The Sound of Salvation (Deliverance Book 1)

by I. A. Dice

  “Oh … Erm, yes, sure,” I stuttered, getting up.

  He led me through the crowd to find us a bit of space. For three full songs he breathed down my neck, touched my back, held my hand and kept me glued to his body.

  I inhaled in and out and tried not to let my face show that I hated every second; that I hated myself for not dealing with my issues better.

  And most of all I hated Adrian for messing me up so badly.

  “Let’s go back; I need a glass of lemonade,” I told him once the third song finished.

  “Yeah, me too. It’s been a while since I last danced. I should hit the gym more often to stay in shape,” he chuckled in my hair. “Sit down, I’ll get you a lemonade.”

  Thomas wasn’t by the table, so instead of taking a seat, I grabbed my purse and headed in the direction of the beer garden, thinking I would find him there, enjoying a cigarette.

  Clouds of smoke appeared everywhere for a few brief moments, then dissolved into nothing in the evening air. Tall tables stood scattered around with barstools surrounding them, but all seats were taken, and not much space was left in between.

  “Did no one tell you that Thomas is taken?” I heard behind me and spun around to find Alex standing at a distance, arms crossed.

  “Taken?” I lit up a cigarette, inhaling a mouthful of smoke. “You mean he’s dating someone?”

  “Yes, me. I would appreciate it if you stopped flirting with him.”

  Either she was out of her mind or I was missing something important from that picture. When was I flirting with him, exactly?

  “You’re getting ahead of yourself. I’m not flirting with Thomas, and excuse my ignorance, but how does your relationship work?”

  “That’s none of your business. What we have is special, Nadia. I like you, but if you mess this up for me, you will regret it. Just stay away from him, okay? It’s all I ask.”

  Special? She was freaking special. A psychiatrist’s-dissertation-topic kind of special.

  “Sorry, sweetie, but it’s not like I can just stop seeing the guy. He’s Nick’s business partner and best friend if you haven’t noticed.”

  She giggled, waving her hand. “I didn’t mean that. Just don’t get too close. Don’t dance with him, don’t sit next to him … Keep your distance, and I’ll be happy.”

  Did she not hear herself? I opened my mouth to argue again, because, well, she was being stupid, but I changed my mind.

  “Fine. The last thing I need is more drama.”

  She sighed and curved her lips into a smile. “So how have you been? How was New York?”

  “I like it better here. And it’s good to see everyone again.”

  Not you, you lunatic.

  I finished my cigarette in record time and returned inside. One step in and I bumped into a firm, broad chest that smelled familiar.

  “Really?” I asked, looking up to the ceiling, cursing fate for being plain rude. “Not funny.”

  Thomas frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but Alex beat him to it. All she said was my name, but the warning note was enough to boil my blood.

  You don’t need more problems.

  I gritted my teeth and walked around Thomas to leave them be, but he had different plans. He caught my hand forcing me to stop.

  “Come back out with me. I need company.”

  “I’ll go,” Alex offered.

  “You don’t smoke,” he hissed, looking over his shoulder.

  I tried to step away, but Thomas held me tight, watching me as if my face could answer some of his unspoken questions.

  “Let go of my hand,” I said, and as if it were a spell, he let go. “And please don’t drag me into this. I don’t want to be a part of whatever the deal is with you two.”

  Before either of them could reply, I left them alone. Music rumbled through the six-foot-tall speakers, and the vibrations of the bass shook my bones. Ethan and Scorpio were by the bar ordering another few rounds of tequila, and before they came back, Thomas and Alex joined the pack.

  She was close to tears; he looked annoyed. All the more when he realised I no longer occupied the seat next to him.

  Amelia, having finished her Appletini two minutes earlier, had stepped over her daily liquor allowance and could no longer articulate nor control her limbs. Despite that, she still wanted to drink. Nicholas decided it was best to take her home.

  “Wait, I’m coming with you!” I grabbed my purse.

  Nick shook his head and looked through Mel’s bag to retrieve a set of keys, which he then handed to Thomas. “Get her home safely.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter, Nick. I’m coming with you.”

