“Have you shared girls before?” I almost didn’t want to know.
“When we’re high. I’ve never had a threesome, if that’s what you’re asking, but shit gets weird when you’re high.”
“I don’t really feel weird. Just tingly.” I drank a swig, looking at him. “Where’s the overwhelming horniness?”
“Those were double stacks, Hals. You’re going to be high as shit in another twenty minutes and you’re going to stay that way all night. There’s plenty of time for all that horniness, I promise.” His lips twitched. “You want to dance?”
“Really?”
“I’m high,” he defended. “Give me a break.”
He helped me to my feet and we left our beers where they were, his hand leading me into the crowd. When he stopped, he flashed me a rare smile. The music was louder closer to the stereo, and it penetrated the bodies, fanning over my skin and filling me with a rush of excitement. I put my hands on his shoulders and let it guide me, eyes super focused and yet still faraway. I was floating away for once instead of being stuck. I danced harder with my fake boyfriend, lost in the bubble of us. His hands felt like magic on my body. I licked at the sweat on his temple and the taste sent a rush of heat to my core. Like being on the cusp of an orgasm, that pleasure guided me further, heightening my senses.
Charmant faded beneath my feet. I couldn’t even feel the ground anymore. It was only him. His cologne and his sweat filled my nose and lungs, giving me a true reason to breathe. His eyes were deep dark blue like the sky, endless. Holding his gaze felt like touching his insides. I had never been more connected to another human being than I was with him tonight.
“I think he’s loved only you since he could love.”
I kissed him.
His hands wound around my waist, and the pressure of his hard on pressing into my stomach made me want to be tall enough to feel it where I wanted it.
His tongue felt mind-blowingly silky and hot. I flicked my tongue against him, watching his eyes roll into the back of his head. I stroked his tongue with mine erotically, from the tip to as far as I could go, loving the power I felt in his reaction. He looked drunk, his eyes low, his gaze burning. He wanted me.
I pushed him away and started dancing on my own, giggling when I heard him shout. When he got close, I ducked back, dancing between bodies and using Jace Lyles as a shield.
“Turn around,” Jace said, eerie smile glowing from the fire.
I saw the blur before I was in the air and Wreck was stalking back to the middle of the dance floor with me over his shoulder. I hung there as he danced with Trudy, giggling uncontrollably down his back with my hair in my face even though I wasn’t sure if I should be laughing or kicking his ass.
A throwback hip hop song came on and he dropped me, lining up with Rip to dance, like they’d done it every time it came on. He was smiling, sweating, dancing—living. So alive and boyish my heart stuttered at the sight of him. I understood why everyone loved him then. He was the gravity keeping my star in place.
***
The stars never moved.
They hung in the sky watching me hanging on their every twinkle. They looked so far away. I wanted to go with them, go someplace my father’s influence could never touch. He surely had no power in the universe. There were no banks up there, at least not ones with money.
“You’ve been staring at the sky for an hour.”
I blinked, falling from the sky. “Really? Weird.”
“There’s too many dicks out right now, you want to go do something else?”
I risked a glance, finding naked limbs and pupil-dilated moans coming from the flashes of skin. “Please.”
I followed Cage through the crag and trees, ending up drenched in darkness. To keep him, I grabbed at him blindly, looping my arm through his. “Where are we going?”
“You trust me?”
I snorted. “I’d trust Buffalo Bill right now.” My mind was hyper focused on my emotions and the way they felt. Desire brushed over my heart and sadness scraped down the other side of it.
“Sounds like a trustworthy guy.”
“Yeah, making suits out of skins. What’s not to trust?”
He smirked, leading me over the uneven rocky surface. “You ever wonder what goes through their heads?”
“Serial killers? Not as often as I’d like.”
“I mean, there’s more to this life, right?” He looked up. “God probably has us once we’re done with Charmant, but for all of those who weren’t lucky enough to be born here, they’ve got him all their lives. Don’t they know how hard they’re going to fall when they croak, and he holds up all the bodies they left behind?”
