I arched my back, realizing how fucking crazy it was to have happen like this. He wasn’t touching me. He wasn’t inside me. Yet I was…
“Elijah,” I managed to gasp. “Right now. Right now…”
Elijah slipped his hands under my body and moved me up the bed. My body shook with relief and yet with much more need.
He readied himself and when he lowered his hips down to mine, I hurried to slap my right hand across my own mouth to keep myself from screaming. That was the last thing I needed. Was for someone to hear a scream and this moment become something of an embarrassing nightmare.
Elijah reached for my wrist and pulled my hand away.
“Elijah, you don’t understand…”
“Oh, I get it, babe,” he said with a grin.
My mouth opened to scream and he kissed me.
He took me and he kissed me and I screamed into his mouth.
Nobody heard a thing.
And I felt everything.
Everything.
Every. Fucking. Thing.
His strong hands danced along my body, top to bottom, showing me the feeling that I felt wasn’t just a one-time thing. A reminder of how hot the summers used to get. And how that heat had nothing to do with the outside temperature either.
He left kisses from my lips to my chin. From my chin to my neck. From my neck down to my chest. His tongue swirled around my sensitive nipples, leaving me chewing my bottom lip so hard I thought it was going to bleed. Bringing me to the point of yelling and always knowing right when to stop. And if I did need to make noise, his lips were right there on mine to steal the noise.
My hands couldn’t decide what to do.
Grip the sheets tight. Grip at the powerful muscles of his back. Pull at his messy hair. Claw at his face when he wasn’t kissing me.
So it was just a mix of all of it.
Acting as though this was our one and only chance to do this. To be together. To have this moment. All the pent-up feelings since last summer exploding between his body and mine.
And explode it all did…
As it came to an end, my mouth fell open and there was no sound. No breath. There was nothing. My entire body forgot what to do. How to breathe. How to blink. How to move.
It wasn’t until Elijah stroked my cheek with his hand did I come back to life.
And I grabbed his hair and pulled him closer for a kiss.
Even after we were done, we made out like crazy in the bed.
He slowly moved away from me, moving to his side. I rolled to my side, making sure the kiss didn’t stop.
He was the only thing that felt good.
That felt right.
He was the only way I was going to survive everything that was happening in my life.
* * *
“What are you doing?” I asked as I wrestled my hair through the back of my shirt.
“Having a smoke,” he said.
“Through the window?”
“There’s a roof here. A landing.”
“How…”
“I’ve slept in this room before, babe.”
“Seriously?” I looked down at the bed. “Wait a second… were you alone?”
Elijah smiled. “Yes, Nova. I was alone. There were more than a few times when things with my father got out of control at home. And it was easier to leave than stay. Cherry knew the situation. She hates my father. She always had a weak heart for me.”
“That was a mistake,” I said.
“Thanks for that, babe.”
I kissed the air. “No problem.”
“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Then we have to get downstairs and play it cool.”
“Or maybe not go downstairs at all,” I said. “Just stay here for the night. See how things play out tomorrow.”
“Whatever you want,” Elijah said.
He slipped out the window.
I noticed something fall from his back pocket.
It looked like a piece of paper.
At first, I didn’t care. In fact, I wasn’t sure how I was even moving. There was nothing compared to Elijah when it came to… that.
Now since he left last summer, it wasn’t like I didn’t have any fun at all. But there was a big difference between a heartbroken hookup looking to forget someone versus the someone who made the heartbreak almost worth it.
My body was still tingling everywhere and aching in the right places.
I managed to stand from the bed and walk across the room.
Through the open window I smelled the cigarette smoke.
I shut my eyes and inhaled it.
Breathing in Elijah.
It was stupid and obsessive and total high school-ish but whatever.
I grabbed the piece of paper off the floor. It was a folded up note and looked like it had been through hell and back.
I looked at the window.
Then at the note.
I bit my lip.
Elijah used to do this to me.
He would purposely drop a note on the floor for me to read. If there were nights we weren’t able to spend the entire night together he’d leave something for me to read. He always hated that we could never just be together. He didn’t like the feeling of fooling around and leaving. As though it was always just a one night thing and nothing more.
I slowly opened the note.
I had to be careful because this thing had been in Elijah’s pocket for a while.
It was frayed and creased and had little tears in it.
I smiled, thinking it was something he wrote to me after what happened last summer.
I was wrong.
I was very fucking wrong.
The note wasn’t meant for me.
The note wasn’t written by Elijah either.
Chapter 20
Elijah
She lingered on me.
