Page 8 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Lyra

The Band-Aid

E very bone in my body told me to get back to my car, drive back down the dirt road, and never return.

Too bad my skin was tougher than that.

Lighting up a cigarette, I pushed my feet into a pair of rather large boots by the door and strolled out to the front porch.

A dusting of sprinkler water grazed my still-burning cheeks as I pressed my hips into the wooden railing.

Taking a long drag, I let the cherry burn bright as I stared out toward the barn.

No, ‘stared’ wasn’t the right word. I glared like I was ready to burn that bitch to the ground because every few passing seconds, the edge of a backward-facing snap-back came into view through the breezeway windows.

My bones urged me to move from the porch, to toss what were probably his boots right at his truck before I fishtailed from the driveway. I pressed my lips to my cig as I reached down, ripping off the damp bandage that was coming loose from my skin.

My too thick skin.

I’d come back to town with a purpose, and hoped to Hell that Carver Roland had long forgotten about me.

I thought he’d be away—enlisted in the Marines, or in another town and with a wife and a few kids, probably getting ready for another with the energy he had.

He’d always wanted that life—a perfect one.

One that resembled his upbringing.

I squinted my eyes as I tossed the bloody bandaid over the railing, right by the stairs. Fuck him and fuck obeying any orders he thought I’d willfully obey.

Did he make me come harder than I had in years last night? Yes. Did seeing him hard with his fingers down my throat bring back pictures of him naked? Sure did. But good dick could be found anywhere, attached to men who wouldn’t dare boss me around like I was—what did he call me? Trash.

Pulling the rest of my cigarette from my lips, I pushed the cherry into the wood, burning a circle into its pretty stained color.

A faint horn honked in the distance, and as I shielded my eyes from the midday sun, I saw a man who might think I was trash, but sure as shit wouldn’t have the balls to say it.

Jamie waved as he came closer, driving a camo-colored UTV. I discreetly flicked the butt into a patch of flowers and slapped on a smile that would please even the hardest of southern mamas as he parked.

“Hey, pretty lady. You sleep well?”

“Like the dead.” I feigned a stretch like I hadn’t been awake for hours, tossing and turning, thinking about his roommate's annoyingly skillful tongue.

“Oh, yeah?” Jamie’s eyes glued to my too-short shorts as he walked up the steps, dodging the evidence of what Carver had done minutes before. “Any of your plans change for the day?”

“Hmm?” I batted my eyelashes as he closed the distance and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Your plans—you said you had to head on out and that you might not be here when I got back.” He closed the distance between our legs, sealing his body to mine.

“Oh, that.” I lightly slapped his chest and gave him my best clueless face. “Turns out, the movers lost my stuff.” I pouted, plumping my bottom lip. Jamie bent down, inching closer like my mouth was a magnet.

“That’s not good. You need my bed for another night, then?

” His voice aimed for husky—one that would melt panties to the floor.

If only I hadn’t tossed the pair I had into the trash, hoping Car would be even more pissed at what he’d done.

At the pleasure he’d brought me. He said I had to obey him while under his roof?

Well, make me, motherfucker.

“You okay? You look kind of…angry.”

“It’s nothing.” I pushed on his chest and he released his hold on me, his brows creasing in confusion. I wiped under my eye and his whole body softened.

“Is this about the movers? You want me to handle—”

I held up my hand as I finished wiping across a dry cheek. “No, Jamie. I just had a lot of sentimental things in that truck, and if they can’t—” I sniffled and he crowded my space again, covering me in a warm embrace.

“Oh, Lyra.” He breathed deeply against my neck, and my bones had that urge in them again to run. Flee. Go as far away as humanly possible. “Don’t you worry about where you can stay, okay? The hotel in town is shit, you’re better off here until that truck comes with your things.”

“I-I could always go out and buy a few pieces of furniture. I think I can find a decent resale place—”

“Nonsense,” he said into my hair. “I have plenty of room in my bed, which you seemed to have enjoyed a lot last night.”

“Jamie?” I whispered, my voice coming out shaky.

“Yes, Lyra?”

“I should probably tell you, I don’t really have a lot of experience with—” I pulled my head back, making eye contact with him.

His grey eyes shifted as he looked me over.

“I don’t usually sleep with a guy until the third date, and while you’re being very generous and all, I just don’t know if I can go against my morals.

My mama raised me to be a good, homely woman, and the heart of the home must be pure. ”

His eyes continued watching every inch of my face as I spoke, and when I was done, he hugged me closer. “Thank you for being honest with me. I like that about you. Your mom must be a proud woman.”

“She would be,” I blurted, giving him the first honest words from my mouth since he stepped foot on the porch.

Everything I learned about men and how to use them had been from her, after all.

And the look in Jamie’s eyes as he ate up every one of my lies was evidence enough that I’d been a star pupil.

She would certainly be proud.

His hand started making circles on the small of my back. “Did she pass, too? Like your dad, I mean.”

“Yeah.” No. Wherever my mama ran off too, I doubted she was dead. Woman was stronger than teflon and sneakier than a gator in heat.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” He reared back, resting his hands on my shoulders.

I let another soft smile spread over my lying lips—the lips Carver saw right through the first day we met.

“My dad passed when I was a baby, so I never really knew him. But my mom is great. She’d love you.

” I grinned as he blushed. “I’m sorry, that’s way too soon.

” He scratched the back of his head. “I said too much, didn’t I? ”

I shook my head. “No, no. I think it’s sweet.” Gag. “Really. I hope I get to meet her one day.” Never happening.

He beamed. “Yeah?” This guy didn’t need to get laid, he needed to be on one of those reality shows where he meets a woman on the day of their wedding, and assuming she’s good looking, they’d fall in love and live happily ever after.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, the clearing of his throat bringing him back to Earth.

