Sweet Devil, page 15
Sad, then happy, then sad, instead of the other way around.
Sera went over the edge first, going tighter and tighter around my cock until she broke and cried out, and then I followed her, giving her several deep, rutting thrusts before letting her wet cunt pull the orgasm right out of my body. I spilled deep inside her, relishing the hot and slick feel of it, and I pumped every last drop into her cunt, driving my hips with each surge, giving her everything I fucking had. Until finally, finally, my body went still and empty, its job done.
And then there was just us, flung out on the shore of our fuck like castaways after a shipwreck. Her breath blew warm and quick over my ear, and I breathed in the sweet smell of her neck as I finally came to my senses.
I raised myself up and knelt between her thighs, needing to see where I came. I swirled my fingers through her pussy, my cock hardening all over again as I felt and saw my own orgasm lingering on her body.
Sera giggled and tried to close her thighs, like she was ticklish there, and I used my wet fingers to rub her clit. “Uh-uh,” I chided, still rubbing. “This is mine now.”
“Fuck off,” she murmured. Her legs fell open again and her eyes fluttered closed. Her curls on my pillow were a dark halo around her head, and she looked so impossibly beautiful like this, with the rosy evening light falling all over her curves.
She lifted her eyelids and looked at me from under her eyelashes.
“Say it again,” she whispered.
I knew what she meant immediately.
“I love you,” I told her without a second’s hesitation.
She stared at me a moment, everything about her expression soft and happy. “You really do, don’t you?”
“It’s not enough,” I told her honestly, touching the spot above my eye where my headache was returning with a vengeance. “And it won’t be enough. But yes, Sera. Yes, I do.”
Chapter Twenty
Serafina
Holy shit.
I couldn’t move. I was certain I couldn’t move. Because if I did move, my muscles would turn to jelly. I guessed that was what happened after two incredible screws right in a row.
Next to me, Rhys groaned. “I think I’m throbbing all over. You broke me. That was…unexpected.”
I swallowed. “Right, unexpected.”
“Are you okay?” His voice was so tender, it broke me even more.
“I’m perfectly fine. You know, I’m just going to move into your room now, because I can’t possibly ever go anywhere ever again. So I’m fine. As fine as one can be.”
He laughed, turning into me. His dark eyes searching my face. “Can we talk about our first time again?”
I winced. “What?”
“Why didn’t you ever have sex with what’s his name?”
“David.”
“Yeah, Dickford?”
I laughed a little and then shrugged. “I don’t know. He always felt like someone I should want. And not someone I did want. So when he was okay with waiting, I took full advantage. We never really did more than kiss anyway. I got the impression he didn’t physically want me.”
“Sera, don’t bullshit me. He had eyeballs and presumably a dick.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, that’s why I was still holding on to the v-card.” I cleared my throat. “Why, uhm, why haven’t you ever? Can’t be for a lack of available partners.”
His gaze pinned sharply on mine. “I’m going to say this once so it’s really clear. From the moment I saw you. I couldn’t see anyone else. Maybe that’s a little obsessive. But there you are. I wanted you. Always you.” His gaze dipped over me. “I should have taken more time. Made it better.”
“Did I complain?” Even as I said it, I felt the flush creeping up my neck. “And let’s be clear, that bullshit myth that a first time was something painful or horrible was shattered. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
That furrow between his brows deepened. “I was too rough.”
“Why don’t you let me be the determiner of what’s too rough or not, okay?”
His gaze searched mine again and he smirked. “I like it when you’re bossy.”
“You’re a complete nutjob because you seem to like all kinds of things about me.”
“I won’t deny the nutjob thing. Let’s just say I’m the most authentic person here.”
I rolled over into his arms. “May I ask you something?”
“You completely own my body and soul, and you want to know if you can ask me a question? My brain is yours for the taking.”
“I always thought you hated me.”
A sigh. “I didn’t. But it was better that you thought I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m no good for you, of course.” He said it casually, but there was something heavy in his tone, like there was more to it than that.
I decided not to pry. The night was too good, my heart was too content. I didn’t want to spoil it by trying to knock down closed doors. “And there really is no one else?”
The look he gave me then. Like he was insulted. “Of course not.”
“The blonde on your bedside table, though…”
It took me a minute to realize he was shaking because he was laughing. “Sera, that picture is of my mother. It’s from the last vacation we took before they found the tumor.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling dumb. “I didn’t know that. And the toy car?”
“It was hers before she died,” he said, his laughter fading. “We couldn’t buy her a real convertible then—she wasn’t well enough to ride in it—but I could give her the model of it. We could pretend that everything would be okay and plan all the drives we’d take once she got well.”
I pressed my eyes closed. “I’m so sorry I took them. I’ll give them back.”
“It’s okay,” he said softly, and I could feel that he meant it. “I know you only did it because you thought I’d done those other things.” A pause. “Serafina, I love you.”
“I know.”
His grin was pure sweetness. Then his phone rang and he frowned. “I’m sorry.”
