First Verse (Second Verse Book 1) (6 page)

I frowned. “You have big lady balls, Lyra Amador. Seriously, be careful.” As she promised that she’d try, I pulled my hair up into a bun on the top of my head and looped a ponytail holder through the blonde tresses.  

“Have you confronted Hazel and asked her why she’s a mega bitch?”

Groaning, I scrubbed my hands over my face. “She’s given me the silent treatment since she arrived, so there’s been absolutely no confronting.” Besides, I’d decided that with Hazel’s constant name-dropping, her sparkly Mercedes, and the designer clothes she refused to wash in Mrs. H’s washer and dryer, the woman’s issue was obvious—she thought she was better than me. Tapping my nails on the sides of my laptop, I release a frustrated noise from the back of my throat. “And she’s
everywhere
. Every time Emmett and I ...”

My friend lifted a delicately arched eyebrow. “
Uh –oh
. You and Emmett
what
?”

I bit my bottom lip. Despite Hazel’s arrival, things between Emmett and me had just became more entangled—to the point where a couple nights ago he’d found me down at the pond to talk and then Hazel had conveniently stumbled on us an hour later to find her brother’s tongue in my mouth and his hands all over me.

It was probably best she had interrupted. I was stupid around Emmett and his intense green eyes and deliciously sexy body. But the way Hazel had wrinkled her button nose at me and curled her lips had rubbed me the wrong way.

Everything about her rubbed me the wrong way.

Telling Lyra about the encounter down at the pond, she twisted her lips down and gave me a sympathetic look. “You guys are gonna have to get a hotel room or something when you finally get down to it.”

A flush crept over my skin. “How do you know—?”

“Because I’m a psychic,” she said, feigning a thick Eastern European accent. “But mostly because I am not an idiot. You grin every time you say the guy’s name.” A second later, there was a knock on Lyra’s door and she scrambled from the bed, setting her computer on the nightstand. Struggling to hide her excited grin over whoever was standing outside her hotel room (my guess was Ronan the Undecided), she leaned over and wagged her finger at the screen. “Okay, I’ve got to go. Be careful and I’ll talk with you soon. And don’t let Emmett’s sister get to you—if she wants to be a douche, that’s her problem.”

“I won’t,” I promised as Lyra blew me a kiss and then disconnected the video call.

♫

Over the next few days, Hazel continued to ignore me, but a week after she rolled into town, we finally had a conversation longer than five words when I walked outside to find her on the phone, deep in conversation with someone.

She narrowed her pale green eyes at me. “Do you mind? This is a private call.” Covering the speaker with her palm, she briskly nodded at the front door and flicked her hand at it, like she was shooing away a disobedient puppy. “Well, go on. I’ll tell you when you can come back out here.”

Wow. Was she serious with that crap?
Biting the inside of my cheek, I slipped back into the house, but not before I heard her tell whoever she was talking to, “I’ll be glad when Grandma puts out the trash.” Whatever their response was made her giggle. “Well, yeah but that’s because Emmett’s stupid and thinks with his dick.”

With my ears burning, I started to head upstairs to my bedroom, but the screen door flinging open stopped me. “It’s all yours.” I turned around to see Hazel flipping her wavy, dark tresses over her shoulder. I must have been trashy all right, because all I could think about in that moment was ripping a few strands of it from her rude head. She smirked as I walked by. “Just so you know, Emmett’s flighty. Whatever he’s told you, just remember that when he goes back to Nashville, he’ll forget about you and his career will come first again.”

Pausing at the door, I offered her a tight smile. “Guess it’s a shame the only thing Emmett’s told me is about his album.” Hazel’s sneer faded slightly. “I’d hate for him to forget his own lyrics.”

“He said you sing, too.”

“I do.” I mimicked her smirk and placed my hands on my hips. “Don’t worry, I have no plan to screw your brother in exchange for a duet.”

Then, leaving her with her mouth hanging open, I stalked back outside. I started to head to the pond, but the sun glinted off something by the steps. Squinting, I knelt down. It was a necklace. A very costly looking necklace—a diamond encrusted olive leaf dangling from a simple white gold chain.

