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Her breath is heavy. “Okay.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ivy
My hand engulfed by his, Rogue leads me away from the party and out of the light. It’s still bright enough to see our way easily as he leads me around the pool and across the pool house decking. We don’t stop there though.
He pulls me around the side of the pool house and across the lawn. There’s a tall hedge a few yards away and beyond that it’s too dark to see. We pick our way over the well-kept grass. Rogue’s strides are sure and confident like he’s walked this path many times.
The hedge looms the closer we get to it.
“Trust me?” he asks.
“Of course.” There has never been any doubt that I can trust him. I’m the one hiding things. He shouldn’t put his blind faith in me, and yet he stood up for me with his twin like Rebel isn’t right about me. It’s more complicated than that though. So much more complicated.
His fingers tighten around my hand, but the pressure eases off immediately. Almost as if we were thinking the same thing and his emotions got the better of him.
The hedge is more than a wall of shiny leaves. The moment we slip through the spot where that wall divides, we’re inside a whole new world. One with twists and turns and a tree house at the very center of it.
“A tree house?” I gape up at the singular tree, its thick branches the basis for a platform high above the ground.
Rogue lets go of my hand and fumbles around at the base of the tree until strings upon strings of small white lights flicker to life. He tugs on the ladder, perhaps looking for weakness. “What do you think? Wanna climb up?”
“Up…up there?” I point at the fort with its wooden walls and apparently electric lighting. “Is it safe?”
“It’s not unsafe.” He shrugs. “We had it built for Riot when Rebel first moved here. He was a bit too old for it at that point. But as kids we’d always wanted one…so we got one just because we could.” He climbs several rungs before he holds out his hand to me.
I slip my hand in his and grip hold of the rope as I step onto the first rung. I guess I’m going up.
“Here we are, solid ground.” Rogue smiles at me as he pulls me through the hatch onto the platform.
“I’m pretty sure the ground is all the way down there,” I say with the tiniest peek in the direction of the grass. Brrr. Shouldn’t have done that.
“Scared of heights?” he asks.
“What aren’t I scared of?” I mutter under my breath. It seems like every day my predicament gets worse. Nicole. Nathaniel. Alec. I was never meant to be the fortress that holds it all inside. Right now I want to scream. Just vomit up my heart and everything I’m really afraid of. My brother. And losing Rogue. Heights are nothing in comparison to the bone deep fear that thought instills in me.
Rogue knows about T-Swift. He knows that something is going on. As honest as I’m being with him, I can’t explain why I have messages on my phone from pop royalty. T and I have an agreement. This is our war, not his. But at some point he is going to ask me. He’s already hinting around it. At some point that means I really will have to lie to him, and not just hold my cards close to my chest. Unless…
“Ooft.” I trip over my thoughts and a slightly sticky-uppy board under my feet. I swear for a second I see my death. Ivy Love; died falling out of a tree house.
Lucky for me, I topple into Rogue’s arms. “I’ve got you. Come on.”
He opens the door and leads me inside. It’s cozy. There’s not a lot of space. One wall is nothing but screen, a giant window, basically, which makes it feel bigger.
A few bookshelves line one wall. The nooks are mostly filled with alcohol and pens and paper. It’s an odd combination. A lighter and an open half pack of Camels sit on the top shelf. There’s a soft and worn rug under foot. In the corner is an old acoustic guitar. The shoulder strap is thready and it has all kinds of stickers and graffiti on the body, like its history is decades long.
“Musicians,” Rogue explains. “Riot likes to use it as a quiet place to write songs.”
“Do you have a spot to practice your lines?”
He rubs a hand over his jaw, appearing more boyish than usual for a moment as he glances at his feet. “This is going to sound really self-obsessed. I tend to read them to the mirror. It helps me hone my body language and become the character when I can see that person staring back at me.”
He’s so handsome and sexy. But in this moment he seems so vulnerable. He looks after everyone, protects them. Even Rebel, though neither of them would ever admit that there isn’t a hierarchy in their family. And he does it without care of how much it takes from him. All I want is to give him my heart, soul, and body. I love him so much. “I want you.”
Even in the dim lighting I can feel the fire in his gaze. His voice is a deep gravel and velvet growl. “Come here, then.”
It’s two steps until I’m in his arms and his lips are on mine. He grips the side of my throat below my jaw as his tongue does everything but plant a flag in my mouth. Each thrust and nip and bite is filled with possessiveness.
