Page 348 of Hell Hath No Fury

“Rose, fuck. You’re not a freak.” I pulled back a little until she was looking at me and tucked some silken hair behind her ear. “There is nothing you can do, as long as I get to be there, that willmake me feel any differently about you. Nothing so long as it’s always us.”

“You think I’d betray you like that?” She paused. “Wait, you wouldn’t do that to me…?”

“No,” I said vehemently, disgusted by the very idea. “Never. Never fucking ever. I just want you, too. At the end of each day, after whatever fun we might have, I want to make sure it’s just us. Forever can’t change.” I kissed her. “You’re my best friend, my fucking heart, and I won’t survive it.”

Her eyes melted, as did her body into mine. “You know I can’t live without your sickeningly sweet declarations.” I huffed, pinching her hip, and she squirmed while laughing. “We can like other things while still loving each other, Coop.”

“We can,” I said, pulling back when she licked my lips. “We can, but we need to promise that if that changes, if anything changes, then we stop.” I waited for her to object, to tell me to go home and that this was all just a stupid dream.

But then she nodded. “I can live without other people involved in our sex life, but I can’t live without you. Madly and forever, Cooper Owens.”

I hadn’t realized just how badly I’d needed to hear those words and see the honesty behind them in her glistening eyes. “Thank you,” I said, my own eyes wet as I gathered her to me. “Thank you and thank fuck.”

Rose laughed, then tipped up my chin, her eyes still smiling as our mouths joined. They stayed that way until I carried her inside, the weeds forgotten under the golden glow of the porch lights.

* * *

Ten months later…

Some dislike this particular side of Nightingale. They shy away from it, try to pretend it doesn’t exist until necessary, and even then, they’ll do their utmost to feign indifference or keep busy until it’s over.

Rose and I loved it.

Even if they’d meant to destroy us, it was Nightingale that had helped us discover and accept our true selves. I sometimes wondered if we hadn’t initiated the way we had—if we’d have suppressed those hidden desires that begged for more—if we’d still be hell-bent on forever.

If things might have ended due to seeking pleasures we’d once thought shameful in the wrong way.

Not only were we grateful to Headmaster Taurin and the society for attempting to ruin that which only grew stronger by the attempt but we were also amongst the many who looked forward to evenings and events such as this. We needed it, thrived because of it, and loved harder after each and every time.

A Night in October had begun, and we’d been looking forward to it ever since Taurin had told us what it was about. True to his word, he hadn’t joined us again since that morning in his office, but that didn’t mean we ignored him. Far from it, actually. I often found myself shooting the shit with him during lunch or after school, sex a forgotten thought unless Rose happened to find us.

If so, Taurin was polite, but he’d leave before anything got heated or awkward. And now, we’d officially graduated.

Rose skimmed the room with her eyes, sipping her champagne. “I want the redhead.” Twice since Taurin, we’d found ourselves adding a third to our sex life. Once, it had been a woman in her thirties who’d caught us fooling around down by the docks near midnight when she’d left the men’s shed after finding her cheating husband there.

I’d had Rose bent over the back seat of my car with the door open while she’d played with the woman’s cunt inside.

Sighing, I steered Rose away. “She’d never. I heard all she and Jude do at these things is stand around and make out.” Wandering over to the private quarters set up in the back of the suite, I smiled and nodded to a couple of members I recognized. “Besides, Jude wouldn’t allow it.” Rose pouted, and I kissed her cheek. “Let’s just mess around and see who comes along.”

Mere minutes later, Taurin found us inside a curtained-off room with a velvet cushion large enough to sleep on upon the floor. “I must admit I feel a little offended.”

“Why?” I asked, watching Rose’s face light up.

He shucked off his tuxedo jacket, laying it over the floor. “You two didn’t invite me over to play.”

“Well, now,” Rose said, and drained her champagne, “Coop, we must ensure his feelings aren’t hurt.”

From the corner, I lifted my ankle over my knee and slouched in the tub chair. “We must.”

Rose grinned, then placed her glass away from the cushion and stripped out of her dark blue gown. It was left in a heap on the floor as she climbed onto the cushion and laid upon her back. Expensive footwear drifted by under the thin lilac curtain, silhouettes coming and going.

Rose threw her arms back, hands entering her hair and scrunching as Taurin helped himself to the prize between her legs. Her eyes met mine and stayed there as our high school headmaster made her cheeks flush and her pupils swell.

She came silently. Her lips parted and her eyelids fluttered as her body jerked and swayed, her thighs trapping Taurin’s head between them.

I wasn’t sure I could ever describe it; the way it felt to watch her beautiful soul enter such euphoria.

I loved to watch her. Mostly, I loved to be the one to give that to her, but every now and then, watching someone else deliver her pleasure was exactly what we both needed. The jealousy that toyed with my arousal, the part of me that longed to claim and keep her for my own warred with how much I adored and wanted her the entire time I watched.