Chapter 38
38
A fter returning to campus everything went quiet. No more creepy messages from a dead girl, no more random acts of violence or destruction…at least for the rest of the week. Everyone was just acting like the weekend getaway—and Bart’s death—hadn’t happened. Except for Royce, who pitched a well-planned argument via PowerPoint presentation about why it was a good idea that he share my bed rather than sleep on the floor.
Honestly, I couldn’t even deny him because he’d put a lot of work into his slides. Thankfully, he seemed to be sleeping heavier because each morning when I woke up back in his arms once more, I was able to slither out and rebuild the pillow wall without waking him.
Small mercies. I dreaded to think the teasing he’d dish out if he realized I was cuddling up to him in my sleep.
After the shit incident and the following messages from Abigail, Heath and I had sat down for a more serious discussion. Both our courseloads were getting more intense and with the amount of distractions going on, we were falling behind. Not to mention his nightmares…
As much as I wanted to be there and help him work through it, I could see how badly they were playing on his mind. He assured me that he’d speak about it with his therapist, and I was both surprised and impressed that he had one.
Even though we agreed to slow things down, it didn’t stop us stealing kisses whenever we saw each other throughout the week. Sex was…currently off the table, though. Much to the disappointment of my libido. Mental health seemed more important.
A week after we returned to campus, Heath seemed to feel he was making progress with his therapist. He’d met me for breakfast and coffee before leaving for his session, and I’d sat in on Royce’s Psychopharmacology lecture thanks to our new schedule. He sat in on mine—and actually seemed to enjoy them—and I sat in on his. Surprisingly I found his Ethical Social Responsibilities really interesting, and it was taught by Professor Reynard, who’d rescued me when I emerged from the forest.
The first class I sat in on with Royce, she’d delayed the lesson to ask me how I was doing which was very sweet.
We’d just left that class and Royce was chatting with a classmate as we wandered down the hall in the general direction of the cafeteria. We had an hour to kill before my class and I had my head down, texting Carly as we walked. Which was entirely my excuse for not seeing Carter until he grabbed my hand.
“Hey, what—” I started to protest as he linked our fingers together.
“Royce, I’m taking over,” he announced, jerking me into an empty classroom and slamming the door so fast I wondered if Royce even noticed what’d happened.
He had, though. My shadow was always paying attention.
“Carter! Not cool, bro. Come on, we discussed this. Ashley doesn’t want to talk and you need to respect that.” Royce pounded on the door, but Carter had already locked it.
“No, I don’t!” he shouted back. “Just fuck off before you go drawing attention. I’ll deliver her to her class.”
I rolled my eyes, folding my arms. “I’m not a dog that you have shared custody over.”
“Squirrel,” Royce called out with an edge of panic. “Say the word, roomie, I’ll break this door down.”
Carter glared at me, his back against the door. He was practically daring me to scream for help. Dick. “She’s fine , Royce,” he snapped.
“Squirrel?” Royce asked again, needing to hear it from me.
I sighed, throwing my hands in the air. “I’m fine, Royce. If I don’t show up at class, make sure you search the campus dumpsters for my body.”
Carter’s eyes widened, and it was a sick sort of confirmation. Or maybe I was reading too much into it and he just thought I was being dramatic.
Royce didn’t respond for a moment, and I thought maybe he’d already gone. But then a thump sounded like he’d just hit the door. “Bass, do not fuck this up.” With that cryptic statement, he must have walked away because silence hung thick in the empty classroom for several long moments.
“Well?” I prompted, growing edgy waiting for him to say something. “You went to a lot of effort and Royce is probably going to punch you later. So say what you need to say.”
His jaw tensed as he stared back at me, refusing to be hurried. Confident bastard.
“You’re acting like a child,” he said, and my jaw dropped.
“Excuse the fuck out of me?” I exclaimed in a strangled voice. “Exactly where do you find the audacity, Bassington? Is that a bonus that comes with your black Amex or something?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Facts remain facts, Spark. I’ve been trying to talk to you alone for weeks, to explain things and apologize but you’ve been making it fucking impossible. So yeah, I had to go to more extreme lengths because it’s eating me up inside.”
“Because I don’t owe you anything !” I shouted, anger exploding out of me. “I don’t owe you my time, or the opportunity to explain. Don’t you fucking get it? I trusted you! I believed every fucking thing you told me in Paris. Do you have any concept how badly you hurt me when we got back?”
His shoulders sagged and he nodded. “Yeah. I do. Because that was my intent, because I thought it would just be easier if you hated me and I was so fucking wrong, Spark. I just…” He broke off with a frustrated sound, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I know I’m way past the point of apology, but can I please explain? If nothing else, I want you to understand this whole fucked-up mess is not personal.”
A shocked laugh bubbled out of me. “Are you fucking serious? Carter, you?—”
“I know. I know what I said and how it seems. Please. Will you just please let me fill in the blanks?” He pushed off the door and closed the distance between us, reaching out to touch my face.
