I had to show him that I could make it stop. This chaos could be corralled. I stepped away from him. His hands didn’t want to let go, but I didn’t think I could stop it otherwise. It was like dousing a fire with water as the energy hissed and fizzled, waning under my thought. Soon we stood facing each other, a gentle breeze rifling his hair, the sudden quiet deafening.
I smiled.
“Are you okay?” he asked, near breathless. His hands shook at his sides.
I shook too. I was better than okay. I was glorious. Laughter bubbled from my throat. I ran and he ran with me. The sand wet from my rain, the clouds parting because I’d willed them away. The moon was there behind the clouds and it shone down on us, reflecting in his eyes that he had yet to tear from my face.
I love you. I love you. I love you. The words beat in my heart, pulsed in my blood. I gathered his face in my hands and pulled him to me, licking the rain from his lips, tasting it on his tongue. Making my choice.
“God, Caris.” He breathed into my mouth and I understood. There were no words, only feelings, and the only way to express them was through touch. His hands and mouth on my body and mine on his.
“I know. I know.” We dropped to the sand. I pushed him on his back, straddling his hips. He stared up at me, his eyes hard with need.
“You’re so beautiful with the moon behind you,” he said, peeling my tank top over my head. The moon didn’t shine for long. How could it with Noah’s hands contouring to my body, making it sing.
The sky darkened and turned liquid once again. My hands went to his chest, smearing the drops over his skin, painting him with the proof of my want.
“Terribly beautiful.” He sat up, fingers snaking around my head, offering his mouth for my possession. “Irresistible.”
My fingers worked the snap on his shorts and I took him in my hand. He sucked in his breath and the wind swirled around us.
I felt my control slipping with every new exploration of his fingers. His name sounded on every flash of lightning. His every move in time to the roll of thunder, as if the two of us orchestrated an unbridled symphony of sensations.
“I can’t stop it.” I wondered if he could hear me over the rising wind. I cradled him in the juncture of my thighs, the friction between us creating a perfect storm.
“Then don’t,” he said close to my ear, lifting me off his lap so I could take off my shorts.
He made me feel. He made me, me.
I never wanted to be normal again.
Eight
There was debris, actual debris, littering what passed for our yard. Palm leaves and pine needles and small sticks from the few trees we had. The low spot in our driveway was puddled with water. The empty trashcan that I’d forgotten to bring in was lying on its side in the middle of the street. I picked it up and put it back in the driveway to push to the garage later.
“Some storm we had last night,” Erin said as I got in her car when she picked me up for school.
Noah had left before dawn with nothing but a kiss on the cheek and a promise to see me later. I’d been fine with that. I’d needed some time to myself this morning as I was still off balance from the events of the previous day with my father and Flores. What came after with Noah on the beach. That had been…indefinably wild. A rebelliousness on my part. Maybe being out of control hadn’t been such a great idea.
Athen’s words ran through my head.
Instinct has its place, but not when dealing with this level of energy. The potential for destruction is too great.
No kidding.
And I hadn’t had a chance to tell Noah about the whole Soulfast thing. I’d wanted to forget.
“Yeah, it was pretty intense.” Her iPod was playing Miley Cyrus and I reached over and turned up the volume. I wasn’t generally a Miley fan but this particular song appealed to me. Somebody knew what they were doing when they lead Noah to me, and I pretty much one hundred percent adored him. Hell, after last night, I pretty much worshipped him.
Erin pulled from the driveway and dodged the neighbor’s trashcan that was also in the road. She was giving me funny, quizzical looks, her big brown eyes round with curiosity.
“What?” I hugged my backpack in my lap.
“I don’t know. You look different.”
“I haven’t cut my hair in a few days.” I pulled down her visor to check myself in the mirror, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Did it show? Because there was no doubt I felt different. I am woman hear me roar.
