Not trusting my voice to not break and sound like some old hag, I simply nod. He smirks wickedly at me and pulls me back in even closer as our bodies are on autopilot while dancing. I tuck my head back under his chin and he whispers in such a low and deep voice that I fight the urge to clench my thighs together. “In the near, and Honey, I mean extremely near future, we will be in our own place and alone. Completely. It will be a cold night and we will have a fire going. The lights will be low, the air calm, and soft music will be playing in the distance. We will have a beautifully rich wine and there will be chocolate. You’ll find the softest silk green and black and lace teddy complete with a matching garter and silk thigh highs. Maybe even some black high heels, they make your legs look edible, you know? Anyways, you will put all of that on for me and you will come out and find me sitting near the fire, shirtless, with wine for us both. I will ask you to dance for me, and you will be stubborn and say ‘No’, probably many times, but dear little Honey, I will beg you for it. You, being the most gracious woman that you are, will take mercy on me and dance. I will watch you, completely enraptured. Hypnotized by the way your hips will sway slowly with the music. And your hair will look like molten lava in the fire light and your legs will be so tempting that I won’t be able to stop myself from reaching out to you and pulling you into my lap. I’ll have you close and feel the silk against my skin and I will grab the base of your hair and tip your head back and I will kiss you until you cannot breathe. And then, dearest Honey, I will feast upon your entire body.”
I was dead. Surely. They would call it on the spot. No pulse. Just dead. How the fuck are my legs still standing? I was trembling and panting. I tipped my head back and looked up at him again. His eyes were so set with conviction. He knew this was going to happen. He wanted it desperately. It was written all over his face. He leaned in closer to me and I swore he was going to close the distance and kiss me here on the spot in front of everyone. But, to my dismay, he didn’t. “I enjoy this dress on you, Honey, but I enjoy these thigh highs even more. Did you know that your legs look like liquid gold? Did you know that when you crossed your legs while sitting on your throne, I could see everything? Did you know that I have been hard for you for well over an hour?” At that last admission he pressed into my center ever so slightly and I could feel exactly what he was talking about. My mouth watered and I know I looked like the most desperate woman on the planet. I knew my eyes were begging for him to take me. He smirked and leaned in next to my ear. “Consider this payback for the voicemail, little Honey.” He pulled back, raised my hand, and placed a gentle kiss to my knuckles, and walked away.
My feet pound harder into the compact earth of the trail I chose to run around Crimson Lake this morning, sweat dripping down my back and high beat music blasting in my ears from my wireless earbuds. My breath pants out as I push myself harder, the heat expelling from my body causing my breath to fog. The air is crisp this morning as fall fully settles in around Crimson Valley and it is especially colder here around the large lake that dominates most of north Crimson Valley. The sugar maples, which are still very much a favorite of mine around this time of year, light the trail up on all sides as if it were on fire around me and it is a breathtaking sight. The calm that usually settles over me when I decide to take long runs hasn’t hit me yet this morning.
It could be because my whole entire world imploded in a single day not even a full twenty-four hours ago. I hardly slept the night before, up most of the night tossing and turning. From what I deduced with Maya when she pulled me into that room, the Castillo’s have been on my side from the very beginning. Even before I was born. Whatever they had planned with the order, it had been in the works longer than I even realized. My parents were geniuses. It had been on my brain so much that I had spent the better half of the night staring at document after document on my cloud drive and on my papa’s computer, digging through everything and finding more to link back to them. I didn’t find anything, of course. My parents had been careful to cover their tracks and it was smart. With hackers like the Finelli’s, one could never be too careful.
I was going to have to talk to Gabe about setting up better security in my house and maybe I could even have him set up something for the cabin too. I had already decided I was going to show the boys the cabin. I figured it could be our little hide out when we had to have meetings in the future about plans and such. It also reminded me that I needed to swing by the cabin after my run and do a quick look over. I hadn’t forgotten about how shady Asuka had been yesterday and I had too much on my mind last night to look into it right away. I was nearing the halfway point on the trail I had chosen today, one I had been on many times as a kid when I had come out here with my parents or the boys, when something off the beaten trail a bit catches my attention.
