Rock Candy Kisses(31)

She bites over her lip with a smile. Annie pulls me down into a kiss  that's fueled with emotion-with the start of our forever-with the magic  she's just dusted the room with by way of her voice. Annie is an angel  in the way she looks, acts, and sounds. There isn't a wicked or cruel  bone in her body. It's a miracle she even looked twice at me.

Olivia tries to claw her way to the forefront of my mind, but I'm on  lockdown. Tonight is about Annie and me celebrating our love.

Our clothes disband as we tug and pull our way into oblivion. My hand  rides low on her hip until I'm right there over the most tender part of  her. Annie is soaking wet, happy to see me in the best way possible. My  finger pushes inside her, my thumb working her folds just enough to  start the party. I need to get her there tonight. It's like my brain has  thrown it out to my ego like some sick challenge, and in no way do I  want to lose. All of the stars have lined up. This is our moment. I  won't let a single thing-a single person, least of all myself-ruin what  we have. Every moment that we've ever shared is culminating in this one  spectacular night, and to give Annie this gift would top it all off with  a nice, neat bow.

I whisper a dozen I love yous right into her ear without giving it much  thought. I can't shut it off. I want to tell her I love her, that I need  her, on a loop. The words demand to rip from my throat like a battle  cry, like an apology. Her body writhes beneath me. Annie pulls away from  my kisses as she gasps for air. She's so close, and I want her to take  it.

I get off the couch and drop to my knees, slinging her thighs over my  shoulders and go for it. Annie is dripping wet, hot as a bonfire, and I  bathe my face a moment before tracking my tongue up to right where it  needs to be. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders. Her gasps grow with  intensity, more audible by the moment. So close. I press in just enough,  loving her with my entire being the only way I know how and don't  relent until she lets out one last audible cry. Annie shudders, locking  her knees over my head, and I can't help but smile right into her thigh.  A heated gush comes from her. It's my turn to take it, and I do-water  for my thirsty soul.

Annie coils my hair in her fingers before forcibly pushing me off.

A dark laugh rattles from deep in my chest as I glide over her. I lean  in to dot her lips with a kiss, but she turns away. I bury one in her  temple instead before digging my face into her beautiful hair.

It's quiet save for the sound of our heavy breathing, the drumming of  our hearts. I want to ask her if she liked that, if she's ready for  more-tell her that I love her, but I'm soaking in the moment, enjoying  the hell out of this too much to pull us out of it.

Our bodies fuse together. Annie was right. This erotic heat is all we need to keep warm.

We don't need any assurances to fill the moment.

Annie and I have moved beyond words.

Our love is palpable, tangible, in every sense of the word, real.

Annie is my present-and she's most certainly my future.

Olivia pops into my dark mind like a demon.

Point taken.



* * *



The next day, I take Annie back to Whitney Briggs. We hit her dorm first  so she can shower and change. We didn't want to get out of bed this  morning, just made love again like we had the entire day to do it. I  made breakfast for her this time, and we curled up watching morning TV.  It felt natural, necessary as breathing. I'd move the entire mountain  that Hollow Brook is set on just to have Annie in my bed nightly.

English is her only class of the day, so she asked me to hang out on  campus until she's through. I promised her a trip to our special spot  just above the Witch's Cauldron. I think that's the place I'll break  both her heart and mine trying to explain the crap out of Olivia. I'm  not sure there's enough time in the world to relay exactly how and why  that relationship came to be. For sure no one can break Olivia down into  sound bites.                       
       
