A Man of Honor (A Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (The Honor Trilogy) (13 page)

An angel’s voice wakes me from my nap in the tree.

“Honor. Hey.” She is sitting on the branch across from me.

“Storm, you were sleeping. Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have rolled off.”

I crumple the empty bag of chips and stuff it into my empty glass – which I’m surprised is still sitting in my hand. “I couldn’t have been sleeping too hard,
princess,” I say, widening my eyes to force myself awake. “I was still holding onto my glass.”

“You’re crazy. If you’re tired, you just should have taken a nap.”

“I did.”

“On the bed,” she scolds. “Not in the tree.”

“Don’t fret about it, darling. I’m fine. Did you finish your homework?”

She nods. “Yeah. Ethan’s gone too. What did you say to him? He told me you were a good guy and I shouldn’t let you go. Did you threaten him or something?” Honor’s face is all serious.

“Thanks. You think highly of me, don’t you?”

Honor shrugs, but then she blushes.

“I guess I haven’t given you any reason to believe I’d be nice to Ethan, so I understand. But no, I did not threaten him…we just had a long overdue brother to brother talk.”

“Really?” she says with a smile so big she blinds me. Well, not really, but it was a huge smile.

“Really. We needed to come to terms with a few things and I…I think we accomplished that. I hope so anyway.”

Placing my glass securely between my legs, I reach my arms overhead and grab the branch above me. Being in one position for so
long, I was in dire need of a good stretch.

“So what is our plan next?” Honor asks, her smile disappearing immediately.

I run both my hands through my hair and sigh. “I don’t know, sweetheart. I really was hoping I’d get some answers today from Moore. I’m not accustomed to just waiting for something to happen. I like to make things happen. But I’m really at a loss right now. I’m so sorry. I hate letting you down.”

Honor forces her smile now. “You are not letting me down. I know you’re doing everything you can. I just wish I could come up with something. Anything.”

“We’ll come up with something, darling.” I say softly. “When are your parents due home?”

“Shortly. They usually walk in about six
. Why?”

“
Wanna fix dinner for them? Is there anything here to make?”

This time Honor smiles
and
laughs. “What? Storm Sutherland is gonna cook?”

“Uh, yeah…How do you think I managed to survive on my own all this time? I had to eat more than just fast food.” I tap her on the knee. “C’mon. Let’s get dinner going.”

She hops down the tree first, and I’m disappointed. I wanted her to fall into my arms on the way down.

In the kitchen, Honor’s reaching for the pasta
in one of the higher cabinets, and I can’t help but notice her shirt riding up – showing the very edge of her bra. If she only knew what that was doing to me, she’d refrain from reaching so high. It’s getting harder and harder for me to keep my hands to myself. When she turns around, I’m caught staring at her. Her blushing face puts a huge smile in my heart and I show it on my face.

“The pots are in the cabinet under the toaster,” she informs me. “Get the big one and fill it with water.”

“Okay, boss, but I thought I was the one that was going to do the cooking.”

She looks at me with an expression that says, “Yeah, what’s your point?”

I say, “That means I do the bossing around.” Of course I smile when I say it.

Honor gives me a pretty little smirk and says, “Be my guest, I’ll go watch TV.”

My hand wraps around her elbow. “You know I’m teasing, don’t you?”

She allows me to keep my hand on her while she moves in just a bit closer. “Yes. Of course I know you’re teasing.” When her eyes find my mouth, I’m tempted to kiss her, but I’m afraid of rejection. What if her feelings for Ethan get in the way? What if she’s not ready for me yet? I’m still not sure I’m sticking around Jefferson after this is all over. Maybe she’ll run back to Ethan, and I won’t be able to go through that pain. Loving her hurts already. If she turns me down for good, I don’t know if I could stick around.

Laughing to myself, I think,
living on my own, answering to no one, is a much easier life to endure. Love is for people with courage. The more I get to know myself, the more of a coward I realize I am.

In the midst of my pity-party, it
doesn’t register that Honor is still looking at me. And I at her. My mouth does an involuntary quirk to the side, which causes her to make a little tittering sound. Her lower lip disappears inside her mouth while her top teeth graze them. Without thinking, I lick my own bottom lip and inch forward, moving my hand from her elbow to her upper arm. My other hand slides around her waist, and before I can change my mind, I lower my mouth to hers. When her hands wrap around my neck, I pull her so tight I am afraid I am going to break her. She parts her lips, and I slip my tongue inside. When our tongues meet, I taste peppermint – like maybe she had just had a peppermint candy.

