by L. J. Woods
Waking up at Adam’s after a walk around town wasn’t my intention.
But when I pulled up to Grandma Daniels’ to see Fuck-Face’s old Subaru in the driveway, I changed my mind. The walk helped clear my head. Helped to realize the errors of my ways. So did that InstaShot of her and Nix in her bed.
That’s it. No more slip-ups. No excuses.
I’m staying away from Delilah. Especially today.
It’s a game day and I need to focus if I’m gonna make the best out of being back in this fucked up town. There’ll be scouts at tonight’s game so I need to be doing my best. And I will. I won’t give anything less than excellence.
“Hazel is not the girl she lets on,” Adam says as we make our way to the mens’ bathroom. “I don’t think Delilah’s the girl you think she is either.”
“She’s off-limits,” I say, pushing on the door. “To everyone. Including me.”
Adam stops walking for a second before he catches up, moving through the door I’m holding open for him, my back pressed to it. “You mean … you want to cast her out?” It’s empty inside the bathroom, Adam’s voice echoing around the room.
If that’s what keeps her away from me, so be it. “Don’t tell her but make it known.” Passing the reflection of myself in the shiny mirror, lights coming from it, I look as tired as I am. We walk to the closed stall at the end, knocking my knuckles against it.
“You reckon? ‘Cause, you and Delilah were in that shed for about thirty minutes last night.” He waggles his eyebrows, slapping my arm. “C’mon, G, you can’t tell me you were both standing there.”
That’s the story and I’m sticking with it. I can’t even admit what we did out loud for fear that Elijah’s spirit will all of a sudden hear it. And send his fist through my face. Rightfully so. Fucking with your best friend’s sister is low. Dirty. Disgusting.
“You know you’d be less of a prick if you actually talk to her about it.” Adam grabs the small container of pee from under the door, a large hand holding it out. He hands it to me before there’s another. He slaps a wad of cash in the hand in return. “Cause you come off as an asshole otherwise.”
Not like I haven’t been thinking about it. I’m just worried about where that conversation will go.
“Let’s just get through this game. I’ll find her when the time is right. For now, everyone’s staying away. She’s trouble. Let’s go.” We tap our pee together before I bang a palm against the stall door as thanks. I may not pass the best friend test, but I do know how to pass a drug test.
Adam lays off on our way to the locker room. Once inside, I slip into Coach’s office, putting the containers in the tray with the rest of them.
“Big game, fellas!” Fistbumps come my way as I move through the concrete and wood room, on my way to my locker near the middle. When I get there, there’s a crowd around it.
If it’s another fucking nude from one of the girls in this school I’m gonna lose my shit. We need to keep our heads in the game and not on tits, but after seeing Delilah’s I know it’s as hard for me as it is for them.
“Looks like she found you first, mate.” Adam pats me on the back. “Prepare yourself.”
The hell is going on?
When I push through the crowd, my duffel drops from my shoulder. My sticks, including my lucky one, sit on the wooden bench in front of it and they’re all broken. Snapped in the middle. There’s a message on my lucky stick, in messy black writing.
“Cant ignore me forever - D”
My nostrils flare before my fist bangs into the locker door. “Clean this shit up and tell Coach I need new sticks. Asap.” Pushing my way around the crowd again, my jaw is as tight as last night. “I got a mess to clean up.”
Adam doesn’t even ask. As assistant captain, he does his job well. “You heard the man! Let’s go, boys, we got a game to prep for!” His clap echoes through the room as I make my way out. Coach calls for me but I don’t care. I need to damage control before this shit gets out of hand. Delilah takes no shit and it shows.
But neither do I.
My first stop is the cafeteria and when I don’t see her there I try to think of where else she’d be hiding. Bursting into three classes and the girls’ bathroom doesn’t help me find her but I don’t stop, rage fuelling my motions. After a tip from someone who saw her walking towards the chapel, I find her, sitting on the mosaic floor.
My eyes bore into hers when she sees me as her lips turn into a smirk. “Looking for me?” Her hair is in a bun like a TV-Tubby on top of her head, wobbling when she moves. She doesn’t even have her full uniform on, a white crop top in place of her SAA shirt.
