“We don’t need to eat.” Although food didn’t sound disgusting. I wasn’t hungry, but the idea of eating over the last years had been utterly revolting. This was a new development. Interesting. “You do. Someone has to go get you something.”
Nick nodded. “That’s me.”
It didn’t surprise me at all. We all had our roles to play in this strange world. Nick’s was action. He’d come back with something fast. How he was going to do that, I preferred not to know. I’d end up worrying.
Nick ran past me, and as he left, I considered asking the others if they remembered the dream. But Whitlee yawned hugely, so I remained quiet. She was exhausted, and they weren’t ready. This was too new.
Head on the arm of the chair, Whitlee blinked tired eyes at me. “All my injuries are healed.” She held up her hand and flexed her fingers. “Carson took my injuries somehow.” She sounded a little punchy as she gazed at Carson. “Did you heal?”
My friend held up his hand to show her he was fine.
“I’m glad. I thought for sure Dante would need to make you a bionic arm.”
“There’s so much to discuss, Whit.” I knelt next to her and pushed her hair out of her face. “Injuries. Connections. I don’t understand it all.”
“Granola bars!” Nick entered the room and fanned out four granola bars. “Ta-da!”
He handed one to Whitlee, who opened it. “Think it’s still good?” she asked and sniffed it. Shrugging, she took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “It’s a little stale. But not bad for however many years it’s been lying around.”
The wrapper crinkled, and I glanced up to see Nick staring at a bar. “I wonder,” he muttered and took a bite.
“What are you doing?” John asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, showing us a mouthful of his half-masticated bar. “Suddenly I wanted to eat it.” He swallowed. “It tastes good.”
“You’re eating,” Whitlee said a little breathlessly. Straightening, she placed her feet on the floor and leaned forward. Her gaze cut to me. “When I was first here, Brandon’s heart beat and mine stopped. But you said he was the same. He’s not. None of you are. You have to tell me,” she pleaded.
I opened my mouth to answer when Isaiah spoke, “We’re alive.”
22
Whitney
Dante was closest to me, so it was him I dragged toward me. It all came together. Warmth. Healthy skin. Brandon’s heart. Eating. They were alive.
“Sort of,” Carson interjected. “When I healed you, however I did that, it slowed my heartbeat until I could heal. So I’m alive, but different.” Dante looked at him sharply and Carson blushed. Blushing! Another sign of life! “That’s just what I assumed. I could be wrong.”
Alive. Suddenly, everything was better and a thousand times scarier. If my father got ahold of them, I could lose them forever. Them?
“You have peanut butter stuck to your chin,” Nick said, and leaning over, wiped it off with his finger and stuck his finger in his mouth.
I stared at him, surprised. In between calling me evil, he was taking care of me. Warmth flooded my face as I stared at him. He saw me watching and winked.
I quickly looked away and met Brandon’s gaze. He’d seen the entire exchange, but I couldn’t read how he felt about it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
As I sat there, exhausted and elated, confusion dominated my thoughts. So much had change in a couple days. For so long, Brandon had been my world. He was my only friend and the person I pinned my hopes and dreams on.
Then I met these guys, and from the very beginning, I’d felt a connection to them. Crap. Was Nick right? Was I just like my brother? Would that explain the growing responsibility and possessiveness I felt toward them?
Tiredness hit me at the same time I heard the pounding of heavy rain on the roof of the makeshift library. Brandon rose, walked over, and shut the window. He always thought of things like that. Left to my own devices, I’d get soaking wet. I sighed. What was I doing? I’d found Brandon again. That should be enough.
“Unlike Dante’s lab, the Controlled notice this place. We don’t know why they can’t get inside Dante’s workshop, but they have made it in here. As far as I know, they haven’t been seen today, but I just wanted to put that out there. As great a place as this is to hang out, we should probably move Whit.” Carson rocked back on his feet. “I’d feel better if she was there.”
I rose slowly. “I guess we’re running through the rain.”
