“The quarterback?” I grunted, surprised by my own jealousy. This had happened years ago. “Really, Liv?”
She let out an amused laugh and shook her head. “No, not the quarterback. The running back. Anyway, he was funny, and… cool, and a terrible cook.”
“That probably should have tipped you off right, then.”
“Probably,” but she didn’t find any humor in my joke. “He got invited to all these upper classmen parties. And I thought that was so cool. I mean, I was just trying to fit in, you know? My family had just moved to the area and I didn’t have a lot of friends. I just… anyway, stupid teenager stuff. But my parents let me go to a party with him one time. They are really overprotective, and so it was a while into our relationship before they agreed that I could go on an actual date with him. I mean, I was only fifteen at the time. They were nervous. But they trusted him after a while and his dad drove us to the party, so they figured it must be safe or whatever. The thing was… it was not safe. I knew the minute we got out of his dad’s car that I made a mistake. But what could I do? I was already there, and I was too embarrassed to call my parents to come get me after all the begging I’d done to get there. I was too young and immature to realize what my pride was going to cost me. That night did not end well.”
“ Did he?” I choked the words out on a strangled cough. I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words. I couldn’t bring myself to think another thought until she confirmed yes or no. I wanted to kill this asshole with my bare hands, drain the life right out of his goddamn face.
“No,” she answered quickly. “No, he didn’t. But he wanted to… tried to. We were on this balcony. He’d talked me into going out there with him. We were just sitting on these cute, pinstriped lawn chairs and then he put the moves on me. It was nice at first, I mean, fine. I didn’t mind it. But he pushed and kept pushing and kept pushing. Anyway, sorry about all the details, I kind of get lost…”
I waved her off, “No, I get it. When we’ve been through trauma, it’s amazing what our memory retains.” I knew that for a fact. The night Amory died, I could remember every insignificant detail so that those memories played like a horrific movie in my head. The way the snow felt when I went down. The jeans I was wearing that day. The taste of the shot of tequila Avalon fed me not an hour before- when he knew Eden was with Kiran… when he knew she was saying “yes.” Olivia had fallen silent, but I couldn’t let her stop her story there. “I need you to finish, Liv. I really need to know what happens.”
“Oh, right,” she laughed. I did not. “Anyway, I stood up and shoved him off me. He followed me and pressed me against the iron rail. He was not taking ‘no’ for an answer. I kept fighting him and then somehow… I’m not even sure how it happened to this day, but I shoved him at the same time he took a step back. It was just this thin railing and he was this huge guy. My push combined with his momentum… he flipped right over it.”
“Did you kill him,” I demanded- hoping she would say yes.
She gave me a confused double-take. “Thank God, no. Jericho, really? I’d have a whole different set of issues if that was the case.” I thought he deserved to die. But whatever, this was her story. “He broke his arm, in three places, and one of his ankles. I ruined his football career.”
“He deserved worse than that, Olivia.” This was something she needed to understand. Guys could not take whatever they wanted, especially not with her.
“I know that.” She rolled her eyes at me. “But the rest of the high school didn’t. I couldn’t even file charges saying he tried to rape me. It had just been some aggressive kissing that I didn’t feel comfortable with. And he had stepped away, so maybe he realized he was wrong. I don’t know, but obviously he freaked me out. His falling over the balcony was an accident. But the entire high school blamed me. They saw the loss of this great football player. Freshman year was bad- lots of upper classmen spreading nasty rumors about me. I hadn’t really had any close friends to stand up for me.”
“So what? They lost one football player, who cares? They didn’t move on after the season?”
“It became like this thing… They hated me because I was an easy target. And by default, I hated them. I’ve never been the kind of girl that plays nice with others. They backed me into a corner and I fought back.” She shrugged one shoulder out of the water and I wanted to lick it, starting at the edge, across her collarbone, right to the hollow of her throat. But we were bonding, so I kept my focus on her darkened eyes. “They didn’t need a reason to hate me after that. They just did. And I let them because I didn’t want any part of their world.”
“Was everyone like that? Everyone was mean to you?” I asked gently. Now that the rage had subsided, my chest started to feel a little like it was cracking open for her. My sometimes feisty, sometimes sweet, but always amazing Olivia had a miserable high school life and hadn’t made friends since. I wanted to go back in time and beat up every single douche bag that was cruel to her. I wanted to be there for her. Hang out with her on the weekends. Ask her on dates. Take her to prom. I wanted to remake every single bad memory she had and give her happiness.
“You make me sound like a victim.” She shoved my shoulder and shook her head. “I wasn’t. Well, maybe at first. But, I could have made friends. I mean, there were people outside of the popular crowd that could have cared less about some over-privileged football player. But by the time I realized that, I was just over… people. I did my own thing. I knew who I was and what I wanted out of life. I didn’t need friends.”
“So tough,” I murmured, taking a step closer to her. The movement of my body pushed a wave over the tops of her shoulders and left little droplets of water dotting her slender neck.
