Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“DANGEROUS” BY SLEEP TOKEN
ANATOLE
My fingers burn as I walk away from her, something I needed to do otherwise I’d have kept my hand as her personal necklace as I fucked her up against the pantry door, leaving marks of my own.
Shit.
This past week, well, it’s been one of the best of my life.
Normal, like we’re part of a family. I’ve found a job that pays decent and the boss at the construction company is talking about taking me on permanently.
Nox is working at the coffee shop, something I know is not what he wants to do forever but, in his words, he doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.
It looks like Steele might be getting a job at the mechanics after Blossom introduced him yesterday, something he’s wanted to do ever since I’ve known him.
Something that may not have happened without Blossom’s help.
My mind flits back to the larder, back to the way she grew breathless, like she wasn’t stealing my air too.
“Hey, bro,” Steele calls, interrupting my swirling thoughts. “Tina asked if we could help set up for Family Day. There are chairs and tables in the garage that need to go in the garden.”
“Sure,” I reply, and he gives me a look, then a smirk but doesn’t say a fucking thing as I follow him.
It takes the rest of the morning to set up, and I only catch glimpses of Blossom, flitting about the place as she sorts everything. I find myself waiting for a sighting, my mind only half on the jobs Tina keeps giving us.
The sound of children’s laughter fills the garden, the late spring sunshine warming my neck as people start to arrive.
And it’s more than a few. There are several older teenagers who’ve clearly aged out, some who bring friends or partners.
There are also younger kids, who seem to have brought family and I wonder how they got back with them.
A few look like parents, but most look older like grandparents or aunts and uncles.
Blossom greets all of them, laughing and genuinely interested in how they’re doing and what they’re up to.
So many give her hugs and I’m just fucking blown away.
Steele told us she’s been fostering for six years, yet so many have come through her doors, and they all look happy.
I catch her once, between hugs, when nobody's looking her way — the smile slipping for just a second, something tired and almost sad underneath it, before she catches herself and turns it back on for the next kid running at her. Something in my chest constricts.
Don arrives, the pizza delivery guy, a girl the same age as him shyly hanging on his arm. He introduces Blossom to her, and I watch as she immediately puts the girl at ease, drawing her out and soon has her laughing.
“She really is something, huh?” Steele asks, handing me a beer as he comes up next to me.
I open my mouth. Close it. Then open it again, only to take a swig of my beer.
He chuckles. “Yeah. She’s good for Jus. Us too.”
I look at him for a moment, see him smiling. I can’t remember the last time he did that out in public.
“It’s like…” I cut myself off, letting out a breath of air. “It’s like a real family.”
“Yeah, it is.”
The realisation hits me in the gut. This is what family looks like. This is what I want our family to look like. For Jus. For us. For me.
My gut churns, the beer going sour in my mouth.
We said we’d leave when we got on our feet. But how can I take Jus away from all this?
A girl steals my focus, slinking up to us, her gaze coy and focused on me.
“Hi, you must be Anatole,” she says, all breathy.
“Yeah,” I answer, taking another drink and forcing a smile on my face. “Nice to meet you…?”
“Oh!” She titters and my right eye twitches. “Silly me.” She places a hand on my folded arm and I tense. I don’t like strangers touching me. “I’m Julia. I came through here last year. Just for a few months while I waited to age out.”
I look at her, noting that she looks around eighteen, though she’s wearing far too much make up and her dress is short and low. My jaw clenches. She may have aged out, but eighteen is still a kid and it’s like she’s trying to play dress up in her mama’s clothes.
Movement catches my eye, and I look over to find Blossom watching us from across the patio, a deep furrow in her brow. My chest tightens, hating the flash of hurt that flits through those hazel eyes of hers — the same eyes that were glowing this morning when she watched me in the pantry.
MINE.
The word bounces around my head, and I’m taking a step away from the young girl before I’ve realised what I’m doing.
“Well, best get going. Lots to help with, Judy,” I tell her, walking away.
“It’s Julia!” she calls, but I don’t give a fuck.
The only girl I care about is the one who’s now talking to one of the adults, avoiding looking in my direction and a low growl escapes me.
“What the fuck is up your ass?” My kid brother steps in front of me and I huff a sigh.
“Jus, you really shouldn’t be cursing so much. You’re ten years old for fucks’ sake.”
“Almost eleven, and you swear all the time,” he sasses back and I roll my eyes.
“Do as I say, not as I do,” I advise, taking another sip of beer.
