Forbidden, Tempted Series (Book 1)

by Selene Charles

  Stomach a mess of nerves, Flint exhaled. “So he’s asked me to help with the setup and takedown for homecoming.”

  Katy’s head was cocked, and Flint finally noticed that her smile was no longer open and engaging, but tight and serious. “Mr. Wickham? Interesting last name.”

  Frank looked at Katy. “You know him?” he asked, the fork dangling loosely in his hand.

  She shrugged and fluffed her brown curls. “Maybe.” She turned to Flint. “Does he wear glasses and have a youngish face?”

  Flint nodded, wondering at Katy’s sudden interest. “Yeah.”

  “Hmm.” Katy took a sip of wine. Then her entire demeanor changed again and her smile was screwed back into place. “Think he might be the guy that works the coffee shop where I live on the weekends. Like I said, interesting last name.”

  That was weird. Flint returned back to her plate, wondering why it felt like Katy had just thrown out a convenient excuse. Her dad must have been thinking the same because he’d stopped eating (which for him to stop eating a plate of pasta with red sauce was tantamount to aliens landing and saying “take me to your leader”—it just didn’t happen) and was looking at Katy with a question burning in his eyes.

  “So,” Katy said, “homecoming, that’s exciting. Got a date?”

  Frank scratched his head. “A date. No, not Flinty. Right, wait...” His face scrunched up. “Do you?”

  Seeing her father’s reaction made Flint’s lips twitch. He could be so adorably clueless sometimes. In his head, he probably still pictured her as the girl in pigtails who liked to make mud pies in the backyard and pick up frogs.

  “Actually, no.” Stabbing at her noodles, Flint tried to ignore the sick twist in her heart. Cain probably wasn’t going to ask her. She was pretty sure if he’d meant to, he would have by now.

  “Good.”

  Flint stared at Katy’s raised brows.

  “Because then you’ll have more fun. No drama wondering if he likes you, or what he expects afterward...”

  Frank cleared his throat.

  Katy laughed. “Anyway.” She waved her hand. “I was so sure Cain was going to ask you. I see how that boy looks at you.”

  Heat crept hot fingers up her neck. Bringing up Cain was not a good idea right now.

  And sure enough, her father glowered, his face going as crimson as hers felt. “That boy better not even try.”

  “Dad!” Flint cried. “You don’t even know him.”

  “I know enough.” He set his fork down, pushing half his plate away.

  Throwing an accusing glance at Katy, Flint locked her jaw. Katy refused to look up, still eating her noodles as if nothing had happened.

  She’d done it on purpose. Somehow, Flint knew that.

  “What if he asks me?”

  “Then you say no.” Frank lifted his brow.

  “Daddy, please. You’re being unreasonable. You don’t even—”

  “Know him?” He cocked his head, finishing her sentence. “I don’t need to—I know all about boys like that. He asks, you say no. End of discussion.” He sliced his hand through the air.

  Full-on glowering now, Flint tossed her napkin on the table.

  “So where are you going to get a dress?” Katy asked, glancing between a father and daughter’s frosty stare-down.

  Her anger so hot it burned her gut, Flint turned to stare at her. “Don’t know,” she managed through clenched teeth.

  “You got money?” her dad asked as he reached into his back pocket.

  What the heck? Okay, bad enough that Katy felt the need to insert herself into Flint’s private life. If her father wanted to be with Katy, not like she’d stop him, but for Katy to think she could do what she just did and then things go back to chummy... and not only that, but her dad suddenly acting as if he hadn’t just turned all dictator on her, was just flat-out nuts.

  Something really weird was happening, and Flint didn’t like it at all.

  “No,” she grumbled.

  Her dad tossed her two one-hundred-dollar bills. “Let me know if you need more. When you going shopping, by the way?”

  Flint eyed the cash lying crinkled in the center of the table. “Ja and Rhi are taking me to the mall soon.”

  He nodded. “Baby,” he said more softly, “I hope you understand. I do love you. I just don’t care for that boy. Something’s not right with him.”

