Scott followed Adan’s nod. “Sara and I were almost attacked in the woods by some mutant, freak wolf.” He said.
I felt the need to come to my wolf’s defense. “He is not a mutant, freak Scott, and we were hardly attacked by him.” I removed my arms from around him and crossed them over my chest, I was all too aware of the way Adan was watching. I was afraid to look at Scott, to see if he was aware of it too.
“A mutant, freak wolf huh?” Adan repeated. “Sounds like he might be dangerous. Maybe you should call the sheriff Sara.”
“No!” I said loudly, but Scott was laughing next to me.
“That’s exactly what I said, but Sara has a soft spot for the damn thing.”
“I do,” I said unashamed. “And you promised you would not call the sheriff.” I added looking at Scott.
“I know, I know. The things I do for you, pretty girl.” He tapped my nose and I could feel the anger rolling off Adan. I looked at him, his eyes were narrowed and his face clouded over, and I could feel his hatred. It soaked into my skin leaving a hostile burning in its place.
“Well,” Adan finally said. “I’d stick with the ‘almost attacked’ story Scott, because it looks like you got your ass kicked, and I think Sara’s side of things will only confirm that.”
What was he doing?!
Scott bristled. “I didn’t-“
“Actually,” I interrupted. “Scott was trying to save my life.” I said glaring at Adan. Why was he making this harder?
“Wow, a modern day hero you have here,” Adan looked at me. “Seems like you need a lot of saving these days Sara.”
Scott’s arm tightened around me as he looked down at me. “What is he talking about?”
“She didn’t tell you?” he asked, and didn’t skip a beat in giving Scott the full run down. “We were in a photo booth together at the festival yesterday, and it caught on fire. Strangest thing too, it was almost like there was this intense energy in that small, small booth,” He made sure to accentuate each word, while staring only at me, “and it made everything short circuit and explode.” Adan was using his hands to demonstrate.
Dirty indeed!
“Is that true Sara?” Scott asked me, removing his arm.
“More or less. Really, it was nothing Scott, and I’m fine, honestly.” I turned toward Adan. “Adan was just coming by to make sure I was okay, and I am. Thank you Adan, but we were just about to eat dinner.” I was trying to push Scott inside, but he was moving slowly.
“Thanks for looking out for Sara yesterday Adan, but I’ve got it from here on out.” Scott finally moved, and pushed open the door waiting for me to follow.
Even after his dirty little game, I didn’t want him to go. I was hesitant to go inside, and he seemed to feel the same.
“Goodnight Adan.” I turned to follow Scott, but Adan’s taunt and run stopped me.
“Don’t forget what I told you Sara.”
Dinner was considerably tense.
After returning to Andres in the kitchen, and explaining to him who had been at the door, nobody really said anything. Andres tried to start a few conversations, but Scott and I were no help in continuing them. I knew he was freaking out about Adan’s visit and I was too. I had heard Adan’s warning at the festival about fighting dirty, but I had never expected that. I hadn’t expected Scott to meet Adan either. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about the whole situation. The wolf thing, and now the Adan thing, made it harder for me to decide. Could I just toss away everything Scott and I had, when he had been willing to risk his life for mine? Could I ignore my intense connection with Adan? Blah!
When dinner was finished, Andres said his goodnights and goodbyes and escaped to his room. I envied him, I just wanted to escape to my room too. I was feeling even more run down; and it seemed like the more the day went on, the worse it got. Scott and I volunteered to clean up the kitchen and do the dishes. Scott filled the sink with soapy water and I piled the dished next to him.
“I’ll wash, you dry.” He said, and playfully tossed the dish towel at me and smiled.
I returned the smile and went to stand next to the dish rack. “Sounds like a very good plan to me. I’m so tired. Andres had a field day today with our exercise routine, and now he wants me too start some weird type of extreme kickboxing…can you believe that?” I tried to keep to a safe topic.
“Really? Why does he want you to learn kickboxing?” he scrubbed the food off our plates, and handed them to me.
“If I had to guess, it’s because he is crazy. I don’t know. He is so cryptic about everything. I gave up trying to understand the insane workings of his mind.”
“Are you going to avoid what was with you and that Adan guy, and what you were doing with him in a photo booth all night?” He didn’t look at me as he fired the question, just continued to wash and pass.
I rinsed off the plate he handed me, dried it and put it away before I answered him. “I’m not avoiding it Scott,” Lie one. “There is nothing going on.” Lie two. “I don’t know why he made it sound like we had been in the booth together. I was in there and then all of a sudden sparks were flying, computers were blowing up, and he pulled me out. That’s all that happened.” Lie three.
“He seemed pretty intent on making me believe otherwise. He obviously likes you Sara, and it almost looked like you were trying to make him jealous…”
I was a horrible person. “I’m sorry Scott. I swear that’s not what I was doing.” Wasn’t it?!
“I’d feel better if you didn’t spend anymore time with him Sara.” He finally looked at me as he emptied the sink and pulled the nozzle out to rinse away the suds.
“You can trust me Scott.”
Could he really? I asked myself.
Yes. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him…on purpose at least.
