3. Three
Three
July 2017 - Five Years Ago
Phoenix Campbell
C ee is standing under the waterfall’s spray with his eyes closed, letting the water cascade over his shoulders. He looks like a fallen angel, a frankly unreasonably sexy fallen angel sent here to tempt me into doing some very ungodly things to him. His usual tousled raven-black hair is plastered to his face, and the moonlight bounces off his sharp cheekbones and jaw, only adding to his enigmatic presence.
His pale, milky-white skin is entirely flawless. Wolf shifters generally have unblemished skin, considering we usually heal quicker than we can scar—but Cee's skin looks like it was cut from marble. This is the fifth week in a row we’ve met here, and my fingers are itching to touch him.
I think he flirts with me sometimes? But I’m so embarrassingly into him that I’m worried I’m reading into it. Cee's mossy green eyes, lined with thick dark lashes, sparkle with mirth when he catches me staring at him; I don’t even bother to look remorseful.
Cee gracefully wades through the water towards me. He’s so lithe and agile that even though I’ve seen him in his wolf form several times, I sometimes half expect him to shift into a sleek, black panther. He strikes me as someone who always lands on his feet and would most definitely scratch your eyes out if you cornered him. He pauses a few feet away from me, and a shiver runs down my spine as his gaze rakes over my body.
We do this sometimes; stare at each other as though we aren’t entirely sure this isn’t a mirage, and if we look away, the other will suddenly disperse like smoke into the ether. A light breeze in the air bathes me in his intoxicating scent of lightning and heather. Cee smells like a storm brewing, and I can’t help but think that might be telling.
A part of me knows no good can come of getting so close to someone in the enemy pack, but I think it would take nothing short of a direct Alpha Order to keep me away.
I’ve only been on the receiving end of one once before. I was a pup and kept sneaking out to swim in the lake near our home. My brother Jasper snitched on me to Mum, and she Alpha Ordered that I only go when there was adult supervision. Being the precocious little pup I was, I figured out that if there were human adults in the vicinity when I went swimming, I could get around the Order that way. When she eventually caught me again, she was livid. I suspect she learned to make her Orders substantially more watertight after that.
“Let's play a game,” Cee declares, cutting through my reminiscent thoughts. His eyes are all mischief.
“Okay… what game do you want to play?” I ask.
“I’m thinkin’ Truth or Dare?” I can feel my Adam's apple bob as I swallow a large gulp of air. The last time I played Truth or Dare, I kissed my best friend Alice’s brother, Milo. I’d been quite drunk, and the kiss was wet, sloppy and frankly—best forgotten.
“If we play Truth or Dare, I think we should still keep some truths off the table.” I raise an eyebrow at him in question.
“Okay, how about Truth or Dare, but the truths can’t include any identifying questions?” he proposes.
“Deal, your idea to play so your turn first, Truth or Dare?”
“Truth,” Cee says with a glint in his eye. Biting the bullet, I ask the question that’s been on the tip of my tongue since the day we met.
“Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?” I ask, holding his gaze so I don’t look as nervous as I feel.
“Definitely no girlfriend, I don’t generally swing that way…” He pauses, knowing full well why I asked, but I force myself to wait for him to finish answering the question even though my stomach is doing somersaults in anticipation. “And no boyfriend either. You?” he finally answers, and I let out a breath, a weight lifted off my chest.
“Nice try. That’s not how the game works unless you want to waste your turn asking me the same question?” I give him a teasing look, and he splashes water at me.
“Fine, Truth or Dare?”
“Truth.”
“Hmmm…..” He hesitates as if he’s thinking fastidiously about his question. “Have you ever thought about kissin’ me?” His question catches me off guard; I wasn’t expecting him to be quite so direct. His eyes hold mine, though, not faltering even for a second. Swallowing loudly even to my own ears, I take a deep breath.
“Yes, I thought about kissing you the day we met. Honestly, I’ve probably thought about it more than I should have since.” Okay, so maybe my 'truth' borders on oversharing, but it’s out there now.
“Interestin'.” His smile becomes smug.
“Interesting? All you have to say to that is, 'interesting'?”
“Yes, very interestin',” he says, full-on smirking at me. I huff in response, splashing him with water again. Cee lets out an evil cackle at my expense.
“Wanker.” I try to keep a straight face, but I’m fighting back a smile as I say it.
After I’ve gathered myself, I ask, “Truth or Dare?”
“Dare.” He steps closer to me while answering. The air between us is charged with tension as I gather my courage.
“I dare you to kiss me how you’ve pictured it.” My stomach is filled with butterflies as I wait for his response.
“I never said I’d pictured it.” He tilts his head playfully.
“Well then, I guess if you’ve never pictured it, then you don’t need to kiss me,” I counter, calling his bluff.
His tongue darts out and licks his bottom lip lightly before he tugs it between his teeth in a way that makes my dick twitch below the surface of the water. The heated look in his eyes makes me feel akin to prey when I’ve only ever been a predator.
