Rush

  Trent slipped to the floor. My dad bent over him and shook him. “Trent? Are you okay?”

  Stepbro’s eyes were closed. A huge bruise already spread across his jaw where I’d clocked him.

  My dad looked at me. “Jesus. What did you do to him?”

  “KO’d him, obviously. You want to fight me too?”

  My dad just shook his head. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” I’d had endless fights in middle and high school, courtesy of Trent and his buddies and all the people they influenced. And then there was life on the streets. I’d learned, eventually, how to handle myself.

  “Always thought of you as a gutless wonder,” my dad said.

  “Because I wouldn’t fight you.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

  “You were my dad. I couldn’t fight you.”

  My father’s gaze traveled over me. “Maybe you’re not quite as worthless as I thought.”

  Caroline was staring at him with an expression I couldn’t read. I wasn’t sure if she was amazed, horrified, furious...I just couldn’t tell.

  My dad bent and picked up Trent by his armpits. “Help me get him downstairs, will you?”

  I sighed.

  “Don’t do it,” Caroline said. “He doesn’t deserve it.”

  My dad shot her a glare. “Trent was right about you, when he said you were a b—”

  “Don’t,” I snapped. “Don’t even say it.”

  He gave me another one of those looks that said he wasn’t sure who I was anymore. “Son—”

  “No. You lost the right to call me that years ago. Caroline’s right. You can take care of him yourself. If you need help, call an ambulance.”

  Caroline and I retreated back into the apartment. I shut the door and locked it, throwing the deadbolt for good measure. My hands were shaking and so were hers. She put her hands up to her face.

  “Are you okay?” I murmured, bending down in an attempt to see her better.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. No. I’m not fine. I can’t believe I said those things. I never fight with parents. Never.”

  I took her into my arms. “You were incredible. A warrior woman.”

  Caroline gave a shaky laugh against my chest. I could feel her breath gusting warm and damp against my skin. She pressed her lips to the valley between my pecs as her arms came around my waist.

  “I’m awfully shaken up for a warrior woman.”

  “It was your first battle. Everyone’s shaken up after their first battle.”

  She tilted her head up and smiled at me, her eyes glistening. “You know he’s full of shit, right? You’re not a failure or a freak. You’re smart, talented, determined, sexy—”

  I put my fingers across her sweet lips. “Yeah, I’m a paragon.”

  She kissed my fingers. “You are.” Her voice was muffled behind my hand.

  I laughed. “You only think that because you’re infatuated with me. Just wait until you learn the truth.”

  Caroline shook her head. “No, I’m not infatuated. Maybe I was before, but I know you’re not all sweetness and light. Or darkness and spooky sexuality, either. You’re you, Max, and you almost used me to hurt your stepbrother.”

  I hung my head, suddenly ashamed for real. There was a serious possibility I’d spend the rest of my life apologizing for that one stupid fucking mistake.

  “Hey, I’m not saying it to make you feel bad,” she said. “I just mean I know you’re not perfect. I love you anyway. God knows I’m not perfect either.”

  I scooped her up in my arms. “Yes, you are. In fact, from now on, you shall be known as Caroline the Perfect. Or should it be Caroline the Peerless?”

  She giggled. “Caroline the Magnificent.”

  “I like that.” I carried her back into the bedroom. “Caroline the Magnificent.”

  We collapsed onto the bed together and her fingers found the smooth, raised welt of scar tissue from the time my ribs had been broken. She caressed the mark.

  “What’s this?”

  “Just an old scar. I broke my ribs a long time ago.”

  “Yeah,” she murmured. “I remember that drawing you made.”

  Ah, that was right. She’d asked me about it after snooping around in my sketchbooks. The truth was, I’d been secretly flattered she was interested enough in me to bother snooping. I stretched out next to her on the bed and looked into her beautiful eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” I said. “Doesn’t even bother me. It’s like it never happened.”

  “Max.” She looked sad all of a sudden. “That can’t be true. Nobody gets their ribs broken and then forgets about it.”

  “Well, I didn’t say I’d forgotten.”

  Her fingers found the mark again and lingered there. “Who did this to you?”

  For some reason, I couldn’t meet her eyes so I looked down. I could see into the gap of her blouse and the utterly hot view of her cleavage. She had a sprinkling of light-brown freckles across the curves of her breasts and I wished I could kiss them instead of answering her question.

  “Max?”

  I forced myself to swallow. Closed my eyes. Bent my head to hers and kissed her hair.

  “My dad,” I whispered.

  “Oh, baby.” She put her arms around me and drew me close to her.

  It was strange. No-one had ever comforted me over this before. I hadn’t told anyone what had happened. When my dad had taken me to the emergency room, I’d said I tripped and fell down the stairs. Even Brad and Marie didn’t know.

  “I think I hate your dad right now,” Caroline said.

  “He was mad because I’d failed my science class. He started hitting me and...he hits pretty hard. He had this ring, too, a really big one.”

  “Is it a signet ring with a huge letter “K” on it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve seen it. When I went up to Billings for Thanksgiving.”