I frowned in the dark. “He probably wants nothing to do with them. I wouldn’t if I were him.”
“So, hell then.” He nodded, looking at the ground. “That seems like punishment to me. Never getting to meet him.”
I attended a Catholic church growing up—the older I got and the busier my parents were, Illa had taken me with her to her Baptist church a few times—and I’d endured Sunday school all through grade school. As a child, I enjoyed wondering about it, and believing in something bigger than our parents and someone good, was a hope that probably kept us going. “What are you going to say to him when you meet him?”
“I’m going to ask what he was thinking letting someone create adult Crocs.”
I guffawed into the woods, soaking up his crooked smile. “He probably took a vacation day.”
“Then I’ll probably give him a fist bump.”
“A fist bump?”
“And a wink with one of those shoulder nudges you give when there’s a hot girl in the room.” He nudged me, wiggling his dark brows. “Ask me why.”
“Why?”
“Because of you.”
“You’d nudge God? I’m like his daughter. Plus, you’re high. Shit, we’re high. He’s probably pissed at us right now.” I looked up at the sky, but it was shielded by the trees. “Quick, play it cool.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re fooling him. With your rosy cheeks and wide eyes. Plus, you’ve been dragging your teeth over your lip so hard it’s almost bleeding. You have beer on your breath.”
“Shut up!” I hissed, shoving at him. “Don’t blow my cover.”
“Your nipples have been hard in your cami all night.” He laughed when I stomped ahead of him. “Be careful. The cliff’s about to fall away.”
I skidded to a halt. “Crude bastard.”
“This is probably a bad time to say this then.” He stopped near a tree with wayward summer dry branches. “Get naked.” I gawked at him. “If you cliff jump with your clothes on they’ll drag you down. It’s already dangerous enough.”
“We’re cliff jumping?” I swallowed hard. “Like over the edge?”
“Mhm.” He kicked off his boots. “We’ll come back around and get our clothes later.” He tore off his shirt and slung it on a tree branch, his body dragging my attention momentarily away from my panic. The darkness turned his abs into a ravine of tempting muscle and smooth hard flesh. I’d never wanted to lick someone so badly in my life. He reached for his belt; the clink of his buckle in the night made me squeeze my thighs together. He unzipped his jeans and then pushed them down his legs, stepping out of them and hanging those too on the branch. He stood before me in a pair of Hugo Boss dark blue boxer briefs.
I nearly fainted.
They hugged every curve and angle. His hip bones led up to a chiseled indent in his lower abdomen. My rudimentary female hormones took over. I was simply a woman staring at a hot man and I wanted to do dirty things to him. Break every naughty rule and let him corrupt me.
“You are so fucking hot,” I moaned, stepping toward him like a zombie. “Must touch.”
He swatted me away. “No. Bad Hallie.”
“Sorry, I don’t speak French. Wait, yes, I do. Your abs are making me stupid.” My fingers connected with his abdomen. “I want to feel you. Let me.”
&nb
sp; He sighed resignedly, eyes on my hands as I touched him. I trailed my fingertips over his abs slowly; the heat of his skin burned me in the best way. I traced the V’s on each side of him with either index finger, going down to his pubic hair. His abdomen clenched under my touch when I played with his dark happy trail. It made me happy. I finally understood why they called it that. “I’m going to lick you one day. Every single inch of my tongue is going to know what you taste like.” My hand drifted to palm his rock-hard cock. “Does this thing ever calm down?”
He hissed through his teeth. “Not around you, apparently.”
I liked that. He was large, larger than Tristan. And thick. Thicker than Tristan. Letting him inside me would be like losing my virginity all over again. “It hurt really bad the first time I had sex.” He grew impossibly harder under my touch.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and the emotion in his voice made me want to cry as I let him inside of me.
“Tristan tried to be gentle, but teenage boys and sex.” I shrugged. “It got better eventually.”
“Why are we talking about the fucking gardener again?” His muscles coiled in jealous rage.
