Harkham's Choice (Harkham's Series Book 2) (30 page)

“Why
do
you?” He turned his head toward her even though it was hard to make out any definition in her face. A smile was there and he could tell her eyes were heavy, but not with sleep.

“When they touch me—I swear, the earth could be falling away under me, and I wouldn’t know it.”

“What else?” he asked, breathless, captivated.

“I love these arms, too,” she said, her fingertips now ghosting up his forearm and heading to his bicep.

“I want to know why,” he said, his mouth going dry from the way he was panting already. He was glad she banished Choppy to the floor—his dog might think he was broken with the way he was almost gasping for enough air.

“When they hold me—I feel okay inside, like I’m a different version of me. A better one,” she said, shaking her head a little. “I can’t explain that one very well, but they transport my mind to better places.”

He wanted to speak, but nothing came out. It was probably better this way. His thoughts were completely incoherent.

Next, her fingers drifted up his shoulders, moved across his neck and then she stroked his parted lips.

“And when I think I couldn’t love anything more than your hands and your arms, you kiss me, and you obliterate what they’ve done to me. Because . . .” She exhaled with a slow, whooshing sound. “When they kiss me, I have no idea who I am anymore. I’ve died—I’m in Heaven. You’ve put me on your back and transported me there, even if I don’t belong.”

“Mari . . . I . . .”

Her index finger forced his mouth to close.

“No talking. Just feel me. I want you to feel what you do to me—what Heaven can be like,” she said. She pulled his shirt off, and her warm hands roamed all over his chest, his neck and his arms. When it seemed like he couldn’t take it anymore, she leaned over with her hair tickling his body and peppered him with warm, wet kisses and made these incredible moaning sounds he thought would kill him.

She rubbed her body all over him, eventually removing most of her clothing along with more of his.

“Tomorrow—
tomorrow
 I get more,” he said, but it sounded like a question, and his voice wavered so much she probably couldn’t understand what he said.

She inhaled sharply. “Tomorrow you get everything you want from me that I can give. I won’t hold back—all you have to do is say what you need.”

“I need you. All of you—every last bit. Oh, God, Mari . . . I wish you could give it all to me now,” he whimpered.

His fingers threaded into her hair, and she leaned her head back, arching her back. The way she straddled him and moved, it made him sorer than ever.

“You want it now?” she taunted, wiggling her hips back and forth.

“But the rules . . . You said . . .” He swallowed, and his hands went to her hips to still her so he wouldn’t make a mess with his fluids bursting out of him.

“Fuck the rules,” she growled. “Rules were made to be broken.”

His insides burned, and his hips lifted into her.

“Shit, that feels good,” she said.

Whoa. She cursed. He could count how many times she’d said bad words to him on his two hands. This was . . . different somehow. He could barely breathe—it was so hot. He was hot. It was hard to think straight when she talked like that and sounded that way.

“Say that again . . .” His voice was hoarse like he needed water more than anything.

“I said . . .” She leaned over, her lips at his ears. “Rules can fuck themselves. We’re marrying tomorrow. You’re mine!”

In an instant, he had her pinned below him. He bit her ear and said with a rasp, “I won’t make it, Mari. You’ve undone me. I’m not polite anymore—I can’t be. Not now.”

He stripped off her little panties, touched her there until she was so loud he thought for sure his dad would come in and intervene.

But when she was thrashing around, telling him she loved him more than anything and would kill anybody that would try to take him away from her, he was suddenly and inexplicably content.

She moved out from under him when her breathing calmed.

“No,” he said.

“No, what?”

“No—we wait. We’re gonna follow the rules,” he said.

Her hand reached out to touch him, and he circled her wrist, then flattened her palm to his chest.

“But I . . . But you—” Her voice went up in pitch. She was all tense.

“No. We’re gonna wait. Tomorrow will be perfect. You can’t step in the backyard though until it’s time to get married. You’ll be more beautiful than any angel. I’ll be so happy to see you, and everybody will know we love each other for who we are. That we don’t care about our past mistakes and the things we do wrong all the time. Those things don’t matter. We don’t have to prove anything to anybody, and right now, we’re going to go to sleep so we don’t ruin our perfect day by being too tired because of our impatience.”

“How did you get to be so brilliant and perfect?” She kissed his left pec and then settled her head there.

“I don’t know. How did you get to be so beautiful and loving?”

“I used to think I was none of those things,” she mused.

“I want to say the same about me, but I’m tired. I stayed up late to create a surprise for you.”

Her head almost bounced off his chest. “A surprise?”

“Yep. Sleep now,” he said. “It’s good, but not good enough to lose sleep over.” He kissed her head in an almost brotherly fashion.

She chuckled, caressed his chest and before long she was asleep, covering half his body.

Tomorrow night she’d cover the whole thing, and he would be damned if he’d stop her.

He drifted off with a huge smile on his face.

Chapter 16

The whole day was spent with him walking around in a daze. It was almost time.

He stepped outside to check on Choppy and make sure the black and white satin bows around her neck were still in place. They were.

When he backed up, he bumped into a chair and something fell off.

It was one of the tools from last night. He’d forgotten he’d put them there.

He picked up the mini icepick and shoved it in his pocket along with the tiny screw driver. He’d put them away as soon as he went inside.

“Adam—there you are. The Justice of the Peace is here. He wants to talk to you,” Zach said.

The next thing Adam new, he was standing in the spot with Mr. Roberts, practicing what he’d say.