Isaiah grabbed my hand so abruptly I didn’t see it coming. Before I knew what happened, we were running together.
“Come on,” he shouted over his shoulder. “Neither of us is going to melt.”
I squealed. It was a funny sound to make as giant drops of summer rain pounded on my head. Lightning struck in the sky and a second later thunder boomed. Cold rain hit my skin where it was exposed, and even though it should be scary, I couldn’t help laughing. Isaiah looked over his shoulder, grinning at me.
It was such a strange moment. Fun, wet, ridiculous… and even though everything was awful, I was somehow the happiest I’d ever been. We burst through the door into Dante’s lab. Isaiah grabbed a towel off the counter and wrapped it around my clothed, wet body.
“If you’ve got to do something, then you’ve just got to do it.” He shrugged.
“I…”
Brandon came through the door followed by the others. “Way to give a guy notice that you’re taking off, you two.”
“I didn’t know.” I held up my hands, wiping my face with the towel Isaiah gave me. “Blame him.”
Isaiah leaned against the side of the room. “Sometimes you just have to run. You know what I mean?”
John came in next, carrying some books with him. “That was like you in high school. Busting out and just going for it.”
Thunder boomed.
The rest of the guys swarmed inside, all of them dripping. Carson shook his head like a dog at Nick who shoved him. It devolved from there. The guys pushed each other, dripped on Dante’s stuff and generally acted like kids.
It was wonderful.
I stayed in a chair, wrapped in my towel, and watched them. Eventually, Nick caught me and crooked a finger at me. “Come play, mind reader.”
I shook my head. There were lots of things in Dante’s workshop that I didn’t want to break, and I wasn’t known for being particularly graceful. Nick reached for my hands, and I curled them into fists. “Nick, don’t. I’m a bull in a china shop.” Ignoring me, he wrapped his hands around my wrists and dragged me up and into his arms. “You’re soaking wet!” I yelled. His shirt was so saturated it went through my clothes.
Laughing, he leaned back and glanced down at my shirt. “Perfect.”
I looked down and squeaked. My light shirt was see-through, the flesh of my arms and stomach visible. I wore a bra, but it was cold and my pebbled nipples were beaded. “Nick!”
“I got ya,” he said, and wrapped me up again.
“And you call me evil,” I joked, giving in. I held onto his waist and stared up at his face. He smiled down at me, eyes crinkling at the sides, and I was caught in his gaze. His auburn hair fell across his forehead, dripping over his temples and down his neck. Without thinking, I reached up and pushed his hair out of his face. “There. Now I can see you.”
The smile slowly left his face, and I realized he was rocking us from side to side, as if we were dancing. I had no excuse for what happened next—I knew it was coming. He telegraphed his intentions well before his lips touched mine.
I just didn’t care.
Never, in my entire life, did I think someone could push Brandon out of the forefront of my mind. But standing in the circle of Nick’s arms as he joked with me, all I could think about was how much I wanted Nick to kiss me.
And so he did.
His lips were warm as his hand came up to thread in my hair. He wasn’t gentle with me. He clutched my hair tightly, keeping me in place. At first, he just kep
t his lips on mine, holding them there. Then he puckered his lips and pulled away, just an inch, so I only felt his breath. He pressed again, a tease. Of course, he teased me. This was Nick.
I teased back. Gently, I nipped his bottom lip, but immediately softened. One small kiss, each chaste, followed another until he kissed right above my upper lip—under my nose. It was a weird place to kiss, but I didn’t have a lot of experience. There was something about the sensation that sent a tingle from that spot along every nerve ending, and I shivered.
Wow. That was the most incredible kiss of my life. I breathed him in as the reality of what just happened rushed at me. Nick had kissed me in front of a room of people that included Brandon. The silence of everyone’s staring hit me like a truck slamming into my body, shredding all the happiness of the moment.
I backed out of Nick’s arms. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be there. I did. That was the problem. But I also wanted to be in Isaiah’s. In John’s. In Carson’s. In Dante’s. In Brandon’s. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t this person. I didn’t do this. Oh God. Brandon. My best friend. The guy I’d always been in love with. I forced myself to meet his gaze, expecting the scorn and hurt I most certainly deserved.
