“Wow, you were pretty far gone. You want to share?” Charlie hitches my hair behind my ear. Charlie and I go way back to when I first arrived in Loveless. I can tell her anything. I sort of wish I had done just that so many years ago. Sometimes when you bottle up the past, you’re just setting yourself up for a toxic explosion somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, for me, my detonation has already occurred.
“Just zoning out. You guys headed down the mountain?”
“Yup. We’ll be back this weekend. It’s Neva’s birthday, Warren is throwing a surprise party.”
“Nice. It’s good to see he’s reformed—if not liberal with the keggers.” I make a face as we head inside. My arms collapse around Caleb, and I take in a greedy kiss right here in front of my sparse guests.
“Show off!” Charlie swats me over the shoulder as she heads out the door. “Call if you need me!”
I pull back to see Caleb and those deep-welled dimples smiling back at me. His phone goes off, and he steps toward the kitchen.
“Goodnight ladies.” He gives a slight wave before tending to his messages.
Reese gives me a brief hug. “He is handsome. Do everything I would. Isn’t that the advice you like to give?” She gives a playful bite to her lip.
“I’ll make sure it’s naughty and hot.” I give a quick wink. It’s true. I’m the first to suggest the lewdest—crudesttime be had by all, and, yet, I was always the last to have it. I’ve built a palace around me, constructed solely on the bricks of my transgressions, and now I watch as it all crumbles to pieces. Some lies you can get away with, some lies you can’t. Something tells me I’m about to find out which is which.
Mel is the last one out with her arms crossed tight, her stance defiant. “You really are a lucky little bitch.” Her eyes snag on mine a minute too long. “Love you like a sister.” She lunges at me with a wild embrace. “Live it up, girl. You deserve what’s coming to you tonight.” She glances at Caleb as she says it before giving a kiss to my cheek and disappearing into the dark.
I wonder what my friends, what Reese, would think if they knew the real me? Normal people wouldn’t have done the things I’ve done. Normal people wouldn’t have built their entire foundations on lie upon lie. At some point, though, it all became white noise—an entire field of words streaming through my mouth, actions that were just as easy to disregard. Sometimes I think I’m a sociopath and, sadly, this has never alarmed me.
I shut the door and give a dramatic spin toward Caleb—my man. It actually makes me happy to say this, and I want to laugh at myself. How quickly I’ve become one of those girls—the all too happy to see her boyfriend,dotinggirlfriend. It’s funny because with Keith it was all pain and sorrow, and with Caleb it’s all sunshine and fucking—just the way it should be. A simple smile comes to my lips.
“Who was that on the phone?” I’m not sure why I asked—just asking to ask. I don’t really care. But in a way I do. What if it was his mother? And what about his brothers? What kind of relationship does he have with them? Doesn’t the one on trial want him around and vice versa?
He glances down at it a moment before sinking it back in his pocket.
“Nobody.” Caleb takes off his jacket, his muscles popping from underneath his dress shirt, and I’m already gone. All of the stress, the anxiety of this treacherous day are in the past. Now there is only Caleb and his ocean blue eyes to contend with. I can live with that. “Did you eat dinner?” He asks so sweetly I could cry. Caleb cares for me, for all of my basic needs as well.
“The girls brought take out. I left some for you in the microwave.”
“Thank you. I’m okay, though.” Caleb rubs his thumb over my cheek. He inspects me with his gaze as if he were trying to pickax his way into my brain. The smile fades from him as his lids drip low. “Take off your clothes.” Caleb’s strict attorney voice is like drinking an erotic tonic. I can feel the charge in me electrifying my bones from my feet, jolting up my thighs, all the way to my chest then shooting out like lightning through my arms.
A heated moment thumps by as the room pulsates with a heartbeat of its own. Caleb has taken off the gloves, he’s ready to rumble, and it starts right here with my clothes hitting the ground.
“Yes sir, counselor.” My fingers touch the stubble on his cheek, and I expect to see a spark. “Better yet, why don’t you take them off for me?”
His lips invert into the briefest frown. “I take it you don’t like doing what you’re told.”
“Hate it.” I give a casual shrug.
“Not one to play by the rules, are you?” He says it more as a fact than a question.
“Sometimes.” Lie. He’s right, but I don’t like giving in so easy either.
“You like to make the world bend around your needs.” He says the words slowly as his hand glides down to my neck. “Make it do your bidding. You don’t like the storyline you’re given? Mold it to what you want it to be.” He leans in and takes a genuine bite from my neck.
I take in a sharp breath as his teeth sink in. A shock of pain travels from my jaw to my thighs.
“You know me.”
He pulls back, and I motion him back to the fire he just abandoned.
“I’m okay with a little biting, Caleb. Don’t be afraid to make it hurt.” I press his lips back to that aching spot he enlivened near my jugular.
“I fell in love with your neck first,” he whispers against my skin, and it quells the pain for a moment.
“Should I be insulted?” A dark laugh bubbles from me.
