Chapter 26
Lilah
They gave Destiny something in the ER that seemed to calm her down and her moaning stopped. I don’t even want to know what horrific thing she was reliving. It took them most of the night, but eventually they found her a bed in the psych ward. I guess by law, they can’t turn away a psych case, even if there’s no insurance.
I’m still not exactly sure what happened. It’s a little bit blurry in my head. She kept screaming that Bran had raped me, then all of a sudden, she’s punching me, like something just snapped and she went into self-defense mode.
There have been a series of people that have come in to look over Destiny’s file. A few of them asked me questions about whether Destiny has any allergies, whether she uses recreational drugs or alcohol, whether she’s had any psychiatric treatment in the past, what our current living situation is, if we have other family, and one woman who introduced herself as Destiny’s therapist wanted to know about our childhood and our parents. I told her everything I could think of. They let me stay with Destiny all day and brought me a tray at lunch and dinner. The cop from the house came and asked some questions a little while ago. Finally, as it starts getting dark outside Destiny’s window, the nurse tells me I have to go.
I call Jon and wait at the main entrance for him to come for me.
“Hey,” he says when I slide into the passenger seat of the Mustang. So much has happened in the last twenty-four hours, it feels like a year since I’ve been here.
“Hey,” I parrot, my mind too numb to come up with anything else.
“Mom wants you to stay with us for a while,” he says. “You good with that?”
I slump into the seat and nod.
He leaves me alone for the short ride to his house and when we get there, Bethany goes into super-mom mode when she sees the bruise on my face.
“Oh you poor dear,” she says. “You’re safe now. I’ve got the guest room made up and you’ll stay with us until your sister recovers.”
I nod, because I don’t have the energy to think right now.
Jon comes with me to my room and we sprawl across the double bed. “You didn’t miss much in algebra,” he says, “but I’ll let you copy my homework.”
“Thanks.”
“We got knocked out of the playoffs last night, so football’s officially over.”
I roll my head to look at him. “Good thing, or bad thing?”
“Good, I think,” he says with a nod. “I’m ready for a break.”
“Okay. Great.” I turn my face back to the ceiling and hook an elbow over my eyes. My lids are all of a sudden too heavy to hold up.
Until Jon says, “And I kissed Troy.”
I spring to a sit and look down at him. “Redwood linebacker Troy?”
He smiles and nods.
“And?” I wave to his privates. “Zing or no zing?”
That goofy grin pulls at his mouth. “Definite zing.”
I hold up a hand and he high fives me. “You slut.”
He sits up and windshield wipers a finger at me. “Hey, hey, hey…none of that. It was just a kiss.”
“For now,” I say.
“What about you?” he asks. “What’s going on with Cradle Robber?”
Bran.
I’ve tried to keep my mind where it belongs right now, on my sister, but all day it’s crept to him. I left him standing in the apartment with a cop last night. I don’t know what happened after that. He texted this morning to say he’d boarded up our door. He wants me to let him know when I need to get in. I texted back “Thanks,” and that was it.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
♫
It’s been four days. I’ve gone to school and work, and visited Destiny when I can. Bethany is insisting I stay with them until Destiny’s home, but the truth is, I’ll go out of my fucking mind and end up in the hospital bed next to my sister if I have to be there one more day. It’s unnatural for any group of people to be this happy.
So, I text Bran from work, tell him I’m ready for him to let me into the apartment.
I expect him to go over and open it up for me. What I don’t expect is to walk out of the market and find his car on the curb outside and him leaning against the door. There’s a definite December chill in the air, and he’s wearing a well worn black leather jacket over a blue hoodie and jeans.
And, God, he’s incredible.
It’s easy to forget when I’m away from him, but the sight of him steals my breath.
“You ready?” he asks, shoving off his car.
No. There’s no way to be ready for the wave of desire that overwhelms me every time I’m near him. “Yeah.”
He opens the door for me and I slide in. He climbs in his side and watches the road ahead as we pass Sam Hill on the way to our apartment. When I see our door, I bust out laughing. I expected a few two by four scraps nailed over the opening, but he’s replaced the outer door with a steel security door.
