Fate, page 3
She smiled back, her full pink lips bowing into the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. Her whole face shone brightly under the lights outside her building.
“If you do,” she said.
“Come to think of it”—I squeezed her hand—“I’m not quite ready to say good night yet. I hate to copy Murph, but we could take a walk around campus. It’s big and it’ll take you a while to find everything on your own.”
“Or we could find a bench and sit under the stars,” she said.
I stopped my jaw from dropping onto the ground. This girl was an angel. An angel who’d dropped into my life just when I needed her most.
“I know the perfect place,” I said, still holding her hand. “Come on.”
We walked, mostly in silence, to the manmade lake at the far end of campus. It wasn’t actually part of campus. It was a public park, but the lake was kept stocked. During the day, kids sometimes brought their fishing poles, and walkers and runners did laps around the water.
At night, though, it was peaceful and serene. I led Daphne to a bench overlooking the moonbeams shining on the water.
“Wow.” She sat down. “It looks like stars fell onto the water. It’s beautiful.”
I looked at her. “Yeah. It is.”
As gorgeous as the moonlight on the lake was, it didn’t hold a candle to the woman sitting next to me. She was ravishing on the outside, but whatever she held inside put her outer beauty to shame.
She was something, Daphne Wade. I wanted to know everything about her, all the secrets inside her.
I wanted to…
I reached toward her and trailed my fingers over the graceful line of her jaw. Her lips shone in the soft light of the moon. Slightly parted, they glistened.
Glistened.
I wanted to…
I leaned toward her and brushed my mouth against hers in the softest kiss.
Just a kiss. A peck, really. No tongue or anything.
And I swore I felt more in that one kiss than I had in all the making out Wendy and I had done over the years.
I never thought I was a romantic, but it was a beautiful kiss.
A perfect kiss.
So perfect that it was enough.
For now.
Chapter Five
Daphne
My heart jumped, and the place between my legs fluttered.
I’d been kissed before, but never like this.
It was so simple. No one trying to probe my tonsils. Just a simple kiss.
A perfect kiss.
And I wanted more.
The few other times I’d been kissed, during my freshman and sophomore years in high school, the guys had scared the crap out of me with their aggression. Everyone wanted to shove his tongue in my mouth or grope my boobs.
I was honestly surprised Brad Steel didn’t try for more. He was over twenty-one, eons apart from the high school boys I’d been with.
But no, he seemed to sense that I wasn’t quite ready for anything more tonight, and he respected that.
Except that I did want more.
For the first time, I wanted more.
His gaze never left mine. “You’re beautiful.”
“So are you,” I replied.
He smiled. Perhaps he thought my words silly. But to me, he was beautiful. He looked like a pagan god in the moonlight. Perfect in looks with just the right touch of darkness.
I should know.
I was used to darkness.
I’d learned to live in it when I had to. It was just part of my life. Something that was a piece of me.
I had the feeling Brad Steel knew what darkness was as well.
My therapist had told me I’d overcome my fear of men. I had no basis for that fear, but so far, everyone who’d kissed me had been so pushy.
Didn’t want to go there right now.
All I knew was one thing.
Brad Steel didn’t scare me.
And now I wanted more. More than just the chaste kiss he’d given me. I wanted to feel his tongue trace my lips, enter my mouth, twirl with my own.
I wanted to feel his large and beautiful hands again on my face, on my neck, on my body, on my breasts.
I wanted to feel his lips slide down the side of my neck and over my bare shoulder.
And that secret part of him… I wanted that too. In fact, I ached for it now. The fluttering between my thighs continued, became more resonant.
Brad would go slow. Brad would make it good for me.
I hardly knew him, but I knew that as well as I knew my own name.
Brad Steel was the one.
“No one’s ever called me beautiful,” he said.
“Then no one’s ever seen you,” I said. “You’re more than handsome.”
“My God, Daphne.” He cupped both my cheeks and brought our faces together. Our lips touched softly, and then he traced my lips with his tongue. “Open for me. Please.”
I hadn’t had the best of luck with French kissing, but already I knew Brad Steel would be different. I parted my lips.
He didn’t plunge his tongue into my mouth. No, he tasted me slowly. First my lips, then the inside of my mouth, my teeth, my gums, until finally his tongue touched mine.
And I was lost forever.
It was soft. It was sweet. It was amazing.
But much better than all that?
It was right.
It was so right.
I parted my lips farther, letting him sweep into my mouth and kiss me with passion. Yeah, it was passion. I felt it. And within a few minutes of the kiss, after stroking my tongue against his, I wanted to explore his mouth too.
So I did.
His teeth, his gums, the velvet of his tongue.
More passion, more need.
More.
More.
More.
Until I was suffocating, suffocating…
The dream… The dream I never recalled but knew only in feelings.
I pushed away. “No!”
“Daphne? Sweetheart? What happened? Are you okay?”
I was far from okay. How could I want something that scared me so much?
I wiped my mouth and nodded.
“I’m sorry. I know you’re young and—”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “I wanted that kiss as much as you did.”
