Page 10

Chapter 10

The God Of War

ZARA

I ’ve been wanting to kiss Chance since the second I saw him again.

His lips are as soft as I remember them.

Chance is hesitant at first, as if he wanted to give me the opportunity to move away if I’m not into this.

But the second I part my lips for him, he pulls me closer and his kiss turns hot, consuming.

His strong hands tilt my head, so that he can deepen the kiss. His tongue slides against mine, firm and silky. He explores my mouth with measured strokes, his lips pressing against mine, his teeth nipping at me as if he were trying to rein himself in.

His hands are tangled in my hair, while mine fist the expensive fabric of his white shirt.

We’re holding onto each other to erase the distance of the past two years.

Chance’s hands leave my hair to trace my collarbone; his fingers toy with the neckline of my dress, dangerously close to the swell of my breasts.

My body reacts with a wave of tingling heat that causes my nipples to harden, rubbing against my dress.

I don’t even realize that I lifted my leg against his hip until his fingers sneak under my dress.

He holds my leg in place, his slightly rough fingers supporting the underside of my thigh.

Chance presses himself against me and my needy moan is swallowed by his mouth.

He’s hard in his pants.

“Too many clothes,” I murmur against his mouth, running my fingers along his length.

“You’re right.” He growls, grinding his hips into my hand.

His lips leave mine to glide down the column of my neck, and I arch to give him better access.

“Oh.” I moan when he bites a sensitive spot at the base of my neck, sending a wave of sensation all the way down between my thighs.

“Zara, baby,” he pants, his forehead touching mine. “We can’t do this here. Anyone could walk out of the dining room for some air and see us.”

He’s right.

“Where can we go, then?” my chest is heaving and I can’t think. All I know is that I miss the feeling of his lips on mine. I want to touch his skin without the barriers of our clothes, see if his chest is as ripped as it feels touching it through his clothes.

“There’s the pool house, or one of the locker rooms in the spa area. They’ll be empty at this time. But we’ve been out here for a while and I don’t know how much longer the speeches are going to last. Probably we should go back inside.”

I know he’s right. That doesn’t mean that I have to like what he’s saying, though.

“You suck,” I pout.

He chuckles, his voice low, gravelly, and hot. “Oh, believe me, I will suck. If we were somewhere more private, I’d be down on my knees. I would lift your pretty dress and bury my face between your thighs. I would lick you and tease you until you beg me to make you come. And then, when you’re almost there, I would suck your sweet little clit into my mouth until you beg me to stop.”

Jesus, fuck.

Just hearing him say that has pushed me a little closer to the edge. My clit has a pulse of its own.

“I don’t think I would ever ask you to stop.” I murmur, tracing his perfect jaw with my fingers.

“Fuck.” Chance nips at my bottom lip. “I don’t think I’ll be able to stop. We should really go back inside for now, though.”

I nod, exhaling to try to calm my erratic breathing. “Ok.”

Chance takes my hand. “But this isn’t over, Zara.”

“Hey, there you two are.” Scott’s voice comes from behind us.

Heat rises to my face as his blue eyes, so similar to Chance’s, bore into mine. I know I’m blushing. I hate the fact that I have zero poker face.

Chance’s father looks from me to his son, his lips flattening as if something was bothering him.

I have to wonder how long he’s been standing there. Maybe he saw us making out.

Fuck, I hope he didn’t hear the stuff Chance just said to me. I mean, we aren’t doing anything wrong, but I feel bad. This is a political event that’s obviously important to him. I’m sure he would be embarrassed if one of his guests had walked out and caught us pretty much dry humping in the Country Club’s garden.

“The speeches ended a few minutes ago, and the guy from the Star Cove Gazette wanted to take a family photo. He’s doing a double feature about Star Cove’s first family and the wedding next weekend.”

Great. When Mom dropped the bombshell that she was engaged, I never anticipated all this. She used to hate all the media attention that came with being married to Dad; I guess this is different now, since she worked on Scott’s campaign.

