Absolution (9 page)

“I don’t want to see her in jail. She needs help. Now, she’s going to get it—her dad’s sending her to rehab.”

Chase whistled. “How would it be?”

“Being almost smashed by a drunk driver? Or being sent to rehab? Gee, I don’t know, let me think on that one for a while and I’ll get back to you,” I snickered.

“No,” he blushed. “How would it be to be Weston, and have crazy chicks willing to kill for you? Man, that guy is a stud.”

“Don’t say that too loud,” I whispered, teasing him. He glanced around to see if anyone had heard him. “You aren’t serious. Chase, that’s not love.”

“I’d like to try it.”

I chuckled. “Okaaay.” I clicked the mouse and closed Windows for the day. I wasn’t getting anywhere and staring at lame stories wasn’t helping matters.

Chase looked like he was sitting on eggshells. “What?” I asked. “There are girls who like you. Come on.”

“Not the ones I want.”

“After everything you know about Brit, you still want her?”

He stared at me, so long that I bit my lower lip. His gaze dropped to my mouth for an uncomfortably long moment, then lifted to my eyes again.

“Not just her,” he said.

Uh-oh
. The shrill bell announcing that class was over did nothing to break Chase’s concentration. His eyes remained riveted to mine. “Zoe, will you go to prom with me?”

My mouth opened but nothing came out.

“I figured if I asked you now, I’d beat Weston to the punch.”

“Well, yeah, you beat him all right.”

Chase slapped his thigh. “Yes!”

“Chase, you know Weston and I are… seeing each other, so I can’t accept your invite, even if you did beat him at asking me.”

“Oh, man.” His right leg flopped straight out.

“Come on.” I leaned over and side-hugged him. “We’re buddies, right?

Maybe we can double.”

I drew back and he slumped in his chair. “Who am I going to go with?

I suck at dancing, and you’re the first girl who’s ever said more than ten words to me.”

“That’s not true.”

The right side of his lip lifted. “Okay, I’m exaggerating. But you’d be fun to go with.”

“I’m really honored you asked me.”

He snorted. “Honor. What a pile.”

“Hey, girls appreciate honorable guys.”

“I’m done being honorable. I want to have fun. Hey, maybe I could ask Krissy. You said she kind of likes me. What? What’s that look on your face mean?”

“She’s kind of into Luke right now, I think.”

Chase blew out a breath. “That was fast. Not that I have anything against your brother, he’s cool. But… man, I guess I gotta move faster. Is there a secret handshake or something I’m missing?”

I laughed. We stood, and I gathered my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. Chase crossed to his desk and did the same. We walked out the door together.

My cell phone vibrated and I dug it out of my pocket and grinned.

“Weston?” Chase asked, noting my smile.

I nodded.

“Guess I can hold onto the slim-to-none chance that you and he will have a fight or break up or something.”

“Chase!” I playfully slugged his bicep before he went on his way.

want a ride home?

yeah b rite there

I slipped the phone back into the front pocket of my jeans just as I passed a poster, decorated in blue sky and billowy white clouds, for this year’s prom: Paradise on Earth. I couldn’t suppress the grin on my lips.

y y y

When Weston and I pulled up next to the house, Luke’s Samurai was parked out front and, through the foggy glass of the back window, I made out two forms sitting in the front seats.

“Is that Krissy?” I asked.

Weston parked behind Luke’s car and turned off his engine. “Looks like it. They a thing now?”

“They went to lunch together today,” I said.

Weston hopped out, rounded the front of the truck and opened my door. “Thanks.”

His hands went to my waist and held me in the opening. “I don’t want this to be over.” His voice was low.

My insides sparked. “You want to come inside for a while?”

He nodded, relief easing the pensiveness in his face. His fingers tightened at my hips and he moved in close, forcing my legs apart so his body was flush with mine. His arms wrapped around my back.

“I want to kiss you,” he whispered.

Right here? Right now?
Luke and Krissy could see us if they turned around. I glanced over. They seemed preoccupied in conversation.

Weston’s warm lips coursed the side of my turned neck. Rivulets of heat raced beneath my skin. I closed my eyes; met his ready mouth with my own.

His hungry hands roved my back. My fingers dove into his hair.

“Let’s go inside,” he said. “I’m your slave.”

