Instead of answering, I kissed her. I drew that feeling around us, infusing my kiss with it, and sending it to this girl I loved so much. As if it could speak for me. As if it could sort out the tangle that was the future and make everything work out perfectly without anyone getting hurt or upset or disappointed.
Somehow, we made it back to Atlas Hall where, true to my word, I’d already ensured Easton would be nowhere in sight. I took Harper into my room and shut the door, kissing her luscious lips, sharing her breath, her heartbeat… It beat with mine—a cosmic metronome had set them to the same time. It had put this girl in my path, and my life had never been the same since.
My hands were in her hair and then down her back. I found thezipper of her dress and slid it down, then pulled it off her shoulders, all the while kissing her. It slipped off her body to pool at her feet, leaving her in her bra and underwear. Both black lace. I took a moment to drink her in, the beauty of her pale skin against the black, while she pushed my jacket off my shoulders and undid the buttons of my shirt one at a time.
Her eyes met mine in the dimness, dark and rich, and full of thoughts and questions and hope. The same fear I had of letting down my family also wondered if I could be enough for her, this extraordinary girl who was so strong and brave. Who walked a tightrope with no safety net, carrying her mother and brother on her back. Who deserved everything. But if I stepped off that ledge into the unknown, without the Mercer name and money, I might be nothing but a failed musician she’d have to carry too.
But that was later. We had right now; what I wanted right now was her.
Our kisses became ferocious. Needy. Our clothes stripped away, and then she was in my bed and I was over her. She was soft and curvy to my hard angles. I wanted to be gentle or soft, but there was a power between us that I could not deny. A force that was too strong, and I know she felt it too.
It had never been like this with any other girl. Never been this complete, where lust and love were there in equal parts because there had never been love. Never been this undeniable feeling that I didn’t want there to be any other girl ever again.
When the pleasure burned through her, I reveled in it almost as much as I reveled in my own, which came moments later. Shuddering, I collapsed over her, my face pressed into the crook of her neck.
I started to move off her, but she held me close. “Stay,” she whispered. “Please, stay.”
I kept my face buried in her neck, my eyes shut, because I knew what she was asking the only way she knew how.
And I didn’t have an answer.
Chapter 30Harper
The next morning, light streamed over Orion and me, neither willingto haul ourselves out of bed.
“How are we feeling, love?” he asked, his fingers trailing lazily in my hair.
“Perfect because I’m here. With you,” I said with a smile. “At home, it’s the same old, same old. Mom gets her butt off the couch every now and again and cleans a house or two, but it’s not going to be enough.”
“You know I’m here…”
“I know,” I said. “But between her sponsor and me, we’re trying to motivate her with very scary bank notices.” I shook my head. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it. I have to get going to work on my NoSci. What do you have for today?”
“Same. Plus, crew practice and a lesson with Ezra.”
The schedule was getting packed—the Head of the Bay Regatta was this Friday, while the Novus Science projects presentations were the following Thursday, winners announced at a big ceremony on Saturday, and the spring concert on Sunday.
He gave me a squeeze. “How are the old Ugly Buckets comingalong?”
“Don’t make fun of my Ugly Buckets,” I said, laughing at his affectionate nickname for my water-purification project.
“Hey, your Ugly Buckets are going to save the world. My pothole glue is going to save an axle or two. Definitely not in the same ballpark.”
“We’ll see,” I said, and last night came back to me. The dinner, the sex, all of it floating on the sound of Orion’s incredible Nocturne.
He shifted under my heavy gaze. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I just realized I have a little bit of time before I need to get to work.”
“Oh. And?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “And.…” I kissed his lips, his chin, his neck, and then started moving down.
“What are you doing?” he said tightly.
“Just something I feel like doing,” I replied.
My mouth was now on his chest, over one small nipple. I bit it, and he gasped sharply, so I sucked and licked the pain away.