“No. That’s not it.” Her lips spread in a wide, knowing smile. “You look well satisfied.“
I bit the inside of my cheek to curb the smile that threatened and stared out the window. I found I could do stuff with Noah enthusiastically enough, but I was still shy of talking about it.
She turned her eyes back to the road, but not before she saw the blush in my cheeks. How could she not? They were flaming.
“I know what that’s like. I was married to his brother.” She sighed as if coming to grips with something she’d rather not. “I’m jealous, you know. I kind of want to hate you.”
“Erin, I’m sorry.” Sometimes I hated that me being with Noah reminded her so much of Jamie. That my happiness reminded her of the happiness she lost.
“Caris, it’s fine. Really. I love Noah. He’s like a brother to me and I’m glad he’s happy. And you’re impossible to hate. It would be like hating kittens or baby otters.”
“Well, there’s one person that doesn’t think I’m so cute and cuddly,” I said as she pulled into the school parking lot. Derrick was hanging by his truck with some guy I didn’t know. David or something like that.
“Who, Derrick?” She looked out the window at him as she cut the engine. Unfortunately Erin’s assigned parking spot was close to his, so confrontation was unavoidable. “He’s usually harmless enough.”
“Yeah, I think he’s still pissed about that thing with Jax.” I gathered my backpack and reached for the door handle.
“Mornin’ ladies,” Derrick said as we got out of Erin’s Tahoe. He slid his sunglasses down his nose and spit a gob of tobacco on the ground in front of me. I stepped over it and kept going.
I said, “Hey.”
Erin said, “Hey.”
We didn’t stop for anymore chitchat.
He coughed. One of those coughs that’s not really a cough. I didn’t get it. If you wanted to call someone a slut why not just say it? Why hide behind a cough?
“What the hell?” Erin pulled up short. “Did he just call me a slut?”
“I’m pretty sure he was talking to me,” I assured her, an idea forming in my mind. I was up for an experiment. Somewhere in all that fatherly advice I’d gotten yesterday, practice had been part of it, hadn’t it?
“I don’t think so.” She looked ready to do battle. I grabbed her elbow and escorted her to the door with an extra spring in my step.
“Just keep walking.” I scanned the parking lot, estimating the collateral damage. A handful of students. Dammit. Mrs. Lowry, the school nurse, was getting out of her car. She had on running shoes under her scrubs. So worth it. Even if Derrick didn’t know it was me, I would know, and the thought made me happy. I smiled to myself as my mind worked, my thoughts churning all gray and cloudy and wet. Erin and I had just stepped under the overhang by the front door when it started. It was like turning on a shower full blast. The already hot pavement steamed under the sudden blast of cool rain.
Erin’s eyes grew wide. “Wow, that came out of nowhere.”
I ducked inside. Derrick and David were sprinting across the parking lot. Derrick tried to leap onto the curb but his shoes, or the pavement, or the two combined must have been slick. He went down hard, falling into the grass. He rolled a couple of times and sprang to his feet. By the time he got to the door he was soaked, mud smeared on his cheek. His jeans had fresh grass stains.
My face fell when Mrs. Lowry stumbled in all wet and disheveled.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Lowry,” I said, in
stantly regretful, plagued with the question of just because I could, did it mean I should?
She waved me off. “A little rain never hurt anybody.”
No and neither had I. Not on purpose. Derrick glared as he shuffled past me, his shoes joining the squeaky procession of the other students. I should be sorry, but seeing his surly face, I wasn’t.
Erin was staring at me. “Did you just—“
I shrugged and smiled, humming Miley Cyrus on the way to class.
* * *
Noah was waiting for me when I got out for lunch. He usually waited outside the passenger-side door of the Bronco so he could open it for me, but today he was sitting in the driver’s seat. He didn’t look over at me when I slid inside. At least I didn’t think he did, because I didn’t look at him either. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me. Was I embarrassed? It was one thing to compare doing sex metaphorically to the earth moving or the sky shaking, but for it to literally happen? Honestly, I hadn’t recovered yet. And I meant that literally too. I was sore. I’d had bruises on my hips and thighs earlier, almost perfect prints of Noah’s fingers. My morning swim had healed the surface of my skin but it hadn’t reached me inside where I still ached dully.