“Sorry, Dad.” Chance says, his fingers still twined with mine. “It was a little stuffy in there and Zara and I just needed some air.”

From our joined hands, Scott’s eyes come back to our faces. “Right. Once we take that photo, you kids are free to go.”

As we follow Scott back to the dining room, I let go of Chance’s hand to make sure that my hair isn’t a mess. I straighten my dress, smoothing the soft chiffon of the skirt with both hands. Whether Mom’s fiancé saw us kissing or not, I’m sure it isn’t hard to guess what we were up to outside.

My lips feel swollen, and I can only hope there isn’t a hickey on my neck.

Hopefully, I can excuse myself for a few minutes and go put on some fresh lipstick and make sure my hair is behaving before we pose for those family photos.

“There was another thing I wanted to do before we pose for the Gazette,” Scott says, as we reenter the dining room from the same door we used earlier. “Zara, you haven’t met my eldest son, Ares.”

I was unprepared for this.

Not for seeing Ares again, since it was obvious I would eventually bump into him.

I just remember Ares as the motorcycle racer who protected me when Cal hit me.

Physically, he hasn’t changed much; maybe his shoulders are a little wider, his blond hair is a lot shorter than it was two years ago. I don’t know if it’s his cop uniform or what else, but Ares looks more serious. Tougher, more grown up.

His slate-gray eyes find mine and I have to fight to suppress the shiver that travels down my spine.

“Zara?” he asks, his large hand engulfing mine when his father makes the introduction. “ You are Kelly’s daughter?”

I open my mouth to answer, but no sound comes out.

He’s looking at me the same way he was the first night we met, two years ago; when he walked me to my room, and I thought he was going to kiss me.

“Hello, Ares.” I finally manage to drawl.

Lame, I know. But one thing that hasn’t changed since two years ago is the effect that gray gaze has on me.

It’s as if Ares could see straight into my soul. And somehow, I feel like he’s judging me, just like when we first met.

His gaze goes from me to his brother.

I wish I could find something smart or funny to say right now, but this guy has the power to render me speechless.

“Do you guys know each other?” Scott asks, confused.

“We met two years ago,” Ares offers. “In Bridgeport.”

A look passes between Scott and his eldest son. “When were you in Bridgeport, unless it was…”

“Zara was at the race.”

Scott’s gaze hardens; the dark blue of his eyes turns into ice, hard and dangerous. “Ah, I see.”

“You’re all here, at last.” Mom comes to gather us for the Gazette photo, and I swear I could hug her.

The tension that was swirling in the air dissipates, at least in part, as we follow the photographer’s directions.

“Lev,” Scott calls out. “Come join us. I know your parents won’t mind. You’ve always been like another son to me. You’re part of the family.”

I stand close to my mom, with Chance on the other side of me.

“Everyone say Mayor,” the photographer encourages us.

We do as we’re told, looking at the camera. The entire time, I have to fight the urge to turn to look at Ares. I know he’s looking at me. I feel his eyes on me as if they were physically touching me.

“Perfect. Everyone stay exactly where you are and keep smiling.” The photographer says, snapping several photos. “You’re very photogenic. A very good-looking family.”

ARES

Zara, Chance, and Lev are getting up from the breakfast table when I make my way down to the dining room.

I’ve had a shitty night's sleep. Seeing Zara again was shocking, and it brought to the surface all kinds of unwanted memories.

It’s not like I don’t think about that weekend of two years ago. My therapist says I should focus on the present, rather than living in the past. But how do you do that when you’ve lost a part of yourself and the person responsible for it has gotten away with literal murder?

The grief and the emptiness my twin brother left in my heart aren’t the only things that keep me up at night. It’s the fact that Bridgeport police closed the case without ever finding the person who was riding the bike that killed Atlas.

All they could tell us was that the bike in question was stolen from Fox’s team garage. Calvin Fox was briefly detained while the initial stages of the investigation were underway, but he was ultimately released. He obviously wasn’t riding the bike in question. The only wrongdoing they could really find was that he kept running after the race had been suspended. That makes him a douche bag, but not a murderer.