“Can we talk?” His voice holds a little uncertainty, and I snap my gaze to him, my eyebrows dipping.
“Sure, what’s up?”
He looks around. “Somewhere private?”
“Okay, let’s go inside.”
I lead him inside, finding the laundry room and shutting the door behind us. “What’s this about Jus? Is everything okay? Has anyone—”
“Chill!” He laughs, but there’s an edge. “It’s not that. It’s just…”
“Just what?” My heart races a little. I hate that there have been so many years I’ve not been there to fucking protect my own brother because of red tape bullshit.
“I just wanted to ask, are we still leaving?” My racing heart stalls out.
“It’s just, I really like it here, Miss.
Blossom is like the coolest and best mom, more like a big sister, and the other kids are great.
Especially Sally.” His cheeks heat and my lips twitch up into a smile.
My kid brother is having his first crush.
“Do you want to stay, Jus?”
He looks at me from under his lids, sucking in his lower lip, then huffs out a breath.
“Yeah. I do. I want to stay, but I want you guys to stay too. I’m sure Miss. Blossom would let you.”
I run my hand through my hair, letting his words sink in.
It’s only been a week since we turned up at her front door, but already this feels more like home than anywhere else I’ve ever lived.
Justin is happy, he’s no longer lashing out so much, and fuck, Steele is smiling more than I’ve ever seen him.
Eight years of fighting to give him something like this, and it took nine days of her to make it real.
Nox, is still, well Nox, but even he’s toned down the sarcasm, and stopped bitching about Blossom at all. I’ve caught him watching her, a look of surprised awe on his face when he thinks no one is looking. Like he can’t believe someone so good, so fucking pure, is actually real.
You and me both, bro.
“I could talk to her. I like it here too, and it’s good for you,” I tell him, and his grin is something I’ve wanted to see for so long that a lump in my throat forms.
“Yes!” He fist pumps in the air, and I laugh. “And you like her too. Miss. Blossom. I see you watching her with fucking heart emojis in your eyes.”
My lips thin as my eyes narrow.
“I do fucking not!”
“Yeah you do. The others too, and polygamy is a thing these days, though I don’t think you could all marry her.”
My brain short circuits.
Not just at the fact that that my ten year old fucking brother knows about polygamy — where the fuck did he even learn that word?! — and is suggesting it, but that the idea of marrying Blossom and staying here permanently doesn’t have me running for the hills.
“Slow down Romeo,” I finally get out. “No one said anything about polygamy or marriage.”
“Yet,”’ he teases, darting out of reach before my hand can grab him. “Anatole, Nox, Steele and Miss. Blossom sitting under the tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
He runs away cackling like the child he is, and I can’t even be mad at his teasing. Suddenly all my thoughts are of Blossom standing underneath one of the trees in the garden, me and my brothers making her breathless with kisses.
Fuck.
Hours later the party is finally fucking over, and I feel that good kind of tired that comes with a day in the sunshine and meeting new people. I’m helping pack the tables and chairs away, the last of our guests having left, when I spot Blossom carrying a tray full of dirty dishes.
“Here, let me take that,” I say as I rush over to her, reaching out and grasping the sides of the tray. Our fingers brush and my teeth clench at the spark of electricity that flies across my nerves.
“Thank you, Anatole,” she says, those stunning hazel eyes catching the late afternoon sunshine, which makes flecks of gold sparkle in them. Damn she’s so fucking beautiful.
Her fingers come up, brushing aside the hair that always falls in my eyes, no matter how much I style it. I swear the world stops spinning for a moment as her fingers caress my skin.
I find myself leaning down, tray in hand, and she tilts her face upwards, leaning up.
It’s like I’ve no control over my body, like we are two magnets unable to resist each other’s pull. All I can see are her plush lips, and the flush that rises to her cheeks whenever she's flustered, that pretty pink I've been cataloguing all week without meaning to.
All I can think is what Jus said about making her ours. About marrying a girl I’ve only known for nine days but who has altered the course of my fucking existence all the same.
“Miss. Blossom! Anatole! Come quick! Debbie is stuck!” One of the kids shouts and we spring apart, both breathless, chests heaving. A frustrated huff leaves my lips, and she gives me a small smile.
“You take those to the kitchen and I’ll go rescue a chicken.” Her hand lands on my arm, making all the hair stand on end as she gives it a squeeze.
