What Lies Beneath (Count on Me Series #7)

by Melyssa Winchester

  “Mom wants to talk to you.”

  Watching as Belle takes it and steps away from the running water, I turn off the tap and study her as she moves out from around the bar heading to the window and pulling the curtain back to peek outside.

  Whatever Grace is saying playing perfectly into our plan as she sighs heavily into the phone before agreeing to run across.

  “Shit.” I curse and Tristan turns his attention away from Belle.

  “What?”

  “She’s going to go for the umbrellas in the closet.”

  Grinning at me like he did the night before when he asked to watch a gory movie, it doesn’t take me long to figure out that he’s already taken care of the problem.

  I’ve got to hand it to the kid. He’s quick on his feet.

  “They’re under your old bed, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

  Winking, he pulls away from his spot against the counter and heads over to where Belle is shoving her feet into her boots.

  “What did she want?”

  “Something came there for me and since it’s a pretty thick envelope she wants me to run over and get it.” She tells him before heading for the coat closet.

  “Kay? Where’s the umbrella?”

  “It’s not in there?” I play dumb and when her head comes out around the closet door and her eyes lock on mine, I almost cave. I’m not supposed to lie, even when it’s like something as innocent as a kiss in the rain.

  Shit.

  “I think I took it with me the last time I was here.” Tristan cuts in, saving my ass before I break. “Sorry, Belle.”

  “It’s okay. That’s why hoods were invented.” She says, running her hands through his moppy hair. “I’ll be right back.”

  The second she heads through the door and I hear it click behind her, I’m moving across the room and flipping the lock.

  “Get your shoes on.” I call to Tristan while I shove my own feet into my runners by the door.

  Heading to the window and sneaking a peek through the curtain, I see her running up the lawn and hitting the steps to her mom’s place. When Grace opens the door and it looks like they’re talking, I turn back to Tristan.

  “How are the puddles looking?”

  “Like we’ll be swimming for days.”

  “Perfect.” He grins and that’s when we do it. I flip the lock on the door and we head out, only instead of slipping my keys into the pocket of my jeans like always, I lock the door and book it quickly around the side of the house, tossing them to the ground.

  I damn well know Belle isn’t going to like me much when she realizes I’ve locked us all out of the house, but I’m hopeful that when she realizes why I’m doing it, she’ll forgive me.

  Even if she doesn’t though, the kiss will be so damn worth the night sleeping outside I’ll have in my future.

  “Jeez!” Tristan yells when I make my way back over to where he’s standing on the front lawn. “I forgot rain was this cold.”

  When I see he’s not wearing a jacket, I immediately start seeing multiple nights of sleeping outside in my future. Belle is not only going to kill me for this, but so is Grace.

  “Here,” I shrug off my jacket and toss it at him. “Put that on.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing.” I cut him off. “My idea. My rules.”

  Slipping his arms through the jacket, he zips it up and turns just in time to see Belle racing back across the street towards us, her confused eyes filtering between us.

  The coolness of the rain that’s making quick work of soaking through my shirt, causing me to shiver and her to react by unzipping her own jacket and stretching it until it’s acting as a partial shield.

  “Kayden, what are you doing out here?”

  “Seemed l-like a n-nice day for a swim.” I joke and shaking her head at my nonsensical answer, she immediately slips her hands down into the front pocket of my jeans, searching for the one thing she’s not going to find.

  My keys are gone.

  Let the games begin.

  “Please tell me you didn’t lock us out of the house.” She pleads, and sensing Tristan’s movement out of the corner of my eye, I shake my head and pull back, hoping as I do that I don’t end up paying for what I know he’s about to do.

  Everything slows as he creeps up behind her as she continues to study me, attempting to figure out what the hell is going on, and at the exact moment he lifts off in order to hit the puddle directly behind where she’s standing, she turns. The high velocity spray of the rain puddle doing what we wanted and completely drenching her.

  “Holy!” she screams, the rest cut off as she jumps back from where Tristan stands hopping up and down laughing and closer to where I’m watching with amusement a few feet away. Her face changing when she locks her eyes on mine and finds the grin that even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hide.

  “You planned this.” She states and with a quick nod, her eyes lower to the ground underneath her feet and when she looks back up, her blue eyes are calculated and she’s smiling in a way that I haven’t seen her before now.

  Wickedly.

  Oh boy. We’re all gonna pay.

  Bringing a hand to her lips in an effort to silence me to whatever it is she’s planning on doing next, she spins around until she’s locking eyes on Tristan, smirk gone and in its place, a look of sadness. One that once Tristan actually catches, has him pulling up beside her and wrapping his arms around her waist in an effort to make things right.

  “I’m so sorry, Belle. I thought you would like it since you used to love going puddle jumping before.” Tightening his grip around her waist, I hear him continuously apologize, and if I didn’t know better, the act she’s putting on would make me think he really had hurt her.

  At least it would if she didn’t turn back and smirk before distancing herself from him.

