Page 63 of Soul So Dark

Sydney.

“Calm down,” he smiles, “Syd wasn’t tattling on you. It was my fault. I might’ve drug it out of her after doing some of my own sneaking. So, what have you done to Ole Dally?” he asks, his eyes wandering toward the kitchen.

I give a quick shake of my head.

“Was it willingly?”

“I’d never fucking hurt her,” I rasp, another visceral reaction betraying me.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t. I’ve seen how she looks at you since you started giving her the time of day. Did you start giving her candy again like you used to when she was a kid?”

He remembers that?

Of course he remembers. That’s what Aiden does; he holds onto tiny pieces of information until they reveal themselves to be useful. I just consider myself lucky he’s my best friend instead of my mortal enemy.

“If she had an ounce of confidence, she’d let you keep her chained up in the barracks with you on Parris Island,” he continues.

She does have confidence,I almost say, but I catch myself just in time.

“She's a freshman, Alex, what could you possibly have in common with her? Besides your affinity for chicks with big asses,” he says with an eye roll. “So, tell me the other reasons you're flirting with death.”

“She's like me,” I finally admit, “half broken and missing a few pieces.”

“But not like Col,” Aiden surmises.

I shake my head. “She makes me want to come back—all the way. And I want to bring her back with me.”

“Is it because you don't think she'd do to you what others have?”

“I know she wouldn't.”

“How? Because of what you did up in that room?”

“I told you, I didn’t—”

Suddenly, Aiden seizes my groin, making me go rigid. “Don’t fucking lie to me, Alex,” he seethes, his ebony eyes boring into mine, “it belittles us both. What'd you do up in that room? And don’t tell me you were just playing video games.”

I shake my head, trying to focus. “I fell asleep, and when I woke up, she was asleep, too.” When I say it, I can’t help but smile at the memory. “You should've seen her, just six inches away, asleep on my arm...”

“Fucking sleaze,” he grins back.

Aiden’s face relaxes and the menacing shadow behind his eyes dissipates ever so slightly. “Tell me what she looked like—to you.”

I open my mouth to speak, but my breath catches and, with a flick of his wrist, Aiden’s hand disappears beneath the waist of my sweatpants. Pinned beneath him, he grabs my dick, getting harder as my mind betrays me. I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to decide whether I want to tear Aiden’s arm off or let him bear witness to my secret depravity. But the image of her in my head is unexpectedly vivid, and I don’t want to open my eyes and have to admit she’s not here.

So, I don’t.

“When I looked at her for the first time—like,reallylooked at her—it was like I was looking at myself. And when she looked back, she really saw me, too.”

His hand starts moving up and down, sending a rush all the way down my legs. I clench my jaw, letting my head fall back as I try to hold onto her. She’s still there; her mess of shiny black hair, her blue eyes gazing back from the pillow beside me, her rosy lips parted slightly, her shirt twisted and pulling at her chest, her leg slung over mine from moving in her sleep…

I start to give in to all the thoughts simmering, lying in wait deep in the back of my mind. “She wants me to fuck her so bad, but she’ll never ask me for it.” Rolling my hips with Aiden’s hand, I cast aside any remaining reservations. “I wanted to spread her out right then.Fuck,she'd feel so good under me.”

“Would you if she asked?” he murmurs, speeding up his rhythm.

I exhale all the air in my lungs before giving a slight shake of my head.

“Why not?” he presses.