Evanescent (8 page)

“I missed you, too.” Laken plants a kiss
over Marky’s head, and her eyelids tremble as if she were about to
cry. “How about a movie?” She looks to me for approval.

“No way. It’s nine.” I shake my head.
“She’ll be a zombie in the morning if she stays up any later.”

Marky balks at me with the attitude of a
thousand angry teenagers. “You always ruin everything.”

“We’ll do it another time.” Laken is quick
to rectify. “I promise.” She strokes her hair before ushering her
toward the stairs.

“Will you tuck me?” Marky’s mouth falls open
as if the idea hadn’t dawned on her until now but it was such a
fantastic one that she could hardly absorb it.

“You bet. I’ll meet you up there in five.”
Laken beams a smile. She warms the entire house with her
larger-than-life presence.

I’d mention the fact that Jen is going to
kill her—that she probably has Austen House swarming with an army
of detectives by now, but I’m not up for ruining the moment, so I
don’t say a word.

“I’ll get you some blankets. You like your
pillow soft or hard?” A smile tugs on my lips when I say it. It
seems like everything turns into sexual banter with her, with or
without any effort. Laken seems to pull the dirty perv out of me
without even trying.

“
Soft
or
hard
?” She mouths the
words with a river of laughter bubbling from her chest. “I don’t
plan on sleeping down here, Coop. I very much plan on sleeping
right next to you.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think that would
be setting a great example for Marky.” I’d hate to fast forward ten
years and find some goofball lying in her bed while she throws
Laken in my face.

“I’m sleeping in your room, Coop,” Laken
says it with an easy smile. “Either that or you can take up the
couch with me, but I’m not leaving your side.”

The idea of arguing with Laken over, of all
things, sleeping arrangements seems laughable. Dad isn’t home.
Marky will be out like a rock in less than fifteen minutes, and I
have the girl of my dreams ready and willing to cozy up with me all
night long. I’d be a fool not to agree to her demands.

“Looks like we’re going to have a
sleepover.” I give a devilish grin.

“Looks like we are.”

Marky makes sure both Laken and I read her a
story, which I find amusing on many levels. I haven’t read her a
bedtime story in about six years, but something about her turns
into a four-year-old whenever Laken is around, so I guess it makes
sense. It’s clear she misses Mom, and Laken is like the big sister
she never had.

I shut the door to my bedroom and lock
it—not that Marky has ever wandered into my room at night, but
something tells me the odds are a little higher with Laken
here.

“I put the couch together downstairs to make
it look like a body is taking up residence,” I say. “If we hear
Marky scream, we’ll know why.”

Laken plops on my bed with her shoulder
hiked up on one side, her mouth pouting in my direction as if she
were trying to seduce me.

Shit.

I hadn’t noticed she took off her blazer and
unbuttoned her blouse. I can see her pink lace bra peering out, and
my boxers twitch with excitement over what this might mean.

“Do you have a T-shirt I can borrow?” She
bats her lashes at me. “That’s all I really need.”

Things are not going to end well for Wes if
she lounges around on my bed wearing nothing more than a
T-shirt.

I dig out a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt,
guaranteed to cover every square inch of her from the neck
down.

“Socks,” I say, tossing a pair of knee-highs
over in the event she tries to seduce me with her feet. She could.
She’s that damn beautiful.

Laken doesn’t hesitate digging her thumbs
into her skirt and peeling it off.

“Whoa.” I turn around and listen to the
rustle of her clothes as if it held the secret to nuclear
detonation codes. Unfortunately for me, something in my pants wants
to detonate in the worst way possible.

“I knew you were too much of a gentlemen to
watch,” she purrs. I glance up at the blackened glass of the window
and accidentally catch Laken stripping herself clean. Her creamy
flesh glows against the backdrop of night. She pulls her arms
behind her back and unhooks her bra, smooth in one quick stroke,
just the way I imaged in my dreams. Her breasts explode, round and
perky with rose-colored nipples staring back at me as if they knew
what I was up to.

A groan gets buried deep in my chest, and I
try to look away but my eyes have glued themselves to her
reflection.

How the hell am I suppose to sleep next to
that
?

The curve of her hip catches my attention as
it shows off her sheer lace panties, and I memorize her form and
beauty for my mental musings—the shower.

Laken pulls on the sweats unceremoniously
and flops back on the bed.

“Coop?”

“Yup?” I say, digging out a pair of sweats
for myself as well. I don’t make it a habit to sleep in anything
other than boxers, but tonight I’m making an exception. I’m sure
Wes would appreciate that. There’s no doubt if Fems are
infiltrating campus that they’re watching us at any given time. Not
that I plan on letting a couple of prying Fems ruin the night.
Nope. Tonight, I’d like to see Laken hone in some serious feelings
just for me, but I doubt that’s possible. Laken has serious
feelings for the Wes she once knew. If Laken and I ever did get
together, she’d still most likely have Wes popping through her mind
in screenshots. She’s in that deep.

“What’s up?” I yank my sleeping bag out of
the closet and lay it over the floor.

“Why is there a Fem parading around as
Hattie Tobias?”

“They want to mislead us.” I shrug. “It’s
probably not too big a challenge for them to figure out what we’re
up to.”

“You said she mentioned she wanted to find
her family.” Laken’s eyes round out.

“I think maybe she wants to get us off
track.”

“Flynn’s ready to go off on his own.” She
blows out an anxious breath. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he were
off in the woods right now.”

Crap. “He’s such a moron,” I whisper,
rubbing my palm in my eye while trying to forget about him and his
impulse decisions that have the power to yank me out of a bedroom
with Laken. “I fully expect a distress text while he’s getting his
brains sucked through his eyeball.”

