Chapter 13 #2
“Thank you, Mother,” Wald said, wrapping my arm around his. I attempted to shake him off, but he held on, so I broke into a fake smile, digging my fingernails into his arm, hoping his parents didn’t notice.
We got to the sweeping staircase before I shook him off. “What the hell did you tell them?”
“That I was bringing home a friend.”
“You used the term girlfriend ?”
“I did, actually, yes. It occurred to me to be an excellent reason for my father to agree to my plan.”
“Your plan? What plan?” I shouted. Shushing me, he picked me up and raced up the stairs as if I weighed nothing.
When the shock of his manhandling me so effortlessly wore off, I tried to wiggle out of his hold.
At the top, I bit his shoulder. He growled then dropped me on the floor of the upstairs hall—well, half threw me.
I landed on a hip, the skirt of the pink dress flew up, and covered my face .
“You should have worn the pink panties,” he said, tromping past me. I reached out a hand to trip him, and he kicked it off.
I scrambled up, rubbing my throbbing hip. He’d already made it to the end of the hall. I raced after him and tackled him about a second after he opened the door.
He turned around, caught me mid lunge, dragged me through the door, then shut it behind him, and locked it.
Breathlessly seething, I choked out, “How dare you throw me on the floor, or pick me up in the first place, and not tell me the plan? Open that fucking door.”
“Be my guest,” he said, moving away from the door.
I stomped over and turned the lock, but then I stopped with my hand on the handle.
Where would I even go? I needed his help to clear my name.
I was not going to jail, and there were people chasing me.
Would they kill me? The motion of something hitting the bed made me turn.
It was his jacket. Shortly followed by his shirt.
His pale bare chest gleamed with an otherworldly softness, like moonlight.
Hip bones jutted out above his waistband.
With the sunglasses on and the leather pants hugging his hips, my heart skipped.
Just my type, dangerous as hell.
His four-poster bed was canopied with heavy burgundy drapes and big enough to sleep a family of five.
One wingback leather chair sat in a corner, a couple of dark wood night tables on either sides of the bed, and a glossy mahogany armoire with four doors taller than I was filled most of the left wall.
I began to pace in front of the armoire, desperate to avoid the gorgeous elephant in the room looking at me with mirrored sunglasses and pursed lips. “Any witches in your wardrobe?”
“You bit me,” he snapped, rubbing his bare shoulder .
I stopped. “You threw me on the floor.”
He crossed the room in two strides. My breath caught as the scent of musk and leather flooded me.
He was either going to kiss me or kill me.
Anger boiled over from my aching hip and being trapped in this miserable position where I had to rely on him.
I swiped at his sunglasses, and they flew onto the floor.
He stilled like a predator. His eyes fired gold, and his lips parted.
I slid my hand around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to me.
The wet heat of his lips and the taste of fresh forest air melted me.
I couldn’t get close enough. He scooped me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. Then, with something close to a growling purr, he walked us to the bed and laid me back on it, breaking the kiss.
I writhed under him, pulling him back down.
The raw muskiness of him made me want to crawl inside of him.
My fingers slid up his chest as he straddled my thighs, turning me liquid.
I tugged him down for another kiss, but he grabbed my wrist and abruptly sat up.
My breath caught as his yellow eyes slitted.
“If you ever bite me again, Tails, be sure you mean it,” he purred, holding the wrist over my head but loosely, as if he wanted me to test his hold, then plunging his glorious tongue back into my mouth.
I pushed him back. “So I should bite you again?” I whispered.
“Shut up, Harlan,” he purred, dropping his weight on me.
I lifted my hips, grinding them into his.
I gasped into his mouth as he massaged my breast, and it popped out of the cheap push-up bra.
His other hand snaked under the skirt of the dress, and I raised my hips to meet it.
Every part of my body was tingling as if waiting for the next step.
I tugged at the waistband of his leather pants.
I was more than ready to screw him. If we got sex out of the way maybe I’d be able to think straight. Well, differently.
