Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (14 page)

She had no idea where that surge of jealousy
had come from. Why should she even care? She loved Kingston, and
yet here she sat, with a guy she didn’t even know, calling girls
whores for hitting on him. Moriah had no idea what her problem was.
Still she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the boy named Simon.
She adjusted on the stair and smiled over at him again, clearing
her throat to get his attention. He didn’t’ budge. Not to be
deterred she leaned forward. “You smell nice,” she blurted, and
then bit her lip. What was she doing? She sounded like an
idiot.

He gave her a sidelong
glance. “Thank you,” he said, and then promptly turned away and
looked back at the crowd of people milling about in front of
them.

Moriah opened her mouth
and then shut it. What? She thought he would say something to her,
like she smelled nice too, or she was something—anything, but he
didn’t. Feeling incredibly self-conscious suddenly, she shifted on
the stair and looked back at Simon. It was hard not to look at him.
There was something so alluring about him, something that she
couldn’t quite put her finger on. Her stomach flipped over, making
her feel slightly sick but that didn’t stop her from stealing
glances at him from under her lashes, trying to watch his every
move even though she pretended not to.

Simon lifted his cup and
took a slow pull on his drink. He could feel her tracking his
movements and smiled into his cup. Well, now, he was happy to see
his certain something had not fled. He had wondered if it had since
he changed. Obviously, he was still utterly amazing. He had always
been irresistible to the female persuasion. A long time ago, in his
previous life, so long in fact, he had almost forgotten…he had been
a rock star. Girls fell all over themselves to get near him. They
couldn’t keep their hands from his body. Of course, he had been
more than happy to accommodate them
all.
Now, sitting here with this
pretty girl beside him, he felt stirrings of his old self-come to
the forefront. Setting his cup down he decided to test the waters,
to see how much of his “
it
” he still had. He turned toward
her and locked eyes with hers. “Is there something you want…dove?”
he asked and slowly raked his eyes down her shapely body, then
brought them back to her face, lifting his brow in
question.

Moriah shivered. “Ah…” She
bit her lip, nervously twirling a strand of her long blonde hair
around her finger.

“
Yes dove.” He let his gaze
linger on her full lips momentarily. “Well…?” he asked lifting his
eyes back to hers.

“
I wondered…if um…”
Conflicting emotions battled against one another in her mind. Part
of her wanted to go and find Kingston but another part…a part that
was quickly overriding the other…wanted to lean forward and kiss
his perfect lips…if only for a moment…

MAGIC

SATURDAY * 9:33 PM

“
This night sucks balls—big
fat furry ones,” Evie muttered miserably into her cup staring down
at the three cherries bobbing in the top. Lifting her drink, she
took a hefty swig, holding it in her mouth until it started to burn
and then she finally swallowed.

After her huge trek around the entire lawn,
she finally made it back to the drink station. Of course, by the
time she managed to get back, both Heather and the mysterious guy
with the tattoo were gone. She had looked for over an hour and
didn’t see anyone who even remotely looked like the guy she met the
evening before…except for the one Heather took and disappeared
with. Now she would never know if the guy was him or not. So, as a
conciliation prize she got herself a loaded drink. She almost went
back and grabbed a second when she spotted Colton with Kingston and
Barnaby walking towards the drink station chasing down a girl.
Turns out, it was the cool one, with the freakishly awesome body
and shaved hair that still managed to look incredible even though
she was half-bald.

“
Stupid party,” she
complained in full mope mode now. She was slipping further and
further down into a pit of depression. Dipping her fingers into her
drink, she pulled out a fat red cherry, debating for a minute if
she should take the plunge to lala land and eat it.

“
Why the hell not?” It was
more exciting than standing under a stupid tree…alone. She popped
the cherry into her mouth. Again the fiery liquid spurted inside,
making her cough, just like the night before. She pushed past it
and swallowed anyway. When she reopened her eyes, she nearly fell
over. She suddenly loved Barnaby and his loaded cherries—they were
making her see great things. She reached out and poked the winged
man in front of her. “Just checking,” she said, lifting her eyes to
his, giving him a sheepish smile.

He smiled back. “I don’t mind,” he said, and
reached down and placed his hand over hers.

“
You came back,” she said,
smiling warmly up at him, the act nearly splitting her face apart.
She was so happy suddenly.

“
Yeah, I came back,” he
said. “Did you miss me?” he asked, an amused look crossing his
face.

Yes! “Maybe,” she said,
giving him a little payback for leaving her.

His brow creased.

“
I was worried about you,”
she said. Actually, that was an understatement.

“
Yeah, about that…” he
trailed off awkwardly, Not knowing what else to say.

“
I guess you had someplace
to be.” She filled in the rest for him.

“
Yeah, I guess you could
say that.” He shrugged.

That was it? That was all
he was going to say
? “Oh.” She brushed her
hair away from her face and looked down at her feet. She exhaled.
“That’s cool.”

