I planted them around the house.”
Kieran took off his boxer briefs and slid on the condom. I repositioned myself onto his lap. I held his shoulders as I eased up and down, feeling the fullness overwhelm me. Kieran kept one hand steady on each side of my thighs, guiding me along. His lips covered my neck, and I felt the goosebumps prickle my skin.
I paused for a brief moment, and our foreheads met as we both caught our breath. Kieran took a hold of me and laid me down on the couch. He hovered over my body, his eyes flickering over my face before I felt his fullness in between my legs again. Our eyes locked as he rocked deeper inside of me. I let out a cry, feeling like I couldn’t take anymore. It was enough to set Kieran off, and I felt him release, a small groan emanating from his mouth.
He stilled on top of me, our bodies sandwiched together. My head was still swirling, but not with the thoughts of anxiety that usually plagued me. I felt at total peace with Kieran’s body on mine, and it was a feeling I didn’t want to let go.
Chapter 21
I searched through the clean laundry, still piled up in the basket, for my favorite hoodie. It was nearly midnight. Usually this time after a shift, I’d be crawling into bed, my eyelids already closed. Being on Kieran’s time was a little exhausting. Sleep deprivation definitely affected us differently. I was almost convinced he was really a special breed of half-vampire that only needed a few hours of sleep a week to function. But I had to admit; I was looking forward to it when he mentioned a late-night date, even though I didn’t have a clue where we were going.
“Rose,” Kieran called from the living room.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said, trotting over to meet him with a hair tie gripped between my lips. We were almost twins in our matching hoodies we’d bought on our trip and shorts. “What’s the big rush?”
“We have a very limited window of opportunity.”
“Sounds like you’re taking me to a rocket launch.”
He repositioned his baseball cap and swayed his arms, snapping his fingers when his fists met as I whipped my hair into a quick ponytail.
“Well, come on,” I said, heading out the door.
Kieran scooped up the backpack off the floor and closed the door behind him.
I glanced at the bag. “Please tell me we’re not hiking in the dark. I don’t think I’ll survive.” I locked the front door and followed Kieran to his truck.
“No. There will be little physical movement required for this date.”
I hopped into the truck and reached from my seatbelt. “Thank goodness.”
The ride wasn’t too long, but I still struggled to keep my heavy eyelids from closing. The truck jerked to a stop, and I popped my eyes open. My neck ached a little from the weird way I had to position my head on my arm. I could barely see ten feet in front of the truck. The term in-the-middle-of-fucking-nowhere came to mind.
“Ready?” Kieran asked.
I sat up. “Ready for what?”
He hopped out and shut the door before I got the question out. I got one good stretch before getting out of the truck. I couldn’t see a damn thing, so I was hoping that we weren’t parked next to a cliff or a well. It was a moonless sky, a blanket of black speckled with twinkling lights. I could just make out the sound of water lapping somewhere nearby.
“Where are we?” I asked, tucking my hands into the pocket of my hoodie. It was an unusually cool night and the wind whipped hard, wafting the smell of ocean water under my nose.
“North Point Lighthouse.” Kieran pointed the flashlight toward the structure across the way. Its red bricks were faded white, and smack in the middle of the roof the lighthouse room jutted up into the sky.
“How did you find this place?”
“My grandfather used to take me here to see the meteor showers. When I got older my friends and I used to come out here.”
“Do to do what exactly?”
“Things we didn’t want to get caught doing.”
“Such as?”
“Smoke pot. Sometimes we would light firecrackers. But mostly smoke pot.”
I shook my head. “Delinquent.”
“I like to consider myself as worldly. Tell me you never did anything like that in high school.”
“I’ll have you know that before I met you I was straighter than an arrow.”
He glanced back at me. “I can believe it.”
I kept my eyes on Kieran’s white shirt as we trekked through a sandy path bordered with tall waves of sea wheat, swaying in the wind. Kieran clenched the small flashlight between his teeth and fluffed a blanket from the backpack down at his feet onto a sandy patch of shore.
“Voila.”
“Now what?”
“Now, just lie down and look up,” he instructed.
“No problem there.” I dropped like lead onto the blanket as Kieran did the same.
It was so still, save for the occasional gust of wind. The silence was actually deafening. After a few minutes, my ears started to pick up on even the smallest noise.
“Is it possible to hallucinate sounds?” I asked.
