Page 76 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Levi

When I come to, there’s beeping all around me, and I’m not sure if it’s the relentless assault on my body that’s causing the giant headache or the constant noise from the machine.

How long was I out for?

God. Waking up after nearly being killed is no fucking joke.

“You’re awake …”

Her voice makes my eyes slowly open, and the first thing I see staring back at me are those ocean eyes, bringing a smile to my face.

“Hey, Firefly,” I mutter.

Tears well up in her eyes. “I thought I almost lost you.”

“I’m still here,” I respond.

She cries for a while, holding me tight, but then the inevitable anger takes hold, just like I’m used to from a Caruso. “You could’ve died!” She frowns, pointing at my chest. “Why did you let Silas kidnap you? Why didn’t you fight him off?”

“What was I supposed to do? Kill your brother?” I snort.

She slaps my chest. “It’s not funny.”

I laugh. “Making you angry is.”

“What the fuck, Levi.” She raises her fist, but it’s all an empty threat because she can’t even fight me when I’m at my weakest. Instead, she just grumbles like before. “You’re so, so, so, ahhh!”

“So, so, so …” I cup her face. “In love with you.”

Her whole body turns to mush just like her face when it rests in the palm of my hand. “It’s okay to be mad.”

“I was so scared,” she says, leaning into me. “You nearly—”

“I’m never leaving you,” I interrupt.

I don’t want her to think about what could’ve happened.

Whatever’s in the past is in the past, and I’m done lingering there where the ghosts remain.

“Pinky swear.” She holds out her pinky finger.

So I hold out mine too, and we cross them. “Promise.”

But before she can pull away, I drag her closer and smash my lips on hers. I’ll never get enough of the taste of her lips, of how easily she’s accepted me into her heart despite all the terrible things I did. And something about that makes me insanely proud.

“So… you love me, huh?” I murmur against her swollen lips. “I heard you out there in the woods.”

A blush spreads on her cheeks. “I …”

“How long have you been pining over me?”

“Forever,” she admits.

A devilish smirk forms on my lips. “Yet you couldn’t stop hiding from me on campus.”

“Because you got all beefed up, and it scared me to even look at you without feeling weak.”

I chuckle. “I got all beefed up because I thought it would finally make you look. Guess it had the opposite effect of what I wanted to achieve.”

She bites her bottom lip and squeezes my biceps. “I can get used to it.”

“Can you?” I squeeze them for her pleasure.

The soft moan that leaves her lips makes me wild. “Oh yes, definitely.”

And I pull her in for another fierce kiss, unwilling to ever let go of this firefly of mine.

Apollo

With two bottles of Coke in one hand, I open the door to Levi’s room with the other, but I stop the second I see them smooching like lovers, and I grin when they both look up at me like they’re surprised. “Well, don’t stop the party because I’ve arrived.”

“Sorry, forgot,” Aspen mutters, blushing like crazy, and it’s kinda cute.

I put the bottles down. “Forgot I was here with you?” I bring a fist to my chest to pretend I got stabbed. “Don’t hurt me, Freckles.”

“I could never forget you,” she responds, winking as I approach. “Like you’d ever let me.”

“Good point,” I say, winking back.

I grab her by the waist and pull her in for a very big kiss just to remind Levi that she isn’t just his. She’s mine too, and there’s plenty of her to go around for us three to share.

I suck on her delicious mouth before I pull back to watch those swollen red lips reach for more as I hand her the Coke bottle and grin. “Got us some drinks, because you’re so thirsty.”

“Ha ha,” she replies.

“Drink while we wait for him to grow back his limbs like some freaky-ass lizard.”

“Asshole,” Levi responds with a frown.

“Back to your old self, I see.”

“Just had some scratches. No big deal.”

“Tell that to the nurses who had to patch you up,” I reply.

“Where am I, actually?” he asks, taking in a deep breath.

“Mom’s private clinic,” Aspen responds. “You know how it is. Hospital staff ask too many questions and involve police.”

“Like they aren’t already involved with all those deaths,” I say, smirking to myself.

“You did that,” Aspen says.

I smile smugly. “Yup.”

“Don’t be so damn proud.” She playfully punches me. “Those were expensive hires.”

I shrug. “They shouldn’t have tried to come after my family then.”

“I appreciate the effort of keeping me safe,” Levi says, holding out his hand.

“Thanks, bro.” I give him a bro-shake and hug, and I can hear him deflate.

“Don’t break a bone,” Aspen says. “He’s still fragile.”

“Fragile, my ass, this fucker survived torture,” I say. “Silas can suck it.”

Someone knocks on the door, and when Grey appears, Aspen begins to smile from ear to ear. “Grey! You came.”

“Of course. Gotta support my girl,” he says, and they hug. “Uhhnn,” Grey groans when she squeezes him too tightly. “My shoulder.”

