Lying Hearts

by Kelli Callahan

  “W−I−E−R−D−O,” Oliver spelled out. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” My heart still raced, and my hands shook. I had to be overreacting. I checked the time and realized I was late. “Crap, I really need to go. Love you, Oliver. Thanks for protecting me.”

  “Always. I know how to wield a stick.” He rubbed his palm down the broomstick and winked at me, wiggling his brows. Yeah, he probably knew how to handle a stick better than I did.

  Sad truth.

  I hopped in the car, buckled in, and sped down the road, putting the man in the coat out of my mind as I raced toward the hospital. The nerves came fluttering back, more like a swarm of wasps stinging my insides with how nervous I was. My mind whirled like the leaves did moments ago with what could happen.

  A low throb between my legs started to build when I thought of Easton kissing me. My breath hitched, and my nipples beaded to tight points, and the vibrations in the car made me bite back a moan when I thought of him sliding his hand down the front of my pants.

  My imagination was clearly getting away from me because before I knew it, I was turning into the hospital. The bottom of the car ground against the dip before the road turned into the parking lot. My heart was hammering hard. I could hardly breathe. A month ago, if someone told me I’d be picking up Easton from the hospital, I would have laughed in their face and told them to take a hike or quit drinking.

  Yet here I was, itching for a fix that only the sight of Easton could give me. I pulled into a parking spot, leaned my head against the seat, and took a deep breath to calm my racing heart. I just needed to get a hold of myself before seeing him.

  A knock on the window made me jump, and my arm hit the horn, sending the annoying honk into the air. For the second time today, my hand was against my heart. If the day kept going on like this, my heart would explode. I narrowed my eyes at Easton outside the window and opened the door, the handle giving a soft click of release. “Jesus, Easton. You took ten years off my life. Don’t do that!” I scolded him, but he had a cute grin on his face that made that damn dimple in his chin more pronounced, and I couldn’t stay mad at him. His dark hair grew the few weeks he was in the hospital, along with his beard, and he looked like a sexy lumberjack. My eyes soared over his body, taking in the worn blue jeans that cupped his thighs.

  Okay, I wasn’t looking at his thighs.

  The jeans cupped his bulge perfectly. I could see the outline of his thick shaft. It laid to the left and down his thigh.

  I swallowed, and I yelped when it jerked in his pants.

  He chuckled.

  Oh my god, he caught me.

  My face heated to a dangerous level, and I glanced to the ground, kicking a rock that wasn’t there. God, I was so embarrassed, but he had to have known what he was doing when he wore jeans like that! No woman had control.

  And there was that pulse between my legs again.

  The want, the lust, the yearning, all of it was happening too fast. We needed to go slow. I needed to trust him again.

  His fingers slid up my neck, and I shivered, the soft scratches of his callouses rocked my core. Easton tilted my head up and took a step to invade my space. All I could smell was him. He didn’t smell like the hospital. He smelled like a plain bar of soap and deodorant that had a certain spice to it. It nearly made me dizzy.

  This definitely wasn’t the boy that used to smell like mud.

  This was a man.

  My eyes met his, and his blue eyes dropped to my mouth before his tongue flicked out and wet his bottom lip. “I love it when you look at me like that, Moon. Nothing makes me happier than to know you like what you see because I like what I see,” he said. I waited for the doubt, the small voice in the back of my head to rear up and scream at me that he was lying, that he was a liar, but all I saw when I looked into those eyes was honesty.

  “You’re so beautiful, Luna. You always have been.” He admired me from head to toe, and his hand drifted across my cheek, robbing me of breath as he tugged on one of my curls, watching it spring back into place.

  Now that was something he did when we were kids. He always loved my hair.

  “I’ve always loved your hair,” he said, taking the words right out of my thoughts.

  “Easton,” I said his name, but I had no idea what I wanted to say. I wanted to warn myself away but tug him close. And the feelings I had for him were winning out.

