Broken Knight (All Saints High, #2)

by L.J. Shen

“Nine!” “Jesus, Saint Lu. He wants you to react this way!”

“Eight!” ...

“Seven!” “Luuuuuu...

“Six!” “Don’t make me do something crazy.” “Five!” “Bitch, you’re more basic than an android.” “Four!” “Last warning, Rexroth.” “Three!” “You asked for it.” “Two!...

I didn’t have time to catch Knight dipping his head farther down to kiss Poppy. Daria clasped my chin, tilted my head in her direction, and pressed her lips against mine as claps and shouts erupted around us, fireworks exploding in the air and in the pit of my stomach. Her soft, warm lips...

“Luna,” he seethed. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Daria rolled her eyes. “Not everything’s about you, Cole. Although, I guess she’s Saint Luna no more, huh?” Daria winked, ignoring the death glare Poppy tried to spear her with.

In all probability, it was all of the above that made me do what I did. I rolled my eyes, opened my mouth, and spat out actual words in front of everyone. “You’re not the boss of me! Not even a colleague. Not even an employee. Barely an acquaintance.” A ruthless smile blossomed on my lips.

“When did you become such a bitch?”

“Since you made me one, KJC.”

She died of an overdose eighteen months ago.”

“You’re free now. Free to speak. Free to talk. Free to be someone else, not the person she made you when she walked away.”

Yes. I knew what I had to do, what I was capable of doing. Val was no longer here to remind me my words didn’t matter, that my voice held no weight. Edie was right. It was time to shed the dead skin of the person I was, and to become someone else. The person Knight needed. The person Dad, Edie, and Racer deserved. I was going to talk to Dad. With words.

I opened my mouth. He dropped his pen. My lips moved. His eyes widened. I smiled. He listened.

“Luna…” He put a shaky hand to his mouth.

“Dad.” “Say it again.” “Dad.” I smiled. He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath.

“Your voice. It’s beautiful.”

“I love you,” I whispered into his suit. My words had life, and weight, and a pulse. I said them again. “I love you, Dad. I love you. I love you. I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby girl.”

I wasn’t done throwing Poppy in her face every chance I got. But it didn’t matter. Emilia was right. Luna needed me. I refused to believe we were two strangers with a past, that our mile-long memories were nothing, that our first kisses were nothing, that the way we molded around each other was nothing, that our blood oath wasn’t worth shit.

“She told him not to swear by the moon because the moon changes, Luna!” No answer. “You changed on me, even though we were in this together. You never, ever let me have a say. I stayed the same, and you just…you just changed!”

I made a mental note to make a voodoo doll of my blonde neighbor and punch it in the tits.

Chick was more persistent than an STD.

“Wow. You’re a piece of work.” “A piece of work who worked his entire life protecting your ass.” I smirked around my joint. “Open up.”

She looked like a fantasy. A sweet torture.

“I’ll make you some tea,” she said. “I hate tea.” “You’ll drink tea.” “Give me one good reason to.” “I’m asking you nicely.” I gave her a do-we-know-each-other? look.

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you touch my boob.” “Nipple too. I don’t want any side-boob action. That doesn’t count.” “Fine!” She threw her arms in the air, exasperated but smiling. “Sold.” I smirked.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered. “I’ve missed us,” I admitted brokenly, my heart crumbling inside my chest.

I tossed, turned, and sweated out my fever the entire night, my eyes closed, the rest of me awake. Thinking, wishing, willing myself to sweat Luna out of my system the way I did the fever, but knowing damn well that some syndromes were incurable, and she was one of them.

I still had my hand between her legs possessively, even though I didn’t exactly do anything about it yet. I just didn’t want to retreat. It was a parking space in downtown LA. I’d worked hard for this spot.

seeing as how I’d never fingered a chick.

I had no experience to think of, because I’d been waiting for her.

“Everything you do is perfect, Moonshine,

“That’s what you do to me, Luna Rexroth.” “I love it.” I love you. Of course, I wasn’t dumb enough to say this.

Smugness spread across my chest like hot wax. It was so pathetic that this was the first orgasm I’d given someone other than myself. It was even more pathetic that by the astonished look on her face, I could see Josh hadn’t been so successful in hitting the big O, and that made me stupidly, ridiculously, tragically happy.

No matter how pissed I was, this time I wasn’t going to be a pussy about it. I didn’t bail. I didn’t throw a fit. I just placed the envelope right where it belonged, pulled my sweatpants on, and waited for the stupid-ass shirt.

“You only get one life, Luna. One stab at this thing called happiness. Why deprive yourself of things you want just because they weren’t given to you the way you hoped for them to come? Life is like a book, a long chain of scenes threaded together by circumstances and fate. You never know how thick or thin your book is, so you better make the most out of every scene, enjoy each chapter.”

“If you think you’ve found something good without anything bad in it, it just means you haven’t examined it close enough.”

I wanted to be with Knight. He needed to know that before I flew back to Boon. He needed to know that I loved him. But also that I was done being the other woman. I wanted to be the only woman.

I wanted to kiss him again. To open my legs for him—again. Let him lick and bite and taunt me. Let him punish me and cherish me. He was my everything. My only sin was fighting what we had because I’d thought I wasn’t worthy.

They looked like a beautiful dream and my own ugly nightmare. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. He was losing his virginity. To Poppy. He was giving to her what he didn’t want to give to me.

Of course—the sun was stronger, bigger, and more important than the moon.

Knowing when to accept defeat, I’d learned, was an art. Giving up too fast was cowardly. But not giving up when all the signs pointed to long-lasting heartache was dangerous, too.

I could no longer afford to put my heart on the line. Once upon a time, Knight had been my protector. But nowadays? Nowadays, he was the very thing I needed protection from. ...

Knight (Three hours ago): Fuck you, Luna. Fuck you.

Shit, why was I so happy she’d let me finger her cunt? She’d probably seen more dicks than a public urinal. Shut up, shut up, shut up.

You’re nothing to me. A simple no one who has yet to understand her role in my life. My mother—my real mother—is dying in the hospital, and the girl I love is on the other side of the continent, fucking some douchebag named FUCKING JOSH she thinks she fell in love with. And I’m putting up with this shit and keep chasing her ass because…because…because I can’t not have her in my life. Don’t you understand?”

“You did this to me. Now I’m this broken puppy begging for love. I would take any crumb Luna throws my way. I’d self-destruct in order not to deal with what’s waiting around the corner for Mom. You made unconditional love conditional for me. You fucked nature in the ass, Dixie. You don’t do that. You don’t mess with nature.”

Knight: Answer me for fuck’s sake. Seriously? It was just a bit of fooling around. Nothing has changed. You’re still my best friend. And my only lover.

And the reason I woke up every day instead of giving up. I had to keep her in my life, even at the price of making said life unbearable.

She could still have FUCKING JOSH. Fuck him. Love him. Build a shrine to him. And I’d still be here. Waiting. Pining. Watching the time str...