Page 75 of Burn Bright (Cobalt Empire #1)

BEN COBALT

I ’ve been spiraling after I split from Vada. Mentally reeling.

I can’t stick around. I can’t. Winona will eventually be okay. The absence of me isn’t as harmful as the existence. That’s what I’ve come to know.

What happens when I leave Harriet? She has my brothers. She has my family. She won’t be cast into a cold, shadowy darkness. Right? Does she need me? Why do I feel like I need her?

No, I’ve known I need her. Like right now, the urge to be with her is a sledgehammer, and I’m speeding through this massive house trying to find the cutest scowl, the most beautiful brain—so when I do find her, I exhale. She’s here.

I slow into a music room. Walls soundproofed with padding. Guitars, violins, brass instruments—they all rest in racks near stereo equipment. She’s seated on a stool in front of a drum kit, sticks in hand, and my frown takes hold of me.

Why does she look so fucking sad?

“I thought drumming made you happy, Fisher.”

Her blue eyes ping up to mine. She opens her mouth, but nothing escapes. I shut the door gently behind me. Her yellowish blonde hair has lost its volume. It lies flat in its usual edgy cut around her delicate face. Strands brush against her striped red and white tee that molds her breasts.

A groan tries to work its way out of me when I see her nipples are hard.

Her knee-high socks and tiny gym shorts have also been driving me up the wall all night. I’ve always been attracted to her—that’s never been in doubt. Why is she upset? It’s the question I want answered. Everything else can shut up.

I come closer.

“I haven’t played anything yet,” she manages to say. I watch her rotate on the spinning stool…away from me.

It’s a knife in the gut. “Did I do something?” I ask her, my heart thrashing. “Harriet?”

She whirls back around; her scowl is a complete, pained grimace. “You haven’t been screwing with me, right?”

“What?” I don’t follow. My pulse keeps skipping. I’m losing oxygen with each passing second she’s not explaining what I did wrong.

“This hasn’t been one elaborate gotcha ?

” Her tone grows stiffer, more defensive.

All the walls I’d taken down are being built back up.

“Befriend your brother’s enemy. Make her fall in love with you.

Then make her pay for the bratty email to his bassist, for causing friction in his own band.

Should I be expecting to get egged at the end of this, Cobalt boy? ”

I can’t breathe. “Are you serious?”

Her chin trembles. She looks as demolished as I feel. “Don’t break my heart.”

“You’re breaking mine.” I swallow hard. “It’s in your hand.

I gave it to you at the start. Remember?

” Tears begin to fill her eyes, and I add more forcefully, “You know me. I’ve never lied to you.

Am I the kind of person who’d manipulate someone over the course of months just to make them feel pain? ”

“No,” she says immediately, instantly, and I release a breath. “That’s why I’ve been sitting in here going out of my mind. I’ve lost it, dude. Like, I can’t think straight because all my deepest insecurities keep piling, and I’m choking on them.”

I barrel toward her on instinct as her face crushes in hurt, but she’s not ready to be touched. She recoils a little, and I stop beside the tallest cymbal. “Why do you think I would’ve tricked you?”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

What is going on? “That girlfriend would be you…if I wasn’t leaving.

” I suck down raw, blistering pain. I want to stay.

“I only want to be with you, and I mean that. I’ve meant everything I’ve ever said.

” Why…why does she think I have a girlfriend?

“If you heard something—it’s a lie. They lied to you, Harriet. ”

“I saw it.”

My lips part. “There is no way.”

“You were like this close to that girl.” She puts her palm up against her face to demonstrate. “In that study room with the fireplace.”

“Oh my God,” I gape. “ Harriet. ”

“What?” She goes still, seeing my widened eyes.

“That was Vada .”

Her scowl is a confused wince. “The girl squad girl?”

“Yeah, and she’s related to the Hales and Meadows.

She might not be my family by blood, but she is still practically family.

I’ve never liked her like you’re implying.

Never will.” She’s taking bigger breaths, so I keep going.

“I was upset when I saw she was at a college party, and we were arguing about it. Apparently, she came here to spy on me, as requested by my little sister. To see if I have a tragic demeanor. ” I rest my hands on my waist like I’m embodying Peter fucking Pan.

Eliot would be proud. “What do you think? Tragic or not?” I begin to slowly smile.

She’s chewing the corner of her lip, emotion still flooding her eyes. She’s almost smiling off mine. Almost. We’re nearly there. To the good place I want to be with her.