Before his hand could connect, I stepped backward, out of reach. He followed.
“Spark…”
I shook my head. “Don’t fucking play that game, Carter. Your cute nicknames have no power here.”
His lips curled up slightly as I took another step back and my butt hit the desk at the front of the black box style classroom. “I don’t think that’s true…you love when I call you Spark. Like when?—”
“You’re off topic,” I quickly interrupted before he could start sexy-talking and making me remember all the incredible sex we’d had in Paris, and how he used to moan my nickname as he came.
He nodded, his gaze dropping away from mine even as his hand lightly rested on my waist. I didn’t push it away. He drew a breath, like he was about to say something, then sighed as the words failed him.
I just waited. He wanted this talk so fucking badly he was willing to force me into privacy…I wouldn’t give him another opportunity.
“My family are Devil’s Backbone legacies,” he finally said softly, his thumb stroking my waist. I’d worn a cute little woolen skirt with a knitted sweater and thigh-high socks, and Royce told me I looked smoking hot when I dressed. Right now I was wishing I’d worn steel armor or at very least jeans. Somehow my sweater had risen up in a way that allowed Carter’s thumb to stroke my skin beneath and it was distracting .
I swallowed, trying to ignore his touch as I leaned my butt on the desk behind me. “Okay…I figured most are.”
He nodded slightly. “My mother is still quite involved with things. She’s not on the elders council but she has her fingers in a lot of pies. Anyway, she was informed of our win and subsequent prize trip while we were already on the plane heading over, and she was…not happy.”
I clicked my tongue, remembering the dramatic shift in his attitude after I woke up. How he’d been fun and engaging and then abruptly cold and distant. “Because I’m not a society legacy?” I guessed.
He sighed. “Even if you were, she’d still have the same reaction. It’s…stupid, and so complicated, and honestly there’s a lot I’m embarrassed to admit. But she warned me to keep my distance so that’s what I tried to do.”
“Until I got mugged and you saved me,” I said softly, remembering that night in vivid detail. It was crystal clear in my mind, right down to the smell of the blood on his hands when he covered my eyes and told me just don’t look .
I shivered, hugging my arms around myself.
Carter shifted ever so subtly closer, his index finger stroking a lock of hair out of my face. “Yeah. Until I lost control…”
Did he mean he lost control in beating that guy half to death? Or in fucking me against the alleyway wall?
“So what changed when we got back?” I asked, glossing over the rest of the trip. How he hadn’t cared who saw us fucking in the catacombs, or that our tour guide knew what we were doing, or the hotel staff that must have seen us in the elevator.
He swiped a hand over his face, looking pained. “The guy in Paris…I didn’t call an ambulance. I called a guy who’s worked for my family for basically my whole life. He fixes things. I asked him to make the problem disappear and he did.”
My mouth went dry. “That guy was dead, wasn’t he?” His small nod made my whole stomach drop out of my body. “Holy shit.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have lied but I didn’t want his death on your conscience.”
“So why are you telling me now?” I whispered, panicked and distraught. Tears burned in the backs of my eyes and all I could think of was how did Abigail know?
Carter cupped my cheek, his thumb swiping a tear that escaped. “Because that’s why I said the things I said when we got back. I was so…fucking hell, Spark, I am so obsessed with you I just wanted to make it work. But the guy I called to fix my mess reports to my mother. When we got back, she made her threats clear.”
My head was spinning. His mother was willing to hold this threat over him? What kind of sick parent could do that? “Why?”
That was what I needed to know. Why the fuck did his mother care who he was sleeping with?
His lips pursed for a moment, and I could tell he was searching for the right words. Finally he sighed. “She has plans for my future, involving the daughter of one of her business associates.”
My lips parted in shock. “She’s…marrying you off? What is this, the eighteen hundreds? You’re an adult, Carter.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”
I scowled, horrified at his mom. “Who is the girl? If you tell me it’s Jade, I’m fucking done.”
A short laugh shook out of him and his lips curved deliciously. “It’s not. I’ve actually never met her, to be honest. And usually my mother doesn’t care what I do so long as it stays casual. But with you…it was different, and I think she got scared.”
Was that a compliment? It was hard to know for sure.
I blew out a long breath, shaking my head. “So you were a fucking prick to me because your mommy said she doesn’t like my pedigree?”
He winced. “Essentially. Yes. But the point I wanted to make was that I hate myself for saying that shit and I’m spending every minute of every day wishing I could go back to Paris.”
My stomach bottomed out and my brain stuttered.
That…wasn’t what I’d expected. I didn’t really know what I’d expected but it wasn’t the heartfelt honesty I was getting.
“Okay. Thanks for telling me, I guess.”
Dammit, now I have flutters in my belly.
He frowned. “That’s it?”
I shrugged. “That’s it.”
His deep blue eyes locked on mine for a long, tense moment, then he tilted his head thoughtfully. “Can I kiss you?”
