Chapter 18 Sofia
Sofia
They get me back in the car and drive me to the very other end of Sunshine Cove to where I find Cordie, Sebastian, Asher, and Felix tending a massive bonfire.
“What’s this?” I laugh.
“The final stage in remembering Rebel.”
The fire crackles and spits embers. Cordie, Asher, and Felix dance, while Sebastian sits with Devon talking to him. Danger curls up in Elijah’s hoodie, but he seems content just to watch me.
They all do.
Hours pass, but I’m not sure how many, and the fire dies down.
I can feel their gazes, and, I swear, the heat coming off this fire is second to the heat burning inside me.
I sling an arm around Cordelia’s shoulders and pull us away from the fire.
“Sebastian is looking at you.”
She peeks over her shoulder and scowls. “Clearly, he’s lost his mind.”
“I’m not sure about that. I saw the way you were looking at him, too.”
Cordie scoffs, but with a long look at Sebastian, she flicks her hair. “I’m heading off.”
She stomps off. Sebastian waits only a couple of minutes before getting up and, without a word, heading in her direction. I laugh at the pair of them.
“Come, Asher. Let’s leave them to it,” Felix says.
The twins disappear, leaving me standing there watching them go. Nerves bounce, and I can’t look at them.
Devon unfurls his massive body and comes towards me. He reaches out and turns me towards the ocean. His hands slide down my arms and pick them up. He holds them up and puts a sparkler in one and lights it with the other.
Orange sparks explode from the stick. He kisses my neck and then, using my arm, draws a heart.
I laugh because it’s so unexpected.
“Let’s carve those hearts of yours into the fabric of the world,” he whispers.
He spells out my name, leaving a smoky flash, like it has been burned into the world, then draws another heart. He ends it with his name.
“There, now it’s forever.”
He lets go of one of my arms and draws my hair away from my neck, kissing the spot and taking all my brains with him. The sparkler burns, almost forgotten, by my side, but then he spins away laughing and lights up another two.
He whirls back around, and I’m drawn into his orbit, swept up dancing with him, lost in his happiness. The sparklers swirl around, leaving light trails in the air. Mack gets up and joins us, while Elijah stays curled up in the sand with Danger, watching.
“When was the last time you did this?” Mack asks.
The memory comes clear as day.
“The night before I left. The family gathered in the backyard. It was my birthday, and Devon was there.”
Devon throws himself down on the sand beside Elijah, leaning over and kissing him hard. I wait for the jealousy, but it never comes, just a strange sense of rightness and warmth. I am relieved he’s not alone anymore.
“He wished me a happy birthday and gave me a sparkler. When I just stood there trying to work up the courage to tell him how I felt, he grabbed my arm and wrote in the night sky.”
“What did he write?” Mack asks.
I stare at Devon. He looks up and sees me and smiles. It’s a smile I’ve seen a million times, but it never fails to reach into me and just turn me upside down and inside out. He’s so beautiful.
“Rebel promises to come home.”
Mack touches my chin. I turn towards him, and he ducks down, kissing me. The sparklers fall from my hands, forgotten, as he walks me backwards, pulling at my hips, sliding his big hands up my spine and across my back.
“Dance with me.”
I wind my arms around his neck and sway with him.
“We used to have bonfires out here every year.”
“I remember.”
“You’d always be dancing with your friends, having a good time. Three years in a row, I watched you here.”
I freeze, but he lifts me up, swinging me around. “Three years?”
“Yep.”
“Why didn’t you ever say hello?”
Mack laughs, but it’s a self-deprecating laugh. “I had no self-confidence, and you were a Sol. Popular, beautiful, and the darling of Sunshine.”
My mind reels. “I wasn’t the darling of Sunshine. I was wild; they were always cursing my name. No, you’re wrong. I didn’t fit here.”
Mack laughs and swings me around again. “You like to think that, but that’s not what everyone would say. Everyone believes in you. You are so loved here.”
He drops me, and I catch myself on his chest so I don’t fall.
“Secret, do you want to do something naughty? One last adventure?”
