He’s silent the rest of the way until the car finally skids around a twitching neon sign for a run-down motel outside town. I look out my window as we park, noting the “rent by the hour” sign and the dirty, painted brick building. The windows to the rooms are cloudy and dark with broken blinds.
“I would have expected you to be staying somewhere nicer,” I admonish as Emmett storms over to my car door to let me out, ensuring I don’t try to run off.
“I want to lay low until I know exactly what happened with Bernadette,” he explains as he ushers me to the front door of his room. “I could be in danger, too, for all I know.”
As we step inside, I feel oddly calm. I don’t know if I am not afraid because I see Emmett as less of a threat now, even though he didn’t give me much of a choice in coming here with him, or if I am less afraid because I have become so used to this kind of treatment from him.
I want to remind him that this is exactly why I wanted space from him the first place. Because I deserve better than this. I can’t help but wonder if Malcolm would ever do anything like this. Sure, he messaged me to meet him alone and took me to meet with his father inconspicuously, but even then, he never made me feel afraid.
Emmett slides several different locks into place once we are inside the room. It’s filled with mismatched furniture and peeling wallpaper that reveals moldy, stained walls. The room is dimly lit behind the musty curtains, lightened in color from years of sunlight.
I collapse onto the edge of the squeaky bed, waiting to see what he’ll do next as a faucet drips loudly in the bathroom. There are angry voices and crying children echoing through the thin walls with loud, obnoxious dogs barking in the parking lot. It smells like piss and stale cigarette smoke.
“It’s disgusting in here,” I comment, noting the mouse droppings lining the closet floor.
“It’s cheap,” he states plainly. “And far enough away from Jameson that I don’t have to worry about someone telling the wrong people where I’ve checked in.”
“So…still no word from your sister?” I ask lightly, pursing my lips to the side as I grasp for any change of subject. I secretly wonder if he’s being just as paranoid about his sister and someone being after him as he is with his jealousy.
“You don’t think I have a right to be upset about Malcolm!?” he barks back, ignoring my question.
“Not if I didn’t have a right to be upset about you and Vivian,” I reply bitterly.
“So, you were just trying to get back at me?” He shakes his head as he continues manically pacing.
“No!” I groan, rolling my hands through my hair in frustration. “I wasn’t trying to do anything, Emmett! You humiliated me in front of Vivian and Lily so I took a walk! When I sat down, Malcolm came up and offered me some food. I left my lunch when I ran after you, remember? So, I accepted. We talked while we ate. That’s it!”
It’s exhausting to have to defend myself and watch him act this way, but I feel a slight flutter of satisfaction in my chest at seeing him so jealous. I hadn’t done it on purpose, but after letting Vivian treat me that way earlier, it’s hard not to feel like he got what was coming to him.
His dark brown eyes are glinting with pain and confusion as sweat beads across his forehead. So many things are bubbling up under the surface, and I am left waiting at his mercy, wondering when and how it will all come out. Emmett releases things in slow, furious waves, each completely unpredictable. He lets it all bubble up until it crashes out, usually crashing out onto me.
I wonder what he and Vivian were like alone when they were together. Could she get to him this way? Did he care enough about her to be this jealous? She has certainly always been jealous of me. I technically stole him away from her in a weird way. Do I deserve to be tormented by her now? Maybe I am just getting what was coming to me, the way Emmett is now with his feelings towards Malcolm.
I should be angry with Emmett for forcing me to come here like this, but I keep ending up only feeling angry with myself. I’m the one who can’t help but fall for this whole fucked up relationship instead of going after a nice, normal boy who is every bit as rich and good-looking. Even now as I watch Emmett fuming in a furious pace across his motel room floor, I can’t bring myself to just get up and walk away.
6
Chapter Six
There is something honest about Emmett being in this motel room. A dirty, cracked hole-in-the-wall seems fitting—more so than the polished manor where his family lives. I have always hated how deceptively beautiful everyone and everything in Jameson is. I lay in my bed at home and stare at my white ceiling, thinking that’s fitting, too. I’m innocent. Less so now than I was before, but I can never fully know what it was like to grow up the way he did.
