Everything I'd seen in his eyes, thus far, was instantaneously replaced by a golden flame, a fire that curled my toes and started a heat slithering around deep in my belly. His usually dark eyes, now so bright they almost looked like they were glowing, held my gaze as his lips slammed back into mine.
This kiss was different. Before, I had felt his desperation, but now there was only need. I couldn’t breathe or think, didn’t register any feeling that wasn’t a deep, consuming hunger for him. Andrew’s hands slid down my body, then dragged the hem of my knee-length black dress up above my hips. He grabbed the back of my thighs and lifted me up, slamming me back into the wall as I wrapped my legs around him. He dug his fingers into my flesh, gripping my legs like I was the only thing keeping him afloat in a vast ocean, devouring my mouth like it held the last drop of water in the desert. My body was wedged between his and the wall behind me, my weight supported by his hands. And, oh... his hands.
They were holding me up, supporting me, yet kneading the sensitive flesh in the crease at the top of my thighs. Occasionally, slipping just a bit further, his fingers began to slide just under the edges of my panties as he massaged my legs, and I heard my breath catch more than felt it because all I could feel or see or think was Andrew.
My head fell back against the wall, away from his kiss, with an embarrassing moan as he moved in to devour my neck. Instantly finding the sensitive spot just behind and below my ear and feeling my body respond only spurred us both on. I reached for his shirt and started removing buttons as quickly as my fingers would go as he moved his left hand across to my rear, making sure he had a good strong grip, then snaked his right hand in between us. When I felt his hand find the edge of the front of my panties, and slip a finger inside, I almost wept. Then he instantly found just the right spot, and I did.
Drew had been the only thing I wanted for a long time, but I had lost hope more than a few times in all these years. Boyfriends and lovers had come and gone, and I was no inexperienced, fumbling girl. I knew what I wanted, and finally it was right in front of me, and I couldn’t focus on anything else but him as I practically ripped the button and zipper of his pants open. Reaching in and freeing his hardened length from its fabric cage, I revelled in the silky-smooth feel of his skin as I stroked him.
As he brought me higher and higher, closer and closer to release, my mind was reeling. This was really happening. This was Drew kissing me, touching me, playing my body like an instrument. This was Drew holding me, his body pressed against me, his mouth hot on my neck. All I knew was Drew. My Drew. Finally, he was mine...
Wait... is he mine? Oh God... We were in his dressing room. No, not just a dressing room, we were in the Groom's suite at Drew's wedding.
Oh, fuck...
“Stop,” I barely whispered, but instantly everything came to a standstill. He pulled back to look at me. “Drew... we have to stop.” His eyes, hazy with lust and confusion, didn't seem to register what I was saying, at first. “We're in the damn groom's suite at your wedding. We have to stop.”
We were both breathing hard, but he took a deep breath and held it as clarity seemed to wash over him. He dropped his forehead to my chest, exhaling and taking another deep, cleansing breath. Obviously trying to clear his head from the sex haze we’d both just been swept away in.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have…”
Oh, HELL no. “No. You don't get to be sorry for maybe the most amazing five minutes of my life.” I smiled at him and received a weak half grin in response.
“I’m not sorry it happened. I’m sorry because you deserve better than this situation. I’m sorry because it shouldn’t have happened here. But just to be clear, it would’ve been a lot more than five minutes if you hadn’t stopped me,” he growled, and I almost whimpered as every muscle in my body quivered in response.
He must’ve felt it too, because he groaned in response. He eyed me warily for a moment before putting me down abruptly and stepping back, seemingly determining I was too tempting. I smoothed my dress back down my legs as my face flamed. This was new territory for us. We’d never been with each other this way before. It was awkward, but also easy.
“Drew,” I began timidly…
“Yeah?”
“If you want me to focus, you're going to have to put that away,” I said, averting my eyes and pointing at his trousers which were still open and partially down revealing him in all his glory—and trust me, it was glorious—still hard and requesting all my attention.
