Her reaction to him.
She couldn’t stop it.
The rush of need that flooded her senses.
She couldn’t stop the way she wanted to lean forward and fall right inside.
Get lost in this boy.
“Faith,” he muttered. A warning and a question. Half a second later, those big hands landed on her neck, gliding up to tangle in her hair.
She gasped at the onslaught of sensation brought on by his touch.
But she wasn’t prepared. She wasn’t even close to being prepared for the way she would feel when his mouth slanted over hers.
His lips rough and smooth as they pressed against hers.
Slowly at first.
Giving and taking.
Testing and tasting.
Those butterflies shivered.
He edged her back until she was pinned against the wall of the house.
He pressed himself against her as he deepened the kiss, and she could feel him harden, every inch, his penis pressing against her belly.
Oh God, she almost whimpered, nearly losing it when his tongue darted out and tangled with hers.
Wet and demanding and full of heat.
Lightheadedness swept through her head. Through her heart.
Those butterflies took flight, lighting from her skin.
Flapping all around them as he kissed her.
Sweetly and somehow desperately.
A kaleidoscope of color filled her mind. Touched her spirit. Her hands were shaking when they searched the lines and curves of his face, touching him, exploring him, making their way into his soft, soft hair.
Feeling his shoulders.
Fluttering down his chest.
He gasped out a strained sound, rocking away when the only thing in the world she wanted was for him to get closer.
Touch her in places she’d never wanted to be touched before.
She shivered, and he set both of his hands on her face, holding her by the cheeks, pants tearing from his lungs as he carefully peeled himself back.
He swallowed hard, leaning away only far enough to be able to peer at her face. “Fuck . . . I can’t believe I just did that. I’m sorry.”
Her fingers came up to feel the heat that blistered her lips, awed as she brushed them across the sensitive skin. Then she turned and did the same to his, her fingertips grazing across his flesh, his mouth swollen and red.
“Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Just tell me you’ll do it again.”
Disbelief filled his slow smile.
Her heart ached, a crater of bliss and need carved out at the center of her, filling full with that same feeling she’d never felt before until the day this boy had banged into the school office and barged right into her life.
Right then, she was sure she’d been waiting for him all along.
He fluttered his fingertips across her face, her brow and her cheek and over her lips. “You’re so damned pretty. I don’t have pretty things in my life, Faith.”
She heard the pained warning flow out with the words.
She peered up at him, staggered by the intensity in his eyes. “That’s funny, since you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“You saw what my life is like.”
She knew what he was referring to. The office and behind the bathroom. Again in the cafeteria.
She frowned up at him. “And you think that makes you a bad person? That I’d like you less?”
He blinked and his tone filled with the same hardness he’d used on her when he’d backed her up against the wall in the school courtyard. “There’s an ugly spot inside me, Faith. I will do anything, whatever it takes, to take care of my brother and my cousin. They don’t have anyone else.”
She glanced away into the thick foliage that separated the house and the old trailers down by the river.
“And what about your mama?” she chanced, peeking back at him, knowing she was crossing into a territory where he wouldn’t want her to go.
But she didn’t want the rumors. She wanted the truth. She wanted to know this boy.
“My mama doesn’t give a fuck about us, so I don’t give a fuck about her.”
She nodded slowly. Resolute as she lifted her chin and said, “Okay then, we don’t give a fuck about your mama.”
She met those roiling eyes, praying he’d see in hers that she was with him. For him. That she didn’t care about his situation. The only thing she cared about was him.
He laughed out a strained sound. “You are something else, you know that?”
“Fine, go on and call me weird just like everyone else.”
He chuckled and then sighed before rushing a hand through his hair and shifting in indecision. Then he reached his hand out for her. “Can I walk you home?”
Faith slipped her hand into his, leaned into his side, and let him lead her back down the steps and down the drive.
And she knew right then she’d follow him anywhere.
Eighteen
Jace
I jerked my head up from where I was lying facedown on the pillow, the bed like freaking paradise, or maybe it was where the bed was that made it feel that way.
Either way, I’d been out cold.
I hugged the pillow to my chest as I lifted my head and squinted against the harsh rays of early sunlight that streaked in through the cracks in the drapes.
I searched into the early morning light that awakened the stilled room.
Motes tossed in a frenzy, the tiny particles floating before they’d quickly shift, stirred by the charged atmosphere.
My eyes narrowed farther, trying to figure out what it was that’d shocked me from sleep when everything was so damned quiet.
Instantly on edge.
Ready to go toe to toe. Blow to blow. Bullet to bullet. Whatever it took.
Then those dark, dark curls crested the edge of the mattress.
Bailey.
“Breakfast,” she said, peeking up over the mattress and grinning wide. She was looking at me. All kinds of hopeful that I would hop out of bed to feed her.
She flashed me a row full of tiny teeth. “You promise.”
Pushing out a slow sigh, I rubbed a hand over my face to chase away the fatigue, laughing lightly.
And this was how a man was wrapped around a little girl’s finger.
I’d bet Bailey could write a book on it.
I rolled to the opposite side of the bed and quickly dragged on the jeans I’d left on the floor.
I buttoned them, raked both my hands through my tangled hair, and started around the end of the bed.
The wood groaned as I moved that way, and I craned my head to peer around the opposite side to where Bailey was still on her knees on the floor, just sitting there, waiting for me.
Carefully, I reached down and picked her up from under her arms.
She giggled the softest sound, her arms stretching out for me.
I held her out away from me. Unsure of exactly where to go from there. Like I was fearful of bringing her closer.
I was.
Fuck, I was.
Because when I pulled her against my chest, my heart started beating faster.
“Let’s get you something to eat.” I kept my voice low so Faith could sleep in, sure she hadn’t been afforded that luxury in too long a time.
I carried Bailey down the hall, angling a bit as I stepped over the baby gate, her eyes going wide in some kind of adorable guilt when I did.
“Yeah, you aren’t supposed to be crawling over that yourself, are you, you little stinker?”
She scrunched up her nose. “Stinker?”
Low, rumbly laughter rambled around in my chest. “What, you aren’t a stinker?”
Wide-eyed, she shook her head, her voice that sweet drawl. “I’s take a bath.”
That chuckle grew warm. “I guess you aren’t a stinker then. My mistake.”
“Aww of us make mistakes,” she told me, completely serious and resolute, like she held the secret of life and needed me to know.
“Some of us more than others,” I muttered under my breath.
It was the truth.
The realization hit me.
Because I could feel it.
Light. Blazing and blinding. It bounced through the room, ricocheting from the walls. Wasn’t entirely sure where it started and where it ended, though I knew both Bailey and Faith were its source.
It was like it was feeding from the two of them, amplifying with each pass.
I didn’t know if I was the lucky bastard who got caught in the middle of it, got to taste it for the barest second, or if it was going to leave me blinded and scarred in the end.