“
So where have you been
hiding?” he asked.

“
Hiding?” she asked
confused.

“
Yeah, I’ve been looking
for you,” he said, his deep voice coming out soft,
velvety.

“
You were!” she squeaked
excitedly, her eyes flying back up to his face. Then she wanted to
kick herself. She sounded like a moron.

“
Yes,” he said
simply.

“
Why?”
she asked in a breathy gust, trying to sound sophisticated, sexy,
like the character
Natasha Fatale
from an
old
Rocky and Bullwinkle
cartoon.

He gave her a curious look. “You okay?”

“
Yeah why?” she said,
clearing her throat, feeling stupid.

“
You
sound…
strange
.”
He shrugged.

“
Something in my throat,”
she lied, completely embarrassed. “So you were saying?”

“
You want the
truth?”

“
Yes, of course.” She
reached back and pressed her hand up against the trunk of the tree
for balance feeling unsteady on her feet suddenly.

“
I wanted to finish what we
started last night.”

A surge of joy zipped through her; maybe ole
Natasha had done the trick after all. “What we started,” she
repeated, her eyes wide.

“
Yeah,” he said. His brows
drew together and he gave her an uneasy look. “Is that
okay?”

“
Sure, of course,” she
said, taking another quick sip of her drink. The wind picked up
pushing her hair forward. Before she had a chance to move it from
her face he lifted his hand and pushed it over her shoulder, his
fingers lingering. “So…um,” she croaked and then cleared her throat
twice to get rid of the frog sound. “What would you like to ah…?”
Her eyes fell to his mouth, remembering a little too vividly how
they felt against her own while hoping…no, wishing that he would
lean forward and kiss her once more.

He gazed down at her, an intense moment
passing between them. It was as if time had no meaning for either
of them. Then he lifted his hand and placed his fingertips under
her chin. “Evie…”

She lifted her eyes to his. “Yes…”

“
I
am
going to kiss you…,”
he breathed, answering her unspoken wish.

Her eyes widened in shock. “How…”

“
Does it matter,” he
breathed, his face inches from hers.

A rush of heat flamed her face. She stared
at his lips and every thought she had turned to mush. “Ah…no…”

“
Good,” he breathed, and
then he kissed her.

It was slow and gentle at
first…almost tentative, but then he deepened the kiss. His tongue
delved deeper, twining with hers. A rush of pleasure shot through
her body, as he continued his silent assault on her senses.
Teasing, tasting…tormenting, with his every kiss, his every touch.
He slid his hand over her side, kneading her hip, pulling her
closer.

Evie clung to him, kissing
him back, feeling so many things suddenly she thought she would
burst. She didn’t feel anything close to this with Colton and she
had pined for him forever…and yet, here she was with a complete
stranger and she didn’t even know his name but she felt like she
had known him forever. Every fiber of her being was in overload,
screaming for him to keep touching her with his body, for his lips
to keep kissing hers and for his arms, never to let her go. She
didn’t understand it, but right now, right this very moment…she
didn’t care either, because as long as she was with him she
felt
complete
.

IDLEWILD

SATURDAY * 9:37 PM

Kingston rocked back on his heels, and
shoved his hands into his front pockets. Two girls were dancing
with one another in front of him, their short skirts riding up
exposing an ample amount of their bare asses. He idly watched,
wondering if they were even wearing panties. As soon as that
thought formed in his mind, he thought of Moriah. He had no idea
why he wasn’t with her. Instead, he was hanging out with Barnaby
and Colton’s lame ass. As if on cue Colton began to sing, making
Kingston seriously regret not being with Moriah.

Colton shoved his drink
into Barnaby’s hand singing, “I am perfect…” changing the words to
the song “U can be perfect.” He bobbed his head to the music,
singing even louder, “I can be perfect—I
am
perfect,” and bounced forward
swinging his hips, dancing behind the girls, switching back and
forth between them both.

Kingston chuckled lightly, watching. He
wanted to go and find Moriah, but he was trying to prove something
to himself, to see if he could in fact survive without her around.
He was falling hard for her, harder than he had ever fallen before.
Even when he was completely into Heather, he never felt like this.
He had thought he was going to marry Heather straight after
college. That was of course, until he met Moriah. Then all thoughts
of Heather had disintegrated from his mind. And that had actually
started to scare the shit out of him. He thought of Moriah all the
time now. Granted, he still checked some chicks out, he was human
after all, but he completely found them lacking. He sighed loudly
and ran his hands over his face.

***

Barnaby took another swig of his drink,
almost spitting it out as Colton tried to pull one of the girl’s
skirts higher while he danced behind her. He laughed at Colton’s
antics. He was an ass, but he was a funny ass. It amazed him how
anyone could be so self-absorbed. But whatever Colton was, girls
seemed to like the way he acted, because they would normally fall
all over him. It made Barnaby wonder what girls actually wanted.
Maybe if he acted like an ass, chicks would dig him too.