Faster We Burn (Fall and Rise #2)(36)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

I drew hearts on the bottom of her feet and sat back to admire her. She looked over her shoulder, trying to see her back.

“Come on,” I said, reaching for her. I picked her up and carried her to the full-length mirror that hung in her closet. I set her down and turned her so she could see.

“Wow,” she breathed. “You are freakishly talented.”

“An artist is nothing without good materials to work with, and a muse.”

She looked away from her beautiful body to meet my eyes. “Oh, so I’m your muse now?”

I touched a poppy I’d drawn on her shoulder in bold red marker.

“Every artist needs one.”

“You seemed to do pretty well without me before.”

“That was because I didn’t know what I was missing.”

“Hm,” she said, touching my more-permanent ink. “So I guess we’re not friends anymore, huh?”

“I beg to differ.” I kissed the poppy and picked her up, making her squeal as I tossed her back in bed. “I think you are my very best of best friends.”

I kissed her, not being able to hold back anymore.

“You and me,” she whispered against my lips.

“No space.”

Katie

It wasn’t until I woke up in Stryker’s arms the next morning that I realized I couldn’t go to class the way I was. He’d drawn all the way up around my neck, giving me what looked like a lace necklace, not to mention my arms and hands and legs. Unless I wore a bodysuit, everyone would be able to see it.

“Was this some sort of ploy to get me to not leave this room?” I said when his green eyes finally opened. I would totally paint my walls that color.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” He rolled over me and his dick pressed against me, ready to go again. I stroked him with my hand and he growled in my ear. He tried to remove my hand, but I wouldn’t let him.

“Your turn to learn patience, my friend.” I kissed my way down his chest as my hand worked and he swore and moaned. It was nice to know that I could affect him as much as he affected me.

I took him to the edge and back with my hands and my mouth, making him mine until I straddled him and we became united again.

***

“I did have class today, you know. And I’m sure that any moment now someone is going to knock on the door and ask me to go to breakfast,” I said, still panting. Some of the beautiful drawings were smudged, but I was still covered in them.

“What, you don’t want to go around like a walking art project? Afraid of what people will think?”

“No, I just don’t want them staring. I can’t deal with more people looking at me. It’s like being at the funeral all over again.”

“Shit, I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”

“No, it wasn’t. You just forgot, and so did I.” Even if it was just for a little while. Knock, knock. Reality calling. “I can’t believe I forgot. Oh my God.” I sat up and moved away from him.

“Oh my God. My dad is dead and we had sex and you said you loved me and I said it back. Oh God, I’m going to hell.” I tried to get out of bed, to get away from him, but he held onto me. I squirmed against him.

“We shouldn’t have done this.”

“You have got to stop blaming yourself for things, Katie.” He shook me a little as he said it. “Do you honestly think your dad would want you to stop living just because he did?”

I knew he wouldn’t. I thought back to what he’d said to me when we’d had that chat in the basement. That I was strong and he was proud of me.

“No.” He took my moment of weakness to pull me into his chest, right next to his heart.

“What is the point of being alive if you don’t live it?” His eyes were bright and his voice was urgent. I’d never seen him like this. “I know you’re scared and I’m scared as hell too. That’s what love is, being scared as hell, but doing it anyway because it’s worth it.” He held me so tight, his arms like ropes that tied me to him, tied this moment together.

“You terrify me, sweetheart.”

“I terrify you. Me, with the pink obsession? I terrify the guy with the piercings and the tattoos and the, ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude?”

“Terrifying things come in pink packages.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I’m not scared of you, big bad boy.” He unwrapped his arms and held my face.

“I never, ever want you to be scared of me.”

“You’re not Zack,” I said. “You’re not anything like him.”

“That is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, sweetheart.”

Just as he was leaning down for a kiss, there was a pounding on my door.

“Um, you wanna get that? Just tell them I’m not feeling well, maybe?” He climbed over me and put his pants on as I pulled the blanket up to cover myself.

“Oh, hey, Stryk,” Simon said. Stryker made sure to keep the door only halfway open so they couldn’t see me. “We just wanted to see if Katie was up for breakfast, but…never mind.”

“She’s…she’s not feeling that great. We’ll probably just have something here.”

“Sure, yeah, that’s…that’s great.” I could hear other voices, but I couldn’t tell who they were. “See you later?”

“Sure thing.”

“Is she okay?” That was Lottie.