“Then what happened?”
“I got scared, is all.”
He nodded. “You’re what…eighteen?”
“Yeah.”
“Not very experienced.”
“Not exactly. Just not any experience that’s good.”
He stroked my cheek, and I turned into his warm palm.
“We’ll go slowly, then.”
I widened my eyes. “You mean you want to…try again?”
“We already have a date tomorrow,” he said. “You’re not getting out of that. You promised me the world’s best pizza.”
Without thinking, I pressed my lips into his palm. “I never break my promises.”
Chapter Six
Brad
The chaste kiss I gave Daphne when I saw her to her dorm room door was better than third base with Wendy or anyone else.
I smiled as I walked to my car. Smiled as I drove home. Smiled as I parked the car in the garage and unlocked the door.
Murph and I lived in a condo my father owned just off campus. It was a sweet two-bedroom. I had the master, of course, and Murph the second bedroom. We had two sleeper sofas where our friends crashed pretty often.
Yeah, it was kind of a party house. But Murph and I both had 4.0 grade point averages. We got our work done before we partied.
I opened the door from our garage into the kitchen and yelled, “Murph?” before I switched on the light.
“Not home yet,” said a female voice I knew well.
Shit. Not tonight. Not fucking tonight.
I switched the light on and walked toward the voice.
Wendy Madigan sat in the living room in my leather recliner—stark naked.
“For God’s sake, Wendy, Murph could walk in any time.”
“And I’m sure he’d scream if he saw anything he hadn’t seen before.” She stood and walked seductively toward me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Getting laid, I hope.” She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hard kiss on the mouth.
I pushed her away. “You told me to fuck off the last time I saw you.”
“I’ve had a change of heart,” she said. “Right now I definitely want you to fuck on.”
Wendy Madigan had been my kryptonite for six years. She had mesmerizing blue eyes and a killer body, but the real attraction was her mind. She had a ridiculously high IQ with just a touch of cuckoo. A lethal and seductive combination.
I looked at her standing naked, her pussy shaved the way she knew I liked it. Her nipples were hard, and her breasts fell gently against her chest.
If this were any other night, we’d be heating up the sheets by now.
But I wasn’t in the mood.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be in the mood again. At least not for Wendy. Or any other woman who wasn’t Daphne Wade.
I did have a giant hard-on, though. One kiss from Daphne and I was a fucking rock. Wendy was already wet for me. I could smell her own brand of musk.
“Get on the bed, bitch,” I said through clenched teeth.
Wendy liked it rough. Rough and turbulent. She let me do anything I wanted, and what I wanted right now was to tie her up, put a blindfold over her, and pretend she was Daphne Wade.
Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe a good fuck with Wendy would erase Daphne from my mind. As high maintenance as Wendy was, I had a sinking feeling Daphne might be even more so. Maybe I should strip her from my mind right now…
…before she edged into my heart.
I wasn’t in love with Wendy. Not anymore, at least. We had a physical connection, one that wasn’t good for either of us. I’d been thinking about that a lot lately. This was my senior year of college, and maybe it would be best to end things with Wendy once and for all.
I’d loved her once—as much as a seventeen-year-old boy was capable of love. We’d fallen out of love long ago, but we always seemed to find our way back to each other. Our chemistry was addictive.
Despite the chemistry, though, we were horribly bad for each other. Our personalities clashed, and her temper was notorious.
The sex was pretty damned good, however.
I stalked into the bedroom. Wendy had taken her place on my queen-size bed, grasping two of the rungs of my headboard. I riffled through my top drawer and found the leather bindings I hid under my boxers. I held them for a moment, letting my fingers trace the roughness of the leather, the smooth chill of the silver chains.
Yeah, I was still hard. Fucking hard.
I was still fully clothed as I walked to the bed and bound Wendy’s wrists to the headboard.
“Good and tight, Brad,” she said. “I want them good and tight.”
“I always do,” I said.
Then I gave her boob a light slap.
I never left a mark. Well, almost never. Wendy actually liked it when I did. I gave her tits another quick slap and then her pussy.
She squirmed, and her scent wafted toward me. She was ready. Wet and ready.
I could fuck her quickly. We didn’t stand on ceremony anymore. Back in high school, we’d steam up my windows with marathon make out sessions, but these days, we were both in it for the fucking.
I’d never been able to resist her, and I wasn’t going to start tonight.
I’d met an angel. An angel who could be my future. An angel who was hiding something underneath her almost untouchable beauty.
Didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy a fuck with Wendy.
“Tell me what you’re going to do to me, Brad,” she said.
“I’m going to shove my cock into you. I’m going to fuck you.”
“How are you going to fuck me?”
I slapped her tits once more. “Hard. I’m going to fuck you so hard, you won’t be able to walk out of here.”
She squirmed, pulling at her bindings. “I like it hard, baby. I like it really hard.”
Worked for me. I could never deny the physical chemistry Wendy and I shared. No, I didn’t love her.