We’d yet to speak, both staring straight ahead through the windshield. After a few minutes he reached over and took my hand. I was almost afraid to let him. Nothing happened. I relaxed a little and got all gushy inside like I always did whenever he touched me but no more than that.
“I had to take a cold shower when I got home this morning,” he said. “Our power was out.”
“Oh?” Then realization dawned. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Lightning struck the transformer somewhere.”
“Oh God.” My hands covered my face. Yes, this was definitely embarrassment.
“I know exactly when it happened.”
Yeah, I had a pretty good guess myself. He’d laid me out in the sand and started at my neck. Those lips and that tongue, working their way down my body until I’d been begging up at the sky, and I exploded like never before and took the sky with me.
“We took out the power on four streets.” His tone was smug, dripping in masculine pride. I dared a look at him.
“You’re kidding me?” My eyes narrowed at the gleam in his. “You’re getting off on this.”
“You’ve ruined me.” His lips tilted in a sly smile. I loved his lips.
“Can we not talk about this anymore.” I’d screamed. I’d actually screamed.
“I’ll never want anyone else,” he continued and my cheeks flamed. Damned cheeks.
“You can stop now.” I’d relived it in my mind countless times. What I’d let him do. Could I have really been that girl that acted with complete and utter abandon? With no inhibitions?
“If I died right now, I’d be completely happy.” He wore a full-blown smile now and he was on the verge of laughing.
“Noah!” I was fighting my own smile. “I swear, if you tell me I rocked your—“
His mouth hushed me. When he finished ravishing my mouth, he lifted his head a fraction, staying so close his breath coursed over my cheek. “You rocked my world.”
“You just turned our lovemaking into a cliché,” I said, getting lost in his scent, the green of his eyes.
“Clichés are clichés for a reason. And that was more than love. Or sex. Hell, I don’t think there’s a word for what happened last night.”
He was right. Of course love was part of it, but what was beyond love? Something so natural, so essential, it hadn’t just rocked my world, it changed it.
“Okay fine, you rocked my world too.” I kissed him, quick, not trusting myself not to linger. Was it possible to be addicted to another person?
“Yeah, you made that perfectly clear last night.” He grinned, gunning the engine.
We rode for a few minutes in silence. His hand stayed on my thigh. Mine stayed on his shoulder and eventually strayed to the back of his neck, my fingers curling in his hair. They itched to pull it loose and let it fly in the wind. I thought about bringing up Flores but I didn’t want him to ruin this moment too.
“I was thinking,” I said. “I’ll be done at the shop around five. I thought I might workout with you after.”
“You want to workout with me?” He looked over at me. I didn’t know what it was, but sometimes when I gazed into his eyes I thought I would die I wanted him so much. I was going to melt right here under his gaze all over his leather seat.
“I love you,” I whispered. I think he saw me say it more than he heard me and he leaned over and kissed me. He had the sweetest mouth.
“Yes. I want to workout with you,” I said again after he turned his attention back to the road, in case he forgot what we were talking about because I almost did. “You don’t think I can handle it?”
“No. I’m sure you can handle it. I’m just not sure I can.”
Nine
Sterling Flores came into the shop that afternoon.
I’d filled Maggie in, sticking mostly to the important bits. Like I had an uncle. He may or may not be involved in less than noble endeavors. He was kind of a baby in that he was putting his foot down, making Athen throw me a party that, as far as I could tell, was symbolic at best. Maybe he was sincere in his bid to protect me, though I was still unclear as to who I needed protection from. Though I could see where a man who felt the need to have armed guards wherever he went might be a little paranoid. I saw his demands as more of a power play, pure and simple.