“Wanted to be sure no one messed with your stuff. Especially since you were nice enough to pack it all up for them.”
“We don’t have anything but a busted TV. They could have it.”
He looks at me for a second before swinging open his door. He produces a key from his pocket and turns it in the locks, then hands it to me and stands back.
“After you.”
I climb the stairs and Bran follows. At the top, I pull out my key and let us in.
Everything is as we left it, boxes littering the floor and surfaces. Except, there’s a new TV on the table in the corner. I look at him.
“Mom had an extra.” He goes over and turns it on, then picks up a remote and pokes at it. “The episodes of
The Voice
we were at are on the TiVo.”
He clicks play and the finals start.
“Zip to Lo,” I say as I drop onto the couch.
He pulls off his jacket and slings it over the arm of the couch before sitting at the other end and doing as I ask. We watch her first song and I get shivers listening to her hit notes I could only dream of. And when he zips to the intro for her original song, and they say my name, the rush makes me shudder.
“Did you see?” Bran asks. “You’ve been number one since the show.”
I look at him and he gives me half a smile. I’ve been so caught up in everything else, I hadn’t thought about the fact that they released that single. Something I wrote is being heard by millions of people. I turn my attention back to the screen just as the camera pans to the audience…and catches me and Bran mauling each other right in the middle of the crowded auditorium.
My fingers dig into my knees and I feel heat creep up my face. Lo hits the final note and Bran clicks off the TV.
He stands and grabs his jacket, flinging it over his shoulder. “I’ll leave you alone. Lock the doors behind me.”
I bound from my seat. “Don’t go!”
He turns slowly and heat blazes from his dark gaze as it rakes over me. “I can’t be here without needing to kiss you, Lilah.”
I take a step toward him. “Then kiss me.”
For several beats of my racing heart, he stands at the door doing battle with himself.
“Please,” I say.
It’s barely a whisper, but it blows the smolder in his eyes into an inferno. In two long strides he’s on me, and I’m being crushed in his strong arms and devoured by his mouth. His kiss demands everything I have, and I give it to him. I open wide and give myself up to his desire. There’s no way something can burn this bright and not spontaneously combust. I expect to burst into flames at any second.
But when I start tugging at his clothes, desperate to feel him inside me again, he peels my hands away and steps back. “You have no idea how badly I want to fuck you blind right now, but if we’re going to do this, I need everyone on board.”
“Destiny,” I say when what he’s saying clicks in my head. I raise my eyebrows, challenging him. “You think she’s going to get on board with you fucking me blind?”
He barks a laugh. “I don’t need her on board with the specifics, only the basic concept. I need to know she’s not going to have my sorry ass thrown in jail.”
“There’s nothing sorry about your ass, Bran.”
He shakes his head at me. “Exactly what I’m afraid the rest of the inmates are going think.”
“Besides,” I say with a sigh. “I’m not sure Destiny’s going to get on board with anything.”
His kiss swollen lips press into a line. “We’ll just have to convince her. When she’s better.”
I slip my T-shirt off and toss it at him. “You’re sure I can’t convince
you
?”
He snatches it out of the air and presses it to his face, closing his eyes and breathing deep. “I’m trying to do the right thing by everyone and you are fucking with my resolve.”
God, he’s right. I’m a horrible person. Destiny is fighting for her sanity and here I am trying to get laid.
He turns for the door, taking my shirt with him. “You should come back to the bar now that you’re famous. Been saving your seat.”
“I’ll think about it,” I say as he retreats down the stairs.
The steel door at the bottom bangs shut and I go to the window and watch him cross the street. He pulls on his jacket on the way to his car, and before he drops into his seat, he lifts my shirt to his face again and breathes deep.
He pulls away and leaves me aching for him.
Chapter 27
Bran
Lilah comes into the bar at eight thirty and my heart swells. I’ve been a good boy for the last week and a half since the kiss at her apartment and kept my hands off. But it’s been an epic struggle.
