Page 11 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Chapter 3

Iavoided the clubhouseover the next few days. I found myself running harder and longer during my morning workout, skipping meals, working longer hours, drinking more coffee, and doing everything in my power to ignore the fact thatshewas just five miles down the road. I was angry, because I’d chosen to come home so I could spend time in the Valley House, but nowshewas there, and I didn’t want to deal with that. I didn’t want to be around her. I couldn’t even think about her without getting angry.

I wasn’t even sure what I was angry about. Angry at God? Angry with myself?Perhaps after all this time, I was wrong about the vision. Perhaps I’d misunderstood it. Because I could never see myself with someone that obnoxious. All the things I felt for the past few years: the yearning, the wishing I could find her, the desperation to know who she was so I could start the hunt; it all seemed like a fever dream and a waste of time. The visions of her sitting by my feet quietly evaporated.What a load of bullshit.

She hadn’t tried to speak to me again after I’d stormed away that night. I ate my dinner downstairs in silence, and then went straight to the room Cat had prepared for me. I left immediately the next morning without even saying goodbye.

But it wasn’t fair that she could be there and I couldn’t. They were my friends first. I was a founding member of the church. So, I forced myself to return a few days later, telling myself I would not allow myself to be affected by her, that it was no big deal. She was just a girl.

Besides... Maybe she isn’t as bad as that first impression led me to believe.

In the time I’d avoided the clubhouse, Alice had won over every resident and member with her gothic beauty, strong personality, and snarky sense of humor. Sophie adored her, Cat mothered her, Jake and Alex played games with her in their free time, and The Murphy’s encouraged her verbal sparring. I tried to look and act unaffected by her presence, but it was remarkably hard. She was impossible to ignore.

The day in question, everyone was spending time by the pool, attempting to stay cool in the August heat. I’d come by per Sophie’s request because she needed her kitchen knives sharpened, and I needed to do mine anyway. After we finished, we migrated outside with the rest of the group.

I felt a twist in my gut when I saw Alice lounging in the sun with a pair of sunglasses, rubbing sunscreen into her skin. Cat, Sophie, and Mark were all chatting about some TV show they were watching, so I sat with them and put on my own sunglasses, pretending not to stare at Alice.

My mouth watered at the sight of her. She wore a simple black two-piece swimsuit made up of boy shorts and a halter top. The halter lifted her full breasts, giving her a stunning cleavage line. Her legs and ass were curvy, plump, and begging for some affection. But what really got me were her tattoos and her piercings.

She had an intricate tattoo of a snake that began on her left shoulder blade, went over her shoulder, circled under her collar bone, and disappeared into her breasts, only to reappear right above her belly, splitting into three snake heads that circled and framed her navel, their fangs and tongues extended. A little sparkle of jewelry winked at me as she turned to get into the water, and I realized she had a belly button piercing too.

Not fair.

She also had the beginnings of an unidentifiable tattoo near the back of her hip, but I couldn’t tell what it was. The rest of her was unmarked, which was a shame, because skin that flawless really needed some decoration.

Knock it off. She’s not yours, and she never will be. You don’t do brats.

Alice got a scheming look on her face, and cannon-balled into the water right beside Cat, causing a large splash of water to come up and soak her. Alice rose to the surface, her hair hanging heavy down her back, cackling like a little witch. Cat spluttered, tossed her wide-brimmed hat aside, and jumped into the water after her to wrestle her into a forced apology.

She’s just going to keep doing shit like that if you reward her behavior,I thought to myself. But it was no use telling Cat that. She knew. She was playing her game.

That wasn’t a game I was willing to play.

“Okay, okay,” Alice laughed. Cat had caught her foot and was tickling the bottom of it, and giving us a rare, genuine smile. “Oh my God, stop! I surrender!” As soon as Cat let go, Alice kicked the water hard, splashing Cat again.

I looked away. Nope. Not a game I was willing to play. If Alice wanted to be snot, she could do it to someone else. Shit like that just stressed me out, and I had plenty of stress on my plate.

At least that was what I kept telling myself, because part of me wanted to catch her by the hair, drag her up out of the water, push her down over the railing, and spank her plump ass until my handprint could be seen from the parking lot.

Jesus, Weston, knock it off.

“Do you ever smile?”

Her voice was right beside me. Bracing myself, I removed my sunglasses and looked her dead in the eyes.

Fucking hell those eyes. Strange, dark blue with a splash of light and a sprinkling of gold, they were the kinds of eyes you could lose yourself in.

They’d look lovely if she were crying.

My hand went to my bad knee, and I dug my fingernails into my leg.We are not getting involved.

“No.”

Alice scooped up her hair, twisting it to wring out the water, and knotting it on the top of her head. The action forced her breasts to shift, giving me an even better look at her cleavage and her tattoos and the red and black rhinestone glittering from her belly. The rhinestones in her ears and the little stone on the side of her nose glittered in the light. I tried to ignore the droplets of water sitting on her skin, raised up against the oil of the sunscreen.

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