Then the laughter began.
Wald stiffened and sat up. My skirt was at my waist, and one tit was hanging out of my dress.
Britannia was standing in the doorway, laughing her ass off. I went from molten to mad in zero-point-two seconds.
“Get out, Britannia,” Wald growled as I stuffed my tit back in the bra. She hissed back like a snake. I kid you not. She stuck her tongue out at him, and I swear it was forked.
She locked eyes with me. “ Tsk, tsk . Don’t you know he’s too cursed to kiss? You are supposed to be in the Magnolia Room. Anyways, Mother sent me. Dinner is waiting. They were wondering what was taking so long.” She cocked her head and glowered.
I launched off the bed, my hands clawing for her throat. I tackled her, and we went down in a tumble of limbs. “You fucking killed Gentry!” I yanked her hair, and she grabbed mine, then managed to flip me over in one smooth twist. In a split second, she had me pinned by straddling my chest.
“Get off me,” I ordered, breathing shallowly with the weight of her. Britannia didn’t budge, sneering down at me. Her perfume was a blend of pears, vanilla, and wood. Cloying and sweet. Sickening like her.
“Look, you bitch, you should know better than anyone what it feels like to be betrayed. Gentry deserved what he got.”
“Get the hell off me so I can show you what death looks like.” I writhed under her, but she was like an anvil.
Wald laughed with a deep throaty chortle. “You’d better let her up, Britannia. She isn’t happy, and I’m beginning to learn that making Harlan unhappy is not the best plan. ”
Britannia started to lift up, and when she’d moved enough, I planted both feet into her stomach.
She fell back with an oof and was on all fours in the blink of an eye, hissing. Wald swept her up into a bear hug, immobilizing her.
She thrashed in his arms. “You ripped my pantsuit,” she whined as he walked her to the door and pushed her through.
I eyed the space between the doorframe and Wald where he stood in the doorway blocking her. “Tell Mother we’ll be down in five minutes.” He slammed the door and locked it.
Now I saw the value of the lock. “Your sister is one coldhearted monster,” I said, realizing the word monster was ill chosen.
“The bathroom is through there if you’re interested,” Wald said, tilting his head rakishly but cool as a refrigerated cucumber, as if he hadn’t had his tongue down my throat five minutes ago.
I eyed the bathroom door. Freshening up sounded good. I adjusted the dress. “What exactly did your snake-cow of a sister mean by too cursed to kiss?”
“It’s nothing for you to be concerned with.”
“Wow, you go from fire to ice in point four seconds. How come?”
“It’s—”
“Nothing for me to be concerned with. Gotcha. So does Britannia really have a forked tongue, or did I imagine it?”
“Part of her curse. Sadly not an imagination.” His cheek rippled like he was pressing his tongue against it.
“So she’s cursed, too?”
He nodded. “But that’s not your problem, either.” He crossed his arms.
With a huff, I stomped to the bathroom. But when I slammed the door behind me, I slid to the floor.
My heart pounded, and my brain fogged like I was two days without sleep.
I was equal parts liquid fury and desire.
A maddeningly confusing blend I was one hundred percent not going to deal with. At least my hip no longer hurt.
The bathroom was all black, black tiles, black fixtures.
The only thing that wasn’t black was the mirror, but it had a black frame.
I got up and looked at myself. The horror of my blotchy face was complemented by a hair travesty of frizz, knots, and limp strands.
There was no hair brush or dryer in sight.
I opened the door a crack. “Any chance of a hair brush and hair dryer?”
Wald was right outside the door. He pushed past me, bare chested and reeking of the musk of sex that we hadn’t had.
I trailed a hand across his back, and he grabbed my wrist, turning with a speed I could barely track.
I backed him into the wall. He kissed me, then flipped us, so my back pressed into the wall as he slid down the straps of my sundress, his now gloveless fingers tracing over my skin like he was spreading lava.