  He rolled his eyes, watching me as if I were a misbehaving child. “It’s not even midnight yet. Stay and enjoy the night.” He kissed my forehead, exchanged a few words with Thomas, and steered Mel out of the club, leaving me with Jane and Scorpio, furious Alex, pushy Ethan and the enigma that was Thomas.

  CHAPTER 5

  NADIA

  Point well made

  We all stood outside the club, waiting to get a taxi when Ethan planted a soft kiss on my cheek. He caught me off guard as he didn’t even stand close enough to make me uncomfortable. My eyes widened, and I took a step back. He was drunk but did his utmost to pretend he wasn’t—not that it worked.

  “I’m going with them,” he motioned to Jane and Scorpio. “We live around the corner from each other. I’ll see you next week, cutie.”

  “Sure.” Or not.

  It wasn’t supposed to be a date, just two friends catching up, and he agreed but seemed to have forgotten. The stolen kiss was his mistake. I no longer trusted him.

  There was also Thomas. Because of the way he made me feel, I stopped seeing anything else. Why look for a way to deal with the past if the solution appeared on its own and seemed to want more than friendship?

  “I’ll see you soon.” He moved in to kiss me again, but before his lips touched my skin, Thomas jerked him back.

  “They’re waiting for you,” he hissed.

  “Huh?” Ethan straightened his back, looked over his shoulder and then back to me. “Oh, right. I’ll call you, cutie.”

  I nodded, watching him stumble over his feet towards the cab. It was almost three in the morning. The cool evening breeze gave me goosebumps. Thomas took his suit jacket off, and covered my back with it, holding a cigarette in-between his lips.

  “I didn’t peg you for a gentleman, Mr. Calix,” I teased.

  It looked like Alex wasn’t wrong: I was flirting. As soon as the distance between us reduced to less than a foot, everything else was a blur, and Thomas was my focus point.

  “I’m glad I surprise you.”

  He was full of surprises, and I was eager to find out what else he hid up his sleeves. We sat on a bench, enjoying the clouds of smoke filling our lungs and the comfortable silence. It had been a while since I sat so close to someone and not felt threatened.

  Thomas was like my beloved diazepam without which I wouldn’t survive another day. There was nothing extraordinary about him apart from his strong jawline and cinnamon eyes, but neither explained the influence he had on me.

  People were leaving the club in large, drunken groups. I glanced over my shoulder, having heard someone shout and swear. A dozen guys were outside, laughing, but they weren’t the reason why my breath hitched. The Scotsman stood by the main door, swaying on his feet. He looked different somehow … as if he had enraged Tyson. His left eye was swollen and purple, and his cheekbone looked broken.

  Thomas followed my gaze. “Looks like he’s having a rough night.”

  “It wasn’t you?”

  He shook his head, amused. “You saw what he looked like when I was finished with him. He must have greeted another fist after mine.”

  No doubt about it. The longer I looked at him, the more I realised one blast couldn’t have done that much damage.

  “I guess he didn’t learn and ended up picking on the wrong girl.”
<
br />   “You were his worst choice, baby doll. I wouldn’t have left it at one punch if you didn’t stop me.”

  I looked away from the beaten-up Scotsman. “He only wanted to dance with me, Thomas.”

  The corners of his mouth twitched. “I like it when you do that. When you say my name, the s is just a touch longer than when everyone else says it.”

  “You know … you change subjects like a bee changes flowers.”

  I readjusted his jacket, and tilted my head, resting it on my shoulder. His scent alone was soothing my senses, locking me in a protective cocoon, and I hoped to never change into a butterfly.

  “You look tired. You want to go?”

  “No, but I should.”

  Thomas led me to a taxi parked nearby. He laced our fingers, sending a shock wave through my system. It was only a small, innocent gesture, but the touch of his skin worked miracles on my mental state.

  “Why did you trade places with Alex?” he asked once we took the back seat, and the driver put the car in motion.

