The XOXO New Adult Collection: 16 Full Length New Adult Stories (339 page)

My sister groaned and sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Time to check out. Let’s go.”

“Shoot! Okay, I didn’t really unpack, so it’s cool. I’m ready.” She stretched and started tossing her stuff into her own pack, simultaneously running a brush through her long, honey brown locks. “Where we headed today?”

“I guess we go ahead with our plan to hit the rest of the coast bars. It’s not like we can hide from Jonas anyway. He’s got his dogs sniffing our arses, so let’s just get to it before he has a chance to waltz back in here and grace us with his lovely charm again.”

Audrey nodded, about to reach over to shake Saul up, but he was already stirring. He sat up and pulled on a shirt before reaching down to pull on his socks and shoes. That man was delish, like a refined wine. Even his blind eyes took nothing away from his chiseled looks. I smiled and turned away before I embarrassed Audrey by eyeing them both too long. She deserved a nice specimen of a man like that. I’d never be able to hold one like him. I always picked the wrong ones to hang with and pushed the right ones as far as I possibly could. Let’s just say, I didn’t want to settle down, now or ever, not after all the crap Audrey and I had to go through in our childhoods. I’d never put a kid through that. Family was my sister, and that was all I wanted. If she chose to have kids, that was up to her. I’d be there for her and the kids, but no man was going to anchor me down with kids ever.

“Give me your pack. I’ll stuff it in the trunk.” I took the bag Audrey handed me and headed out the door. Pausing to peek around me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Jonas did have his little bitches sniffing around, watching our every move. Sighing, I clicked the trunk open and tossed our stuff into the back, including my guitar. Somehow, after last night, my little safety net felt incredibly absent. I was naïve to think Ruben wouldn’t send someone like Jonas after us. We’d kept all our plans secret, never telling anyone in his vicinity where we were planning to go. Jonas was an entirely different kind of monster, and we were truly at his mercy—a fact I hated with every fiber of my body.

How do I fix this? How do I twist it to our advantage? Reaching up, I touched the tender bruise that had blossomed around my eye. The swelling had come down, but it had left me feeling weak and shattered. Jonas was such a dangerous man. What could I do to quell his thirst for control over us? How could I swipe the reins of power from him willingly enough that he wouldn’t notice the loss of it? I slipped my sunglasses on, large bug-eyed ones which movie stars tended to favor because they covered so much of one’s face. Underneath the shades, I felt a bit better- less vulnerable, less broken. It was a partial mask to hide the fragility I always tried so hard to squash about myself.

I’d pondered on this, especially since Audrey volunteered to drive down the coast. I could take a moment and think it over, finding the solution to this puzzle. I would, too. One thing I had acquired from years of taking care of just me and Audrey was I knew how to survive and figure out stuff no one else would even think about as a problem. She always told me I could’ve gone to Harvard, for I was a damned genius, but that wasn’t the road for me. I wasn’t the kind of girl who could sit in an institution and accept things as they told me they were. I’d lose my damn mind there, surrounded by mindless robots operating in the system they were told they had to maneuver to become the ‘it’ people of America. I’d rather do it the hard way, like actually get the street smarts to make it. I didn’t need corporate America to save me. I’d save myself.

“What is tossing about in that head of yours, Sis?” Audrey’s voice broke through my cloud, and I shifted to face her. My feet were kicked up on the dashboard, so I slipped them down to stretch them out.

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

“You never just think, so cough it up.”

I laughed, shaking my head at Audrey. “If I tell you what I’m thinking, you’ll institutionalize me immediately.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that.” Audrey huffed, pointing at a McD’s for late breakfast. I shuddered at the thought of the greasy food, but she loved the stuff, so I agreed. “Look, about Jonas, I’m sorry we got caught up in this crap, so I’m going to fix it.”

Audrey threw me an unconvinced glare before she pulled into the parking spot. “Like what, Liv? I don’t like the sound of that whatsoever.”

I groaned and pushed some loose strands of my hair behind my ears. “Look, Jonas isn’t a reasonable man. He’s used to getting everything he wants. What if I give him that? We give him the music he wants. He gets to be with me the way that he wants. I can manipulate a man in lust, or even love, get him to comply to my whims...our wants. He’ll be so wrapped around my finger he won’t even know he’s leaving us to our own devices. Then, when he gets tired of me, he moves on and we’re free again.”