Then she lets go, turns, but pauses. A little cute as fuck grumble comes from her, then she spins, placing her hand on my arm again as she leans up on her tiptoes and places her lips against my cheek.
She’s gone in the next instant, hurrying away like her delectable ass is on fire, while I stand there as my cheek burns.
“FIRE INSIDE” BY SWIM
BLOSSOM
My lips still tingle, a couple of hours after I kissed Anatole, and I find myself brushing over them with my fingers as I put the used tablecloths from today on to wash.
We were so close to kissing properly, I’m sure I didn’t imagine the way he leaned down, his blue eyes locked on my lips. And I didn’t want to leave it like there was nothing there, hence the kiss on his cheek because I wasn’t brave enough to kiss his lips once the moment was broken.
Plus, I knew one small kiss would never be enough. Not for our first kiss anyway.
“So,” Nox’s sharp voice jogs me out of my musings, and I look up with a gasp to find him leaning against the doorway of the laundry room. His muscular arms are crossed, and though he’s not as jacked as Steele, he still has incredible forearm porn. “Steele made his move.”
I’m shaking my head, wondering why he’s talking about Steele when it was Anatole I just almost made out with.
“No?” My gaze snaps back to his, realising that he’s referring to this morning when his pale jade eyes pointedly look at my neck. He steps closer, sucking out all the air from the room, his eyes glinting.
“So, you’re just wearing a turtleneck and scarf in May for fun?”
I lick my dry lower lip. “Maybe I’m just cold.”
Another step. “You’re a terrible liar, Petal.” That damn nickname makes my insides quiver. “Did you enjoy his primal way of fucking you?” My lips part on a puff of air and he takes another step. “Did you like it when he bit you, marked you, knowing we’d see.”
I swallow. Hard. Then lift my chin. “T-that’s none of your business, Nox.”
“Isn’t it?” His lips lift, his voice dropping. “When I’ve been thinking about kissing you since the moment you blew into that living room like a fresh spring breeze a week ago?”
My breath catches, then stutters out of me.
He smiles wide, sharp and knowing. Another step, so close that our chests brush and I have to tilt my head back just to keep eye contact.
“Yeah. Thought so.”
Before I can formulate a response, one of his hands is in my hair, the other collaring my throat, thumb over the love bite Steele left, his lips crashing onto mine. He lets out a deep, almost tortured groan that lights a fire inside me, my hands coming up to cling to those delicious forearms.
“Knew you would ruin me,” he mumbles against my lips, not giving me a chance to answer as his tongue swipes over the seam of my lips.
I part them — what else can I do — and he wastes no time in diving in, his tongue dominating but coaxing as it strokes mine.
His thumb presses into the bite that Steele left, the pain sharp and I make a gasping noise into his mouth that has his tongue going deeper, almost fucking my mouth and I melt into him.
God if he kisses like this, how does the man fuck?
My knees are weak, my core throbbing as he pulls his lips from mine, using his grip on my hair to turn my face to the side, kissing his way to the mark that he’s now exposed.
“Nox!” I breathe when he closes his mouth over it, his lips where Steele’s were last night, and sucks.
I feel like only his hand in my hair, his other still around my throat, is what’s keeping me upright as he keeps sucking over the bruise, his tongue laving it until all I can picture is what he’d do if he was between my legs.
“Miss. Blossom!” Rachel calls from somewhere in the house. “Can you come help me finish this English homework, please?”
I freeze, my muscles tensing but Nox doesn’t stop, and I blink, my hands clenching round his arms.
“Nox!” I hiss, which turns into a moan when he sucks again. “Please.”
I feel his lips grin against my skin. “As you beg so prettily, Petal.” He gives my neck a final, open mouthed kiss, then straightens.
There’s only a thin ring of green around his black pupil, and his cheeks are dark, his chest rising and falling rapidly with panted breaths. I can only imagine what I look like — flushed from my hairline to my chest, lips swollen, breathless.
“Miss. Blossom?” Rachel sounds closer, and my heart jerks in my chest.
“I’m coming!” I yell back, removing my hands from Nox’s muscular arms and tugging the neck of my jumper back up.
“Soon you will be,” he promises darkly, and I have to force my inhale to steady. He chuckles, in such a self satisfied male way that my thighs squeeze together. “See you around, Petal.”
Then he turns around, stalking out like a jungle cat, and leaving me, once again, breathless.
At this rate I’m going to have to get my oxygen levels checked. These boys seem to keep stealing it all.