“There’s nothing to tell,” she said as she pulled a shirt off a hanger. Going to the case already open on the end of her bed, she folded the shirt and dropped it inside.
She made me want to pull my hair out. “Why are you being like this?” I demanded.
When she didn’t answer, I caught hold of her wrist on her way back to the closet and gently tugged her around to face me. “Did I do something wrong?” She twisted her lips, and I made a pained sound in the back of my throat. “Kitten, I’m not above begging.”
“Okay, fine.”
I nearly groaned because I’d lived with Mia long enough to know those two words were a deadly combination. She said them whenever she was about to tear into Barrick and make his life a living hell until he could get her to forgive him. Hearing them coming from Nevaeh was enough to make me begin to sweat.
“I’m tired, Braxton. Tired of fighting with myself because our friendship has been slowly killing me for the past two years. It’s fucking exhausting pretending like I don’t like you. So, no, you haven’t done anything wrong. This is all on me.” Pulling her wrist free, she took two steps back. She blinked those beautiful, hypnotic blue-gray eyes at me, fighting tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking down at her hands that she was clenching together. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Stunned by her confession, I stood there speechless. I wanted to grab her and kiss the breath out of her and make a few confessions of my own, but my conscience wouldn’t let me. Not yet. She was still seventeen for sixteen more hours.
“Nevaeh,” I rasped her name. “I—”
“No, don’t say anything,” she pleaded. “I don’t think I could bear it. I just… I need to shower. Yeah, shower. You should go, Braxton. I think I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one day.”
“Nev, just wait. Listen—”
“I really can’t.” Taking another step back, she shook her head, and twin tears spilled over her lashes. “Please, just go.”
“Fuck this,” I growled and grabbed her by the hips, jerking her into me roughly. “Do not run away from me, Kitten.” Her mouth fell open, but at least her tears seemed to dry up. Those damn things made me crazy, and I couldn’t think clearly whenever I saw them in her eyes. “Now, listen to me. You are seventeen, Nevaeh. Seven-fucking-teen. I know it’s only for a few more hours, but I can’t do what I’ve been thinking about and aching to do for too damn long. Not yet.”
“Wh-what have you been aching to do?” she whispered, her breaths already coming in little pants that pushed her tits up against her old T-shirt.
I pressed my forehead to hers and inhaled deeply, pulling her fruity-floral scent into me. Her smell always calmed me, but I knew it was because my brain knew it as her scent. “Things I should have been shot for thinking about because you were too young. Now please, stop thinking stupid shit, and just give me a little more time before you go breaking your heart because you imagine I don’t feel the same way you do.”
Chapter 4
Nevaeh
T he entire flight to California, I felt like my entire body was humming, and I couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off my lips. All I could do was relive the moment in my bedroom that morning with Braxton.
For two years, I thought what I felt for him was unrequited. That I was the only one suffering in silence, wanting something I thought I could never have. Yet, Brax had hinted that he’d just been waiting until I was eighteen. He’d been aching for the same things I was.
I’d wanted to cancel my plans with my family and just stay home, see what would happen once the clock struck midnight and if Braxton would make a move after I turned the magical age of eighteen. But he seemed to know that and urged me to go, promising when I got back…
Well, he hadn’t actually said what would happen when I got back. I knew he had his family obligation to deal with later that night, and he was stressed enough over that for me not to want to add more pressure onto his shoulders, so I hadn’t demanded he tell me all the details I yearned for. Just knowing that something would happen was enough for the moment.
There was a black SUV waiting on the tarmac when the door of PopPop’s jet was opened. Marcus exited first, making sure everything was clear before sticking his head back in and letting Mia know it was safe to leave our seats. Marcus wasn’t expecting some sniper or a madman with a knife to attack us. It was more a horde of paparazzi that could jump out from behind some random vehicle he was concerned with.
