“No,” she breathes.
I continue edging toward her bra, running my thumb underneath the band. Her skin is soft and warm, and I can’t help but reach around back and unclasp her bra. When she doesn’t flinch, I bring my left arm around and cup her in my hand. My god, I need more. I can’t stop. For so long I have needed to touch a girl. For so long I have wanted to touch Honor. Recklessly, I lift off her shirt and bra and bring my mouth to her breast. She gasps, her hands pulling on my hair. And suddenly I realize she wants me to stop. Looking her in the eyes, I silently ask her again if I should stop.
She shakes her head. “I…I’ve never done this before,” she whispers so low I can barely hear her.
I lean on my elbows and touch her nose to nose. “We don’t have to,” I say breathlessly into her mouth.
“No, it’s okay. I’ve…” I kiss her lips before she finishes.
“We can stop,” I say when I pull back again.
She grabs my t-shirt and pulls me back down. Into my ear, she breathes, “I’ve never wanted to before…but…I do right now.” She nips my earlobe and I feel my body quiver above her.
She pulls up on my shirt and whispers, “I want to feel your chest against mine.”
I tear my shirt off, and pressing my chest to hers, I lift her and turn her simultaneously, sitting her on my lap – her legs around my waist.
“Oh, Honor…I love you so much.” And as soon as I say it, I’m totally embarrassed. I had not wanted to say that yet.
“Oh,” she says, as if realizing this for the first time – which probably she is. I’m not sure she had realized just how much I was into her. “Oh,” she breathes out again.
“Honor, I…uh…didn’t mean that. It…it just came out. I’m sorry,” I plead. “Don’t…”
“Shh.” She puts her fingers to my lips. “No. Don’t be sorry. I just…I don’t know if I…you know…” she’s turning red, “if I feel the same…’cause Ethan…and all. I’m…I’m sorry.” Honor stays on my lap and doesn’t pull away.
I kiss her again on her luscious mouth, kissing her softly…without tongue. “Don’t be sorry,” I ask of her. “Please don’t be sorry for being honest.”
I run my fingers down her back and embrace her soft skin beneath my fingertips. “Why don’t we stop right here? Your parents will be home soon anyway.”
Honor kisses me hard on the lips. “Thank you,” she says.
“For what?”
“It was the first time anyone’s ever touched me like that. Thank you for making my first time so special.”
Now it’s my turn to blush. And then it registers. “You and Ethan never…?”
Shaking her head, she says, “I wasn’t ready yet.”
My heart is smiling again. With me…she was ready. And that thought is the best news I had heard all day. Maybe I stand a chance after all.
Chapter Thirty
The next day in lunch, Honor is not at our table. I know she’s in school today, because she drove in with me.
“Tam, do you know where Honor is?”
She tilts her head and looks at me from across the table. “No. I thought she was coming to lunch. She said she’d meet me here, she was just going to run to her locker.”
“Oh.” That’s not so bad. I go buy a burger and cola and sit back down across from Tam. Eli and Hunter are now at the table.
A few seconds later, Ethan puts his tray down. “Where’s Honor?” he asks me.
Shrugging, I tell him I have no idea.
While everyone else makes small talk, I can only think about Honor and what she’s doing. She isn’t one to stray from her normal schedule, so it worries me.
“Storm.” Tam gets right in my face to get my attention. “What’s going on in that head of yours? Why you so worried?”
“It’s just not like her to be late, that’s all.”
“What’re you worried about?” Ethan asks.
“For all the time you’ve known her, have you ever known her to not be where she says she’s supposed to be?”
He laughs. “No. But she’s a big girl. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“Unless she went and healed someone again and is passed out in the girls’ room again.” I say it sarcastically but realize that she could have really done that.
I run out of the lunch room in search of her.
After checking all the girls’ rooms nearby, I go the nurse’s office, but Mrs. Wentink hasn’t seen Honor today. Plodding down all the hallways now in search of every girls’ room, I pass Moore’s class. Always suspicious of the man, I look through the tiny window in his door. He doesn’t have a class this period, but he is talking to a student.