And there was nothing better in the world than that feeling.
Maybe that wasn’t the perfect way to have another first time together, but whatever. It worked. The moment between us had just gotten to be too much. The tension. The frustration. The need. The desire.
What Nova didn’t know… there hadn’t been anyone but her. Not since last summer. At least not what we did. Every other summer before that though it was different. I’d give her one last kiss goodbye, slip a note into her hand to tell her how much the summer meant, and then I was gone. I’d head back home and dream of Nova and eventually slide into something that was a normal routine. That meant having fun. That meant enjoying myself. And usually that meant trying hard to fall for someone else. And believe me, I had fallen many times. But not as hard as I did with Nova.
Last summer, when it was done… and I meant done for good… everything had been thrown off. Nothing worked for me. Nothing helped. The parties. The girls. It didn’t matter. And the idea of being together that way with someone who wasn’t Nova just felt wrong.
Not that any of that shit mattered as I finished my cigarette outside on the roof.
There was no way in hell I was leaving HCH anytime soon.
I had to see too many things through.
And the feel of Nova’s body… the taste of her skin… the way she made noises into my mouth when we were kissing…
Fuck.
I stood up and took a deep breath.
I was in nothing but jeans.
And if I had my way and Nova wanted to spend the night in the room, I wasn’t going to have my jeans on for long.
I slipped my hands into my pockets and looked around.
There were plenty of times I had to sleep at Cherry’s. In that bed. Out on this roof for a cigarette. Wondering what the fuck I was doing coming back to HCH over and over again. I had only wanted to come for one summer. Just for the hell of it. And because I had gotten myself into some trouble back home and I needed an escape. I wanted to be a pain in the ass to my father and then leave.
Except I saw a girl surfing one day.
And I was stuck watching her.
/>
There was no way I could get away from her.
So I waited until the next day and showed up with a surfboard.
She wasn’t there that day though.
I surfed alone.
And I showed up each day until she was finally there.
And to make my move, I waited for a wave and cut her off.
A total dick move because she could have gotten hurt.
But it was enough to get her attention.
And the names she called me would have made the baddest guy blush.
After that, it took me a good week of chasing her around to get her to talk to me.
I smiled, thinking back to that shit.
Someday I was going to write her a long letter, telling her the story of our love through my eyes. If I could just strip away the outside noise of everyone else, it was a great story.
Then again, the story was far from done.
I reminded myself of that and that I needed to get back inside.
I had Nova to myself.
For once.
When I climbed through the window, I saw her sitting on the edge of the bed.
She looked up from a piece of paper and her eyes were wide and full of tears.
The paper looked way too familiar and when I stuck my hand into my back pocket, I swallowed hard.
Fuck.
“Elijah…”
“Listen, babe…”
She held the letter out. “I thought you came back here to find out who killed your brother. To get revenge. I thought you were going to…”
She shook her head.
I slowly walked to the bed.
I couldn’t be pissed at Nova.
Not for this.
Not for finding the note.
It must have fallen out of my pocket and she saw it.
That was okay though.
I reached for the note and folded it up.
I took her hand but she ripped it away. She shook her head.
“No, Elijah… no…”
“No?” I asked.
Nova stood up and moved away from me like I was diseased.
“Nova…”
“You should have said something,” she said. “You should have told me everything. I thought you were back… and then you said you were staying because of me.”
“I am,” I said. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I saw you. And you were single. And I’m single. And what we have is real. This is real, babe.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know that part of it.”
“That note doesn’t matter to us.”
“Yes it does,” she said. She reached for the door and unlocked it. “If I’m going to lose you again… or for good again… then I’m the one who gets to make that decision.”
I stood there, gritting my teeth tight.
I looked down at the note.
When I looked back to the doorway, it was empty.
Nova was gone.
I made a fist, finally crumbling the fucking note.
I wasn’t back to avenge the death of Ryland. In reality, I didn’t give a damn that my brother was dead.
What I did give a damn about was why he was killed.
Because after last summer when I thought Nova and I were done for good, I did the worst thing possible.
I got involved with Ryland and whatever bullshit scheme he was up to.
I was desperate to get over Nova.
Yet in a way I wanted to stay close.
I looked down at my fist.
The printed words rang through my mind clearly.
I’m coming for you.
You won’t be able to get away from me.
You won’t be able to escape what you’ve done.
I know everything.
And you will not get away with what you’ve done.
This isn’t a threat.
It’s a warning.
Be ready.
Want more #hch?