“Yeah, she is.” He wasn’t facing me, but I could hear the grin in his voice. “She just needs to take an extra day, I think.”

“If she needs anything…”

“I know. I’ll call you, I promise.”

He closed the door and I could hear them chattering. More than one of them had a problem with voice volume modulation.

“Thanks for that. I wasn’t sure what they’d say about all this.” I motioned to the drawings that had stained my sheets a bit.

“Anytime, sweetheart.” He took his clothes back off. “Now where were we?”

Chapter Twenty-five

Stryker

Katie and I spent the next few hours alternating between getting closer and eating the rest of the ice cream Lottie had stocked up on, and sometimes combining the two, which was the most fun.

“How long do you think it’s going to take to wash this off?” The marker had faded from her skin a little, but she was still a walking, talking canvas. “I would like to leave this room at some point and rejoin the world.”

“Why? The world is so overrated.”

“True, but I think our friends might like to see us.”

I kissed her shoulder. “You, maybe. I’m fine with staying in this room with you forever.”

“That would be a bit of an issue when the semester is over and summer break comes and we have to move out.”

“We could hide in the ceiling and then wait until everyone left and only come out at night to get supplies. Like vampires.”

“You have put way too much thought into this. But seriously, I need to shower. I need to…do something.”

“I have something you can do.” I took my hand and slid it down her stomach.

“Fine, if you want, you can come shower with me. I need someone who can reach my back.” She got out of bed, then put my hand on her waist.

“I wish we could save it somehow,” she said.

“Are you at all opposed to nude photography?” My phone sat on her desk, and I reached for it, turning it on.

“I guess not, as long as these don’t end up somehow plastered all over the internet.” I was about to answer her when I saw another text from Ric.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Katie was waiting for me to answer.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing. Just…Trish, being Trish.” Fucking Ric. That was why I’d left my phone off.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, fine.”

I looked back at her, putting a smile on my face. She studied me for a second, and I thought she was going to demand that I tell her, but then she smiled.

“Where do you want me?” she said, posing and throwing her head back. God, she was stunning.

I moved the blankets on her bed so she could lay out and took first pictures of her front, moving from her neck on down. I grabbed a lamp to give us better light and she struggled with trying to stay still. I couldn’t believe she was letting me do this, and then it hit me.

She trusted me. Not only did she love me, but she trusted me.

Fuck.

She trusted me enough to let me take pictures of her nak*d and keep them on my phone and not share them. That meant she probably trusted me to not f**k anyone else. Too late.

I took the pictures of her back and her hands and finally, the bottoms of her feet.

“Done.”

I kissed them and she squirmed.

“Shower?”

“Only if I can come,” I said, making her squirm again as I dug my finger into the arch of her foot.

***

I wrapped her up like a mummy and made sure the coast was clear before we hit the shower. The handicap shower, which was bigger, was known as the ‘couples’ shower’, she said, and more than a few couples had partaken in water conservation.

“Is it working?” She said as I scrubbed her with her most exfoliating soap and this loofah thing she’d brought.

“Sort of.” I rubbed harder and her skin turned red, but there was still a little bit of the drawing left behind. She was busy working on her front, checking her arms and stomach to see if it had faded.

“You know, you could have just kept it. Would have come off eventually.” I ran my hand down her back and touched her, sliding one finger into her.

She made an incoherent sound and I dropped the loofah.

“Maybe we just need a little more friction,” I said.

“Mmmm,” she said, bracing herself on the shower wall.

By the time we were done, the pounding water had taken care of most of the drawings.

“Too bad neither of us has a tub, because a good soak would have probably taken care of this, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun,” I said, pushing her back up against the wall as the water poured down on our heads.

“True,” she said, putting her hand on my heart. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” So much that I wasn’t sure if I could take it, if I could handle how I felt about her. I pressed my forehead to hers and kissed her drenched lips.

“I have to tell you something.” I couldn’t fill myself up with her until I got rid of Ric.

She stared up at me, and the words wouldn’t come.

“I want you to be my girlfriend,” I finally said, and I felt her relax in my arms.

“I think I’d like to be your girlfriend.”

“Just like?”

“Love. I’d love to be your girlfriend.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Katie

Lottie knocked on the door when she came back from class. Stryker and I were working on my wall. Apparently he hadn’t used up all his artistic talents on me.

“Oh, hey.” She cracked open the door with her eyes closed.