He glides towards me, closing the final distance between us. Standing so near, I have to tilt my chin to look down into his eyes. He’s several inches shorter than me; I’d guess five foot ten to my six foot two. His pupils are completely blown out, almost eclipsing his mossy green irises.
With one hand, he reaches up, cupping the side of my face, and the other squeezes the back of my neck, tugging my face down to him. My pulse is a loud heartbeat in my ears, and I’m worried if he nudges his hips any closer to me, it’s going to be very obvious quite how into this I am.
He pauses for a moment, the briefest look of vulnerability flashing across his eyes; if I’d blinked, I would have missed it. He comes across so confident, but I think maybe some of that is for show. Not wanting him to doubt even for a second how much I want this, I lean down and press my lips to his.
We kiss tentatively at first, tasting each other and gently exploring. Still, it lights up every nerve ending in my body. When his tongue tangles with mine, I release an uncontainable groan into his mouth, and he deepens the kiss in response. I’m insatiable; I could keep doing this for hours and never tire of it. The hunger in my belly is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.
My hands wander down his chest, and I brush my thumb gently over his hard nipple. A small gasp escapes his mouth in response. My hands roam all over his body, seeking to touch him everywhere at once. My brain catalogues every minuscule sound he makes; the breath he sucks in when I gently brush my fingertips down his rib cage and the small whimper when I dig my fingernails into his strong, muscled back.
Our mouths are feverish, stoking the fire building inside us. When I’m so close to the edge that a light breeze on my cock could make me come, I pull away and gaze down at him as I try to catch my breath.
We’re both panting as though we’ve been running for our lives, and Cee's lips look pink, swollen, and devourable. I feel like I’ve been struck by lightning, and a small hysterical laugh bubbles out of me at the irony. I knew that lightning scent of his spelled trouble. My skin feels so overheated I half expect steam to start rising from the water’s surface, and it takes me longer than it should to get my heart rate to return to its steady beat.
Cee appears to get his bearings back much quicker than I do. He tips his head to the sky, where the moon now sits low. His voice is raspier than usual when he speaks.
“I better head back,” he says, sounding disappointed to be bringing the night to a close. The thought pleases me more than it should. With a deep sigh, he turns, making his way back out of the water. Before he gets too far, I grab his wrist, pulling him back into me to kiss his soft pink lips one last time. We say goodbye for another week. Seven days never seemed very long to me before, but each week since I met Cee, seems to drag on for an eternity.
“Goodnight, Cee,” I whisper into his slightly parted mouth.
“Night, Fee,” he replies before walking out of the water. I catch a brief glimpse of the sexy dimples at the bottom of his back before he shifts. Despite Cee being several inches shorter than me, his wolf form is enormous and domineering. His fur isn’t quite as dark as his jet-black hair, more of a charcoal shade of grey.
Cee's large body blends into the dark treeline, but I spot two big green eyes looking back at me before he sets off to run home. I rub the heel of my palm into my chest, not understanding why I feel the loss of him so acutely.
“Get a grip,” I tell myself, shaking my head to try and knock some sense into my brain.
I’ve no idea what the time is when I finally make it home, but I close my bedroom door as stealthily as possible behind me, and I nearly jump out of my skin.
“Fuck.” I whisper shout. “You almost scared me half to death,” I say quietly to Jasper. He’s leaning against my window in the dark room.
“Where have you been?” he asks me in a low voice. Jasper and his wife Jade have been staying here while their house gets renovated, and I’ve come to realise I definitely love my brother with more distance between us than a paper-thin wall.
“None of your business, Jas. Why are you even awake?” I reply, my buzz from earlier dissipating in an instant. He steps towards me, and I step back, trying to give him a wide enough birth so he doesn’t scent another wolf on me.
“This is the third week in a row I’ve heard you sneaking out. I thought following you was probably a step too far, so I resorted to waiting up for you. Where have you been? Or should I ask who have you been with? I can smell them all over you.” I roll my eyes in response.
“Jas, you’re my brother, not my keeper. Go back to bed,” I say firmly.
“If Mum finds out where you’ve been going, I won’t be able to help you.” I try to keep my heart rate as even as possible because Jasper will be even more suspicious if he hears it beating erratically. For a moment, I worry he knows who I’ve been with. Even by wolf standards, Jas has the ears of a bat and the nose of a bloodhound, but there’s no way he could know that if he’s telling the truth about not following me.
“I know. I would never ask you to defend me. Go back to bed.” He walks towards me and grips me by the back of my neck, pressing his forehead against mine.
“You know I’m only looking out for you, right?”
“I know.” I let out a sigh.
“Go take a shower, Nix; you smell like sexual frustration.” He cackles as I open my bedroom door and shove him out.
“Fuck off,” I whisper, trying to ignore the heat flooding my cheeks because he’s not wrong.