Honor.
I push open the door frantically. “What the hell?” I scowl at Moore.
Honor runs over to me. “Storm, it’s not what you think.” She grasps my arm and turns toward Moore.
He nods his head. “Shut the door, Mr. Sutherland.”
“Yeah?” I ask, my pulse elevated, wondering what the fuck Moore wants from Honor now.
“It’s okay, Storm. I came to see him. He’s not against us.” Honor tries to calm my temper.
What the hell kind of lies has he been feeding her? “Talk. Now,” I urge him.
A cocky Moore leans against his desk, half sitting on it with his hands on either side of his hips. “I don’t work for Gaffer. Never have. Never will.”
Whoa. What the…? I turn to look at Honor. “What did you tell him?” I ask her, my teeth clenched, I am so angry with her right now.
She gasps.
“Whoa, Sutherland. Don’t be angry with her. She did nothing wrong.” Moore scolds me.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I demand. “I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re feeding to Honor, but I don’t like it.”
“I don’t think he’s lying,” Honor says quietly.
“I’m not.” Moore attempts to assure me. “I know Asa…but in no way am I working for him. I don’t even like the man.”
“Asa?” My temper is not subsiding. My ears are pounding with the pressure from holding in my anger at Moore right now.
“Gaffer. His real name is Asa. And he’s no friend of mine. But I assure you…I am solely on my own here.”
“Okay.” I sit on the edge of a classroom desk across from Moore. Folding my arms, I ask him, “I’m listening. What is your part in this? What do you know and what do you want?”
Moore looks up at the intercom. “Let’s not talk about it here. Meet me at four at Mahlon Dickerson…by Saffin Pond. Bring your little empath troop with you. But say nothing to anyone else,” he implores.
“Mahlon at four,” I reiterate, trying to read his face. “I still don’t trust you, but we’ll be there.”
“I don’t like this,” I say to Honor out in the hall.
“I don’t know why,” she says. “I feel nothing but honesty coming from him. I trust him.”
“Then why did he need your blood? He was sneaky about it. Right there tells me we can’t trust him.”
“But I’m usually so good at reading people. I mean, I do realize now that taking my blood was kind of suspicious and all, but…I don’t know. I didn’t really wanna say anything, because it’s crazy and all, but…I get the feeling that he…you know…cares for me…like…a lot.”
I freeze. “He’s in love with you?” I ask in more than a soft voice. More like I shout it from my diaphragm.
“Shhh…Storm.” She squeezes my forearm. “Shut up. No. Not in love with me. Not like that. Just…I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it’s not. Just…don’t make a big deal of it.”
“Don’t make a big deal that your chemistry teacher is in love with my girl…with you? That’s a huge deal, Honor.” It seems that when I’m annoyed with her, I can’t call her princess.
We’ve reached the lunch room.
“I’ll drop it for now. Maybe the guys can feel something from him when we’re at the reservatio
n later,” I say.
“Where the heck have you guys been?” Tamlin makes a show of her question, wagging her arms around.
“Calm down, Tam,” I tell her.
Honor just laughs at her silliness, which borders on the ridiculous, then squeezes in next to her. I sit back down in my spot across from Tam.
Turning toward Ethan, I tell him about the meeting today at Mahlon.
“What do you make of it?” he asks.
“I don’t know.” I sigh. “Honor seems to trust him. I don’t.”
“He wants us all there?” Eli asks.
“That’s what he said – bring your empath troop. But you have to keep it quiet.”
“Like we don’t already know that,” Hunter remarks, shaking his head.
“What about me? Can’t I go too?” Tamlin asks. “It’s not like you guys keep your secrets from me.”
I nod. “Yeah, Tam. I think it’d be okay.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Honor rides with me to Mahlon Dickerson. Hunter, Elijah, and Tamlin follow us in Ethan’s car. After parking in the gravel lot, we walk the trail towards Saffin Pond.
