Hallowed Night: A Halloween Romance Anthology, page 41
I opened my mouth to call out on his bullshit, but I didn't get a word out as he put his mouth on mine.
This wasn't anything like when he had been sixteen. We had two years of pain between us, and the taste of it made this kiss all that much sweeter.
My weakness around him didn’t make me kiss him back. It was because I was strong that I wanted to take something from this that I did it.
As soon as I wrapped my arms around his neck, Carson groaned. He deepened the kiss, his tongue teasing me, and it made me squirm. My pussy rubbed against his leg, and I moaned.
“Fuck,” Carson growled as he pulled away.
I would have been shy if it wasn’t for the look in his eyes. They were full of want, his mouth was parted, and his lips swollen from where we were kissing.
“First time I jerked off was to the image of you,” he said in a smoky tone. His finger went to my neck and pressed against the vein that was pulsing like a second heartbeat. “I imagined doing everything to you before I even turned fifteen—I had already had you in every position.”
His finger dipped lower until he descended it between my breasts.
“You would be sitting next to me, and in my head, I was eating your pussy.”
Why was this turning me on?
His finger went to the side, and I felt it touch my puckered nipple. In one quick second, he had my boob out.
“Did you imagine me doing this to you, Ness?” he asked right as he captured the tip of my nipple in his mouth. He sucked, then twirled the nipple with his tongue. Foreign sensations took a hold of me. This was way more intense than when I touched myself. He pressed harder against my pussy with his knee, and I knew he felt just how wet I had gotten.
“Because I sure as hell did,” he spat, sounding angry. “Tell me, Ness,” he breathed into my neck, and shivers went down my spine. His other hand went between my legs, and I felt his fingers slowly trailing from my thighs to my apex. “Do you think of me when you play with your pussy?”
My hips jolted when his fingers made contact with the tiny scrap of cloth that covered my pussy.
“Do you, Ness?” he repeated while he dipped his finger inside of my underwear.
I bit my lip and nodded.
Carson’s nostrils flared. When he kissed me, I was just as hungry for him as he was for me. His finger entered me slowly. He played with my pussy, taking his time inside of me. This was sooo much better than when I did it.
When he inserted his second finger, my back arched.
“Carson,” I moaned.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “I’ve waited years to hear you moan my name.”
The moment his thumb started to play with my clit and his mouth moved from my lips to my breast, I lost it. I held on to him with my arms as my body shook.
“So fucking hot,” Carson whispered in my ear once I had finally stopped coming.
Everything came crashing back at that moment. The way my dress was pulled up to my hips and my legs wrapped around him. My exposed breast, and the fact that my so-called white dress was probably covered in so much dirt I’d be doing Tiffany proud.
Slowly, Carson pulled his fingers out, fixed my dress, and then I had no other option than to look him in the eyes. I didn’t want to; I wanted to look away, but my gaze got stuck in his, and all I could see was the times he pretended like I didn’t exist.
Two moist fingers touched my lower lip, and I quickly realized he was rubbing my own release on me. I sucked in a breath as he leaned down to meet me. He took my lower lip in his mouth and sucked it.
“I don’t want to pretend like you don’t exist for me anymore when you’re all I can fucking see.”
“But you—” I tried to protest in disbelief.
“I lied, Vanessa, and you believed it.”
When he pulled away, it felt like I had been suckered punched.
7
CARSON
“I lied, Vanessa, and you believed it.”
There it was. The wound I had been hiding was now exposed. I swore to Victor that I would not get with his sister, but I knew if she came at me with all she had, I wouldn’t be able to resist. In the end, I made a hollow vow because I never intended not to have her.
In the last few hours, I realized I couldn’t honor a dead man’s wish at the cost of a living person’s happiness. That was no way to live.
“These feelings,” I told her as I moved my index finger between us, “aren’t new for me.”
I couldn’t stop looking at her in the moonlight. The way she looked beneath me, how she moaned, the way her body responded to me—it was better than everything I had imagined.
She was biting her lip, and I briefly wondered if she could taste herself, and it just made my dick ache painfully. I looked down at my pants, and she followed with her gaze.
She was about to say something when shouts were coming near us. I quickly picked up Ness and brought her to the other side of the trees to take some cover. I pressed her front to the trunk. We both craned our heads to the side to see who was making all the noise.
A woman, dressed as a gypsy, ran between the trees. Her hands were no longer restrained, and there was a beaming smile on her face.
Nessa gasped but quickly put her hand on her mouth. A few seconds later, Duncan came running closer to us. Blood was trailing down his lip, but there was an excited grin on his face.
We stayed standing like that for a few minutes after they passed us. We could hear more rustling, but none of it was near us. Vanessa didn’t say anything about my dick poking her ass. Had she been anyone else, I would have already sunk myself so deep in her so I could forget the last few months.
“Come on, let's go. We only have a few hours before daylight breaks,” I told her, pulling away.
She turned around and looked at me, then down to where my dick was tenting my pants.
“You trying to gag on it, Ness?”
