Page 52 of Risking it All

“How old are your brothers?” Relic eased to sit on the mattress and his thigh touched mine. Just the slide of his knee against my skin created pleasing tingles in my blood.

“Seth’s eighteen months younger than me, but a year behind me in school. Oliver will be a freshman this year.”

“All the Hutchinses in one place,” Relic teased in that playful voice of his that had a way of lifting my spirits. “If they’re anything like you, that sounds dangerous.”

“My family isn’t dangerous at all.” I surveyed his room and thought of the living room and kitchen, and there wasn’t much to any of it. His room contained this mattress, a few pieces of clothes folded in one basket and, I assumed, dirty ones thrown into another. Water stains littered the ceiling, the walls needed to be repainted, and the carpet had multiple holes. No TV, nostereo system, no computer, or laptop, not even curtains on the windows. “I like your place.”

“No, you don’t,” Relic somberly said. “No one likes this place. Even cockroaches boycott it. You’ve never been a liar, Mazie Hutchinson. Don’t start now.”

All right. “How about I like how you love your sister?”

Relic glanced away as if I said something that hit too close.

“Your dad didn’t have to go,” I said, feeling bad that my being here had pushed him out.

“Yes, he did. He’s a piece of shit. He just got out of prison for selling drugs, and I’d bet my left ball he’s selling drugs as we speak. Recognizing how action equals consequences isn’t his strong suit, so he makes the same mistakes over and over again. It wouldn’t be so bad if he actually brought some money into the house, but as I said, good decision-making and my dad don’t mix. Sometimes, all I wish for is for something—anything—to be easy.”

My chest ached with the pure exhaustion and grief upon his face. I placed my fingers over his, and my heart tripped when he allowed our fingers to link together. We sat there, me holding his hand, him holding mine.

“You get it, don’t you?” Relic asked. “Things not being easy.”

I didn’t understand Relic’s type of hard, but I understood the wish for easy. “I wish I could drive a car. I wish I could talk about February. I wish I could be the Macie before what happened, but I’m not even sure she exists anymore.”

Relic stroked his thumb over my hand. “I like who you are.” His blue eyes softened to the color of the deep blue ocean, and I became paralyzed under his gaze. “More than like.”

I inhaled in an attempt to calm my thundering heart. “I like you, too.”

Relic reached out, giving me the opportunity to pull away. When I didn’t, he caressed my cheek. His fingers on my skin created a burning path, and I lost the ability to breathe.

“Can I kiss you?” Relic asked softly. “Because I have missed kissing your lips.”

I nodded, and Relic closed the distance between us. As I felt the heat of his breath along my lips, I closed my eyes and relaxed into this moment, into being with him. My lips moved with his, slow at first, and then they built speed as this fire in my stomach spread to my veins.

Being bold, I licked the seam of his mouth, and Relic groaned as he wrapped his arms around me, drawing me closer to him. Our kiss deepened and our hands began to roam, me memorizing the muscles of his shoulder blades and back. Relic running his hands along the sides of my breasts and the curve of my waist. I shivered with pleasure, gasped, and Relic began this delicious path of kisses along my neck. I had never felt so much thrilling indulgence, never wanted to do anything more than touch Relic, kiss Relic, and explore.

The front door banged open, I snapped away from him, my heart jumped out of my chest, and a woman rushed into Relic’s room. “I am so sorry! I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen.” She appeared not much older than me, with long blond hair and a heartbreakingly beautiful face. Her head tilted from apologizing to an I-know-what-no-good-you’re-up-to-smile. “Why, hello. You must be Macie.”

Chapter twenty-three

Relic

Why couldn’t one damn thing be easy? When Macie had placed her hand over mine, offering me comfort in a world that never showed me any, I’d longed to hold onto that moment, but my life always got in the way. As soon as Lyra walked in, I took Macie’s hand, and we walked out. I’d deal with Lyra later, and I wasn’t interested in my older sister making Macie feel like an animal at the zoo.

Macie let go of my hand as she eased into the passenger side and then took my hand again when I offered it to her after I got us on the road. Her soft skin felt like heaven, her hold on me like a beam of light that raised me out of the hellish darkness I’d been in for years.

We reached the empty cul-de-sac of her neighborhood faster than I wanted, but when I turned off the car, Macie didn’t let go of my hand, and she made no move to get out. She sat staring at me and I found the courage to meet her gaze. When she offered me her shy smile, I swear my heart fell from that shelf I keptit on, and it landed straight in her lap. I had never felt like this before, and I had no idea what to do with her, with me, or with all these new emotions.

“I’ve been thinking,” Macie said slowly. “About why I freaked out when you said you wanted to find the people who…” I hated how she choked on the words she wanted to say.

“You don’t have to explain anything,” I said. “No one wants to feel used.”

“While that’s true, there’s something more…something I’ve never told anyone… Obviously, there’s lots I’ve never told anyone, but this…part… It’s the part that terrifies me the most, and I think it’s the reason I became so mad at the idea of your looking into it.”

Feeling on the edge of something huge, I angled toward her and placed my other hand over hers in support. “If you want to tell me, I’m here. But if you can’t, it’s okay.”

Her fingers went limp in mine, and I rubbed my hands over hers as if that could give her my strength.

“The guys who did this—” She jerked as if her body was physically preventing her from speaking, but already, I’d gathered two new pieces of information: whoever did this were males and there were more than one.