Rivulet (11 page)

“I didn’t let him in. And I thought that it might work because you guys introduced me to him.”

Gavin’s eyes filled with concern. “You like him?”

I shook my head no once, knowing that was the truth. I didn’t like him the way I should. I knew that. I wasn’t jealous of him. I was jealous that another girl saw him for what I couldn’t, that she could touch him and not worry about freezing him to death.

I saw both Gavin and Mason breathe out.

“What do you guys know? I already figured out this is not the first girl that has been keeping him warm over the last few months. I let him go.”

They glanced at each other, then to me, giving me the impression that I wasn’t even close to the mark concerning what they were thinking or knew.

“What?”

“Just a gut feeling,” Gavin said under his breath as he glanced out the window to the empty snow-covered streets. “You say the word, and we’re out of here. I don’t like how she showed up out of nowhere, or that he is messing with you.”

Mason angled his phone at Gavin, as if to show him the time. He received a quick nod from Gavin before he glanced out the window again.

What was with the two of them?

“Wilder doesn’t have me rattled. I think it’s the dream I had last night. This day just feels off to me. Almost like everyone is either in place or out of place. My emotions are just on high alert.”

Gavin reached to squeeze my hand. His eyes questioned where my scarf was before he spoke. “We are going to figure this out, one way or another. I’m already on it.”

Mason nodded once to agree. I wasn’t sure what they were trying to unravel or why they didn’t seem to be hiding their protectiveness anymore. I mean, hell, if looks could kill, Cadence would have taken Gavin down the first second he moved away from her to talk to me.

“Don’t let me drag you into my hell. I think it’s almost over anyway.”

They glanced at each other before looking back at me. “It feels like it’s just starting,” Gavin said, almost to himself as he glanced over his shoulder at Wilder.

Wilder had somehow managed to get his girl to leave, but not before kissing her tenderly in front of all of us.

He avoided my stare as he walked back to the bar. The glances from the guys confirmed his fear that that was not a good thing to throw in my face. I mean, he could have at least introduced her to us.

I put up the front that I didn’t care as I acted like I was busy straightening up things. A beat or two later, I smelled the rich scent of lilies and glanced up to see Wilder just behind me. In my ear he whispered, “I didn’t plan that. Wasn’t ready for you to see it. Sorry.”

I glanced back at him and gave him a stiff nod before moving back to where Mason was. I halfway thought he was just trying to get a rise out of me. But like I said, I was more jealous of the ‘normal’ girl he’d found than the sight of her in his arms.

A familiar whisk of air swooshed through the room, producing Skylynn on the stool next to Mason. On reflex, I glanced to the guards, then to the writer in the corner to see if they noticed her sudden appearance. They gave no evidence that they did, but she’d stolen Cadence and the guys’ attention.

“Just to be clear, you see someone sitting next to Mason?” I said under my breath where only they could hear me.

“Of course they see me. They’re not blind,” Skylynn said as she pushed Gavin’s empty shot glass forward. “I’ll take one of these.”

“Everyone, Skylynn. Skylynn, everyone,” I said with insolence as I poured her a shot. Now, after all this time, she shows herself.

Wilder leaned over the bar in front of Cadence, and the two of them started a quiet conversation. I’m sure they were trying to figure out why they were now as insane as I was.

Mason wasn’t bothered by it at all. His chocolate eyes were drinking in Skylynn. Gavin’s eyes just moved between the two of us, trying to figure out why I was mad at my imaginary friend that had come to life before their eyes.

Skylynn slammed the glass down and turned sharply on her seat to face Mason. “You’re a twin.”

“Yup,” Mason said as all the allure left his eyes. She’d just called out his weakness, the loss of his brother.

“He played music, like you. Was it the drums?”

Mason smirked. “He wishes. Guitar and vocals.”

“Fanfreakingtastic,” Skylynn muttered as she asked me for another shot with the wave of her hand. I gladly poured it. I’d never seen her drink or lose her serious composure. I guess today was a day full of firsts.

