Cotton candy was a guilty pleasure of mine. It was pure sugary, melty goodness.
“I’m ready to go too,” Kace said. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, and placed his chin against my shoulder. “We have something to celebrate.”
My stomach flipped at his announcement. I knew he was going to tell everyone; I just hadn’t expected him to tell everyone so soon.
Callie tugged another little piece of cotton candy free from her bag, and eyed both Kace and me suspiciously. “And just what are we celebrating?”
“Something we’ve all been waiting to celebrate for a long time now.” Kace informed her rather cryptically if you ask me, but her eyes lit up with understanding. “Something that has to do with tomorrow night.”
Adam let out a sigh of relief. “Holy shit! I thought you were gonna say you’d knocked her up or something.”
Callie squealed, ignoring Adam like the rest of us. “No way! You’re seriously agreeing to it?”
“Yep, Addison is ready to go through with the initiation,” Kace said, squeezing me in his arms a little tighter.
“Ha! Told you that you were addicted to the idea,” Adam said with a shit-eating grin. “I knew you’d come around. I just didn’t know when.” He winked.
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and smiled, but it was forced. I prayed none of them could tell.
I was really stacking up, not only secrets, but also the letdowns that would come with them when they all crumbled to the ground.
Sitting in my living room, practically in Kace’s lap, with a nearly finished glass of wine in one hand, I listened to the others gush about how excited they were to become initiated, while I pondered what I should be celebrating, because that certainly was not it.
The breaking of my tether with Theo.
This was what I was celebrating. Well that, and the simple fact I was now down one secret I’d been harboring for two weeks. Bonus, I’d also lose the tether secret, and no one would ever have to know about it. My chest felt lighter already. Thank goodness for mental checklists.
However, I’d also gained a secret—the kiss—my conscience reminded me harshly.
I tipped back my wineglass, and in one large swig, emptied the remaining bit. Kace leaned forward, reached for the open bottle on the coffee table in front of us, and motioned for my glass.
“Another?” he asked.
I willingly handed it to him. “Yes, please.”
“So, what made you decide to agree all of a sudden?” Callie asked.
I glanced at her, but didn’t answer right away. I waited until my wineglass was back in my hand. It was acting as a security blanket, calming my frayed nerves. “Honestly, I’m just now really starting to enjoy my life here.”
I wasn’t sure where the words had come from, but there was a level of truth in them that I couldn’t deny. I’d found my biological father—even if he was sketchy and weird at best. I’d made some great friends, fallen in love with the beautiful beach scenery, and begun a relationship with a great guy. When I threw it all out there like that, life seemed good, and the decision to stay seemed like it should be an easy one.
It was when I added in everything else—the magick, the tether, Theo, especially Theo—that things became complicated.
“I like to think I’m part of the reason for that,” Kace said with a knee-weakening smile directed at me.
I winked at him and returned his smile. “Of course you are.”
My throat grew tight with my partial lie. Jesus, I needed to get this tether broken. Stat.
Kace’s hand found my knee again. The pad of his thumb swept across my skin, and made warmth spark and flare beneath his touch.
“We need music or something,” Callie said. She stood and walked over to where I’d last left my iPod, sitting on its docking station.
“That’s my girl,” Adam called to her. “Let’s liven this place up some.”
Some rap song I’d never heard before pumped through the tiny speakers of my radio thanks to Pandora, and Callie began to sway her hips to the beat. I took another swig of my wine before setting the glass on the table and jumping up to dance with her. Adam cranked the volume up a little more, and Binks ran from the room, frightened by the horrible popping noise coming from the speakers.
“Adam, if you blow my awesome sound system, you’re buying me a new one!” I shouted, faking an ill temper.
He smirked at me. “Fine. How much did it cost you…five bucks? That thing is a piece of junk. We need a real system and some more alcohol. Wanna head to the apartment?”
“I’m down for whatever, but it’s up to my new roomie. Addison?” Callie asked. Her cheeks were pink from the alcohol and the permanent grin plastered on her face stretching them.
After her rough day, it was nice to see her smile again and have a little fun.
I flicked my eyes to Kace; he’d remained quiet since we’d left the carnival, and I found him staring at me intently.
“If you want to,” he said, shrugging a shoulder with a lazy grin.
“Do you have food?” I asked, my stomach grumbling to intensify my question further.
Kace’s lips twisted into a wider smile, and he let out a chuckle. “Of course.”
I walked over and turned off my iPod. “Then it’s settled; we’re going to your apartment.”
Wine and cotton candy on an empty stomach were not good together, especially when you mixed it with stress and nerves. I needed something with some substance.
I sat on the counter in Kace and Adam’s kitchen, watching Kace as he rummaged through his fridge for something to make us.
“Thought you said you had food here,” I teased.
He poked his head out from the fridge, and glanced at me over his shoulder. “I do. I just don’t know what you’re in the mood for.”
Dibs lifted his head and cocked it to the side, while he listened to Kace talk. I snickered at him. He’d toned down his hyperness a lot since I’d been coming over more often. I was glad, because getting power-lined by a golden retriever nearly the same size as me each time I came over was not fun.
