Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,53

for that. But I’d blamed her for it. And punished her.

There’s a reason we never bring our families into this, the events of that night the biggest reason, and yet I’m the one who crossed that line happily.

Then again, this woman has a way of pushing me to every extreme.

“Bit late for that,” she jokes. “Guess we won’t be grabbing my bags either.”

I grin. “It would definitely suck having to drag all sixty of them in through the rain.”

“Seventeen,” she snarls.

“My apologies for miscounting.”

Forcing myself to break the stare down we’re having, I grit my teeth as I shove my door open and step out into the torrential rain. I open Ivy’s door and offer a hand to help her out, blue eyes tipping up to me with memories behind them.

She has to raise her voice to be heard over the storm. “Such a gentleman,” she teases, her words daring me to do what we both want.

I tug her out and shut her door, but when she attempts to step away, I pull her back to cage her against the car.

Her near white hair is plastered to the sides of her face, both of us soaked already. I’ve seen her like this before, drowned beneath the rain, her eyes wide with both fear and desire.

Fuck what Mother Nature wants.

I’m no longer interested in her warnings.

I’m taking what I should have taken all those years ago.

“Only for you,” I answer honestly before my mouth claims hers in a kiss that shouldn’t happen and will only lead to disaster.

Ivy

I brace myself against what’s happening.

Against the onslaught of memory.

Against the collision of the past and present in a violent explosion that’s knocking my feet out from under me.

The only reason I’m still standing is the car against my back and Gabriel’s body pinning me in place. My legs are shaking with fear. Not just for the lightning that continues to assault the sky, but also because I know what we’re doing will never end well.

But we can’t help ourselves.

And the truth is, we never could.

The first night we kissed was the same one when I’d stolen his truth. The same one he’d terrified me and punished me for something I didn’t do.

It was at another house party, just like any other. The gatherings were always the same mess of rowdy kids, the only difference was the locations.

On that night, everybody was at Gabriel’s house since his parents were out of town, a multi-million-dollar mansion filled wall to wall with practically the entire junior and senior classes.

As usual, the alcohol was flowing, red Solo cups in every hand, the air a giant smoke screen from all the pot being smoked.

It was pure chaos, and I’d snuck in because Gabriel had banned me from his place. Not one to be socially ousted, I showed up anyway, and given the events of that night, I wish I hadn’t.

If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t know the truth. And if I’d just stayed my butt home instead of trying to pull a prank, I wouldn’t have been terrified beyond measure.

We wouldn’t hate each other as much as we do if I’d made a different decision that night. But the past is clearly written, and there’s nothing I can do about it now.

After arriving at the party, I’d walked in like I owned the place, a bunch of kids laughing to see me because they knew some shit was about to go down. Gabriel and I never could be in close proximity of each other without a fight of epic proportions.

I was prepared for the fight.

Excited for it.

And I had enough glitter and soap on hand to turn his pools (both interior and exterior), hot tubs, multiple fountains spread over the property and any other moving water source into a massive bubble bath.

I often used glitter because the stuff is a nightmare and almost impossible to clean up. Imagining Gabriel angrily trying to fix it brought me immense satisfaction.

We were still young, our pranks were stupid, but also nothing permanent. At least until that night they weren’t. After what happened, we started going for the each other’s throats, and our pranks grew into cruelty.

It wasn’t until after I’d glitter soaped his pools, hot tubs and most of the garden fountains on one side of the house that I’d walked to the other.

A storm had rolled in while I was in the process of fucking things up, the sky opening with sheets of rain when I rounded a corner