It was easy—the lines were simple. Good—less chance of messing them up.

He went over the words a few times in his mind and got close to memorizing them.

When he stopped enough to look up, he saw several people walking through the side gate.

It was time—already.

He beamed as he welcomed them, shaking their hands forcefully and helping them find a seat in the few rows they had set up at the back corner of the yard.

Once he had them situated, several more walked through. They were only expecting about forty or so, but it felt like he was greeting hundreds of people. Goodness—he could scarcely take it all in.

“Hi, Adam. This looks great. I like the black, white and red theme. It’s striking,” Daniel said.

Adam’s face dropped a tad. He didn’t recall them discussing Daniel being invited.

Then he remembered Mari arguing with her mom last night over handing out invitations without discussing it with them first.

Daniel must have been one of them.

“Thank you. The black is evil, the white is good, and the red is blood,” Adam explained.

Daniel grimaced. “Do I want to know what blood has to do with a wedding?”

“No, probably not.” Adam grinned. The blood was his virginity. He knew he wasn’t going to bleed, but he kind of wished he could. The symbol of giving her his blood with his virginity was something he kind of liked.

Mari thought it was morbid, but said she really liked it—that it was kind of twisted, like them.

Adam made sure that on each table, inside the glass bowls with all the floating candles on top of the water, there was a red rose floating between them. His virginity was always between them.

Tonight that would end in their hotel room where they’d be staying.

“Have you heard from Samara recently?” Adam asked as he showed Daniel to a nearby seat.

“Yeah. She said to wish you well, and she’s sorry she can’t be here herself.” Daniel’s right eye twitched when he smiled in a stiff way. “Can I ask you something real quick?”

Adam’s head snapped to the gate. Another uninvited person showed up . . . 
Kendra
.

“Sure,” Adam said, keeping his eyes on her.

“Do you miss her?”

“No. I don’t really like Kendra,” Adam blurted. “Even if she stopped being mean.”

“
Who
?” Daniel’s head turned to follow Adam’s gaze. “
Her
?”

“Yeah—she hurt Mari’s feelings too many times. Even though she said sorry, I still don’t really like her,” he answered.

Daniel shook his head and placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Not her—Samara.”

“Sometimes, but she’s kind of the same as Kendra, isn’t she? But worse, because Samara stabbed my beautiful girl and wanted to kill her. I’m not okay with that. Sometimes I can forgive her for hurting people to protect me, but this wasn’t about protection.” Adam turned away from Kendra. There wasn’t anything he could do now. She could stay as long as she didn’t cause trouble. He stared at Daniel. What did he want to hear? Why were they talking about this painful subject?

“According to Samara, it was 
all
 about protection. She said Mari was destroying you,” Daniel replied.

“Then she’s blinder than I thought. She can’t see me at all, because I’m so happy I can barely keep from smiling every minute of the day,” Adam said, standing up straight.

After a brief pause to stare at Daniel and convey to him he wasn’t going to argue about this, he left and welcomed a few more people, including Kendra, who barely said a word. She mostly looked frightened.

Choppy was getting restless. He took her out of her dog house and held her at the front, where he was supposed to stand and get married very soon.

“You don’t get to wear red,” he told Choppy into her fur. She was really soft. He washed her yesterday before graduation. “Red’s bloody and messy—and you’re nice and clean.” He ran his incredibly calm hands down her back, then set her down, tying her nearby so she could see when Adam tied himself to the one person that mattered.

His dad sat down at the piano that Adam would play later. Dad never played the piano at home, but he’d made an exception for this event.

The music started, and Adam stood a little taller, smiled a little wider and his heart pounded harder.

He could make out Zach standing right inside the back French doors and somebody in white—
his
 somebody in white—was standing behind his brother.

The Justice of the Peace took his place, and the door opened.

Music filled the space of the backyard, but not as much as
she
did as she walked toward Adam.

She glanced around the place quickly, and she beamed at him, blushing when she saw the lanterns he’d created with big and small star patterns scattered along them.

She blushed? She almost never did that—or at least he couldn’t recall her doing it this way, all red from her forehead down. Not as long as he’d known her these past eight months. Nothing embarrassed her.

Why did black paper lanterns make her turn that shade?

He held his hand out to her even though she was several feet away. His leg bounced, itching to run to her and swallow her up in his arms—the arms she said she loved last night.

Michelle was sitting in the front, tears in her eyes and swallowing hard. Dr. Harkham sat to her right.

It was nice to have the two women he kind of considered his moms now right where he could see them easily.

When Mari was close enough, he leaned forward and ripped her hand off Zach’s arm.

“She’s mine now,” Adam said.

Zach backed up, his palms in front of his chest. “Yeah, I get it,” he said, chuckling quietly.

Zach sat down next to Michelle and laughed at how Adam took Mari’s hand and placed it over his heart. “She’s mine,” Adam repeated.

Zach glanced around at the small gathering. “I love this guy!”

The crowd laughed.

Mari cupped Adam’s cheek with her other hand. “Sweetie—they know who I belong to.” She smiled.

Tears flooded his eyes, but he ignored them.

He had wanted her to carry flowers like a traditional bride, but Mari refused. She’d said they’d get in the way, just like a veil would. So, instead, to compromise, she wore red roses scattered in her hair that were pinned up with the hair combs. He liked all of it. He liked that it reminded her of how her mom had worn flowers in her hair when she married, and how his dad had given her the combs for Christmas, so it all had meaning.