“Do you have cheese?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Bread and butter?”
“Okay, I see where this is going,” Kace said. “You want a grilled cheese?”
“Bingo,” I said. “With double the cheese please?”
Kace gathered everything he would need to make me one of his famous grilled cheese sandwiches, and turned to face me. He strode over to where I sat perched on the counter, and crushed my lips with a chaste kiss.
“You don’t even have to ask. I know just how you like it,” he said, a sinful glare entering his icy eyes.
Warmth slid through my lower region at his words. His little sexual innuendo was not lost on me.
Smiling, I looked up at him through my lashes. “That you do.”
After eating what was probably the best grilled cheese I’d ever had, Kace and I moved into the living room to lie around on the couch and listen to the thumping music Adam had turned on. Callie poured me another glass of wine, and sat on my other side so we could talk.
“So, you haven’t said much about working with Admer now that you know he’s your dad. What’s that been like?” Callie asked as she put her lips to her glass for another sip.
“Awkward, in more ways than one,” I answered with a small smile.
Story of my life. What about my life wasn’t awkward at the moment?
She nodded sympathetically. “I bet.”
I noticed Dibs pacing back and forth in front of the door, as though he had to go outside and relieve himself.
“Looks like someone needs to go for a little walk.” I nudged Kace with my elbow.
As soon as I said the word “walk,” Dibs’s eyes darted my way. I’d said the magic word.
Kace flopped his head back against the couch and sighed. “I know. He's been doing that for a little while now.”
Dibs sat in front of the
door and watched fixedly as his owner stood up to retrieve his leash.
“Wanna come with?” Kace asked me as he hooked Dibs up.
I crinkled my nose at him. “And be on pooper scooper patrol, no thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” Kace chuckled.
“Pooper scooper patrol, I like that.” Callie laughed as Kace left the apartment.
Adam flipped through a few songs without giving us a chance to listen to more than the first few seconds of them, and then stormed off to the back of the apartment, muttering something about this not being what he wanted to hear right now.
I shifted to glance at Callie once Adam was out of earshot.
“What’s up with you two? Are you guys having problems or something?” I asked. The wine made me bolder with my words than I normally would be.
“No…why?” she asked, perplexed.
“Just curious. I noticed you thanked me when I said I’d offered for you to stay at my place until things cooled down with you and your mom.”
Callie glanced over my shoulder at the hallway, and then drew her eyes back to me. “Honestly, it’s just that since you’ve come to town and we can feel the magick flowing through us while touching, things have gotten…a little intense.”
“Oh,” I said quickly, understanding exactly what she meant.
“Umm, and very easily at that. I think staying here would only make it that much more extreme,” she admitted. Her cheeks flushed a little, shifting from the pink tint of drinking to the red shade of embarrassment before my eyes.
“I’m sure,” I said with a slight nod of my head.
Adam came back into the living room, balancing a case of CDs on his forearm as he flipped through them one page at a time. I hadn’t realized he was such a music buff.
“Wow, that’s a crap load of CDs,” I said as he walked past us.
He glanced up for a split second and flashed me a sideways grin. “Yeah. I know.”
“I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD—I just download songs from iTunes now—but he’s always buying them,” Callie said. She took another swig of her wine.
Kace came through the front door with a happy Dibs at his side. He unhooked him and placed the leash back on its hook by the door. After ruffling his hair with his fingers, Kace walked over to the dining room table where he’d set his beer and scooped it up.
“It’s starting to rain out there,” he said as he crossed the room to sit beside me. “Glad I took him out when I did.”
I curled into Kace, and we sat unspeaking for a while, listening to Adam shuffle through song after song. When he finally settled on something, it was not what I’d expected to hear—“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People.
“Why are you babysitting that?” Kace asked as he tapped my glass with his knuckle.
“I’m not.” I tipped my head back and finished the remaining little bit, then reached for the bottle Callie had set on the coffee table.
Pouring myself another glass, I decided I’d have some fun tonight and worry about telling Kace about my kiss with Theo another night…if ever. It wasn’t as if it was going to happen again. I’d already agreed to be initiated tomorrow night, which meant that pull between us would be gone.
My throat tightened at the thought of becoming initiated. Sitting back against the couch, I propped my feet up on the table. Kace squeezed my thigh, and I sighed at the feel of my magick rushing to meet with his touch.
“So, I have to watch my neighbors’ kids for a bit tomorrow while their parents go to lunch and a movie in the afternoon. To be honest, I seriously think they go do it in their car somewhere, because the Fourth of July was when they met,” Callie said to me. “Wanna stop by and visit me while I’m there?”
My jaw slacked. Give Callie enough wine and apparently her words slipped freely through her sweetness filter.
“Sure,” I said between chuckling at what she’d just said.
“We could go shopping for something to wear to the initiation afterward,” she suggested.
My stomach tightened and my laughter ceased. Going shopping made everything to do with the initiation seem that much more real.