“I know I can trust you Sara, it’s him I don’t trust. It’s a cliché I know, but when has that cliché ever been wrong?” He smiled at me.
“You don’t have anything to worry about.” I put away the last of the dishes and handed him the towel so he could dry off his wet hands. He tossed the towel aside and looked toward the living room, before he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him.
“I hope not, but I don’t like the way he was looking at you.” He confessed softly.
“Don’t be silly,” I smiled at him playfully. “He wasn’t looking at me any certain way Scott.” I wanted to pull away from him, but I knew that would only contradict my words.
“Believe me Sara, he was definitely looking at you in a certain way. You’re not a guy, you wouldn’t have noticed it.”
I laughed and used this as my opening to remove myself. Pushing at his chest playfully, I pulled away. “Boys! I think you guys see what you want to see. Come with me to take out the trash before you leave?” I asked. I wrapped up the corners of the trash tying it in a knot. “I hope you don’t mind, I’m really beat.”
“Of course not. What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Work.” I reminded him, and stopped at the double doors.
“Oh right.” He came around and took the bag of trash from me. He opened the door, motioning for me to go first. “Ladies first.”
I smiled and hopped out in front of him. “Thank you.”
We walked down the steps of the deck, and to the side of the house where the trash bins were. Scott lifted the lid and dumped the bag in, letting the lid drop with a loud crack.
“Shhhh,” I hissed shoving his arm. “You’ll wake the neighbors.”
He busted out laughing. “What neighbors Sara?”
I looked around and realized he was right; there were no neighbors on our block. It was dark on this corner of the house, and I realized this was probably a mistake. I hurried to walk past him so we could get to the front of the house where it was lit, but Scott had other ideas and caught me, pressing me into the wall of the house.
“Not so fast,” he said, leaning into me. “I haven’t gotten a proper kiss f
rom you yet, thanks to your psychotic watch dog.” He was tracing his finger over the shadows on my face.
“He was just making sure you were being a gentlemen.” I whispered.
He put his hand over his check in mock hurt. “Ouch. I am always a gentlemen, but since I have you alone out here…” He leaned in closer.
Scott had always been good with giving me space and not being so pushy when it came to sex. He knew I was a virgin, and I knew he wasn’t, but that didn’t change the way he treated me. I wasn’t ready, and he respected that, letting me know he would wait until I was. We had done other things, steamy make out sessions and a lot of heavy petting; but it never got further than that, and more then one time he had been the first one to stop it. I had a feeling tonight was going to be different; I knew he felt like he had something to prove.
His lips pressed against mine, softly at first and then he increased the pressure, trying to push my lips open. I figured I could give him one good kiss and then pull away without hurting his feelings or bruising his ego.
Scott was a good kisser, but kissing him now I felt nothing, no sparks or heat. There was no need, or want, to deepen the kiss and pull him closer to me. I could feel the flutter, crawling under my skin, sizzling to life but I knew it wasn’t because of Scott; and I wondered which one was out there, or if it was both. Scott tried to deepen the kiss, but I pulled away before he could.
Pulling back, I licked my lips and smiled at him. “I had to come up for air.”
He laughed and put me down, kissing my nose. “I better go before I get eaten alive by your watch dog.” he joked, and I laughed.
I watched him drive away, after making plans with him to pick me up after work tomorrow, and then walked around the side of the house. Rounding the corner, I took a quick peek at the trash cans to make sure Scott had flipped the lid, when I saw his lazy profile as he leaned against the back of the house. My hand flew to my chest and I gasped loudly.
“Did I scare you?” He asked with a smirk on his face.
“Are you insane? Of course you scared me!!” I screeched.
“Shhhh,” he whispered. “Don’t want to wake your dad.”
“Andres is not my dad.” I corrected. “And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in surrender. Pushing away from the wall, he stalked toward me. “Let’s talk about something else then. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that you were trying to make me jealous with your little display with Scott.” He drawled.
My eyes narrowed at him. “You were spying on us?” I accused.
“Guilty as charged.” He confessed shamelessly.
“Well at least you’re honest.” I said with a pout.
“It kind of sounds like you’re mad at me?” He asked and fiddled with a piece of my hair.
Smacking his hand away, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Nothing gets past you. Now I just can’t decide if I am angrier at you for your new found stalker status, or for baiting Scott the way you did. Why did you do that?”
“I warned you I would fight dirty.” He said simply.
“You shouldn’t be fighting at all. I told you I have a boyfriend. You just want what you can’t have, and I refuse to be a challenge for you.”
His arm snaked out so fast it was almost a blur, and he whirled me around until I was pinned between him and the house. My chest rose and fell, pushing against his. I tried not to focus on how good it felt. He grabbed my chin firmly but gently, between his fingers,. Tilting my face up until I was forced to look at him, his eyes were blazing and I could feel the annoyance vibrating off him.
“I don’t believe for one minute that you think you’re only a challenge to me.” He whispered fiercely.
“I don’t know what to believe! I haven’t known you long enough to know what kind of game you’re playing.”
“I’m not playing a game with you. It doesn’t matter that I just met you yesterday; you know there is a connection between us.”