There’s one person who could have shed some light on what happened that day but, again, Bridgeport police couldn’t find him. I’ve been trying to find JJ Smith too, but the guy is a ghost.

No one had ever seen the racer who appeared at the qualifying race the day before, earning a pole position. He enrolled online. The destroyed bike he left behind, after being forced off the track by the other mysterious rider, was registered to someone in Bridgeport. The last owner had taken the bike to a junkyard to be scrapped and no other paperwork existed after.

This is why I joined the sheriff's department, despite Dad being against it. No one is even trying to get justice for Atlas. I’m the only person he has left who’s still trying to find the guy who hit him. Or at least JJ Smith, who hopefully knows why he was being targeted.

I have no idea where to even start with my investigation, but graduating from the police academy was the first step. Now I can look into the police database and I have a better shot at finding who killed Atlas.

I don’t give a shit if I have to do it on my own time. I have nothing but time. While the person responsible for Atlas’s death is at large, I’m not going to be able to find peace.

Speaking of peace, seeing Zara again didn’t help one bit. I’ve thought about her often in the two years since that horrible weekend. I almost kissed her the night before the race. And that day on the track, I was distracted. I was thinking about her, rather than concentrating on the race.

“Morning Ares,” Chance slaps me on the back. “We’re going out for a swim and spending the day on the beach. You should join us.”

I force myself not to glare at him. We’ve grown distant since that day. I can’t find peace, while he seems to have moved on. He has his hockey and Lev. He’s always been closer to Lev than to me and Atlas. I know it’s unfair, but I resent him for that. I resent him because his loss isn’t as huge as mine.

I resent him for being closer to Dad, because they have hockey in common. All I had was Atlas and racing and now I don't have either.

“You’re going already?” I do my best not to scowl at him, but fail miserably. “I thought we were having family brunch. That’s why I stayed here last night, rather than going back to my apartment. I’ve had five back to back twelve-hour shifts, and I didn’t want to have to get up too early to be here on time. Am I too late?”

Chance explains. “No, you aren’t. Dad was asked to speak at a car dealership opening. It was a last-minute thing. The deputy mayor was supposed to do it, but his kitchen got flooded. A burst water main apparently, his whole street is affected. So Dad is stepping in to make sure his engagements are fulfilled, and Kelly is organizing a food drive for all the neighborhood that is now without water.”

My scowl deepens. “Right. I’m glad Dad told you, but he could have let me know, too.”

As usual, Chance takes Dad’s side. “He did. He sent us all a text. You should have gotten it too. It’s in the family message thread.”

“I got nothing—” I start to complain. “Fuck. My phone was on do not disturb. I always do it after these twelve-hour shifts. If I don’t, I get woken up by all sorts of stupid notifications.”

I can’t help but notice that Zara has been added to the family text thread. I force myself not to look at her, or I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my temper in check.

It’s unfair, I know that much. What happened to Atlas isn’t her fault. But if I hadn’t been so distracted by her presence that day, maybe I could have done something. Maybe I would have reacted faster and put myself between Atlas and that bike; or I could have at least chased the person who was riding it.

“So?” Chance asks. “What do you say? I know you have today and tomorrow off. Why don’t you come to the beach with us?”

“I don’t know, man,” I rub my neck, looking for an excuse to decline his invitation. “I have so much shit to do. And next weekend it’s the wedding, and nothing will get done.”

I see the disappointment on my little brother’s face. I hate myself for pulling away, like I always do. But I can’t help it. I don’t know how to be with them without Atlas. He was the social one, the friendly one, the funny one. He would lead and I would follow him, no questions asked. Without him, everything is too hard. Even being with my family feels wrong and unnatural. As if I was taking the place that should have rightfully been his.

“Come on, man,” Lev backs him up. “You’re always working. We almost feel like we have to break the law to get your attention. Don’t we, Chance?”

The whole time, I can feel her eyes on me.

