Burn (Virtues & Lies 1)

Leo

It’s ungodly o’clock and the room is dark save the softly diffused silver light coming from the windows. We’re in the country and I can’t bring myself to close the curtains, I can’t sleep anyway.

The almost six-hour drive down coupled with our trip to Dartmoor Zoo and picnic at Bodmin Jail should have taken care of my restlessness. I’m exhausted, but my mind is working overtime.

I’m trying to connect all the dots in my head. But, I’ve followed every fucking trail and they lead to nothing. My head is a tangled mess of strings connecting numbers, letters, and dates—leading to fuck all. Numbers are my thing. Nothing makes more sense to me. This is torture. It’s like giving an artist a brush dipped in invisible ink.

Lying here isn’t helping either. I know Cassie’s right down the hall and every part of my exhausted body is urging me to go to her.

My little Queen.

Thinking of her makes me smile, she makes me want to do things to her that I have no business wanting.

Getting up, I stalk the floor at the bottom of the bed, it’s smaller than mine. The room is fussier, and it has all the trappings of an old, history clad building.

Cassie brings out a side of me that is almost impossible to rein in. Something about her cuts to my core and has shit spilling left, right and centre.

I’m pacing towards the bathroom on the opposite side of the room when there’s a low knock right before the door creaks open.

I turn and she’s already stepping into the room. Her eyes are wide, and her jaw is twitching nervously as she closes the door but the lock never clicks.

“Where’s your friend?” Toby refused to leave her side when we got here. He whined and whined until she let him in her room.

“In my bed.” Although her shrug is a little shy, the upturn of her lips is anything but.

“You shouldn’t be here.” I tell her, even though it’s a way of reminding myself that we are under her parents’ roof and Christopher is in the room next door.

“I want to be.” Her slender body just touches the back of the door, not enough to close it properly though.

Gaze roving down my body, she looks at me in that sort of speechless way that makes me wonder whether she likes what she sees or maybe she’s still getting used to seeing so much.

But then I’ve seen a lot before and looking at her…holy fuck!

Cassie is so beautiful with her not quite platinum hair. Her locks are a unique blend of yellow, gold, white and silver. They flick in disarray at the ends and the front tendrils that frame her face are curled from the way she twists them when she’s lost in thought.

“You’re looking at me like glue again.” She murmurs softly.

I start for her, taking in her flimsy black vest that ends just short of the top of her black, legging like pyjama bottoms. It’s nothing special, but I’m clenching my stomach muscles hoping that the sudden heat in my boxers isn’t followed by another hard-on.

Her palms flatten on the door behind her, pushing her modest assets towards me.

I’m a man looking at a saint, on the verge of sin. I should be contrite but fuck it if I am. Unable to look away, every cell of my being is sparking with need for her.

Splaying my hands on either side of her head, I lean down to inhale her warm pear and jasmine scent. Her audible swallow is followed by a shaky exhale as the door clicks closed, and I know I won’t be able to hold back anymore.

“Not glue,” she rasps, her chest vibrating with her trembling breaths. “The dark sky that swallows me whole.”

I do swallow, because when she tilts her head back and her hair falls from her face, behind her shoulders, all I can see is the most sumptuous, peaches and cream skin.

My mouth is watering. I want to bite and suck on her flesh until my taste buds are buzzing and all that I can savour is the brine of her skin that’s heated by the blood pulling between its layers.

She’s so beautiful like this. Soft and pure.

“Don’t change, Cass.”

Her brows furrow in confusion and when I look down between us, her hands cup my face. There’s so much affection in that simple touch that it frightens me.

Religion teaches you to fear evil, but the truth is that it’s good that should be feared. There’s a reason demons and monsters live in shadow, it’s not because there’s safety in the dark. It’s because there, it’s so much easier to hide our anxieties and flaws. When you live in the light, you have nowhere to hide.