“I sure hope this isn’t a set up,” Elijah says from behind me, Tamlin close at his side.
“Oh…you sound like Storm,” Honor quips before I have a chance to answer.
“I’m hoping the same thing.” I say, looking him in the eye for the first time since that day in my apartment. Since opening up to Ethan, my heart has gone soft. Forgiving my father will never happen, but his sons’ aren’t to blame for his betrayal, and I’m trying to get over my hatred towards them. I guess what they say about love and hate being a fine line is true, because underneath all this hate I’d carried towards my half-brothers these past years is a layer of love for them I didn’t know existed.
Becoming soft is another result of falling for Honor. Her openness and honesty, combined with my unconditional love for her, is wreaking havoc on my bad boy persona – not sure I like this side of me.
Reaching the beach at Saffin Pond, everyone but Honor takes a seat on one of the several wooden benches scattered about the sand. I stand back up and follow Honor to the dock she’s headed for. “Hey, wait up,” I call out to her.
When Honor turns, I see a frown appear on her face.
“Do you not want me with you?” I ask, catching up to her and taking the space alongside her.
Stepping on to the dock, she shakes her head. “No. It’s not that. I’m…nervous I guess.”
“Ah. So you don’t completely trust him.”
“No. I do. I just feel…like something’s gonna go wrong.”
I take her hand, and we sit on the dock, taking off our shoes to dip our feet in the water. “What do you think is going to go wrong?”
Honor leans her head on my shoulder. “I wish I knew…but something bad. I keep getting these vibes from him.”
“From Moore?”
“Yeah. I can’t explain it. I trust him, but…something’s gonna happen.”
“Today?”
She lifts her head from my shoulder and looks at me.
“I don’t know,” she answers, then puts her head back on my shoulder.
Draping my arm around her, I tuck her in close and kiss the top of her head.
We sit there for a while before Moore walks up the trail and leans against the back of one of the benches. I help Honor up and head for Moore.
All eyes are on him. We’re here for answers, and I see it in all my brothers’ eyes. They, too, don’t know what to make of the man.
“Moore.” I’m the first to greet him.
“Sutherland,” he mocks.
“Hi, Mr. Moore,” Tamlin says with a giggle, and Eli nudges her in her side.
“Hey, Honor,” Moore addresses her, and that’s when I see it. He does like my girl. It’s in his eyes.
I’m so pissed at this, I clench my fists. “Cut to the chase, Moore. Who are you?”
He smiles one of those sly crooked smiles. “I’m Jared Moore. I’ve never lied about my name.”
“Keep going,” I order.
“I’m Asa Moore’s younger brother.” He pauses, waiting for our reaction.
But since Honor and I are the only two who know that Asa is the Gaffer, he doesn’t get the reaction he’s looking for.
“Okay. So you’re ancient,” I wisecrack. “But you said you had nothing to do with the guy.”
“I don’t.”
“Wait, back up here a minute,” Ethan says. “Who the hell is Asa?”
Honor is biting her lower lip, and I can tell she’s nervous about the impending doom she expects to happen. Reaching over, I take her hand and gently squeeze it.
“Asa is the Gaffer,” I explain. “The one causing all this trouble.”
“So what do you want if you have nothing to do with him?” Ethan asks.
“I want revenge.” He pauses for effect again.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I quip. “Why do you want revenge?”
“He took something that was mine. Or should I say someone.”
Ethan and I look at each other. Then it clicks. Didn’t Moore tell me to leave Ethan’s girl alone once? “So this is about a girl?” I am disgusted with him. He is freaking out Honor all because of a girl.
Moore smirks. “No.” He looks from me to Ethan, then keeps his gaze on Honor – which pisses me off. “Though I can see where you’d think that.” He flashes that crooked smile, and I wonder – what is it that Honor trusts in him. He’s slimy.