“No, take it. I should probably get back to my room any—”
He rolled over and pinned my hands above my head with one of his hands. “You’re not leaving here. Do you understand me?”
I chuckled. “I hear you, but eventually, I’m going to need to eat. And do homework and go to class.”
“I’m not letting you leave.”
“You won’t have a choice. I have to go.”
His brow furrowed. “You can go if you want, but when I say I’m not leaving your side, I really mean it.”
“I guess I can’t complain about that too much,” I breathed. The hard length of his erection pressed against me again, and I moaned. “Oh, Rhys…”
His phone rang again, and he cursed under his breath. “Hold that thought.” Rolling back over, he picked it up. “Yeah? Nope, not today.”
I couldn’t really hear the person on the other line, but they sounded like they were arguing. “I said, not today.” And then he hung up. “Okay, if you’re saying you need to go and do work and things, I’m going to grab a shower, grab my stuff, then get us some food and we’ll do it together. How does that sound?”
I couldn’t help it. This version of Rhys was completely unknown to me. He was kind, sort of. In his own way. But I could feel it. He did love me.
He leaned over and kissed me softly. His lips teasing. “Oh God, I have to get out of bed before we do that again.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
He laughed. “Food, woman. Food.”
“But how? No car, remember? I suppose we can always head to the dining hall.”
“Hush your mouth. Besides, Dad sent me another car after you turned mine into a modern art piece.”
“Was he upset?”
Rhys shrugged. “He knew the car itself wasn’t what mattered. It was the memory of Mom.”
I frowned. “I do sort of feel guilty about it now.”
He shrugged. “Don’t. It’s just a thing. It doesn’t matter. You’re what matters.” A flush of heat sneaked up my body and I tucked myself further into the covers. “Don’t do that. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m telling you the truth. You’re important to me. Always have been. You just took a long time to figure it out.”
“I took a long time? You’ve literally tried to torment me for years.”
“And for years, you did not crumble. Which makes you some, like, next-level superhero or some shit. You’re literally the most perfect girl in the world for me. I can’t break you, or dim you, or stifle you. You’re too incredible.”
“Yes, but maybe next time, just tell me I’m incredible and don’t try and torture me to death?”
“Well, I mean, the kind of torture that comes with orgasms, you might actually like.”
I laughed and dragged the covers over my head. “Oh my God, just go shower.”
“Or you could come with me?”
I laughed. “Yes. Sure, I would, but I just had my wash day and if I want these curls to behave, I need to be careful not to get them wet. Otherwise my hair is going to just revolt and I have to shave it all off.”
He lifted a brow. “Jesus, why do I think that you may even be hotter then?”
I laughed. “I certainly would not be. Once when I was thirteen, I shaved my entire head bald. I thought I looked fashionable and chic. But my mother was aghast. She dragged me to a salon immediately and had me wearing wigs until it started to grow back.”
He frowned at that. “I don’t like that. When I met you, first year, your hair was really long.”
I shrugged. “That was a wig. My hair had grown a little, but it was in that weird ‘in-between length’ thing. My mother thought it was very unattractive. So half the freshman year, I was wearing a wig. When everyone thought I’d cut my hair, that was me just wearing my own hair.”
“I preferred it when it was that length. I don’t know, the other one didn’t look like you.”
The smile tugged at my lips automatically, because all those times he’d seen me. Like really seen, even the details most people skimmed over. “Shower. I’ll be right here when you get out.”
He gave me a grin and then hustled into the shower. I listened to the water run for a moment, wishing I’d decided to join him, but knowing full well my hair was not going to take the assault of the water and splashing without me actually doing something about the knots in my curls.
I stretched until my toes curled and then considered closing my eyes for a bit while he showered. There was something so cozy about being swaddled up in blankets that smelled like Rhys, about hearing the shower in the distance while I burrowed deeper into his bed…
The thud that echoed from his bathroom was loud enough to jerk me out of my half-doze.
“Rhys?” I called.
There was no answer.
I could hear the hiss of the shower still running, but nothing else. No moving of shampoo bottles, no squeaks of feet on the shower floor.
You’re overreacting, I told myself. It had just been a pipe contracting or a door slamming somewhere else down the hall…
I still sat up and climbed out of bed. “Rhys?” I called again, and again there was no reply.
For a terrible moment, my mind ran wild with all sorts of horrible scenarios. That Chad had come in and hid in Rhys’s bathroom, maybe, or that it was somehow the same people who’d tried to abduct me as a child. But when I pushed open the bathroom door, I saw that none of these things were true. Rhys was totally alone.
Alone and sprawled on the floor of his shower, completely unconscious.
And I couldn’t wake him up.
Chapter Twenty-One
Serafina
I wasn’t the type to panic in an emergency. I was the person to come to in an emergency. Probably because I never injected any feelings into anything.
Was Rhys right? Was I such a sterilized version of myself?
As soon as I’d realized I couldn’t wake him up, I’d shut down my feelings, grabbed my phone and called 911. I’d turned him onto his back, checked his airways. Luckily he was breathing and had a pulse. But he was completely unresponsive.