I stop and brace my hands on my knees, breathing heavily as I look out into the expanse of sugar maples. About thirty yards in, right off a less trodden path that cuts through the undergrowth, is something black and shiny but what was even more odd was the small copse of pine trees in the middle of a forest full of sugar maples. I straighten up, frowning as I still pant, and begin to make my way up the trail, wanting a closer look. Those pine trees had definitely not been there ten years ago. As I near, I make out the oddity that is the pine trees but what had caught my eye earlier definitely had my attention more than the odd trees. There, parked right in the middle of the semi-formed side trail, was Silas’ Ducati. That thing was his baby and I have seen him on it many times around town over the past few weeks, getting his riding in before the weather got too treacherous for it.
I stop a few feet from it and inspect it for a moment before looking around, my frown deepening. Why would he park his Ducati in the middle of a beaten trail when there was a car lot not even a full mile back to the south of the trail? Was he just that lazy that he needed to park his bike out here so he didn’t have to walk so far up the trail to enjoy the scenery or something? I make my way up to it, sitting pretty in the middle of the trail, and I raise a gloved hand and place it on the side where the engine is. Cold. My brows raise as I bring my hand away and look around. Wherever he was, he had been out here a while. Even if he had been here for an hour, the engine on his bike should still be radiating a little heat from it. It felt like it had been sitting here a few hours which is surprising because it was barely even seven in the morning. I had already been out here for over an hour and I had not seen nor heard him coming up this trail. Stepping away from the bike, I glance around more, and decide to continue down the path, past the pine trees.
He had to be out here somewhere. Was he running other trails I didn’t know about? I pick my way through the forest and in a few feet I reach the tall grass on the other side of the tree line that separates the forest from the lake shore. Maybe he was out on the beach? It was a little chilly for a swim but Silas King was a damn lunatic so it wouldn’t surprise me if he came out here for hard core training or something at withstanding hypothermic waters. It takes me a few minutes to pick through the few feet of tall lake grass before I make it out on the other side and stop to look around. My eyes track along the smooth sandy beach of the shoreline around Crimson Lake and about a dozen feet away, I finally spot him. He is staring out at the expanse of the red tinted lake, the early morning light reflecting off the water and casting him in a glowing image.
He looked like a dark God, ruby red sunlight trying to wrap him up in its embrace but it can’t quite penetrate his darkness. A darkness I craved with my entire being and what has drawn me to him from day one. My mouth literally waters at the sight of him and memories from our sensual dance the night before, his confession, flash before my eyes as I watch him for a moment. He hasn’t noticed me yet and I use this opportunity to study him. From here, it was hard to tell, but he looked so serene and at peace. There weren’t many times in my life that I see him look like that. Our lives have been full of anger, betrayal, and danger from the moment we were born. The only times I had
ever seen him look like that was when he had been around the guys, outside of the Orders’ grasp, or when we had spent moments alone growing up. I know what it is now when I look at him. It’s what his soul looks like on the outside swathed in peace.
He has his long fingers stuffed into the pockets of black sweats, an oversized white zip up hoodie over his upper body and a plain black beanie pulled over his dark hair, tiny tufts of it curling out from the edges of it and making him look so freaking adorable and warm. I can see his profile from here and his hoodie is unzipped slightly at the neck and, Jesus Christ, I think he is shirtless under it. What was this man doing to me? Something urges me forward and before I know it, I am walking towards him. I think it is my intense need to see what he had going on underneath that partially zipped hoodie. I haven’t seen his bare flesh in too many years and part of my brain was curious to see what image he had inked onto his skin that clearly pissed his mother off enough that he felt the need to hide it all the time from outsiders. He hadn’t even been shirtless at the gym that day I had asked Gabe to go shopping with me a few days ago.