Now that Mia and I were older, we were getting even more attention from photographers and other reporters, wanting all the dirty secrets on us since we were leading more separate lives from our parents. They didn’t often get much, so they resorted to embellished half-truths. Their newest theory was that I had a secret addiction, saying the apple didn’t fall far from the tree since my dad was a recovering alcoholic. They didn’t seem to care that he’d been sober for twenty years.
As I descended the stairs of the jet, the back door of the SUV opened, and my mom jumped out. She screamed my name and started bouncing up and down, making me fear she would break the heel off one of her stiletto boots and hurt herself.
“Nev!” she squealed as I neared, and she threw her arms around me.
Her boots made her a few inches taller than me, and her eyes were a warm honey-brown, but other than that, we looked freakishly similar. Mom took great care of herself, and there wasn’t a single line on her face that suggested she’d birthed five children who’d kept her and Daddy on their toes twenty-four seven for the past eighteen years. Her long dark hair was pulled up into a simple ponytail. She colored it to hide the few grays, the only real proof of her age.
“Happy almost birthday, my baby,” she said as she pulled back enough to kiss my cheek. “Oh fuck, Nevaeh, how did you get to be eighteen so quickly?”
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Mia commented from beside me, earning her a welcoming hug from Mom.
“How was your flight?” Mom asked as Marcus tossed our cases in the back of the SUV.
“Uneventful,” I told her with a shrug.
“I doubt you would have noticed the back end of the plane exploding, you were so lost in your own wonderland,” Mia said with a laugh. “It was so bumpy, I threw up for like an hour because of the weather over the Midwest.”
Mom’s eyes sparkled as we took our seats in the vehicle. “Hmm. I wonder why. It couldn’t be because of a certain retired Marine, now could it?”
I felt my cheeks heat, but I wasn’t about to lie to her. “Maybe.”
“So…” Mom crossed her legs and turned slightly to face me. “What’s the verdict on that avenue currently? The boy smarten up yet?”
“Mom,” I huffed. “Really, it’s none of your business.”
“Bullshit. I just want to know if you two are going to become a thing. And if so, are you still going to go to grad school here or back in Virginia?”
I sighed as I pulled on my seat belt, and Mia took her place beside me. When I glanced at her, I noticed she looked a little green, making me wonder just how upset her stomach really was from the flight. Sweat beaded on her upper lip, and she wiped her hand across it, giving me a grimace before snapping her own belt in place. I knew she didn’t always travel well when it came to flying, but I thought I’d heard her in her bathroom earlier that morning being sick…
My eyes widened when she winked at me, but I kept my mouth shut. Maybe she had a reason other than my birthday celebration with the family to want to come home to see her parents.
“Nev.” Mom pulled my focus back to her. “Are you going to come home or not?”
“As of right now, I’m coming home for grad school,” I informed her, storing away the possibility of Mia being pregnant for when we were alone.
My answer didn’t seem to assuage Mom’s curiosity. Instead, we were subjected to question after question about what was happening back in Virginia on the way to Mia’s house. The driver dropped her and Marcus off without us going inside, and then we made our way home.
Dad was in Downtown LA with the rest of the Demons working on some new music for a movie soundtrack they’d been asked to contribute to. Normally all my siblings went wherever either of my parents went. A nanny was never something I’d experienced growing up because Mom and Dad wanted to be fully hands-on with all of us. So it was unusual for Mom to show up at the airport alone, but she’d been asking Mia and me so many questions, I hadn’t had the chance to ask her where my brother and sisters were.
I finally got the opportunity a few miles from home. “Where is everyone?”
“They all had friends to visit. They’ll be home later tonight, though.” She said it so casually, but I was sure I’d seen something in her eyes. I couldn’t read it, and for some reason, that set off alarm bells inside me.
“I’m making all your favorites for dinner tonight,” she informed me, hurriedly changing the subject as the driver pulled into the driveway.
Mom normally drove a minivan and Dad had his SUV, but when she had to go to the airport or anywhere in LA by herself, she called for a driver—something she didn’t like to do often.