I knew it had to be Hazel’s, and for a split second, I almost considered tossing it into the grass and letting her find it herself. But then I realized just how awful that thought was, and I picked it up. Poking my head in the house, I yelled her name.

When she came downstairs to find the delicate piece of jewelry dangling from my index finger, she wrinkled her nose. “Why do you have that?”

Geez, so much for a thank you.
“You dropped it outside.”

“Just give it to me.” She held her hand out, and I dropped the necklace in her palm. As she flounced back upstairs, I regretted my decision not to toss the thing.

♫

“Your sister hates me,” I told Emmett a week and a half later on the way to the Fourth of July parade and fireworks. I had stupidly figured that Hazel would be long gone back to Texas by then, but I’d had no such luck. And for someone who stared at me like I was a piece of lint on her designer halter dress, she was surely everywhere I went.

Emmett groaned and rubbed his large hand over his face. “Has she been talking shit to you?”

“So you
are
aware she hates me?”

Cocking his head, he looked over at me and even the half-smile that formed on his lips made my heart skip a beat. “Hazel hates everyone.”

“Everyone involved with you,” I asked, and he nodded as he searched for a good parking spot.

“So you’re finally admitting we’re involved?” he countered.

Toying with my necklace, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, we are.”

“So now you’ll tell me why you’re always touching that?” His hand closed over mine, stilling the fingers that rubbed over the key. “It’s driving me crazy not knowing.”

I ran my tongue over my lips. “You’ll probably think it’s stupid, but it’s the key to this little house my parents rented when I was in middle school.” He let go of my hand and trailed his fingers down to my leg. Through the flimsy material of my red and white sundress, he squeezed my thigh and my stomach clenched. “We’d been living with relatives up until then, moving from place to place, and I was so happy when they got the place. A new start, you know?”

He nodded, and I put my hand over his and glanced into his green eyes. “I was thirteen when we moved, and my mom got me this little key made at some grocery store kiosk.” Shrugging, I glanced down at the necklace. “We were only there for a month before my dad got arrested again, so I never got to use it.”

“I’m sorry, Angel.”

“Don’t be,” I whispered. “Like I said, it’s probably stupid to wear this damn thing just because I have childhood abandonment issues.”

Finally putting the car in park, he scooted across the cab and bent his head close to mine. I shivered when his breath touched my skin and closed my eyes. “It’s impossible to stay away from you, Kinsey. I mean that.”

Well, he hadn’t stayed away from me. And for the last couple weeks, I hadn’t even tried to fight my attraction to him. “Yeah, I can’t either,” I murmured when I felt his fingers on my shoulder and then in my hair.

He tilted my face up to his, and I was lost—in his green eyes and the way his fingers felt on my skin. And before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “Tonight.”

Surprise widened his eyes, but he recovered quickly, nodding. Just before he slanted his lips over mine, he repeated my words.

“Tonight.”

I
t was hard to concentrate on the celebration when the promise of what would happen later hung over my head, but somehow I managed, going through the motions with my fingers linked with Emmett’s. I was just about sure that nothing would ruin my day, but just as the fireworks started, my eyes locked with the last person I wanted to see and I frowned.

Hazel was with some guy and was chatting his ear off as he laid a blanket in the grass, but when she spotted her brother and me on a nearby bench, she paused for a moment. And sneered.

“I retract what I said earlier about your sister hating me. I think she’s just insane,” I said, shooting a glance across the grass at Hazel, who returned the gesture with her trademark icy green glare.
What the hell was her problem with me?
Leaning back on the bench, I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes to match her expression. “I swear, she makes Cersei look tame.”

Emmett arched his brows and lowered his gaze. I tilted my face up, swallowing hard when our eyes met. “Who the hell is that?” he drawled, a smile teasing the corners of his full lips. “Well, don’t just sit there looking all sneaky, Kinsey, who is it?”

I wasn’t looking sneaky. I was looking at him underneath the brilliant shades of red and yellow lighting the sky. At the tiny bump on the bridge of his nose. The shadow on his chin from not shaving this morning—he should never shave, ever. At his eyes. Green like his sister’s, but so different they made it hard for me to breathe because his eyes were everything.

I was looking at him and that was just as bad as looking sneaky, because I wanted things with him I couldn’t explain.