He looked at me incredulously, then laughed and tucked himself away. This whole situation had gotten really intense, really fast. We had to deal with the aftermath of what had just happened, but that reality might be a little easier to swallow with a bit of levity.
He grinned that Cheshire cat grin I loved. It’s actually a lot like his brother’s, now that I—Whoa... what now?
“If I’d known that was all it took, I’d have been walking around with my dick out constantly for the past few years.”
“Charming, Drew, but I feel like everyone else wouldn’t have appreciated that as much as I might’ve.”
“Might’ve?” he challenged, stalking back toward me as an animalistic lust reclaimed his eyes.
I stepped back instinctively, bumping into the wall we’d been up against only moments ago. Taking my hips in both hands, Andrew gripped me tightly, pinning me back against the wall.
“No, no, no... You would have. And I wouldn’t have stopped until I heard you scream your ‘appreciation’ at the top of your lungs.”
I felt my core clench in response to his words, a new wave of moisture drenching my already destroyed panties. I could feel his warm breath on the delicate skin of my neck, his scorching hot flesh licking mine like flames where our skin touched. My breath hitched in my throat, but I peeled his hands off my hips and pushed him back a step taking a deep, shaky breath.
“Wedding,” I said, clearly. “What about Claire? Your father?” Not what I wanted to talk about. Not remotely. He’d obviously given this a lot of thought, and I wanted to discover every facet of those fantasies. I desperately wanted to dive into his ocean-blue eyes and explore their unknown depths. I wanted to forget he was about to get married. Nope. “We have to talk about what just happened. What it means.”
“You’re right. We do,” he said, backing off. “But there’s just… there’s no time!”
He stared off into nothingness, looking lost. The part of me that had been his friend for over fifteen years desperately wanted to comfort him, but the other part, the woman who’d just made out with an almost married man, was fragile and vulnerable. She needed answers.
“Drew—”
“I love you, Alex,” he blurted, looking suddenly up at me. “Please understand, I can’t go back, now. I thought I could walk away, do my duty, leave you to live your life, but I can’t. It physically hurts to be away from you. I just… I can’t, and I hope you don’t hate me for this if… if he…”
He was muttering like a crazy person on a street corner. The kind you avoid. My eyes were the size of saucers, and I was struggling to focus on his ramblings of the screaming in my mind, still reeling over hearing him say he loved me. I thought I’d heard something about hating him and was about to ask him what the blazing hell he was on about when he seemed to come to some sort of decision. He grew suddenly still, and his eyes shot to mine.
“You might. You might hate me.” Now he was nodding to himself and really starting to freak me out. “But if you'll have me, we can just go. Now.”
He was whispering urgently, like he was afraid the walls might hear us and betray our secrets, but I just stared. Was he serious?
“We can leave. Together. You and me. But it has to be now, and it has to be fast. It’s the only way. If we’re gone before my father finds out, there’s nothing he can do.” He was already moving, grabbing my wrist and dragging me along with him, when we heard someone clear his throat near the door Andrew had come through.
“Oh, you might be surprised what I’m capable of, son.”
3
Alex
Time felt like it stopped as we both froze at the sound of his father’s voice, and I could see the naked terror in Drew's eyes. How long has he been there? I wondered, but in truth, it didn’t matter. This was bad no matter how you wrapped it, but the intensity of Drew’s fear seemed incongruous with the situation. It was infectious, though. I could feel myself starting to panic. My skin was tingling like the air itself was electrified.
Henry Tennyn had always been appropriately polite in front of me. I wasn't fooled. I don't think he cared. I don't think he was really trying to fool anyone. I could hear the cold detached tone behind his kind words, see the barely contained violence just behind his serene affect. I was certain Drew had been the recipient of that unleashed violence on more than one occasion. Drew’s fear didn’t seem so unfitting.
“Father.” Drew stood tall and looked over at the man who looked very little like him save his eyes. “I think it's obvious we have some things to discuss.”