“Cut the bullshit, Moore. You may be their teacher, but really, you’re no one to me.”
“I beg to differ, Sutherland. I think you may need me now more than ever.”
“Yeah? Why?”
It seems while everyone else is processing what’s being said, I’m the only one carrying on the conversation with Moore.
“Because I can get Asa to come to me.”
“And why would I want that? I need to get him away from here. Away from Honor.”
He shifts a little against the seatback of the bench. “Because once we have him…we can kill him.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Ethan chimes in.
Honor squeezes my hand so hard, I know she’s holding back tears.
“Who said anything about killing anyone?” Ethan asks. “I ain’t killing anyone else. Two is my limit.”
This makes me chuckle for some reason.
“Explain it to me, Moore.” Pulling Honor under my one arm, so it’s draped around her shoulder, I’m able to rub her arm. “Why do you want your brother dead?”
He folds his arms across his chest. “Because he deserves to die. He has it coming to him.”
“That’s no explanation,” I say, lowering Honor to the bench next to us. When I look at her face, she is whiter than white, so I sit down next to her and hold her. “Why does he deserve it? What has he done to you? Who did he steal from you?”
Moore swallows hard and looks directly at Honor. “He stole my partner. Honor’s great-great-great granddad was my business partner. We worked on that elixir together.”
All of us, including me, gasp at this statement. I was not expecting that.
Moore continues. “He put me in a coma. Of course he thought he’d killed me and left me for dead, but I came to. It took a while. I’m not even sure how long I was out. All I know is when I woke up, blood had dried all over me. But my heart was still beating. He drove a stake through my chest.” He laughs. “Maybe back then he thought one killed empaths like they killed vampires. I have no idea. Guns had been invented for goodness sake. I mean we’ve been killing for years.” He ponders that for a moment. “I made my first kill when I was thirty-three.
“Anyway, it took a while to find him. Evidently he fled the state. I found him in Pennsylvania a couple months later. He had convinced Seth, Honor’s granddad, that I was working against him – using his elixir against him. When I caught Seth alone, he’d said he’d had it with both of us and he was taking his elixir and le
aving it someplace safe.”
Honor is shaking under my arm. I shift her atop my lap and try to comfort her with my embrace.
Moore continues his spiel. “I was pissed. I had worked so hard on that elixir, but Seth had kept the ultimate ingredient a secret. We had everything else.”
I didn’t like where this was going. From the way my lap was shaking because of Honor’s tremors, I’d guess that she felt the same way.
“What was the ingredient, Moore?” I ask with clenched teeth.
He looks at Honor, then at the ground.
“Tell us,” I demand.
With his eyes still cast down, he whispers, “Seth’s own blood.”
I close my eyes, leaning my forehead against Honor’s.
“So that’s why you need Honor’s blood,” Ethan declares, since I was stunned into silence.
My biggest fear has come true – Honor is not safe.
Moore nods, than inches toward Honor.
Instead of sticking around to see what he’s going to do, I pick up Honor. With my arm tucked under her knees and my other arm around her back, I make a run for it.
There is no way I’m taking a chance at having him come after her. Who knows if he has a gun? He’s not going to care about witnesses. He’d kill us all.
Well, all I care about is what he will do to Honor, so we flee.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The fading voices behind us are demanding that we return, but I won’t. It may seem cowardly to them, but I’m too afraid for Honor.
Not uttering a word since bolting from Moore, Honor keeps her face buried in the crook of my neck.
“I need to put you down, princess. I’m sorry, but we need to run faster. I’m not sure if he’s coming after us.”
I put her down, grab her hand, and continue running at full speed. There are two trails up ahead. Following my gut, I lead her up the trail that goes directly into the woods. Once we’ve reached an area where the gravel ends and the dirt path begins, I take her up behind some large trees and overgrown bushes. We hide behind some seven-foot broken tree trunk that at first glance looks like a huge black bear.
A Man of Honor (A Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (The Honor Trilogy) Page 12