Defiant.
Trouble.
If she thinks she’s going to come here and control this town, she has a lesson to learn. And I’ll be her teacher.
“Get up, Delilah,” I demand, pushing a pew in front of the door.
“Looks like I found a way to get you to talk,” she laughs. One that gets under my skin. One that makes my cock twitch and I’m not sure who’s in charge anymore as I pick her up off the floor.
She wiggles in my hold but that only fuels me more. “Put me down, Godfrey! You don’t get to touch me anymore!”
“Isn’t this what you wanted?” I growl into her ear, wrapping my arms so tight around her it makes it hard for her to move. “A game? Isn’t that what we’re playing? How dare you, Delilah. That’s my fucking career.”
I’m putting her in front of that cross before she screams. “And that was my fucking brother!”
Fuck. “I didn’t kill him!”
“But you didn’t stop it,” she says. “You don’t stop anything! And for all I know you murdered that girl the same way you murdered my brother!”
Wait. “What? The fuck are you talking about?”
“How’s a god so oblivious?” She tries to move around me but with my broad chest to her small stature, it’s easy for me to push her back against the wood. “If we’re not talking, get off me.”
“You don’t get to say what I do,” I growl and I notice the way she nibbles on her lip. That thing she does when she gets nervous. I chuckle. A devilish one. The devil she brings out of me. “Do I make you nervous, Delilah?”
“You’re a monster. A maniac.” Her eyes narrow into slits.
“Didn’t want me to move away last night. With my tongue on that pussy?” She’s squirming and to make sure she doesn’t pull any stupid shit again I lean into this. Her eyes drop to my lips and she loses the fight as she lets me lift her arms across the wood. The position we’ve been in before. “I’m a god, Dee. You know it. That’s why you let me push my tongue between your wet little slit.”
The words I’m saying only make my cock harden against my jeans. Pushing my hips into her, I make sure she feels it all.
“You’re no god.” She pushes against my hold but I’m stronger, pinning her arms in place. “You’re the devil. A soul-eating vampire, but bitch, I’m Buffy. I’ll slay you.”
“Oh?” Sliding my belt out my slacks, I’m happy I haven’t changed for the game yet as I wrap it around her wrist, making a knot. “How’re you gonna do that when you’re at my mercy again, Dee?” My lips move closer to hers, an inch away from that forbidden apple. “I own you as much as I own this town.”
“You don’t own anything. You won’t even own that.”
Adam’s voice pops into my mind.
Tame the beast.
Like I’ve stepped up to the challenge my lips slam into hers and it’s like that sugar before bed. It fucks up your sleep and kissing Delilah will fuck up my life. But there’s something about this sweet, sweet taste I can’t resist. She only seems to listen when our bodies are together and if that’s what I have to do to save my career I will.
Something else I’ll tell myself later.
“You want me to own it?” I growl, my hand sliding up her waist, the other holding her in place. My finger makes a circle around her nipple, hardened, pushing through her shirt and it�
�s a better sight than fresh pills on a Friday night. “Or do you want me to own you?”
“You’d have to give a fuck to own me, Godfrey.” She pushes her head forward until her teeth sink into my lip, pulling it with a bite that sends a burst of pain and pleasure to my core. “Tell you what, if you tell me your secrets. You can own me.” Delilah’s more of a firecracker than I ever imagined.
Elijah’s words are in my head, pulling at the guilt in my heart. So are Adam’s, pulling at the desire in my guts. But Adam has a point. If I’m going to make it out of this semester, I have to tame this beast. This seductress. Either I get her on my side or she remains the enemy.
Spreading her legs with my knee, she smirks. Sexy as fuck but I still have a point to make. “This is my school, Dee. My world.” Dropping my hands from her wrists, I test her. She doesn’t move and that makes me smirk. “Good girl. Keep those arms right there.” She bites her lip, as I take a step back, hunger in her eyes as she gazes at the outline of my cock. A craving that I want to fill. So fucking badly. “You’re bad news, Delilah.”