“Sounds good,” I said, hoping no one noticed how off my voice sounded.
I took another swig from my glass, and eyed the remainder of the bottle in front of me. That wouldn’t last long at all, not with the way I was feeling.
The next day I woke in Kace’s bed with the worst headache ever. Pressing my fingertips to my temples, I began to rub the headache away. It didn’t work. Kace’s hand slipped over my bare hip and traveled across my stomach, before stopping just below my navel. The awakening of my magick sent shivers through me.
“Morning,” he whispered in my ear as he pressed himself against me.
My body went into overdrive at the skin-to-skin contact with his chest, and other areas, pressing against my backside. Not a bad way to wake up in the morning.
“Morning,” I muttered.
“Happy Fourth of July.”
I’d forgotten entirely that was today.
“Happy Fourth of July,” I said back.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess, but I have one hell of a hangover headache this morning.”
“Wine will do that to you.” He chuckled. “Especially with the way you two were putting the glasses back last night.”
Rubbing my hand over my face, I flipped over onto my back. “Ugh, I know.”
Kace lifted up on his elbow to look at me. “I can fix that.”
“How?” I asked. “Is there some type of magickal cure you’ve been holding out on? That would be awesome right about now if so.”
“Nope, nothing magickal.” He smiled. “Just some peanut butter toast and a tall glass of orange juice.”
“Ah, orange juice does sound good,” I said with a yawn.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back,” Kace insisted.
Breakfast in bed? That sounded like a hangover cure all in itself. I scrunched up the sheets beneath my chin, and rolled onto my side so I could see him better.
“I can handle that,” I said as I watched Kace riffle through the pile of clothes on the floor.
I’d always thought guys' bodies were nice to look at from the waist up—unless you were staring at their backside in a pair of tight jeans—but Kace, he had the first male body I was attracted to every inch of, naked or not.
I smiled as I committed the sight to memory.
“Be right back,” he said as he left the room in a pair of shorts and nothing else.
My eyes flicked to the clock on his nightstand as he walked out; it was nearly 12:30 in the afternoon. Really, this constituted brunch and not breakfast. I closed my eyes and waited for him to come back, wondering if I could talk him into feeding me my toast and a little morning quickie before I left to meet with Callie.
Closing my eyes, I snuggled deeper into the pillow, which smelled strongly of Kace, and sighed. The pounding in my head didn’t lessen as I’d hoped it would. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, Kace was trailing kisses along the exposed skin of my inner thigh.
“I fell asleep,” I grumbled.
Kace murmured something, but I couldn’t make it out as he continued upward in his trail of kisses. As soon as he reached the crease between my thigh and pelvis, I burst out laughing and pushed him back.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, a wide grin spreading on his face.
“You really need to shave.” I chuckled while wiping the tickling sensation that still lingered there away with my hand. “That tickled.”
“I thought you’d find it hot. Guess not,” he said, faking mock hurt.
I sat up on my elbows. “It was hot, but it also tickled.”
Kace shook his head and reached for the napkin with two pieces of peanut butter toast he’d at some point placed on the nightstand. My stomach growled and I smiled at him, knowing he had to have heard it.
�
��Ah, the scent of peanut butter toast…it does it every time,” he said. He handed me a piece with a smile.
“Is this a favorite of yours?” I asked, taking it from him. I sunk my teeth into the toast and stared at him.
“It is,” he said.
He took a large bite and smiled at me with peanut butter gooping up his teeth.
“Eww, gross!” I laughed.
I took a sip of my orange juice, and within a few minutes, realized Kace had been right—peanut butter toast and orange juice were a hangover cure.
I had Callie text me directions to her neighbor's house. Even though I’d been to her house before, I had no idea how to get back there or if the neighbor she was babysitting for was next door or down the street.
Turns out, it was down the street a little ways.
I pulled up to the cedar-shingled, two-story house and cut my engine. This house was the American Dream complete with a white picket fence in the front and a gorgeous lawn. Knowing that the McNeelys already had one boy and one girl added to this American Dream image in my head.
Standing at the blue front door, I knocked and waited for someone to answer.
“Someone’s here,” a little boy shouted. I remembered his name was Brayden. “I think it’s your friend. Want me to let her in?”
I couldn’t hear Callie’s response—it was muffled—but seconds later, the front door opened, and there was the dark-haired little boy I remembered from the beach standing in front of me.
“Hi, Callie said she’ll be out in a minute. She’s in the bathroom, pooping,” Brayden said without a trace of a smile.
I drew my eyebrows up at his bluntness. “Okay.”
“I am not!” Callie shouted as she came around the corner from somewhere. There was a large smirk on her face, and her cheeks were tinted pink. “Stinker, you lie so bad!” she said, rubbing the top of his head. “Go help your sister put the popcorn in the microwave, please.”
“Ha-ha.” He laughed. “Fine.”
He ran around the corner and slipped in his socks on the hardwood floor. Why was it kids always ran everyplace they went? And when did I lose that energy? I sure could use it now.
Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) Page 4