Flutter (The Discover Series) (31 page)

“You have to go Adan. You don’t come around all day, and then you think you can just pop in at night whenever you want?” I demanded.

I had wanted to see him all day and I couldn’t deny that I had ventured off into the woods earlier, hoping he would find me.

“I like the way you say my name Sara,” he whispered. It was almost a groan, and he took a step closer to me. “Are you trying to tell me you missed me?” he teased. I watched his eyes detonate into a frenzy of blue sparks.

“I missed you as much as you miss me.” I countered.

His smile was slow and lazy as it spread across his face. “So a lot then?”

My stomach flipped and the flutter deep inside was smoldering. I couldn’t describe the sensations, but they were intense. I was about to respond when the front door was pulled open and Scott’s big frame filled the doorway.

“Scott,” I sounded breathless and guilty. Adan, who was still inches from touching me, didn’t move an inch when the door opened and Scott eyed our position.

“Sara,” he sounded nervous and suspicious. “What’s going on? Who is this?”

Adan smiled at me and lifted his adorable brows, but his next comment made me want to strangle him. “Should I tell him Sara or would you like too?”

I gaped at him.
The nerve!
I fell back a step and wrapped my arm around Scott’s middle. I took only a small amount of pleasure in the narrowing of Adan’s eyes, as he started at the contact between us, before his eyes found me with a ‘
well played’
look.

“Sara,” Scott interrupted our silent communication. “What’s he talking about?”

I put my hand on Scott’s chest to comfort him. “He’s just kidding Scott.” I said and looked up at him, smiling sweetly. ”This is Adan. I met him yesterday at the music festival. Well Elizabeth and I met him.” Damn me and my lies. I made a mental note to call
Elizabeth
as soon as Scott left, in case he decided to go to her for confirmation.

Scott was eyeing Adan. I could feel him relax a little under my arm, and he placed his arm around my shoulders. “Funny stuff. What’s up Adan, I’m Scott, Sara’s
boyfriend.”
He held out his hand to Adan, and I looked up at Adan through my lashes. There was no mistaken Scott’s obvious message.

Adan was staring at me, but took Scott’s hand and gave it a firm shake. I wanted to roll my eyes at the dramatics of it all. “What happened to you there, Scott?” Adan motioned to Scott’s dirty tee, and the rip in the collar of his shirt that I hadn’t noticed before.

Scott followed Adan’s nod. “Sara and I were almost attacked in the woods by some mutant, freak wolf.” He said.

I felt the need to come to my wolf’s defense. “He is
not
a mutant, freak Scott, and we were hardly
attacked
by him.” I removed my arms from around him and crossed them over my chest, I was all too aware of the way Adan was watching. I was afraid to look at Scott, to see if he was aware of it too.

“A mutant, freak wolf huh?” Adan repeated. “Sounds like he might be dangerous. Maybe you should call the sheriff Sara.”

“No!” I said loudly, but Scott was laughing next to me.

“That’s exactly what I said, but Sara has a soft spot for the damn thing.”

“I do,” I said unashamed. “And you promised you would not call the sheriff.” I added looking at Scott.

“I know, I know. The things I do for you, pretty girl.” He tapped my nose and I could feel the anger rolling off Adan. I looked at him, his eyes were narrowed and his face clouded over, and I could feel his hatred. It soaked into my skin leaving a hostile burning in its place.

“Well,” Adan finally said. “I’d stick with the ‘almost attacked’ story Scott, because it looks like you got your ass kicked, and I think Sara’s side of things will only confirm that.”

What was he doing?!

Scott bristled. “I
didn’t-
“

“Actually,” I interrupted. “Scott was trying to save my life.” I said glaring at Adan.
Why was he making this harder?

“Wow, a modern day hero you have here,” Adan looked at me. “Seems like you need a lot of saving these days Sara.”

Scott’s arm tightened around me as he looked down at me. “What is he talking about?”

“She didn’t tell you?” he asked, and didn’t skip a beat in giving Scott the full run down. “We were in a photo booth together at the festival yesterday, and it caught on fire. Strangest thing too, it was almost like there was this intense energy in that small, small booth,” He made sure to accentuate each word, while staring only at me, “and it made everything short circuit and explode.” Adan was using his hands to demonstrate.

Dirty indeed!

“Is that true Sara?” Scott asked me, removing his arm.

“More or less. Really, it was nothing Scott, and I’m fine, honestly.” I turned toward Adan. “Adan was just coming by to make sure I was okay, and I am. Thank you Adan, but we were just about to eat dinner.” I was trying to push Scott inside, but he was moving slowly.

“Thanks for looking out for Sara yesterday Adan, but I’ve got it from here on out.” Scott finally moved, and pushed open the door waiting for me to follow.

Even after his dirty little game, I didn’t want him to go. I was hesitant to go inside, and he seemed to feel the same.

“Goodnight Adan.” I turned to follow Scott, but Adan’s taunt and run stopped me.

“Don’t forget what I told you Sara.”

Dinner was considerably tense.

After returning to Andres in the kitchen, and explaining to him who had been at the door, nobody really said anything. Andres tried to start a few conversations, but Scott and I were no help in continuing them. I knew he was freaking out about Adan’s visit and I was too. I had heard Adan’s warning at the festival about fighting dirty, but I had never expected
that
. I hadn’t expected Scott to meet Adan either. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about the whole situation. The wolf thing, and now the Adan thing, made it harder for me to decide. Could I just toss away everything Scott and I had, when he had been willing to risk his life for mine? Could I ignore my intense connection with Adan?
Blah!