Book 2 is titled HIDDEN CREEK KISS and it’s AVAILABLE … just go to Amazon.com and type in ‘Jaxson Kidman Hidden Creek Kiss’ to order your copy today!
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* * *
HIDDEN CREEK KISS
Chapter 1
Elijah
Miss Carson wore a blouse that was gracefully open in the front. So much so she didn’t even realize the kind of show she was giving off. Match that to her hair pulled back and glasses resting near the tip of her nose, I had to pinch my arm and make sure I wasn’t exactly dreaming. It had been a long since I had one of those kinds of dreams.
My hands touched the arms of the chair and stared intently at her.
Her hand held a neon yellow highlighter as she went through my schedule, circling things, writing notes, talking to herself.
The grip on the arms of the chair made me feel like I was about to rip them apart. Then my ass would slam down to the floor. And Miss Carson could jump over the desk and ask if I was okay. Then I could tell her to lock the office door.
And then…
“You could at least pretend to pay attention, Elijah,” she said, breaking me out of a series of thoughts that would end happily if I was given a few minutes to myself.
I cleared my throat and leaned forward.
I felt the piece of gum in my mouth and started to chew.
Spearmint crystals exploded across my tongue as I grinned at Miss Carson.
“You take your job too seriously here,” I said.
She put the highlighter down.
She stared at me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Then she took off the glasses.
Just like that - poof - the enjoyment and fantasy was gone.
Now she was back to the same old Miss Carson. Trying to solve the problems of the HCH world through careful talking and motivational posters. Which told me she probably went home to a nice house that was clean, happy, with a cat strutting around. She’d probably drink a glass of wine only on Thursday because Thirsty Thursday OMG and then have a hangover the next day.
Miss Carson snapped her fingers and stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re not here. So I’ll just wait for you to get here.”
She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms.
The way she did that…
I turned my head and stood up.
I needed a fucking drink.
I needed something to chase away the wild thoughts in my head. And not just because of Miss Carson either. It was a fast building combination of bullshit that left me feeling ready to explode.
My eyes moved to the office door.
She’s out there.
Somewhere in this building.
Sitting at at able.
Sitting at a desk.
I rubbed my chin and turned to face Miss Carson again. “This is all pointless. You and I both know it too. My schedule doesn’t mean shit.”
“It doesn’t if you don’t have the required credits to move on.”
“What if I don’t care?” I asked. “I’ll do whatever I’m doing and if I need more classes I’ll get there eventually.”
Miss Carson sighed. “Eventually? The odds of you…” She shook her head. She closed her folder. “Fine. Do whatever you want, Elijah. After all, this isn’t your town, right? This isn’t your home. This isn’t your life.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Sleep on the wrong side of the bed?”
“I slept just fine last night.”
I grinned.
Miss Carson didn’t appreciate that.
“I’ll conference in Principal Henders and Harrison. Maybe it’s time for you to move on, Elijah.”
I laughed. “I haven’t caused any trouble.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’ve saved people since coming here,” I said.
Miss Carson opened her mouth but didn’t respond.
She knew what I was talking about.
And I kn
ew damn well Nova had been forced to talk to her about what was happening with her home life.
And if it wasn’t for me, then Nova and her mother would still be living under the same roof as that abusive asshole.
“I sort of wanted to have an agreement with you, Elijah,” Miss Carson said. “Something between us.”
“Something between us?” I asked, lifting my eyebrow even higher.
“I wanted you to come here and find closure. I can see it in your eyes… from the moment you showed up…” Miss Carson laughed. “You’re his brother, Elijah. The same fiery passion.”
“Meaning?”
“You wanted to find out who did it and hurt them. And that’s not the right way to handle this.”
“Fair enough then,” I said.
“I want you to finish what you needs to be done here. With your classes. I want you to walk away and be free. I’m sorry for your loss, Elijah. But adding to that… you’ll only regret it. And I’m not saying that as a person in my position. I’m saying as a person who cares. Your situation is…”
“I’m the bastard,” I said. “You can say it.”
“Elijah…”
“It’s okay. I mean, we’re here to get shit in the open, right? I’m the bastard. My father doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even like me. Me being around drives his wife crazy. I’m the reminder of his slip up.”
“Elijah, let me ask you something. Everything you just said. That creates and indicates a very troubling environment to live in. For everyone.”
“I know,” I said.
“Forgive me for being bold here, but… why? Why live in that?”
I grabbed the door and smiled.
And I told Miss Carson the truth.
“Because I secretly fucking love it.”
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HIDDEN CREEK AGAIN: a hidden creek high novel Page 21