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Before I could ask what, I felt a harsh sting on my bottom. “Ouch!” I couldn’t see his smirk, but I knew him and was positive if the light had been on, I’d see a big ol smirk on his face.
“You spanked me,” I accused.
“I did.” His voice was huskier than before. “And I’ll do it again if you misbehave.”
My nipples instantly pebbled at the implied threat. One of his hands slid into my mass of blonde curls and tipped my head back. “Tell me, Ronnie, are you going to be a good girl?”
His voice was a puff of air close to my ear. Jacob was tall and had about a foot on me. I visualized his lips only inches from mine. Then his minty breath hovered just beyond my lips. I allowed mine to part as I waited for his lips to claim mine.
Suddenly, there was a bang on the door.
“Eek!” I climbed up Jacob’s body like a spider monkey hanging on for dear life.
“Hurry up in there. We still have a second base for those of us past this juvenile stage.”
Jacob stiffened beneath me. “Bang on this door again, Juniper, and I’ll tell your parents you’ve been sneaking out at night to meet the football team.”
There was silence from the other side, but we waited another moment to see if they were going to be jerks again.
“Okay, monkey, you can climb down now.”
“Oh!” In my haste, I’d forgotten I was still clinging to him.
“On second thought, this is nice too.” Jacob wrapped his arms snuggly around me, his hands cupping my bottom.
I relaxed into his grip and had angled my head for my first kiss when the door flew open. This time it was Harmony, and shelooked panicked in the beam of light that shone into the murky depths of the closet.
“V, your place is on fire. Your parents have rushed back, but I thought you should know. Come on, Jacob can drive us.”
My kiss forgotten, Jacob dropped me to my feet and the three of us rushed from the massive mansion in Tuxedo Park, the home of Porsha and her parents. Usually, Harmony sat in the front when Jacob drove us places, but he’d directed her to the back seat, then proceeded to hold my hand on the forty-minute drive back to the city. His warm strength gave me the courage to face what lay before me. This wasn’t the first time this had happened while my parents and I had dined with their society friends.
Behind me, Harmony tested the constraints of her seat belt, leaning as far forward as she could to wrap her arms around me.
“It will be okay, Veronica. I’m sure the firefighters have put it out already. It won’t be like last time.”
Wouldn’t it? An involuntary shudder wracked my body. The last time we’d lost everything, every memento of my childhood had gone up in flames. It had taken me years to feel comfortable again in a new place, and here it was, happening again.
The previous fire happened when we’d lived down the road from Porsha’s family, but after the fire, my parents thought it wise to move us to a more central hub as they weren’t home much, and the fire had messed with my head. They’d purchased what I called a sky palace and bought me whatever I wanted to make up for what I’d lost. But it wasn’t the things they bought that I missed then, it was the special things like the teddy bear my father had bought me on my fifth birthday. The tickets I had pinned to my bulletin board from the play and ballet performances they’d taken me to. It was my first place ribbons from equestrian events I’d won.
You couldn’t buy those precious items at Macy’s or any other store. Those were tokens of my best memories that had meant the world to me. When we set up in the sky palace, it was supposed to be safe where nothing could go wrong, yet here we were, just a few years later. My gut told me this time would be the same, that all my recent memories would be gone, snuffed out by a fire that seemed to always find me. However, feeling it and seeing the reality of my words were two different things.
While my friends did their best to cheer me up and keep things positive, I sunk inside myself where it was safe. When we arrived, my gut proved right. Everything inside was gone and the burning embers laughed at me for being so naïve. I swore the next time I made a home I’d never leave, because if experience had taught me anything, it was when I was away from my space, things went devastatingly wrong.
Chapter 1
Veronica
“Seriously,Harmony, how are things going at Rawhide? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever. When are you coming home for a visit?”
I knew I was firing too much at her at once, but that was my modus operandi, and she knew that about me. At least someone knew me. I sighed.
“That’s why I’m calling, V. I have news.”
My hand tightened around my cell phone. I just knew that whatever she was going to say would somehow affect me.
“Oh? That’s nice. So, things are going well then.”
Silence met me for a few uncomfortable seconds before she responded. “What’s wrong, V?”