  My love stopped hating him the moment I saw him again; I just didn’t want to admit it. Now here we were, his body pressed against mine and my back against the car. He was so close. He was everywhere. I felt his chest against mine, his stomach flexing as he moved closer, but his broken arm put a few inches between us.

  It wasn’t enough to stop him from leaning in, his good hand cupped my face, and he was breathing just as fast as I was.

  It was dangerous.

  “I’m going to kiss you now, Luna Nightingale, like I should have done all those years ago.”

  “I’m not kissing you at the hospital, Easton,” my vibrato surprised me.

  He tilted those damn lips as he closed in another inch. “It’s a good thing we aren’t at the hospital. We’re in the parking lot.”

  “That’s not—” but I didn’t get to say another word.

  His mouth was on mine, silencing me from forming any other thought I might have had. It took me a minute to realize what was happening before I finally relaxed and wrapped my arms around his waist to pull myself closer to him. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck, but I didn’t want to hurt him.

  The kiss, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I thought it would be fervent, hot, needy, and desperate.

  Easton didn’t rush. He took his time kissing me, exploring my lips with his. His movements were slow, languid, precise, and he groaned into my mouth when I met his tongue with mine. He changed the position of the kiss, tilted his head to the other side, and then nibble my bottom lip.

  Easton claimed my mouth, vindicating everything I knew about us.

  This kiss felt like it had happened a hundred times before. Our bodies were attuned to one another. He moved, I moved, he breathed, I breathed, and we were one.

  History had erased itself, and in its place was a kiss that would rewrite it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Easton

  Her lips tasted like fresh-picked berries right off the vine, sweet and succulent, just ready to be devoured. I had wanted to kiss her since the moment I turned thirteen and I finally knew why people kissed. I ruined it for myself in high school, but having her kiss me back right now, it was a dream I never thought would come true.

  I never wanted to stop feeling her lips against mine.

  This.

  This was how we were supposed to be.

  I planned to dive in and take her in passionate kiss because the need had been building for so long, but once my mouth landed on hers, my fucking world stopped spinning and the urgency faded. All I wanted to do was enjoy her lips all day until we were panting with need, and her mouth was swollen from our kiss.

  My cock ached in the jeans my brother brought me. They were a size too tight ever since I started working out more. I had folded these up and put them in the closest, but with how Luna looked at me when I wore them, I’d buy a hundred pairs just like them. She held on to my belt loops as her pelvis rocked against the hard steel that wanted her.

  I groaned into her mouth, gripping her jaw harder than necessary, and a drop of precome leaked from the tip and pooled right in the front of my jeans to create a wet spot. She’d see it. I wanted her to. I wanted her to see how she affected me.

  I brought the kiss to a painful, antagonizing end, and laid my forehead against hers. We gasped for breath, trying to slow the building desire coursing through us, but I knew the desire would never fail, never falter, and never break.

  My entire body shook as I pulled away. It was the hardest damn thing I had ever done besides letting her go the night of the bonfire. When I looked at
her, my ego fucking purred in satisfaction when I noticed her eyes closed, lips swollen and red, abused from the rough scratch of my beard that was too long. Her nipples were tight beads against her shirt, and I wanted to kiss them too.

  “We should get going,” I said. “I don’t want to give people a show. Kissing you is my treat,” I said, leaning in for another quick peck, something that was quickly becoming a habit in my book.

  She nodded, still not saying a word.

  I readjusted my cock in the tight fucking pants. I couldn’t fucking breathe in these things, but Luna’s big green eyes rounded when they saw what she did to me, and her cheeks turned a darker shade of red.

  “Fuck, you gotta stop looking at me like that, Moon.”

  “Like what?” she whispered, still staring at my aching cock.

  “Like you want to do more than just look at me.”

  “I do,” she said it a ‘duh’ fashion, but she quickly slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to take back what she said. “I mean— I— maybe— one… day?”