“What?” Audrey ripped off her shades and grabbed my arm, her fingertips digging into the flesh uncomfortably. “Hell no. What are you thinking? You’re insane. No, you’re worse than that, delusional.” She slammed her hand against the steering wheel a couple of times before she stopped and leaned back, letting out a long, defeated sigh. “You’re kidding, right? Please say you’re pulling my leg, you psycho.”

“No, I’m not. I just texted him, letting him know I’d like to get to know him better.”

“What the hell, Liv! You really have some suicidal issues, don’t you?”

“He’ll leave you alone. He’ll let us do our music the way we want—hell, maybe even get us a contract. I’ll just...get a bonus, I guess.”

“You’ll just be his sex slave. No! Absolutely not!”

“It’s done, Audrey. It’s the only way he’ll eventually leave us be.”

“No. Are you not right in the head? What the fuck? Hell, even I know that already, but still, what the hell!” Audrey scrambled out of the car, barely letting Saul scramble out before she slammed the door, shaking the entire station wagon. “You’re mental. I suggest you get something to eat because your brain is devouring itself for lack of food and too many drugs. Get the hell out of the car, Liv.” Her voice was filled with bitterness.

I obliged, but not without throwing her a deadening glare for yelling at me in public. It was always humiliating, and she was the queen of humiliation when she wanted to straighten me out. I hated it.

“Whatever! You’re already killing yourself by eating that junk food, so who’s suicidal now?” I laughed and strutted behind her, head tall even with only Saul as the audience, no matter how immature I sounded. Maybe she was having this epic fit to impress him. He looked pretty calm and followed along quietly. Now why can’t Audrey be more like that? I liked him more and more as time went on.

Inside, Audrey had already ordered, even for me. I groaned and sat down in a booth. I knew my plan was foolproof. As if to reassure me, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I yanked it out, a text from Jonas flashing across the screen, and a smile spread across my face as I read it.

I’d love to meet up. When and where? Wear a dress.

Yep, falling right into the palm of my hand.

“I agree with Audrey. What you’re doing is a very bad idea.” Saul slipped in next to me, his shades covering up the icy blue eyes underneath. His face was still and calm, like nothing ever flustered him. His dark hair was neat and unruly all at the same time. How a man like him had lived life so effortlessly was beyond me.

“It’s what will get us through this intact.”

“He’s a dangerous man.”

“You don’t know him. I can read people really well. He’s mush under that hard exterior, like putty I plan to mold to fit me.”

“You don’t know him. You may think you do, but you’re playing right into his hands. He’ll make you pay for it, and you’ll regret it. There will be consequences.”

“You don’t know me, so don’t underestimate what I can do.”

“You’re right, I don’t know you. I do know men like Jonas, and they are unforgiving and don’t know how to love anyone, even someone as amazing as you. Don’t do this. Audrey wouldn’t be able to lose you if something terrible happened.” Even through all that, his face remained stoic and his voice steady. Maybe I didn’t like him as much as I thought I did.

“I got this, Saul. Nothing will happen. I got this.”

“I hope so, seeing that you’re not budging one bit. Be careful.”

“Careful is my middle name.”

“I’m pretty sure it is.”

Audrey

SAUL’S FINGERS WORKED
their way across the digital pads, caressing the buttons as they moved. I couldn’t help but stare. He was always in control, always calm and in check with each decision as his hands obeyed. I couldn’t look away. He popped on repetitive drum beats and nodded his head to the rhythm, and watching him was mesmerizing. It was late afternoon, and the bar was all but empty. Soon it would be crawling with hooligans filling their stomachs with cheap alcohol and dancing until their feet blistered.

I wouldn’t mind sitting here all night watching him work his magic on the bundle of electronics splayed in front of him. Saul was so different from anyone I’d ever met—a gentle soul, strong yet couldn’t hurt a fly. Maybe he could. I didn’t know him well enough to judge that yet. Deep inside though, my intuition told me he was a good person. I prayed I wasn’t wrong. So many ways a person can be wrong, and I’d been ever so mistaken already many times.

