Devlin reaches back to hike me higher, taking the opening to squeeze my ass. “Fight back with me, angel.”
A wide grin stretches my mouth.
Fight with Devlin. Not against him.
Gemma joins the fray with an unbridled laugh, ducking behind Lucas when I direct a wave of water her way. The five of us horse around, flinging water in every direction.
It has me laughing so hard my sides hurt. I lean heavily on Devlin to catch my breath. He shoots me a charming smile over his shoulder, whipping us around without warning so I have to hang onto his shoulders while he sends water flying.
A yell builds in my chest and I release it, tipping my head back to the sky.
My heart is happy and full for the first time in a really long while.
Twenty-Seven
Devlin
A few weeks pass and Blair settles into living at my house. Such a simple thing shouldn’t make me as happy as it does. The house isn’t so still with her there.
Blair’s vanilla scent lingers in the rooms, in the hallway between our bedrooms, in the bathroom. I don’t care that much for sweets, but I would gorge on her. I’ve become an unhinged madman, hunting it down when she disappears with a paperback.
Whenever she isn’t visiting her mom, I’ve found her sitting with her feet in the natural rock-edged hot tub on the lower level of the teak deck out back with her nose in a beat up paperback and her toes splashing in the heated water. She’s also claimed the low cushioned ledge in the open layout lounge area, sprawling on her stomach beneath the large window.
It’s become a new game, prowling the house to find the spots she hides in.
Our joint runs quickly becoming a routine on the weekends. Soccer practice isn’t enough to tire out my thoughts, so I train with additional runs to keep out of my head. Blair likes running, too. I think it’s the same for her. There’s something about the burn in your legs and the rhythm of your breathing while you push yourself that is an addictive form of therapy.
Our runs are filled with bursts of sprints where we race each other. The competition flirts on tipping into something else. Blair makes me want to chase her until I catch her.
I’ve ducked a couple of invitations from Aunt Lottie and Uncle Ed to come across the lake to their house for dinner. I think they’re picking up on the change in my habits, since I’ve had dinner with them at least once a week since the start of senior year.
At school, I keep Blair close. The idiotic puppets accept the change easily enough, because they defer to my rules. If I turned on Blair again, they’d spin a tale about how it was my plan all along. But no matter how much I remind myself of the original objective, Blair turns my goals inside out. I search for an ounce of hate for her, but it’s a dried up well.
The only thing left is the need to kiss those pouty lips.
It’s an urge that bleeds into all of my actions.
In our English class, I partner with her
instead of Bishop for paired reading work. He’s too busy giving into his new obsession with Thea anyway. Blair takes this in stride with minimal sass.
The stubborn fight in her rears its head when I pull her to my center table in the cafeteria. I buy her lunch, but she still tries to use her food account, stirring my annoyance. This is one way of apologizing for being a dick up to this point, but she remains suspicious when I pay for the nicer lunch options available to the students that can afford to eat off the standard menu—something almost no one at this school eats from except for Blair.
Macy’s condition has stabilized. Uncle Craig couldn’t tell me much, but I overheard his phone call with Blair. She visits her mom every other day after school.
When she goes to visit, I follow her and watch from the car—one from Dad’s collection that doesn’t get much use so she doesn’t notice me tailing her junker. Macy’s corner room window provides the perfect view to see Blair’s tender smile as she spends time with her mom.
I grip the wheel whenever I watch. The jealousy of her relationship with her mom is still there, but when it swirls through my chest on these stakeouts there’s something new. An emotion I don’t understand, but whenever I look at Blair it’s present. Unavoidable.
The feeling entwines with the whisper in my head to stop being an ass.
Nothing has happened since the kiss at the beach party the weekend she moved in. Not for lack of trying on my part. I want more. All the time. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs, attuned to her quick and subtle movements, turned on by every little move she makes.
Blair isn’t like the other girls I’ve fucked, though. I need to work out a better way to seduce my little thief so I have her falling apart in my arms. My cock grows hard simply picturing it.
If I can’t have her yet, I’ll have her in my fantasies when I jerk off.
* * *