  She was cute when she was flustered. I liked that. I planned to make it a habit.

  If we didn’t leave now, I’d take her right here in this parking lot, and I was almost positive that she wouldn’t like that. I opened up the driver’s side door for her, just like my mom raised me to, and Luna hummed in surprise and slid into the car. I shut her door with a soft click and, with a shit-eating grin, made my way to the passenger seat.

  We sat there for another minute, and it was clear she was still flustered by the way her hands shook to turn the key in the ignition.

  “Want to know a secret?” I asked, wanting to make her feel comfortable again.

  “Yeah, of course,” she said, turning her glazed eyes to me. I bit back a moan when I saw how swollen her lips were. I wanted to fuck those sweet lips with my cock to make them that swollen again.

  I was getting sidetracked, and my leaking cock was proof of that.

  “I didn’t think you were going to pick me up,” I said to her, trying to weigh down each word with the pain I felt when I realized it. I stood outside the hospital, waiting, but every minute that ticked by that she didn’t show, I was afraid she’d backed out on me.

  It hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t have stopped me from pursuing her.

  I’d pursue my Moon until the day I died.

  Her head shook vehemently; her hair bounced like springs with the move. “No, sorry. I got stopped by some strange man in town outside my shop. He wanted to know where Kathy’s was, so I pointed him in the right direction. He said he would see me around, and the way he said it freaked me out like he knew me or something.”

  My fist clenched at my sides when I realized she had been late because some stranger, a man that didn’t belong in this town scared her, and I wasn’t there to protect her. I might have one arm, and the other might be in pain, but I’d kick anyone’s ass that messed with my sweet Luna. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” I questioned, biting back the anger that I wanted to unleash.

  “No, I’m fine. Oliver scared him away.”

  Good. Whew. Okay, what a relief that she wasn’t alone. “The thought of anything happening to you, Luna, it makes me see red. I know I have no right to say that after what I did to you. I hurt you more than anyone should have, and it was wrong of me. And it is wrong of anyone else to hurt you too.”

  She grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together, our hands interlocking like puzzle pieces, the perfect damn fit. “I don’t want to talk about the past anymore, Easton. I only want to focus on the now.” She brought my knuckles to her mouth and kissed them gently, and the simple touch seared my skin hotter than the flames did to my arm.

  Luna was a brand.

  She wasn’t a memory that could be forgotten. She wasn’t someone anyone could put in the back of their mind. Luna was the kind of woman to stick to with you forever, and she did alright. I’d take Luna with me to my grave because her essence, her brand, was a tattoo on my soul, a permeant mark.

  She was a part of me.

  “Whatever my Moon wants,” I said simply, leaving the conversation at that.

  She grinned and started the car. The same damn message blared over the radio from weeks ago, and my brows knitted together when I listened more closely this time. Luna started to drive, but I listened as the words played on a loop.

  Something about what the announcer was saying made me wonder if that fire from two weeks ago was because of Willard Hopkins, the felon serial arsonist. But it was Camden. Nothing happened like that in Camden.

  “Where to? Are you tired? I bet you want to rest.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was rest. I wanted to get Luna in my bed and make love to her until we were sore. I was hungry though. “Let’s go to Kathy’s? I could kill for a double chocolate shake and a fat juicy burger dripping with grease. That hospital food is for the damn birds.” The thought of a burger had my belly rumbling over the radio.

  Luna giggled and peered over the wheel like she couldn’t see, when she could, and turned right. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

  I held my breath and waited for her to regret what she said. She’d never called me a pet name before, and as the minutes ticked by, I realized she meant to say it. We were quickly falling into a comfortable place that didn’t usually come until much later in a relationship, and it was because this was meant to be and how it was always supposed to be.

  “Oh my god, look!” Luna pointed toward town, and another thunderous black cloud of smoke filled the air.