Tonight, she’s bundled into a jacket with a furry collar and I think I’m safe…until she peels it and the scarf underneath off. She’s in boots past her knees, a short tight skirt and a long-sleeved, gauzy button-down blouse that clings in all the right places. At my perusal, her nipples tighten into nubs and I smile. I still affect her too. Good to know.
My body does what it always does in her presence, and I spend the next four hours trying to tame my raging boner.
Lilah stays until closing tonight, and it suddenly hits me that all those nights I thought she was leaving to see someone, she probably had a curfew. A stab of panic slices through my gut with the reality of Lilah’s age. Sixteen. God, that was a long time ago. But I must be getting used to the idea, because the panic isn’t incapacitating anymore and it passes quickly.
My sister Brenda is covering nights until Carol comes back, which should be just after New Year’s. She punches out a little before one and turns off the lit OPEN sign in the window on her way out. And then it’s just Lilah and me.
“How’s Destiny?” I ask as she packs away her guitar.
“Better. We have a session together with her therapist on Monday and then they might let her come home.” She looks up at me with a spark of panic. “I know you want her stamp of approval, but what if she says no? What if she still wants to move?”
I brace my hands on the bar to keep from leaping over it to comfort her. “Then we’ll deal with it.”
“How?”
“Maybe we just have to wait until you turn eighteen.” My heart turns to stone in my chest at the thought and I pray it doesn’t come to that.
Her panic ebbs and her whole face softens. “You would wait over a year for me?”
She looks suddenly so innocent and the breath leaves my lungs. “I would wait forever for you. I’ve survived snipers and landmines, and I honestly never fully understood why we were even there. But with you, my eyes are wide open.
I’m
making the choice, and whatever the consequences are, I’m ready to handle them. If I have to wait, I’ll wait. But I’ll never quit you, Lilah. I can’t.”
She comes slowly around to my side of the bar and loops her arms around my neck, and when she pulls me into a kiss, I’m helpless to stop her. Now that I have her in my arms, I’m totally unwilling to let her go. We kiss for long enough that she finally tips her head back, gasping for air. My lips skim her long throat to her pulse point and I flick my tongue there, causing her to gasp. But when she reaches for the throbbing bulge in my jeans, I know I’ve taken this too far.
“I’ve been wanting to fuck you on this bar since the first time you walked in here,” I growl. I let her go and back away. “And I will, but not tonight.”
She takes a deep breath and straightens her clothes. “All this for Destiny’s approval?”
“I used to think what I did didn’t matter—that no one gave a shit.” I start switching off lights. “But I met a girl a few months back, and she made me not want to be such a fucking dick all the time. So I’m trying.” Once the room is dark, I pull her into my arms. “I’m bound to fuck up here and there, because that’s what I do, but I’m going to at least try to get this off on the right foot.”
I kiss her again, slow and deep, then guide her to the door. I grab her guitar on the way and toss it in my backseat. When we reach her apartment, I kiss her again. “Lock up and text me when you’re going to bed.”
“Why?”
I grin. “Because that’s when I’ll be jacking off and imagining myself all up inside you.”
She leans in slowly and lays a soft, warm kiss on my mouth. “You don’t have to imagine.”
I tip my forehead into hers. “Yes I do. For now.”
She takes a deep breath then shoulders out her door. She leans in before she closes it. “I like you better when you’re bad.”
I hand her guitar out to her and she turns for the apartment. I wait for her to disappear behind the security door and the light to turn on upstairs before I pull away.
She texts me a selfie fifteen minutes later. It’s from the waist up and she’s naked, her perfect round tits pointing at the camera and her nipples pricked into tight nubs. One hand is twisted into the blond hair strewn across her pillow. She’s all bedroom eyes and pouty lips and that look tightens my balls.
I grab my key and storm to the door, because I fucking need her more than oxygen right now. I ache all over with want, and I know she won’t turn me away when I pound on her door and take what I need from her.
But my newfound conscience stops me in my tracks before I even get the door open. I made a promise to myself and part of being the guy she deserves is keeping it. So I do exactly what I told her I would. I drop onto the couch, pull out my throbbing cock, and go to town. Because it’s the only way I’m going to be able to keep that promise.