I picked up speed down the main road and told myself I was losing my mind.
Which I probably was.
I lit a cigarette and drove fast.
Everyone told me cigarettes were bad for my health.
They were wrong.
It was love that was going to kill me.
* * *
“You’re going to admit it to us,” Hil said. He took the last drag of his cigarette and flicked it against the brick wall outside the cafe.
“Admit what?” I asked.
“That you want to play a show just as an excuse to see Mara.”
“I don’t need a fucking excuse to see Mara,” I said.
“Just say it,” Ash said.
“I want to hear it too,” Belle said with a vicious grin.
“Nothing to hear,” I said. “I’m going inside and grabbing a guitar. Just to let off some steam.”
“He’s looking to get off,” Hil said. “Mara must not be into fooling around.”
I reached for Hil and he jumped out of the way.
Ash touched my shoulder. “If he’s getting to you then he’s right.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Fuck is right,” Ash said.
“Uly is in love,” Belle said. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“You had your chance, doll,” I said. “Don’t play that game with me.”
“There is no game,” Ash said. “We get it. Go inside and do your thing.”
I looked to the back door of the cafe.
I didn’t say another word as I opened the door and went inside.
The place was almost full.
Amazing how all it took was one little whisper of a rumor that Hil and I were going to play a show for people to show up. It took me back to the old days. We’d do that kind of shit all the time. We’d pack places in a heartbeat and do it night after night. That’s what got us so much attention. And people recording videos and posting them online, more than a few went viral.
But now it was all different. It had different meaning and purpose.
And tonight… was for Mara.
Ash, Hil, and Belle were right. And they called me out on it and all I could do was deny it until the day I died.
I grabbed my guitar off a table and walked toward the stage.
The loud conversation turned into a soft murmur.
I stood on stage and looked left to right only to find Mara in the same spot as last time.
She was here.
She was beautiful.
She was in love… with me.
Hil finally decided to get up on stage too.
We looked at each other and nodded.
We had no setlist made for the show.
So I just started playing a song.
He joined in.
And we played the show.
Trading off songs, giving everyone something we had never done before.
The entire time my eyes didn’t leave Mara.
I couldn’t fix the world. I didn’t want to fix the world.
But I needed to find a world where Mara existed with me.
Chapter 17
I slipped my hand into hers and we walked toward the house.
She looked up at me and smiled.
A cute, sexy, flirty smile.
Knowing we were both rushing into the fires of fate and not worried about getting burned for a second.
“This is all mine, doll,” I said.
“This house? Really?”
“Swear,” I said. “When my father died, I took on a lot. Most of everything, actually. The business side of his life not so much. That’s for lawyers and business people. But certainly properties and money… not that it fucking matters.” I laughed. “Just letting you know… this is my house. My house, my rules, my way…”
“Meaning what?” she asked.
I lowered my head down to hers. “Meaning we don’t have to sneak around rooms and pretend like we don’t know each other. You don’t need to freak out and kick me out…”
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll still kick you out,” she said. “I like you in small doses.”
I nodded to the bag on her shoulder. “Did you bring geek stuff to read?”
“Shut up,” she said. “Unlike you, I can’t buy my way through life. So I have to keep going and figure out another plan.”
“That was a little hurtful, Mara.”
“You can cry into one hundred dollar bills,” she said.
“I would never,” I said. “Those are for wiping my-”
“Let’s just go inside,” she said.
I opened the front door and pointed forward. “Down that way is… some rooms. And then up the stairs… some rooms. And then across the house…”
“Some rooms?” Mara asked.
“Exactly,” I said. “So let’s skip the tour.”
I moved to my right and went down the hallway to the guest room area.
I opened the door and turned on the light and just hung back, letting her have her reaction to it all.
She looked around the room, jaw dropped.
“This is… how is this part of a house? This is a house…”
“Just a spare room,” I said. “Great bed though.”
Mara pointed to the couch in front of the fireplace. “Does that work?”
“Of course it does.”
“Just asking,” she said. “I know rich people sometimes get fake stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Well your mother’s beach house has fake plants.”
“That’s because anything living near her wants to die,” I said.
“Uly,” Mara said. “That’s mean.”
“I guess that’s true. My father died when they weren’t together…”
“Uly!” Mara yelled. “What is wrong with you?”
I shut the door and locked it.
I moved toward her and she dropped her bag right on the floor.
“I feel like this is beyond crazy,” she said.
“You know where the door is, doll,” I said. “You drove yourself here. No excuse to feel stuck here.”
“I know,” she said.