“Because when we have sex you’re going to hurt me too. You’re bigger, you’re more pent up. I’m just trying to subliminally warn you to be gentle. Even if I don’t want you to be the way I wanted him to be.” I met his angry horny eyes. “I want you to rip my clothes off and fill me as much as you can. Hard and rough. I want—”
He was on me before I could finish.
—you.
My back crashed into the tree and his lips engulfed mine. His kiss was decadence. Intense desire existed in his kiss. He was starving, and I felt like his vice. I immediately lost myself in his lips. I felt every truth he hid, his pain, his lust, his emotions. There were no walls around us as he feasted. My body scrambled against his, wanting to be higher. My fingers clawed at his back. The sensations bombarded me. His scent, the heat of his tongue, the rush of desire in my blood, and the pounding in my heart as I flapped my wings and flew around my cage.
I’d never tried to fly before. Didn’t know I still could.
He pulled back and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. His eyes were pinched. His face was pained. “You’re not wearing underwear, are you?”
“Not-uh.”
“Shit.” He released me and stepped back, trying to regain his composure. But his boxers hung dangerously in the front and if he felt what I just felt, my naked body was an invitation, not a deterrent. “No more touching until we’re dressed.”
My tongue flicked at my bottom lip, savoring the taste of his.
“And no more talking until we absolutely need to. And don’t touch me. In fact, don’t even look at me unless you have to. Take your clothes off.”
“Right away, Mr. Wreckmond.” I was instantly nervous, forgetting my want in exchange for fear as I took my clothes off. “How high up is it?”
“High. We’re jumping into Sparrow Lake.”
I peeled my jeans off and hung them beside his, completely naked. The cool air on the cliff made me shiver.
“The water will be warm. Give me your hand.” He held his out. “When you jump, keep your legs straight when you enter the water. Flail all you want in the air, but they better be straight before they touch the surface. Don’t panic when you fall. You’re going to plunge toward the bottom, but you’ll swim up. It’s dark and you can’t see the surface. Keep your calm. I’ve done this a million times. If you need help, I’ll be there. Any questions?”
We broke the edge of the rocks to stand on the edge of the cliff. Below us there was nothing. “I can’t see it.”
“It’s there.”
“What if you got the position wrong and we hit rock?” I tried to pull free, but he pulled me against him and put my face in his hands.
“You’ll jump, and you’ll love it. I know you will. The freedom, the fear, the rush, the air whipping at you, the trust you place into nature, the roar of your pulse in your ear, the drop of your stomach, it’s living in the moment, Hallie. You said you wanted to feel alive tonight. This doesn’t get much more alive.”
The persuasion in his eyes felt like it was more for himself. He wanted to live with me. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to feel my life beside his until I had to choose between my safe fragile fear and the dangerous hard fall of life.
“So, I just jump?”
He smiled and waved me to the edge. “Stand how I am. Toes hanging over but your arch and heels on the cliff. You’re going to push out as hard as you can, and then you’re going to fall.”
“How will I know when I’m going to hit the water? It’s too dark.”
“The moon will show you.”
I looked up at the moon, at the stars, praying they didn’t let us down. Living sure was hard to do, placing my trust in something other than my father’s legacy. But it was a lot more fun this way too.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“On five.” He started to count.
I started to get nauseous.
When he got to four, he grabbed my hand. When he got to five, I pushed off the cliff as hard as I could and felt the bottom fall out of me. My stomach dropped deeply. I was part of the sky. Part of the stars. I was shining, I was free. I was living. The cold air was like ice. Wreck and I screamed together, and we fell together. We lived together. I looked down to see the moon shimmering in the blackness below, like the universe was going to absorb me; I straightened my legs.
“Straighten your feet!” he hollered.
W always looked out for me.
I hit the water like a brick wall. His hand was torn from mine. The inky blackness sent me into a panic, but I tried not to let it take over. There was nothing but dark and I didn’t know which way to swim. Wreck said up. I searched for the moon, but it was gone. My lungs were burning. I refused to let my fear take over and trusted my sense of direction, pointing my arms up and pumping my legs.