While one of her hands runs through the hair above my neck, her other hand caresses my face. Hoping I am not making a huge mistake,
I clasp my hands beneath her ass and lift her up. Her legs naturally wrap around my waist as I start walking toward her bedroom. I know Mr. and Mrs. S. don’t want her bedroom door shut, but I use the back of my foot and close it anyway.

Lowering Honor to the bed, she parts her legs and I move in between them, never taking my mouth off of hers.
I slide my hand around her waist and under her shirt, slowly advancing toward her bra. Her breath hitches, so I stop and look at her. “You want me to stop?” My question comes out hoarse and raspy, barely audible.

“No,” she breathes.

I continue edging toward her bra, running my thumb underneath the band. Her skin is soft and warm, and I can’t help but reach around back and unclasp her bra. When she doesn’t flinch, I bring my left arm around and cup her in my hand. My god, I need more. I can’t stop. For so long I have needed to touch a girl. For so long I have
wanted
to touch Honor. Recklessly, I lift off her shirt and bra and bring my mouth to her breast. She gasps, her hands pulling on my hair. And suddenly I realize she wants me to stop. Looking her in the eyes, I silently ask her again if I should stop.

She shakes her head. “I…I’ve never done this before,” she whispers so low I can barely hear her.

I lean on my elbows and touch her nose to nose. “We don’t have to,” I say breathlessly into her mouth.

“No, it’s okay. I’ve…” I kiss her lips before she finishes.

“We can stop,” I say when I pull back again.

She grabs my t-shirt and pulls me back down. Into my ear, she breathes, “I’ve never
wanted
to before…but…I do right now.” She nips my earlobe and I feel my body quiver above her.

She pulls up on my shirt and whispers, “I want to feel your chest against mine.”

I tear my shirt off, and pressing my chest to hers, I lift her and turn her simultaneously, sitting her on my lap – her legs around my waist.

“Oh, Honor…I love you so much.” And as soon as I say it, I’m totally embarrassed. I had not wanted to say that yet.

“Oh,” she says, as if realizing this for the first time – which probably she is. I’m not sure she had realized just how much I was into her. “Oh,” she breathes out again.

“Honor, I…uh…didn’t mean that. It…it just came out. I’m sorry,” I plead. “Don’t…”

“Shh.” She puts her fingers to my lips. “No. Don’t be sorry. I just…I don’t know if I…you know…” she’s turning red, “if I feel the same…’cause Ethan…and all. I’m…I’m sorry.” Honor stays on my lap and doesn’t pull away.

I kiss her again on her luscious mouth, kissing her softly…without tongue. “Don’t be sorry,” I ask of her. “Please don’t be sorry for being honest.”

I run my fingers down her back and embrace her soft skin beneath my fingertips. “Why don’t we stop right here? Your parents will be home soon anyway.”

Honor kisses me hard on the lips. “Thank you,” she says.

“For what?”

“It was the first time anyone’s ever touched me like that. Thank you for making my first time so special.”

Now it’s my turn to blush. And then it registers. “You and Ethan never…?”

Shaking her head, she says, “I wasn’t ready yet.”

My heart is smiling again.
With me…she was ready.
And that thought is the best news I had heard all day. Maybe I stand a chance after all.

The next day in lunch, Honor is not at our table. I know she’s in school today, because she drove in with me.

“Tam, do you know where Honor is?”

She tilts her head and looks at me from across the table. “No. I thought she was coming to lunch. She said she’d meet me here, she was just going to run to her locker.”

“Oh.” That’s not so bad. I go buy a burger and cola and sit back down across from Tam. Eli and Hunter are now at the table.

A few seconds later, Ethan puts his tray down. “Where’s Honor?” he asks me.

Shrugging, I tell him I have no idea.

While everyone else makes small talk, I can only think about Honor and what she’s doing. She isn’t one to stray from her normal schedule, so it worries me.

“Storm.” Tam gets right in my face to get my attention. “What’s going on in that head of yours? Why you so worried?”

“It’s just not like her to be late, that’s all.”

“What’re you worried about?” Ethan asks.