She slowly stepped back as I stepped toward her.
She stopped moving when she touched the bed.
Then she smiled.
And that was all I ever needed for the rest of my life.
Her smile.
My hands touching her face.
Her hands reaching back as she slowly sat down on the edge of my bed.
My lips chasing after hers.
Letting me know it was okay to feel something good about life.
And I would forever let my lips chase after hers.
* * *
Her body fit perfectly against mine.
My fingertips caressed the soft skin of her back.
We only took breaks from kissing just to stare at each other for a second.
Then we’d kiss again.
My right hand eased down to her hip and held her.
We were both ready.
More than ready.
I moved closer to Mara.
No space between us.
I brushed my lips to hers as I took her.
It was like all time decided to just stop.
There was no more time. No more anything.
Like we were suspended on some version of the universe for this moment to happen over and over again.
Her hands grabbed for my back as I grabbed for the sheets on the bed.
She was everything and then some.
Better than anything I could have ever asked for or dreamed of.
My lips showed their appreciation as I kissed from her lips to her neck and back to her lips.
We were suddenly lost in each other.
Battling each other in a loving way, wanting and needing, knowing that there had to be a way to make everything work.
Because when we were together, everything worked.
Mara let out a breathl
ess noise as her eyes locked to mine again.
My right hand slid from the bed to her chest. Touching her, loving everything about her. Even parts that others judged because they were pieces of shit.
I moved my left hand behind her head, playing with her messy hair.
I rested my forehead to hers and tasted her breathing as it grew faster.
The moment couldn’t last forever, but with Mara, I wanted endless moments. One after another, day after day, finding new ways to steal time or just make it stop completely.
There was way too much fucking thinking for my own good as our bodies moved together.
I shut my eyes and groaned.
I buried my face into her neck and into her hair.
Lost in the smell of cheap shampoo, I was falling in love even more with her.
As I moved faster, we both felt the same…
That crashing moment.
Like watching a wave build out in the ocean, knowing if you waited long enough, it would reach the shore and tickle your toes.
I fucking hated so much of myself for letting such a wild and hot moment become so goddamn lyrical.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Mara’s nails grabbed at skin and I set my attention back to her eyes.
They were on fire. A wild, green fire that just burned at me as she bit her lip.
I had her.
All of her.
All. Of. Her.
I put my lips to hers but didn’t kiss her.
Time moved forward again and we stole the last few seconds together.
Then we kissed.
* * *
The fire danced in the fireplace.
Mara wore my shirt.
I wore my jeans.
She read a book, curled up on the couch, and I sat on the corner of the bed and watched her. She looked back a few times and smiled at me.
It was all too real.
I finally stood up and walked to the couch.
In a quick move, I grabbed the book, stuck my finger into it to save her page, and pretend to throw it into the fireplace.
“No!” she screamed as she jumped up.
“I would never,” I said to her.
I casually folded the corner of the page and dropped the book to the floor.
Mara stood in front of me, looking pissed at me again.
“You know what, Uly?”
“What, doll?”
“I love you too,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Sorry I didn’t get to say it when you were getting arrested. Or released. Or the drive home. Or getting kicked out of the beach house…”
“It was a busy time,” I said.
I leaned forward and slipped my hands to the back of her legs.
Mara jumped and giggled.
I pulled her toward me and she sat on me.
She took a deep breath. “What do we do now?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s our life. Everyone will have to make sense of it.”
“Not that,” Mara said. “Us. This. BFH.”
“That’s my problem,” I said.
“No. It’s our problem.”
“No, doll. It’s not. You do what you need to do like you always do. Anyone says a word to you, you tell me.”
“So you can find them and beat them up?”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Come on, Uly… you can’t do that. No more of that.”
“Mara…”
“No. Listen to me. You got into serious trouble already.”
“And I have a way out of it.”
“Don’t be a douchebag.”
“Did you just call me a douchebag?”
“I said don’t be a douchebag,” Mara said. “That means you’re not a douchebag yet but you’re getting really close to douchebag status.”
“That’s not allowed,” I said.
“Nope,” she said.
I moved my hands to her sides and tickled her.
Mara gasped and jumped.
She punched at me to get away as she laughed.
I turned and dropped her to the couch and hovered over her.
“I will never be a douchebag, doll,” I said.
“Good,” she said. “No more stupid fighting then. You’re smarter than that, Uly. You don’t need to do that stuff.”
“I’ll defend you no matter what, Mara,” I said.
“In other ways.”