Kieran smiled. “Why?”
“Because I’m pretty sure I hear some kind of mountain lion creature over there.” I gestured to some black patch of space.
He laughed. “It’s possible. But I wouldn’t worry. He might be taking his girlfriend here for the same reason.”
“Which is?”
Kieran turned t
o me, and even in this onyx shade of night, his face still beamed with affection. “The Perseid meteor shower. It peaks tonight.”
“No way,” I said, lifting my head a few inches.
“Way,” he replied, mocking my surprise.
“Where’s your telescope?”
“You don’t need one. It’ll just narrow your field of view. All that’s required is lying down.”
I readjusted my head on the blanket, trying to smooth down the lumpy sand, and combed the sky with my eyes. “But it’s so big. How do I know where to look?”
“This particular meteor shower has the highest rate of meteors per hour. Just be patient. You’ll see one.”
I looked to the inky sky in awe. “Where do they come from?”
“Well, they appear to radiate from somewhere near the border between the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus.”
“Why am I not surprised you knew that? How did you get so science-y?”
“I guess it started when I was I was younger. My grandfather had a lot to do with it. He’s the one who taught me about the Cape May diamonds.” Kieran edged a little closer to me on the blanket. “There’s one,” he shouted, pointing to some corner of the sky.
“I missed it,” I pouted. I moved my eyes faster over the black canvas, hoping with all my might that my gaze would fall on the right spot.
“How about you? Did you always see yourself as a teacher?”
I didn’t take my eyes off the sky. “For my twelfth birthday, I begged my father for teaching supplies out of one of the catalogues he used to subscribe to.”
“You sounded like you were a lot of fun as a kid.”
“I guess I wasn’t,” I said.
“A teacher through and through?”
“Yep.” My heart raced in anticipation. Who knew stargazing could be so adrenaline pumping? “Plus, my father drilled the idea into my head since I was born.”
“Are you two close?”
I looked to Kieran for just a brief second, the question taking me aback. “Yes. After my mom left, I don’t think we had much choice. I was left with no mother and he was left with no wife and an eight-year-old daughter to take care of alone.” Just then, a burst of white streaked across the sky. “I see one!” I shouted it out like a little kid. I turned to Kieran. “Did you see it?”
But he wasn’t looking into the sky. He was looking at me. I felt my cheeks blush from my overexcitement. “You’re not looking. It was beautiful.”
He leaned on his side and propped up on one elbow. “Really they’re just ice or rocks in space that vaporize in Earth’s upper atmosphere as a burst of incandescent gas.”
“I think that’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
He smiled wide, revealing that secret dimple that made an appearance every now and again. He rested his free hand on my stomach and leaned into me, kissing my lips with a gentleness that was so paradoxical to the rough edges of his demeanor.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” I said.
“What is?”
“Space, the Earth. The fact that we’re looking at stars a gazillion miles away.”
“A gazillion? Actually, the meteors are only about fifty to seventy miles up in the thermosphere.”
I ignored his smart talk. I was looking so hard at the sky that my eyes were starting to ache.
“Can I ask you a question?” I said.
“Will I kiss you again?” His lips met mine once more. This one was longer, his tongue making a slow curl around mine.
When he pulled away, I could barely remember what I wanted to ask.
“You were saying?” he said.
My fingers twisted the thick string to the hood of my sweater. “Do you ever think about giving school another try?”
He bobbed his head back and scrunched his face. “No.”
I shifted my body to face him. “Why not?”
“Because…” He was at the edge of an explanation but then drew back. “Why are you asking?”
“I’m just curious. You never told me the reason why you never went.”
His body shifted just a few inches away from me. “I did tell you.”
“No, you said it didn’t work out. That’s not a reason. That’s a vague attempt to change the subject.”
“Have you been talking to my father?”
“No,” I scoffed. “I’m just trying to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Why someone with so much potential has no interest in college.”
“My brother never went to college, and nobody ever gave him shit about it.” Kieran sat straight up and rested his elbows on his knees.
I propped up from the blanket to match his height. The wind wailed, taking the softness of his eyes with it. “I’m happy doing what I’m doing. Why does everyone think that’s not good enough?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. And I’m not everyone.”
“Sure sounds like it.” He grabbed at some sea wheat and picked it apart. His jaw was tight, and his eyes narrowed.