He turned back to me, cupping one cheek in his hand and gently kissing the other. Just before he pulled away, he whispered in my ear, barely loud enough for me to hear, “Go find Jade. Stay by her side, no matter what. I'll find you.” As he pulled back, I nodded, then turned to leave. As I opened the door, I chanced one final glance over my shoulder. Andrew’s back was to me, but Henry Tennyn was facing his son and, I swear, I saw his eyes glowing red before the door swung shut.
I tried to write it off as a trick of the light and Henry’s frightening countenance, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Drew was in danger. As I headed to the ballroom, I was so lost in thought I almost ran head-first into Ash.
“Hey, Princess. Taking your walk of shame so early in the day?” That playboy grin of his was back at full strength, none of his earlier self-doubt clouding his features. It made me want to punch him in the face.
“I'm not in the mood, Ash. I need to go find Jade.”
“Not in the mood? That's not what it sounded like to me,” he purred.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on. You guys weren't exactly being discreet.”
Even as he pointed it out, I could feel the scarlet A appearing on my face. I was mortified he’d heard us, that it had happened at all really, but some part of me was aware that it was worse because it was Ash. I didn’t want him to have been privy to such an intimate moment of my life, I barely knew him, and what I knew, I didn’t like. but even I knew that was a flimsy explanation.
“Pink’s a good color on you, Princess,” he teased as a wolfish grin spread across his face, and I wasn’t sure if he was smiling or baring his teeth. “My offer still stands if you’re in need of a little comfort after lover boy takes his vows.” Even as his implication made my knees a little weak, I berated myself. My interlude with Andrew must have awakened some need inside me, because the thought of Ash comforting me… Focus!
“Who says he’s still taking any vows, today?” I lashed out before I really had time to think about it. Sure, he’d asked me to leave with him, but the plan was to leave before his father found out, and that was out the window now. I didn’t know what the new plan was, if there even was a plan anymore. What if his father convinced him to marry Claire, anyway?
I felt the grip of strong arms before I realized I was falling, that my knees had given out. “Easy, Princess. And don’t feel bad. I have that effect on women all the time,” Ash said, bringing me back to my feet and supporting me until I could stand on my own. We were face to face, and I knew he could see everything I felt. I was simply too raw to mask it.
“I’m not heartless. I know this is hard for you to accept, but he’d better take those vows… for all our sakes. Besides, my father would never let him back out.”
“Andrew and your father are deliberating as we speak,” I shot off, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Ash’s eyes darkened. “Andrew isn’t stupid enough to approach my father with this.”
“He didn’t. Your dad…” I closed my eyes. “He sort of… caught us,” I blurted out as I felt my cheeks warm, knowing they were flaming red, yet again.
“What?”
“Your Dad. He walked in on us, or... something. I don’t know. He was just suddenly there. I have no idea how long that creeper was standing there...” I shuddered but didn't bother finishing the thought.
“Shit.” I glanced up, but Ash's face was bone white, and he wasn’t looking at me. “Where are they?”
“I left them in the groom's suite to talk. Why?”
“Go find your friend. Stay in the ballroom.”
“Ash, what's happening?” I asked, but he was already charging past me.
He yelled over his shoulder, “Alexis, go find your friend. Find her and stay with her... Just... Stay with people until one of us comes to find you.”
One of us… What the hell? “But...”
“Now!” he screamed as he sprinted back the way I'd come.
To say I was unnerved was an understatement. Everything in my nature was demanding answers, urging me to follow Ash back down the hall and insert myself directly in the middle of whatever the fuck was going on, but something in Ash's tone chilled me to the bone.
I slipped my heels off and took off toward the ballroom at a dead sprint because if anyone would know what to do with this clusterfuck, it would be Jade. The ballroom was huge and holding several hundred guests, so it took me a few minutes to locate her. Finally, there she was, surrounded by a harem of beautiful men. I realized, too late, I looked a mess. People were staring at my wrinkled dress and disheveled hair.