“You’re bad, Godfrey,” her voice is a whisper as I tighten my belt around her wrist. Pulling my shirt over my head, I twist it like rope before I wrap it around the other wrist. “So fucking bad.”
“Know what I’m gonna do about it?” Dropping to my knees, her skirt falls over my head, her sweet scent washing over me.
“Runaway again?”
“Just like Jesus, I’m going to have you screaming for God.” She’s already wet when my tongue parts her folds, but with the way she’s been staring at me, I could’ve told you that.
“God!” she screams, just like I knew she would when my tongue swirls over her clit.
“That’s right,” I groan against her, her taste like fucking heaven on my tongue and I couldn’t stop lapping it up if I tried. “I’m your God, Delilah. And this?” Sliding a finger over her soaking folds gets her to moan for me some more before I slide it in. She cries out, her voice echoing around the room. “This is mine too.”
Tossing her leg over my back, I pump my finger into her while her clit throbs on my tongue. I’m sucking hard until her walls clench around my finger. Then I insert another, her gasps and pants getting louder. Her hand falls to my head to keep me in my place as she rocks on my face, my cock threatening to break through the fabric, and when she comes …
“Jesus! Fucking! Chriiiist!” It makes it all the harder not to bend her over and fuck her right into the wood of the cross. I can feel her body tremble as I suck up all her warm, delicious flavour, the taste on my tongue better than beer, vodka, or weed. And now, I know I’m addicted to yet another substance.
Delilah.
Biting her thigh comes naturally as I fix her skirt, rising from my knees. Dee looks like she’s been on the ride of her life before she shakes her head. “Jesus, what am I doing? What are we doing?” Slipping out of my shirt, she swings at my face, I dodge it. “Why did you do that?!”
The first time was a fluke, but this? It’s turning into another habit.
“You let me.” I wipe my mouth, looking back at the door to see if anyone’s trying to get inside. “Or did you not just scream for God on my face?” She looks down but I catch that gaze, tilting her chin up to me. There’s no time to talk about this but I want her to know. “I have nothing to do with Sammy’s death. Get your facts straight, Dee.”
“But you cleaned it up.” Letting go of her chin, I walk towards the chapel doors as she calls to me. “Hey! Explain this shit to me, Godfrey!” The sound of my belt jiggling on the wood of the cross comes from behind me. “Hey! As far as I know, you’re still a fucking murderer!”
I stop in my path in the middle of the aisle before I look over my shoulder. “You’d let a murderer eat you out?”
That pretty mouth flattens but she doesn’t make it easy to get the last word as I take another few steps to the door. “We’re not done here! You don’t wanna leave me like this. I’ll come for you!”
Her threat solidifies my decision. “Yeah. We are.”
Delilah’s in the crowd halfway through the first period of the game.
It’s impossible to not notice her.
It’s bad enough that I can hardly stick to my plays with the chapel on my mind. With her still on my tongue, but now she’s drawing attention to herself. And by that, she’s drawing attention to me.
As I slap the puck to Adam, my eyes shift to the stands. Delilah has my number, eleven, on a whiteboard. “Is a Liar” sits under it and she has the smile of the devil on that pretty face, her eyes on me.
Should’ve used two belts.
Fist tight around my stick, my body slams into the glass, puck flying by me as the guy who checks me skates away with it.
Fucker.
Pushing off the ice, I’m quick on my skates to follow up. From the corner of my eye, Delilah now has another sign in hand.
“Ask Me About #11”
Another body tackles me to the ice. The whistle blowing.
“Too distracted by your girlfriend, Godfrey?” the player jeers. And while I usually need a bigger reason, tonight, that’s enough for gloves to come off.
He throws his off too, standing up to the battle but my fist is already wrapped around his jersey. “Got something to say?” I’m rarely a fighter on the ice. I stand by playing the best I can and that means keeping my focus on the puck. Not on anyone else. But I’m raging, and this guy’s gonna get the brunt of it. “What? You a pussy now? Got nothin’ to say?!”
The crowd is a mix of cheers and boos. Some hoots, some hollers but I don’t care. The minute this guy takes a swing, my fist hits his jaw. Then another. Then another.