“At first, maybe. I did the whole goth thing for a while. I was like the girl you expected to carry a knife to school. Combat boots, dyed black hair, spikey jewelry... the whole thing. It took me a little while to figure out who I was. But when I did, I liked myself. And I had my family and my goals… I didn’t need other people to feel like I had worth or value.”
“I would have liked to see that.” I reached out and tucked some of her darkened hair behind her ear. She had run her fingers through it so it went straight back over the top of her head, hiding her usual part. She looked older like this, but in an undeniably sexy way. She didn’t look like a victim that got bullied, or even an angsty little thing just trying to find her way. No, this Olivia knew exactly who she was. This Olivia was strong and driven. This Olivia could survive being tortured and experimented on and come out of it with not only her sanity but an even stronger purpose. This Olivia had all of her dreams taken from her and her family and still bounced back, still believed she could make them all happen. This Olivia had me so completely pulled into her gravity that I couldn’t remember what life was like without her in it, or what my Magic felt like without hers inside it.
And I didn’t think I ever wanted to know again.
“You wouldn’t have recognized me,” she told me. “I looked really different with black hair. Trust me. My skin is way too pale too pull that off.”
I smiled because she was smiling, because I couldn’t help it. “Still beautiful, though.”
Her breath caught in her throat and I moved closer. She shook her head to disagree with me.
“No,” she said. “I was so ugly. I swear.”
I shook my head this time and laid my hand on the curve of her naked waist. She fit perfectly in my grasp. Her skin burned against my palm. I had never seen so much of her, both physically and emotionally and I was sure I would do anything to discover even more, strip her until there was nothing left between us. My attraction had escalated into something so much more… something so much bigger than the physical. I wouldn’t be satisfied until I knew more, saw more. I wouldn’t be able to stop until I had it all.
“You could never be ugly to me, Liv. No matter what you look like or what you do to your hair. When I look at you, all I see is beauty. Inside, outsi
de, it doesn’t matter… you are beauty to me.” I hovered over her now. I’d slid her closer with that grip on her body. Her body pressed against me and I loved the feel of her bare skin against mine. She was hot, she was smooth, she was pure. She was everything that I wasn’t. And I wanted what she had. I told her she was beauty to me and she was. I wasn’t that… I was the opposite of that. I had been contaminated from these wars, from these battles I’d fought in the name of a greater good. I had been emptied. But my entire body and soul knew Olivia was the answer to that emptiness. She could redeem some of those terrible things I’d done. She could help me through this endless existence that I didn’t want.
She could fix me.
She could save me.
Her hands rested on my chest, neither pushing away nor bringing me closer. Her breathing had quickened and she was chewing on the corner of her bottom lip nervously. “Jericho,” she breathed as if in warning. “I didn’t tell you that story so you’d feel sorry for me. I just meant that, er, I don’t really need friends. I’m not looking for friends.”
“That’s good,” I said. “Because I’m not looking to be your friend.” Her breath shuddered against my chin when I dipped my head to meet her. “All you have to do is say ‘no,’ Liv. I’m not going to force you. And you don’t have to break my arm to get me to stop. Just say no.” I grabbed her hip with my other hand and brought her even closer to me. Slowly, so slowly I wanted to punch myself in the face for giving her so much time to back out, I let my lips touch hers.
Unlike in my dad’s office, she didn’t just stand there and let me do all the work. This time, when I increased the pressure on her mouth, she pushed back, and hell, if that wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever felt. I tried to keep this slow… tried to give her time to adjust to my escalating hunger; but soon the press of her soft lips wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
I swiped my tongue across her bottom lip, asking for permission to enter. She opened immediately and I took over her mouth.
I could not get enough of this girl.
I didn’t want to get enough of her.
I just wanted more.
I devoured her mouth, using my tongue, my teeth, my expert kissing skills. I set out to seduce this girl, but not just for sex. I wanted her to fall as hard for me as I had fallen for her. I wanted her to be as desperate for this kiss as I was. I wanted her to believe that she would die if I stopped.
Because at this point, I knew I would die if she ended this.
I pushed her against the pool wall and set about making her mine. My hands coasted over her bare skin, happy to seek out every exposed part, biding my time until I could also explore the unexposed places. I pressed a solid hand against her lower back and brought her as tightly to me as I could. The feel of her smooth stomach against my own… there were just not words. Bliss. Ecstasy. A whole different goddamn plane of existence. Her hands reached up to tangle around my neck and she nibbled my bottom lip while one of her legs slipped around my hip.
Holy shit.
This girl.
I released my Magic fully into hers. Or rather, I stopped fighting the natural instinct to entwine us. I hit her with the full force of all my attraction and something deeper I still couldn’t define; and this time when our Magics crashed together around us I knew I wasn’t imagining the light show underneath the water, in the air around us, pouring out of our very skin. This was real… this was it.