  “I’m not allowed too close to you.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says your girlfriend.”

  His face twisted with anger. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  I struggled not to smile, pulling my lips into a thin line. “I know it. You know it. But Alex doesn’t.”

  “Why does it amuse you? It’s infuriating; annoying at best.”

  “I just don’t get it. I mean, she’s obsessed with you, and not that she doesn’t have the grounds for it because you are quite a something, but then again, you ignore her any chance you get. I don’t understand how she can possibly be missing that. I guess what I’m trying to say is that she was always so down to earth, and now she’s this brainless twinkie, and you’re just a guy so…”

  “And breathe,” he cut in, smirking. “What does quite a something stand for in your dictionary?”

  “Was the compliment all you heard? Don’t pretend you can’t see the way women undress you every time they look at you.”

  “Do you?”

  The rasping tone of his voice sped up my pulse. He watched me, awaiting a response, and I couldn’t recall what the question was, too busy trying to contain the sudden rush of desire.

  I swallowed hard, bracing to make a fool of myself. “Do I … What?”

  “Do you undress me every time you look at me?”

  “No.”

  Yes, but for different reasons than you think.

  “So? Do all of your one-night-stands act so brainless?”

  Thomas frowned. “Most of them.”

  “I think you should choose the girls you sleep with more wisely.”

  “I never slept with Alex!”

  At least he no longer used that low, raspy tone on me that made my knees weak.

  “I figured that much. She’s not a blue-eyed, blonde model type.”

  There was a short moment of silence, and then Thomas turned his body my way, his eyes not leaving mine. “Blue-eyed, blonde model type my ass,” he hissed, weighing every single word.

  My head spun, heart stopped, and all my senses apart from touch switched off when his lips touched mine. I wanted to jump headfirst into the moment, basking in the calmness.

  And then a siren blared in my head when I realised what he was doing. I pushed him away, my cheeks burning and blood boiling for two different reasons.

  “What the hell, Thomas? I get it; you’re trying to prove a point…”

  He hushed me with another kiss.

  This time, I backed away faster. “Stop! I get it. You’re not that shallow. Blondes aren’t everything. Point well made.”

  Thomas licked his lips, and brought one hand to my face, tracing its contour. “Stop fighting,” he pleaded, his voice like velvet.

  He leaned toward me again, slowly, as if giving me time to decide. There were only two things I wanted—his lips, and the calmness that came as a package deal with them. He erased all the wrongs of my past with his presence alone.

  He pressed his mouth to mine, teasing my bottom lip as if begging me to let him in. And that was enough for the tall, armoured wall I had been building around me the past months to fall. I gave in like a leaf to the wind, parted my lips and allowed him to deepen the kiss. A quiet sigh escaped my throat.

  A double dose of diazepam had nothing on Thomas. He was the strongest drug I ever tried. Nothing could compare. I didn’t understand why; I couldn’t find a single explanation, and I no longer cared. Why would I? He eradicated pain, and there was nothing more important.

  His lips were soft, brutal, and demanding, and the way he was kissing me, as if he had waited for that moment for a long time, brought my desire to another level. I had no strength to stop, to reject him when the peace he offered was so important. We weren’t supposed to be kissing. We weren’t supposed to want each other, but we couldn’t care less.

  The deepest, most intense lust is for the forbidden. Thomas was my forbidden fruit just as much as I was his, and it escalated our craving for each other to the point of fever. It was the simplest, most rudimental force on earth: desire in the purest form, a maddening need to feel our bodies pressed together.

  I focused solely on him, lost in his touch and lips. I wanted him. I wanted the irresistible serenity which came with his proximity and the strength that followed.

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins as he kept climbing my thigh, pressing his fingers to my skin with every inch he discovered. I gasped for air, breaking the kiss, and Thomas planted his mouth on my neck. A new wave of desire through my body. I trembled, and his eyes darkened even more at that.

  “Tell me to stop,” he whispered, nibbling on my earlobe. His hands slipped to my hips, and he lifted me up, then sat me on his lap and pressed his forehead to mine. “Say it, baby doll.” Our eyes locked. “Tell me to stop.”

