Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Harlowe
Iawoke in Landon’s bed, draped over him like a weighted blanket.
His dick dug into my belly, jumping as I slowly rolled off of him.
His hands tightened around me for a moment before relaxing again.
His face was beautiful like this, smoothed with sleep, the early morning sun playing across his warm skin.
I settled back against him, curving into his side and resting my nose against his throat.
My phone vibrated, but I ignored it. All I wanted right now was to bask in the heady, happy feelings of knowing I was in Landon’s bed with his bites on my throat. Bites that didn’t itch.
“You keep making that noise, and I’ll think you’re awake enough for more interesting activities.” His voice was so low, so hoarse. It sent a shiver all its own down my spine.
I couldn’t help but smile into his skin.
After another minute, his breathing relaxed back into the cadence of heavy sleep.
My phone vibrated again. With a sigh, I crawled over to the nightstand and flipped it over.
Tessa’s name flashed on the screen with an incoming call.
I watched as it went to voicemail, and then a message from Rhiannon came through.
We’re on the pass! Will be there in about an hour.
A new worry clawed in the pit of my stomach, erasing the happy warmth of a moment ago. I eased out of Landon’s bed, slipping into the thin dress I’d worn most of yesterday and holding the sweater in my arms. My body ached in the best ways. I turned back to him and pressed a kiss under his ear.
“I’m going to get ready. The pass and roads are open.”
He mumbled something I couldn’t understand, reaching for me, but I kept out of his hold. No way was I risking anyone showing up while I still looked like I’d been fucked within an inch of my life. After a minute, he rolled onto his side with a heavy sigh.
The cabin was still and silent as I showered and slipped into a new dress, one with a high turtle neck that would hide most of Landon’s bites. I left my hair to air dry, running my brush through it only long enough to work through the tangles.
The nervousness was getting worse.
I pulled out the ingredients for sugar cookies, needing to keep my hands busy. Some people ran to steady their nerves, some drank alcohol. Me? I baked. I settled into the easy rhythm and tried to forget everyone that would be here in just another hour or so.
I’d finished the first dough and set it to rest in the fridge when Landon walked in.
He wore the same sweater as that first day with a pair of jeans.
His beard was freshly trimmed, the lines stark against his face.
He came straight to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pressing a kiss into the crook of my shoulder.
I pulled the bowl off the stand mixer and scraped the sides, giving it all one final mix before dropping it into a clean bowl to rest as well.
“Everyone is almost here,” I said. The panic was there, in my voice, making it quiver.
He tensed, ran his nose along the newest punctures he’d made. “I know.”
He pulled the bite marks between his teeth, sucking on them. I gasped, heat spooling out from my core like he’d bitten me in truth.
“Landon,” I gasped, letting my hands drop to the counter.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll take away the ache.”
Baby. Where the hell had that come from? And why did I like it?
I didn’t bother trying to figure it out.
With a palm on the small of my back, he eased me over the counter.
The skirt of my dress rose high on my thighs, and he growled in approval.
His hands trailed up my legs, feather light against my skin.
I grabbed the edge of the counter as he guided me into my tip toes, my hold tight enough to whiten my knuckles.
My body practically shook in anticipation.
When was the last time I felt this level of need? This all consuming desire that left me willing to be taken in a public part of my parents’ cabin?
The honest answer was never.
He dropped to his knees, his hands brands on my inner thighs. His lips were hot, his tongue irresistible. It took him only minutes to get me right to the edge, dangling over it.
“Landon,” I gasped, digging my hand into his hair. “Oh God, please.”
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
He eased one finger inside me and then a second. He curled them, and my entire being quaked. When he did it a second time, he bit the inside of my thigh, his fangs piercing the skin.
My back bowed as the orgasm ripped through me, stealing my vision and locking my muscles in rapture.
I gasped his name, and his lips settled over the bite.
Each pull had another aftershock ripping through me until I was a shaking pool of myself, unable to hold my own weight anymore.
His tongue swept over the broken skin, and then he stood up.
He lay over top of me, pressing a kiss to the base of my neck.
I couldn’t help the tremors as he slowly undid his belt.
Laughter cut through the cabin, faint but growing stronger. Landon froze. A door closed, and then another, and then my father’s voice was joining in on the laughter happening outside.
Landon dropped my dress and stepped away like he’d been burned. Those nerves clawed back up my throat, stronger than ever.
