Page 44 of Tulips and Lost Time

I swallow the painful lump of nerves settled in my throat and drag my gaze around. Away from the shoot-‘em-up game on Marc’s flat screen and across to an impossibly beautiful Kari in little shorts and a slouchy sweater.

“Can you help me in the barn for a sec?” Her lips curl high, forcing her cheeks up until they squish beneath her dancing eyes. “Please?”

“I can help you, Kar.” Marcus pauses the game and looks over. “What do you need?”

“It’s okay.” She saunters into the living room and presses her hand to the top of his head. It’s a pat of sorts, but also a caress. An, I love you ruffle of his hair. Then she leans over him and un-pauses the game. “I just need to get something down in the barn, and Luc is the only one not doing anything.” She glances across and stares into my eyes.

How is it possible no one else sees what she is?

How can they not know what she’s doing?

As far as I’m concerned, she walks around with a giant, fucking neon sign flashing over her head.

“Luca?”

“Yeah.” I want to go out there with her. And yet, guilt eats at my soul. But above all else, my body moves. Without my brain openly acknowledging the actions, my feet touch the floor, and my ass leaves the chair. My back crackles as I straighten out and turn in her direction, then my cock hardens when she smiles.

That’s it.

A fucking smile.

But it screams a million naughty things her brother would kill me for.

She licks her bottom lip and grins like the she-devil herself. And when I’m close enough, she turns on her heels and walks by my side, close enough our shoulders touch and her long locks tickle my arms. “Thank you, Luca.”

I want to groan. I want to shout my innocence in all this. But fuck, most of all, I want to sneak out to the barn with her, too. Because she goes to college in a week, and I haven’t had my fill yet.

“You sounded like Mrs. Robinson when you said my name in there, ya know?”

The second we’re outside and the door closes us out, Kari’s lips swing higher, visible even under the bright moonlight.

“You’re trying to get me killed.”

“I’m trying to assert myself.” She ducks around the side of the house, out of my sight for just a single second. But in the dark, in my current frame of mind, it’s a lifetime.

What if she disappears? What if she gets hurt?

I quickly follow her around and step into the shadows, only for my back to hit the external wall of the house, my breath exploding from my lungs as Kari’s arms slide around my neck and her chest crushes against mine.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Bear—”

“You’re allowed to touch me.” She stands on her toes, nibbling on my bottom lip and stealing from me whatever pitiful willpower I might pretend to cling to. She grabs my hand and slides it down to cup her ass. And fuck, but we both moan when my fingers squeeze and pull her closer. “You’re too hard on yourself, Luca. Always staying away when you should stalk forward.”

“I’m saving you from yourself.” But hell if my resistance doesn’t snap and have our lips clashing. I slide my tongue across hers and moan when she pushes closer. Her body, draped over mine and just feet away, on the other side of this wall, my death lingers. “You’re on a path to destruction right now, Bear. You’re playing with fire and don’t care about the consequences.”

“You’re being overly and annoyingly cautious.” She bites my bottom lip, hard enough to elicit a hiss of pain from the depths of my throat. “I’m leaving soon.”

“I know.” I bring my free hand up and hold her neck. My fingers curl around to touch the top of her spine and my thumb stretches to the front until I feel her pulse and mine racing for superiority. “I know it down to the fucking minute, Bear. The seconds.”

“Because you’re gonna miss me?”

“The way I’d miss my arm if I no longer had it.” I swoop in and taste her neck. No biting allowed. No suckling. No fucking marks left behind. “But I’m so happy you’re going. You deserve this chance to stand on your own two feet. To know what it feels like to be free.”

“I’m gonna come home every weekend.” She twists and drags us around, so her back hits the wall and my body pins her close. I swear, I don’t mean to do it. I don’t mean to hold her up.

But my hands drop to her thighs without thinking, and her feet simply… cease to hold her weight. She wraps her legs around my hips, squeezing until I feel the pinch. Her tongue seduces me. Her lips, playing with mine. She slips her hands into my hair, grabbing fistfuls and tugging until I hiss.

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