I lowered down to her and she touched my face. “Say it, Uly. I mean it. Tell me… no more dumb fights. You have other ways of being a complete and total asshole.”
“Right,” I said. “Fine. I’ll make sure I stay out of trouble. Away from the police. Away from my lawyer.”
“Your lawyer… that sounds so snobby…”
“Deal with it, doll,” I said.
I kissed her.
“I can deal with it,” she said. “Just… I can’t lose you.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” I said.
Mara touched my face again. “You say that…”
“And I mean it.”
My right hand slid along her right leg again and Mara shut her eyes and put her head back. My fingertips traced lines along her inner thigh. Her soft, warm skin gave way to her panties. But that wasn’t a problem at all.
When I touched her, she gasped and grabbed for my arms.
I kissed her neck and whispered into her ear, “I’ll always take care of you, doll.”
Mara sighed a long breath, melting into the couch.
I had her pleasure in my hand… almost literally…
The fire burning hot next to us.
The fire between us just as hot.
When she opened her eyes and looked at me, we flirted with promises that probably weren’t going to be kept.
But in the moment… again… they felt good.
Everything about Mara felt so damn good.
* * *
She left the book on the floor and ended up in the bed.
She wore the sheets she rolled up into, which left me able to get fully dressed.
Because one text from Ash changed the course of the night.
NOW
That one word… and I knew what it meant.
I stood next to the bed and watched Mara sleep.
Fuck it felt so cliché to say I’d never seen anything so beautiful, but it was my cliché moment to have.
I reached down and touched her cheek.
I played with her hair.
She slept peacefully.
And I was not feeling anything like peace in my heart.
I told myself to wake her up and tell her exactly what was going on.
But she was asleep.
Calm and happy.
I didn’t want to ruin the night for her.
She loved the bed. The size of it. The mattress and the sheets. She looked perfect sitting next to the fire on the couch, studying her ass off.
It was everything she deserved.
She was going to get back to taking all those extra classes she wanted to take. She was going to get whatever fucking degrees she wanted in life. Money was not going to be a problem when it came to that for her. If she wanted to be an astronaut, then I’d stare at the sky at night and wait for her to pass over. If she wanted to live in Antarctica and study the weather or some shit, then I’d buy the biggest coat I could find and freeze my ass off just to watch her smile.
But tonight…
She needed to sleep peacefully.
And I needed to face a little bit of hell.
My phone buzzed again.
RIGHT FUCKING NOW
That was the message from Hil.
I leaned down over Mara and gently kissed her cheek.
She didn’t even move.
That made me smile.
I loved the smell of her hair.
The smell of her shampoo and us.
I walked to the fireplace and built the fire back up and then left the bedroom.<
br />
I slipped my beanie over my head and took my necklaces out of my pocket and put them over my head.
Mara already knew all the stories.
That was the crazy part.
Just from casually talking to her when I forced myself to visit the beach house… she was never flustered around me. Never afraid to ask a question. And with her, I had never been afraid to tell her the stories. She knew about the guitar pick. She knew about the ring with the missing diamond.
Fuck… I had given her more than I gave to Belle.
I wasn’t sure what that made Belle all along…
Maybe Belle had been the rebound.
And Mara had been my love.
I shook my head and exited the house.
This wasn’t the time to think about love, rebounds, broken hearts, and the fucking future of romance.
This was about right now.
Leaving Mara peacefully asleep.
So Them could take care of Charger the pill guy once and for all.
* * *
It was a shitty looking building in a shitty part of a shitty fucking town.
The word safe did not exist where we were.
Hil smoked a cigarette.
I joined him.
Ash looked uneasy.
Of course he was.
Belle wasn’t by his side.
Which was good.
Because if I saw Belle get out of his truck I was going to lose my mind on him. And her.
This was dangerous.
A door opened and Jasmine came shuffling out.
She literally didn’t even pick up her feet as she walked.
Her head bounced side to side.
She looked like she was wearing a bikini.
Her body bouncing in all the right places, but her mind so fucked up she probably had no idea how she looked or what could happen to her.
“Fuck,” Hil said. “Look at her.”
“Don’t make a comment,” Ash said.
“That?” Hil asked. “She’s fucking smoking hot… but the look in her eyes is scary.”
Ash walked to his truck and came back with a hoodie.
I reached for Jasmine’s hand and pulled her toward me.
She put her right hand to the back of my neck and groaned. “Hey, Uly…”
“Hey, doll,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t feel anything,” she said. “I miss Aaron. He dumped me.”
ULY (Bay Falls High - Them Book 1) Page 16