“Babo—”
I pulled her toward me by the hips and cut her off with my lips. She kissed me back just like every other time.
“Are you going to let me keep doing this?” I asked in a low tone as I held on to her.
“I don’t know,” she replied honestly.
There was nothing more to say for the moment. I pulled away and grabbed onto her hand as we made our way out of the woods. The fact that she didn’t pull away left me with hope. Now that I wasn’t chasing after, I was actually paying attention to the path, and so did Vanessa when she spotted a gift card along the way.
“It’s for fifty dollars,” she said in disbelief.
“There was one for two hundred back there,” I told her.
“Why didn’t you grab it?” she asked, and she didn’t have to say it for me to know she was calling me an idiot once more.
“My ultimate prize has always been you,” I told her.
Vanessa smiled shyly at me. Music could be heard on full blast, and shortly after, the clubhouse came into view.
People were dancing outside near a bonfire, although a lot of them were just fucking. I reached for Vanessa’s hand, and there was still some hesitation on her face, but she let me. I could still feel her pussy tightening around my fingers. The taste of her release on my lips was keeping me in a permanent aroused state.
Not that it mattered to me right now because she had never felt more attainable.
“Why is your car parked there?” Vanessa asked me.
That was a good question. “They exchanged my keys for the handcuff key.”
Vanessa blushed. “Umm, we left the stuff back there.”
I tightened my hand around her as I remembered how good she looked for me. We made our way to where a group of people were sitting on bikes.
“Looks like you had a good time?” I followed the sound of the voice to the princess of this town. Finley Primrose. I turned to look at Ness with a confused look since I didn’t know she spoke to her. After what her cousin did to Duncan, I didn’t think they would be friendly. “Did you like the dress?” She turned her attention from Ness to me.
When I didn’t answer, she just smirked, and the bikers chuckled. I loved the fucking dress, but I also wanted to burn it, so no one else ever saw her the way I did.
“My keys,” was my reply.
The biker who had stopped me earlier stood and pulled them from his vest.
“You got balls. You ever wanna prospect, let me know.”
I nodded as I took them.
“You’re not going to stay for the party?” Finley asked Vanessa.
Ness shook her head and then looked at me. “We gotta go see my brother.”
Finley scrunched her nose because it was an odd hour to pay a visit, but before she could say something, Duncan barged in.
“Has anyone seen that gypsy bitch?”
“What's the matter, Duncan? Two pumps and you were done,” One of the bikers said.
“It was the best sex of my life,” he responded angrily, and Finley started to laugh.
“That didn’t mean it was the best sex of her life.”
People snickered around us, and we took that as our cue to leave.
The drive to the cemetery was filled with tension; we were drowning in silence. The last few months were catching up to us and quick. How could I begin to explain to her the reason why I stayed away? I loved Vic, but that damn promise was killing me. Especially this year, that damn vow felt like an invisible rope around my neck that was choking me.
I pulled up to the cemetery's entrance, and Vanessa hastily unbuckled her seat belt.
“Thanks,” she murmured without looking at me.
“For the ride or the orgasm?” I replied sarcastically because she was trying to get rid of me.
In an instant, she looked at me, and she did it glaringly so. All that fiery passion she always carried inside her was directed at me.
“Thank you for leaving me alone again,” she spat and then got out, slamming the door.
My hand slammed on the steering wheel. I took a few calming breaths and got ready to follow her. She was so worked up she didn’t even notice the hour.
Ness and her family had this weird superstition that it was "hora de brujas," or witching hour from midnight to three.
I gave her a few minutes head-start and then got the box she had dropped back in her driveway and followed her.
My chest constricted the second I heard her soft cries.
"I still don't get why you had to leave me," she sobbed. “It’s not the same without you. You were the one everyone loves, the one that people gravitated to, and since you left…I’ve been so alone.”
Fuck, I felt that. I was the reason she was alone now. The guys left her alone because I’d lose my shit if any of the assholes at the school touched her, and the girls were fucking jealous.
“Sometimes, I think it would have been better if it was me who had gotten sick and not you.”
I was going to throw up.
“Don’t say that,” I hissed. “You’re wanted. You’re loved.”
She turned around with tears that I had caused because I was selfish. Because I couldn’t handle to love her and not have her. Because I had been too much of a pussy to tell my dying friend to fuck off.
“I loved Vic so much. He was like my brother, but lately, all I can do is think back and hate him,” I told her, and she gasped. “Maybe because hating him is the only way I can betray him with a clear conscience.”
I kneeled down in front of her and wiped the tears from her face.
“I loved you then, and I love you now, Ness. That night, it was the worst and best night of my life. I knew what you tasted like, what you felt like on my skin, but I also knew it was something I couldn’t have again.” Her mouth parted. “You’ve known me most of my life, know what my parents are like, what I’m like, and you might have not taken any of that into account back then, but Vic did…” I looked over at her and then at Vic’s headstone. It was too dark to read it properly, but I had it memorized. Victor Romero beloved son, brother, and friend. “The last person he wanted to see you with was me,” I finished off.