“This is my fault.” Nick’s voice boomed through the room. “I kissed her. Not the other way around.”
Carson was the one who answered. “I think we all saw what happened.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off Brandon. Oh, the betrayal he must be feeling right now. The utter hatred of me. I saw… nothing. His expression was blank, hard to read. I couldn’t make sense of the thoughts dancing across his face.
“I’m sorry.” I had to say it. “Not for kissing you, Nick. Obviously, I wanted that. No, I’m sorry that I hurt you… any of you. But Bran…”
He shook his head. “I need a minute with this, Whit. But it’s not… what you think.”
I turned and ran from the room outside into the rain. I’d wanted Nick to kiss me. This was not an oh-God-the-boy-was-mean and kissed me moment. I wanted that. But what was wrong with me? They offered me sanctuary and this was what I did?
“Whitney.” Nick grabbed my arm trying to pull me back inside. “Don’t go out into this mess. Come back inside. It’s okay. I’ll make it okay if it’s not, but it is. I wasn’t thinking. I’d never hurt Brandon either. I just… the moment. I can’t explain it.”
I couldn’t either. “It was a draw I couldn’t resist. I didn’t want to.”
He nodded. “Me, too. Come in. You’ll catch your death of cold out here or lightning will hit you or some shit. Come on. Let’s make it right. Even if it’s just letting them yell at us.”
I noticed he said them and not him. So he felt it, too. There was more to this than just Brandon. He was right. I’d never been a coward. If he—they—needed their pound of flesh, they could have it.
“I’m sorry, Nick.”
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand me. “It was a hell of a kiss. That guy, my best friend who’d I never hurt in the world either, he’d never kissed you until yesterday.” Had it been that long? “Not once. He was an idiot. If I’d had you in my life I’d never have stopped kissing you.”
That was so sweet. But it didn’t matter. The truth was I’d finally gotten Brandon and I’d blown it right out of the water.
I took a breath. Nick was right. If they needed to yell, I needed to listen. Especially if it was Brandon.
Walking inside, I made myself meet their gazes. I didn’t want them to feel bad for me or guilty about saying whatever they needed to.
For the first time since meeting them, I couldn’t read their faces at all. They were locked down.
“I’m sorry I did that in front of you,” I said. “I put you all in an awkward position and made you witness something that hurt your friend.”
They didn’t answer, but continued to stare at me. Brandon wasn’t there, but he deserved his own apology, one given in private, without an audience.
“I’m so sorry,” I said again.
Carson cleared his throat. “I didn’t expect that of you, Whitney.”
No one could be more disappointed in myself than I was, but Carson’s disapproval made tears spring to my eyes. Unable to hold his gaze any longer, I stared at the floor and willed gravity to stop working long enough for me to suck them back.
It didn’t work.
The first one dripped off my nose and splattered onto the concrete. Things had gone from wonderful to awful in seconds, and I had no one to blame but myself.
Behind me the door opened and closed. I started to turn around but two hands stopped me. “Stay like this while I speak,” Brandon said quietly. The press of his body along my back warmed me, and he wrapped an arm around my waist to hold me in place. “I can’t look at you while I say this.”
Oh, God. This was going to be bad. I steeled myself for what was coming next and for my world collapsing.
“Whitney, I have no problem with you kissing Nick.” My gaze flew to Nick’s, but he was watching Brandon, and he didn’t look surprised. “I care about you, I always have, but—”
My breath caught and my stomach dropped. This was where things got ugly. Mentally, I filled in the words before he could speak—
But I realized I don’t love you.
But I could never love someone like you.
But I could never be with someone who was so selfish.
“But I realized something when you came here and I saw my friends begin to fall for you.” His breath moved my hair across my forehead. “It was inevitable you would fall for them too.”
