When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) (21 page)

He stood right in front of her now, but he didn’t move to touch her.

“I won’t hurt you. You aren’t just another girl to me. Take my hand. It’s your choice. I won’t force this on you.” He stood still, smirking. Like he knew what she was going to do.

Involuntarily she leaned towards him. She thought about taking his hand. Julie pulled herself upright, hugging her hands to her sides.

She wanted to reach out her hand to him so much. He was such a jerk—how could she feel like this about him? And yet, he was telling her the truth. Maybe she should give him a chance. Her body trembled at the thought.

“What is this?”

“It is something that doesn’t happen often. I only know of one other couple who has this connection.” The last word rolled of his tongue slowly. It had more meaning than she could understand. “So believe me when I say I won’t hurt you.”

Julie noticed that his crossed arms where white where his fingertips pressed hard into this skin. His body was tense, like he was holding back from rushing her.

He felt it too. He stood there waiting for her to make the decision to go to him, but it was hard for him too. He could have grabbed her, and she would be his until he let go. Once they touched, she wouldn’t be able to deny the pull. Her body craved it.

A drop of sweat glided down the middle of her back. Her hair was loose from its ponytail and sticking out at odd angles. She probably looked like a mess. “I’m sticky with sweat. I…didn’t even brush my teeth after breakfast.”

“Do you honestly think I care?”

Yeah, those last excuses were lame.

This felt real. The only real thing since she moved here. She pulled a hand from her side. Her fingers trembled as she held it out to him. She pulled it back once and then firmly held it out in the space between them. Rory reached out, watching her face before clasping her hand.

A rush of warmth raced up her arms, and she gasped. The tingling was gone, replaced by a fire.

He was on her a moment later, and they were kissing as they stood entwined for a few minutes. He pulled her to the floor, breaking off the kiss and cradling her in a tight hold in front of him. She sat between his legs, trembling as his hands stroked up and down her arms.

“Julie…my Julie.” He breathed into her ear.

“You can call me Jules. All my friends do. We are friends, aren’t we?”

He chuckled as he nibbled at the back of her neck. His hands roamed freely all over her clothed body, but she didn’t care. It felt so good.

“Oh yes, we are definitely friends. Jules. I like that. You are my jewel.”

She sighed and idly drew circles with her fingertip on his arm holding her against him. The dark hair on his arms stood up, and the muscle quivered under the tan skin.

Julie couldn’t believe that less than five minutes ago she didn’t want this. That she had ever questioned this. She was euphoric, as happy as she could ever remember being. All thoughts about questioning this and him were gone. He was here, and she was here with him. That was all that mattered.

Rory spun her around so she was sitting in a cross–legged position in front of him. He made sure to keep a hand on her the whole time. Gently, he took her head in his hands and kissed her again. She closed her eyes and drifted on the sensations the small contact gave her.

Her eyes fluttered open when he finally broke his lips from hers. The light was fading outside. Hours had passed as they’d simply kissed. Their backs cracked as they both sat upright and broke contact.

“Ouch.” Julie giggled. She felt drunk, like the one time she had snuck out to a party with Mandy and Darcy, drank too much, and had to crash at Darcy’s. She was late to practice the next day, so she never did it again.

He smiled back but gripped the top of his legs, fingers white.

“I have to go home now.” He got up to leave, putting out a hand to stroke her face.

Her body leaned towards him on its own. He pulled his hand back.

“I’m sorry. I have to go. If I touch you right now—I know I will want to kiss you again, and then it will be hours before I go.” He balled his fingers up and pulled his arm back to his side. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye,” she said as he turned his back on her.

Julie watched him as he walked out quickly. Her body felt buoyant, as if all the cares and doubts weighing her down had suddenly been taken away. The constant churning in her stomach had been relieved by the few hours she spent with him.

She knew the time passing wasn’t because she blanked out. If she wanted to, she could remember every vivid instant. Her body shook with the memories. A yearning to be near him again—to touch him, to have him touch her, to hold his hand again—swept over her. A terrible thought broke through it all. Now that he wasn’t near her she could think straight again.

He was like a drug. Poisonous, but once tasted, impossible to resist.

What the hell had she gotten into now?

♦

After dinner that night, Julie escaped to the front porch swing, her red notebook and one of her school books with her. She rested her head on her knees, drawn up on the cushions as she gazed out over the front garden.

She touched her lips. They still tingled from earlier today. She couldn’t think straight. She wasn’t sure she was able to comprehend what happened.

Was she just another girl to him? He could have been lying when he said that it was unusual and he wouldn’t hurt her. Was she an idiot for having made out with him all afternoon?

But it had felt so good, so real, and all her worries went away for a while. She liked the escape. She wasn’t sure she even liked him or how she could feel this way about him. Didn’t you have to love someone to feel this way?

Of course she didn’t really know him. Maybe she should give him a chance. Was that her desire speaking?

She wasn’t so sure anymore. Her mind wasn’t as made up as she thought.

It felt awkward writing all this down. Too much like a stereotypical teenager writing about a boyfriend in a diary. Julie didn’t want to forget any of this, but it was way more personal than anything she had ever written before.

What if he bragged to others about this? What if Jamie found out? He would be so upset with her.

But Jamie was lying to her.

She shouldn’t see Rory again. She didn’t need this right now. There was too much other confusing stuff. She would tell him to go away tomorrow. If he even came. She realized he said he would see her soon. That was it. Her eyes narrowed. He hadn’t made any promises—she should remember that. He had left with no reason and expected her to be there for him.

A flush came to her face as she thought about seeing him again, even to tell him to go away. Or tell him after they kissed a little.

There wasn’t any harm in seeing him a little. A little couldn’t hurt. Just once more. Then she would tell him to go away.