“Sorry. I forgot,” she says.

“Just a bullet wound, no biggie,” Grey responds.

“Everyone got wounded out there. Even Max,” Aspen says. “I don’t think anyone left this clinic without a bandage or two. But Levi was in really bad shape.”

“Hey, why is she the only one getting a hug? Can I get a hug too, Ghost-boy?” I grab his hair and drag him away from her and into my ample pecs, squishing him until he can no longer mutter any of the swear words he wanted to throw at my face. “Love you too, my little cuck.”

He pushes me away and sucks in a breath. “Goddamn.”

“You can say that again,” I reply.

Aspen and Levi laugh, and it’s good to hear them cheerful again after all the shit that went down. And you know what? I think we just might survive this whole family feud thing.

Aspen

“So … are you feeling okay? Does it hurt a lot?” I ask Levi, grabbing his hand.

“Not more than I expected,” he replies. “After getting stabbed, shot, and hit with a bat several times, I’m just glad I’m still alive.”

“The nurse said you got quite the concussion,” I say.

“If it wasn’t for Grey here, you’d be dead by now,” Apollo says.

Levi’s brows push together. “How so?”

“Grey helped me free you from the chair in the Shack and put you in the car, and when he drove after me to save me from your mom’s attempts to kill me, he even took a bullet.”

Levi cringes. “Ouch.”

“The nurses managed to patch me up well enough,” Grey says, showing off his bandages. “Doesn’t hurt that bad.”

“Sorry about that. My mom can get rather protective,” Levi says.

Wow. Did he actually just apologize to Grey?

Levi sucks in a breath. “Thank you. For saving me.”

“Of course, we had to. I couldn’t just leave you there and let Silas hurt you.”

God, the guilt is eating me alive.

If I’d told everyone the truth, maybe I could’ve stopped Silas before he tried to kill Levi.

“I … I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Levi frowns. “For what?”

“It’s my fault he attacked you,” I say.

He squeezes my hand. “Don’t. Don’t ever say that again.

None of this is your fault, and I won’t allow you to feel guilty over it.

Do you understand?” He’s so stern that it surprises me.

“It was my choice not to go through with the jump. It was my choice to make you hate me, it was my choice to tell him the truth, and it was my choice to fall in love with you all over again.”

His words puncture my heart like a needle, threading deeply into my soul.

“And I will never, ever take that back. No matter how much it costs me, how much hate I’ll have to take, or how much they will make me bleed.

I do not regret fighting for you, not for one single second.

I fucking love you in every sense of the word, for every minute of my life I’ve spent on this earth I have never stopped loving you, and I want to keep loving you until we grow old and gray together, until you’re so sick of me that you’ll beg me to die first so you don’t have to hear me say the words again. I love you.”

Tears roll down my cheeks as I bring his hand to my face, and he brushes them away so sweetly that it melts me into a puddle.

“I’m right here with you, and I’m not going anywhere.” He slides his hand down my neck all the way to my chest, tapping my rib cage. “Because this heart is where I belong.”

The genuine, longing smile on his face breaks me, and I lean in for a desperate kiss.

Apollo sniffles behind me, and when I look up, he’s actually pushing away a single tear with his pinky. “What are you looking at?”

Grey laughs as he puts his hands against his side. “Are you crying?”

“These are manly tears,” Apollo retorts.

Everyone laughs, even Levi, and I hold out my arms for a big hug. “Come here.”

We hug in unison, albeit on Levi’s bed, and he begrudgingly throws an arm over Grey too, even though it still makes him roll his eyes. “Ugh, fine, I’ll share,” Levi says.

“There’s enough room for all of you in this heart,” I muse.

“There’d better be because I want my own whole damn room in there,” Grey says.

“We buying real estate in her body now?” Apollo says with a devious smirk. “Because if so, I call dibs on that delicious pussy.”

“I think the fuck not,” Levi retorts.

A sudden knock on the door has us all looking up. Silas grips the doorjamb and clears his throat, and you could almost hear a pin drop after—that’s how quiet everyone becomes from his mere presence.

“So he’s here too,” Levi mutters as we pull away from the hug.

“The whole family is,” Apollo says. “You think you were the only one who got wounded? Felix had his hand sliced open, both moms have abrasions from bullets, Heath got a cut in his leg, Max was shot, her dad got knifed, and I had a few broken fingers.”

Silas’s nostrils flare. “Aspen, I wanna talk.”

I frown. “Do you still intend to murder my boyfriends?”

He rolls his eyes, but still shows his empty hands. “I have nothing on me.”

“I know you. You don’t need weapons to kill,” I say, suspicious of his motives.

“Aspen …” He sighs and rubs his forehead. “Can we please talk?”