  Snatching the cash before he could change his mind, Flint shoved it into her pocket. “Okay.”

  He lifted his brows at her wooden response. It was either that or act like a royal witch, and she loved her dad enough to try to keep her temper curbed. But it was taking every ounce of inner strength she had not to hiss and rant and rave like an idiot, or an adolescent teenager in her case.

  Staring blankly at her plate, Flint tried to ignore them the rest of the dinner.

  But toward the end, she couldn’t take any more walks down memory lane as Katy told yet another prom horror story.

  Dad was laughing, drinking the last of his second glass of red wine, and Flint finally reached her threshold. Plastering on a fake smile, she said, “It was really great catching up with you again, Katy.”

  Her father’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

  “But I have a lot of homework today.” And that was true. She was way behind on papers and assignments.

  Running his fingers through his hair, her dad nodded. A few strands in the front poked up at odd angles, and Katy smoothed them down. Jerking to her feet, Flint grabbed her book bag. The whole thing made her sick.

  She hated Katy. Flint wasn’t even really sure why. On the surface, Katy was pretty perfect. A great flier, a lifelong circus performer... she understood the life, and there couldn’t be anyone better for her dad at this point.

  But that was the problem. Everything about her was too perfect. Like an actor, polished but fake.

  Shoving all that to the back of her mind, Flint did something she hadn’t done in weeks. Studied. Really studied. She was halfway through her last paper when there was a gentle tap on the door.

  “Come in,” she called, never glancing up. “Hey Dad, almost done. Sorry about—”

  “Actually, Flint...” Katy’s voice made her snap her head up. “It’s me.”

  Rolling her eyes, Flint dropped her pencil.

  Katy frowned. “Look, sorry about what happened back there. I didn’t expect Frank to go all ballistic the way he did.”

  “Didn’t you?” she snarled, grateful Katy had shut the door behind her. “Because it sure seemed like you did. You must have known he caught us out in the parking lot.”

  Katy shrugged. “I really didn’t. I felt bad and wanted to tell you that.”

  Pinching the bridge of her nose, Flint sighed as she felt the end of the mattress depress under Katy’s slight weight. Glancing over her shoulder quickly, she whispered. “Look, I know things, okay. And I’m just asking you to be careful of that boy. That’s all.”

  Pulse thundering so hard in her ears she was amazed Katy couldn’t hear it, Flint cocked her head. “What do you know?”

  Licking her lips, Katy studied Flint’s face for what felt like forever. So much passed between them in that moment: truth... clarity... insight. The mask that was Katy, the one Flint sensed all the time, was gone. In its place, she saw the same beautiful woman but one with less laugh lines and more frowns. Worry gnawed at her forehead.

  “I can’t tell you more than I have. But...” She grabbed Flint’s hand and brought it to her lap, holding on tight. “Believe me when I say all is not what it seems.”

  Fear coated Flint’s tongue. Not because of what Katy said—Flint already knew all that. She knew what Cain was, what Adam and Janet were... but because Katy was definitely more than human if she knew that too.

  She searched the woman’s eyes, looking for the red lines, and inhaled harder, trying to detect any hint of sour milk, but it wasn’t there.

  “Like what?” Flint asked, feigning ignorance.


  Katy cocked her head. “There is a war being waged, Flint DeLuca. An age-old battle of good versus evil.”

  “Katy?” her father called out just before knocking on Flint’s door.

  “Here,” Katy cried and released Flint’s hand, standing and nodding as if they had an understanding.

  For her part, Flint could only stare, too numb to say anything else as Katy walked out of the room.

  But the one thought that kept popping into her head was how did Katy know? And did her father know too?

  The questions kept hammering in her mind later on that night. Katy had long since left, her father had returned and grounded her from ever being alone with Cain, and all the lights were off as he slept in the next room over.

  Flint stared at the ceiling, not sure what to do.

  At 12:37 there was a tap on her window.

