Pretty When She Cries - Black Mountain Academy

His dark growly words trigger the animal in me. I arch into him, and he resumes operation get me naked. Buttons slide, zippers untether, pieces of clothing rain down from the bed. One by one until we’re both skin on skin. I curl my fingers into his hair and pull him to my lips as my heart beats a wild staccato in time to my new favorite song.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Landon’s heart plays the same tune.

“I love you.” My words land squarely against his lips.

He freezes and pulls back to look at me. Uncertainty lingers in the depths of his eyes like he isn’t quite sure he heard me correctly. The warring want and pain on his face makes the edges of my eyes blurry. Hasn’t anyone ever told him they love him before?

“Landon.” I squeeze his face in my palms, my words laced with an intensity I don’t recognize. “I surrender, okay? We have to be on the same team no matter what. I love you too much to lose you for one more second.”

He closes his eyes and shudders, and I swear I can feel it. The wall inside him just detonated, exploding dust and debris all over the desolate landscape of his barren heart. It’s been dead inside for so long, but there’s new life now. Possibilities.

He buries his face into my neck, his body shaking a silent release of emotions. I have a feeling he’s been waiting forever for this, so I tell him over and over again. Stroking his hair. Kissing his throat. Touching him everywhere I can reach. I love you. I love you. I love you.

He drags me into an upright position and settles me onto his lap. His eyes are blazing with an intensity I’ve never seen in them. Like he’s determined, and this is it. This is our only existence now. It feels true.

“I love you too, my little pineapple. More than you could ever know.”

I scrape my fingers over his broad shoulders and cling to him. He nudges his erection into me, and we come together. A slow slide of silk and heat. I collapse into his chest as he cups my ass, using his palms to guide me up and down his length. Our lips move together, and our hearts beat an ancient rhythm that’s been written in the stars. We immortalize ourselves at this moment forever.

There will never be another.

I know it now as sure as I know the sun will rise tomorrow.EpilogueThree months later“Where’s Landon?” Jared asks as he flips through the channels on TV.

Carson smirks in response, and I shoot him a glare.

I cross my arms and lean back into the sofa. “I don’t know. He’s doing something super secretive, apparently.”

I sound like a toddler, but I don’t care. He’s been gone all day, and I’m embarrassed to admit just how much I miss him. Nothing is the same without him around, and as the school year crawls toward an end, everything feels so unpredictable.

We haven’t really talked about the future. Landon knows what I want because that’s never changed. I didn’t apply for any colleges because I’m slowly working my way back to dancing again. I want to open a studio, but I’m not sure where. Landon once said he wanted to travel, but I’ve been too nervous to bring it up. I’m not afraid of losing him. We are magnets, after all. We’re always going to end up together, no matter how far apart we are. But I just can’t imagine our paths deviating even for a year. He’s spoiled me by being around all the time. In some ways, it feels like we’re just getting started. Things have only just calmed down.

Wyatt and Audrey were laid to rest, but when the truth came out about the things they did, nobody besides their own parents showed up at their funerals. My mom waited two weeks out of respect before she marched into the spa where Lily Rothschild gets her facial injections. As the rumor goes, Alana Hale-Grant caught her on her way out the door and belted her across the face so hard it displaced her fillers. It’s been called the slap heard around Black Mountain, and oddly enough, Lily stopped showing her face after that. Their house went on the market, and they quietly left town in the middle of the night, never to return.

After additional victims came forward, Gavin accepted a plea deal. It was a win for all of us since it means we won’t have to go to court, and his future will involve a prison cell for his part in Audrey’s schemes.

Alexa wrote me a letter from her treatment facility to thank me, and she asked if we could be friends when she’s ready to come back to Black Mountain. I replied with an unequivocal yes.