I cock my head to the side, unable to resist that look in his eyes. “Like what?”
He pulls his t-shirt off and then shoves his shorts down.
I stare at him because even soft, he’s huge. I jerk my eyes up to his face, but it’s hard.
“Um, you’re naked,” I squeak.
“I am.”
“On the beach.”
Mack laughs, turns, and runs towards the ocean.
“What is going on here?” I mutter, but Devon races past me, and I feel a bit like I should avert my eyes, but, at the same time, I want to yell at him to run slower so I can get a better look.
Elijah walks up and stands beside me with Danger in his arms. “Are you going to go out?”
“Me?” I squeak. “I mean, no. I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.”
“Really? Rebel would have.”
I hesitate for a long moment.
“You’re right,” I whisper and shove off my shorts and undies in one go. I lift my T-shirt and bra and drag them to the sand, too.
“I’ll stay here and enjoy the view.”
I shudder as his warm hand slides over the curve of my lower spine.
“Have fun, Sofia.”
The first step is the hardest, but then I’m jogging towards the water, holding my chest. The water is freezing, but I don’t stop until it hits my waist, then I take a big, calming breath and drop my hands, letting them sink into the water. Now I feel really exposed, but I refuse to look at them.
Devon floats up to me and stands up, looking slowly down over my chest.
He sidles up and lifts me up against him, giving me plenty of time to get away. For a moment, I think he’s going to kiss me, but then I see his smirk.
“Don’t you do it, Devon! Devon! Stop!”
He throws us backwards, and we go under. I come up in a rush, pushing my hair back and shrieking from the cold.
Devon laughs and swims around me like an eel. Tonight, he is definitely a snake of some kind.
“You are so annoying, Devon Hart!”
He rises up, and I get to see how much he’s changed, too. “Yeah, but you love that about me, don’t you, Sofia Sol?”
I turn away, but he captures me again. This time, his mouth presses against mine, his tongue slipping between my lips. I forget that I’m cold, annoyed. I forget where I am. Devon Hart is kissing me.
He lifts me up, and I feel the hard length of him between us, the soft lapping of the waves as they rock us about, and the salt in my mouth.
“Hey, Rebel.”
I smile, only to shriek as he falls backwards again. I kick free and splutter and fight my way to the surface.
“Devon!”
He throws his head back and laughs. I keep walking backwards until I step into something hard. Arms wrap around me, and I’m lifted bridal style and carried out of the water.
Mack sets me down,grabs a towel and then, carefully, with infinite care, towel dries me and then helps me back into my clothes. He wraps my hair in a towel, then gets dressed himself.
“Right. I think we deserve a snack.”
The fire is much lower, and when I lay back on the blanket on the sand, I can see thousands of stars.
Every attempt to keep them at bay is failing. My walls are falling. I’m drowning in them, losing my willpower.
It’s like it was before. Where they are, I turn so I can see them, move towards them so I’m closer. Everything about me gravitates to them.
Mack straddles me and drops to his knees over my chest. “Open your mouth.”
This alpha I can trust. I open my mouth, and he feeds me something hot, sweet, and gooey. I moan around the hot marshmallow.
Mack’s gaze has turned intent, his body held in a perfectly frozen state.
Elijah holds out a stick. Mack reaches up without looking, takes the marshmallow, and feeds it to me.
I moan and suck on his thumb.
He groans, and I follow the long, hard ridges of his body hidden under a white singlet to find his jeans tenting. Heat sears my insides, hot and intoxicating. I slide my hand up, resting it on his thigh.
“Can I have another?”
Devon hisses, no longer laughing.
“You can have anything you want,” Mack says in a strangled voice and grabs another marshmallow. This time, I grab his hand, sucking on his index finger as I swallow the gooey mess.
Mack groans.
I suck and scrape my teeth over his hand, almost purring. I clench my thighs together and writhe, but I don’t look away from him.
Elijah and Devon sit on the sand near us. I’m aware of them but also of the distance, but then my attention returns to Mack and stays there.
“Mack?”