Jade took one look at me and bolted out of her chair. “Sorry, boys. Someone more important just arrived. Maybe I'll see you at the reception.” She sang over one shoulder as she guided me to the hall by one arm. “What in the name of the Earth have you done to yourself?” My blushing must have given something away, because she smirked and corrected herself. “Or, should I say, what has someone else done to you? You saucy little minx. Who did you hook up with? Was it that golden boy, Greek god walking around? Cuz, damn... What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
I didn't know where to start. I just stood there with my mouth opening and closing, then I saw it. Realization dawning on her face. “Alex, did you see Andrew?”
When she didn’t receive a response, she closed her eyes and started again. “Let me rephrase, did you talk to Andrew?” The tears began welling up before I had time to think about an answer, then I was just being hugged and sobbing on my best friend’s shoulder.
She shushed me gently and swayed with me in a quiet rhythm until my sobs dissipated. “Now, do you wanna tell me what happened?” And I did. Every damn detail from the moment I walked in on Ash until I found her in the ballroom. When I finished, Jade took a deep breath, then released it slowly. Her eyes were still bugging a bit from information overload as she opened her mouth to respond.
“So, I have one very important question... This Ash guy, exactly how big was his dick?”
I just stared at her for a moment, confused, until she cracked a tiny smile. Then, my eyes rolled up to the ceiling and I let out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. “Oh, fuck, Jade! Will you be serious?!” She was trying to relieve the tension, something she did for me quite often because if I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, and I was occasionally prone to panic attacks. But this didn’t seem like the time.
“Okay, okay. Serious… But you are telling me about it later. Now… It sounds like everyone was a bit freaked about his creeper Pops. You, Andrew, even Ash, and he doesn't seem like the type to spook easily. So, what’s your gut reaction? What do you want to do?”
“Jade, I... I don’t know, I... just…” I couldn’t even form a full sentence, let alone make a decision.
“Stop. Close your eyes...”
“Jade, we don't have time for this.”
“Alex, it w
orks. And you can’t form a complete thought at the moment so, unless you have a better idea…”
I didn’t.
“That’s what I thought. Now, close your eyes…”
I did what she asked, simultaneously irritated and ecstatic that Bossy Jade was taking over for me.
“Now take a deep breath.”
“I sucked in as much air as my lungs could hold and exhaled slowly.
“Okay,” Jade began. “Gut reactions only. Just take a deep breath and spit out the first answer that comes to you.”
I nodded and took a deep breath as instructed.
“Would his father hurt him?”
“Yes.”
“Would Ash protect him?”
“I think so. At least from his father.”
“Why did they tell you to stay with me? With people?"
“I'm in danger.”
“Why would you be in danger?”
“I'm in the way.”
“We need to go.”
That snapped me back to reality. I hated it when she did that. I swear she must be a natural hypnotist. I felt like I was in a trance when she did this gut reaction thing, but it always worked. Always. Witch, my subconscious whispered, and I had to admit it was feeling less and less far-fetched.
“We can't.”
“What?” Jade, who had already turned to leave, was looking at me like I'd just sprouted a second head. “What do you mean we can't? You've just admitted to me that you think that man would harm his own child and that you are in his way. You think he won't hurt you? You don’t know Henry Tennyn. He will do whatever he deems necessary to remove the threat to his family. Those boys can take care of themselves, you can't. We need to go. Now.”
“How do you…” I shook my head and threw my hands up in front of me. “You know what, never mind. It doesn’t matter. Andrew said he would find me. He'll find me. I'm not leaving, period.”
“Alex, the likely outcome of this day is getting worse with every second we spend in this place. We. Need. To. Go!”
“No! Jade, you need to understand me. I. Am. Not. Leaving. Not without him. I can’t.”
Veiled Guardian: A Borne of Angels Novel (The Awakening Book 1) Page 4