           



       

I head off toward the student union     and pick up a catalog for spring  semester. It's already time to register, but I've yet to figure out if  it will even be feasible. I'm not sure if Olivia will keep the baby for a  few days then drop it off on my doorstep the first chance she gets or  if I'll be exiting the hospital with him myself. I might need to sit out  the rest of the school year and save up for fall. I've already  contacted the daycare center on campus. As long as I'm fulltime, they'll  watch him for a discounted rate that can be rolled into my student  loans. The only reason I'm at Whitney Briggs is the scholarship I scored  my senior year in high school. Both Benji and I qualified for financial  aid to cover the rest. We were pretty determined to get our degrees.  Watching our father roll in and out of AA all our lives pretty much  solidified the fact we wanted out of our crappy neighborhood and away  from good old Pops for good. Not for good. As much as he was  spectacularly lame as a father, we loved him. Hell, I still do. Now  Benji isn't here, and I'm not in school. So much for all our scholastic  dreams coming true.

"Daniels!" A male voice shouts, and I turn, looking into the crowd as  the bodies merge into nearby buildings. Must have imagined it. The thick  scent of coffee drifts from Hallowed Grounds, and I start heading in  that direction. Just before I duck inside, a heavy hand falls onto my  shoulder.

I turn to find the unwelcome mug of one of the Edwards brothers. Bryson.  Next to him is his mirror reflection, Holt, with an equally pissed look  just for me.

"What's up?" I nod toward the growing line inside. "You guys want some  coffee? I'm buying." It's a friendly gesture on my part, but judging by  their long, hardened faces this isn't a friendly visit.

"No thanks." Bryson does a quick sweep of the campus. Half the staff at  the Black Bear attends Briggs. I'm assuming he'll want to keep the  witnesses to a minimum when he slaughters me.

Holt nods to the parking lot, and we walk over in silence, me like a  prisoner headed to death row. Hell, I won't make it to death row.  They'll probably shank me before they speed the hell out of here.

I stop just shy of the forest adjacent to the lot. That's it. I'm not  giving another inch. If they want to pummel me in the bushes, they'll  have to drag me there first.

"Let's have it. What's this about? You want my balls on a platter? Tell me what the hell for."

Holt comes at me and shoves me hard into the trunk of a pine.

A shooting pain knifes through my back as a branch impales me just below the shoulder.

"Shit." I shove him the hell off me. I'm through with playing nice. I'm  fucking pissed. I don't really care if these idiots and I ever get  along. "I'm not anybody's bitch so hands off. Got it?"

"Yeah?" Holt laughs at me through squinted eyes. "What's Annie to you? Is she your little bitch?"

Something in me stills. "What the hell's gotten into you? Don't talk  about her like that." I try to push past them, but Bryson stops me cold.

"What does Olivia Cameron mean to you?"

My heart stops. I don't bother taking my next breath. Shit.

I hold my hands up. "What do you think you know?"

Bryson gives my shoulders a hard shove until I'm pressed into the tree  again. I glance up at the sky as if it were Benji himself. I'm not sure  why, but I wish he were here. Not to double-team the Edwards brothers,  but to help me to get the twisted truth out.

"What do we think we know?" Bryson spits the words over my face. "We had  a nice long chat with your ex-girlfriend-but she's not really your ex  is she? I mean she's having your kid, so things aren't that far in the  past-are they?"

I swallow hard trying to process what comes next. Shit. I should have told Annie last night. I should have told her weeks ago.

"Let me tell her." I don't even bother trying to make them understand  what's happening between Olivia and me. There's too much hate in their  eyes, and I'm starting to understand why.

"No can do, buddy." Holt looks as if he's about to draw back and deck  me, instead he closes his eyes and shakes his head. "So Annie doesn't  know." He doesn't hide his disappointment. "Shit. This is big, Blake. I  thought for sure she knew and was hiding it." He looks to Bryson for a  second. "That's what I get for defending you. Look, this isn't little  stuff that you can slip under the bridge. Olivia says she's having this  kid in just a few weeks. When were you planning on telling my sister?"  His voice rises through the forest. It threads right through the  branches as it spikes to the sky. I hope to God Benji is listening  in-watching how fast my life has managed to unravel itself. A selfish  part of me would really like for him to take part in this shit storm.  "What were you going to do? Take her on a date to the hospital one  night? Oh, by the way, Annie? See that kid? That's mine."