And I burned for him. Goddamn him.
He held my hands above my head, trailing kisses down my throat.
When he got to my chest, he stopped, his breath ragged as he looked down at me with golden shining eyes.
“You will be my end if we continue. No matter how much I want you, Britannia was right. I shouldn’t do this, and my parents are waiting.
But gods you taste so sweet.” His tongue plunged into my mouth again, and the kiss stole my soul.
Then he stepped back. The taste of us on my lips was like honey and butter. Perfect together.
“Not so fast.” I ran my palms up his marble sculpted chest and captured his perky rose nipple with my lips.
Playfully nibbling it while watching for his expression.
His golden eyes widened and then narrowed.
He lowered his head and growled. A serious throaty growl.
The sound roared into my blood as if an animal was warning me away.
I listened to my instinct and stepped back from him.
“We can’t do this, now. Pull yourself together,” he said through gritted teeth, as if he had failed to convince himself that I was the problem.
He pulled out a drawer in the wall with a clatter, dropping a hair brush and a dryer into the sink.
Then he left, closing the door behind him before I could even get a word in.
Even in my dreams, I could never have imagined that kiss. I licked another taste from my lips. His tongue was magic, and his words lingered with the sweetness I tasted.
The image of hell in the mirror stared back, and I threatened it with the dampened hair brush.
He’d made it clear there was no time for a real shower, but dragging the brush through my hair turned it into an instant frizz ball.
I scrunched in water, turning the ends into little curls, then dried it on low.
The lip-gloss from my pocket turned into blush and eyeshadow.
Five minutes later, I looked a little less blotchy.
I ripped off one loose ribbon bow on the bra.
Then laughing with tears of joy, I ripped off the matching one on the other side for symmetry.
Well, it took me three tries, but I got it off, leaving a hole in the pink satin.
The highs and lows of all the chaos rocking my life had begun to sink in.
Pulling myself together, I exhaled, swore, and opened the door.
Jeezus . Wald waited in a fresh black dress shirt and an inky black velvet dinner jacket, looking like the pale sex god I was learning he was.
I straightened my dress, wishing it was black. “Why don’t you explain the whole curse-no-kiss thing, now? ”
He straightened a cuff. “It’s my problem, not yours.”
I walked two steps toward him and was hit by earthy musk, a scent not unlike warm cat fur and bourbon. My eyes darted around the room, spotting a half-full bottle and an empty glass. A drink would be perfect.
“How about a drink? You made it pretty clear that my problems are your problems.” I steered for the bourbon, and he stepped in front of me. So close but the do-not-touch rolled off his squared shoulders.
He leaned forward. “My problems will never be yours. Do you understand?” His voice was gravel and line-in-the-sand rough.
All it did was make me mad. “Whatever. Out of my way,” I said, pushing him back or trying to.
My hand on his arm was my mistake. His bourbon-soaked lips found mine.
My God, the bourbon and that musk. If I knew what it felt like to swoon, I probably swooned.
At any rate, I melted into the kiss that was all tongue and silky lips.
He pushed something into my mouth, and as my brain caught up, I bit down on the most luscious bourbon-soaked maraschino cherry I’d ever tasted.
I groaned into his mouth as he walked me backwards, still kissing me. His tongue’s laps held the sweetness and the wood from the bourbon, and his scent melted my mind. Dinner with his parents was going to have to fucking wait.
Wald opened the door and pushed me into the hall. I stood agape, my brain flashing from annoyance to why . “You bastard, you just didn’t want me to drink before meeting your parents.”
He grinned with a rakish smile as he stepped into the hall, then closed and locked the door behind him. I playfully punched him. “You still need to explain the whole curse thing. ”
“Later. Dinner first.” It was one word that pooled into iron.
But as he walked around me, he lifted a piece of my hair, letting it trail through his now bare fingers as he moved away. I followed him down the hall to the stairs, still savoring the lingering sweetness of the cherry.
I mean what else was I going to do?