Very Twisted Things (Briarcrest Academy #3) (25 page)

Her mouth opened. “
This
is all about that little twit of a girl, isn’t it?”

A roaring took up in my head. “So help me God, Blair, don’t bring her name into this. She’s
nothing
to do with this.”

A tinkling laugh came out of her. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you? Some stupid girl named
Violet
who plays the
violin
. It’s so incredibly ridiculous and trite that I can’t even fathom what you’d see in—”

“This fake relationship is done.” I gritted my teeth. “My suggestion is you get your PR girl to meet with Mila and let the two of them work out a statement together. But if you so much as touch V with scandal, I will hunt you—”

“If you think that I’m going to sit by while you ride off into the sunset with your one true love, then you have me all wrong.” She fluttered her lashes and called to the girls over my shoulder. “Come along, ladies. Apparently Sebastian needs some space to pick out my engagement ring.”

They flashed their camera phones at us and floated out the door.

Spider said, “Bollocks, she’s scary as shit. Meaner than my Irish whiskey-drinking Grandma.”

My adrenaline plummeted. I weaved and clutched the side of the jewelry counter.

“What the hell, mate?” Spider caught me by the arm. He steered me toward the hovering saleslady who’d already pulled out a rolling chair for me.

“I’m not a baby, Spider.”

“You’re pale and weaving like you’re hammered.” He leaned in to check my face. “You haven’t been drinking, have you?”

Not since last night. I pushed him away. “No. Get out of my face.”

“Bloody hell, you’re a belligerent one.”

Dizziness hit and the room twirled. “Fuck,” I muttered, and leaned over to put my head between my knees. “Sorry, man. Give me a minute. I forgot to eat this morning, that’s all.” Truth. In fact, I’d lost a few pounds since the camping trip two weeks before.

He hovered around me. “Normally I’d avoid talking about your personal life—too touchy feely for me—but you’re in the shitter, my friend. You’re distracted half the time, not eating, staying up late and generally in a pissy mood twenty-four seven. Is it because you didn’t get the movie or is it because you slept with V and now you regret it?”

“Fuck you,” I muttered, and sat back up in the chair. “I need something to eat, that’s all.”

He turned back to the saleslady who’d moved to stand behind the jewelry counter. “Excuse me? Do you have some candy here or maybe a power bar?”

He focused back on me and let out a sigh. “Okay, here’s what I think: You came to Hollywood to settle down … for roots … V
is
your roots, man.”

I shook my head. “I can’t even look at her without wanting—fuck, I don’t know—more. But all I can think of is Emma’s lies. Not so much Emma herself, because I’m over her—but still, she lied to me and V lied to me. And then there’s Geoff. I keep thinking she’s going to up and run back to him. Go back to New York. Especially now that her music is back.”

“Dude, you’re the glue that holds us all together.
You
. We all gravitate toward you. Me, Mila, your fans, even Blair. V is no different. Give her a chance.”

The saleslady pushed a power bar in my hands and I tore it open and inhaled it.

I
was
losing it, and I knew why.

I didn’t want to be without V in my life.

Her music had sucked me in from the beginning, wedging into my bones, but it hadn’t been until the night at the canyon that my heart had connected the dots. We’d been extraordinary. And it wasn’t just the sex. I got her; I saw straight through her grief to the beautiful part of her that was aching to emerge. Her darkness had called to me, her music had enthralled me, but it was her soul that was mine.

Was that love?

IT WAS MIDNIGHT and V still wasn’t home.

She’d yet to return from her night out with Mila. I’d called her earlier to see if we could watch a movie, and maybe I’d be able to talk to her, but she’d already had plans—which is how I found myself dog-sitting for Tater at her house. Spider had dog-sat the last time they’d gone out. He hadn’t been happy about it either, us at home while they partied at the clubs.

I sat out on her patio lounge chair while Tater slept on my chest.

My phone pinged. Mila kept sending me texts and photos of them out at some club. Pics of V chugging tequila. Pics of her twerking with some beefy looking dude. I was getting angry.

Half an hour later, I heard a car pull up, so I stood and walked around to the front of the house, still holding Tater. She climbed out of her car looking dangerously sexy in a red mini skirt and heels. I bit back a snarl imagining male hands on her tonight.

“Aw, she’s asleep,” she said as she leaned over to peer at Tater’s face. “Thank you for watching her.”

“Did you have a good time?” My voice was laced with tightness.

Did she really love me or had she just said those words in the moment?

She nodded. “Yes, and I’m sorry if Mila kept texting you. She had this hare-brained idea of infuriating you and Spider into …”

Silence settled between us as her voice trailed off.

“What?” I snapped.

“Nothing,” she sighed. “Thank you for keeping Tater. Do—do you want to come inside or go sit on the patio?”

“Patio,” I said and we walked around the house and came to a stop at a table next to the pool. I sat Tater down on a seat cushion. “Look, V, there’s something I need to say.” I swallowed.

