Everyone else disappears around us, and it’s just he and I and the crackle of electricity that’s passing between us. I don’t move, never leaving until the song finishes and Keaton shoves me playfully. “That voice.”
I laugh, but then when I find myself disappearing behind my smile, a stab of loneliness beats at my heart.
King nods his head, raising his glass to his mouth.
I stand and make my way to him because I want this. I want him. I’ve not gone through all that I have all to just give up on him.
I’m standing in front of him when his knees separate and his head tilts back. I see it in his eyes what he wants me to do, so I snake my hand around the back of his neck and lower myself onto his groin.
While I straddle his waist, he buries his face in my neck. “I’m fucking sorry.” His voice is mumbled, but that doesn’t destroy the fact that every single one of those words had a direct line to my heart.
“It’s okay,” I whisper, massaging his head.
He tilts his head up to me, and I drop my lips down to his. I kiss him softly, and his tongue sneaks out, licking me in my mouth.
Everyone starts clapping in the background, and I turn my hand around and flip them off behind my back.
He pulls away, searching my eyes. “I can’t have you in the final act. Period. We will have to take that up with Delila.”
“She’s not going to like that,” I answer, and King turns around to face everyone.
He pushes his fingers between his lips and blows out a whistle. The music pauses. “Yo! Anyone else looking at finding a chick, falling in love, and thinking maybe you’ll kill a fucker for laying hands on her in the final act?”
Everyone pauses, but my breathing has caught.
What did he just say?
He continues. “So everyone understands that if you find love in Midnight Mayhem, you still have to whip your cock out for shits and giggles at the end of the night? None of you bitches are going to detest it? Use mine and P’s relationship as a get out of jail free card?”
They all agree with a round of murmurs.
I want to say that’s not fair. Obviously, none of them are in love right now. I turn my head over my shoulder as my eyes fall on Maya, who’s glaring at Killian. “Agreed!”
Jesus.
Wait. Back up.
“Good!” King’s grip tightens around my waist as his attention comes back solely to me. “Guess we have a selling point.”
“But you said in love,” I whisper, searching his eyes.
He freezes. “What? You think I didn’t figure I loved your annoying ass way back when you ate all of my cookies?”
I pull my lip between my teeth and smirk. “You love me?”
His head jerks back, and he brushes me off. “Outta here, girl.”
“You heard that, right?” I say to Saskia who is beside us.
She laughs. “Yup!”
I bring my lips to his and rub against his growing cock. “Okay, can we go to bed?”
He lifts me off the ground and starts carrying me to his RV. Everyone starts clapping again with a whole round of “Finally!”
“Yo! You two need your own fucking RV! Fucked if I’m putting up with that noise!” Kill calls out through his laughter.
I don’t care. I have King in my arms again, and although our journey wasn’t an easy one, it was one that we both needed to take. Every turn, every bump we hit in the road, only helped pave the way to our future. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you know you love someone, or they know you love them. Sometimes, you still have to fight for it, for them. For us. Marriages fail because so many give up without going through the hurdles. Love is a battlefield, and my knight is a villain.
I died the day I lost P. Everything inside of me ceased to exist. I didn’t want to breathe if she wasn’t breathing the same air, exist where she didn’t exist. I cut off all of my humanity like a fuckin’ cheesy vampire and dove straight into the brotherhood. When she came back to me, the time I spent with her, even thinking she was Dove, slowly turned on all the switches that I had so violently flicked off. She will always be not just my soul mate, but my better half.
“King!” P scolds, walking into the kitchen with my mom in tow behind her. They’re trying to get along, but I think it’s going to be more a work-in-progress. My mother is a hard woman. “Stop eating all of the cookies before everyone gets here.”
I roll my eyes, tossing the cookie back on the table. “Come here.” She does, fluidly moving across the room and taking a seat on my lap.
“What if she doesn’t like me anymore?” She turns, her hands coming to the back of my neck.
“Who?” She can’t be talking about Ash. She and P have been talking on the phone nonstop. Mom is making noises behind us, yelling at the cooks who are trying their hardest to get all of the food cooked for everyone before they get here. We have Thanksgiving and Christmas here; my parents throwing the ultimate bash, and every year, my mom throws a diva fit when something isn’t right.
“Cartier!” she scolds, as if I wasn’t fucking listening, because I wasn’t.
“What? She will love you. Stop tripping.” I’m not lying. Cartier and P were tight when they were young, being the same age. Cartier is Kyrin’s baby sister and probably the only girl he gives a fuck about and ever will give a fuck about, but she’s fucking insane. She’s played princess all her damn life and has no problem doing it.
The front door opens down the hallway, and Mom calls to us, “King!”
I tap P’s leg, rushing her off. “Ready for some family drama?”
She snorts. “I’m well acquainted with drama.” I take her hand and pull her under my arm, exactly where the fuck she belongs.
The door opens, and Kill strolls through with his mom and dad. The Cornelii family, always so fucking strange. Kill slaps my ass in passing before seeking out someone to torment. Behind the Cornelii family is the Nero family—aka Kyrin’s family—and the princess herself. Long teal-colored hair, milky white skin, and bright blue eyes look up at P.
Her little tattooed arms fly around P’s neck, pulling her in close. “I’m so glad you’re alive, P!” Cartier is the only other person I have ever let call P by the nickname I gave her, and that’s only because the little shit doesn’t scare easily.
“Move, Cartier. You’re blocking the way. Ky pushes inside and heads straight for the patio out the back. His parents come in, and before I know it, Cartier and P have whisked off somewhere, as if there was no absence.
Behind the Neros are the Ciceros, aka Keaton’s family. Ash still makes Keres use her last name sometimes, though, what with the power struggle between the two of them. Ash and P’s family is one of the highest ranking to come from Kiznitch because they owned the entirety of the land. The literal land was her family’s; the rest of us just helped find it. There was a war between the Kournikovas and The Brothers way, way back when the settlement happened, and then Ash went and married Keres. Ash jumped into the wheel with him and carved an ace of spades into the metal to help keep her focused and grounded. When we asked her what that ace meant, she just winked and said, “You’ll find yours one day, and you’ll know.”