Laken buries her face in the pillow. Her
sweatshirt rises up her back, and I can make out her underwear
peering over the elastic.

“Tell me that can’t happen.” She takes a
hold of my hand, and pulls me next to her on the mattress.

“It can, and it will.” I bring her fingers
to my mouth and bury a kiss over her thumb. “Flynn is an idiot.
Expect moronic things to occur, regularly and without reason.”

She reels me in closer, and I inspect the
newfound curves my lucky sweats adhere to.

“I don’t like this,” she whispers.

“Okay,” I tease, trying to get up, but she
pulls me down with a laugh trapped in her throat.

“I’m afraid, Coop.” Gone is her playful
demeanor, replaced with a childlike innocence that makes me want to
shelter her from the world. “I don’t like being afraid.” Her silver
eyes reflect fear like a mirror as she shivers next to me.

I pull back the sheets and she slinks under
the covers. My arm rides low over her waist and I hold her like
that a good while.

“Don’t be afraid, Laken,” I whisper, tracing
her brow with my finger. “Be strong. I’ll hold you up.” I reach for
her hand again. “I’ll never let you fall.” I’d be lying if there
weren’t horrific things she should fear, for instance why the
Counts have taken such an overt interest in her.

“They don’t like the fact I can remember,”
she says, rubbing her thumb against my palm.

My thoughts are wide open. She’s able to
hear them all, like a field with no barriers, but nothing of real
interest to listen to.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be afraid.”
I pull the covers up over her shoulders, and she slips them back
down, patting a space for me next to her.

“Would you hold me again? Just for a few
minutes?” It comes out more of a plea from a child than a
seductress, so I crawl underneath and wrap an arm around her
waist.

“Can you turn off the light?” She adjusts
her head into the pillow as if sleep were a real option, so I lean
over and comply.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were
asking me to spend the night, right here next to you,” I say with a
little too much hope in my voice.

“Maybe I am.” A seam of moonlight sprays
throughout the room. It washes away every last hue and dips us into
a black and white world. Laken catches my gaze and holds it. You
could feel the electrical charge thicken around us, enveloping us
in one hell of a power surge.

Her lips hedge toward mine, and she freezes.
Laken wants a kiss, hell
I
want a kiss, but she doesn’t want
to initiate it. She’ll only come so far. The rest is up to me.

“Laken,” I blow it out in a whisper through
the silk of her hair. “It’s not right.” I don’t say his name. I try
to block Wes from my thoughts, but he pulsates in and out of my
mind like a demonic shadow.

“I know.” She turns the other way and scoots
in a little closer. “But I really need you, Coop. I need you
keeping me safe. Wes can’t comfort me. He’s one of the very things
that scare me.”

Laken pushes her bottom into my stomach and
wraps my arms tight around her waist until we’re spooning.

“I wish I could say I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“That it sucked of me to be comforting Wesley’s
whoever-the-hell-he-is girlfriend, but I’m not. There’s nowhere I’d
rather be than with you.”

Laken presses in with her spine against my
chest. She reaches back and touches my neck, setting my insides on
fire.

“I appreciate your honesty,” she rasps into
the dark. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m honest, too.” Laken presses
deeper into me as if she were trying to push through. “This is the
only place I want to be. You’re the roof protecting my sanity, the
walls holding up my will to survive. The Counts cast their shadow
over my life and you cast the light.” We bask in silence on the
heels of her ego-inflating words as I drink them down, swill them
around in my mind and savor them. Laken smooths her back over my
chest and fills me in on the Treasure ceremony, Wednesday night.
“But I would totally rather watch a movie with you and Marky,” she
says. “What do you think I should do?”

I press my lips together and take her in as
the moon glows over her like silver. Laken trusts me, she wouldn’t
go if I told her not to. A part of me doesn’t want to send Laken to
any more brainwashing ceremonies. God forbid they achieve their
purpose.

“I think it’s important you go.” I try to
sound casual like I weren’t secretly disappointed. “We’ll do the
movie another time.”

“Flynn says the Treasures are no big
deal—that I need to dig deeper.”

“He might be right. Probe Wes. Find out
where he’s getting the blood. Maybe play a mental game and catch
him reading your mind, call him out on it and tell him you want
those powers—so you can be just like him.”

Laken goes rigid. She holds a breath for
longer than a minute before exhaling and melting back into me.

“I will. I’ll make sure we get our families
back as quick as possible.”

Our families. Laken feels like family. She
feels like she was made just for me. As if this interstate
kidnapping—this horror that the Counts have brought upon us—was
meant to be.

An hour slips by with Laken writhing her
hips into my lap every few minutes. She pulls my arm under her soft
chest and my boxers spring to life. I try to move and hide the
evidence, but she follows me with her body.

“I think I’d better sleep on the floor.” I
pop up on my elbow and scoot back.

She twists to face me.

“Why?” Laken snatches my fingers and holds
on for dear life. A pale wash of moonlight rinses out her features,
soft as marble. I glance down and see her nipples protruding from
my sweatshirt like sirens.

“Because there’s only so much I can take
before I cave. I’m a guy, we’re weak.”

A soft laugh trembles from her. “Oh, I don’t
know—if a strong guy like you could take on a zombie or two, I
think you could handle sleeping next to me in a bed for a few
hours.” She looks at me from under her lashes, beckoning me to
stay.

I take her in like this, a platinum goddess
against the black velvet of my bedroom. She pushes back a notch,
and I can make out the silhouette of her body—a perfect hourglass
that I’d love to manhandle for the next few hours. And if she
grinds those hips into me one more time, I just might.

She licks her lips awaiting an answer, and
my hard-on blooms to life.