Like I said, she was my kryptonite. My weakness.
But Daphne…
I’d met an angel who’d affected me deeply in a way that shocked me. I didn’t want to ruin what that might become.
If Wendy was my weakness, maybe it was time to find my strength.
I regarded her, naked and tied up, ready for me to do whatever I pleased.
I was still hard as granite, hard as steel. The bulge under my jeans was clear, and Wendy knew it. I wanted her.
I always wanted her.
But maybe, just maybe, it was time to think not of what I wanted, but what I needed.
I’d dated on and off when Wendy and I were off-again, but never had I found someone I truly felt a possibility of a future with.
My future wasn’t with Wendy. I’d known that for a long time now. In her own nutty way, Wendy knew it too. She fascinated me. Her mind was one of a kind, but lately she seemed to be going down a dark path, a path I couldn’t follow.
In fact, I was beginning to wonder about Larry, Theo, and Tom as well. They were loyal to Wendy and the club above all else.
It was a little creepy.
“You going to fuck me or what, Brad?”
I jerked out of my thoughts. I was still hard.
Until—
“Hey, Steel!” Murphy’s voice boomed. “You home?”
“Shit. Murphy’s home,” I said.
“So? Like we haven’t fucked with someone else in another room a thousand times.”
She was right. We had. Our physical chemistry always found a way. Plus, this was my room in my condo. The door was locked. Murph and I fucked women while the other was home all the time.
So why did it bother me this time?
“What a great condo!” came Patty Watson’s voice.
Yup. That was why.
All it took was her roommate’s voice to remind me of Daphne Wade. I had no idea what the future held for Daphne and me, but I knew one thing.
I was done fucking Wendy Madigan.
Daphne seemed to be the antidote to the kryptonite, and whether we ended up together or not, I’d be forever grateful to her for that.
“Brad,” Wendy whined, “I’m so horny for you. Come on. Fuck me, baby. Hard and fast.”
My dick had lowered to half-mast. I wasn’t going to fuck anyone tonight.
I braced myself.
When I told Wendy, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Chapter Seven
Daphne
Patty hadn’t returned to the room yet. She and Sean had been gone for over an hour on their walk. I knew nothing about my new roommate. Would she sleep with a guy she just met? I had no idea.
I looked at my watch. Nearly midnight.
I didn’t want to go to bed yet. The first night in a new bed—a new place altogether—was the perfect storm for my nightmares.
Part of me wished I’d told Mom about the dream, but she might not have let me come to college. She was pretty protective.
I wanted to be here. I wanted a fresh start.
No one knew me here. No one knew I’d been sent away for most of my junior year of high school. I wasn’t strange Daphne here.
I was Daphne Wade. College freshman, just like everyone else.
I wasn’t overly social, but I couldn’t bring myself to undress and get into bed. I’d go to the lounge on the first floor. Maybe I’d meet a few people.
Maybe Brad Steel would be there.
No, he wouldn’t. He’d told me he lived off campus in a condo with Sean. Even if he hadn’t gone straight home, he wouldn’t be hanging out in a freshman dorm.
Voices and laughter rang out as I neared the lounge. Definitely a party going on. With booze. Everyone here was a freshman, though. How did they get alcohol?
I walked in, and a good-looking young man approached me with a red cup like the one I’d drunk beer from earlier.
“Welcome,” he said in a British accent. “Try this.”
“What is it?”
He smirked. “Hell if I know. Some bloke’s brother brought it over. But it’s fucking delicious.”
“Uh…okay. Thanks.”
“No problem. I’m Ennis Ainsley.”
“Hi, Ennis.”
“That’s when you tell me your name, love.”
“Oh, sorry. Daphne. Daphne Wade.”
“Lovely to meet you, Daphne Wade.” He took a drink from his own red cup. “I’m on an exchange program, and let me tell you, it’s weird not being able to buy my own drinks here.”
“What’s the legal age in the UK?”
“Eighteen. I’m nineteen, nearly twenty.”
“What are you doing in a freshman dorm, then?”
“I’m a sophomore, technically, but since I don’t know anyone, they put me in here so I could meet people and go through orientation.” He took another sip. “You going to try that?”
“Yeah. Sure.” I brought the plastic cup to my lips and let a little of the pinkish liquid spill into my mouth. Sweetness with a tinge of pungent alcohol slid over my tongue and down my throat. “Wow. Delicious.”
“Told you. I’m not sure what the hell’s in it, but go slowly, love, or you’ll be sozzled before you know it.”
“Sozzled?”
“Pissed. Sloshed.”
“Drunk, you mean?”
“If you want a more mundane way of saying it. Sure.”
I smiled. “Thanks for the warning.”
“No worries. Want to find someplace quiet to talk?”
“I don’t think there’s any place quiet around here. This place is packed.”
“My roommate isn’t here yet, which means there’s no one in my room.”
“I don’t think—”
“I’m a gentleman, love. I’m not looking for a quickie. Just a friend.”
A friend?
How long had it been since I had a real friend?
A lifetime?
