17. Dove #3
His chest pressed to my back as he guided our arms to cross over my front, and I shivered at the rasp of his shirt against my bare skin. Every point of contact sparked, as if I was the flint of a lighter, waiting for Josh to strike me into a full flame.
“What?” His grin once he was back in front of me was boyish and so utterly handsome.
That look alone had me going along with whatever else he had up his sleeve.
His hand stayed a constant companion to mine, but it loosened its steady hold whenever he wanted to spin me. His other spanned my back to nudge me faster in tight circles or to cradle me to his chest.
I found myself smiling through laughter, as the world turned, and I twirled.
When he pulled me back in, he lifted our arms over our heads and let them rest across our shoulders until we stood side by side.
My steps mimicked his, and in that moment, I was the happiest I’d been in a long, long time—as if the tragedy of my past and the weight of the past few weeks melted away like an ice cube on a hot summer’s day.
Still there, but no longer such a heavy, solid weight.
“That’s it, little dove,” he encouraged in my ear as I completely surrendered, allowing myself to stop worrying about anything but Josh and the heat of him pressed against me.
Fueled by the music pounding through my veins, my hands wandered Josh’s wide shoulders, and I pressed my body to his like I’d dreamt of doing for longer than I cared to admit.
It was the best kind of torture, the most addictive drug. And with it came the crushing realization: one hit of Josh would never be enough. I’d spend the rest of my life chasing the high this moment with him was giving me.
But even that couldn’t touch this moment. I stayed anchored in the now, letting the warmth of something long-lost settle in my chest: hope.
The dance floor pressed in around us, bodies tightening the space and making it hard to dance freely. But as the song neared its end, I spun out of his arms, laughing, my hair whipping around me. For a moment, I let the music flood me—wild and free.
That is until I collided into something hard.
I blinked the dizziness away and a solid, T-shirt-clad chest came into focus. When my gaze moved up, the eyes looking back at me were all wrong, displaying a murky shade of green that reminded me of pond scum instead of the color of sunlight on tree bark.
I knew those eyes.
Torrence Weller.
Glancing over my shoulder, I scanned the dance floor for Josh, hoping he’d come to my immediate rescue, but I must have lost him in the crowd.
When I turned back, a smile stretched across his annoyingly good-looking face.
“Hi,” Torrence said, voice low and smug, like me falling into his arms had been his plan all along.
“Hi.”
I stepped back to gain some distance, but he followed, crowding himself up against me. His hand slid along my ribcage, and I hated that his touch was just as warm as Josh’s, and twice as familiar.
Traitor , I hissed at my body.
“It’s been a while, Riley.”
I contained my eyeroll and gave a curt nod. Why did every athletic guy in existence have a hard-on for using last names like they were nicknames?
Torrence and his football bros used to show up to Josh’s parties—thanks to Eddie—but he’d barely noticed me back then, a fact I’d always been thankful for. He was known for being obnoxious and vain, which came from being a good-looking rich boy.
Still was . I just hadn’t cared much—not when we’d been occupied doing...other things.
“You here with anyone?” He bent down to speak over the music. My nose wrinkled. His breath reeked of tequila, making it obvious he’d been drinking.
My gaze drifted over my shoulder one more time, hoping to find Josh standing there with a murderous glare, just as he always had whenever the boys from the football team had been lurking around, considering their reputation back in high school.
But what I saw instead, through the parted, crowd had a sharp pain lancing through my heart.
In an instant every warm thought I’d had toward Josh turned into cold hard ice.
“Actually,” I purred, ignoring the acid churning in my gut as I turned my attention back to Torrence with a look I hoped was seductive. “No.”
His answering grin was damn near predatory.
Josh
I was aware of Dove the moment she stepped through the door.
Like a compass pointing north, my head turned, and my breath caught when I saw her standing there, scanning the crowd and biting her lip like she was two seconds away from bolting.
When she beelined for the bar, I ditched my full drink, knowing Eddie or someone from our small group of friends would gladly snatch it up. We were huddled around a high-top near the wall, and I ignored their shouted questions as I strode away without explanation.
She stood patiently at the bar, but I could practically feel the tension radiating off her. A thrill shot through me as I closed the distance, unable to stop myself from stepping in close to whisper low in her ear, and I reveled in the shiver that ran through her body.
The signs of something being there between us grew undeniable every day.
She’d fooled me earlier when Reverie showed up.
I’d been ready to leave with her, to drive us to the bar, but the second I saw her friend speeding down the drive, disappointment hit.
The fact that she was here now, and had likely always intended to be here, spoke volumes—and I was prepared to find out tonight whether she would step over the invisible line that had kept us apart.
Naturally, I ordered us drinks—partly for liquid courage, but also to celebrate an important milestone of hers I’d missed.
A huge part of me regretted missing Dove’s twenty-first birthday.
Although if I’d never left, I wouldn't have taken her out, not like this. That duty would have been reserved for her friends, because being around Dove with loose inhibitions sounded like the makings of trouble. Still, I felt horrible I hadn’t at least wished her a happy birthday on her special day.
Never again.