  Pushing him just off to the side of the puddle of water that he’d just sprayed all over her and jumping down hard directly in the center of it a few seconds later, she sprays him. Water this time, not only soaking through her, but landing directly on target as the cool spray hits Tristan and ricochets back onto me.

  My pants now matching what the downpour of rain had already done to my shirt, hitting and soaking all the way through, causing me to curse under my breath before jogging over to the puddle to her left and paying her back.

  Over and over we chase each other around the front lawn, making sure to jump into any and all puddles of water we catch along the way. Until after stopping to pick Tristan up after taking one spot at a hard run, he’d slipped and landed straight into it and Belle fell to her butt right along with him.

  The sound of both her laughter and his when after I come close enough to check on them and they yank me down, worth the level of sickness we’re all going to end up getting once this is all over.

  A sound that if I have my way, the rest of our lives will be filled with.

  Seizing the opportunity when she turns to me and starts wiping away the stream of water from the rain that’s now pouring down my face, I lean forward and right before I press my lips to hers, hear my second favorite sound escape from her lips.

  The catch and release of her breath right before we connect.

  Not even looking like we got into a fight with a storm and lost, our bodies and clothes so wet that we can actually hear the squishing taking place every single time we move, can take away from this moment.

  The moment where I made one of my dreams come true by kissing the girl that is my dream.

  Our lips dampened from the rain, soften them, making each touch and each probe once our lips part and our tongues meet, even more earth shattering than the last. With our hands in each other’s hair, I pull her deeper into me, until her body is nestled into my lap, feeding on her even more, nipping at her lips and catching her tongue. Losing myself so completely in the moment that not even the faint sound of Tristan’s groaning can break us apart.

  This is so much more
than a kiss.

  This, right here on our front lawn, is happiness.

  Freezing cold, soaked and generally sloppy happiness, but happiness all the same.

  And Belle….well, she’s the heart of it.

  As the sound of Tristan’s groaning about us being disgusting and needing to get a room gets louder, I pull back, but not away entirely. Choosing to do that only after I’ve kissed the top of her nose, her forehead and her hair and stood from the ground with my hand outstretched.

  “What are you doing?” she eyeballs me before slipping her hand into mine.

  “There’s one other thing we have to do.”

  “You mean, there’s more than just being drenched and kissed senseless on your agenda?”

  “As a matter of fact,” I say, pulling her to her feet and easily into my arms. “There is.”

  Slipping my hand into my pocket and grabbing my phone, I block it from the rain as I bring up another playlist I’ve got saved for the times I’m away and press play. The volume just loud enough to be heard around the sound of the sky opening up around us.

  “Dance with me.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Kayden, put me down!” she squeals, wiggling her body in my arms as I carry her over the threshold of our room, making a beeline for the bed.

  “You know,” I tease. “I was planning on doing the gentlemanly thing here and helping you to the bed, getting you out of those wet clothes and into a warm bubble bath. But with you wiggling around like that, I’m pretty sure I lost all ability to be a gentleman.”

  Belle, from the moment I met her was never like other girls, and it wasn’t anything to do with her diagnosis. She was different because for some reason that years ago, I don’t think I was able to explain, I just knew she deserved better.

  That’s not to say there haven’t been moments over the last few years where I haven’t wanted to just throw her down and have my way, preferably on any surface that we may have nearby. Because I have.

  A lot.

  But just like that night on the beach where I wanted her first time to mean something, mean everything really, I do every other time too. So the need to take things slow, cherish the person I’m lucky enough to have in my arms, wins out.

  Even in a moment like right now, where the need to just rip the clothes from her body with the way she keeps brushing herself against my dick, is screaming to win out.

  That isn’t what this is about, though.

  Being out there on our front lawn while her brother found every imaginable way to soak her, laughing and carrying on like we were nine years old again; that was the memory I wanted.

  Seeing her in the aftermath, though, is definitely a bonus.

  She’s probably looked this way more than once over the years, but there’s something in the way she is now that’s making me actually shut up and take notice of it.

  Depositing her down onto the bed, I place a kiss to her forehead before attempting to go to work. The flushed cheeks, wide dancing eyes, and crooked smile all there to greet me when I pull away, only making the need for what I want to happen now even more important.

  “Lie back.”

  Doing as I ask, she rests her body back onto the blanket, shifting herself further back onto the bed and away from the edge. The hooded look in her eyes pausing me in my task as I take in her positioning and the words that fall from her lips next.

  “What if I said I didn’t want you to be a gentleman, Kay? What would you do then?”

  Down, Walker.

  I know what she’s doing, I even know why, but I can’t let that take over here. My girl deserves better than that. I want her, no question, and she’s going to know just how much soon enough, but not if I let the urge override the feeling.

  I’m not seventeen and horny anymore, and she’s not some random girl that if I could just get past the shit in my head, could relieve me of it.

  She’s Belle.

  My Belle.

  “I would do this.” I say, straddling my body over hers and leaning in to kiss her lips, surrendering to the feel of them against mine for a moment before pulling away. “And then go back to doing what I should be doing.”