He notices me when I am about three feet away and when he turns to me, it's like the breath gets knocked right from my lungs. Especially when a slow, painstakingly slow I should add, smile appears on his beautiful face as he notices me approaching and that look of serene peacefulness only grows bolder on his face in my presence and it does messed up stuff to my heart to see it. My eyes zero in on his half-unzipped hoodie and I feel my eyes widen as I get a peep of vibrant roses splashed within swirls and whirls of black arches and lines across his entire chest and the vines with thorns creep up his neck. It had been the tattoo I had glimpses during that first encounter at that first party over two months ago now. Something churns in my gut at it. He had roses tattooed on his chest. A huge cluster of them peeking out right where his heart would be located along his sculpted pectoral muscles, and that couldn’t be a coincidence. He inked a part of me on his body? Oh fuck. I was not prepared to face the reality of what that meant right now. I had a part of the boys inked on my flesh too, but my tattoo had been done in anger and hurt. Silas’ had been done in heartbreak and regret.
“See something you like?” His voice brings my eyes snapping back up to him and I realize then he has turned to me fully, flashing toned skin that only Gods are made of, and I open my mouth to speak, but then shut it again. I couldn’t even collect my brain enough right now to formulate a proper thought and that was going to become a problem. I had so much I needed to say to Silas and he always went and rendered me speechless most of the time we encountered each other so it was getting harder and harder for me to speak my mind to him. “No.” I retort eventually, but even I can hear the lie in my voice and a slow smirk plays at the right corner of his sinful mouth and I find myself staring at it for an entirely too long moment. He gives me a slow, deliberate once over and I feel myself shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. It wasn’t like I was self-conscious or anything, I just felt like he could see right through me when he looked at me like that.
“Did you just get done with a run? You are looking… a bit sweaty.” He adds at the end and his tone sounds off. When I look back up at him, I see his eyes are heated as he gazes over me. If this boy was seriously looking at me right now like I was a whole damn meal when I looked this crappy, he deserved a trophy or something. “I come out here sometimes to think.” He says when I don’t answer right away. This is one of my favorite spots. You should know why.” He adds and my brow furrows as he gives me an expectant look. I glance away from him and look around at the bare spot, looking no different than any other part of the shoreline. I racked my brain for a reason why this spot-on Crimson Lake would be his favorite, but some of the memories of this place from my childhood had been buried deep and for good reason.
“I’m sorry…” I shake my head and shrug. He doesn’t look mad though when I look up into his eyes. He looks… regretful? Understanding? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. He steps closer to me then and my brain begins to do that thing it does around him that annoys me. It short circuits, predictably, and my breath catches in my throat as he presses himself against me. It is a seductive move, yet not quite seductive enough. I hold perfectly still as he takes his fingers out of his sweatpants pocket and runs them up my black sleeved arm. He inched his way up and over my slim shoulder and my heart feels like it is hammering a mile a minute as he brings those skilled fingers up the column of my neck and along my jaw ever so slowly. It is when he stops and drags his thumb along my bottom lip and he leans in and whispers, “This is where I first kissed you.” that I come undone. How had I forgotten about that? Christ, my brain was some mess of uncooked egg yolks and egg whites, especially when I was around Silas King.
