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“We did.” His face breaks out into one of those impossibly rare Brooks smiles.
As the glow of my orgasm fades, fear creeps in. What are we doing? This is Brooks, the guy who’s ripped my heart out moretimes than I’d like to admit, and I’m about to give it to him on a platter again?
I start to slide out of bed, but Brooks wraps his arm around my torso and tugs me back down.
“What are you doing?” I pant out as he flips me over, laying his body on top of me, his hand reaching around to cup my breast.
“I have a lot of dreams, Lily Dean,” he murmurs as he lays a trail of kisses along my neck. “And tonight, I’m going to make every one of them come true.”
24
TWENTY-FOUR: ORION
“So I guess Lily and Brooks made up,” Jackson says dryly.
We’re both wide awake, lying on our beds, listening to the sounds from the honeymoon suite.
And what sounds they are.
I know our brother is experienced. We’ve spent years on the road with him. He’d often leave the two of us in a cheap hotel room while he picked up some new conquest at a local pub. Hotel walls are thin—we’re used to hearing the way they worship him after he makes them come multiple times. None of those women meant a thing to him. He can’t remember their names.
But Lily… Lily…
Hearing those cries of pleasure tearing from her throat as Brooks does…whatever he does…makes my chest hurt. I’ll never be able to give Lily that. Why would she choose me when she has Brooks? When she has Jackson?
I itch at the skin on my arms. It’s getting worse. I’m two nights away from changing, and we still haven’t figured out what we’re going to do. I think I’ve found some things that will help with the demon, but Brooks is too distracted with Lily to consider the fact that I have to get away from here.
“Oh, Brooks! Oh, oh!”
Ihatehis name on her lips after the way he’s treated her, after he left her on prom night…
“I can’t take this.” Jackson throws the covers off. “If I have to listen to this one more minute, I’m going to break down their door and join them. Let’s go for a walk.”
I pray to any god that will listen that it could be an option. But it’s not, so a walk will help.
“Where?” I grab my pants.
“Outside. Far away from this stupid hotel.”
I nod. I may be the brains of our operation, but Jackson does occasionally have a good idea.
We toss on clothes and flee the room. Lily’s screams carry down the hallway. Stupid old hotels and their terrible insulation.
Outside, the crisp air takes the edge off my physical need, although it does nothing to stop the painful wanting that squeezes my chest. After that kiss Jackson gave her, I thought for sure Lily would fall for him. That, at least, I can understand. I can be happy for my twin. But Brooks treats Lily like shit.
I don’t think he means to. I think he’s as lost and broken as we are. But it doesn’t change the fact that he left her and made her believe she wasn’t worth the world to us.
I glance over at my brother and see my own misery reflected back at me. Jackson has never made any secret of how much he likes Lily. To be honest, I always thought the two of them were endgame. Brooks has to know what this is doing to him.
But maybe he’s a little too distracted to care.
Jackson’s sneakers and my boots crush fallen leaves and hard, cold earth. My throat tightens and my lungs heave. I don’t even notice the miles have fallen away until Jackson stops dead in his tracks in front of me. I skid to a stop so I don’t hit him, and I end up falling over my feet and landing hard on a twisted tree root.
“Ow.” I rub my tailbone.
The wolf stirring inside me growls. He knows that he needs that tail in a few days.
“That was a very Daisy-esque move.” Jackson thrusts out a hand to help me to my feet. “At least, an old Daisy-esque move. This new Daisy…”
