It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 14

She snickers, pulling herself closer to me. "Relax, I'm not trying to seduce you," she pauses, biting her lip, making me fairly certain her statement is a lie, "again."

My eyes snap to her lips and I quickly pull my head away to stare at the much less provocative ceiling. I can feel her as she works at the stains on my shirt with the pen. "So," she starts, her voice uncharacteristically gentle, "what are we doing about Richard?"

"You want to tell her?" She will never trust me again.
 
Her voice is almost inaudible, "No."

I finally take a breath, lavender overpowering my senses. "Then we don't tell her."

"And then what? We go back to avoiding each other? We try to be friends?"

The thought brings a knot to my stomach. Friends. I desire her in ways that were far from platonic to ever be her friend. "We'll stay away from each other." It is the only way to ensure we never happen again.

She finishes removing the stains, capping her pen and slipping it back in her purse but does not move from her spot. "And how well did that work last time?"

I can feel her eyes on me and hesitantly, I meet them. She continues, "how do you expect us to stay away from and not touch each other?"

She unconsciously wets her lips, her breaths soft as her chest falls and rises against me. I am overwhelmed by the lavender that infects the air around me. I bring my hand to her knee that rests on my thigh, drawing my fingertips up her leg. "Do you want me to touch you, darling?" I know it's wrong, but maybe that is part of the thrill. I need to taste her again, burnt sugar and rum.

She drops her gaze but I catch the tip of her nose tinging red. She brings her hand to mine and guides it up her thigh until it rests at her apex. "Yes."

I trace circles into the delicate flesh of her skin with my thumb. "Then let me touch you." I lift her chin up so she has no choice but to look at me. "And we don't tell Beatrice." The voice that comes out of my mouth does not sound like my own, I would never do that to my sister. But it is my own, and I am too desperate to have Alexandria again, I do not care the cost. I can't let her go just yet.

Her lips part as her breaths become a little more ragged. Her eyes search me as if trying to find the trick but there is none. She nods her head. "Okay, we don't tell her."

"Great." I brush my thumb across her bottom lip. "Then let's get out of here."

There is a wild look in her eyes at my words, as if they spark something in her. She hesitantly glances around, scoping the area for who might be watching but everyone is in their own worlds, paying no attention to the two of us and so she takes my hand, and drags me out of the small ice cream shop.

Once more she looks around as if someone might catch us, but there is no one around to notice us and it is too dark to even be spotted, so to ease her nerves and for my enjoyment I close the distance between us, grabbing her hips to pull her to me and the taste I crave so desperately was finally soothed. She grasps the front of my jacket to steady herself.

Even in our embrace, we do not stop moving, in too great of a haste to make it to a car and find a more suitable location. Walking backwards, she has no choice but to let me lead and I can feel the disdain in her mouth, so she takes the lead elsewhere, her lips warm and insistent as she presses her greedy tongue to mine.

I hardly let go of her when we make it to my bike, fumbling for the helmet. She however, goes stiff. "What is that?"

My brow quirks as I hold out the helmet to her. "My bike."

"I am not getting on that thing," she says firmly.

If her face doesn't give everything away, I might think she is joking, but right now it is contorted into the most sour of stares. "You're not?" I've never met a girl who isn't dying to go for a ride.