The laugh I barked was horribly unladylike. “Not a chance in hell.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re blushing, Spark.”
“I absolutely am not. Now, if you’re done with your confession, I need to go find Royce.” I pushed off the desk and brushed past Carter, aiming for the door but he caught my hand as I passed.
One swift tug and I was back in his arms like it was the most natural thing in the entire world. My common sense fritzed out and I turned to putty as he held me, his lips brushing over the sensitive part of my neck just below my ear.
“Please,” he whispered in that sexy, husky voice of his. “Give me something to cling to as I suffer in silence while you fall in love with Heath.”
Fuck. He was breaking my heart all over again. “Damn it, Carter, you can’t keep?—”
His mouth met mine, swallowing my protests with a kiss hotter than the surface of the sun. Whatever I’d been about to say, it was totally gone from my brain. Just poof , disappeared. Carter had that effect on me and god damn if he didn’t know how to kiss. The man must be part incubus, because my whole body lit up from his caresses.
Fuck it. He owed me this. A proper farewell. I kissed him back, throwing my arms around his neck and loving the way he lifted me off the ground to clear the gap between our heights. Then my ass was back on the desk where I’d been perched just a moment ago and his hands were on my thighs…
“Carter…” I gasped as he hooked his fingers under the elastic of my panties and started to drag them down. “You asked if you could kiss me.”
He tossed my panties aside, sinking to his knees between my spread legs. “I didn’t specify where.”
Oh. Oh shit . Okay. He licked a long, teasing line down my cunt and I squirmed, collapsing back onto the desk. Carter ate pussy like it was his fucking job, and I wasn’t going to stop him now that we’d come this far. Instead, I hooked my legs over his shoulders and threaded my fingers into his short hair, spurring him on.
“Oh my god,” I gasped as he tugged my clit with his teeth, nearly making me lose my mind. “Carter this isn’t fair .”
“I know,” he admitted, kissing my inner thigh lovingly. “But it’s all I’ve been thinking about since the last time I tasted this sweet cunt.”
My back arched as he pushed two fingers into my core, his tongue lapping at my clit furiously. Whimpers and moans rolled out of me unfettered as he pushed me to the edge of climax then shoved me right off the cliff. I desperately tried to clamp my lips shut, muffling my own screams as my thighs clamped his head.
He didn’t pull away, even though he had to be suffocating, until my legs relaxed, and I released my grip on his hair. Even then, he kissed my inner thighs and seemed reluctant to let me go.
“Carter,” I gasped, breathless and dizzy.
He hummed his response, ever so slowly rising from his knees but keeping his hands on my body all the while.
“Fuck,” I whispered. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve done in a long time, but…” He arched an eyebrow in question, and I tossed caution to the wind. I sat up and grabbed the front of his jeans, pulling him closer. “I need you to fuck me properly.”
Surprise saw him freeze a moment, but when I popped open his fly and palmed his hard dick, he snapped out of it.
“Shit, Spark,” he hissed as I stroked his length. “I don’t deserve this.”
I didn’t reply, because he was right. He didn’t. But I did, so I reached up to grab his face, pulling him lower to kiss me as he lined up and thrust inside. I moaned into his kisses as he started to move, his hips rocking as his cock filled me to the point of slight discomfort.
He only fucked me like that for a few moments before pulling out, whispering a curse, and flipping me over with strong grip on my waist. I gave a startled squeak, which quickly morphed into a gasp as he thrust back in, fully seating himself in me from behind. The edges of the desk bit into my thighs as he pounded my cunt hard and fast, my eyes practically rolling into my head with how incredible it felt.
“Carter!” I cried out as another orgasm started to build within me. “I’m so close.”
He slowed, but seemed to strike deeper than ever as his hand circled my throat. I moaned pathetically at the familiar hand placement, arching my back as he leaned down to bite my earlobe. Such a weirdly specific trigger, but it worked for me and Carter damn well knew it.
My climax was blinding, rocking through me so hard I would have ended up on the floor if not for how strong he held me. He whispered something as I rode the intense waves of pleasure, but I couldn’t make out the words. Just the intent, which I now knew was utterly meaningless.
He came a moment later, hissing my nickname as his cock jerked and pulsed, pumping his hot load into my still spasming core.
For the longest time, neither of us moved, the room filled with the harsh, gasps of our jagged breathing, but we remained locked together on the desktop until eventually Carter withdrew with a heavy sigh.
“Spark, I don’t think I can—” he started to say as I flipped my skirt down and turned to face him.
Then a distant scream cut through the class and we both straightened up in alarm.
“What was that?” I asked, as if he knew any more than I did.
He shrugged, quickly fixing his clothes and handing my panties back to me, which I pulled into place even as I started toward the door. Carter paused with his hand on the door, glancing back and running his gaze over me from head to toe.
I assumed he was checking I was decent before jerking the door open, but as we raced into the corridor—joining other students hurrying toward the main lawn—I wondered if he wasn’t taking a mental snapshot…since that would never happen again.