Chapter 13 #2
He gave her a quizzical look, so she added, “Um, yeah—it’s weird, but my parents like us to play for them when we’re out on the boat.”
She laughed when his expression twisted into something even more confused.
“It started as a dumb joke about making us ‘earn our keep,’ like in pirate days or whatever. Somehow it turned into Gavin and me being the official entertainment.” She pointed to the sofa next to her drums. “His keyboard is under the bench.”
Cameron’s gaze lingered on the sofa, sharp and unreadable, as if he could see the keyboard buried beneath. "I forgot he played the piano, too."
Ebony frowned, confused by that but dismissed it. Maybe he had forgotten the time Gavin played for the whole town at the Stardust Cove Fall Festival when he came to the rescue of an underclassmen with stage fright. The hole in her chest throbbed at the memory.
It was one of her most cherished memories of Gavin.
As usual she had been volunteering helping out with various festival activities, one being the talent show.
Everything had nearly come to a disastrous halt when the boy performing his solo froze.
Dressed in his half mask and cape the boy had only gotten out the first line of The Music of the Night.
No one knew what to do. Everyone, the staff and the crowd, were frozen in awkward silence just staring at the terrified boy.
Ebony was preparing to run out and gently usher him away but Gavin had just walked calmly past her.
Wearing his own cape and phantom mask, extras they had kept backstage, he calmly went to the piano taking the place of Mrs. Melton.
And like snow gently falling from the sky the chords of the song drifted into the air followed by Gavin’s cursedly beautiful voice.
He had saved the day, and that boy, but worse he reminded everyone in Stardust Cove that he had a wonderful voice which only made social media explode.
Annoyed that she allowed her thoughts to return to Gavin she turned and laid down on the couch. "Now that you know the rules, entertain me," she said in her best English accent.
Cameron chuckled and sat beside her. "I believe the rules as you stated are for you to provide the entertainment."
"Well, you're too late. I was playing before you got here." She shook her head. "Now sit, and do your job."
Like a soldier obeying an order, Cameron dropped to his knees on the opposite cushion of the U-shaped couch, stretching out with his head propped in one hand.
"Yes, ma'am. Where should I begin in my quest to entertain you?
Should I tell you about growing up in Mississippi or should we talk about something deeper like how Nietzsche said God is dead but probably never dreamed pretentious undergrads would quote him for clout. "
Ebony couldn’t help but laugh at that. It felt good too.
Like a pressure valve finally being released letting her breath and temporarily forget the constant ache.
They continued to ramble like that for hours.
He told her about the fight his younger brother and sister were having over getting a new phone.
They discussed gossip around the school and who was dating who.
To his surprise she was quite in the dark when it came to the current affairs around school.
"Wait a minute you are basically the queen of the school. You run every damn event we have. You only have a handful of classes and all I do is see you running from point A to B. How could you not know what happened with Elijah Vogel?"
"It's because of exactly that. I'm busy," she groaned. "Normally, Taylor keeps me informed. And thanks for reminding me, I'll have to tell him he's been slacking." She wasn't joking. She was already planning her text to him.
"Speaking of…why isn't Taylor here?" Cameron turned over on the cushion, making the muscles in his powerful swimmer's shoulder flex beautifully beneath his coppery skin. "Normally you two are inseparable. So much so I thought Gavin had him on retainer to help keep guys away from you."
Pulling her eyes away, Ebony stared up at the fluffy white clouds overhead.
"Taylor is my friend, he doesn't need to be paid.
And…" she paused, smiling at the memory of Taylor trying to talk to Hazel Perez.
"Taylor is currently very interested in a particular girl at the moment so I've been encouraging him to pursue that. "
"Mmm," Cameron nodded. "Yeah, I think I saw him talking to someone at the pool party."
"Besides you're here because you texted me."
He sat up, brows lifting with slow disbelief. "Because I texted you?" he repeated, incredulous. "Don’t tell me the only thing that was holding me back was a simple text?"
She looked away, her lashes lowering like a curtain. She wasn’t sure what to say. There was something tremulous and new forming between them and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
As if sensing her hesitancy, Cameron gave her lopsided smile and changed the subject. “How was Gavin after the party? You know after the whole attempted sabotage incident?”
"I haven't talked to Gavin since the party,” she admitted.
For days she couldn’t stop thinking of what had happened at the party. They hadn't spoken, much less discussed how he had kissed her underneath the water. It wasn’t a kiss, she reminded herself for the hundredth time. It was just him breathing into her mouth to ensure she wouldn’t drown.
But even as she told herself that she could remember the determined anger on his face under the water as his fingers found the back of her neck and hauled her forward.
