She swats me over the chest before grabbing onto my shoulders as if she were never going to let go. “And if I’m kissing someone else?” She ticks her head to the side and looks alarmingly innocent. Raven never looks innocent, but I don’t hold this againsther.
“Someone else?” I blow out the words.Like me, I want to add. “Well, then I’d say you’d want to put a little more effort into it. Like this.” I lean in slow. My eyes gaze into hers as long as possible, and then it happens again. I collapse my mouth over hers and press in with a lingering, loving kiss that says far more than goodnight. It saysscrew goodbye, this is hello, let me in, take me to your damn bed and let me have my way withyou.
Raven moans with delight and hikes a leg up over my hip. I don’t say a word. Instead, I do the unthinkable and moan right back. Her fingers dig into my hair as she presses my mouth harder over hers. Our lips move feverishly over one another, fighting the urge—holding back the dam that’s about to burst, and then like magic her mouth falls open and I follow suit. Her warm tongue dances into my mouth, and everything in me freezes and rejoices all at once. Raven and I have officially crossed a line. Pushed past any barricade her brothers would have wished were still inplace.
My hands glide up and down her back, finding a home at the base of her hips as I move her body hard against mine. My tongue does a sweeping revolution of her mouth as I scope out the landscape, memorizing the taste, the touch, the feel of her in me, of me in her. Hot damn, Raven and I have hopped the friendship fence and landed in that awkward ravine calledwhat the hell now. She’s in love with Mojo, and I’m kissing her as if she were my wife. A dull laugh rattles through me, and she pulls backabruptly.
“Oh my God, you’re laughing at me!” She hides her face in her hands amoment.
“No, I swear.” A chuckle rolls out as I say it. “I was just thinking”—a part of me doesn’t want to say it—“that you’re in love with Mojo, and I’m kissing you as if you were my wife.” I try to shrug it off, sorry that I broke the damn spell to beginwith.
Her fingers bounce to her lips. “Wow, I guess maybe we got carried away.” She clears her throat, and her features grow serious. “But I’m looking forward to sharing the benefits with Mojo very, very soon.” Her brows touch near her nose as if maybe she’s not. “And who knows? He, too, might be my husband one day.” She sucks in her bottom lip as if it were the last thing she wanted. “Maybe we should practice some more. You know, so I get it right when the timecomes.”
“When the time comes for you to marry Mojo.” I openly glare at the post behind her as if it were Mojo himself. “Why the hellnot.”
Raven and I dive over one another like a couple of love hungry teenagers, kissing our way into the house, onto the sofa, and long into the early hours of themorning.
One day, if Raven gets her way, Mojo will be a very happy, happyfucker.
Drop Dead Deception
Raven
Days trickle by,and Brody and I tiptoe around one another in that ever-shrinking house as if we might accidently combust. Honest to God, it’s like wading through gunpowder with a lit match. We haven’t reenacted that kiss that started at ten o’clock Friday and ended at six a.m. Saturday. I swear on all that is holy, about halfway through that tongue twisting lip-lock, I thought I was having an orgasmic out-of-body experience. It was sublime.Flawless. There is simply no other way to describeit.
I drive through Hollow Brook on this serene fall afternoon, knowing full well the day is about to escalate into an all-out love-fest. Things have finally settled down, and Low is meeting Lex and me for coffee at Hallowed Grounds. I pull in and spot them both at a booth near the window and skipinside.
Low and I scream the obligatory sorority girl sirensong.
“My God, I’ve missed you!” I pull her into an eternal rockinghug.
“Enough already,” Lex barks loud enough to straighten both our spines stiff as pins. “You’re causing a scene,” she reprimands. “Sit. I bought your coffee. I know how you like it. I was your maid for two months,remember?”
I grunt as Low and I fall into the seats beside her. “How can I forget? You were also the keeper of my crotch, too.” I glance to Low as I pull forth my coffee and take a quick sip. “Ohh.” I look to Lex and nod. “And you nailed itagain.”
Low holds up a finger. “What do you mean, she’s the keeper of your crotch?” She grimaces. “That sounds fifty shades ofwrong.”
“It is!” I slam my hand over the table like a gavel. All of the pubic wrongs Lex inflicted upon me in Low’s absence are about to be brought to vaginal light. “She made me go to some witch doctor and tried to give my girl parts an exorcism! Let’s just say she arranged for a reprisal of my prepubescent days. And the exit door has since been bleached clean of all itssins.”
“What?” Low pounds her own hands over the table in a rage as she looks to Lex. “I leave you two alone for five minutes, and you’re vajayjay bonding withoutme?”
“Geez.” I sink in my seat as three different women turn to scoff at us. “It was hardly bonding. It was more like drifting. She gave me the heave-ho and sent mepacking.”
Lex’s affect brightens. Of course, it would. She’s wicked. “I sold my house for almost double the asking price.” She and Low share a quick highfive.
Low offers a pained smile my way. “Levi told me you had to move in with Brody. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there foryou!”
Lex scoffs. “Don’t be. She’s exactly where she wants to be. Safe in Brody Wolf’sden.”
Low inhales so sharply half the establishment turns around, and I’d swear three people just got up prepared to do the Heimlich. “My God, have you been bedding the animal and nary a text did yousend?”
I lean in, horrified. “Would you stop!No. I have not even gone near his bed. I’ve got my own mattress, thank you very much.” I glare at Lex a moment. “And it’s far more comfortable than that futon you stuffed with rusty nails you demanded I lieon.”
Lex scoffs. “If only I had thought of itfirst.”
I stick my tongue out at her—lovingly, of course. “Why do you hate people so much,anyway?”
She glowers at me a moment. “Because you’re all thesame.”