Desperate for more of her, I followed my hunger and left her mouth, only to taste every other part of her. I trailed kisses across her jawline, down her throat, I licked that line across her collarbone I’d fantasized about earlier. She moaned this delicious sound that vibrated my lips and I lost my mind.
I followed that same path back to her mouth, my lips blazing a trail so hot and seductive my breathing had stopped being easy. I wanted this to never end, I wanted to taste her until I couldn’t remember how anything else tasted, I wanted to touch her until my fingers had every inch and piece of her memorized.
I pressed my hips into her, hating that there was any separation between us and she gasped against my mouth. Her other leg joined her first around my hips. She was feather-light under the water and I easily lifted her so that we fit together how a man and a woman were meant to fit together.
This time it was me who groaned.
Goddamn, this could never end and it would be too soon.
Her hands were frenzied at my neck and in my hair. Water sloshed between our bodies with our desperation and somehow my hand had found its way to playing with the thin string of her bikini top.
“Jericho,” she sighed against my mouth and I lost my mind.
Lost it.
She took it all, whatever it was, and left me with nothing.
And somehow that was okay with me.
I just wanted to hear my name on those lips again, just like that; breathy, needy and completely as out of her mind for more as I was for her.
I would do anything to hear her say my name like that again. But I was kind of excited to get to that part.
I pushed my hips into her again and this time it was her turn to moan. Dear, God, nothing had ever felt this good before and we were still relatively clothed.
“Jericho!” From across the patio. I was going to kill them. “Oh, er, uh, er, sorry.”
Olivia immediately pulled her mouth away and I felt my entire body sag in defeat. I rested my forehead against hers and kept my eyes closed so I could gain some control.
“What?” I bit out.
“Sorry, I didn’t know I’d be… er, interrupting something,” Xander apologized, but it was too late.
“What do you want?” I repeated giving each word gravity.
“There’s been a development,” he explained. “Sebastian asked me to come get you.”
“Tell him I’ll be right there,” I said. And I would be. Because as sweet as Olivia felt wrapped around me I still had responsibilities, not only to my people, but to my friends that were captured and my friends that were Kings and Queens, but I had a responsibility to her as well. She had been wronged in a great way and I would right that in an even greater way. She was a part of me now. She was mine now. There was no different way to say that. I wouldn’t let her go after this.
I couldn’t.
I would avenge her and I would give her back all those goals and dreams, the family that she loved so completely again.
I sensed Xander leave and without opening my eyes I said, “We have something in common.”
“What’s that?” she asked, sounding amused but still very breathy.
Slowly I opened my eyes to meet her heated gaze. God, she was beautiful, so damn beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen from my kisses. It took everything in me to hold back from taking her mouth with mine again. Plus her body was still wrapped around me even though her arms rested lightly on my shoulders instead of clutching me with passion and I felt it as though it were a physical loss of something incredibly vital to my survival.
“I don’t have any friends either,” I told her.
She laughed at that, completely carefree and unrestrained. I loved the sound. And I loved that she wasn’t shoving away from me and running. She was letting me hold her, she was letting this happen.
“What about the people in that house?” she teased.
“Those are not my friends,” I told her. “I hate those people.”
“Since when?”
“Since two minutes ago,” I told her honestly. “It’s deep-seeded. I mean, this is as real as it gets. I’m done with people. All of them.”
She laughed some more and I watched her face in happy rapture, completely transfixed by her smile and twinkling eyes. “All of them?”
“Well, maybe not all of them.” I leaned in for a few more stolen kisses and brought us as close together as we could be, just to remind her what kind of heat we shared, what potential pleasure we could bring each other.
She slapped at my chest. “
Go,” she commanded. “Before I won’t let you.”
“I think I’m alright with that,” I confessed.
“Me too, but they need you. We have to finish what we started.”
“Oh, we will,” I smirked at her. She giggled and it was another sound to add to my growing list of obsessions.
“Not what I meant.” She dropped her legs and I had to stifle a wince. I needed that feeling back.
Now.
But instead of acting out those intense feelings of desire, I took her hand and dragged her to the shallow end. We walked up the stairs together while I openly ogled her hot little body exiting the water a step at a time.
Good God.
She was perfect. Her milky skin perfectly smooth and dripping with little beads of water. The bikini covered just enough of her important parts to leave my imagination running absolutely wild. Her delicious curves were completely exposed to my wandering eyes and it was all I could do not to put my hands back on her, back where they belonged.
When she wrapped a towel around herself I felt the need to pick my jaw up off the ground.
She caught me staring at her and her cheeks flushed pink at my obvious admiration.
“You’re exquisite, Olivia,” I breathed in a reverent one. “You make me forget everything. You make me want to start over and wait until it’s right.”
She didn’t understand me, I could see it in the dip of her brows. But it was true. Those words were truth, maybe truer words than I’d ever said.
She made my past seem silly and immature. She made me want to erase everything I’d ever done and just wait for her, wait until she walked into my life. She made me wish I knew what to do with her from the beginning. And she made me promise oaths to myself that I would not mess up this time.