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“It’s just rain.” As if incensed by the challenge, a cold wind ripped across the yard, slamming me backward into Graeme. His steady hands caught me once again, practically searing my skin through my sweater. “Seems like it’s more than that,” he replied with a devilish grin.
“What about Graeme Hewitt?” Arden piped up, looking between Lennox and I expectantly. “Causing trouble again, I take it? Someone really needs to knock that asshole off his fucking pedestal. He’s not Deacon yet, for Christ’s sake.” “Cassius was just talking to him,” Lennox answered, his teeth on edge. Arden’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “But his dad…” The voice was mine, but the words were hollow. “Murdered my mother.”
Cassius fucking Corbin. The son and heir to the family who’d hated mine since the beginning of time, the family I was taught to hate from the moment I drew breath. More importantly, he was the son of the woman who killed my brother. Cassius fucking Corbin. The guy I thought was so hot from the minute he stepped through the door, with his dark hair and pale skin, looking like a dark academia snack. The one who smelled like expensive soap and evergreens. I’d pursued him until I had him. And I fucking had him! Instead of killing him, what did I do? I blew him in the dark like a fucking moron.
“What the fuck did you just do? Cassius!” My smirk spread into a full-fledged smile. The only answer I gave him was laughter, like the villain he wanted me to be.
“I don’t like it, Graeme. Not one bit. I don’t want you talking to that boy again. Do you hear me? Don’t even look at him!” “Why would I talk to him?” I threw my hands up, all but scraping the bottom of the patience barrel. “He’s the son of a killer.” Just like me — the parallel of which was not lost on me.
Well, there was only one answer I was after — did Lydia Corbin murder my brother or not? Everyone said she did. It was a given. She married a Corbin and Corbins and Hewitts had hated each other since the founding of the colony. According to family lore, a Corbin boy fell in love with a Hewitt girl and when she refused his hand, he murdered her. The Hewitts, then, murdered the Corbin boy. And we’d hated each other ever since.
“I didn’t say anything.” “No, but I’m sure you were about to.” A small frown pulled the corners of my mouth. He took offense when I meant none and slung verbal daggers any chance he could. Sad to say, the rush of our sparring matches no longer held the same appeal. I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d ever speak civilly to one another again.
I pushed against his chest and pulled back as much as I could with the stone behind me. He caught my wrists and pinned them again, pressing his body against mine even harder. Angling his face, he resumed his attack on my mouth, slipping his tongue inside deeper. As much as I hated him, I couldn’t help the strangled moan that worked its way out of my throat.
“Can you ever look at me and not see my father?” he asked quietly. “Can you ever look at me and not see a monster?” “I don’t see a monster.” “Too bad I don’t believe you.”
“Do you hate me, Cassius?” “You know I do.” His voice was hard, his face was hard, even his dick was hard. But the flicker of emotion behind that carefully cultivated facade, the way his grip tightened on my shirt... I didn’t have to have divination powers to know he was fucking lying. “That’s a shame,” I said, my lips brushing across his lightly. “Because I’m starting to kind of like you.”
My breath caught when he shifted closer. His whole hand covered mine and curled around it, holding it like it was the most natural thing in the world and not a profound act of... I didn’t even know. Rebellion? Betrayal? Insanity? Insanity explained a lot of the past few weeks.
And that’s exactly what I was doing — claiming him. Every fucking part. No matter what happened after this, in this moment Graeme Hewitt was mine
“You said you’ve already accepted death,” I said quietly, sliding my fingers into his dark hair and angling his face up toward my mouth. “So what are you afraid of?” His gaze burned into mine, so much that I swore he was using lightning against me. Tiny sparks danced over my skin as he ran his hands up my abs, around my ribs, and up my back. “You.”
Against my better judgment, I took his hand and laced my fingers through his. After the initial static shock, there was just a light buzzing in my palm that wasn’t unbearable. He tried to pull his hand away, but I held onto it. “The right person will make the effort,” I said.
But whenever Graeme walked into a room, he sucked all the oxygen right out of it. I felt dizzy, like if I wasn’t keeping my gaze fixed on him then I was going to fall over. Despite our verbal spats, he made me feel… That was it — he made me feel. Something. Other than anger, I hadn’t felt anything else in such a long time. How the fuck did he do that? Granted, I still felt plenty annoyed when he was around. Angry. Resentful. But also, connected? Understood?
“Son, when you’re older, you’ll come to realize there are more important things in life than carrying the grudge of people who have been dead for almost four hundred years. This ongoing hatred cost me the love of my life. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone, least of all my son. I raised him to be better than me. What kind of example would I be setting if I judged you for the sins of your father, instead of your own?”
Looking down at our hands, my gaze traveled up Graeme’s arm to his face. From the faint pink in his cheeks and the way he glanced down before looking up again, I knew it was true. He loved me. He fucking loved me. I didn’t know how. Frankly, I didn’t know why. But he did. The inevitable question was — did I love him? Underneath all of the hate and anger and stupid lust, was there something else? Was it love that made my blood come alive? Love that made the knot in my chest loosen whenever he was around? I had no fucking clue.
“What was that for?” “Because I think I love you too.” Just saying the words made my heart rate triple. At the same time, it spread that warm, thrumming energy around my body even faster. He gave me the dopiest smile ever and dragged a knuckle under his eye to wipe away a non-existent tear. “Those are the nicest seven words you’ve ever said to me.” “And I already regret them,”
“Except someone Mommy and Daddy approve of.” I arched an eyebrow at him, daring him to refute it. His shoulders rounded. “It doesn’t mean I’m ashamed of you. I would shout it from every rooftop in Winslow if you wanted me to. I just… you’re the first thing in my life they haven’t controlled. You’re mine,” he sighed, shifting closer and resting his forehead against mine. “To hold hands with, to kiss, to… be myself around. I’m afraid once they know about you, about us, I won’t have that anymore. We’ll be under a fucking microscope and I don’t want that for either of us.”
“I love you,” I repeated, enunciating each word. “I don’t know why. I don’t know how. All I know is how I feel when I’m with you and the thought of you leaving? You might as well rip my heart out and take it with you, because you’re it for me, Cassius. I know it, just like I know when the leaves will drop or when the first snowfall comes. I fucking know it. And I know you feel it too. On some level.”
“I haven’t even said I’ll date you and you’re already planning a wedding?” “Admit it, we’ve pretty much been dating since the semester started.” “Trying to kill one another doesn’t equate to dating.”
“If I make it through this thing alive, will you, Cassius Corbin, be my boyfriend?” “What are you, a penguin?” Shaking his head, he nevertheless took the bloodstone with a small smile. I’d almost swear there was a blush too, but it was hard to tell in the silvery light. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“You haven’t checked on it?” Graeme gasped with exaggerated outrage. “Are you going to ignore our children too?” “We don’t have children, smart ass.” “Well, not with that attitude.”
It was just him and me. The rest of the world didn’t matter. Blood feuds and witch politics meant nothing inside that circle. The only thing that mattered, the only thing that would ever matter, was that Cassius and I had each other. A Corbin and a Hewitt. United in true love at long last.
