The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (19 page)

“I’m not any good.”

I smiled and took his cup, setting it down on a nearby table. “I don’t care.” I held his hand and led him back towards the crowd.

The song ended and slower one began. I let go of him and began to dance, but he just stood there, looking really uncomfortable. Apparently he needed a little nudge. Or another drink.

I turned around, pressing up against him. Taking his hands, I placed them on my hips as they swayed. He eventually got it the hang of it, and his hips moved with mine. He wasn’t such a bad dancer after all.

My backside pressed into him harder as I laced my fingers with his. He leaned down, his breath on the side of my neck. It was warm, but still gave me goose bumps. His face skimmed my hair and lingered there.

Holy hell, Emily smelled good. My nose brushed against her hair as I gripped her harder, her hips rolling against my crotch and my stiff–

Oh, fuck!

I let go of her and backed away, quickly adjusting my semi-hard cock. Christ, I really hoped she hadn’t felt it.

She turned around, looking perplexed as she shouted, “You okay?”

“Yeah, I just, uh–” I hitched my thumb back towards the kitchen. “I’m gonna go get another drink. You want one?”

She nodded, still eyeing me warily.

“Rum and coke okay?”

She nodded again, her expression slowly relaxing. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

I turned and left, walking away from her as fast as I could. That was just fucking sad. I ran my hand through my hair, exhaling sharply as I made my way into the hallway, where the sight before me stopped me dead.

In the corner of the darkened hallway, Matt had some human girl pressed up against the wall as they kissed, her hand inside the fly of his jeans. Man, this night just kept getting better.

I pushed past the few people in the tiny hallway and grabbed Matt by the shoulders, pulling him away from her. He stumbled and braced himself against the wall.

“What the fuck, man?” Red brimmed his eyes and his words came out slurred.

He’s drunk. Great.

“What the fuck is right! What the hell were you thinking?” I yelled, grabbing him by the arm as I led him down the hallway, towards the front door.

He turned back to the girl in the corner, who stood there slack-jawed, and waved. “Bye, Lisa!” he called out, a stupid grin on his face.

“My name’s Amy,” she yelled back. Poor girl looked heart-broken.

Matt shrugged as he zipped up his fly. “Whatever.”

I waited until we were outside and relatively alone before ripping into him. “Goddamn it, Matt, you can’t do shit like this,” I hissed under my breath.

He laughed. “What, I can’t get a handjob at a frat party?”

I let go of his arm and pushed him down on the grass. “No, you fucking can’t, you
jackass
.”

What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t hook up with random chicks at frat parties. That was the exact
opposite
of keeping a low profile. People had already seen him and Mel together. They knew they were…dating, for lack of a better word.

Healer relationships were more of a business transaction than a true marriage, and rarely based on love. It was just another aspect of the lifestyle I didn’t agree with, and one more reason why I didn’t fit in. Like I needed any more.

Matt groaned and rolled over onto his back. “Why do you always have to be such a buzzkill?”

“Why can’t
you
follow simple instructions?” I pulled out my phone and called Mel, but she didn’t answer. I kicked Matt’s foot. “Where’s Mel?”

“She’s with Cass.” He winced as he palmed his junk. “I’m still hard,” he whined. “I’m gonna have blue balls now, thanks to you.”

“I could give a shit,” I mumbled, typing a text to Mel. I hit send and stuck my phone in my pocket. She deserved better than this. Matt did, too. They at least deserved the chance to find real love. But I knew that would never happen, not as long as they were mated.

“Dude.” He sat up and tried to stand, but fell back on his ass. “College is awesome. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I sighed and scrubbed my hand over my face. “Because it’s
not
, Matt.”

He gave up and resigned himself to lying on the grass. “There are girls everywhere, and they’re all down to fuck.
What’s
not awesome about that?”

“It’s not some giant orgy. You actually have to go to class and do work, you know that, right?”

“
Pffft
.” He waved me off. “A monkey could do that shit.” He sat up and looked around. “Hey, is Emily here?”

“Son of a–” I forgot about Em.
Fuck!
“Can I trust you to stay here and keep your dick to yourself?”

He laughed. “It’s not like I can take it off.”

“I mean it, dickface.” I pushed his head and he tipped backwards. “I don’t care where you dip your wick, but you can’t fucking advertise it in public. Not when you’re supposed to have a girlfriend, and not when you’re supposed to be
blending in
,” I said, kicking him to punctuate my words. “There’s this thing called discretion.
Use it
.”

