Chapter 14
ABEL
The car ride back to Peris’s place is quiet and tense with unnamed but nearly tangible tension in the air we share in the back of the car.
My jeans are plastered to me with dried cum, and it’s uncomfortable, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than shift in place and try to unstick them.
But my panties are in the way, and every time I try to touch my crotch, Peris’s eyes dart over to me, and they get really dark, and I get hot all over, so I stop because my stomach flutters and curls, and I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I am too buzzed to properly deal with him.
I need to be sober. Or, at least, not drunk to handle Peris Baxter, but the gods have decided against me tonight, and it’s a battle of wills.
I’m clearly losing.
I’ve already come twice.
By the time we’re pulling up in front of a house, it’s only been fifteen minutes, and my throat is fucking dry. I need water, and if I don’t get it soon, I’m probably going to lose my mind.
“So, this is where you live, huh?” I croak as Peris opens the door and steps out onto the grass.
The blast of cool air mixing with the warmth from the car makes me shiver, and I pull back, not wanting to be cold again, but Peris just leans in and wraps his fingers around my bicep and yanks me out of the car.
“Thanks,” he tells the driver, deadpan, before shutting the door and dragging me down the sidewalk.
“I can fucking walk, you know,” I huff and yank away.
“Fine.” He pulls away, and I stumble to the ground at the unexpected loss of balance.
“See,” he sneers as he stares down at me, and I can’t help but stare up at him with stars in my eyes as the own night sky’s surround him like a halo.
His longer hair curls around his ears, accentuating the tattoos going down the side of his neck. I follow them with my eyes, down the thickness of his neck, and across his shoulders to his arms, which are now moving to dig into his pocket as he pulls out a cigarette.
“Since when did you smoke?” I ask. I’ve been curious about it since the very first time I saw but never thought to ask until now. The Peris I knew would never fucking touch a cigarette.
“Since you left me,” he retorts just as quickly, and I flinch away from the sharpness of his words. The lighter illuminates his face for a moment, and the shadows I see etched there will haunt me for the rest of my life.
But then, they’re gone, leaving me to imagine what I saw.
“Ouch,” I mutter as I stare down at the ground. The cold concrete has seeped through my jeans and is now making my ass numb.
“Come on, get up,” Peris says, and his arm extends in my peripheral. I look up to find his cigarette dangling from his lips, arm reaching for me, smoke curling up toward squinted eyes, and my heart flips inside my sternum.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Are you going to give me your hand or just keep fucking staring at me?” he snaps, and I shake my head to clear the fog.
“Sorry.” I reach up and clasp his hand, hating how warm and right he feels as I’m jerked to my feet. I stumble and fall into him, but Peris catches me, like he always does. I let out a small breath of excitement feeling his arms around me again because this is absolutely crazy.
I mean, really, what the hell are we doing?
“Good question, runt. Good fucking question,” Peris answers aloud, and I snort.
“Can I get some of that?” I ask, and he passes it over without thought, and we share the rest of his cigarette until it reaches the butt, then Peris stubs it out and flicks it somewhere beside him.
“Come on. I’m sure you’re freezing your ass off—not that you have much of one to begin with.”
I rear back as I stumble my way up the steps. “Hey!”
“Just saying,” he mutters, and I swat at him.
“My ass has definitely gotten bigger since the last time you fucked it.”
“Oh, you mean since yesterday?”
“Technically yesterday was in the bathroom cause it’s definitely past midnight now,” I counter, being a smartass, and Peris growls.
He steps closer and backs me against the front door. “Don’t fucking push me, runt. You know what I meant.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I try to shake him off. “Whatever.”
“You’re gonna fuckin’ think ‘whatever’,” he mutters as he shoves me aside and puts his key in the door.
While he unlocks it, I take a look around.
It’s a smaller, two-story house, but it’s cute.
It’s painted dark green with some of the paint chipping off.
The porch definitely needs redone, but it’s nice enough.
Peris gets the door open and steps inside, gesturing for me to follow. It’s dark, but it smells clean, which surprises me. I kind of expected it to stink like old socks or something, to be honest, but it doesn’t, which is nice.
“Who all lives here?” I ask.
“Me, Gabe, and one of Gabe’s friends,” Peris replies quickly as he ushers me through the living room.
It’s dark, so I can’t really make anything out, but then, we round the corner and we’re headed up stairs.