Suddenly, Emmett stops dead in his tracks and turns to me with an almost frightening sternness. “I can’t lose you to him,” he bellows, stepping towards my perch on the edge of the bed. “You’re mine, Ophelia,” he offers more softly.
His eyes spark with a tenderness that lures me in. He kneels down in front of me, pressing his head to my chest, running his hands across my thighs. I feel myself melting into his desire. His warm, soft hand engulfs my cheek and there’s so much kinetic energy flowing through it that I feel like I could drown in it.
“This is so fucked up, Emmett,” I whisper, closing my eyes against his skin.
“I know I’m not the best, Ophelia,” he says softly. “But we’ve come too far together. I have too much of myself invested in you. I can’t lose you.”
I find myself thinking I could never hate Emmett, but then I have to remember who he was before. And now I am stuck in this haze…trying to save him from himself. As long as he keeps fighting for me, I know I can never leave. No matter how badly I want to.
I believe in Emmett’s goodness. I swear that I can see it, and I want to hold out hope that it’s real. Maybe if I believe in it enough, he will believe in it, too.
“You’re not losing me. I’m right here.”
“Are you?” He looks at me in desperation. “Are you here with me enough to feel this?”
I know what he is talking about. This thing between us that makes us both feel crazy. The thing that keeps drawing us together, no matter how much easier it would be if we could just go our separate ways. The spark in his eyes pulls me in, and before I know it, I am drowning in his kiss.
When Emmett’s and my lips collide, it feels like time holds still. Everything slows and suspends—it’s just the two of us and our heat. I could get lost in his mouth forever, just exploring his tongue with mine and feeling the gentle bite of his teeth against my bottom lip that grows greedier as we go.
I feel like my heart might stop with excitement when he lifts me up further onto the bed, digging his hands into my thighs as he takes in more of my mouth. He angles himself between my legs and presses his hardness into me, fitting perfectly and making me dizzy with lust.
“Ophelia,” he hums against my lips, pressing deeper.
He pulls back in an urgent pant for air, taking in the sight of me with a carnal gaze, and I think in that moment that I have never seen a more beautiful guy, but before I can fully rest on that he lunges forward again, gripping his hands into my hips.
The push of his tongue makes me long to feel him between my legs. The ache in me rises as I claw at his shirt, catching his skin with scratches as I lift it away. His palms press against my breasts, twisting fervent handfuls but he grunts with dissatisfaction. He quickly slips my shirt over my head just as ferociously as I had with his, and moves to undo the clasp of my bra. He moans when he finally feels my bare breasts in his grip, trailing his tongue around my mouth with each squeezing motion.
My fingers clench into his messy curls as he moves down to take my hardened nipples in between his lips and tongue one by one. He releases breathless grunts as I pull his hair harder, urging him to keep going as my hips buck and rub up against his bulge, still nestled between my legs.
“Now, Emmett,” I plead as he thrusts against me through our clothes. “Please, I can’t wait anymore. I need to feel you inside of me.”
He jumps back and quickly removes his pants before grabbing a condom from his pocket and swiftly sliding it over his erection. I can’t stop myself from pulling forward and taking him into my grip, sliding up and down as I tease him with my lips. I feel him shudder against my trailing tongue before he throws me back against the bed hard—so hard that it causes my vision to go blurry for a moment, but it’s exactly uncontrollable wildness about Emmett that makes him so irresistible to me. Always keeping me on the edge between my fear of not knowing what could happen next and intense desire.
“Please come here,” I reach for him, desperately needing to feel him slide inside of me.
He smiles proudly at my impatience and removes my pants and underwear. But instead of lowering to me like I had asked, he kisses down my legs in between my thighs. I am so wet and hungry that the moment his tongue flickers across my folds, I feel like I might cum. His hands creep back up to my breasts as he works soft circles around my clit with his mouth. He licks until I think I might scream loud enough to worry the neighbors, until finally his fingers slide inside.