He shut the door we started around the truck.

I took his hand and led him toward the front door, passing Luke’s car. Both Luke and Krissy, in the middle of talking, looked over. Krissy’s lips curved up a little and she dipped her head. Luke waved.

I waved back, then continued to lead Weston inside. I whipped out my cell phone and texted Luke:

careful her dad’s a psycho remember

yeah k

Weston’s brown eyes stroked me like a hot feather. His scent seeped into my senses. He reached out, and his palms locked onto my waist, infusing my torso with heat. Want built in my weakening knees, then reached upward taking control of my limbs, my heart.

I slid my arms around his neck.

He leaned, and pressed his mouth to mine. Desire synchronized.

Blossomed. My hands moved up his neck, savoring taut chords and muscles as his head moved, consuming my lips, continuing in exploration into the thick waves of his hair.

His body, tight as a fist against mine, pressed me back a step, two, until my spine hit the edge of the open door. With his foot, he nudged it. It nearly shut.

I broke the seal of our mouths. “Have to keep…” I gasped between kisses, “the door… open.”

His hands moved, one sliding behind me, the other tracing the side of my body, lighting me with delicious fire. Need bubbled. I pulled him closer.

My eyes cracked open just enough to see if his were closed in bliss or if he was checking me out as well. My heart stopped. Albert hovered over Weston’s shoulder.

I shoved Weston back and gasped. “Stop.”

“Why?” Weston panted.

“We can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

Albert’s lips lifted in a glittering grin. “Yes, why stop, Zoe? This was just getting interesting.”

“You are sick! Sick!”

“I’m sorry,” Weston sputtered his face paling with shock.

“No, not you.” I took his hand, words racing out. “I’m sorry. I just…

think… things were going too fast.”

“I thought you wanted to.”

“I did, I do.”

Albert leaned close. “She does, she does. And so do we.”

We?

Albert nodded at something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder.

Brady.

Brady grinned.

I forced outrage, surprise and fear aside and focused on Weston’s wary, flushed face.

“No, I moved too fast.” Weston scraped his hands down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t move fast enough, bro,” Brady snickered.

“There’s an art to seduction.” Albert floated in a circle around Weston and I—Brady joined in, eyeing Weston like a dog eyes a steak.
Uh-oh.

“Apologizing for a natural desire. Tsk, tsk.” Albert shook his head and drew in a deep breath. “Ahh. Lust. The scent is so… potent. So irresistible. So unstoppable.”

Brady stopped behind Weston and his hands began a slow roving of Weston’s body. Albert stopped behind me. My heart spun out of control. I kept my gaze on Weston’s, but tried to keep in tune with what Brady was doing to him and what Albert was attempting to do to me.

A hot surge of desire swept through my system, taunting fingers beckoning, urging, me toward Weston’s smooth skin. His lips.

“It’s natural to want him,” Albert whispered in my ear. Craving swam through my veins and pooled low in my body, surging through my legs, pushing me toward Weston.

No.
This is Albert, not me
. I took Weston’s face in my hands and stared him straight in the eyes. His eyes had changed from surprise, to desire. He licked his lips.

“Look at me,” I said.

“I am,” he purred.

“You’re not yourself right now, Weston. Trust me.”

“Oh, I’m all here,” he said, eyeing my mouth. “And I’m ready.”

“Come on,” Brady’s hands moved faster. “Rip into her. Tear off her clothes.”

“Sex is hot,” Weston’s voice slipped into slick mode.

“Yeah, when you
love
someone,” I put in.

“I do love you.” His mouth neared mine.

“Quit talking,” Brady hissed, stimulation now frenzied. “Do it.”

I flattened my palms on Weston’s chest. “I say we talk about this.”

“I say you strip down and let me have at,” Weston whispered against my jaw. Then he froze, inched back, his face twisted and flushing red. “Did I just say that?”

I pulled Weston into a hug. “Hold me.” His heart rammed against my cheek. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see Albert or Brady, and then opened my mind to as many positive, loving thoughts of Weston that I could.

At first Weston’s grip was aggressive, but it didn’t take long before his arms gentled.

I hugged him tighter. “Weston. The feelings I have for you are different than anything I’ve felt for another guy. I want it to stay that way. You’ve said you feel the same for me. You told me that you… love me. Is this love? To me it feels more like lust.”