Never again would I miss another, not one day , even if this didn’t end up going anywhere between us.
Dove had me and only me now, and I’d never let her down like that again.
When I clasped Dove’s hand in mine just after our shots and her bratty comment, my heart soared. I pulled her out onto the dance floor, not caring who saw her body move with mine.
Dancing with Dove felt like the best damn dream I never wanted to wake up from.
With the lights accentuating the curves of her gorgeous body and her smile widening with each beat I spun her on, she looked more like mine than she ever had. I wanted to take Dove places no one had ever taken her to before. I wanted to make her feel things she’d never felt.
I just wanted her.
The moment I let go of Dove, I knew it was a mistake.
She disappeared into the undulating crowd, and I was left standing there, chest heaving, sporting a semi I’d been attempting to hide since the first ring of her laughter.
I’d find her in a moment. Just a moment.
Her body so close to mine was the loveliest dream and the sweetest torture. Convinced I might still be sleeping, I subtly pinched myself and prayed it wouldn’t snap me back to my bed with a rooster crowing outside my window.
But in the middle of the dance floor we remained, with her eyes shining and her touch— fuck —her touch roaming.
My chest still burned from where her nails had grazed down it, likely on accident, but I had damn near been seared from her touch.
When my mind wasn’t as the air around me, I took a step in the direction I’d lost her in— only to have someone slide right in front of me.
The first thing I noticed was hair that was too blonde, along with eyes the wrong shade of blue.
Stella.
“ Josh ,” she attempted to purr, but the seduction was lost as she strained to be heard over the music. But the look in her eyes was clear enough. They screamed fuck me, and within their depths I saw all the times we used each other to distract ourselves.
Right now, her distraction was pissing me off.
“Stella,” I greeted amicably, eying over her head to spot wherever Dove might have gone.
Her bottom lip protruded in a pout, and her hand splayed on my chest. I glanced down at it, then back to her.
“It’s been years,” she said, letting the words drag. “That’s the hello I get?”
The spot on my chest grew cold from her touch, scaring away the warmth Dove had stirred within it.
My hand wrapped around hers, forcibly removing it, but Stella was a wily one, always had been. The moment our hands met she threaded our fingers together in a move too fast for me rebuff.
“Stella,” I warned.
Ignoring me, she pirouetted under my arm before raising up on her tiptoes in an attempt to slot our lips together.
Never in my life had I appreciated my height more. I straightened up, subtle but firm, putting her lips just out of reach—and making damn sure they stayed there.
There had been a point in my life when I truly wanted Stella—when I believed she was all I needed, all I craved. But every time I caught the hurt in Dove’s eyes as Stella stole my attention way, it chipped away at the truth.
We were using each other.
Stella needed an escape from her shitty home life. And me? I was just projecting my affections onto someone I could have... instead of the one I couldn't .
“It doesn’t have to be anything serious,” Stella coaxed, guiding the hand she still held captive to her sternum. The neckline of her dress plunged dangerously low, and my fingertips burned where they brushed bare skin. “Just a little birthday treat. ”
The heat radiating from Stella’s skin only made me think of Dove—how her skin burned under my touch, hot and alive in a way that drew me in far more than it ever had with the woman in front of me.
I snatched my hand out of her grip.
“Go find someone else, Stella,” I said as gently as I could. I didn’t want to hurt her—but I needed to make it clear that whatever she was hoping for tonight wasn’t happening. “I’m not interested.”
Harsh, maybe. But true.
Was there ever an easy way to tell an interested ex you didn’t want them anymore?
Stella’s blue eyes hardened into steel, bottom lip trembling before thinning out into a hard, unforgiving line.
“You think you’re too good for me now that you’ve left,” she accused, words sharp as knives. “Well, you can’t run from where you’re from Josh. You’ll always be backwoods trash just like the rest of us.”
With that, she spun on her heel, hair snapping like a whip through the air before she stormed off.
That could have gone… better. But I’d known there was a chance I might see Stella tonight. Hell, Eddie might’ve even invited her for all I knew.
How do I explain that I wasn’t ashamed of being back home, or of being with her, but that I was harboring a soul-crushing crush on my stepsister?
The answer was simple: I didn’t.
So I let myself be the bad guy instead.
Something the whole town would agree on if anything ever happened between Dove and me.
Which...where the hell was she?
A low-level niggle of worry bloomed in the back of my mind, but I quickly squashed it. She’d probably gone back to the bar if she couldn’t find me in this dense crowd. Or maybe she’d spotted Eddie and the others and gone to chat with them.
But after searching the entire place, she was nowhere to be found. I’d given in and asked my friends, but none of them had any clue Dove was even here. That’s when the low-level worry morphed into full-blown dread.
Had she left?
Had I pushed her too far?
Had I finally given her a reason to run, to disappear from me for good?
Maybe she was giving me a taste of my own medicine.
Downing my beer, I made my excuses, Eddie’s face flickering briefly with disappointment before shifting back to the beautiful girl who'd approached him earlier.
He wouldn’t miss me. I’d make it up to him later.
Right now, I had a much bigger problem to solve.