Page 198 of Darling Venom
“I don’t know if it’s worse that you knew and didn’t save him or that I lived with him and didn’t know. Either way, Kellan is gone.” I scoffed. “Foresight is better than hindsight.”
We settled into a stretch of silence.
She broke it first.
“Leah blames herself for our parents’ deaths. At least partially. It’s obviously my fault. All of it. But sometimes, I let her share the blame even though I know it’s wrong, because shouldering the burden is tiring.”
“You were thirteen,” I muttered.
“Maybe. But I still knew better.” Her voice came out so low, it was barely a whisper beneath the onslaught. “You’re Leah in this situation, Tate. I wanted to blame you to make myself feel better, but the truth is, you didn’t know. You had a moody teenager pushed onto you by a father who was never in your life. Yet, you fed him, housed him, and did your best to raise him. You had a demanding job, which was necessary in order to afford caring for Kellan.”
I shot up. My head knocked the umbrella from her hands. It tumbled to the ground a foot away from us.
Neither of us moved to grab it.
I stabbed my chest with my thumb. “And I knew he turned to drugs, that he wanted to see his father, that he hated going to school.”
She rose to her feet, getting in my face. “Give yourself a break.”
“That’s exactly what I told myself when I came home every day, exhausted, knowing I had to set Kellan straight but putting it off until the next day because I couldn’t muster the energy.”
She shook her head and backed onto the step above her, bringing her closer to my eye level.
“Actually, I could muster the energy,” I snarled, angry at myself. “I just didn’t.”
“You deserve forgiveness.”
“Well, I’ll be waiting for the rest of my life.”
Another tear slipped down her cheek.
“Poor Tate,” she mimicked my words in the library, drawing my gaze to her lips. “You share your body with your demons, and they’re hungry. Let me feed them.”
Her breaths matched mine. Our chests rose and fell to the same beat. She settled her fingertips above my heart. My palm curved around her neck.
This was not the time to do this.
On the tail of guilt.
In front of a house I’d shared with Kellan.
Beneath a sky that no longer sheltered him.
She made the decision for me.
Her mouth descended on mine. I tugged her closer, gluing our bodies together. Our tongues fought for dominance.
I lifted her in my arms, gripping handfuls of her ass. This time, she folded her legs around my waist, letting me carry her to my front door. I pressed her against it and dug my erection between her thighs.
Her head fell back against the wood. A loud groan traveled up her throat. I trailed my tongue down her neck, sucking hard on the skin between her collarbone and breast.
“More.” She was panting, begging, clawing at my shirt. “More, more, more.”
I pinched her nipple through her dress and brought my hand between us, dipping below the skirt and into her panties. My finger slipped in easily. She claimed my lips again, sucking my tongue into her mouth, hands cradling both sides of my face.
“More,” she begged again, resting her forehead on mine.
She reached down and stroked my hard-on through my pants. I thrust against her, groaning. Rain battered down on us. Her walls clenched around my fingers. I added another one and slammed my mouth onto hers.