I was shaking my head, denying his words before he could get them out, but his firm grip didn’t allow much for the movement. “NO?!” he freaked. “You’re denying you feel it too?” He pinned me with his heated gaze for a long, slow, agonizing minute before his face melted into a dangerous smile. “Actually I’m glad you said that.” He confessed and bent his head. I gasped when I felt the tip of his nose and lips running up and down the side of my neck.
My hands had balled into fists, and I flattened them against the wall as I let him torture me. The minute his skin touched mine his point was proven and my skin caught on fire. The trail he was creating burned hotly, and I shivered under his gentle touch. I could feel the smile on his lips as he continued to run a rampage on my nerves. The flutter was out of control, and my body was buzzing just having him this close to me.
“Sara.” He whispered my name in a trail down my throat. “I know you feel that.” His voice was urgent. “You can deny it with every sweet, intoxicating, breath in your body, but I know damn well that you feel that!” He lifted his head and I wanted to protest, but he was lifting my hand and placing it over his chest, and I could feel the rapid pounding of his heart underneath my fingers. “I know you feel it, because I can feel it too. It happens whenever I’m close to you, whenever I’m thinking about you.”
I stared into his earnest face. “I can’t hurt him.” Was all I could say.
“Do you feel this way around him? Does he make your heart pound the way I do? Does he make electricity run through your body, and your blood boil?” He challenged and his voice got even quieter. “Can he make you blush with a simple word, a look…a touch?”
I swallowed hard.
His breath came in warmth puffs that covered my face and neck, causing shiver bumps to erupt across my skin. “And what solid evidence do you have, that suggest you do all of that to me? Yes maybe you can get my pulse worked up, and yes some of the things you say can cause me to blush, but everything else is obviously coming from the over active imagination of your brain.” I shook my head, trying to clear the fog he had created around us.
“Ugh I can’t think straight when you’re this close to me.” I said and squeezed out from underneath him. I stood with my back to him, facing into the dark woods. I could feel my wolf’s eyes on me, and I could feel Adan’s eyes on me. “He was willing to risk his own life earlier to save me. I can’t just…” I didn’t know what else to say.
“And you don’t think I would do the same for you?”
“I didn’t say that.” I protested.
“Okay then let me rephrase that. Do you think I would do the same for you?”
“Give up your life to save mine?”
He nodded firmly.
“I honestly don’t know. Why would you have any reason too? You haven’t even known me a full 48 hrs. I’m nobody to you.”
He sighed dramatically and dropped his head back until he was staring into the sky. “You’re nobody to me?” he repeated, like it was the silliest thing he had ever heard.
“What?! You can’t expect me to believe that in less then a day you would be willing to give up your life for mine!”
“Does that mean you wouldn’t give up your life to save mine?”
I stared at him flabbergasted. I hadn’t expected him to turn that around on me, and even as I thought about it, I couldn’t confidently say that I wouldn’t do whatever I could to save his life…even if that meant giving up my own. And yet here I was accusing him of being so outrageous as to mirror these same feelings.
“Don’t do that,” I said. “Don’t turn this around on me.”
“Why? Because you would have to admit that you wouldn’t, or because you would have to admit that you would!”
“I can’t believe we are having this conversation. This is insane!” I said throwing my hands up in defeat, I turned away from him.
Neither one of us said anything for what seemed like an eternity, but I could feel his eyes burning into my
skin.
“Your wolf?” He finally asked, changing the subject. I felt him come to stand behind me.
I smiled, thankful for the subject change. “Yes, he’s my wolf.” I said possessively. “He saved my life.”
“He saved your life too? Do you make it a habit of needing your life saved all the time?”
I laughed. “It’s a long story. I can feel him watching us, watching me.” I said, and turned around to look at him. God, he was breath taking.
“You can feel him?”
“Are you just going to repeat everything I say?”
He laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it sounds like you were in love with him.”
I looked over my shoulder toward the woods again and smiled softly. “I think I kind of am.”
“So it’s a real life beauty and the beast tale?”
“I guess you could say that.” My smile grew bigger as images of my wolf filled my thoughts. With his size and the way he protected me, he really could be my beast. “Yes he is my beast.”
“Does that mean he is going to magically transform into some handsome hero, and carry you off into the night?”
I snorted. “I only wish! Unfortunately magic, with its sparkly dust and magic wands, doesn’t exist. No matter how much I might want it too.”
“You never know. I think you’re pretty magical.” He said smiling at me. Gone was his cocky attitude, he was looking at me in a way that left me forgetting how to breathe.
“I can’t imagine what I have done to give you that idea, but thank you.” I didn’t feel like ruining the moment with an unneeded sarcastic retort.
“So,” He said breaking the spell. I blinked a couple of times, I trying to focus. “Is there anyone or anything else I should be aware of, that I might have to compete with?”
I laughed. “I’m sorry to tell you this Adan, but if My Wolf did magically appear as my flesh and blood, knight in shining armor, in front of my very eyes, there would be no competition. I would be all his.”
He seemed to be pleased by that and I frowned. “Is that so?”
Flutter (The Discover Series) Page 25