She got still, her eyes searching my face. “Yeah?”

I paced around. “Something’s wrong with me. I can’t write, play music, act, sleep.
Eat
. All I do is think about you.”

Her face softened. “Oh.”

My stomach fluttered with nerves. “I don’t care what anyone thinks, but I need you in my life everyday. I don’t want to wake up and not see you in my bed, V.” I leaned down to her and pushed both hands in her hair and tugged her to me. “Please give me a chance, V.”

“What about Blair? Your career?”

“I want the world to know you’re mine. I ended things with Blair.”

She looked away from me, making me antsy. Doubt niggled at me.

“I won’t stand for you messing with Geoff, V. Tell me now if you want him back.”

“No, it isn’t that. It’s Blair. She came up to me at the club earlier this week. It’s never going to be over for her.”

I kissed her softly. “Focus on us. Give us a chance, and I mean more than just a one night stand.”

She nodded and her eyes searched mine, as if waiting for something more.

“What?”

She swallowed and looked away. “It’s just—you know how I feel.”

She wanted me to say
I love you
.

“Love. Once I’d pushed it away. Now, I’d die without it.”

—from the journal of Violet St. Lyons

I LOVED HIM
. These past weeks without him had been torture.

Did that mean I was willing to accept us when he didn’t feel the same way?

Maybe.

He caressed my face. “We can sit out here all night and talk, but I’m dying to sink into you. You owe me, you know,” he said huskily.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to make you pay for dancing with those guys,” he said as he stripped off my slinky shirt, easing the fabric off and tossing it on the ground. He kissed my neck and then nibbled gently on my ear. “I keep picturing you in that swing with your legs spread for me.”

I moaned. “Me, too.”

“Strip for me, V.” He took a step back from me, a need so visceral in his gaze that I shivered.

“Out here on the patio? Do you have something against bedrooms?”

“It’s where we started,” he said.

I unzipped my skirt and stood before him in nothing but my heels.

His face reddened. “What the fuck? No bra and no panties tonight?” His hands clenched.

I bit my lip. “I took the panties off when I pulled up to the house.”

“Oh, you’re a naughty girl.” He sat back on a chair, eyes at half-mast, a smoldering expression on his face. “I want you to play for me just like that, V. I want to see your body when you let go with music.”

Need knifed through me. “What do you want me to play?”

“Play how you feel about me,” he said softly. “I took the liberty of getting your violin for you already. It’s on the table.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “You had this planned?”

“No, I just wanted to hear you play, but this is even better.” He bit his lower lip and groaned, watching me as I sashayed over to the violin. I made a show of it, leaning over the table to pick it up and placing it in the crook of my neck. I don’t know if it looked sexy or not, but he seemed to like it.

I took a deep breath.

How could I choose the song that conveyed the depth of how I felt? That I felt like we’d known each other our entire lives even though it had only been a short time?

In the end, I went with “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden.

I poured my heart into my sound, and when his voice chimed in on the chorus, I adjusted to his cadence. I closed my eyes when his hands cupped my breasts, his mouth not far behind. I raised my elbows to give him room, and my music faltered.

“Don’t stop,” he whispered in my ear. “I want you while you break free.”

I played on, stretching into the melody, drawing out the low notes as they reverberated between us. My body was under his spell, and I let it all go, my head going back, embracing us. For so long I’d believed that the price of love was too high, but now, with him, I saw a glimmer of the future, of us playing music, laughing, loving.

“Incandescent,” he murmured, and fell to his knees, his hands on my waist. He nudged my legs apart, his fingers skimming my wet core like little brushes of electricity. I shivered.

“Sebastian,” I groaned as his tongue snaked in and found my clit. I abruptly stopped playing.

“Need you now, V,” he growled, his voice rough.

I set my violin down even as he tugged his shirt over his head. His pants and underwear and shoes were next. I took in his tall frame, the toned biceps, the cut abs—the big cock. I pulled him to me and kissed him hard, my tongue tangling with his.

“You going all alpha on me? I like it,” he chuckled.

I laughed and we kissed, his hands molding to my ass, sliding me against him. He groaned and pulled back, breathing heavily, his forehead pressed against mine.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s just, the
feels
for you are so intense, so crazy, it’s got me worked up and I wanna say all this stuff and do all these erotic things to you—dirty things—and then I want to worship you, too. That night on the swing, I was rough.” He swallowed. “I’m just trying to reel myself back a notch or two.”

“Are you kidding me? I like you like that.
I need it
. It reminds me that I’m alive, Sebastian.”

He leaned into me. “V, I l—”

“What is it?”

He took a deep breath. “I—I need you. Now.”

And then his mouth hit mine and thinking was over. We collapsed down on a patio lounge chair, and I straddled him, working his thickness inside me.

He cupped my face and showed me how he felt without words, by kissing me like he needed me to breathe. He showed me love in his own way, and we went there together, over the edge.