  “That looks pretty close to Kathy’s,” I said, watching the sky fill with soot.

  “I hope not. Kathy’s is a staple around here.”

  I went to check my phone for updates, but the damn thing was dead. I tossed it on the floorboard of the car, and Luna did her best to get to the center of town without breaking any laws.

  It was hard to believe a beautiful oceanside town was the target of an arsonist. I would have to ask since no one had updated me on anything about work in the last two weeks because they wanted me to ‘heal.’ What the hell ever. I even missed Ms. Williams’s funeral. Something that gutted me still. Ethan would be devastated that he didn’t save her, but we couldn’t save everyone, that was the hard truth, and it was a tough pill to swallow.

  On one side, there was the beautiful sea, blue waves crashing like there wasn’t a problem in the world. Then on the other, fire raged, and fear struck the town. It was like a pandemic. People didn’t know what to do or how to act.

  The car accelerated as we rolled down a hill and then came to a red light. Luna gasped when she saw all of the cop cars up ahead, blocking traffic as the firefighters did their best to put out the blaze. The light turned green, and the heat slammed against the car unexpectedly. I held on to Luna’s hand, my way of telling her it was going to be okay.

  When we pulled up to the cop directing traffic, it was Zeke. Luna rolled down her window, and Zeke didn’t smile when he saw us together, but a tight grim held his face instead. “Zeke, what’s happening?” I asked. “Another fire?”

  He nodded. “Kathy’s and Rocky’s.” His jaw ticked. He wasn’t telling us something.

  “What?” I ground out. I knew I wasn’t going to like what I heard next.

  “Rocky and Kathy are both dead.”

  “No!” Luna covered her mouth and shook her head with more denial. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, trying to think about who would want to hurt Rocky and Kathy. They were high school sweethearts. They were kind to everyone. They had two sons, Kent and Owen, who would be devastated. Both of them lived out of state, so it would be a while before they came home.

  Kathy’s was one of those places that everyone went to growing up. That’s where all the underage kids hung out because it had good food, pool, darts, just no alcohol. It had the fifties diner vibe, and everyone loved it. The town would take this hard.

  Whoever was doing this was creating a war.

  “The rest of
the street is blocked off. You’re going to have to turn around. I’m sorry you had to see this Easton. I know it can’t be easy looking at a fire and not being able to stop it.”

  He was right. Firefighting was my passion and to be useless and on the sidelines was a kick in the gut. I felt like a benchwarmer.

  “Be safe, Zeke. We love you,” Luna said for the both of us, and my chest swelled, knowing that she thought to add me to that sentiment.

  “I love you guys too. I’ll be safe. Don’t worry about me,” he said, patting the hood of the car as we turned around.

  The ride home was silent, but not awkward, but the air was saturated with worry and sadness, a hint of fear and confusion. Luna and I still held hands, the comfort easing the stress and anxiety coursing through me right now. I wanted her to come inside. I didn’t want her to go home. She just started accepting me, and I was afraid that if I gave her any space to think about it, she’d take a step away from me.

  I couldn’t let that happen.

  “I don’t know where you live,” she said, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel awkwardly.

  She’d know soon.

  “Take this road and then turn into Woodward complex.”

  “You live there? Wow, fancy,” she teased.

  “Yeah, wait till you see the inside. I have a beer pong table as a dinner table.”

  “Why?” she laughed, and I wanted to hear the sound every day for the rest of my life. It was sweet and innocent, better than anything I deserved to hear.

  Her laughter was music, and I was the tortured soul that connected to the lyrical notes.

  “Because me and my brothers are wrecks.” I wanted to tell her it was because I wanted the Hampton place, but I missed the fucking auction, so there was no way I’d get it now. My dream had been crushed, and it hurt more than it thought it would. “I’ll tell you more inside.”

  “What makes you think I’m coming inside?” she asked, parking the car in one of the parking spots, and then shutting off the engine.