  Shocked, she jerked up and stared out at the darkened night. Then her heart leapt into overdrive when Cain pointed at the window as if to say “open it.” Licking her lips, she made sure her bedroom door was locked before walking over to the window.

  Somehow he managed to slip his big bulk through. And the second he was inside, it was like someone had sucked out all the oxygen. His smell was everywhere, pine and night, and so overwhelming she had to take a seat on the purple foldout mushroom chair next to her bed.

  “Cain?” she whispered, glancing back at the door, both terrified and thrilled he’d come. “What are you doing here?”

  He spread his hands. His full lips pursed into a straight line, then he shrugged and she gulped, suddenly very aware that she was wearing one of her sexier sleep shorts. The moment it dawned on her, he must have noticed because his eyes narrowed and a lick of red swirled at the centers.

  Snatching her mother’s checkered lap blanket off her bed, she wrapped it around her legs as best she could. He blinked and then nodded. But he was breathing heavily.

  “How was dinner?” he asked a moment later, his voice scratchy and rough, and it jolted through her body.

  “My dad’s banned me from seeing you.”

  “Why?”

  She shrugged and picked at a loose thread on the blanket. “He thinks you’re bad for me.”

  The left corner of his mouth lifted. “I am.” But he didn’t sound glum about it, more cocky than anything, and she couldn’t help but answer his grin.

  Flint shook her head, shoving most of her hair behind her ear but playing with a strand. He sat on the corner of her bed, his presence filling the room so that she felt almost claustrophobic. But in a good way.

  A great way.

  A way that made her forget that there were things like monsters in the world. That he was one of them. It was just her and Cain underneath the moonlight and it was enough.

  He scooted farther down the bed until his knees barely grazed hers. The heat pouring off him coated her and prickled along her bare arms as the cool night breeze rubbed languidly against the thin cotton top on her back.

  “I think Katy knows about you,” Flint whispered.

  His jaw clenched even as he gently took the piece of hair out of her fingers and slowly rubbed his thumb along it. “What makes you say that?”

  It was getting more and more difficult to think straight with the way he kept looking at her. Then his hot hands were framing her face and he just stared. Didn’t move in, didn’t do anything other than study her, as if memorizing every line, every bit of her face.

  Her chest heaved for air and she moistened her lips.

  Flint’s lashes feathered along her cheekbones as she closed her eyes, unable to hold his hypnotic gaze any longer.

  “Princess,” he said, his mouth so close to hers she felt the warmth of his breath tickle her lips.

  She sighed. Couldn’t help it.

  Then he released her, and just like that, the weird pull was gone and she was suddenly cold. She snapped her eyes open, rubbing her arms.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he gritted out.

  “What do you mean?”

  Leaning back on her bed, he closed his eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Wondering what you’re doing. Who you’re doing it with. I don’t know...”

  She felt the exact same way. It was scary, this overwhelming need that she felt for him. Like the world was all wrong, she was all wrong, if he wasn’t around, if he wasn’t sharing her space, breathing her air. It was wrong and sick, and so scary perfect it made her stomach heave.

  Holding the blanket tighter to her, almost like a shield, she nodded mutely.

  “I shouldn’t be around you, Flint. My kind and your kind, we don’t mix. Like oil and water. It never works out.”

  She swallowed hard.

  Scrubbing a large hand down his face, he asked, “Why do you think Katy knows?”

  Trying to remember the conversation while forgetting the swarm of kamikaze butterflies in her stomach, she said, “Because she mentioned something about good versus evil and an ancient war. She knows, Cain. Do you think she’s...” She licked her lips. “The queen?”

  His brows dipped.

  “I’ve been thinking about this all night. When I got attacked...”

  He shook his head.

  Flint finished her thought anyway. “She was there. Right before it happened. She poked her head inside, and I can’t remember what she said, but I remember feeling like it wasn’t right. It was weird.”

  Cain shook his head harder. “Are you sure? It can’t be.”

  “Why not?”