“You don’t have to feel sorry for forgetting. We were twelve and I’ve made some incredibly stupid decisions since then that have no doubt aided in your desire to bury those memories of us.” He says softly and our mouths get so close together that I can literally taste him as he breathes his signature scent around me. Bergamot and cedarwood. “It’s no matter. I am one hundred percent on board with making new memories with you, little Honey.” He then purrs against my mouth and when I gasp, our lips finally brush together and it is like an atomic bomb being let off. Sparks fly and that connection between us flares to life once again and I don’t stop myself when I press into him further. It lasts all of five seconds before he pulls back, turning his head away from me and I have to stop myself from chasing his mouth with my own like some hungry idiot. Confusion sweeps over me. Silas wasn’t normally like this. He took what he wanted, when he wanted. I had just offered up a make out session on a silver platter and he pulls back? What the fuck? “What-”
“Taking it slow remember? If I get more than one little taste of your sweetness, my little Honey, I won't be able to hold back. I only have so much control when it comes to you.” He sounds so pained and it dawns on me then. My fucking requests for time and space. Jesus Christ. Who was this guy and what has he done with dominant and assertive Silas King? “You have got to be either the most patient man I know, or the dumbest. I can’t decide which.” I raise a brow at him, but step back. My libido was screaming at me for creating more distance, but he was right. Sweet little kisses to help me remember old times and bring up old memories was a good thing. Jumping right into bed with him is completely different. Despite my sex drive at the moment, I knew it would be a mistake to give in right now. We still had a lot of trust to build until we got there and I was okay with working towards that. Silas laughs at this and reaches up and scratches at his scalp underneath his beanie for a moment, dark pools like the depths of a sea shining back at me with amusement and a hint of lust. He was just as affected by that kiss as I had been.
“It wasn’t my intention to kiss you. I am trying to be a gentleman and grant you your wishes. I need to do this right because I have a feeling if I fuck it up, you won’t give me another chance. Plus, I plan on having a lifetime of these moments with you.” He adds at the end, nearly ripping my heart in two and I glance away from him for a moment out towards the far side of the lake so he wouldn’t have to see just how much that hit me right in my stupid bleeding heart. “Definitely patient then.” I say on a sigh, looking out at the tree line on the other side of the Lake. My parents’ cabin is deeper in there on that side, hidden by the trees, and I had every intention of driving over there after… whatever this was with Silas was done.
Silas surprises me and slips his fingers through my gloved hand hanging by my side and I surprisingly let him and we stand there for a long moment looking out at the water as the sun finished rising in the sky. So many emotions were raging through me at that moment and his simple gesture of holding my hand was wreaking havoc on my poor heart right now. “Do you remember what you said to me right after I kissed you?” He asked softly when the silence stretched on for too long. I glance over at him and try and think back to that moment. It takes a while, but then a smile str
etches my face as it comes to me and the mirth dancing in his dark eyes only eggs me on. Playfully I say, “You better not have just given me cooties, Silas Ezra King.” The laugh that burst out of him was like the verse to a song I have been dying to hear for my whole life and the smile was even better. It had been such a typical preteen thing to say and thinking back on it now, it sounded ridiculous that it had come out of my mouth. “I also remember you told me that I would be lucky to get cooties from you and I think I punched you in the arm after.”
He laughed again, a deep belly laugh, and it made me smile so wide it hurt my face. A tiny giggle escapes me and when he looks over at me, tears of laughter in his dark eyes, I could see why back then I had been the one to close the distance between us that first time when he had been leaning in. Silas was like a giant piece of metal and I, a magnet. I just couldn’t help staying away from him. I hadn’t even been able to move on with the numerous lovers I had in the years I was gone. I suppose I was just stuck with this man for the rest of my life and I couldn’t say I was complaining about it one bit. Our laughter died down a moment later and eventually, he sighs and raises my hand to his lips and kisses the back of my glove. When I look into his eyes again, he looks irritated, but not at me.
“My mother requested I start attending some of the King meetings from now on so that I start to get a taste of what my life will be like when I ascend my throne after the vote next month. Between you and I, I don’t think my mother would ever willingly give up her throne even if it is tradition for them to retire when their heirs reach twenty-four.” He says this like he has a bad taste in his mouth and I can’t help but laugh at his sarcastic tone when he mentions ‘ascending’ his throne. “Oh pity. I am the sitting Locke member and I still don’t get invited to private Order meetings. Not that I would be over joyous if I was invited anyway.” I say dryly and he drops my hand and slips his fingers out of mine. “Yeah, well, if my mother comes into my room to wake me up in the next thirty minutes to get ready for this dumb meeting and finds me gone, that will be another shit storm I have to deal with on top of all the crap she gave me last night about my little side project in Crimson Valley.”
Whiskey & Honey: Crimes of Crimson Valley: Book One Page 25