His Reverie (Reverie #1)(58)

I love what he made me, and what it represents. It’s me and him and us together. If we believe enough in the dream, we can make it come true right? I’m a dreamer and so is he.

I’m just trying my best to live up to my name.

34

Panic: a sudden overwhelming fear

August 5th

The shit had to hit the fan sometime right? We couldn’t expect to keep on sneaking around and not get caught. It was always in the back of my mind, that her parents would find us kissing behind the stables. Whispering together on the far side of the house. Or worse…wrapped around each other, naked and in her bed in the middle of the night.

Yeah. That’s the scenario that scared me the most. She’s snuck me up into her room three times in the last five days. My girl is insatiable. She can’t get enough and I feel the same because the moment I taste her lips I want more. I see a flash of skin and I want to strip her completely. I’m desperate to hear her tell me she needs me, even more desperate to watch her fall apart because of the way I touch her, kiss her…

I have never, ever felt like this.

Ever.

She wants to be with me all the time too. Not like I can play it cool and resist her. I’m just as eager. I see her and I start smiling. I hear her name and everything inside of me tenses up, anticipating her nearness. I hear her voice and a buzz starts under my skin, ready for her touch.

Not even Krista can ruin my buzz. We had that meeting she wanted the next day. The day after I had sex with Reverie for the first time. I was on such a love high that Krista’s threats meant nothing. I told her to go ahead and tell the Hales everything. Hell, I practically dared her. Like they’d believe her. Like she could even figure out a way to get in contact with them. The girl is lazy. She has zero ambition. She yelled and made a big scene on my doorstep when I pushed her out but I shut the door on her. Acted like she didn't even exist.

That seemed to work.

Just because everything seems fine doesn’t mean it is. There was an underlying tension bubbling in Hale House that we weren’t even aware of at first. Reverie sensed it that one night when her parents came home after being out of town, but after that, she never noticed it again. That’s because she was too wrapped up in me.

And I was too wrapped up in her.

“Something is going down and it’s not good,” Michael says to me in the middle of the afternoon when we’re taking a break. We’re sitting under a giant tree out on the property, guzzling water and trying to cool down. He’d mowed the lawn and I’d worked the weed eater along the fence line. There’s a hell of a lot of lawn and fence line on the property so we were exhausted and hot. Early August is the hottest part of summer and after working out in it, we’re drained of energy.

“What do you mean?” I finish off the last of my water and toss the empty bottle back into the open ice chest we like to bring with us.

“The Hales are acting weird. The reverend holes up in his office all day and all night. Valerie refused to get out of bed today. Heather says all she does is cry.” Michael shrugs one shoulder. “It’s weird.”

“Huh. I haven’t noticed.” Because I’m too focused on my girl to worry about what’s going on with anyone else. Michael and I don't see each other as much lately but he doesn’t care because he’s spending all his free time with Heather.

“Really? Have you talked with your girl Rev? You’d think she’d know what’s up with her family quietly freaking out.”

My body tenses. I don't like talking about Reverie with Michael even though he knows we’re together. It’s fairly obvious and I don’t bother denying it. I want to trust him but the guy has a big mouth and Reverie’s already been burned by Heather once. He tells his girlfriend one thing too much and she’d probably go straight to Valerie. Then we’d be over. Finished. “She hasn’t mentioned anything specific.”

“So she feels the tension too.”

I guess she did. We tried not to talk about her parents too much. “Yeah, but she has no idea what’s going on. They don’t tell her anything.” I lean against the tree trunk and stare into the distance. What if it’s something about us? About me and Reverie? Could they have found out about us sneaking around and seeing each other behind their backs? If that was the case, why haven’t they fired my ass yet? Wouldn’t that be the first thing they’d want to do, to get me away from their precious and now not-so-innocent daughter?

“I think it has something to do with the reverend’s empire. The Flock of the Lambs or whatever they’re called. I think the flock is rebelling dude. Or it’s bleeding money and they’re slowly going broke to the point that there’ll be nothing but a bunch of little dead lambs everywhere,” Michael says, his voice lowering. I can tell he’s joking but his expression is so serious. He lives for this kind of shit though. He loves gossip of any kind. It’s why him and Heather go so well together. She feeds him information and he enjoys every second of it.

“You really think they’re going broke?” Concern makes me stare hard at that monstrosity known as Hale House in the near distance. It’s f**king humongous and worth a fortune. And it’s not even their regular home. It’s only their vacation home. God knows what their other house is like. I know that they’re surrounded by opulence and wealth. Reverie doesn’t want for anything and neither does her brother. Valerie Hale is spoiled rotten. Reverend Hale wears a Rolex and a diamond pinky ring, which is cheesy as hell but whatever. These people are rolling in money and they have no problem letting others know it either.