“Yeah.” His voice sounds rough, like I’ve tested his control.
“Make love to me.”
Mack leans forward, kissing me hard. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” I say with a breathy moan against his lips.
He slides his hand up my body, and I lose myself in the feeling. Somehow he gets my clothes off, and I’m lying there staring at his face as his eyes drop and take me in. I lift my hand to cover myself, but he catches it and gently pushes it aside.
“You are beautiful,” he says roughly.
That slightly unhinged roughness melts my brain. I tug at his top, and he sits up to take it off, throwing it away, and now I can run my fingers over his wide chest. He was so skinny when we were younger.
“Mack,” I murmur and sit up, wrapping one arm around his neck to anchor me so I can kiss his jaw. The slight stubble scratches my lips, but it just makes it more real and more now.
“You just come back out of nowhere,” he growls. “I felt something about you, but now, this, I’m never going to let you go.”
I moan as he lays us down. He sucks on the side of my throat, leaving me moaning and clutching at his shoulder. The heat and heaviness of his body crush me to the blanket.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he rasps out in between moans as he kisses the curves of my breast.
“Yes, I’m sure. I want you to make me yours.”
Wait, what am I saying?
He growls and seizes my nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth. I arch up, clutching his head as he worships my breasts. He doesn’t stop until I can’t take it anymore, until my hips are rocking, and I’ve drenched the blanket. He pulls away, his eyes big and dark as he watches my reaction.
“Ready?”
“Ready?” I throw back at him. “I’m ready. Give me your cock, Alpha.”
He slides down between my legs.
I watch him with wide eyes, opening my thighs wider when he settles in between them.
“Don’t scream, Omega. Don’t make any noise.”
His mouth finds my clit, sucking and tugging lightly. I throw my head back, arching up, unable to stay still. My hips undulate, grinding my sopping pussy into his face.
“So wet,” he murmurs and drops lower, licking into me, stroking the ring of muscle before pushing his tongue into my pussy.
I throw my arm over my face, biting into my wrist, my chest heaving in the effort to stay quiet and not react to his magic mouth.
I hear a curse and turn my head, watching as Devon pulls out his cock and strokes it.
Their eyes on me. Elijah’s raspy breathing. Mack’s fingers gripping my thighs and hips, pulling me down to his mouth. Devon’s obvious arousal.
I shatter; it’s sudden and explosive. My toes curl and slick gushes from me. My nerves dance with lightning pleasure. Mack’s actions get feverish until he crawls up my body and presses down on me.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes!” I moan. “Please, Alpha. Just do it already.”
He shudders and reaches between us, grabbing his massive cock and guiding it into me.
“Oh, my-”
His mouth slams onto mine as he thrusts all the way in and bottoms out. I wrap my legs around his and my arms around his neck. I don’t want this moment to ever end. I can taste myself on him.
I whimper into his mouth, digging my nails into his back as I pull him closer.
Mack moves slowly, breathing into my neck as he draws his cock out and slams it back in.
“We don’t have time; hurry,” Devon growls.
Mack snarls and lifts his head, his eyes narrowed as he gets up on his elbows, grips my thigh, yanking it high, and starts hammering into me.
“Not a sound,” he growls. “I’m not sharing a single moan.”
He changes the angle.
I throw my head back, rising to meet each one of his thrusts as I clutch at him. I lean up and bite his shoulder.
BOND HIM.
No, I can’t.
I suck instead of sinking those teeth in, but the thought of bonding him, of making him mine, sends me careening into a wall of pleasure that I’ve only felt once before. He growls and thrusts even harder.
“So tight, how are you so tight?” he hisses.
And then he gasps and shudders. He thrusts a few more erratic times before going completely still, but then, without even pulling out of me, he rolls us in the blanket, until I’m lying on his chest, covered up completely, with his cock still buried in me.
But no knot.
A couple walk past our dying bonfire, and I hear Elijah and Devon chatting to them. Mack touches his lips to mine.
“Are you okay?”
I run my fingers through his hair. “I’m perfect. This was absolutely perfect.”