Weston drew in a breath. “Jeez, Zoe, talk about deflating a guy’s libido.”

“Just calling it what it is.” I eased back. Brady had moved away, fear twisting his face. “You told me that’s one of the things you love about me.”

“Yeah, true.” Weston touched the side of my face. “Maybe I’m caught up in the moment. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“We don’t think clearly when we’re caught up in the moment. We make rash decisions. I’ve done enough of that. I’m not allowing myself to lose control
ever
again.”
How’s that Albert?.
“I need to tell you something.”

Confusion and panic widened Brady’s eyes. In my peripheral vision, Albert appeared.

“Remember how I saw Brady at the funeral? Standing behind his mother?”

“Yeah.” Weston’s brows slowly drew together.

“He was there in the parking lot today… riling you.”

“What?” Weston’s arms fell away from my waist. His flushed face drained of color.

“No. Shut up, shut up!” Brady screamed.

A look of annoyance flashed on Albert’s face. He flicked a hand and Brady vanished.

“You saw him… again?” Weston barely breathed the words out.

I nodded. Wrapped my arms around myself. “It’s scary. I hate it.”

“What did he want?”

How to tell someone their dead best friend from hell now wants to destroy their soul? “He… he’s…” I swallowed. Weston might freak if he knew the truth.

“He’ll never believe you,” Albert said.

“Zoe, what?”

“He wants to bring you down.”

Weston’s bottomless brown eyes widened with fear. “He said that?”

I nodded. “He was here… just now.” I chanced a look at Albert. His look of arrogance grated at my nerves. “He was trying to get you worked up because—”

“Stop.” Weston jammed his hands into his hair. “Just stop.”

Albert’s lips lifted at the corners.

“You told me you didn’t want me to lie to you, and I won’t. Not when this means everything to me.”

Hands dragging down his face, Weston didn’t blink through his locked gaze, hard and stunned on mine. “What means everything?” he asked quietly.

“You. Us. The truth.”

He studied me with deciphering eyes. Then his gaze fell to the floor.

He shook his head, let out a helpless-sounding laugh. “You’re…” He looked at me, searching gone, a trace of fear now coloring his pale expression. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. Look.” I stepped closer to him, but he inched back. To my right, Albert crossed his arms over his chest. “Whatever’s happened to me, this ability I have to see guardians and stuff also enables me to see evil spirits.”

He swallowed. Didn’t respond.

“He doesn’t believe you,” Albert murmured.

Yes, he does, I thought, even though Albert couldn’t hear me.
And then
you don’t have a reason to be here.

Finally, Weston closed the space between us. “I have a girlfriend who sees guardian angels and murderers. You are—” He stroked the side of my face with the back of his fingers, “—something else, Zoe.”

“Girlfriend?” My insides tingled and I smiled, approving of his endearment.

Weston slipped his arms around my waist and snuggled against me, his forehead pressed to mine. He closed his eyes. “One more reason I love you.”

Albert’s arms unfolded and went behind his back. I grinned inwardly to myself.

I inched back and looked Weston in the eye. “I never want to be the cause of why someone
I
care about loses control. Ever.”

“I love you,” he whispered, then held me close. “I’m sorry I acted like…

an idiot.”

“It’s okay.
Making lov
e is not something I’ve ever done before,” I admitted.

“Me neither.”

I was relieved he understood the difference. Albert’s eyes hardened. He zigzagged like a caged wildcat. The word
trapped
kept surfacing in my head.

Trapped. Afraid.

And gone.

Cool relief sighed from my chest. I pressed Weston’s cheeks gently with the palms of my hands, and he reached up, covered my hands with his. “You make me crazy, Zoe.”

“That’s cool.” I grinned.

“I want to make you crazy,” he murmured.

“Well, you’re getting close.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He tilted his head back, smiled. “Yes!”

After Weston left, I offered to babysit Abria for Mom and Dad so they could go out. I wanted to make sure they had all the time they needed to talk.

I didn’t like the idea that they might succumb to Albert’s influence, which could tear the family apart. After everything we’d been through with Abria and Luke and even my issues, I’d do everything in my power to see that Albert had zero opportunity to hang around and spread his malicious intent.