“Vic would want to see me happy,” Ness said in disbelief.
I ran my fingers through my hair, frustrated. “He loved you above everything, and the last thing he wanted was for me to break your heart. Our last conversation was him begging me to never date you.” I sat back and put my head down, finally letting it all out. “My best friend died, and I was so fucking angry with him, and since I couldn’t be, the only person left was you.”
I took a few deep breaths and then handed her the box.
“Happy birthday,” I told her with a weak smile.
She reached for the box and opened it, and out came a ruined cupcake.
“Happy birthday, Vic,” she said as she put the cupcake in front of his gravestone. “I love you forever and always.”
She got up and kissed the headstone, speaking a few things I couldn’t hear. Once she was done, I was still in the same spot looking at where his name was engraved.
“I’ll wait for you in the car,” she told me and walked away.
Did she know that the last time I had been here was when they buried him?
“Long time no see, Vic,” I whispered, half wondering if I was crazy for talking to a headstone. “I fucking hate you somedays. For leaving, for that stupid promise, for all the things we missed out on. I don’t even know why I hate you sometimes. All I know is that everything would be better off if you’d be here.”
I stood up and dusted the dirt off my jeans.
“I still love her, and I have decided I don’t care anymore if I promised you anything. You’re dead, and she’s very much alive. I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving you wrong, so when we see each other again, you won't want to kick my ass.”
As soon as I spoke those words, I felt lighter, like I wasn’t being weighed down. I didn’t mean to give him a hollow vow, just provide him with peace of mind.
When I got to the car, Ness was sleeping against the window. I smiled because I knew where we were headed to. If tonight was any indication of it, she would eventually give in.
8
VANESSA
I woke up in my bed the next morning with the sun shining on my face, disorientated as hell, since the last thing I remembered was going to Victor’s grave. “I loved you then, and I love you now, Ness.” It was everything I always wanted to hear, but I didn’t know how to feel now that I knew all of it. I couldn’t even begin to process what had happened in the woods, not in this state of mind.
Of course, Victor knew what was going on—he was sharp, and he knew us better than anyone else.
I guess I felt betrayed by him. Is this how Carson felt all these months?
I needed to let go—it was time. I sat up and noticed I was still in my dress from last night.
“Carson,” I whispered his name.
Sighing, I got up and showered. This time when I got out, I didn’t wear one of Vic’s old clothes. It was my birthday. My birthday, not Vic’s, or it would have been our birthday. Mine, because I was still alive. I needed to live now more than ever, not just for me, but for Vic too.
The next thing I did was grab the boxes my parents had bought a long time ago, but no one touched them, and I spent the next few hours cleaning his room.
God, I didn’t expect it to hurt this much. Every single thing I packed away was filled with memories. They took me back in time, and I swore I could hear us laughing, crying. I remembered how he smelled. Saying goodbye didn’t just happen at the wake or when you laid them down to rest. Saying goodbye meant that all those memories you once had were slowly going to surface, but the feeling in your heart would remain.
It took hours, but once his closet and bookshelves were emptied, I cried again about how this didn’t look like his room anymore.
Once mostly everything was boxed up, I turned off the lights and walked out of his room, making my way to the living room where both my parents were.
“Happy birthday, mija.” My dad walked up to me and hugged me. “We didn’t want to interrupt you,” he said, and I nodded gratefully.
My mom hugged me tight and kissed the top of my head. “Te quiero mucho,” she told me she loved me.
“You want to go out for a birthday dinner? It’s not too late,” my dad said with a warm smile.
I shook my head. I still wasn’t in the mood.
My mom walked over to the fridge and pulled out a cake. It was both mine and Vic’s favorite, except this time, it only had my name on it. My parents sang me “Las mañanitas,” and then I blew out the candles.
“You want to take the ofrenda to the altar?” my mom asked as she gave me a piece of cake.
I reached for the cake offering and took it to the altar my mother had put in our living room. November second was the day of the dead, but the first was the day of all the angels, and I truly believed that’s what Vic was. I put the cake offering in front of his picture, then I lit the candle.
“Rest in peace, Vic,” I whispered.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Carson stopped by earlier today,” my mom told me as she cut another piece of cake. “Want to take him a slice?”
Not really, I thought to myself, mostly because I didn’t know what to say to him.
With my cake in hand, I made my way next door. The house was dark, and the only reason I knew he was home was that his car was in the driveway.
As I rang the doorbell and waited for him to come down, I wondered if these past few months had been lonely for him too. His family was always on business trips, and the only home-cooked meals he used to have were at my house, but he cut himself off when Vic died.
I was about to ring the doorbell again when it opened. Oh my God. He was shirtless with only jeans hanging low at the waist. Abs like that should be illegal. I wanted to reach out and touch them. The top button was undone, and I could see the band of Calvin Klein boxers. Carson has always been hot, but I remembered the barely teen version of him; nothing about his physique screamed boy anymore.
I opened my mouth to say hello, but that didn’t seem like enough. Our gazes met, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