It had taken no instructions from him, no pantomiming of what he needed from her.
She had gasped the moment their lips met, instantly taking in his breath.
The contact—brief and blurry as it was—dragged her back. Not to the party. Not to the pool.
But to that night years ago.
She hadn’t meant to think of it. Had done her best to bury it deep under a hundred excuses and distractions.
But she suddenly remembered every second of that moment.
The way her stomach had twisted with nerves as Jade clutched her hand, both of them giddy and flushed from seeing Masked Gods live.
How the music still pounded through her veins, even as they walked through the bustling backstage with their laminated badges.
And how everything inside her had short-circuited when the masked figure of Harbinger stepped out of the shadows and pulled her into a rough kiss that didn’t feel anything like the fantasy she had dreamt.
It was raw. Possessive. Like he owned her.
Stunned, with swollen lips, she stared back breathless as the figure ripped away the mask. It wasn’t until it hit the floor and Gavin's face stared back at her that the truth of that stolen kiss sank in.
“What,” she’d gasped, stunned. “What the…?”
His eyes burned like blue flames with something too intense to name as he planted a hand beside her head against the wall. “Did you really think I was just going to stand by and let you get fucked by some masked loser?!”
His eyes narrowed as hers widened in shock. How did he know what she had wanted?
Ebony flinched as he leaned in, stopping only when their mouths shared the same breath. His eyes locked on hers, dark and unblinking.
“You’re my responsibility,” he said, voice low, almost a growl. “Mine to protect. Mine, period.”
After the concert they all rode back with Jade's brother, Gideon.
She and Jade had to listen to both guys lecture them on what disease-ridden fuck-boys the band members most likely were.
But Ebony could hardly focus. All her thoughts were on what happened backstage and how Gavin was acting as if nothing had happened.
The boy who cornered her and told her she belonged to him had vanished, like a dream unraveling in daylight.
He was just Gavin again, her brother. Neither of them ever spoke of it again.
He slipped back into his easy grins and mischievous glances, as if nothing had happened.
But now he was all razor edges and hard glares.
"Really?" Cameron replied, breaking her from her reverie. "He was practically glued to you the rest of the night."
Ebony bit her lip. “He doesn’t really want to speak to me.”
That was a lie. In truth Gavin had tried to talk to her but it wasn't the real him. He just wanted her to dance around the elephant in the room and pretend that they weren't going through something major that he started. Something Ebony refused to do.
Annoyed that her mind was back on Gavin she shifted in her seat. Reaching between them she pushed a button which released a middle portion of the couch making the U-shaped bench one solid bed, connecting them. "I don't want to talk about Gavin."
Cameron looked down at their now shared bed and looked back at her. A pleased smile softened his face. "Good, neither do I."
Hearing the change in his tone Ebony smiled, wordlessly inviting him as he scooted closer to her. "What do you want to talk about?"
"I want to talk about why you invited me out here.
Or better yet," he paused, his voice dropping low like a caress as his body heat pressed into her side, close enough to feel and impossible to ignore.
"Here's something I've been meaning to ask since the moment I met you years ago.
Why the hell do you smell so damn good? When I'm around you all I ever think of is sugar cookies. "
He leaned in, mouth brushing over her bare shoulder soft, unhurried, like he had all night to find out.
"It's called dark vanilla," she said with uneven breath.
There was something exhilarating and wrong about all of this.
He was Cameron, a guy she had known for years, a family friend, one of Gavin's best friends. She shouldn’t be letting this happen but instead of saying anything to stop him she just continued to ramble.
"It’s a custom perfume my mother had made for me. Gavin has his own-"
She could've sworn something flashed in his eyes even as he gave her a wide grin. "We agreed to not talk about your brother."
"You're right," she breathed.
For the first time in weeks, she felt the pain in her chest subside.
What would it feel like to simply turn off her emotions like a switch, like Gavin?
If he could do it, why couldn’t she? Why should she have to live with the mortal wound he caused?
And after what she saw in the pool house…
it was like losing something she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding onto.
She was so tired of caring about what people whispered, about her mom’s judgment, about her dad’s quiet worry.
Maybe just for once, she wanted to relinquish the iron control she kept on her life.
Maybe she wanted to be the girl who didn’t think so hard.
Who didn’t wait for permission. Who recklessly lived and damn all the consequences.
She lifted her arms as Cameron leaned over her, wrapping them around his neck. "Then let’s talk about us, here and now," she smiled.
He hovered for half a second, like he was giving her a chance to pull away. Ebony didn’t. So, he kissed her slow and certain, like he’d been waiting years to cross that line.