  “Which is?” she asks, her words breathless, filled with a need that while I’ve gotten used to hearing, still manages to take my breath away every single time it happens.

  One almost as potent as mine for her.

  Almost.

  “Getting you out of these wet clothes.”

  Shifting over to her side, my hands lower to the button on her jeans, popping it out and pausing whatever it was she planned to say next, filling the space instead with the sound of her light gasp before she shimmies her legs and moans.

  What she knows will be my undoing.

  Lowering the zipper, I lift her up off the bed and begin the slow process of sliding her jeans, which feel as though they’re permanently attached to her body, down. Slipping them around her ankles until one slight kick from her feet has them landing on the floor with a heavy thump.

  A sound she obviously seems to find amusing as she begins to laugh softly before I move back up and silence her with another kiss.

  A kiss that before it can deepen, Belle is the one pulling back from. Lifting up off the bed just enough, she lets me know with just a look why she pulled away as her arm lifts into the air and she’s attempting to take her shirt off. Making sure that as she pulls it off that it makes it way to the floor, before wrapping her arms around my neck pulling me down to the bed with her and kissing me again.

  This time, her tongue quickly probing my lips, tasting them before making its way inside and tangling itself up in my ready and willing one. The vibration of her moan mixing with the rawness of mine as we hungrily taste each other, and as my hands begin to slide down her body, feel each other.

  Dampness from the rain drenching through her clothes making her body slick to the touch, but warmer than I expect, only serving to make me hungry for more.

  Pulling away and nibbling softly when she groans from the separation, I begin kissing down her neck. Pausing when I get to her shoulder and am able to bear witness to the droplets of water that despite being covered, still managed to pool there and are now making her skin glisten.

  This is even better than I imagined.

  Laying here with me, exposed but for the bra and panties I still have yet to remove, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Her skin literally glowing from the effect of the rain and the kiss we just shared.

  I’m seeing Belle for the first time.

  Bare and exposed. Beautiful and willing. Soft, needy and all mine for the taking.

  Pressing my lips to a droplet of water before it has a chance to cascade down her shoulder and be lost forever, I taste it before continuing down. Succumbing to the feel of her as my touch, my embrace, and the kisses I rain down on her cause her to arch into me.

  Her next words, short, breathless, filled with want and need, but still uniquely Belle.

  “You’re being a little unfair, don’t you think?”

  “Hmmm? How so?” I murmur before snagging her lip with my teeth and pulling her into yet another passionate kiss. “I think this is very fair. I can lay you back and kiss away every drop of rain from your body.”

  Shifting upward, she takes me off guard as she pushes into me, laying me out flat on my back as she takes control of the moment and straddles me, the only giveaway of what’s to come present in the flame of desire I now see blazing in her eyes.

  A fire that’s only for me.

  “It’s not fair because I can’t do the same to you. I can’t feel the warmth of your skin against mine or the wetness from you mixing with mine.” She smiles down before her hands lower to my own pants and she rubs ever so softly over my own arousal. My aching and now almost painful need to have her.

  “I think it’s only fair we even the odds.”

  Oh God.

  She can even whatever she wants. Hell, with the way she’s brushi
ng her hand harder over my erection now, she can take the lead. Win this game of ours. Hell, she already has won.

  Belle always wins.

  Grabbing a hold of my hand, she pulls me up and steadying myself on the mattress, I attempt to contain myself when her fingers brush against my stomach as she lifts the water logged shirt up and over my head. Where it lands, where it even goes once it’s peeled from me, I don’t know because my attention, it focuses downward as just like I’d done, she makes quick work of the buttons keeping me contained.

  Freeing me of the restraints, but halting her before she can continue the same movement with my boxers, my hand finds her cheek, cupping it tightly and I bring her lips crashing down to mine again. The rope that up until now had been restraining me in the way I needed it to snapping, until all we are is a mash of lips touching, bodies rubbing and hands feeling.

  Her moans matching the veracity of my own until the room is drenched in the sounds of them. My name falling softly from her mouth when I break away for air and hers catching and releasing roughly when after needling my skin with her hands, she again slips down and begins removing the layer that stands between us.

  Answering her need with my own, I begin rubbing my fingers on the outline of her panties, over her warmth and what I just know is her readiness for what is about to happen next. What I’m rewarded with when after she arches, the hot breath of her moan in my ear pushing me forward, I slip my fingers inside, teasing her.

  “Kayden…” My name like a reverent prayer as it falls hungrily from her lips.

  “You. Are. So. Beautiful.” I tell her between kisses, as I hook my fingers into her panties and begin to slide them down. Continuing to move one finger and then two from my other hand inside her, struggling to remain in control when she writhes against me the deeper I let myself go.

  My lips on a path of their own as they find every drop of wetness that glistens and makes her skin shine, from her lips, to her shoulder, down her chest and over her stomach, and all the way up her arms until my teeth are again grazing the tight skin of her neck.

  My fingers slipping from inside when her body stills and her soft needy voice pleads with me for more.