“I’m yours, right?”
I didn’t mean to ask it. I’d told him last night to tell me the truth, and he had.
He’d told me the truth with his body, with his bite, with him telling me no other vampire was allowed to mark me.
I shouldn’t need confirmation again this morning.
Silence stretched between us. My heart was in my throat.
“Landon?” I looked over my shoulder. His face was frozen in panic and fear. “You said… last night. I’m yours, right?”
He didn’t say a word, his red eyes slowly dropping back to green as he looked at me and then toward the front of the cabin. And then he was gone.
The slam of the front door echoed through the entire cabin.
Something twisted in my chest, that part of me that held the small, flickering flame of youthful optimism shriveling with the sound.
I dropped my cheek to the counter, trying to find the will to stand up, to finish these cookies.
Instead, tears slowly cascaded down my cheeks.
I traced the small punctures on my inner thigh with a shaking hand, willing them to itch, to burn, to stop being the evidence of a vampire’s most coveted connection.
A connection he didn’t want.
I swallowed down the wail of emotion building behind my sternum and pushed off the counter.
The flame snuffed out.
I’d barely scooped out the first round of dough onto a baking sheet when the front door opened and noise crashed through the cabin.
I pressed the back of my hand to my cheeks just to triple check they weren’t puffy anymore.
I’d taken five minutes in the bathroom to clean up, putting on more makeup than I typically wore to try and hide the red mess left behind by the tears.
Both sets of bite marks on my neck were nearly healed, only a pair of faint pink dots of new skin on either side. The other two bites were hidden by the sweater dress I’d lowered back into place after he left me.
Left me.
The words threatened to tear through the hastily constructed walls around my heart, so I shoved them away. Rhiannon found me first, running straight to me. She took one of the scooped balls of dough and popped it into her mouth.
“Oh my gosh! I could smell the molasses. How can I help?”
I kept my head down, not trusting that my eyes would stay dry. “Probably not by eating one of the cookies,” I said, trying to keep my voice dry, trying to say the joke we always said when I was baking and Rhiannon wanted to eat the dough.
Her body froze, all her restless energy dropping into a singularity as she focused on me.
“Harlowe?” she asked, her voice cautious now. “What happened? Why have you been crying?”
She was my best friend. Just because she knew I had been crying didn’t mean it was obvious, right?
God, I hoped it wasn’t obvious. Rhiannon pulled me into her arms, ignoring entirely the metal cookie scoop squished between our bodies.
I closed my eyes, the tears burning as I forced them not to fall.
“Here!” Tessa said, her voice bright and happy, too. “Your parents are still outside. I convinced Mom to keep them out there so you had time to set this up. Where do you want…”
She trailed off. Something clinked on the island counter.
And then she was there, too, embracing me while Rhiannon did, running her hands through my hair. She sucked in a startled breath as she saw the new bites.
“Wait, did you two…?”
Voices got louder as more people filed in.
Tessa turned. “Dylan! Keep people outside for a bit longer. We haven’t had time to set it up for her parents.”
“All right,” Dylan said, drawing out the syllables. “You sure you’re all okay? Because that doesn’t look like happy girl scheming. It looks like sad girl intervention-ing.”
“Dylan!” Rhiannon hissed. “Just keep the parental figures outside!”
“Right! Okay! I’ll do my best!” His footsteps disappeared back toward the front door. A moment later, it slammed behind him.
Rhiannon pulled me away from her, her eyes bright with anger.
“What did he do?”
The words came out stilted, and some tears managed to break free and run down my cheeks. Tessa was quick to wipe the away, her own sadness growing with each part of it all I tell.
“We’re F-Fated,” I admitted. Both women sucked in a gasp. “The… the bites don’t itch. Or burn. Only the first one bruised.”
I tilted my head and pulled the turtle neck down to fully show the first one he’d laid the night before, right under my left ear. Tessa stared in shock. Rhiannon slowly traced the bite. I couldn’t help but shiver.
“We’ll run interference,” Tessa said. “You still want to surprise your parents with this? We could wait until tomorrow.” She gestured to the bag she’d left on the counter.
I closed my eyes and counted to twenty, trying to reel myself back in.
“Tomorrow. I… Let’s do it tomorrow.”
Tessa hugged me tight again, pressing her cheek to mine. Another tear fell down my cheek, but Rhiannon wiped it away.