“Bran…” This was the old Brandon. The Brandon who thought he wasn’t good enough, but he was. “Brandon, I love you.”
“I know you do. I love you, too, Whitney. You were the focus of my entire life. For as long as I was alive, there was you and me. But after I died, these guys saved me. They supported me, understood me. If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
My heart hurt thinking about him alone, terrified. Thank goodness he had them. He deserved the best people in the world.
“Your whole body just tensed, and I know why. You’re thinking about stepping away, or running away, so I can have my friends.”
He knew me so well.
“Brandon…”
He sucked in a breath. What a miracle that he could do that. “Whitney, it’s okay. I swear it is. I don’t know why, but it is. Nick kissed you, and I’m not jealous. I’m not angry. And I still want to kiss you.” He spoke to someone next to me. “How would that make you feel, Nick?”
There was a pause before he answered, “I think that would be fine.”
“Let’s test it.” What? Brandon turned me around, and before I could think, pressed his mouth to mine. I gasped but quickly lost myself in Brandon. I loved this man. Always had. My feelings for Nick and the others hadn’t dimmed this at all.
This time Brandon was warm because of whatever strange thing was happening to us. I pressed my hand on his chest to feel his heartbeat beneath my fingertips. He moaned against me, tugging me against his chest before finally leaving my mouth, but not releasing me from his body.
I put my head against his chest. His heart raced, and I loved the sound of it.
“Angry, Nick?” That was right. This had been some kind of test. I’d lost myself to it. And it seemed Brandon wasn’t unaffected, either.
“No. Not even jealous.” He walked toward us, running his hand down my back. “That’s weird, right?”
Brandon laughed. “This whole existence is off. If we were alive and the world had never changed, maybe I wouldn’t be okay with this. But with you and the others, in this life? I think it’s okay. All of it. Assuming you’re okay, Whit.”
That was the thing. I stepped away from both of them. “I don’t know guys. I… I had a screwed up upbringing. My dad is a murderer, and has no problem torturing me. I want to make sure I’m in this for the right reasons, not because I’m selfish an
d want everything.”
My father was the biggest hypocrite this world had ever seen. He’d had affairs, but raised me with traditional views about relationships and monogamy. It had taken me a long time to sort through what I’d been taught, and what I knew was right.
So I wasn’t sure about this. Not because of what the world, or my father, thought. But because I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do for these six guys. “After what I just did, I don’t know if any of you even like me.”
“They do.” Nick shrugged. “You can just trust me on that.”
Carson’s remark still burned in my stomach. “I would be in a relationship with all of you?”
“Hold up.” John held his hands out. “I never said anything about a relationship.”
“Are you serious right now?” Isaiah asked.
“Are you?” he countered. “You want to share a girl with me? You want to kiss her knowing I’ve kissed her moments earlier? We’re not those kind of stepbrothers, Isaiah.”
Oh, God. I was going to puke. Feelings were easy compared to the nitty gritty details of a relationship. “I’m not the kind of girl who hops from one person’s bed to another, despite what you saw.” I looked at Carson meaningfully. “When I kissed Nick, it was because I had feelings for him.”
“So what are you looking for, Whitney?” John asked.
What was I looking for? Brandon’s hold on me tightened. I touched his hand, wordlessly telling him to let me go, and when I stepped away, I faced him. “I want my best friend. I got a second chance to fix the mistakes I made. I’m not wasting this, Brandon. I love you.” I turned to look at each of them. “I want your friendship. To be a part of this world you built on honesty and trust. You’re a family, and I’ve never really had a family before.”
“You want to be part of our family, Whitlee?” Dante asked, his deep voice curious.
I nodded. “If you’re in it, I do.”
“And what if I don’t want to be like a brother? What if I want more than friendship?” he asked. Lifting one hand, he pointed to the scar on his forehead, the plate on his chin, and then wiggled his bionic hand. “I’m not—” His voice grew husky and he cleared his throat. “I deteriorated faster than my friends, and I’m older.”
Lightning Strikes: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Storm Book 1) Page 12