Page 77 of People Like Us

He slid a finger inside me, then another, curling them while one of his rings pressed hard at my entrance. The dual sensation was almost too much, a delicious, overwhelming pressure that made my thighs tremble.

“August,” I gasped, his name a ragged plea as my fingers tightened in his hair. He responded by sucking harder, his tongue flicking my clit in a relentless, maddening rhythm. The coil in my belly tightened, impossibly, until it snapped without warning.

A wave of pleasure, warm and blinding, crashed over me, and I came with a choked cry, my body arching off the tree, my inner walls clamping around his fingers.

August didn’t stop, but his tongue slowed, drawing out the sensation until I was a boneless, trembling mess. When he finally pulled away, I slumped against the tree, my chest heaving, my legs barely able to hold me up.

He looked up at me, face glistening in the faint moonlight, with a triumphant smile spreading across his swollen lips. He stood, his hands gripping my hips, and kissed me, deep and hard.

“See?” he murmured against my mouth, his voice thick with satisfaction. “Much better when someone cares if you come, isn’t it, Sin?”

August slid my panties back into place, his fingers lingering for a moment before he smoothed down my dress. The white fabric was a disaster, stained with mud and wrinkled beyond repair, but I didn’t care. I felt more alive than I had in days, maybe years. He clicked on his flashlight, the harsh beam cutting through the darkness, and for a moment, I saw the raw, unguarded emotion in his eyes. It wasn’t just lust. It was something deeper, something that scared the hell out of me.

“Am I allowed to care if you come?” I asked, voice much weaker than I intended.

He ran his long fingers through my hair, pushing it away from my face sticky with sweat and humidity. His nose brushed against mine as he spoke softly, “I did.”

My eyes flashed down instantly, but August’s hips were pressed tightly to mine. “Again?” I taunted, playfully.

He leaned in, pressing his lips to mine in a slow deep kiss before murmuring against my lips, “You have no idea how much pleasing you turns me on.”

Chapter Thirty

The Inn—Salisbury’s excuse for a teen’s club— sat wedged between a pawn shop and a boarded-up laundromat on the rough side of Salisbury, its flickering neon sign buzzing like a dying insect in the wet dark. Somebody had spray-painted scripture across the alley brick years ago—Jesus saves in peeling white paint—but cigarette burns blackened the wall beneath it, and somebody else had sprayed ‘fuck your god’ in bright orange directly underneath. The whole place felt blasphemous in a way that made my pulse quicken.

Inside, the place breathed heat. The air smelled thickly of sweat, and clove cigarettes. The bass from the speakers rattled through the warped floorboards hard enough to loosen thoughts inside my skull. Red Christmas lights hung crooked across the ceiling, casting everyone in the color of fresh wounds.

Bodies packed shoulder-to-shoulder near the stage moved like one living organism beneath the music, shoving and writhing and jumping.

The Amen Thieves screamed through another song onstage while the crowd screamed along with them. I couldn’t understand a damn word.

The lead singer wore leather pants painted onto narrow hips and fishnet sleeves stretched over tattooed arms. Black makeup ringed his eyes so heavily it looked bruised there, like he hadn’t slept in years. The guitarist had silver safety pins through both eyebrows and an upside-down cross dangling from one ear. Even the drummer wore lipstick smeared around his mouth. Every lyric sounded angry and holy all at once, all sharp teeth and sacrilege.

My father would have called this place demonic. I thought maybe that was part of the appeal, in a town like this.

Penelope and Angelica were near the stage absolutely devouring the performance. Pen shoved through bodies without apology, black combat boots stomping in rhythm while her silver chains flashed beneath the lights. Angelica danced beside her with her curls wild around her face, laughing openly every time someone slammed into her shoulder. Ben had fully committed himself to headbanging so violently I worried he might separate something in his neck. Their joy was loud and ugly and completely uninhibited in a way I envied deeply.

August sat across from me at the sticky little table near the back wall.

He looked comfortable here in a way that surprised me less and less the more time I spent around him. One long leg stretched beneath the table, fingers tapping absently against a sweating soda can while his eyes followed the stage with quiet amusement. The red lighting softened the angles of his face, turned the coral in his cheeks richer beneath his tan skin. He nodded slightly along to the music, never throwing himself fully into the chaos the way the others did, but clearly enjoying it anyway.

I liked watching him when he forgot to guard himself. It made him seem younger somehow. Less aware of himself. I leaned closer so he could hear me over the music. “Why didn’t Wyatt come?”

August glanced at me, blinking like he’d forgotten I was there for a second. “This isn’t really his scene.”

I snorted softly, tracing condensation from my drink with my fingertip. “Well. At least that’s one thing we have in common.”

That earned one of those dry little laughs from him. The kind that always sounded more like judgement than amusement. “I bet you’d find more than that if you two would actually try to get along.”

I rolled my eyes immediately, though the corner of my mouth twitched upward. “Hey, I have tried. It’s not my fault he hates me.”

August shrugged, but there was something restrained in it. His gaze drifted back toward the stage too quickly, jaw tightening just slightly like there was an answer sitting behind his teeth he’d decided not to give me.

That irritated me more than it should have.

The music shifted into another song, louder somehow, the guitar shrieking hard enough to vibrate through my ribcage. A girl in smeared eyeliner climbed onto someone’s shoulders and screamed the lyrics toward the ceiling like worship.

I glanced around the room again. “What about your sister? Is she with her boyfriend?”