Page 53 of Liar
Will must’ve been staring at me, for he said, “You look happy.”
I grinned up at him, squeezing his hand. “I am. For the first time in what feels like forever, I really am happy.” I knocked into his arm playfully. “And I know I owe it to you and the guys. I’d seriously be so lost without you.”
Mushy-gushy Ash didn’t often make appearances, but when she did, she sure laid it on thick.
“And I’d be nowhere without you,” he told me, and I knew he meant it. He might’ve been stabbed, might’ve nearly died because of me, but I had somehow taken a place in his heart, a place that I knew had been, until me, reserved only for Declan and brotherly love.
I tugged his arm, stopping us both, and I stood on my tiptoes to give him a gentle peck on the lips. It was impossible to not feel my heart skipping a beat or two inside when Will said things like that.
Travis’s dorm was on the opposite side of campus, and it took us fifteen minutes to walk there. We went in through the front glass vestibule, heading directly to the stainless-steel elevators.
As we went up to his floor, I couldn’t help but wonder what Travis wanted to talk about. I wasn’t about to walk into an orgy, was I? Not going to lie, that’d be kind of hot…but also probably just something in my imagination. The guys had reconciled, but I wouldn’t say they were that close.
Yeah…nighttime imaginings, those.
Travis’s door sat open an inch, and I pushed in, having to let go of Will’s hand. Travis stood near his bed, his arms crossed as he leaned on the wall. Sawyer lounged on the couch on the other side of the room, looking as relaxed as he could possibly be. Declan looked like he had tried to sit on the couch, but Sawyer’s tall, muscular frame took up the whole thing, leaving Declan to stand beside him and scowl. However, when I walked in, followed shortly by Will, all eyes turned to me.
Seeing them clustered together like this never got old. My cheeks warmed—along with other places—and I struggled to say, “Don’t all rush to greet me at the same time, guys.” Dry, sarcastic, because although they’d looked at me, none of them had made any moves to actually come over to me and say hello.
I mean, we just saw each other earlier, but still. Longing made the heart grow fonder or some shit, right?
Declan sprang into action as Will stepped around me, nodding at both Travis and Sawyer. Declan, the sweetie, wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for a slow, tender kiss that set my insides on fire. Declan’s kisses could do that. “I’m glad to see you,” he murmured against my lips.
From the couch, Sawyer mumbled, “Kiss ass.”
Both Declan and I shot Sawyer a look. As Declan moved aside, I set my bag and skateboard down, moving toward Travis, purposefully glaring at Sawyer as I rubbed myself against his tattooed arms, practically acting like a horny cat. All I had to do was tilt my head back, and Travis placed a warm kiss on my lips. He tasted of smoke, but that was alright. I’d come to get off on the taste, the scent of smoke. It just reminded me of Travis.
And if you’d ever met Travis, you would know how impossible it was to not be turned on by him.
“Well, that’s not fucking fair,” Sawyer muttered, sitting up. My lips were still attached to Travis when I felt a strong hand grab me and spin me to another chest, this one hard and wide, the most muscled out of all of them.
“Sometimes life isn’t fair,” I told him with a smirk, poking him on his left hip, right on the side.
Right where I knew he was just a hair ticklish.
I’d found out accidentally, of course, during one of our dates. I couldn’t say why, but I found it absolutely hilarious that the big, strong, take-no-shit-but-give-a-lot-of-shit Sawyer was ticklish. Endearing. I found it endearing.
Sawyer jerked away, releasing his hold on me as he nearly tripped backward to get away from me. His handsome face twisted into a scowl, and he shot me a dirty look. “Hey, I told you not to do that.” He then glanced at the others, probably wondering if they all saw it, too.
And they did. This room wasn’t that big. They all now knew Sawyer Salvatore had a ticklish spot.
“And I told you I’d do it when I wanted to,” I said, laughing as he continued to scowl, looking like I betrayed him by revealing his weakness.
The more time I spent with Sawyer, the more I wanted to throw caution to the wind and be with him. He was a real person, not just the tough guy with a vendetta against the boy he thought hurt his baby sister. He had a personality, likes and dislikes, and I enjoyed learning all about him.
I did love him, not that I would tell him that anytime soon. The bastard would get way too smug. He’d probably become unbearable.
“Anyway,” Travis broke into my thoughts and Sawyer’s pouting, “I have a surprise.”
All attention turned to him. Even Will was curious, and when it came to the others, he didn’t often let his emotions show, preferring to keep them close to his chest.
The lower part of my gut warmed up. Any other time a surprise was mentioned and Travis was involved, it usually involved sex. Sex, bondage, threesomes, all that good stuff. My body reacted that way out of habit.
“Well?” Sawyer spoke, sounding bored. He’d plopped himself back down on the couch, though instead of laying, he now sat, his knees apart. He was the only one in the room who was sitting, but that didn’t seem to bother him. Sawyer liked to stand out. He also wanted people to think he didn’t care, even when he did. “Don’t keep us in suspense, Trav. Tell us.”
Travis’s mouth thinned as he glanced at Sawyer, but the disdain didn’t linger. “I rented a cabin for spring break at Beacon Hills. I figured we could all get away for a while…unless you have plans for spring break?” The question was directed at me.
Beacon Hills. Never heard of it, but that was probably because I came from up north. Maybe it was a rich Hillcrest thing.