“Audrey?” Saul tilted his head up in my direction, as if he knew I was there watching him with studious eyes. How did he do that? It made me question if he was really blind. The blankness behind those pupils confirmed it somewhat. His eyes didn’t widen as they found me. They didn’t crinkle with recognition. How desolate it must be to live in darkness at all hours, without the relief which light can bring. What was it like? Was it lonely there?

I’d shivered at his voice saying my name, like liquid silk off his tongue. It was as mesmerizing as the rest of him.

“Yeah? Right here.” I stepped up onto the stage to get closer and waited for him to say what he wanted to. How does he make me hang on each syllable so easily?

“Can you do some voice samples for me? I want to integrate them into the songs tonight. It’ll make it sound like you have a chorus of backups singing for you.”

Raising an eyebrow, I was impressed. “Really? That’s fantastic. Okay! What do you want me to do?”

“Start with our second song set, ‘Candy Case’.” He pressed a couple buttons, and the basic drum beat sounded off, repeating without further buttons pushed. Nice.

“Don’t touch... you might break it,

Don’t say....you could fake it.

I only want the lies before you go,

No goodbyes....put on a show.

‘Cause and effect

Drop your sugar now

Find it on my lips

You might like what you see...”

The music ebbed off as we ended. Looking at Saul’s face, I noticed he had an odd satisfaction swimming across his features. The echoes of the music were loud in the mostly empty room.

“Was that okay?” His voice was low and faraway to me. I was still lost in my post song haze.

I nodded, amazed at how different the music sounded with his mixed beats and keyboard notes hypnotically filling the space in between the words. “It was perfect.”

“Like you.” He cleared his throat and shifted. “Your voice, too, I mean. It was flawless.”

We stared at each other for moments. They ticked by, hovering about us like fireflies fluttering in my ears, making my face flush. “Thanks,” was all I could manage after what felt like the longest awkward silence I’d ever experienced. Sweat pooled in my shirt as the air turned heated.

“You’re welcome.” His glassy blue irises appeared to be scanning my face, but the slight cataracts in his pupils made me remember they didn’t work. It had me wishing he could see me, see my face, my skin, the spill of scarlet across my cheeks. Could he know how he affected me? Could he feel the rolling waves of warmth seeping from my skin with him close? I wanted him to, more than anything else. I needed him to.

Standing up, I hopped off the stool and raced down the steps of the stage and down into the dance pit where the air seemed to clear up somewhat, making it easier to breathe. I had to get myself together somehow, before I fell apart. I hadn’t let anyone affect me so much since Arron, my ex. He’d been from a different life, another time—one which was best not dwelled upon for too long.

As I made my way to the bathroom to slam the faucet on and splash my face with the icy cold water, I closed my eyes. It wasn’t Arron’s face I saw now behind my lids anymore. It’d been a long time since I’d felt the anxiety of my heart beating in my chest for that man. He’d been the last to kiss my lips, the last to set my skin on fire with one soft caress...the last to break my heart.

Now, here was this Saul guy, who sent my skin into shivers without so much as a touch. His voice could ripple a lake with its rich, intense tones, yet was calmer than a meadow before the rain.

It wasn’t him I was running from. I knew that much.

No. But who was I running from, really?

I glanced at my reflection in the grungy mirror, my pink face surrounding my deep hazel eyes that shined like liquid gems in the harsh incandescent lights. Long brown hair ran down the sides, framing my high cheekbones. I was pretty, but I wouldn’t compare myself to Audrey Hepburn. This girl wasn’t that confident.

I was running from any stir of feelings whipping up inside me like a flooding river ready to crush the levies holding it back. To let anyone in would be my downfall. It would be the end of me as I knew it. That’s what I was scared of. I’d continue to flee from any kind of relationship as fast as my feet and reluctance could carry me.

“Audrey?”

Ripping a paper towel off the ream sitting on the counter instead of in its broken holder just above it, I dabbed my soaked face. Hearing my sister’s voice snapped me sober, and I glanced at my reflection. I hated looking like a drowned rat, which was how I appeared right now. Swiping back the snakes of hair sticking to my cheeks, I finally turned toward my sister’s voice. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I saw you run in here. You sick?”