The rising panic had surged like bile, but that hadn’t been what he needed. I would feel all the other emotions later. Much later.
Once I’d called 911, I called Keaton. He would gather the gang and have them meet us at the hospital. Then I scrolled Rhys’s phone for emergency contacts; I found his dad and called, but it went straight to voicemail. I left what I hoped was a calm, concise voicemail for him. And then I ran and got dressed in a pair sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a hoodie I found in his room. Once I had clothes on, my hair shoved back up into a bun, I’d knelt down next to him. When I took his hand, it was cold to the touch. “I swear to God, if you die on me, I will kill you.”
After that, everything happened in a blur. The paramedics came, they had asked me numerous questions wanting to know how I found him. Of course, I’d lied because I wasn’t supposed to be in the room after nine. I’d played it off like I had a question about an assignment in one of our shared classes. His door had been slightly open, and I’d found him collapsed. I wasn’t sure anyone would believe that, but it was all I could do in the time that I had.
I’d insisted on riding with him in the ambulance, and when the paramedic tucked a second blanket around his naked form and asked if I was his girlfriend, I’d said yes.
All I could do was nod absently at their occasional questions and let them work. So when I found his Hellfire ring in the front pocket of his hoodie, I held on to it as if it were the last thing I’d ever have of him.
And now I was sitting in the waiting room, freezing my tits off.
That was the thing they never told you about hospitals—they were frigid as hell. Why anyone would want a patient to be freezing cold made no sense to me. Never, not even once, had a hospital ever been warm.
Another shiver racked through me, but then I felt someone drape something around my shoulders, and I looked up. It was Owen. He’d shed his own pea coat and wrapped it around me. “Here, put this on.”
I shook my head. “No, you need it. This place is an icebox.”
He laughed. “I don’t feel the cold. I’m tough, remember?”
I gave him a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
“He’s going to be okay; I promise.”
“Owen, I appreciate it, but please don’t lie to me. Something’s wrong, I can feel it.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “We all need to believe things. I’m choosing to believe that he’s going to be okay.”
“I hope so.”
We’d been in the waiting room for a little over an hour by that point. His dad was coming from London and would be here as quickly as he could.
A doctor came out and glanced around. “We have him stable now. Where’s his family?”
I ran up to them. “We’re his family. What’s happening? What’s wrong with him?”
The doctor shook his head. “I need a parent, a guardian, or even a relative or an indirect relative?”
I could tell Keaton was going to step up. Instead, I reached into my pocket and shoved my ring finger through the Hellfire ring. The garnet winked in the fluorescent lights of the waiting room when I pulled out my hand. “I’m his fiancée.”
The doctor’s eyes went wide as if he didn’t believe me, but I gave him the classic van Doren glare. I dare you, motherfucker, tell me you don’t believe me. This would be a van Doren Medical Center so fast his head would spin.
He gave me a tight smile. “I understand you’re concerned but—”
Keaton and Owen were on my flanks quick. I’ve never been one for macho displays, but they both towered over the doctor by several inches. And Phin and Lennox were glowering at him from their positions. And Phineas, despite being the good-natured charming one, had a snarl that said that he meant business.
Keaton’s voice brooked no argument. “This is Serafina van Doren, of the New York van Dorens—we’re sure you’ve heard of them. I know that you seem confused that she would be his fiancée, but you shouldn’t be. So if you don’t fucking mind, can you let her go see her fiancé? We’ll let you know as soon as his father’s here.”
The doctor’s gaze flickered from Keaton to Owen and then back to Owen, as if looking for a confirmation that this was possibly untrue. Owen just crossed his arms. It never occurred to me to look at my friends as imposing or threatening, but I recognized the doctor’s fear when his eyes widened. To me, Keaton and Owen were just Keaton and Owen. My guys. I’d known Owen since the sandbox. Literally, the sandbox. He’d once put sand into my hair.
But as I turned around to give them a silent “thank you,”’ their gazes didn’t even shift to mine. They were glowering at the doctor. I loved them in that moment. They were truly my friends. And they had a full understanding of why the doctor seemed skeptical without me having to explain it to them. And most importantly, they had my back and very likely were going to dismember the doctor if he tried to bar me from seeing Rhys.
The doctor stuttered and stumbled. “Fine, she can come back. We’re still going to wait for his father though.”
Keaton frowned. “He’s eighteen, so you don’t need his father’s permission for any decisions. You have his fiancée. That’s all you need.”
I tried not to shiver at the sound of the word. It had been the means to go check on him, but I hadn’t expected to feel some way about it. My thumb went to the band of cool metal newly wrapped around my finger, and I traced the unfamiliar curve of it.
As I was led back down the hall, and then to the right, I couldn’t shake the chill that I felt. The trepidation settled and sank into me as we approached his room. Something was very, very wrong with him. He was not okay. And judging by the stark horror on the boys’ faces when they’d met me in the waiting room, they had no idea what was wrong either. Whatever was going on with Rhys, he’d kept it to himself. Kept anyone else from knowing, kept anyone else from helping him. And I wanted to know why.