About three rum and cokes later, I was heavily buzzed. I felt good. The room tilted, but not so bad that I couldn’t walk, and I was a happy drunk, laughing at pretty much everything.

At some point that night–probably
after
I’d already had several drinks–I decided to use Beth’s plan. I was going to make a move on Thomas, and if he turned me down–well it wasn’t really
me
making the move, it was the booze.

I placed my hands on Thomas’s biceps and stood on my toes to talk in his ear. “What time is it?”

He checked his watch. “A little past two.”

“I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

He set his cup down and took my hand. “I’ll drive you home.”

Thomas guided me through the still-crowded house until we were outside, in the cool night air. He started walking me down the street to his car, and I smiled at our inter-locked hands.

“You’re still holding my hand,” I said, swinging our arms back and forth.

He grinned down at me. “Yeah, so?”

I shrugged as his car came into view. “Just makin’ sure you knew,” I slurred.

He rolled his eyes and opened the passenger door for me. “Come on, lush. Let’s get your drunk ass home.”

I slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door. Emily’s head rested against her seat as she stared at me and smirked. “You love my drunk ass. Admit it.”

I laughed and stuck my key in the ignition. “Well, it
is
a fantastic ass…”

She giggled and bit her lip. “Yours isn’t so bad either.”

The corners of my mouth twitched as I fought a smile.
This
I had to hear. “Is that right?”

Emily nodded. Her lower lip was still caught between her teeth as she, too, fought a smile. “In fact, I think it’s quite nice. As are your arms.” She trailed a finger along my bicep. “And your stomach.” Her voice grew husky. “It’s so…” She let the sentence hang as her tongue darted out, licking her bottom lip as her eyes dropped to my mouth.

Oh, shit.

My heart galloped as I realized this was it–the moment I’d waited for, the moment I’d dreamed of.

Don’t fuck this up, don’t fuck this up, don’t–

I leaned over, our faces inches away. I felt her breath on my skin. She smelled sweet and floral–utterly feminine. My nose brushed her cheek as our lips met in a chaste kiss. Her lips were even softer than I imagined. Our mouths parted as my tongue greeted hers in a light caress. I cupped her face in my hands as she half-moaned into my mouth, tangling her fingers in my hair.

Her little noise of pleasure was my undoing.

In half a second, chaste turned into heated. Our breathing sped as I pushed her back against the passenger door, her hands freeing me as they wandered down my waist and tugged at my shirt. She slipped her hands underneath, grazing my stomach and chest. Her heated skin felt like flames against my torso, softly burning my skin. I cupped her breast, skimming my thumb over her hardened nipple. She gasped and broke the kiss. I vaguely noticed her hand disappear next to the seat as I kissed and suckled her neck. The seat fell back and she pulled me on top of her.

Nestling between her legs, my lips met hers again as my hips rocked into her.

Fuuuuuuck.

The friction felt
divine
. I thrust again, the underside of my erection rubbing against her panty-covered sex. Her skirt had bunched up around her waist, and I stroked the outside of her thigh.
Jesus
, her legs were smooth. I reached up further and placed my hand on the curve of her hip, where the side of her lace underwear peeked–

Emily gripped my shaft through my jeans. My eyes squeezed shut as I broke the kiss, breathing, “Oh, God,” into her neck.

She unbuttoned my jeans and unzipped my fly, then tried to push my boxers and jeans down. I was only too happy to oblige, since my straining cock felt like it was about to break in half.

I glanced up at her as I hooked my fingers inside my boxers, and froze. Her eyes were glassy and slightly unfocused.

She’s drunk.

The unwelcome reminder was like a bucket of ice water thrown directly on my rock-hard cock. With great effort, I redid my jeans and moved back to my seat.

Huh. The windows were all fogged up. I hadn’t even noticed.

I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped my head, trying to regain blood-flow back to my brain by thinking unpleasant thoughts. 

Jesus Christ, had I really been about to fuck her in a car? Outside a
frat party
, no less? What the fuck was wrong with me? How could I debase someone so precious to me?

I sat up a little, propping myself up on my elbows. “Why’d you stop?”

Thomas’s jaw twitched as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because you’re drunk.”

He opened his eyes, but didn’t look at me. Instead, he started the car and waited for the windows to clear.

I sat up and everything spun. Okay, maybe I was drunker than I thought. The sober me would’ve
never
thought making a move on Thomas was a good idea. And I’d been so…direct.