She’s all grown up, and prettier than ever.

But she was kissing Chance last night. I saw them. And even if she hadn’t been, I don’t deserve her. I don’t deserve anything until I find out who hurt my brother.

My mind is made up. I can spend my day off running errands, then see if there’s anything new on any of the leads I have on Atlas’s case.

“Come on, Dude.” Chance insists. “Spend the day with us.”

“We hardly ever see you anymore.” Lev and my brother are now flanking me, like I’ve seen them do on the ice with their opponents.

“Fuck off, both of you.” I chuckle. “You haven’t changed at all since you were like, five. I really have a lot to do. Besides, if a water main burst in town, the sheriff's department will probably be called in to help keep everyone safe. My phone might ring at some point today.”

“Then worry about it when it does.” Chance suggests. “In the meantime, spend some time with us.”

I’m tempted. I could go for an invigorating swim, hang out with Chance and Lev, and possibly with Dad later.

I could also find out what Zara’s bathing suit looks like. I can see the strings peaking out from under her black sundress.

“Fine. Let me go get changed for the beach,” I decide. “But you two better not be a pain in my ass. No pranks, no horsing around, or burying me under the sand if I fall asleep.”

“What?” Chance looks like the picture of innocence. “We haven’t done stuff like that since middle school.”

I bark out a laugh. “Bullshit. You haven’t done that stuff since?—”

Since we lost Atlas. I can’t even finish the sentence. We look at each other, letting the sudden silence hanging heavily between us.

“Right.” I sigh, already regretting my decision to stay. “Let’s go. There should be some swimming gear in the changing hut by the cabana.”

It’s a gorgeous day, sunny and with a light breeze that ensures it doesn’t get too hot. The sea is calm, rolling lazily on the golden sand. It looks like the tide is in, so we won’t have to walk for miles to get into the water.

I walk into the wooden changing hut, leaving Zara and the guys to settle down on a group of loungers. There are little wooden tables scattered around and straw umbrellas to provide some shade. If it gets too hot as the morning gives way to the afternoon, there’s a cabana with big padded loungers and a mini bar.

I make quick work of putting on a pair of dark blue swimming trunks. I doubt anyone has been through the stuff we keep in here; there’s a pair with rubber duckies wearing swimming donuts on them that belonged to Atlas.

Breathe, Ares, breathe .

That’s why I moved out, despite Dad’s disappointment. Being here, where everything reminds me of him, is just too painful.

The urge to bail and pretend that I have been called to work is strong, but I fight it. My therapist would be proud of me. I hope.

I open the door of the hut. It’s just a day on the beach with my family. It’s normal. I want normal. I need it.

My eyes immediately find Zara in a red bikini that looks so good on her. It should be illegal. The crazy thing is that it isn’t even that skimpy. I’ve seen much worse at the Country Club or on the public beach by the boardwalk.

It’s just the way she fills it that’s downright scandalous. Zara isn’t fat, but she isn’t a skinny girl. Her petite body has curves in all the right places. And I need to stop staring at her like a creep before my semi turns into a fully fledged boner.

There’s a sudden change in energy, and I turn around to look a couple of seconds before I hear the squeal.

“Oh my God!”

I step to the side just in time to avoid being run over by Heather. Our next-door neighbor—and my twin brother’s old girlfriend—runs to Zara.

“When my dad told me he met Kelly’s daughter, I didn’t think it was possible that it could be you.” Heather screeches. “Zara isn’t a very common name, but your mom’s last name is Smith. I thought you said you were John Fields’s daughter?”

Zara says something about her mom going back to her maiden name after the divorce.

“It’s so good to see you!” Heather pretty much launches herself at Zara, pulling her into a suffocating hug.

I swear to God, a boa constrictor has nothing on this girl.

“Is it true that you’re going to school in town? Man, I can’t wait to hang out with you. I’ll introduce you to all my friends.”

Fuck. I should have gone with my gut feeling and gone home. Of all the things that remind me that Atlas is gone, Heather is the one that hurts the most.