Then I heard a zipper and the bed moved some more. I stayed very quiet, because honestly, I had no idea how to react. I felt a connection with him that time never erases with someone you know, like when you hear a song on the radio and all those old feelings of a special time in your life come flooding back.
That was Austin—he was my song.
I still remembered the sleepovers and how I’d pretend to doze off beside him while we watched a movie on the couch. It was strategic, of course, so I could slide against his shoulder. Wes always had to play bad guy and drag me off to bed, but Austin never seemed to mind. I loved those moments, because when he laughed, I could feel it.
Austin released one of those long sighs with a satisfactory moan once he settled beneath the sheets. Then I started wondering things like what kind of underwear he wore, or if he slept Tarzan style.
I immediately threw the blanket over to his side.
His warm laugh filled the chilly room. “I’m not cold, Ladybug.”
“Why do you call me that? You’ve been calling me that name since I can remember.”
He exhaled through his nose as if he were going to tell me something he didn’t want to.
“Your freckles.”
“Oh. Those.”
“Yeah, those.” He was quiet for a minute and then his voice changed up, softened a little, but had an edge like maybe he was embarrassed to talk so intimately with me. “One summer when you were about five, your mom bought you one of those moving sprinklers. You practically lived outside and ended up with a sunburn.”
I smiled. “I don’t remember.”
“That’s when you first got ’em. It was just a little spray across your nose and high on your cheeks. I was being mean when I gave you the name, but then it kind of stuck. Not in a mean way.”
I still had them, but they were small and faded, and invisible whenever I wore makeup.
“You shouldn’t cover them up,” he said, as if he could read my mind. His voice was soft like melted chocolate, and I turned on my right side, giving him my back.
“Why did you kiss me that night?” I finally asked. That question had plagued me for years, ever since the night Wes was killed.
The cover snapped off the bed and Austin rolled over behind me. “I planned on leaving town that night; I was trying to talk Wes into going. Hell, I thought he was going. We had a deal, but Wes wanted to be Breed, wanted immortality so much it blinded him from making the right decision.”
“What decision?”
“He got mixed up with the wrong people, and they asked him to be a hitman. I told him the last thing he ever wanted was to be in debt with one of us. Breed don’t mess around when it comes to paying debts. I guess he didn’t have it in him to do what they wanted, and he paid with his life.”
Tears sprang up and I pressed my face against the pillow. Austin’s hand touched my hip.
“Don’t,” I warned him. He immediately retracted. “Is that all, or are you hiding something else?”
“There’s nothing else.” Then his voice switched over to dark and threatening. “One of these days, I’m going to find out who he was bargaining with, and they’re going to pay with their life.”
“So why did you kiss me?” I asked again.
Austin didn’t answer but rolled over and pounded on his pillow a few times before settling in. I had a feeling I might never know the answer to that question, and maybe there was no answer. Maybe all these years I had built up in my head something that had meant nothing to him.
I sat up, unhooked my bra, and tossed it to the floor.
“Take off your pants,” he said.
God, if those words didn’t heat me up. “I’m fine.”
“Lexi, I can’t see in the dark. Get comfortable,” he insisted, shifting in the other direction. Indifferently.
I mentally sighed and tugged off my jeans, sliding between the crisp sheets. The window unit chilled the air with every passing second.
“Promise to take me home tomorrow?” I asked.
Silence, at first.
“Austin?”
“I promise.”
Chapter 12
“Shhh.”
I nuzzled my head against something warm.
“Damn, she’s got a nice ass,” a man’s voice whispered.
“Not really my type, but I’d tap that.”
“What, Jericho has a type now?”
“Tits and tats, that’s where it’s at, Denver,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, I like a nice ass. And that’s top of the line. Look how it cups just below the panty line.” Then the sound of air hissing through teeth. “Damn.”
“First time you been close to one of those?” Jericho asked with a chuckle.
“Shut it.”
Then I blinked my eyes open and realized what I was nuzzling against that was so warm and solid.
Austin.
He was on his back, arms spread out, and I was covering him like a tablecloth at Thanksgiving. My right leg was hooked around his hip, and my body fit snugly against his right side.
I lifted my head and saw that my red hipsters were a little too close to his black jockeys. Not only that, but we had an audience. Denver and Jericho were standing at the door admiring the view and watching us like a double feature.