When dinner was finished, Andres said his goodnights and goodbyes and escaped to his room. I envied him, I just wanted to escape to my room too. I was feeling even more run down; and it seemed like the more the day went on, the worse it got. Scott and I volunteered to clean up the kitchen and do the dishes. Scott filled the sink with soapy water and I piled the dished next to him.

“I’ll wash, you dry.” He said, and playfully tossed the dish towel at me and smiled.

I returned the smile and went to stand next to the dish rack. “Sounds like a very good plan to me. I’m so tired. Andres had a field day today with our exercise routine, and now he wants me too start some weird type of extreme kickboxing…can you believe that?” I tried to keep to a safe topic.

“Really? Why does he want you to learn kickboxing?” he scrubbed the food off our plates, and handed them to me.

“If I had to guess, it’s because he is crazy. I don’t know. He is so cryptic about everything. I gave up trying to understand the insane workings of his mind.”

“Are you going to avoid what was with you and that Adan guy, and what you were doing with him in a photo booth all night?” He didn’t look at me as he fired the question, just continued to wash and pass.

I rinsed off the plate he handed me, dried it and put it away before I answered him. “I’m not avoiding it Scott,”
Lie one
. “There is nothing going on.”
Lie two.
“I don’t know why he made it sound like we had been in the booth
together.
I was in there
and then all of a sudden sparks were flying, computers were blowing up, and he pulled me out. That’s all that happened.”
Lie three
.

“He seemed pretty intent on making me believe otherwise. He obviously likes you Sara, and it almost looked like you were
trying
to make him jealous…”

I was a horrible person. “I’m sorry Scott. I swear that’s not what I was doing.”
Wasn’t it?!

“I’d feel better if you didn’t spend anymore time with him Sara.” He finally looked at me as he emptied the sink and pulled the nozzle out to rinse away the suds.

“You can trust me Scott.”

Could he really?
I asked myself.

Yes. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him…on purpose at least.

“I know I can trust you Sara, it’s him I don’t trust. It’s a cliché I know, but when has that cliché ever been wrong?” He smiled at me.

“You don’t have anything to worry about.” I put away the last of the dishes and handed him the towel so he could dry off his wet hands. He tossed the towel aside and looked toward the living room, before he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him.

“I hope not, but I don’t like the way he was looking at you.” He confessed softly.

“Don’t be silly,” I smiled at him playfully. “He wasn’t looking at me any certain way Scott.” I wanted to pull away from him, but I knew that would only contradict my words.

“Believe me Sara, he was definitely looking at you in a certain way. You’re not a guy, you wouldn’t have noticed it.”

I laughed and used this as my opening to remove myself. Pushing at his chest playfully, I pulled away. “Boys! I think you guys see what you want to see. Come with me to take out the trash before you leave?” I asked. I wrapped up the corners of the trash tying it in a knot. “I hope you don’t mind, I’m really beat.”

“Of course not. What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Work.” I reminded him, and stopped at the double doors.

“Oh right.” He came around and took the bag of trash from me. He opened the door, motioning for me to go first. “Ladies first.”

I smiled and hopped out in front of him. “Thank you.”

We walked down the steps of the deck, and to the side of the house where the trash bins were. Scott lifted the lid and dumped the bag in, letting the lid drop with a loud crack.

“Shhhh,” I hissed shoving his arm. “You’ll wake the neighbors.”

He busted out laughing. “What neighbors Sara?”

I looked around and realized he was right; there were no neighbors on our block. It was dark on this corner of the house, and I realized this was probably a mistake. I hurried to walk past him so we could get to the front of the house where it was lit, but Scott had other ideas and caught me, pressing me into the wall of the house.

“Not so fast,” he said, leaning into me. “I haven’t gotten a proper kiss from you yet, thanks to your psychotic watch dog.” He was tracing his finger over the shadows on my face.

“He was just making sure you were being a gentlemen.” I whispered.

He put his hand over his check in mock hurt. “Ouch. I am always a gentlemen, but since I have you alone out here…” He leaned in closer.

Scott had always been good with giving me space and not being so pushy when it came to sex. He knew I was a virgin, and I knew he wasn’t, but that didn’t change the way he treated me. I wasn’t ready, and he respected that, letting me know he would wait until I was. We had done other things, steamy make out sessions and a lot of heavy petting; but it never got further than that, and more then one time he had been the first one to stop it.  I had a feeling tonight was going to be different; I knew he felt like he had something to prove.

His lips pressed against mine, softly at first and then he increased the pressure, trying to push my lips open. I figured I could give him one good kiss and then pull away without hurting his feelings or bruising his ego.

Scott was a good kisser, but kissing him now I felt nothing, no sparks or heat. There was no need, or want, to deepen the kiss and pull him closer to me. I could feel the flutter, crawling under my skin, sizzling to life but I knew it wasn’t because of Scott; and I wondered which one was out there, or if it was both. Scott tried to deepen the kiss, but I pulled away before he could.

Pulling back, I licked my lips and smiled at him. “I had to come up for air.”

He laughed and put me down, kissing my nose. “I better go before I get eaten alive by your watch dog.” he joked, and I laughed.

I watched him drive away, after making plans with him to pick me up after work tomorrow, and then walked around the side of the house. Rounding the corner, I took a quick peek at the trash cans to make sure Scott had flipped the lid, when I saw his lazy profile as he leaned against the back of the house. My hand flew to my chest and I gasped loudly.

“Did I scare you?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

“Are you insane? Of course you scared me!!” I screeched.

“Shhhh,” he whispered. “Don’t want to wake your dad.”

“Andres is
not
my dad.” I corrected. “And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in surrender. Pushing away from the wall, he stalked toward me. “Let’s talk about something else then. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that you were trying to make me jealous with your little display with Scott.” He drawled.