Page 67 of Reckoning

“I’m not sweet.” I pulled her closer and nuzzled her neck. She laughed, and it was like birdsong.

“You’re right. Where did I get that idea?” She lifted her head away from mine and put her hands on my face so gently, my entire body tensed. “Do you think you could love anyone, Meyer?”

The nipping tendrils of my anxiety started to rise again, smoldering anger licking at my pulse. How dare she ask me this question? She ought to know better. “I have before.” I was too warm. My back was damp with perspiration, even though Madeline still trembled slightly in the cool air. I broke away from her long enough to pick up my jacket and slide it around her shoulders. She didn’t remove it this time. I moved slowly, not wanting to trigger the lights and ruin the spell.

It could be like this. I could make it work, somehow.

“You know what you need to do if you want any chance of this.”

I was shaking. “I know what I need to do, yes. I don’t think you do.”

“But you wouldn’t do it? Even for me?”

One tear rolled down her cheek. I wiped it away with my thumb. “No. Not even for you.”

She sniffed and turned her head slightly, looking over my shoulder. When she spoke next, her voice was resentful. “I wonder if you’ll ever stop making a fool of me.”

“Fuck, I hope not.”

I kissed her.

It was nothing like our previous embraces—the frantic, forbidden, stolen moments hiding our emotions from paparazzi or each other. Neither of us was injured, and we were safe from Conrad. It was the way our first kiss should have been if things had been different. I sank into her slow and deep, wrapping that smooth hair around my wrist and tugging her neck back. She responded by sliding her fingers up my temples into my hair, not grabbing it but simply running her fingers through the strands ceaselessly.

I tried to pour everything I could into that kiss and tell her the things I was too afraid to say out loud. But even though I wanted to say so much, I got lost in her too easily. Kissing her was like slipping into deep water, all soft ripples and unbeatable gravity. My hands tightened, grew bolder, and I pressed her against the railing behind her. I could taste her hesitation, but she didn’t pull back. She laced her fingers together behind my neck and held me, not giving me a chance to pull away and speak or do anything else to ruin the moment. She whimpered, and it sounded like defeat. Not giving up but acquiescing to something. Something we both wanted.

I was seconds away from breaking and carrying her out of there on my back when the motion sensor lights kicked on.

At first, I thought we must have moved too much, but I heard the sound of a door opening as Maddie ducked out from under my arms. I ran a hand through my hair and then over my lips, tasting her lip gloss. My jacket still rested around her shoulders as she braced herself against the railing with one arm, the other over her chest, facing away from me.

“There you two are! I hope my brother isn’t doing anything untoward.” Anita walked over to Maddie and hugged her, blind to her body language that screamed to be left alone. I knew she was drunk when she kissed Maddie on the cheek, but she was steady in her heels. She’d had plenty of practice. “I have something to show you. Come with me.” My jacket fell to the ground as Maddie rolled her shoulders to drop it. She didn’t look at me.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I said, trying to sound authoritative, but Anita stuck her tongue out at me as she pulled Maddie back inside. Maddie, for her part, didn’t bother to turn around. She straightened her back and held her head high, shoulders stiff and hardly moving as she walked. The door swung shut behind them, and I was alone.

I bent to pick up my jacket and brushed off the debris, draping it over one arm rather than back around my shoulders. The door opened again, and Joshua stepped out into the cold with me. I stiffened immediately, still unsure how much I could trust him. He hadn’t said much except to apologize for leaving her, but I’d hired someone to look into his finances to see if he had some other stream of income with my father’s name at the end of it.

“She’s up to something,” he said, stopping a few feet from me. “Anita. She’s not as drunk as she’s acting.”

“Hmm.” I couldn’t focus. I was too focused on not murdering my sister. “What could she possibly want from Madeline?”

“I don’t know. But Meyer—you should follow them. She’s acting too much like your father.”

He hopped from foot to foot, breath forming clouds around his head. I didn’t much care if he was cold. I felt fine. Fine, except I was trying to figure out if he was being serious or trying to lure me into some sort of trap.

“I know you don’t trust me right now, Meyer, but I’m being serious about this.”

The inside of my cheek was raw from my teeth. I shouldn’t trust him. But he stepped toward me with hands outstretched, looking for all the world like he was truly concerned.

“Something is wrong. We need to be vigilant.”

The way he was looking at me, I didn’t think he was lying. He almost looked … worried.

“Okay.” I shrugged on my jacket and walked toward him. He sighed in relief. “Let’s go.”

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