“For all the time you’ve known her, have you ever known her to not be where she says she’s supposed to be?”

He laughs. “No. But she’s a big girl. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Unless she went and
healed
someone again and is passed out in the girls’ room again.” I say it sarcastically but realize that she could have really done that.

I run out of the lunch room in search of her.

After checking all the girls’ rooms nearby, I go the nurse’s office, but Mrs. Wentink hasn’t seen Honor today. Plodding down all the hallways now in search of every girls’ room, I pass Moore’s class. Always suspicious of the man, I look through the tiny window in his door. He doesn’t have a class this period, but he is talking to a student.

Honor.

I push open the door frantically. “What the hell?” I scowl at Moore.

Honor runs over to me. “Storm, it’s not what you think
.” She grasps my arm and turns toward Moore.

He nods his head. “Shut the door, Mr. Sutherland.”

“Yeah?” I ask, my pulse elevated, wondering what the fuck Moore wants from Honor now.

“It’s okay, Storm.
I
came to see him. He’s not against us.” Honor tries to calm my temper.

What the hell kind of lies has he been feeding her?
“Talk. Now,” I urge him.

A cocky Moore leans against his desk, half sitting on it with his hands on either side of his hips. “I don’t work for Gaffer. Never have. Never will.”

Whoa. What the…?
I turn to look at Honor. “What did you tell him?” I ask her, my teeth clenched, I am so angry with her right now.

She gasps.

“Whoa, Sutherland. Don’t be angry with her. She did nothing wrong.” Moore scolds me.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I demand.
“I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re feeding to Honor, but I don’t like it.”

“I don’t think he’s lying,” Honor says quietly.

“I’m not.” Moore attempts to assure me. “I know Asa…but in no way am I working for him. I don’t even
like
the man.”

“
Asa?” My temper is not subsiding. My ears are pounding with the pressure from holding in my anger at Moore right now.

“Gaffer. His real name is
Asa. And he’s no friend of mine. But I assure you…I am solely on my own here.”

“Okay.” I sit on the edge of a classroom desk across from
Moore. Folding my arms, I ask him, “I’m listening. What is your part in this? What do you know and what do you want?”

Moore looks up at the intercom. “Let’s not talk about it here. Meet me at four at
Mahlon Dickerson…by Saffin Pond. Bring your little empath troop with you. But say nothing to  anyone else,” he implores.

“
Mahlon at four,” I reiterate, trying to read his face. “I still don’t trust you, but we’ll be there.”

“I don’t like this,” I say to Honor out in the hall.

“I don’t know why,” she says. “I feel nothing but honesty coming from him. I trust him.”

“Then why did he need your blood? He was sneaky about it. Right there tells me we can’t trust him.”

“But I’m usually so good at reading people. I mean, I do realize now that taking my blood was kind of suspicious and all, but…I don’t know. I didn’t really
wanna say anything, because it’s crazy and all, but…I get the feeling that he…you know…cares for me…like…a lot.”

I freeze. “He’s in love with you?” I ask in more than a soft voice. More like I shout it from my diaphragm.

“Shhh…Storm.” She squeezes my forearm. “Shut up. No. Not in love with me. Not like that. Just…I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it’s not. Just…don’t make a big deal of it.”

“Don’t make a big deal that your chemistry teacher is in love with my girl…with you? That’s a
huge
deal, Honor.” It seems that when I’m annoyed with her, I can’t call her princess.

We’ve reached the lunch room.

“I’ll drop it for now. Maybe the guys can feel something from him when we’re at the reservation later,” I say.

“Where the heck have you guys been?” Tamlin makes a show of her question, wagging her arms
around.

“Calm down, Tam,” I tell her.

Honor just laughs at her silliness, which borders on the ridiculous, then squeezes in next to her. I sit back down in my spot across from Tam.

Turning toward Ethan, I tell him about the meeting today at
Mahlon.

“What do you make of it?” he asks.

“I don’t know.” I sigh. “Honor seems to trust him. I don’t.”

“He wants us all there?” Eli asks.

“That’s what he said –
bring your empath troop.
But you have to keep it quiet.”

“Like we don’t already know that,” Hunter remarks, shaking his head.

“What about me? Can’t I go too?” Tamlin asks. “It’s not like you guys keep your secrets from me.”

I nod. “Yeah, Tam. I think it’d be okay.”