After what felt like hours, I broke the surface, gasping for breath. “Wreck?” When I didn’t see or hear anything, I looked around, finding the blackness of the lake and the mammoth rocky surface of the canyon. “Wreck!”
A splash caught my attention. He was floating on his back, smiling at the moon. “Never doubted you.”
I splashed him. “I could have drowned.”
“Never. You want to live too much. I knew you’d find your way.” He relaxed into the water. “What’d you think?”
My slow smile turned into a grin. “It was amazing!”
His grin was special. It was true. “You want to do it again?”
There was an uphill path cut into the cliff. It took a bit of time to get to the ledge we jumped from, but I had enough energy to do it ten more times. I felt exhilarated, excited, content, tingling with emotion. My second jump, we didn’t hold hands. We got a running start and jumped, sinking into the universe.
We raced up the cliff the third time, bodies dripping, my nakedness part of the night. I didn’t wait for him. I ran full-force for the ledge and barreled off, laughing as my stomach dropped and my heart lifted. The warm water of the lake warmed the cold rush from the air. My senses were in overload. I felt too much and too good to stop and think about it all. For once, I was feeling, and I didn’t want to stop.
Dawn broke. I lost count of how many times we’d jumped. We were floating in the lake, the small shreds of daylight trying to take the darkness with it. With morning came reality, and I had just gotten comfortable in my dreams.
“You want to head back? Everyone’s probably gone by now.”
When we got to shore, I hugged him. I wrapped my arms around him and held on, so thankful for Cage Wreckmond in that moment my heart felt heavy with him. “Thank you, Wreck. That was the most amazing night I’ve ever had.”
He cleared his throat and patted my back. But he didn’t let me go until I did, and he could be macho too, but I’d never seen him smile more than he did tonight. Ne
ver saw him so easygoing. When he was doing flips into the water and screaming as he fell. I’d have to thank him.
Maybe it was time I left W a gift.
Getting dressed wet, in the barely lit dawn on sharp rocks, was a great way to end a party. Sparrow Cliff was empty of bodies when we emerged. The garbage was gone, the bottles too. There were no signs that we’d all broken out and had some fun. It made me smile.
Wreck turned the heater on as he drove me home. I didn’t get tired until we drove past the canyon road and the widow in her mansion. I wondered if she knew about Sparrow Cliff and all its secret magic.
When we got to the security gates, Jack’s truck idled in the guest driveway. My heart sunk when I saw Tristan pulling out sheers for the roses on the rear property.
“That him?”
“Drive, please.” I hid my face, but there wasn’t a chance he’d see through the tinted windows.
The animosity coming off Wreck was making me sweat as he revved the car.
“You better not be thinking about running him over. Drive. Now. I want to go home.” When the Mercedes moved forward I exhaled in relief.
But Wreck wasn’t complying this morning. He rolled down my window and got close to their truck. Tristan looked over and saw me and then his eyes flicked to Wreck. I watched his heart burn me. I looked like I’d been out all night with the man I was beside. Because I had been, and that was his point. To rub me in my ex’s face.
I tried to get out, but the locks were engaged. Mortification and hurt swirled in me. “Roll up my window and drive. Or so help me, Cage, I’ll never talk to you again.”
Thankfully, he did so, parking out front of the main garage. The locks unlocked when he put his car in park. I got out and slammed his door, stomping into my house without my purse. I didn’t want to go back and get it. Let him have it.
“Hallie.”
“Save it!” I tried to slam the front door in his face, but he easily shoved it open. “I’m home. There’s no need for you to be here anymore. Go home. Leave!” I cried, shoving his chest as the dam broke. “Why’d you do that? That wasn’t a nice thing to do. You probably hurt his feelings. You hurt mine. You made me look like an evil bitch. It’s not his fault we couldn’t be together. I didn’t want to make this harder for him or for myself. And for what? So you could piss on his leg?” I wiped roughly at my eyes. “You were amazing tonight, Wreck. Truly freaking amazing. Why did you have to ruin it?” That was the hardest part. To feel so connected to him and then so far away.
Wrecked_A Novel Page 13