“How old were you?”
“We’ve been in four years. The Murder of Crows only formed two years ago, though. We’ve done a lot of good in that time.”
“Lexi said you named it that because of all the crows on our street?”
“Si,”he says.“And because we’re a flock, a family. We fight together. Fucking Serpents… What are they? They don’t have a pack.”
“What are you going to do when you graduate?” I ask. “It seems like most of the Crows are seniors.”
“There are younger ones,” he says. “But we’ll still be here. I’m going to Dixon, so I’ll be around, Rae. I’m not going anywhere.”
He finally turns, smiling at me.
“I didn’t know that,” I say, surprised he hasn’t mentioned that he’s going to college in the fall. Dixon College is a small, fancy liberal arts school, and I already know the Norths don’t have a lot of money.
“I’m an artist,” he says, reaching for me. He slides his hands around my waist and pulls me across the bench seat, nuzzling into my neck.
“I know, but…”
“They have scholarships,” he says, kissing along my skin. “What about you, my little ray of sunshine? Where are you headed in the fall?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess I’ll take classes at a community college until I figure it out.”
“You could come with me,” he says, pulling me tight against him and kissing up the column of my throat. My head falls back on the seat, and I wrap my arms around him. After a month without this, I’m fiending like an addict, and it feels so good.
“Is this allowed?” I ask.
“Anything you want is allowed,” he says. “Just tell me you want me.”
“I do,” I whisper. “But I thought you couldn’t touch me.”
“It’s up to you,” he says, kissing and sucking at my ear, sending shivers coiling around my whole body. “It was always up to you, Rae. We were just waiting for you to decide.”
“Decide what?”
“Who you wanted,” he says. “It’s your choice. Now we just have to tell Maddox.”
His mouth comes down on mine before I can answer, before I can protest that I need more time, that I didn’t choose him yet. I need to think about it, now that I know this is what they were waiting for. And what does that even mean, that I get to choose? What am I choosing? If it’s just which one gets to fuck me, my answer might be different than if it’s more than that.
Finally he stops kissing me long enough for me to breathe. Diving into my neck, he kisses and nips my skin, moaning and dragging me into his lap. My head is spinning with it, with him, with trying to keep up. I can’t think when his hot mouth is on my skin, sucking and biting, devouring me.
“Lennox, wait,” I gasp, grasping his head in both hands and trying to pull him away.
“I’m done waiting,” he says. “I can’t wait anymore. I’m crazy about you, Rae. I want to be with you. Don’t you want to be with me?”
He pulls back, his breathing ragged, his lips red from the kisses. He’s so gorgeous I want to faint dead away.
“I…” I gasp, trying to catch my breath. “What do you mean, be with me? Like sleep with me?”
“I want to do everything with you,” he says. “Yeah, I want to fuck you, I won’t lie. But I don’t want you to think that’s what this is about. I want to do everything else, too. I want to play video games with you and make breakfast with you, go to sleep with you and wake up with you. I want you to be mine, Rae.”
“But… What about the crew girls?” I ask.
“Fuck the crew girls,” he says. “They don’t mean anything. We have to participate in the initiations, but the rest of them don’t matter. That’s why I’ve been waiting for you, Sunshine. I respect you. I don’t want to share you like the crew girls. I don’t care about them. I care about you.”
He kisses me again, but I push him away. “Stop,” I say. “I need time to think.”
“What is there to think about?” he asks, pulling me in again. I struggle against him, but the harder I struggle, the more insistent he gets. His hand and mouth are everywhere, and I can’t breathe. Finally I tear myself free and shove myself backwards across the seat, onto the passenger side. Lennox dives on top of me, and my head hits the door.