“I mean, yeah. Sure. She loves all my friends, too.”

“Friends—ouch.” My face fell as a gruff voice filled the awkward pause. “What’s for lunch today, roomie?”

Jamie chuckled, then patted his pockets, murmuring something about his phone. While Jamie jogged back to retrieve it, Carver eyed me up as if I were a piece of steak.

I groaned. “Don’t you have someone else you can go eye-fuck?”

“Yeah, I do.” That stupid toothpick came jutting out from between his teeth. Couldn’t find a shirt, yet somehow always had a toothpick.

“Great. I’m sure they’re going to be more eager to please you and whatever fucked-up tastes you’ve developed.” I ended the last word in a rushed whisper as Jamie started to walk back.

Carver’s volume didn’t change as he said, “Obey my orders to leave and you won’t ever have to find out what those are.

But, if you stay…” He winked, and I shuddered right as Jamie stepped foot on the stairs.

Carver’s attention crept over to the spot, then his eyes narrowed on the bandage on the floor before falling back to me.

More specifically, my leg. His jaw flexed, and before Jamie could start talking again, Carver turned and made his way back to the barn with a heaviness to his gait.

“Did you say anything to him?”

“What?” I asked, my focus unable to snap away from the hard lines of muscle across Car’s rippling back where a large tattoo of an eagle spread from shoulder-to-shoulder, accented more by his tanned, sweat-dampened skin. The Devil himself couldn’t have made a man more physically perfect.

“…like that, it’s hard to want to be around him for long periods of time.” I nodded my head, having heard mostly nothing of what Jamie said as Carver reached for the breezeway door and slammed it shut behind him.

I slapped my hand on the railing. “You know what?”

I could feel Jamie’s concerned look even before I turned to face him. “What’s up, pretty lady?”

“I think I’m gonna go into town and stop by the new place. Make sure everything is ready for whenever the movers show.”

Jamie nodded, his lips thin. “I was going to see if you wanted to hitch a ride back to the facility. Give you that tour you asked for.”

I threw on a saccharine smile. “Rain check?”

TEN YEARS AGO

A week flashed by faster than I’d ever seen. Carver walked me home on every single one of those days—each day asking more and more about anything that popped into that head of his.

As frustrating as it was that first day, his presence became calming, as if he saw the storm that brewed in my mind and had figured out how to clear it.

The darkness didn’t completely leave, but after wading for years in black, murky waters, any sliver of light was like submerging in a crystal-clear river.

I wondered if that was what having a friend was always like.

Lunch in high school was almost as arbitrary as trying to rid the shadows from my mind on my own, but if I kept skipping the parts of school I hated, they’d never let me graduate.

A bag slid down onto the seat beside me, and I was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t jump as a familiar voice whispered in my ear, “Brought you somethin’.”

I buried the smile that threatened to spread into my hands as Car sat down, his elbow nudging mine before he slid a plastic bag in front of me.

I frowned down at it, my stomach roiling for more than one reason.

“What’s wrong?” He started pulling the bag back.

“Not a huge sandwich fan?” I went with that and half-shook, half-nodded my head.

The sandwich was only part of the problem—his kindness was another.

Or maybe it was the way I was dressed that told him I needed to fill out my clothes a bit more.

Was this pity? “It’s the crust, isn’t it? ”

Before I could tell him it wasn’t, he shot up from his seat and told me to stay put, then hollered to a group of guys in their JROTC suits—just like Carver was wearing.

His friends threw odd glances and smirks my way as Carver grabbed a plastic knife from one of his friends. In less than a minute, he was rushing back to me, his hands hidden behind his back.

“Close your eyes.”

I rolled them instead.

“I’m serious, Ly. Close ’em. You’ll like this.”

I heard snickers from his friends’ table and pictured them pointing at me as I pinched my eyes closed.

“Don’t mind them any,” he insisted. I kept my eyes closed as a rustling sound filled the space in front of me. “They’re just giving me shit for cutting this for you.” The minute I tried to open my eyes, soft, yet firm hands covered them.

“You don’t like to listen, do you?”

“I shouldn’t have to listen to a man.”

“Alright,” he said through what sounded like a grin. “Will you look down for me, please ?”

His hands lifted from my face, and when I looked down, my chest swelled.

“You did this? Just now?” I lifted the bread, checking the contents of the sandwich. Not like I knew what was in it before—but the bread—

“Will you eat it now?”

I drummed my fingers on the table, staring down at the butterfly-shaped sandwich, then snapped. “What do you see when you look at me?”

“Huh?” His hands faltered right as his lunch was about to pass through his lips.

More laughter sounded from that damn table, and I fought every instinct in me that wanted to glare back at them. “Nevermind.” I let loose a sigh, and to my surprise, Carver tossed his friends the same look I’d held back on, then took a bite and chewed slowly.

I could feel Car’s eyes on me, moving between my splayed fingers and my face as I continued looking down at what he’d made. His shoulder nudged into me and I finally picked up the gifted meal.

“Fine,” I muttered. Carver chuckled and mirrored my movements, bringing the bread up to his lips at the same time as me.

My stomach gurgled, which he must’ve heard because he chuckled again, shaking his head with another bite.

As he chewed, his face turned pensive, his beautiful eyes going distant before sliding to me as he swallowed.

“Whatever I saw before isn’t what I see now.

” The words he spoke were barely audible over the roaring sounds of students moving and talking.

I swallowed the lump of food hovering in my throat, acting like I didn’t hear a word he’d said.

But I had. And those words swirled in my brain as we continued to eat in silence.