“Well, it’s not.” I was starting to regret bringing it up. I rested my chin on his shoulder, picking up the scent of his skin, and held his arm with both hands, feeling the solidity under the material of his sweater.
I knew he was hiding something. I could feel it deep in my bones. One of the side effects of having to watch out for myself from a very young age was a well-developed sixth sense. But I couldn’t force it out of him because I knew that would only push him away.
“Forget I said anything. Why don’t you speak more romantic science talk to me?”
The tension in his face relaxed into a small smile. Kieran lay back down on the blanket and hitched his arm around me, cradling me into the crook of his arm. I nuzzled in close to him as another streak of brilliant white smeared the sky.
Chapter 22
I felt the bed shift. My vision narrowed through the slits of my eyes. It was still dark out. Through the faint whitewash of the moonlight, Kieran was putting on a shirt. The restlessness was written all over his face. This happened a couple nights a week. Not as often as before, but still. I glanced at the clock. Just about two a.m.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
He stopped, surprised that I was awake. But I always woke up when he did. My body could sense his absence.
“Can’t sleep.” He kissed me on the forehead. “Go back to bed.”
I plopped back down and did just that.
The next morning, Kieran was already at work when I woke up. I did a few things around the house before my shift started at work. I hadn’t heard from Kieran all morning. I texted to remind him that I would be working late. Nothing. I got ready to leave, trying not to think about the look on Kieran’s face when he couldn’t sleep late last night. That look that showed the crags in his beautiful emerald eyes.
The hours trickled by. Shelby wasn’t working with me, which just plain sucked. I glanced down at my phone every chance I got. Still nothing. Not one fucking text. Every call went right to voicemail. I started to rationalize with myself the reasons why he wouldn’t be responding. Maybe he lost his phone while at work. Maybe the battery died, and he couldn’t find his charger. Or maybe a herd of alpacas accidently ingested it while he was mowing the grass at an alpaca farm. Or maybe Kieran was just in one of Kieran’s moods where he couldn’t be reached, even when I was standing right in front of him.
I drove home, feeling drained for absolutely no good reason. I wasn’t busy at work. It was the worrying. The worrying about what Kieran was up to.
When I saw the cars parked on the side of the road, I already knew why they were there. Someone even parked in my fucking driveway. Who does that? What person parks their car in a random person’s driveway?
I parked the car on the side of the road and slammed the car door shut. I smelled like a mish mash of every item the restaurant served, and my black button-down shirt was speckled with tomato sauce, but it didn’t stop me from goi
ng straight to Kieran’s. I lumbered through the crowd of people inside. The first familiar face I saw was Scott. He was in the kitchen, the resident bartender that he was, talking to yet another person I didn’t recognize. I didn’t stop to say hello. I just kept plodding through, hoping—praying—that I found Kieran somewhat sober. I had to say excuse me repeatedly, trying to get past big drunken blockades. When those that I asked politely didn’t hear me, I started to get rude.
I finally spotted Kieran in the backyard, a beer in hand. My heart sunk an inch. He was laughing, talking to a girl like they were old buddies. My heart sank a few more inches. I took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions through these breathing techniques I read about. That didn’t do shit, except make me feel a little lightheaded.
“Hey,” I said, talking over whatever her name was.
She was no Heather, but then again, I was wearing tomato sauce as an accessory.
“Hey, baby,” Kieran said.
I heard the lilt in his tone, the one that was a telltale sign he’d had too much.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“This is…” He pointed one finger from the hand holding the beer to the brunette standing next to him.
She filled in the name for him, and for a second I wondered how she was able to fight off his charms for so long. I muttered a nice to meet you. She responded with something and then meandered off to go back inside.
“Who are all these people?” I asked, looking around.
“I dunno,” he said, shrugging and taking another sip of beer. “Scott’s friends from school.”
His eyes were barely opened, two bloodshot slits. I could barely smell anything beyond the stench of my work clothes, but I smelled the pot and beer seeping from his pores.
“Really, Kieran?”
“What?” he asked with the most innocent tone.
I exhaled and crossed my arms. “We’re supposed to be meeting your sister for breakfast tomorrow morning. You promised her.”
“Relax," he replied. “You know I can function on like twenty minutes of sleep.”
“Yeah, you can. But I have the sleep requirements of a normal person, not a vampire.”
“Are we fighting?”