Sliding off the bench, I looked over my shoulder. I almost expected the bronze face under all that curly brown hair to go up in flames when I caught him staring at my ass, but he simply grinned. He wanted me to know he was watching me, wanting me, and the knot in the pit of my stomach tugged even tighter.

This might not last
, I reminded myself. He was twenty-one and maybe Hazel was right—maybe he wouldn’t give my ass another thought after the summer. Besides, his grandmother had done way too much to help me for me to screw myself over with him.

But when he stood, pressing his tall, built body close to mine to whisper in my ear, “You planning to answer me, gorgeous?” and I breathed in his scent, it was hard to stick to my guns.

Gorgeous.

No wonder everyone said he was going to be a star.

One word. One softly whispered word, and I was starstruck.

I held my breath. Released. Repeated. “She’s a ... book character. Epic fantasy,” I murmured at last. “She’s like the queen of all messed up siblings. If they ever bring her to the big screen, maybe your crazy sister could play her.” I took a step away from him and forced a laugh. “But enough about your sister. Do you want to get the hell out of here?”

♫

We didn’t bring up Hazel again because as soon as the fireworks were over, he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward his truck. He drove in silence, but I didn’t need words. His hands said everything his mouth didn’t.

They started on my bare knees, his fingertips carefully spreading my legs apart and moving the skirt of my sundress aside. The thunderous sound of my heart overpowered the song playing softly on the radio—something slow and sexy that was way too convenient for the atmosphere here in the truck. And when his hand moved higher, stroking the insides of my thighs, the moan of pleasure that escaped my throat made it impossible to hear any other sound in the cab of the truck.

“Do you still want this?” he asked when he pulled into the hotel parking lot, and I moved my head slowly.

“More than anything.”

His lips covered mine the second the hotel door closed behind us, and his hands splayed over my ass possessively. “Fuck, I want you so much.”

I arched my back, letting myself get lost in the need behind his kiss. My head was spinning when he pulled away to drag my dress over my head. “I understand if this is a one-time thing,” I murmured, shoving his shirt above his head. “But if it’s going to be more—”

Moving us in the direction of the bed, he cut me off with another kiss, and I shivered when he unsnapped my bra and cold air touched my bare breasts. He laid me down on the bed. “God, you’re beautiful, Kinsey.”

Swallowing hard, I started to repeat myself—to tell him I’d understand if this would be a one-time thing—but he lowered his dark head to my breasts. His tongue circled my nipple, then the other, and fire ignited in my core. 

“This won’t be a one-time thing. I told you already—I can’t stay away from you. I’m not even gonna try anymore.” At my sigh, he landed a kiss on my bellybutton. "Relax, Angel," he ordered, his voice low and hypnotizing as he glanced up at me with moss green irises full of promise. At the moan that released from the back of my throat, he stroked his knuckle from my knee to the inside of my thighs. The fire speeding through my body—it was hotter, heavier, demanding more. I arched my back. Curled my toes into the hotel sheets.

“Relax and open your legs,” he told me again between demanding kisses and agonizing strokes of his tongue over my nipples. Cupping my breast, he gave it one rough pump before sitting up straight and staring down at me. “I want to see you, Kinsey.” I shivered when he said my name like that. Like I was
his
.

“I want to taste you.” He traced his fingers along the lace center of my panties, causing me to gasp when I felt a fingertip ease under the fabric. “I need to feel you.”

“Yes,” I breathed. I slid my feet apart on the sheets slowly. My heart slammed harder against my chest with every centimeter I moved, and his grin widened right along with my legs. I’d never been this exposed to anyone before—not without begging to turn the lights completely down first—but here I was. With the lamp on. Showing every inch of my bare body to the last person I should be in bed with.

He stopped me by sliding his bronze body between my thighs when they involuntarily started to squeeze together. Pinned my wrists by my head when I tried to cover my breasts. “Never hide your body, Angel. You were made to be worshiped.”

I was going to combust.

“Touch me,” I whispered.

“You won’t sleep tonight,” he promised. Positioning my legs over his muscular shoulders, he bent his head between my legs. Kissed my thighs and inhaled my scent and made my pulse sing a frantic melody beneath my skin. “You’re already trembling. What are you going to do when my tongue touches your pussy, Kinsey?”