  “I think it made his fist extra hard or something. I know it tore up my skin. I think the emergency room people suspected someone had beaten me up, but I wouldn’t say anything. I just kept repeating that I’d fallen down the stairs.”

  “Did he tell you to say that?”

  Had he? “I’m not sure. I don’t remember that part.”

  “You know what?” Her arms clamped fiercely around me. “I’m glad you ran away. I’m glad you got away from him. You might have been killed if you’d stayed.”

  “I know. I thought the same thing.”

  “I don’t understand how he can not love you. How can he love Trent and not you?”

  I shook my head against her and forced the words out through the vise that seemed to have clamped around my vocal cords. “My mom died because of me.”

  “What?” She pulled back, trying to look into my face. “How could that be? You were only five.”

  “I was playing in the front yard and I ran out into the street. A car was coming. Mom ran after me, tried to grab me. And the car hit her. She died later in the hospital, of internal injuries.”

  “And he blamed you.”

  “Yeah.” I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. “He blamed me. If I hadn’t run into the road—and I knew better; I’d gotten in trouble for it before—she wouldn’t have died.”

  “Max.” She propped herself on an elbow. “You were five. You didn’t really know any better and how many five year olds have good self control? It’s not your fault that your mom died.”

  “I know that,” I said to the ceiling.

  “I don’t think you do. I think you blame yourself just like your dad does.”

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t.”

  She trailed her fingers over my bare chest and belly. “Max, you blamed yourself for Carter. Did you ever stop to wonder why your dad had a handgun in a house with three boys? Even with the door to his office locked, it wasn’t safe. He must have had the bullets nearby. If Trent could find the bullets and lo
ad the gun, you could have done it too. Maybe even Carter could have done it. What was he thinking?”

  “I don’t know,” I said in a low voice.

  “And why was Trent so mean to you? Why did he think it was okay to pick on you all the time? Did your dad set an example for him?”

  I turned my head to look at her. She stared back at me with taut lips and troubled eyes. She was ready to go to battle again for me. “Maybe he did. I’ve never thought of it that way before.”

  “Because you were too busy blaming yourself for stuff that wasn’t your fault at all.”

  I sighed. “Baby, it was so long ago. I want to let it rest. I want to forget it all. It’s been a long goddamn day.”

  She brushed the hair from my eyes. “It sure has.”

  “I love you. I want you to move in with me. I want to be with you all the time, forever.” The words fell from my mouth, words I’d never spoken to any woman before, and they felt absolutely right.

  She smiled at me, her face lighting up as the tension evaporated. “I want that too. I love you, Max.”

  I bent over her and captured her mouth in a hot, wet merging of our bodies, and we fell into the sweet forgetfulness of the two of us. Forever.

  Don’t miss these exciting love stories from Tori Minard

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  Darkness Awakened, Book 2 in Legends Of A Dark Empire

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  When the empress of vampires orders Obsidian to murder Kayla, he refuses. With ruthless killers on their trail, they flee west toward the only shelter for those who defy the Dark Empire…a legendary stronghold which may be more fable than fact.

  About the author

  Tori Minard wrote her first story in pencil, sans paragraph breaks and quotation marks, for a third-grade class assignment. It was the dark and moving tale of a Halloween pumpkin. Unfortunately, the details of this gem have been lost to time. Her next story featured a large black dog who was really a demon in disguise. Apparently, Tori was born in paranormal mode.

  Three years later, it dawned on her that she didn’t have to wait for the teacher’s permission to write fiction. She spent the entirety of her peculiar adolescence writing weird and romantic stories which embarrassed her parents and got her in trouble at school. Unfortunately for her ego, the teachers merely thought she was writing letters to friends.

  Letters to friends! C’mon, this is dark, creative proto-Goth girl. Why would she write letters to friends when she could bring forth post-apocalyptic romances instead?

  After a long detour for such grown-up pursuits as working boring full-time jobs (State of Alaska, U.S. Postal Service), getting married and having a child, she returned to her first love—storytelling. She was born and raised in Alaska, and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, son, and micro-dog. Her novels include The Amaki series, about sexy fae, and a vampire romance series, Legends Of A Dark Empire.

  Discover other titles by Tori Minard

  Short Stories:

  Stainless Steel Vampire, story number one in the Skye Donovan series

  Love Potion Number Ninety, Skye Donovan story number two

  If I Should Die; a Legends Of The Dark Empire story

  Price of a Rose, a sexy fairy tale (novelette)

  Amaki Novels:

  The Heart Moon

  Dragon Moon

  Blood Moon

  Legends Of A Dark Empire Novels:

  Temple Of The Heart

  Darkness Awakened

  Darkness Forbidden

  Darkness Beloved

  Darkness Embraced

  Connect with Tori online

  To learn more about Tori, visit her blog at http://www.toriminardwrites.wordpress.com

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/toriminard.paranormalromance

  Rush

  Copyright 2013 © Tori Minard

  This story is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are invented by the author or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author.