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Liam raises his hands in surrender, winks at me, and turns to walk away, but not before I hear the lowest of rumbles coming from the massive bare chest pressed against my back. The whole situation fucking irritates me. I’ve never understood why most guys seem to lack the ability to take no for an answer. Why is it that the only way they’ll back off is if some other dude saunters up to claim me?
Craning my head back, I watch as River’s gaze is still following Liam as he weaves out of the dancing and mingling crowd. We stand there for a moment and I feel strangely afraid of what comes next. I don’t want to be the first to speak, but the look in his eyes as he watched me dance… I know I might have to be.
I go to turn and face him, but the cold gust of air at my back casts shivers over my skin. I swivel my head around to find him and just to the left of the fire, I spot his head of long, blond hair weaving through the crowd without looking back.
Nora
The waves slosh in the background and fine grains of sand dig into my back as he presses me into it. My overheated skin is slick with sweat and his tongue traces every line—every curve of me like he’s trying to memorize my shape.
My eyes roll back in my head as I tip my neck up to give him room to play me like a fine-tuned instrument. His hands are sure and experienced, but I choose to block that out in favor of the way my body sings. My skin prickles as he nips at my collarbone before bringing his fingers down to the button of my jean shorts. My breath catches because I know that there’s no going back—not to what it used to be.
He rips the shorts down my legs and I giggle as a growl rumbles in his chest. A giddy feeling takes me over, just thinking about how after all these years of watching and waiting on the sidelines, it’s me who’s making this boy feel this way. I can feel the hardness of him beneath his board shorts as he presses into me. I’m bare from the waist down now and can feel everything—every rigid line of him as he pulses with need.
I wiggle my hips, needing something I can’t quite put words to. I’ve never felt this fire before. I look up, locking eyes with him, drinking in the earthy brown that shines brightly with lust I’d never expected he’d feel for me. His tanned skin is slick and glows in the golden hour light that the sun casts over the beach. He’s so much larger than I am that his whole body covers mine to the point where if someone were to happen upon this cove right now, they wouldn’t even see me under here.
His lips lower until they brush against mine, his teeth nipping at my swollen bottom lip, making me moan. He pulls back slightly with a strange smirk. It fills me with a strange sense of foreboding…
“How fucking pathetic,” he whispers against my lips. It takes a moment for the words to register. “You’re a mess, Nora. Get the fuck up and go home.”
“Luca, what—?”I jerk out of his embrace and scramble, my skin scrapes against the sand as his narrowed eyes follow me with the meanest smirk I’ve ever seen. He stands to his full height, glaring down at me as I push myself further into the sand.
“No, no, this isn’t what happened—” I whisper frantically.
“Get the hell up!” he shouts and I flinch backward and as he takes a step toward me, my world begins to dissolve—blackness creeping in.
“Get the hell up!”
My eyes snap open and I flail, rolling right off the couch and plopping to the ground hard enough to rattle my bones. My knee smacks the floor and when I go to grab it and curl in on myself, my forehead connects with the solid beechwood coffee table. I curse and grumble under my breath, pushing long, pale strands out of my face.
It takes a few seconds to orient myself, but my eyes land on a pair of tanned feet, standing not five feet from my position on the sunlit floor. Following those feet up a nicely-shaped pair of calves and then to a bare torso covered in scrawling tattoos, I find none other than Luca Perry himself, glaring down at my pathetic form with his arms crossed over his muscular chest.
“What the hell, Luca?” I grumble, rubbing the sore spot on my forehead.
He remains where he is, his sneer growing as he runs his eyes over my rumpled bathing suit and dried out wetsuit rolled down to my waist. I must have passed out last night after the bonfire…fuck.
“My uncle gives you a bedroom in his house, buys you a bed of your own and instead, you choose to get sand all over his couch?” His glare penetrates my skin as I bring myself to standing. “You really are as pathetic as you look, aren’t you? I guess NYC sucked all the manners right out of you.”
His words sting, but not as much as the headache making its way to the front of my brain. My jaw aches and my mouth feels like cotton. “It was an accident. I must have sat down and passed out… What time is it?”
“Time for you to leave town and end this,” he snaps. “I’m tired of you freeloading off of Carson. We don’t want you here, Nora. I thought I warned you already.”
“Luc…” I sigh, his nickname slipping out accidentally. “We need to talk about this. It’s getting ridiculous.” I hate the look on his face right now. The loathing in his eyes scares me a little.
“Talk about what?” He moves in closer. My limbs lock up and I hold my breath, afraid that breathing in his familiar scent will be the final nail in my coffin. “You wanna talk about how you left me—us?” He amends quickly. Another step closer. “How I called you for months with no answer?” Closer still. “How about we talk about the fact that you fucked me like you loved me, used me like fucking trash, and then fell off the face of the earth for seven goddamned years!” He’s in my face now. Well, his chest is. I have to crane my neck up to look him in the eyes, but his ink-covered chest is heaving. His fists are closed tightly at his sides and a vein pulses in the side of his neck.
“It wasn’t like that, I swear—” I reach out to place a hand reassuringly on his arm but he jerks out of my grasp before our skin can connect.
Abort, abort. Just walk away, Nora…
“Don’t youeverfucking touch me.” His voice is full of venom and ice—laced with all the hurt I’ve personally caused him. My heart squeezes. “What you did to me was disgusting.” He walks forward, forcing me to back up until the backs of my knees hit the couch and I’m falling into a sitting position. He bends over me, placing his hands on the back of the couch on either side of my head, caging me in. “I hope it haunts you, Nora. As long as you live under this roof, I promise I’ll make your life a living hell, just like you did to me.” His lips are so close to mine, but there’s nothing tender about it.
I set my jaw, my resolve hardening. I know what I did was fucked up, but the way he’s threatening me is just excessive. I was a fucking child. I didn’t understand what I was doing. How dare he hold it over my head like this? “Get away from me!” I snap and his eyes narrow on my lips.
“Or what, little girl?” he taunts. “What exactly are you gonna do, scream for Mommy and Daddy?” He smirks cruelly. “Imagine how well it’ll go over when I let Elena know what a little tease her precious little Nora really is.”
Fury rolls through me. Placing my hands on his bare chest, I surprise him by shoving his whole body away from me. He staggers backward as I advance on him. All the while, though, he wears that stupid, self-satisfied smirk. It only infuriates me more. My mouth opens to let him have it, but the sudden sound of heels clacking on the floor has my mouth snapping shut.
“Good morning, you two! You’re up early,” my mom comments as she breezes through the room toward the kitchen. Luca and I don’t respond. We just stand there, angrily staring each other down. Mom swings her head back around the corner, narrowing her eyes on the tension that’s clearly building between the two of us. “Is everything alright?”
