“What wasthatall about?” Ellery asked, making me jump a foot in the air.
“Jesus, you startled me! I need to get you a freaking bell or something.”
“Sorry,” she apologized, flashing me a rueful grin. “Well?”
“Shay asked me out to dinner Friday night, and I said yes.” I frowned, the uncertainty setting in.
“Why are you frowning, this is great! He’s hot and so sweet.”
“Isn’t it kind of weird? I mean, I’m going to ask Shelly to work for us. She’s our co-op student.”
“You won’t be Shay’s boss, unless you want to be,” Ellery waggled her eyebrows at me mischievously, and I rolled my eyes, a soft laugh escaping. “You’re trying to talk yourself out of it before it even happens. Classic Harper.”
“That’s not true. I’m just being—”
“A wuss?” She arched a brow at me with disbelief. “Have the date. See how it goes. Decide afterward if you want to continue. That’s exactly what dating is.”
“Gee, thanks for the lesson.” I sighed, fighting a smile. She was right, of course. If things didn’t feel right, they didn’t feel right. Shay didn’t seem like the type to force something that wasn’t there—and Ihadfelt a small spark of interest when he’d smiled at me. It was extremely mild compared to everything I’d felt for the unnamable, but it was something.
Calum
We were supposed to be studying, but I could only take so much of her sitting on my bed with her legs tucked beneath her, that long dark hair falling over her shoulder onto the pages of the book that held her attention.
Harper could easily disappear in a book, and she didn’t see me coming until I’d already pounced on her. Gently prying the book from her hands, I tossed it toward the end of the mattress and leaned forward, peppering the side of her neck with slow, savoury kisses.
“When will your parents be home?” her voice was nervous, but her hands were steady as they raked down my bare abdomen, settling against my jean’s waistband. My cock jumped zealously against my zipper, eager to get to her.
“Not until late tonight, probably after midnight,” I assured her, my lips dropping to pay homage to her slender neck. She shivered as her arms snaked around the back of my neck. Her lids fluttered, and she let out a sigh as my hands trailed along her body. Greedily, I touched her everywhere.
“I can’t wait to get our own place,” she sighed, arching into my caress.
“Me either,” I murmured against her skin, pausing to nip at it gently. I couldn’t wait to be out of this house—even if I’d have to endure another four to six years of post-secondary education just to escape it.
Studying music and teaching it, when all I wanted to do was play it.
I wasn’t unintelligent, although my grades prior to Harper’s intervention often suggested it. I just didn’t have the passion or focus for school that my brilliant girlfriend had. I learned by doing, and it’d taken everything I had to pull through high school with passable grades. I knew what I was good at, and I wanted to stop wasting time and just do that.
But my father was right—playing local gigs at bars and events wouldn’t pay enough to keep my old Jeep on the road, let alone pay the bills, or give Harper the life she dreamed of.
As if she sensed my internal conflict, Harper’s fingers tangled in my hair, and she pulled my face to hers, her eyes searching mine. “I love you, Calum.”
“I love you, too,” I told her, eyes locked and unwavering on hers. It was the one truth I couldn’t and wouldn’t deny. She calmed the storm inside me; and lifted the weight off my chest so I could breathe a little easier.
I pressed my lips to hers, kissing her reverently, my heart pounding not just with lust, but with a love that, at times, felt too big. A love I didn’t always feel deserving of.
Harper trusted me explicitly. Often, I had no idea what to do with all that trust in my hands. A darkness lurked in me, silent and heavy, and I worried it’d stain her. I did my best to keep my dark from her light, but sometimes it wasn’t easy, especially when she wasn’t within reach. Touching her eradicated the dark.
She let out a soft sigh of contentment, tension leaving her body, and melted against me. Her surrender chased away the brief flash of hesitation, and I backed her up against my mattress, sliding my hands around to the small of her back, holding her while I laid us down.
I glanced down at her, at the hurried rise and fall of her chest as she drew in quick, shallow breaths. I brought my lips to hers once more, kissing her softly before pulling away to look at her again. She lay beneath me, peering up with trusting, lust-filled eyes—mine for the taking.
Harper was too good, too pure—but she was different with me. More unbounded, freer. She craved me just as badly as I craved her.
I made her come undone; with a look, a touch, a kiss. She said I had this power over her, and I was addicted to it, to making her melt beneath my palms. I did it every opportunity I could. But she didn’t seem to realize how powerless I was against her.
I undressed her as I kissed her, pulling my mouth away from hers only as long as it took to tug her shirt off and toss it over my shoulder. Clad in her bra and panties, her long chestnut brown hair a tangled mess on my pillow, she was visual poetry.
Settling between her thighs, I felt her heat against my cock through her panties and my boxers. I let out a tortured groan, a sudden burst of light blinding me, turning everything white…