Peris pauses and looks back at me and up the staircase, then he wraps his arm around my waist and hauls me against him before starting the trek up the stairs.
I stare at the side of his face, a gasp stuck in my throat, as Peris practically carries me up the steps. His body is flush against mine, and I feel the movement of every muscle with each step, and it makes me burn hotter and hotter.
By the time we make it to the top, my skin is on fire.
Peris sets me on my feet, and I mourn the loss something great.
He glances over at me for a moment, his eyes dark and clouded with something before he shakes his head and makes his way down the hall.
I stumble after him, hand smacking against the wall to catch myself.
“Would you watch it?” he snaps. “Before you—”
A door creaks open. “Peris?”
“Oh great. Just what I fucking need,” he mutters, glaring daggers at me, and I wince, mouthing, I’m sorry.
“Do you need help?” Gabe says as he stumbles out of his room, rubbing one eye pretty harshly, while the other remains closed.
“No, I’m fine,” Peris spits through gritted teeth. He reaches over and wraps his fingers around my bicep. I hiss as he pinches my skin but let him maneuver me behind him.
“Fine? What’s going on?” Gabriel seems much more alert now and blinks through the haze in his eyes and brushes his curls out of his face. When we make eye contact over Peris’s shoulder in the shadows, I watch recognition flare before something unnamed settles across his face.
“Peris…”
“Shut the fuck up, Gabriel. Go back to bed.”
“This is a bad idea,” he says, and I wince. I mean, I already know that, but damn. I’m standing right fucking here.
“I know!” Peris shouts, and I flinch. “I know,” he repeats again, softer, and my heart clenches at his low cadence, despite the fact that he’s calling me a bad idea.
I’ve always been bad; there’s nothing new there, especially when it comes to Peris Baxter. But hearing him admit it so easily kinda fucking sucks a lot more than I thought it would, honestly.
“I am standing right here,” I mutter from behind Peris, feeling petulant. If I could huff and cross my arms over my chest, I probably would.
“Shut up, Abel,” Peris says, and I snap my mouth closed, pinching my lips together.
“I’m just worried because—”
“I don’t need you to be. I know what I’m doing,” Peris cuts him off quickly, and my curiosity peaks. Why is Gabe worried? It seems like there’s something specific he’s got to be worried about, but Peris won’t ever tell me.
“What are you two talking about?”
“None of your business,” they both say at the same time, and I nod my concession.
“Fair enough,” I mutter as I cross my arms over my chest, goosebumps break out over my skin, and I shiver. They’re painful, to the point of pricking my skin the longer they stay, and I shift on my feet as Gabe and Peris continue to stare at each other in the shadow-lit hallway.
“Okay, are you guys gonna kiss now, or what?” I ask, because the air is charged with their tension, and that’s probably what’s causing my goosebumps.
Gabe snorts loudly, and it snaps, just like that. Peris pulls back, almost imperceptibly into me, and I brush my knuckles along the ridges of his spine.
He glances back, catches my eyes for the briefest of moments, and I see everything. And it hurts. His eyes are haunted, bloodshot and dry, pulled into a grimace of pain. Pain I caused him. Because I left him.
But I don’t think he understands I didn’t have a choice.
I never have.
But before I can say anything, Peris shutters his expression back into a blank mask, and I feel the loss achingly deep.
I miss him in a way I never thought I could.
“Go back to bed, Gabe,” Peris says, pulling me from my musings, and I blink up at him, taking in the way the muscles are bunched in his neck and shoulders.
“As long as you promise we’ll talk about this later.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” And with that, Peris turns around and right into me.
I grunt at the impact as I stumble backward.
He reaches out and catches me before I can sprawl across the floor.
My chest is heaving at the unexpected impact.
His arm is steel around my waist, and I breathe in his smokey scent as I’m hauled against his chest.
He dips his head down and brushes his lips across my forehead, almost thoughtlessly, as he says, “Let’s get you to bed. You look like shit.”
I snort loudly, right in his face. “Thanks.”
He pulls back, but he’s smiling, and it’s beautiful. “You’re welcome.”
When he opens the door to his room, I’m not surprised to find that it’s a bit of a mess, similar to how it always was back home… fuck.
Home.
Haven’t thought about that in a while.
Still hurts like a bitch.
I rub against the ache in my chest with the heel of my palm.
“What are you doing?” Peris asks from where he’s dropped down onto his bed to pull his shoes off. I look down at my hand, back up at his face, then drop my arm.
“Nothing.”