  His look was piercing, the blue eyes looking almost black in the darkness. “Adam would know. He’d know. The queen wouldn’t be so stupid to be right under our nose.” But he didn’t sound like he believed his words.

  She shrugged. “I think you should keep an eye on her, just in case.”

  Running his palms down his thighs, he nodded. Heaving himself to his feet, he looked down at her as he walked back to her window.

  Gripping the windowsill, he stared at her for so long she became aware of just how loud the room actually was, from the breaths they took to the ticking of her art deco wall clock.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  Stomach a quivering mess, she nodded.

  “I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

  The shuffling of feet snared her attention and made her jump. Her father was waking up. “Not here,” she whispered. “My dad won’t—”

  But when she turned back, Cain had already left through the window.

  A second later, her father knocked on the door. “Flinty, are you talking to someone?”

  Squeezing her eyes shut, she scrubbed her face and shook her head. “No. Talking to myself, can’t sleep.”

  “Want some hot milk?”

  She smiled that he remembered. Whenever she’d have a nightmare as a child, he’d always bring her a mug of hot milk and tell her it would chase the monsters away.

  Getting up, she opened the door. His hair was sleep tussled, and a hint of a beard whiskered his cheeks.

  “Sure, Daddy.”

  He smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

  Tomorrow she’d figure out some way to ride with Cain so that her father wouldn’t see.

  Chapter 27

  Flint yanked the curlers out of her hair, deciding for once she’d try to do something with it other than pull it back in a messy ponytail. Her hair flounced around her shoulders in soft waves as she gripped her stomach, trying in vain to squelch the nerves threatening to make her lose her bite of toast this morning.

  Her green knitted top made her hair look even redder. Frowning at the mirror, she touched the pale skin under her eyes and ran her finger along the bridge of her freckled nose.

  Things had changed and she couldn’t help wanting to look her best.

  She glanced at her wristwatch. Cain was probably going to show up any second now.

  “Flinty!” her dad cried and she dropped the glass she’d been holding into the sink. “Your friend’
s here.”

  He sounded chipper and not at all growly like yesterday.

  Not a little curious, she yanked her book bag onto her shoulder and headed toward the front door.

  Janet waved cheerfully at her. Flint frowned, scanning over her shoulder.

  “Umm...”

  Dressed in a baggy navy-blue sweaterdress, leopard tights, and furry boots, Janet was a strange sight in more ways than one. “Tell you later,” she whispered in Flint’s ear as she hugged her.

  Walking up to Flint, her dad clapped her shoulder. “Show tonight. Will you bring her to the circus, Janet?”

  “Sure, Mr. DeLuca,” Janet chirped as the black sprays of hair encircling her head like a peacock’s plume bobbed. “But we’ve got plans.”

  “Plans?” Flint shook her head.

  “The dresses, remember?” Ja winked.

  “Oh, yeah... the dresses.” That they’d never set a date or time to go shopping for. Janet was up to something.

  “You gonna do the show tonight?” Her father wasn’t looking at Flint.

  Janet shook her head. “Night off, strained my calf muscle. So is it cool?”

  Flint glanced at her dad and smiled.

  “Yeah, sure.” He hugged her. “Now hurry up before you’re late for school.”

  “What was that all about?” Flint asked the second they were well out of earshot.

  Janet rolled her eyes and then stopped, all playfulness gone. The girl looking back at her suddenly seemed ancient, immortal. Crazy clothes or not, she was not someone to be messed with, and she was pressing the hardness of that gaze into Flint like steel.

  “What the crap, Flint!” She smacked her arm.

  “Ow.” She cried and rubbed her throbbing arm. Tiny she might be, but the little Asian demon-ghost packed a wallop when she wanted to. “What was that for?”

  “I told you to stay away from Cain, didn’t I? Do you have any idea what you’re doing, what you’re getting yourself into?”

  They were walking past the bus stop, heading toward the busy road.

  “I’ve tried. But... I don’t know, it’s just...”