Adrien #2
I’m absolutely smiling. How could I possibly not be smiling right now?
“Don’t you dare take this as some kind of remission,” she warns, her voice climbing. “Don’t twist this into forgiveness.”
“Okay,” I force out.
“Don’t interpret this as me letting you back in.”
“I won’t,” I say.
I absolutely will.
She takes a step back, fury burning clean and bright now.
“I can’t forgive you. I won’t.”
“I—”
“I hate you,” she bites out. “And I mean it.”
I’ve heard that sentence from her enough times to know exactly what it means. It basically means she loves me too. It just sounds a bit different. But that’s fine. We’ll get there.
“And I love you. I’ve never stopped even for a second,” I say firmly. “And I mean that too.”
She turns around, not letting me have her reaction on that before she starts walking back toward the manor.
I just watch her.
That’s when I see it. A small leaf tangled in the silver of her ponytail. I feel like I’m ten years old again.
“Nat,” I call gently.
She stops and turns. I approach carefully, biting down the smirk. “Hold still,” I murmur.
She stiffens when my fingers brush her hair.
“What are you—”
“There’s something in—”
She swats my hand away, but I manage to slide the leaf free before she can stop me, and I hold it up between my fingers.
“You had one like this in your braid the first day I saw you.”
Silence.
“In the woods,” I add, a smile slipping free now. “When you did the…” I trail off, drawing an invisible line from her chest to mine with my finger. “The witchcraft.”
She looks at me like she knows exactly what I’m talking about, but she refuses to give me the satisfaction, her lips pressed tight in a failing attempt not to smile.
“And suddenly there was this...” I pull the air like an invisible rope, trying to be flirty to get that smile finally out of her. “Permanent damage.”
She holds my gaze for a breath longer, then turns—and I catch it. The smallest smile, traitorous and fleeting.
Yes.
“Don’t follow me!” she yells without turning back, already heading toward the manor.
I definitely will, in a moment.
I let my body slide down the tree trunk, fingers raking through my hair. My whole inner being is still humming, skin buzzing with the lingering, weightless rush of happiness.
And also my cum is soaking through my underwear—what the hell was that.
?
While I change into fresh clothes in my room, unable to stop smiling at all, Kasien barges through the door like a hurricane.
“Eric located Bryan. I have an address,” he announces. “Let’s go.”
I grab a jacket and head out, following him through the lobby just as Kiara appears out of nowhere. Kasien doesn’t give her a chance to speak, only presses a kiss to her forehead.
“Watch my sister. I’ll be right back,” he mutters gently before disappearing through the garage door. When we get into the car and pull away, he’s still beaming.
I can’t help but smile as well. Kasien Varner is actually somebody’s boyfriend. I really lived to see the day.
“It’s only half an hour,” he says, opening the map on his phone.
I take it from his hand and glance at it myself, recognizing the name of the town.
“I think some relatives of his live there,” I murmur.
“He’s hiding there. Fucking pathetic rat,” he grumbles under his breath.
Silence settles between us for a while, with him focused on the road while I lazily stare through the windshield, my thoughts drifting back to this morning.
“So,” he finally says. “My sister acknowledged me again.” A smile spreads across his face. “Progress.”
“Really? When?”
“This morning,” he says. “She came into the kitchen to grab something to drink while staring at me like she was about to throw another knife my way.”
“Yeah. She does that,” I mumble, smiling.
“Yeah. Then I noticed her clothes were dirty, like she’d rolled down a hill, so I asked if she was okay.”
“So you talked. That’s good,” I say, trying to sound supportive.
“And she told me she had to fight a bear in the woods,” he adds before turning to look at me with an expression that’s anything but friendly, while I’m already grinning like an idiot.
“Yeah, I met him too,” I say.
“So?” he asks. “You talked? Did you explain?”
“Yes. There was talking. There was some explaining as well.” I nod.
“How did she take it?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I admit, the smile fading from my face.
“She’s going to forgive us. I know she will,” he says with quiet certainty.
Minutes pass before we arrive in the suburbs, parking far enough from the house to make sure no one has a clue we’re coming. As we approach it, something feels off. I glance at Kasien and immediately know he’s sensing the exact same thing.
This is a family house. Mowed lawn, ugly mailbox, and all.
“If there’s anyone else in the house,” Kas says, “we take Bryan and leave, okay?”
“Okay.”
We circle the property, searching for a way into the garden that we can storm through, only to find the garage standing open toward the backyard, the steady hum of some machine echoing from inside.
We share a brief nod before I gesture for Kasien to go from the other side.
As we inconspicuously step inside, moving as quietly as possible, we find Bryan peacefully working on some random shit, dressed in a pair of damn overalls like he walked straight out of a family movie.
Kasien barges in without a second of hesitation, grabs him by the back of the neck and throws the first punch, while my creativity gets the better of me and my eyes drift to the table saw sitting only a few feet away.