Page 200 of Ominous: Part 1
“How long do you think it’s going to last?”
Eden: Yeah. I’m driving over.
But I want to pick you up.
I glance up at Luna. She’s now chewing on the end of her sunglasses, her eyes on my phone.
Me: Hurry.
I pocket my phone and grab my keys, clenching my fingers around them. I don’t speak as I stare down Luna.
She narrows her eyes. There’s a dot of mascara just below her brows, no doubt from the fact the sun is practically melting us both. Maybe from crying too.
I don’t point it out.
“You and Eden,” she adds impatiently, as if I didn’t know what she was referring to.
I walk around to my door, resting my hand over the hot roof of my car, relishing in the feel of it, just looking at Luna.
She smiles. “Am I touching a nerve, Eli? Talking about your girl?”
I tap my fingers against the black paint of my car but don’t answer her as her smile falters. Our practices got out at the same time. It’s the only reason we’re currently occupying the same space.
She lifts her brows. “What’re you going to do when she fucks Dom too? I know you want her all to yourself, but I’m not so sure that’s how she’s made. She might be a little like Winslet, you know?” I hear a note of bitterness in her voice, and not for the first time, I wonder what, exactly, she knows about Winslet and Dominic.
But then the thought is obliterated, driven from my mind, when I imagine sharing Eden. I grind my teeth together. I’m startled by my own possessiveness. Glancing at my dark windows, I imagine her again, beneath me in the driver’s seat. Her eyes locked on mine. Her mouth under my hand. Stealing her breath. The way she fainted, just for a few seconds. How innocent she looked when she came back to.
I arch my hips a little, undetectable by Luna because of the car between us, but my erection grinds against the side of my door.
Fuck.
“I actually like her.” Luna shrugs, and I keep my eyes on her, but my mind isn’t there. She’s attractive and fucking her was fun, but it’s not her I’m thinking of right now. “Janelle is in love with her. I think Dom is too.” She rolls her eyes, crossing her arms as she tilts her head. “But I miss you, Eli. Dom needs you. We could all play with her—”
“Luna.” My voice is rough, my cock still hard, thinking about Eden’s breathless whimpers, the way she collapsed in my arms, how she trusted me. How I don’t want to break her faith in me. I don’t think any girl has ever felt safe with me before. Not like she does. Not even Luna, who I don’t look away from when I say,“Don’t fuck with me about this.”
Luna blinks at me, frowning. But after a moment, she must get the hint, because she straightens from her car, putting her sunglasses back on as she rakes her fingers through her hair, and it all falls neatly back into place when she’s done. She reaches for the handle of her door. “Have you checked in with Dom?” Her back is to me when she asks.
“No. I have not. Have you?” I don’t bother hiding the boredom in my voice.
Luna whips her head around to glare at me. “You could pretend you have a heart, Eli.”
I open up my door, the heat and scent of leather and sex nearly overwhelming as I do. “I could.”
Her mouth presses into a thin line.
I smile at her, and keep my voice low as I ask, “Do you know how many times he checked on me when I was at Montford?” Even Luna sent letters.
At the mention of it,Montford,her gaze falls.
Yeah. Everyone wants to pretend they’re sympathetic to people with mental illnesses until they start showing signs of being mentally fucking ill.
“Sometimes I think he’s in love with you,” Luna says quietly. “And he doesn’t know how to explain it.”
I don’t have anything to say to that. It happens. People thinking they love me. They rarely truly do because they’re only in love with what I reflect back to them. Who I try to be, for them, so they become someonefor me.I gave Dominic a level of popularity he wouldn’t have had otherwise. In turn, just like Luna, he was my… puppet. Things haven’t really been the same though since I got back from Montford. He’s grieving. It makes him a little boring.“Most people are boring and stupid.”An Oscar Wilde quote, fromThe Picture of Dorian Gray.For a split second, I see Winslet reading that book in my head.
“You’re scarier when you don’t talk, you know,” Luna breaks the silence after a moment, a note of apprehension in her words. “Make sure you’re getting enough sleep.”
I blink at her.
