Shotgun!
ANGEL
Three Years Ago
I needed more than just a cold shower after what had happened. I pulled on basketball shorts and left my damp chest bare after stepping from the bathroom. The hall was clear, and there was not a sound to be heard, but I knew Mian was nearby. She wasn’t allowed to leave without me unless she was heading to school. In my room, I turned up Korn’s ‘Coming Undone’ and lit up. Smoke billowed and the scent of a bad habit permeated the air. It only took a couple of pulls for me to mellow into a safe zone.
I almost kissed her.
I had been willing to welcome insanity just for one taste of her.
Damn.
She wanted to bust my balls, and in retaliation, I practically molested her. I wasn’t proud of myself but damn if I didn’t want to do it again.
My dick was already on the rise thinking about it, so I took another hard pull and exhaled sharply through my nose. A knock on the door had the rest of my body stiffening along with my dick. It could only be one person.
“What?”
“Can I come in?”
I hesitated. Her voice was low and light. She at my door tempted me, but I wasn’t eager to poke the beast. She never came to my room. Even when we stopped snapping at each other, we still avoided each other.
“Why the fuck not?” I growled. The door pushed open, and her eyes found me lounging against my headboard. “What?”
“I wanted to talk to you.” She licked her lips—her signature sign that she was nervous—before wrinkling her nose at the thick smoke. “You really shouldn’t smoke weed.”
“Because it’s bad for me?” I mocked. She rolled her eyes.
“Because you’re bad enough,” she countered.
“Not true. I can always do worse.” I winked.
Such a simple gesture made her freeze like a baby deer caught in a truck’s headlights yet my intimidation tactics that folded grown men didn’t faze her.
She huffed and mumbled, “I wanted to apologize.”
My eyebrow lifted. “For what?”
“For trying to knee you in the balls.” I stopped myself from laughing. It was undeniable that I deserved it. I had no business touching her the way I had. Why couldn’t she see that? I know she’s only sixteen, but innocence only stretched so far.
“It’s cool, Sprite. You couldn’t hurt a fly.” I fit the blunt between my lips, watching her as she watched me inhale.
“Is it really worth it?”
“What?” I knew what.
“Smoking weed. Getting high?”
I stared, and she stared back. Making a decision, I sat up against my headboard and while holding her gaze, patted the bed beside me. “Come here.” She took a step closer to the door, and I bit back a curse. “Come here, girl. I don’t bite.”
But I might if you beg me.
She looked like she was having the same thought because her head tilted warily.
“I want to show you something.”
I knew the exact moment she gave in. Her eyes were so damn expressive. I wondered what side of Mian I’d see when her guard was down.
She crawled to the spot I designated for her, and she watched me take a pull. Without warning, I turned my face and blew the smoke in hers. She coughed and sputtered and waved her hands furiously to fight the thin cloud of smoke.
“Why,” she coughed, “did you do that?”
I smiled, and she seemed to forget all about her coughing fit. “Open your mouth.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to.”
She frowned. Deeply. And then she did as I asked and parted her lips and I knew… I just knew… if I licked, and kissed, and sucked them between my own, they would taste sweet.
I pulled on the blunt again, and this time, I exhaled slowly and blew the smoke between her lips. She coughed again, but this time, her eyes watered as she stared at me alarmed.
“Again?” She looked unsure, so I decided for her. “Again.” Surprisingly, she opened her lips without direction. I leaned in closer until our lips almost touched. “This time I want you to inhale,” I spoke directly in her mouth. “Ready?” Her eyes widened, but she nodded, closed her eyes, and waited expectantly.
I inhaled from the blunt and moved closer until my left hip touched her right, and my top lip brushed hers. When she shivered, I exhaled. She inhaled and coughed, but it wasn’t violent like before. Her eyes were glassy and dilated when they opened, and she seemed to sway.
“Feel good?” I whispered against her lips. She nodded, her forehead rubbing against mine. “Want another?”
She hesitated even though I had already seen the curiosity in her eyes. “Yes, please.”
I smiled to keep her focus from my dick growing in my shorts. I wanted another brush of her lips. “Good girl.” I took another pull, and she opened up for me. She took the shotgun more smoothly this time, and I gave her two more shots before deciding she’d had enough. I stubbed out the lit end and placed the rest of the blunt on my nightstand.
“We aren’t going to finish it?”
I chuckled and turned back to face her. “Look who’s addicted.” She giggled and swayed into my chest, so the only natural thing was for me to run my fingers through her hair… Right?
“You have really pretty eyes.”
I jerked and blinked. “What?”
“Your eyes… they’re really pretty. You’re pretty.” She laughed some more, sighed like she was relieved she’d said it, and then froze… with her gaze on my lips.
“Sprite?” She leaned in closer and rested her hand on my chest that I now remembered was bare. I liked how it felt. Her hand was small and warm on my hard chest, and I wondered if she could feel my heart fighting to free itself from its cage.
“Your skin is so hot.”
Her attention had been on my chest, but when she looked up with wide, bright eyes, I was hit with the force of her innocence. I couldn’t do this. I threw myself away from her and exploded. “Damn it, Sprite!”
“What?” She genuinely appeared confused which only pissed me off more. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re sixteen .” I stressed her age for my benefit as well as hers.
“I know.” She scooted closer and rose up to her knees.
“I’m twenty-two goddamn years old.”
Again… for my benefit.
“I know.”
“I’m a grown man. You’re a child.”
“I know.”
“You know? You know ?” She flinched when my volume rose. I didn’t let up. I needed to scare her to stay away from me. Getting close had been a mistake that I was now forced to rectify. She nodded but didn’t lose the look in her eyes, and I felt the grip on my will slip. “So what would it make me?”
She whimpered. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It fucking does, so say it? What does it make me if I gave you what you’re begging for and kissed you right now?”
She was reluctant, but she knew the truth, so I waited. “A…A…A pervert.” Her eyes flowed when she admitted it as if the thought of my perverseness turned her on more.
Fuck no.
“That’s right, but more than that, it would make me a goddamn pedophile.”
She blinked, and I watched her process it, but then she did something that fucked my whole world up. She slipped her arms around me and whispered in my ear, “I don’t care.”
I pulled back, but that was a mistake because it only gave her access. Her lips touched mine, and she sighed again. “I’ve never been kissed.” She moved closer until she was practically on my lap. “Kiss me.”
I opened my mouth to deny her, but she didn’t wait around to hear it. Pressing her lips against mine, she explored by brushing her lips against mine. “Baby… no.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist to move her away. I really did. But then I felt her tongue shyly prying for entrance and I was screwed.
With a groan she swallowed, I gave up the fight. Gripping the back of her neck, I pressed my lips against hers and had my first taste of Mian Ross. It lasted only a second because we both froze at the sound of our fathers calling our names.