Tear: A Seaside Novel

Chapter Twenty-Two

I awoke to Alec kissing me, which on one hand could be considered slightly horrifying. Since I hadn't washed any makeup off my face, I knew I looked slightly insane if not at least partially unstable.

I opened my eyes. His large body was hovering over mine. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself." I blinked my eyes so they could adjust to the pure male beauty in front of me and then Alec smiled. It was his same magic smile, the one he reserved only for me. I sighed.

After a few minutes of silence Alec spoke. "He's sorry."

"I don't care if he's sorry. Sorry means he realizes what he did was wrong. Sorry means he wasn't lying to me the entire time we were together. How the hell can you defend him?"

Alec cursed. "He's my brother. It's my job to protect him. Even if it's from himself. You don't understand. It's complicated."

"And me? What about me?" I tried to wriggle away from him, but his arms braced my shoulders as he leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"I'm pretty sure my only job from here on out is to show you how much I love you."

Damn him. Leave it to Alec to say the one thing that melted all my defenses and made me want to throw my body at him like some lovesick teenager. Then again if the shoe fit...

"Alec?" My voice cracked. "Was he lying the whole time?"

Cold air met me as Alec threw back the covers and joined me in my bed. "No, Nat. He really did care about you. I think in his own twisted way he thought he was doing us a favor."

"By being a bastard?"

"Come on, take his age into account, he's immature."

"He's a year younger than you," I pointed out. "Besides, how is him being a complete ass helping anyone?"

"It's com—"

"I swear if you say it's complicated one more time I'm going to throw you out the window."

Alec laughed and nuzzled my neck. "I'd like to see you try."

"You doubt me?"

His tongue blazed a trail down my neck. "Absolutely."

A moan escaped my lips before I could pretend to be totally indifferent to his kisses and his touch.

Alec pulled my body against his then dipped his hands behind my head pulling it so I was resting on his shoulder staring directly at his lips.

"Now what?" I whispered, still focused on the perfect shape of his jaw as his lips broke into a smile.

"I have my way with you?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed away enough to look up at his face. "You're so romantic. Really, you take my breath away. I almost swooned just now. Good thing I'm lying down."

Alec chuckled and brought my hand to his lips to kiss it. "Fine, I won't have my way with you yet... but," he laced his fingers in between mine, "I'd really like to take you out on a date."

I wanted to date him. I wanted to do much more than that, but what would people say? I wasn't normally the type of girl that worried about stuff like that, but after all the media buzz around my and Demetri's relationship I knew it would blow up in my face if Alec and I were seen out and about.

"People are going to say I'm a whore."

"Don't." Alec's grip tightened on my hand as he pulled me closer to him. "This is my fault, not yours. I should have stayed away from you."