Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

JULIEN

It's after nine when I slam the front door open and stumble backward to close it. It may have taken me about three tries with the key to unlock it. I'm slightly inebriated. Other than that one beer I had at the team cookout a few weeks ago, I don't drink anymore. Because of Jay, we have a no-alcohol rule in the house. Tonight, I may have consumed a little too much, if one beer and three shots can be considered too much. After a long dry spell of eight months, the answer is a definite yes. My body isn't used to it anymore. I forgot how much it sucks.

When Liz saw it was karaoke night at Belly's, her face lit up like Christmas. We played pool, she sang, she forced me on stage to do a duet with her. That was embarrassing. But fun. She wanted a beer, so I used my fake ID— thank you, Fallon . We sat in the back of the bar because it was quiet and didn't attract the attention of waitresses. We drank. Liz outdrank me, which is shockingly surprising because Liz was a complete teetotaler in high school. By the time we did our third shot of tequila, my head was swimming, and I called it quits. Liz was fine. No effects. Which should've been impossible. She's half my size. Does having amnesia make you immune to the effects of alcohol?

"Jules, is that you?" Ryder calls from his open bedroom door.

" Yuup! " I weave a path into the living room and face-plant onto the couch.

Footsteps come down the hall, and I wince when a light comes on.

"Fuck, man. Turn it off."

He pokes me in the back of the head. "Are you drunk?"

Not too drunk to give him the middle finger. Ryder's booming laughter makes my head throb.

"Buzzed, not drunk. And please be quiet." I turn my head before I suffocate myself. "Is Elijah back?"

"I haven't seen him since this morning."

Groaning like a man in the throes of death, I roll over. "I need to sober up before he gets here."

Ryder walks off. Lifting my hips, I make several grabs for my phone in my back pocket.

Me: Never drinking again.

Liz: Poor baby. Insert mwah-ha-ha evil laugh here. devil emoji

Me: Not funny.

Liz: A little funny.

Me: Glad I can amuse you.

Liz: You're a fun drunk.

Me: I'm NOT drunk. I'm just not used to tequila. That shit hits fast.

Liz: Thanks for today. I had fun. Get some sleep, pretty boy.

Me: I'm waiting for Elijah to come home.

Liz: If you want me to be there with you when you tell him, I'll come over right now. I can try to explain.

Me: Thanks, but I need to do it.

Liz: I feel awful putting you in that position.

Me: Liz, it's OK. Stop worrying.

Liz: You sure?

Me: Yes. I'll text you tomorrow.

Liz: Ok. Good night, Julien.

Me: Nite, bestie.

I throw my phone across the floor and collapse back. When I next open my eyes, Ryder is thrusting some nasty green shit in a glass at me, along with a couple of pain relievers.

"Drink this, followed by these. You should start feeling better in an hour."

Like a newborn babe on trembling arms, I sit halfway up to take the stuff. I eye the green liquid for a long time before I force myself to drink it.

"This stuff's rancid," I complain as I guzzle it all, then down the pills.

Ryder takes the glass from me and sets it on the coffee table.

"Looks gross, but it works. I used to make it for Jay."

"Where is he?" I ask.

Ryder sits on the sofa arm next to my head. "At a fight. How did today go with Elizabeth?"

I had texted him and Jay earlier to let them know what we were doing. Jay was not happy at all when he wanted to come, and I said no.

"It was really good. She let her guard down. Laughed a lot. I took her to Belly's. We danced. We sang bad karaoke. She drank me under the table."

Ryder's chuckle stops abruptly. "Wait. You bought her alcohol? Elizabeth doesn't drink."

"She does now," I inform him.

Ry thinks about that new revelation. Just another facet of Liz's new persona that we're discovering.

"When are you meeting up with her at the track tomorrow?" I ask.

"Around two. After we help Elijah move into the dorms in the morning, I'm going to head there to test drive Fallon's new Radical RXC before she arrives."