  If I could have said no, I would’ve, but I was selfish. The consequences could prove fatal if Nick found out about this, and I knew a battle raged in Thomas’s head because he knew I wasn’t his to take, but he wanted me too much to stop on his own accord. Unfortunately, all I cared about were my needs.

  I shook my head, letting him know he couldn’t count on me to be the voice of reason. If he wanted to stop, he had to say the words.

  “I’ll burn in hell,” he whispered, then glanced into the rear-view mirror. “Change of plans,” he told the driver. “101 Queen’s Lane. Fast.”

  I grabbed a handful of his dark hair, pulled his head back and closed his lips with mine. If anyone tortured me to find out how we got to his house, I would die trying to remember. Everything was a blur of raspberry lips and the firm grip of strong hands all over my body.

  The car halted, and Thomas looked at the embarrassed driver in the rear-view mirror.

  “Come back in an hour,” he said, and I grazed my lips over his neck. “And a half.” I bit his ear, and a low growl came from deep within his chest. “Don’t bother,” he muttered squeezing my thighs. “We’ll call.”

  We rushed out of the car, and Thomas picked me up again. My legs wrapped around his hips, hands caressed his neck and back, and lips worked their way across his jawline as he carried me through the hallway and up the stairs. Before I gained a bit of perspective, Thomas had me naked on the mattress of his queen-sized bed.

  The passion and lust visible in his darkening eyes gave me a head rush. He took his t-shirt off, watching me in awe, threw his pants on the floor, and leaned over me, supporting his weight with one hand while the other worshiped my skin.

  He took his time tasting every inch of my skin he could reach, slowing down and building on the anticipation.

  “Look at me,” he whispered, parting my legs.

  And as soon as our eyes locked, he pressed forward hard and fast, as if being inside me was all he wanted. I bit his shoulder and scratched his back, my body tensing and struggling to take him in, to take in the pleasure. It was too much. He was too much. How he made me feel was too much, and how I n
ever wanted him to stop making me feel normal again, was by far the biggest too much in the equation. But it was perfect in all its imperfection.

  Thomas caught the right rhythm—rushed, and demanding, as if he was thirsty for me. I brought my hand to his face, and he nested his cheek in my palm.

  “I never wanted anyone so much in my life,” he said in a hushed tone.

  Holding a conversation while he thrusted in and out of me was impossible.

  “Shut up. Please.”

  He smirked a split second before reviving my lips. With every move he made, I got closer to the edge. His body seemed on fire against mine. I struggled to keep quiet, or relatively quiet at least, and tried to take the tension building inside me on his back, then the sheets, but it was useless.

  “Don’t hold back, baby doll. I want to hear you,” he commanded—and just like that I was coming.

  The orgasm hit me like a tsunami, captivating my senses. Thomas rocked against me harder, prolonging the pleasure. I couldn’t contain the moans any longer. I squirmed shamelessly, losing my grip on reality.

  As soon as my body stopped trembling, Thomas sat on the bed pulling me with him. He rested against the headboard, and held me close, our bodies almost melting together. I wrapped my arms around him not to miss a second of it and pressed my lips to his forehead.

  “We’re in so much trouble…” I whispered.

  He tucked the loose strands of hair behind my ears, then grazed his thumb across my swollen lips. “That’s why we’ll make the most of it.”

  He eased me down on top of him, holding my gaze.

  “Ooh…” was all I managed, and it was barely even audible because the sensation knocked me off balance.

  “Was that a good ooh?” he asked, lifting me a few inches.

  “Shut up,” I repeated, holding his gaze as he lowered me back down.

  Another ooh left my mouth, a touch louder and more satisfied. That was new. I hadn’t dominated before and I wasn’t sure what to do, or how to do it, but Thomas guided me, adjusting the pace to his preference. Soon, I didn’t need help, and the rhythm of his body was enough. I leaned in to kiss him, and he bit my lip, causing the muscles in my stomach to tighten.