A whistle blows before someone’s behind me. “Gabe! Chill.” Adam. “Blood’s not worth it.” Fuck, if he’s the one being sensible, I’ve definitely lost my cool. I unhand the guy but still, that gets me in the box. The boys bang their sticks on the side of the rink for support while a smile grows on Delilah’s face. The penalty box shuts.
This gives me a second to calm down. Take a breath. Plan my next move. Spotting the scout in the crowd helps too. They’re talking to someone’s parents but mine are nonexistent at these things. That’s alright. This gets me going. I’m gonna prove them wrong and I’m gonna stick it to Delilah, but if I’m gonna do that, I gotta get my shit together.
It’s tough, this team one of our biggest rivals but avoiding Delilah’s eyesight gets me through the rest of the period. Tough love from the coach solidifies what I need to do. Win this. After running some plays by Coach and the guys I get Adam’s assist on the next couple of goals. The crowd roars and while I’m tempted to check in on Delilah, I’m ready to show off.
The winning shot is a smooth one, over a player and right into the net from the middle line. The crowd goes fucking nuts, and hell, even I’m impressed at the 5-1 win.
When we’re rolling off the ice, the journalism club requests a photo of us before we head into the locker room. We oblige, all standing in front of the ice like the legends we are.
That’s when something cold lands over me. Something red. SAA red. It splashes on Adam and Milo beside me, my entire jersey covered in it. Cold liquid rolls down my hair and my face, into my eyes.
The boys go silent. So does the photographer as all eyes turn to my left.
Thunk!
Something drops to the floor, a bucket of paint next to a pair of dirty Chucks.
Delilah.
With her hands crossed, she smiles. “Now everyone knows just how messy you really are.”
Twenty
Delilah
“You got guts, girl.”
Hazel stands next to me while I roll up the bit of weed I’ve put aside for occasions like this. Times when I feel like absolute shit. Which happens to be a lot in this town.
My heart still booms, pumping hard from that stunt I pulled in the rink. Worth it. The look on Gabe’s face gave me as much pleasure as his head between my legs. He doesn’t get to do
whatever the fuck he wants, whenever the fuck he wants.
My hands shake as I struggle with my roll, remembering how I let him devour me again. How I let him make me come all over his fucking chiselled face. How I let him convince me he wouldn’t leave me hanging. Again. “Damn his sorcery!”
Hazel looks at me, a fish bracelet on her wrist for Sammy. “What?”
“Nothing. I just really need this joint.” Shaking my head, I finally seal the roll with a lick of the folds. “And you got guts too. You just don’t know it yet.” She’s been a mess but she’s been taking Sammy’s death like a champ. Better than I’ve been. Instead of mourning and grieving, it’s like I’m taking it all out with mind-blowing foreplay. With the devil. Her phone screen lights up in her hand. Speaking of the devil, it’s Pastor Godfrey. “Ew, are you still working with him?” The joint hangs between my lips while I fumble for my lighter in the pocket of my baggy buttoned shirt. She nods, swiping at her screen. “What’s that like? Hell?”
Like mine, Gabe’s parents aren’t fun to be around. I don’t want to imagine what working with them is like.
“Fun!” she says, my head jerking back at her quick response. “It’s a privilege. Really.”
I snort, “Alright, this isn’t Sunday school.” I push my hair behind my ear before holding the joint out to her. “You sure you don’t want some of this?”
Her phone rings again. Same number. “I need to help prepare for the trip tomorrow.”
“It’s like, nine o’clock.” My eyes narrow as I hold the lighter to the joint.
She shrugs. “School trip’s super early.” She walks back towards the lot, her suede flats dragging on the concrete. “See you tomorrow? I’ll put you on the list, it’s extra credit.”
Roasting the tip with my lighter, I think about if I should go. But with all the classes I’ve been skipping I could use it. “Look at you looking out for me. Thanks, Hazel.” She smiles and with a turn, heads to the parking lot. Then it hits me. She’s my ride. “Wa—” I hardly get the words out before my arms pull behind me, something wrapping around my wrists.