“Julie?” Andromeda called from the doorway.

“Yes?” Julie closed her red book and tucked it under the pillow on her lap, opening the other book to a random page.

“What are you doing out here?”

“Eh, reading my summer assignments.” She held up
Pride and Prejudice
. “I know I’ve read this before, but I wanted to re–read it before next year. It seems different every time, you know?”

“It is only a few days in. Isn’t it a little early to start?”

Julie shrugged, looking up at her.

“What else have I got to do? Kara is gone, and so is Muriel. I have no other friends, and the kids from the other school don’t like me. I wonder why that is. At home lots of kids were friends with others who went to different schools.”

Andromeda was silent. She needed to stop expecting comments like that to get a response.

“What happened between you and Marian?”

She frowned, but she came over to sit on the wide swing. Julie shifted over to make room, careful to keep the red notebook under a pillow. Andromeda stared out into the garden, and her face went from looking closed to sad.

“Marian was supposed to marry your father. I got in the way.” The words were barely audible.

Julie sat up. “What?”

“Marian and I were friends growing up. When she started going to the other school, we lost touch. Like you see with Kara and her cousin Melissande. Your father went to the other school with Marian. They ended up together for a while. Then one day your father and I happened to run into each other again, and well…that was that.”

“Why does going to the other school mean people can’t be friends anymore? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I agree with you, honey. But that is the way it is.”

“But why?”

Andromeda didn’t look at her. She kept her gaze fixed out over the garden. “I wish I could tell you.”

“I’m so tired of hearing how much people would like to tell me something and not telling me. Especially from my mom and Jamie.”

Andromeda looked back at her, eyes narrowing. Her whole body tensed up. “I can’t tell you.”

Had she gone too far?

Julie nodded and made her gaze focus on the garden. She let her eyes look like they glazed over. The older woman watched her for a minute and then looked back out at the yard, body relaxing again.

She tried to watch this out of the corner of her eyes. How many times had she faked this now? But having to do this with her family made her miserable every single time. Andromeda slipped away without even a backward glance, and Julie got up a few minutes later.

She fell asleep that night thinking about Rory and how strange everything was. Was he controlling her somehow? Maybe that was the game Jamie meant that night on the porch.

Could she stop seeing him? Did she even care?

In her dreams, she was walking along the beach, smiling and holding Rory’s hand. But when she looked up at him, his eyes turned from gray to blue.

♦

Chapter 16: The Building

≺≻

J
ulie got up early again the next morning. This time she told her mom that she was heading out to the coffeehouse for breakfast.

On a Sunday at seven in the morning, the island was eerie. No cars were out, and the sound of her moped echoed.

Julie pulled up to the shop. Even it was closed until eight. She looked at her watch: Seven–thirty.

She glanced across the street. The brick building was quiet. She drummed her fingers on the moped. All the windows were dark, and she didn’t feel as if it was watching her. The building was asleep.

Glancing down the street, she saw that there was no one sitting at the café yet. She could rev up her moped and drive across the bridge. Were there guards on the other side? She didn’t want to lose her one chance to escape whatever all this was, but she also didn’t want to give herself away if she tried. She wasn’t even sure she was ready to try or what she would do if she succeeded. She had no money or clothes. If she was going to attempt that, she needed to plan better.

Julie tapped her fingers again. If she went to the gym now, she risked seeing Rory. Her heart raced at the thought of him. She had no idea when, or even if, he would show up again. She did not want to wait around for any guy. Especially one that made out with her all afternoon, told her she was special, and then said vaguely that he would see her “soon.”

Before she lost her nerve, she hopped off the moped and ran across the street. Unlike yesterday, her skin didn’t prickle. When she reached the alleyway between the building and the store next to it, she let out a breath.

There were no doors or windows along here. But there was a dumpster, and holding her breath from the smell, she climbed up the side to peek in. She found papers and normal trash. She hopped down and walked quickly up the alleyway. It stretched way back. The building was large from the front, but it looked like it stretched back as far on the sides.

That’s when she saw it—a door leading into the building, and it was propped open. She looked around for whoever may have left it that way, but there was no one. Were they inside?

Julie crept to the door, listening for footsteps. When she got to the door, she opened it slowly and peaked inside. It was a storage room, like she’d expect in an office building. No one was around, so she slipped in.

Her breath caught as she heard a door open on the other side.

“The delivery is late again.” A man’s voice said.

“It’s the bridge. Having to meet someone over there and haul it across takes a long time. I wish we could let them deliver over here.” Another man answered.

“I know.”

She ducked behind a few stacked boxes. Her heart was beating fast. There was no way anyone would believe she got lost if they caught her hiding behind these boxes. She sucked in a breath and willed her body to go into tingly mode so she wouldn’t slip by accident. She wished she could see who was talking. They both sounded young.

“Is the café open yet? We could go have breakfast while we wait.”

“Sure. Let’s go see. We can see them drive across from there anyway.”

“Working here sucks. I know everyone does it, but I would rather be at the beach right now.”

The other person snorted. “I agree.”

Julie heard the door outside close. Were those boys from the other school? The room was too dark now to see anything. She fumbled with her bag, trying to find her phone under her notebook, ignoring the thoughts of alien arms reaching to grab her in the darkness. She turned it on so she could see where she was walking.

She weaved through the boxes to the other door and put her ear to it. She couldn’t hear anything over the sound of her ragged breaths and her heart pounding into her ears. She didn’t know what she would find on the other side.

Maybe all her questions would be answered. Was it worth the risk of getting caught? Thinking that all her answers might be behind one door was silly.

With a shaky hand, Julie opened the door.

There was long corridor with only a few doors lining along it. She let out a breath. There was still no one around. The door closed behind her, and belatedly she realized she didn’t know if it was locked or not. She tried it.