Page 49 of Halluci-Dating A Demon
“Good.” He looks down at our joined hands, eyes flickering back to mine. “So, since you’ll be here for another two hours or so, would you like to come read and nap with me?”
“I’d love to.” My nose brushes over his and we head back to the coffee shop, rushing toward the stairs as soon as we enter. Ian whistles in our direction and the door slams, cutting off his catcall. Both laughing, we kiss again, and Elias tugs off my clothes. His lips don’t leave mine for long as he removes his own shirt and pants. Dragging me to the bedroom, he looks back at me, smiling. “I got some new sour-belt flavors this morning that I’d like you to taste test with me.”
“I’m always up for a good taste test.” He pulls me down onto the mattress with him, capturing my lips with his, grinding his hips against mine while reaching for something in his nightstand.
He rips the top off the candy package with his teeth the way you would a condom wrapper, forcing a laugh from me, and drags a red sugared strip over each of my nipples. As the candy slides all over my body, he licks every place it touches and then shoves it between his lips, feeding half of it to me from his own mouth. I lock my lips around the sweet taste, licking into his mouth, and the next hour is spent with us trying the other flavors and getting as much of each other as we can.
I revel in his company, and I love knowing it won’t have to come to an end after all. If anything, this is only the beginning, and what a great start we’d got off to. Rocky at times, but still something I’d never change.
Nineteen
Elias
As I empty out the last box of stuff belonging to my brother, a silver box hits the floor. Picking it up, I gather everything spilling out of it and as I’m putting it all back, a naked photo of Brody catches my attention. My skin growing hot, I flip to the next one and he’s wearing nothing but my brother’s fishing hat.
No. That can’t be right. Maybe Brody would do that to me, but Adam wouldn’t. His smiling face flashes in my mind, matching my brothers in the third picture as they lie naked together in what used to be Brody’s and my bed.
My shirt suddenly feels too tight on my skin and my head spins. I don’t want to keep looking at the pictures but my heart needs more convincing. It still can’t wrap itself around my ownbrother doing something so unforgivable. He was the perfect one. The apple of my mom’s eye. Apparently, he was seen that way by my boyfriend too.
A sick feeling curls inside me, wrecking me. “No, No, No.” I clench my eyes shut and look at more photos. My brother is wearing the same necklace I found in the first box, while the man I once thought was the love of my life is buried between his thighs. They’re so happy in every picture. Never has Brody looked at me the way he’s looking at him.
My throat tightens and tears escape my eyes as betrayal sets in like a heavy strike to my chest. How long were they both going behind my back for? Was it serious? Did they have any intention of ever telling me?
Feeling nauseated, I scoot back to the bed, resting my hands on the edge as I do my box breathing. I drift away and come back, the brief seconds of me being gone allowing Arien a little time to appear and kiss my forehead.
I toss the pictures forward and sit here, staring up at the ceiling. “Why him?” I ask, clenching my fists at my sides. “Why did you always want what I had?”
He always got it too, and everything came easier for him than it did for me. I started fishing and so did he. I dreamed of a house with a wrap-around porch and a large white swing big enough for two . . . and . . . and so did he.
He applied to the same college as me, and got close to Brody, saying it was for my sake, but I should have known better. That’s why I wasn’t sure which songs were my favorites and which were his. Did I like to dance and only stopped because he always upstaged me?
He couldn’t let me have one thing. Not one. I don’t know why it took this for me to see how all he ever did was take while I constantly gave. Closing my eyes, bright images of the accidentappear behind my lids, and everything that happened plays like a movie being fast forwarded.
That’s why we crashed. We were arguing after he told me he was in love with Brody. Frozen in the back seat, my boyfriend of three years sat quietly like the coward he was, as if he had no intention of ever letting their secret love affair be aired out in the open. The day before, he’d been telling me all the things he wanted to do in our future together. He’d spoken of marriage and kids.
Not once did he mention fucking Adam. Not once did he give me the impression he was planning to end things with me. Not fucking once.
Suddenly it all comes back to me tenfold. Brody tried to console me, shaking his head at Adam, and anger held me hostage as I slammed my hands to the wheel. The storm brewing inside me locked me up on the inside, and of all times to experience my first episode of cataplexy, that had to be the moment.
Not moving for a long time, I stay folded into myself, only moving my eyes when my phone goes off. After letting it go to voicemail, it rings again, and I finally muster up the energy to answer it, focusing on the loud sounds instead of the gripping sensation inside me. I won’t let him be the reason I hold myself back again.
“Hello,” I answer on the fourth ring.
“Hey. So, I thought maybe we should talk about everything that happened on my last visit. I didn’t like how we left things.”
Brody’s voice is like nails on a chalk board, and I think about my upcoming date with Arien to keep me where I am.
“Yeah, but you were perfectly fine with me taking all the blame for Adam’s death, right? Was that so you didn’t have to worry about cleaning up your own mess.”
“El.” His voice trembles.
“Don’t fucking call me that,” I grit out. “That was his name for me. Not yours. Just like you were supposed to be the man I married, not . . . not the reason for me hating my dead brother.”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to talk about it but didn’t know how to. I thought I was doing you a favor by letting you forget.”
“Oh, how fucking kind of you,” I bite out, my body raging on the inside. Fuck him. “Tell me why? I gave you everything and still it wasn’t enough.”
He sniffs. Typical Brody, feeling sorry for himself. Making this all about him. I was the problem, and he was the one having to pick up the slack in our relationship.
