Exaltation (Insight #11)(87)

He furrowed his brow. “Coven?” he repeated in question form. Which is what he always did when he didn’t want to tell Raven something or wanted her to figure it out.

They had not talked about their families. Raven never mentioned the coven her dad ran before Rydell came around, so it wasn’t like she was covering it up or anything.

She chose not to go there with this conversation. She didn’t want to talk about his family. He’d been happy for weeks, and she wanted him to stay that way.

“Trust me, the Veil is safer than The Realm. I’ll keep you safe there if you want to explore,” he said when he realized how drastically her mood had shifted.

“No. I’m good,” she said with a smile. “Just feeling fried, wanted to do something that got my heart racing.” That second she was in his lap one leg on each side of him.

He’d moved her there.

“You and your signals are janked up,” Raven said as she framed his face with her hands and gave him a sweet kiss.

“And why is that?” His voice was deep and sensual, the way it always was when they fell into those compromising situations that he always shut down.

“You’re the one with the brakes,” Raven said as she arched her neck to the side.

A near silent hiss left his lips as he adjusted her on his lap. “We’re on your father’s couch, in his house. He’s going to be home within the hour. Brakes are needed,” he said as his eyes became hooded and his hands began to edge up her thighs. His lips were saying one thing but his body was saying another. His eyes had already found her lips and were traveling down her neck. That instant Raven pulled him to her.

Each kiss started slow, as if he were asking permission, or warning her to guard her vim. It was a good warning. Raven had flown out of his arms a few times, but he always caught her before she managed to get too far, and most of the time he made it seem like it was his fault, that it was his vim, but Raven knew better.

The slow kiss never lasted long. The power of his carnal lips became faster each time. Which meant Raven forgot to breathe often.

His arms embraced her and for once he pushed them forward. Before Raven knew it, she was laying under him and his hands were moving across her body with a powerful caress. His lips traveled down her neck and heat exploded inside of Raven.

When she felt the rim of her shirt move up she tensed for a mere second and he halted. The palm of his hand was blazing against her flesh.

Slowly he moved up and grasped her rib cage only, his thumb grazed her chest. Right as Raven pulled him closer he vanished from her arms and she felt her chemistry book against her chest and a blanket over her legs.

Dazed and confused Raven sat up on her elbows right as the front door opened and her father walked into the foyer.

“Where’s Rydell? he asked, setting food on the table before her.

Good question. Raven stood as she heard his car rumble to life. She walked to the window to see him standing outside his driver door. He put his hand on his heart and tapped, telling her his heart was racing.

Smooth. Way too smooth. “He had go,” Raven said.

“Are you packed up for tomorrow?” Jamison asked. She nodded and took a seat next him. Trying to look as innocent as possible.

Fall break started the day after tomorrow. She was going over to the twins’ a day early. It was a plan they had been working on. Raven wanted them to take the books back to Berries’. Raven knew he was going out of town. He told them they would have a sub that day. Over the past weeks the twins had turned inward. Usually when they did that Raven was a part of it, but with Rydell, work, and school she didn’t have the time to question the unknown. And honestly everything they did tell her they found didn’t make much sense.

They still thought Raven had to kill five people—that she had already killed two—to be some kind of Queen, which was the most absurd thing Raven had ever heard.

Tomorrow the twins were going to say they were going out with Raven, but Rydell and Raven had plans. At least Raven thought she did. He’d been spending a lot of time with Dagen. They seemed tense when they were together. Raven almost thought it was about Kade’s race in a few days, but something told her it was more.

Right about then her father looked up, it was the look he always had on his face when he didn’t like something or was in defense mode. He wasn’t looking at Raven, he was staring into thin air.

After a second he said, “Anything different happen with you and Rydell today, was something out of the ordinary? Did he say anything?”

Only thing out of our routine today was that Rydell grazed by second base, but that was not a father conversation. So Raven shook her head no and went back to focusing on her dinner.

“Hey you had dinner with River tonight, right? How’d that go?” Raven asked. River had been wicked scared. She was sure Jamison knew what she was up to with those books.

“Good,” Jamison said as the concerned look on his face faded a bit. “I want to talk you, too. I already talked to Ash.”

“Whoa, what’s with the seriousness?”

“Look,” Jamison said after a moment. “We’ve got a lot going on now, and Miss Emery and I have a lot to tell you guys about the past…and we will in time.”

“But?” Raven pushed.

“But me and you are moving into Emery’s over Christmas break.”