She sipped this one at first, then swallowed it whole. “Tell me this,” she said, leaning into Mason. “Did anyone ever mistake you for each other? Not anyone. Did anyone
special
mistake you for the other?”

Mason bit his bottom lip as his gaze fell into hers. I glanced back to make sure Sophia’s attention was somewhere else, but the lavender blonde had captured her attention, too.

Mason leaned forward as he let a devious smile echo on the corners of his lips. “If anyone bothers to get close enough to a twin and looks into their eyes, they will see that the souls could not be mistaken for one another.” He leaned a little closer. “A special person would never question it, not if they knew us at all.”

Sounded like a logical answer to me, but all it did was seem to make Skylynn mad, maybe even sad, one of the two. I purposely handed the whisky bottle to Wilder, who was a few feet away from me. She’d had enough, apparently.

Skylynn locked eyes with me as she turned to face the bar. “He needs to move.”

“What?” I said with a smirk. Mason was totally not coming on to her, he was just using his charisma to hide the pain.

“Move. Over. Out. Up. Down. I don’t care. He just needs to move.”

“What has gotten into you?” I asked her with an astonished gaze.

She leaned over the bar so only I could hear her. “I’ve had a really bad day. It will only get worse if he doesn’t move. I’m not in the mood for a jealous temper tantrum.”

“He’s the most peaceful one of all of them,” I assured her, knowing he would not care what she had to say to me and wouldn’t even bother to steal my attention away from her.

“It’s not him I’m worried about. He smells like you. Make him move.” She glanced down at my wrist that was missing one very important scarf. “I’m trying to protect you. I thought that’s what you wanted. Needed.”

I couldn’t figure out why she wanted him to move, but I gave in, for Sophie’s sake. She had it bad for Mason, and now that Mason knew he was driving Skylynn mad he would continue to do so and never even know he was hurting the girl that had a crush on him.

Skylynn slid back down on her stool. I edged over in front of Mason. “Will you play me something?” I asked as sweetly as I could.

“Seriously?” he asked with a smirk, not believing I took her side.

I tilted my head in Sophia’s direction. “Don’t hurt her. She knows I told you.”

He leaned forward, holding my gaze. “I told you she was too naïve for me,” he whispered.

“Don’t be cold. I’ll forgive you for the Indie Club if you at least be nice. Tell her you’re not interested if you’re not, but don’t play with Skylynn in front of her.”

“Play?” he said in his familiar flirtatious tone.

“Go,” I insisted as I tried not to blush the way he wanted me to.

He pushed back from the bar. “Hey, Sophia. It’s slow. Do you want to learn how to play the drums?”

You would have thought that he asked her to run away with him. She beamed as she walked around the bar so she could follow him to the side of the room where the stage was.

Pretending that she needed to take Sophia’s place, Cadence edged around the bar and came to where I was standing.

“Smells like me? Really?” I muttered, looking at Skylynn.

She held up her shot glass, asking for more.

“Nope. You’re already acting weird.”

“Coffee, then. Why not?” she said with an exhausted smile. You would think it was the end of the world for Skylynn, that she saw no reason to have manners or inhibitions. It was sad, really. I wanted my friends to know the angel that had saved my life so many years ago, the angel that had kept me sane all these years.

Cadence poured her a cup. When she handed it to her, she said, “I always imagined you...I don’t know. Nicer.”

“I’m nice when I keep good company. Lately, that has not been the case,” Skylynn said as her eyes raked over Cadence.

“Do you plan on insulting all of my friends tonight?” I asked in a sharp tone.

“Definitely not talking about them,” Skylynn said, nodding in the direction of Mason and Gavin. With a sigh, her blue eyes locked with mine. I could have sworn I saw an apology there. For what, I don’t know.

“Who has you bothered?” I pushed.

“A few. But there is someone that is not thrilled that I’ve kept our friendship a secret.”

“Who?”

I glanced around the bar, noticing Wilder displaying the same disdainful glare as Cadence. Gavin had already decided she was nothing to worry about. He had pulled his laptop to him and was typing at the speed of light.