I chase after her runaway gaze. “Fisher. Talk to me. Because you haven’t taught me CPR yet, I can’t save your life without your help.”

“I’m a jealous freak, Friend,” she chokes out, her nose flaring as she tries not to cry. “Like why would you even want to be with someone who went from zero to a number that doesn’t exist?”

“Unknown numbers are cool. I love weird people. I love you.” It just comes out.

The truth. Her breath hitches, but I add, “And I’m not all there, Friend.

I’ve felt like I’m losing it…all the time.

The only thing I’ve known is that when I’m with you, the confliction, confusion, whatever I’m thinking just doesn’t matter.

I can breathe. I can admire. I can love.

” I cradle her gaze. “So if this is your attempt to run me off early, you’ve failed because…

” I lean forward and cup her cheek over the drum kit. “I’m still here.”

Harriet takes staggered, uneven breaths, gripping fiercely to my gaze. “Say it again.”

I glance at her lips—and I kiss her. It explodes us together.

I crash into the fucking cymbal. She elbows a snare drum as our lips meld with a desperate heat.

I need to be closer. The craving screams at all my muscles, and to avoid breaking the drum kit, I pick her up and haul her over the instrument and into my chest.

A moan ejects out of her mouth, and I want to devour the pleasured sound.

I crush my lips against hers, one hand tangled in the back of her hair, the other cupping her ass.

My tongue glides against her tongue, loving the sweet taste of her, loving her vulnerable, overwhelmed reactions to my hands, my lips.

I can feel the building heat of her pussy against me, her legs split apart around me.

It’s a primal urge to want to slide inside her right now, but I don’t.

I just kiss her. But it’s not really just a kiss. It feels like I’m being lit on fire. I’m burning and burning. And I’m not in search of water. I want to fan these flames. I buck her up higher on my body, and a whimpering cry leaves Harriet—a sound I’ve never heard her make.

Blood rushes to my cock.

Aroused flush coats her cheeks, and she clutches my neck. Hanging on to me as our gazes cling. I hold her at eye-level. Next kiss, I carry her to the wall. Resting her shoulders against it. Then I trail kisses down her cheek, her jaw—spending a longer, hotter beat at her neck. She full-body shakes.

“ Ben . What the fuck…?” She breaks into a moan.

“ Fuck ,” I groan against her nape. I’m careful not to give her a hickey. It’s as if every nerve-ending of hers is coming alive from my touch, and it’s making me want to smother her until she climaxes. Then I’d do it again, just to see it all over again.

I return to her lips. Holding her soft cheek while I slow the kiss in sensual strokes.

She’s melting against me, and my muscles flex against her as I control my need and desire.

She’s allowing me to take her on this journey, and I’m grateful because feeling Harriet lose herself to pleasure in my hands is like inhaling helium. I’m flying high. Fire in the night sky.

A smoldering, blazing star.

“I can’t,” she gasps for breath, her eyes threatening to roll.

“Let go,” I whisper against her lips.

“It’s too…much.” She chokes on a sudden cry, and I taste the sound against my tongue, then I run my fingers between her thighs. On the outside of her gym shorts. Over her clit, her pussy. She is so fucking wet . It aches my cock.

This does her in—my hand between her legs.

Her whole body convulses against me. I want inside Harriet. I want to feel her pulse and clench around me, but I grit down on my teeth and breathe hot breath through my nose. Keeping her in my arms while she orgasms. She’s light to me. I could probably toss her around all day, all night.

Really, I just want to hold her right up against my chest. Press her close. Just like this.

And never let her go.

As she descends off the rippling climax, I take a hand off her ass, just to peel strands of her hair off her reddened lips.

Mine sting a little, and my breath is much shallower than hers.

I’m pent-up. Doing my best to ignore it.

Her fingers slip down to my biceps. I watch her study our bodies, how I have her supported by the backs of her thighs now.

“Good?” I ask her with a rising smile.

“Uh, that was…way better than good.” Her cheeks are still flushed. “I’ve never really enjoyed kissing, but that…holy shit. I could fantasize about that.”

“Why fantasize when you can have it?” I kiss her more tenderly, then pull back to see her narrowed eyes softening. I see her thinking. Her mind contemplating weeks from now. “I’m still here.”

“I know.” She kisses me this time. Deeper, soul-pulling. Her small palms cup my face. I skate my hand into her hair again. I grind against her into the wall, and I’m scared I might lose myself in a round two of just kissing.

So I break our lips apart.

I let her catch her breath, then I set her gently on her feet. She tugs down her shorts, and I adjust my erection.