The shades are down in his room already, so I don’t know if he’s asleep or if he’s in there at all, but I knock anyway, my heart in my throat. “Yeah?” he calls out.
“It’s Dakota,” I say.
Within three seconds, he’s pulling the door open, and then we just stare at one another for a moment. His hair is wild around his head. The lights are on in his room, so I know he wasn’t sleeping. His room is a mirror of mine. There’s barely anything in it, just the few simple yet tasteful pieces of furniture that match my own. A towel lies on the ground at our feet, and steam billows from the bathroom. He kicks the towel to the side. “Are you okay?”
Embarrassment creeps up my cheeks. I’ve literally never had anyone to talk to except for my dad and Dickie, and neither one of them were big on talking about feelings. I poured my feelings into the souls of books and they spoke back to me. I found the same thoughts and emotions I had murmured in words and phrases. It didn’t matter that the characters weren’t real. It let me know that I wasn’t some freak like I’d been told all of my life.
“Hey,” Lucas says, stepping closer.
My lips buzz, remembering his kiss. It was straight out of a fairy tale or chapter twelve of a romance novel. I’d never been so thoroughly kissed in all my life, but I knew what it was when I felt it because of the books I’d read. Those kinds of kisses don’t come but once in a lifetime, but now that I’m standing right in front of him, I’m freezing up. I don’t know what to say. Or what to do. I’m still in a cell of my own making.
Or was that my father’s making? It’s so hard to tell sometimes.
Lucas grabs my hand and leads me to the bed. The movement shakes my thoughts up, and I realized I’ve come to him in the middle of the night but haven’t said shit. My social skills are definitely lacking. “So, today was...weird.”
“Just weird?”
I take a deep breath, picking at a spot on his sheet while he puts a pillow behind his back, so he’s propped up against the headboard. “Exciting and scary and humiliating,” I say, finishing my thoughts. If I’m going to talk to him, I may as well go all out.
Lucas frowns. “The last thing you should feel is humiliated, but I can’t fault you for it. I remember how I felt when I first met Stone and his father. I didn’t have anything either and everything they did for me seemed like something I needed to pay back. It was a long time before I accepted the fact that gifts among friends are just that: Gifts. There’s no payback necessary. No one’s holding it over your head, wishing you would pay up already.”
“I’m hardly friends with Stone,” I say, a sudden longing hitting me in the chest. The picture Lucas paints for me is so tempting.
“No, you’re more than that,” Lucas says. When I give him a funny look, he sighs. “You’re tied together by this treasure. Now you’re tied together by what’s going on. You guys couldn’t escape the trajectory of your lives if you tried. Stone knows it, too. He always has.”
That reminds me of something Lance Jacobs said. He told Stone to fuck me to get me out of his system. I peek up at Lucas. “Do Stone and his father get along?’
A crease forms between Lucas’s brows. He runs his hands through his hair, looking away briefly. “That’s a tough question, and I don’t think I can answer it. Only Stone knows exactly how he feels about his father. I wouldn’t want to put words in his mouth.” He gives me a look like he’s not trying to avoid my question, and I get that. “So, what is it that’s bothering you?”
“I don’t know,” I say, lying down on the foot of his bed. “Anything and everything. I’m just overwhelmed, I guess. Everything is just so— I’m just not used to it,” I say begrudgingly. “I’m not used to having people around. I’m not used to having new things. Hell, I’m not even used to being outside Clary.” I groan at the ceiling. “It all just sounds so pathetic.”
Lucas crawls forward, caging me to the bed. My heart immediately reacts, thumping against my ribs. He speaks, his lips so close to mine. “Don’t do that to yourself. Nothing that’s happened is your fault. Nothing.”
“It’s hard not to see the differences.” I tell him, scared to even breathe for fear of breaking whatever this is.
He frowns down at me. “You’re looking at it wrong, Wild Girl. Think about all the similarities.”
I screw up my face as I try to think. “Hmm. We’re all human.”
The corner of his mouth tips up. “There’s that, but there are others, too. We’ve all become intoxicated by the same thing.” He lets his words hang in the air before he says, “The treasure.”
I chuckle while the tightness in my throat eases. For a second, I thought he was going to say me.
“I also happen to know that you and I are both amazing kissers. That you and Wyatt both wear your hearts on your sleeves, and that you and Stone might be more alike than you think.”
“Mmm,” I say, pretending to think about what he’s said. “Why don’t we go back to the part where you said we’re both amazing kissers.”
“You agree with me then?” he asks, posing his body over mine so we line up perfectly.
“Wholeheartedly,” I say before I tip my head up and capture his lips with mine. Before, he dominated, taking complete control. This time, it’s my turn. I slide my hand behind his neck, pulling him down over me, nipping at his lower lip. My fingers tangle in his hair as I deepen the