Skylynn returned their glare before she caught my stare. “You’ll see in...” she held up her hand and then slowly let her fingers count down to zero, then knocked her fist on the bar. At that moment, the chime on the door went off.

Time stopped.

I could not comprehend the warm, dominant energy that flowed through me as my eyes met this flawless being.

In the North Wing, he was never completely corporeal. None of the memories I had been able to unlock were. But now, right now, he was in the flesh. Sebastian Falcon was either standing feet from me or he had been reincarnated looking hotter than he was the first go around on the wheel of life.

His black, long sleeve T-shirt hinted to the perfection that it surely must be hiding. My eyes wanted to travel further down him, but they were pulled back to his intoxicating stare. His eyes were still a deep gray, but in the centers I could see unfathomable orange freckles, which mocked flames. He tilted his head slightly, allowing his somewhat long, dark auburn hair to fall over his high cheekbones. There was agony in his stare. It pulled me in. This. Could. Not. Be. Real.

I could swear his body relaxed all at once as his lips, perfectly shaped lips, echoed a wounded smile.

Our uncalled for stare may have relaxed him, but it had the opposite effect on me. Two beats—no, maybe three or four in one second followed by a thousand more. I had been staring at his image for years, and for some reason he was finally seeing me, too.

Almost immediately, he glanced down at the guards.

He turned to them and said something I could not hear, and as they passed what looked like short words shot back and forth. Skylynn gripped my arm. “If that doesn’t make you feel two beats, there is no hope for you,” she whispered.

I swallowed nervously as my eyes moved back to him. A flaming burn spread through my soul. I almost wanted to cry in relief, but that was foolish. In this life, right now, we were strangers. It didn’t matter that I felt like I had lived side by side with him for the past five years.

The guards had stood from their seat and left without another word. They didn’t go far, just to their SUV.

The boy walked slowly, yet confidently across the bar, catching my stare once more. This entire room should be frozen, at least twenty inches of ice by now—that was how out of control my emotions were—but no ice came. I felt my ivory skin turn crimson. It took every ounce of strength I had to stand still, not to rush to him, to welcome him home.

He sat down next to Skylynn and broke our gaze only to throw a glare to the corner the writer was working in. As if commanded to, the writer gathered his things and left without another word.

Skylynn let out a sigh as she slouched on her stool and pulled her coffee to her lips.

“Phoenix, please let me introduce you. This is Miss Genevieve Indiana Falcon,” she said with a nod to me.

Phoenix reached across the bar for my hand. As if under a spell, I gave it to him, but he didn’t shake it. Instead, he brought it to his warm lips. With his touch, I felt a slow burn ease through my body, causing my toes to curl and a gasp to escape my gently parted lips.

I had imagined this very scenario a million times over, feeling his skin, seeing his eyes meet mine, the touch of his lips against my skin. No doubt I had a very weak imagination. I had never felt anything so amazing in my life.

“Genevieve…it’s a pleasure,” Phoenix said in a deep voice that was pure silk. He said it the exact same way, the same way I heard him say it in that wing. How is that possible? How could he so clearly mock an ancestor of mine? How did Skylynn know him? How was any of this real?

“Sebastian,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

A wretched smile echoed in his hypnotic gaze. “Phoenix,” he said quietly, as if the lie was killing him. Did he realize that before this day that was the only name I knew him by? Maybe he was telling me that I was way off track, that he was not the boy in the North Wing.

“Sor—sorry,” I stuttered.

I knew the others had moved closer, that Wilder was behind me, defensive as always. Gavin had edged down the bar, curious and cautious as ever, and Mason had come back to this side of the bar, daring and protective as per his usual. But I didn’t see them. I could only see Phoenix, and oddly, in his energy I felt everything I loved about my guys. Phoenix wasn’t part of what I was looking for…he was two beats. He was the past I ached for. He barely said two words to me, and he was already the best thing that had happened to me in this life.