Fallon tends to buy a new car every other week. Ah, the life of the insanely wealthy.

"Lucky bastard," I comment, ignoring the other thing he said about Elijah moving back into the dorms.

Two cardboard boxes that contain the stuff he brought here for the summer sit on the bedroom floor. Every time I walk by them, I want to rip off the tape, take everything out, and put it all back where it belongs.

Ryder pats my shoulder. "I'm turning in. Need help into bed?"

I glare squinty eyes at him. "For the last time, I am not drunk."

I actually feel a lot better. That Soylent green shit really works.

Grabbing the remote, I turn the television on at low volume, stopping on a John Wick movie that I don't pay attention to because my nerves are absolutely shot. That panic increases tenfold when I hear the front door open.

I sit up just as Elijah stops under the large archway that separates the living room from the foyer. A vast ocean opens between us, its waters turbulent and unsettled.

"Hey."

"Hey back."

Trying to think of a way to ease into telling him about what happened, I ask, "Have you eaten?"

Food and confession. It's worth a try.

Elijah rests his shoulder to the jamb, arms crossed over his chest. "Had some pizza earlier, but I could eat."

An opening.

"Grilled cheese?"

His arms uncross. "Sounds perfect."

I stand up and traverse that invisible ocean, my desperate need to connect with him overriding any sense of caution. I wrap my arms around him, holding on as if he might disappear at any moment.

Empathetic as always, he picks up on my troubled emotions.

"Something happened."

Not a question.

Tears gather and spill over. "Yeah."

His arms come around me, warm and perfect and comforting. "Tell me."

I press my face to his neck, taking in his familiar scent and drawing courage from it.

"Liz asked if she could kiss me," I profess, my voice breaking.

He tenses but doesn't say anything, so I continue.

"She said she trusted me to test something out because I looked like Jay. She kept rambling about ‘the pull,' whatever that means."

I didn't understand half of what she said, but I think I got the general gist. I don't think Jay is ever going to get her back, and I'm terrified of what that will do to him.

"Show me," Elijah suddenly demands.

I jerk back, confusion etched all over my face. "Show you?"

His eyes eclipse, intense and fierce. "Show me," he repeats.

I want to dismiss it as a joke, but he's dead serious.

"What?" I rasp.

He fists the hair at my crown and pulls. Something hard and possessive flashes behind his eyes. "Show me how she kissed you."

My stomach ties itself into knots at the thought of recreating that moment with Liz.

"Do it," he says, brokering no argument.

Instantly nauseous and with my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest, I lean in and kiss him the way Liz kissed me. When our lips briefly meet in a quick, dry peck that lasts less than half a second, it feels more like an open wound in my soul than an act of love.

Elijah's mouth downturns. "That's it?"

"Yes," I croak.

A wicked smirk forms. "That's not a kiss. This is a kiss."

Before I know what's happening, his mouth crushes mine, tongue sweeping in, penetrating deep. My moan gets trapped as he ravages me, his kiss full of carnal sin and claiming. Lust combusts into a firestorm that instantly sweeps through me, and he leaves me no sanctuary to flee from the flames. You are mine , his kiss decrees.

Mouths fused together, he shoves a hand into my shorts, gripping my throbbing cock. I get no reprieve from the maelstrom he's thrown me into as he pumps my length with fast pulls that have my eyes rolling back. OhGodOhGod. It's too much. My mind is consumed with raw need as he pushes me toward the edge of an euphoric insanity, and noises I've never made before come keening out as he drives me to a fast climax.

"Give it to me." Elijah sinks his teeth into my bottom lip, drawing blood.

Pleasure and pain mix into an intoxicating cocktail, and I fucking explode.

Moaning his name, I float in that wonderful space of delirium, not giving a damn that my orgasm soaks through my shorts and runs down the inside of my thighs.

He removes his hand and licks my cum off each finger.

"I still want that grilled cheese," he says, kissing me softly, right before he turns around and walks out the front door.

What the hell just happened?