Page 89 of Ravage
She feels better than anything I could have ever imagined. She tastes sweet and tart at once, and the rushing need to claim her in every way burns through my veins.
More movies fall from the shelves in our avarice.
It reminds me to slow down. To draw this out so it imprints on my memory if this doesn’t work out. If she doesn’t choose me.
When I finally draw back, I pull away enough to put some air between us. My hands at some point moved to either side of her face, and I bring them back as well while we both pant to catch our breaths.
Raegan touches her lips, which are swollen and perfect from our kiss, and then she looks at me. “That was…I mean, you…wow.”
Her reaction brings a smile to my lips, even as the reality of what I’ve done begins to sink in. It’s too late to take it back now, though.
I want to do it again. And again. And I don’t want to stop.
I step back from her before I give in.
“Aiden?”
“We shouldn’t do this here. Get back to the room and tell the others a teacher stayed behind and you weren’t able to get the movie.”
She chews on her lip. “What about you? Aren’t you coming back with me?”
“Jack’s meeting me here in an hour anyway so we can go through the records room again. It’s safer for me to hang out here until he shows up than to go through the hallways more than necessary. I’ll clean this up while I wait.” I point out the mess around us.
Raegan nods. “I could stay and help you?”
I turn and settle my palm across her lower back and start walking her back to the door. “We won’t be long. Jack just stands guard to watch my back and I want to look through the files myself. If you and the other two watch a movie, we’ll be back before it’s over.”
She stops at the door to smile at me. “Okay. I’ll see you in a bit, then.”
“In a bit,” I confirm, then close the door behind her.
The elevator dings when it finally reaches the top, and I drop my hand. I found her birth certificate in the records room that night. And rather than telling the others what I found, I hid it from them so I could look into it more on my own first. I didn’t want to worry them. I chose my feelings for Raegan over my brothers. What if I’d told them and we’d been more careful around her? We could have warned Vera to not be alone with her. But I didn’t. And I have to live with that guilt.
I take another few calming breaths and then flash my tattoo at the scanner to open the doors. Then the face scanner to get into the Loft.
Kellan’s sprawled on the couch to my left, one arm and one leg hooked over the back of it and his other arm dangling off the side with an empty bottle in hand. His feet and chest are bare, with only black sweatpants covering his lower half. His hair is shorter, cut shoulder-length.
His trimmed facial hair is what ticks me off.
I’ve tried getting him to clean up for years.
Years.
Raegan is back for a few weeks and he does it without complaint. I don’t know if it was by her request or he suddenly felt self-conscious, but there you have it.
Prick.
Kellan’s sudden change is proof of why she needs to stay away from him. I can’t trust she isn’t here to hurt one of us again until I find out more. Until I have my answers, I can’t trust her to get close again to the others. I already failed us when Vera was killed.
I failed Dane.
Last time, I let my feelings for her cloud my judgment.
I refuse to allow something like that to happen again to any of us. She’s far more dangerous to us than anyone at GE.
Even knowing she could wind up as the enemy, I still crave every glare, every sharp-tongued jab, anything she’ll give me. Love, hate, anything so long as it’s just for me.
I’ve avoided her as much as possible while she’s been here. Tried to scare her away. Threatened her with her secret. Anything to make her leave before I can’t control myself anymore.
