Page 14 of Pucking Unhinged
"He was just trying to protect me from the fire,” Winter says with a gasp of air. “Our phones aren’t working in here, and he thought I was hurt.”
The guard narrows his eyes, lowers the taser. "Take your sister and get out of here. Go to the other side. No one can be over here." He turns on his heel, and we’re nothing but an afterthought.
Relief must hit my girl hard because her arms fall, and she’s spinning to face me. She presses into me hard, little fists digging into my shirt. Usually, I'm the one holding on. Now she leans into me like she's begging me without words to keep it together. It does something to me. I can’t pinpoint exactly what, but it calms the edge just enough.
“They fucking called the fire department for this shit?” I hear someone say in a huff as they walk past us. I can hear the sirens in the distance, but all I can focus on is the girl in front of me. I wrap her in my arms, and she doesn’t squeal when I pick her up and start walking to the designated area where we won’t be berated. She presses her face against my neck, and I lean down, breathing her in.
"I'm sorry we got separated," she whispers when I set her down, but I sure as shit don’t let her go. I know I can’t keep her locked up in a house with me and only me, but right now that seems like a grand fucking life. Just us, all day every day is my literal dream life.
"It wasn’t your fault. It happened so quickly because they were pushing everyone out of that area," I say, voice low. "I'mnot taking chances. I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. You’re sticking to me like fucking glue tonight, got it?" I hate how panicked I still sound. I so badly want to be strong for her, the way I’m strong in every other aspect of my life.
She looks at me like she always does, like she believes me even when I'm too much. She wedges her arm up between us, sticking her pinky finger up toward me. “Like glue. Pinky promise?”
"Pinky promise," I rasp, hooking my finger with hers. My other arm goes to her lower back, pulling her flush into me. I don’t give a fuck if she knows in this moment what being close to her does to me.
Winter leans down, kissing our locked fingers, and that’s what prompts me to tip her chin up with my free hand. “You’re not the only one who panics, you know. I feel it. When we’re separated.”
I feel the need to tell her why the bond we share is different than any other. "Madi and Lilac don't know all the things Hayden and Callum have done for them. That's the difference. You know what I'm capable of. You know what I've done and what I'm willing to do."
She squeezes my hand hard enough that I feel it in my bones. She doesn't flinch away when my hand lands on her cheek, my thumb catching the single tear that tracks down. Winter is so strong, so resilient. She’s definitely not a crier. I don't think about it before I act. I lean in and take it with my tongue, quick and stupid and clumsy. She stares at me for a beat, surprised, then her fingers come up and stroke my face slowly.
She’s so fucking careful and gentle with me.
When she doesn’t say anything, I tell her one more thing. “Never say you’re my sister again. You are everything but.”
I hear Winter’s gasp, soft and startled, and her eyes widen for a heartbeat, shock flashing there, but I can’t stop. I won’t.
I don’t want to anymore.
My mouth brushes her cheek again, catching another tear with my tongue, greedier this time. The taste is salty, and something sweeter, and it makes me ache everywhere. I press in harder, burying my face in her neck, breathing her in until my lungs burn. She smells like vanilla tonight, and I want every inch of her on me.
“Don’t fucking leave my side for the rest of the night,” I rasp the sentiment again, voice breaking apart at the edges. I choke back the rest…or ever…before I do too much to take back once I’ve calmed down. Before I ruin her more than I already have.
Winter doesn’t fight me. Doesn’t push me away. She stays still, pliant, letting me hold her. Her hand slides up my chest, pressing against the frantic thrum of my heart like she’s the only thing keeping it from breaking out of my ribs.
It kills me, the way she lets me cling when I should be letting her go. Her body shifts against mine, the press of her thighs brushing my legs, and I can feel myself harden instantly. Just from this. Winter’s warmth, her trust, the way she looks at me. My cock strains against my jeans, painful, needy, and I tuck her in to my side in hopes of hiding it from her. I swear that it’s shame and hunger for this girl tearing through me at the same time.
I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t need it. But my hips almost move of their own accord, a subtle rock into her softness that would surely undo me right now. All it would take is one brush of her hand across my skin and I’d be a whimpering fucking mess for this girl. I imagine sliding that old t-shirt of mine that she sleeps in some nights higher, finding her bare thighs under my hands, but I force myself still. I know I’m just torturing myself with closeness, with everything I’ll never deserve.
“Thank you for coming to find me,” she whispers, voice breaking as it leaves her.
The words gut me because she really means that. She thinks I’m doing something for her benefit, when the entire time I felt like I was dying because she wasn’t with me. I grip her harder, caging her against me, my lips brushing her temple as I murmur, raw, “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
Winter looks up at me like she wants to ask me for something. The answer is always yes. Whatever she wants, whatever this girl needs. Yes. I want her to have that and more. I drop my face closer to hers. Too close. This is too much. My hand is in her hair, and I can feel her breath hit my mouth. I dip my head again without thinking. Just a little. Close enough that I think I know exactly what she will taste like.
My first kiss.
Her first kiss.
Ours. It’ll be ours and no one else's.
TRISTAN
The sound of Winter’s phone ringing snaps the moment we almost just had in half. She fumbles, nearly dropping the phone after she fishes it out of her pocket.
I pull back before I do something I can’t take back, and she’s mumbling something about it’s weird that we have phone service over here, but not in the main entryway.
She answers with a quick, “Hello?” but it’s not just a call, it’s a video and I’ve never wanted to throat punch someone more in my life than in this moment.