Felix yelped at him, a friendlier sound than I thought he deserved. Flores crouched down, like most people do, but unlike most people, he did it with an extra amount of suppleness, like a leopard or other jungle cat. He scratched Felix behind his ear. A good “I like dogs” kind of scratch. I expected Felix to be indifferent to him or openly hostile. Weren’t dogs supposed to be good judges of character? Felix rolled over baring his stomach. Ugh. Traitor.
And it didn’t help me at all settle my opinion of him. This was my mother’s brother. Presumably someone she’d loved, spent time with on a daily basis. They probably played together. Swam together. There was a good chance he knew all those little things about her I’d often wondered about. If she liked music and if she did, what kind? Was she a morning person and never wanted to miss a sunrise or was she a sunset kind of girl? Pizza or French fries?
“You must be Mr. Flores.” Maggie walked around the counter and held out her hand. Her light brown hair was braided and twisted around her head like a crown. Her fitted t-shirt had an orange tabby cat on the front and her skirt was long and flowed around her legs when she walked. And she wore so much jewelry she sounded like a rain stick when she moved.
“And you must be Magnolia. The picture of you in the window doesn’t do you justice. You are lovely, just like your namesake. And call me Sterling, please.”
“Caris tells me you’re a drug dealer,” she said as he lifted her hand to his lips.
My mouth dropped open. I so did not say that.
Flores’s expression remained passive. “In a former life perhaps. I have other far more legitimate enterprises now.”
“Finally grew a conscience, did you?” Maggie asked in that way she had of insulting you under the guise of a compliment.
“I had a daughter.” Sterling Flores smiled and I thought I heard Maggie’s breath hitch. Admittedly, it was a really nice smile.
“Children do have a way of changing one’s perspective,” she said, disengaging her hand.
“You have children of your own?” he asked.
“No. I remain blissfully unattached,” she said, as if she were trying to convince herself her unattached condition was indeed blissful. I’d been doing my best to fix said condition by dropping subtle and not so subtle hints about my dad’s social life, or lack thereof. “If you weren’t wearing that ring, I might insist on taking you out for a drink.”
“You flatter me.” His smile deepened, revealing the slight dimples in his cheeks.
; I hadn’t noticed the ring. Which meant I had an aunt, and he’d mentioned a daughter, which meant I had a cousin as well. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I’d barely gotten used to the idea of another father and a half brother, and here my family tree was budding again.
“Well, when it comes to your pearls, I mean to flatter you. They have been a joy to work with. Makes my job much easier, but I’m afraid I’m not quite finished,” Maggie said with a bit of a flirty pout.
“I’m sure the wait will be well worth it, but I’m here to see if I can borrow Caris for a few minutes.” His gaze strayed from Maggie and settled on me.
I stared, wide-eyed, open mouthed. Totally attractive. “Me?”
“Just a stroll in the square. I’m sure Athen has issued all kinds of warnings about me, but I assure you, you will be safe. Witnesses abound today.”
Witnesses abound? Was that some kind of a joke? It was clear Athen wasn’t my uncle’s biggest fan, but he hadn’t issued any actual warnings.
As to witnesses, the farmer’s market was in full swing, the square bustling with activity. I’d hit one of the stands earlier and bought a fresh fruit smoothie. My empty Styrofoam cup sat on the counter in front of me.
“Sure,” I said, because my curiosity didn’t care whether the man sold dope or hot dogs or if he wanted to be the King of England. It wanted to know more about my mother. “Let me throw this away first. I’ll meet you outside.” I let him make his way out the door before I reached for my cup and chunked it in the trashcan.
“Really, Maggie?” I said, coming around the counter. “He’s my uncle.”
“What? Did I cross some line of professionalism?” She inquired rather sarcastically. “I’m an artist, Caris. Beauty inspires me. And my uncle has a unibrow and weighs three hundred pounds. Yours is hot.”
I rolled my eyes and headed for the door where outside Sterling or Flores or Uncle—heck, I didn’t even know what to call him—was waiting on the sidewalk.
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