Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,45

his tongue seeking entrance, and the first stroke brought me up on my tiptoes. Heat bloomed and electricity sizzled as he delved his tongue hungrily against mine. All I could taste was chocolate, sweetness, and Rome.

Digging my fingers into his shoulders, I tried to get higher, and he dropped his hands down to my hips and lifted me in one smooth motion, not once letting go of my mouth. He deposited me on the counter and pulled back briefly, his eyes hooded and his gaze heated as he swept it over me.

I spread my legs, and he stepped forward into the cradle of them. I didn’t know which of us reached for the other first, but I craved the touch of his lips like I craved air. My nipples strained against the T-shirt as I rubbed against him and sucked on his tongue.

He threaded a hand into my damp hair, tilting my head this way and that as though desperate to deepen the kiss.

“I can still make you food,” Rome offered in between kisses, and I laughed a little. It was insane and sweet and perfectly him.

“I’m not hungry yet,” I promised him. Then he was kissing me again, and I stopped worrying about anything beyond where we were. Right here, this moment. It was the purity of chaos.

Just like him.

Brother Mine

Rome

“Let’s go boys,” the woman said with a snap of her fingers. I kept thinking of her as the woman. Mostly because she didn’t call us by our names. So I didn’t want to use hers.

“We’re not dogs,” Liam grumbled as he climbed out of the backseat first, then I clambered after him. Everywhere we went and everything she said, the woman snapped her fingers. Follow her. Snap snap. Eat your food. Snap snap. Hurry up. Snap. Snap.

We’d parked on the street in front of a low-slung brown house. It was just that—brown. Brown brick. Brown roof. Brown dirt. Brown porch. Brown door.

There was even a brown bike lying in the dirt of the chain link yard.

“Boys,” the woman said, snapping her fingers, and Liam nudged me. He had his backpack on, but I just held mine to my chest. The house we’d stayed at the night before had lots of kids in it, and one of them had tried to take my backpack.

Liam’s knuckles were still scraped and red from where he’d hit the other kid. His right ear was redder where the woman had grabbed him and yanked him off the other boy. When she was scolding him, I stomped that boy’s hand. His screams got Liam out of trouble, and the woman looked right past me as everyone rushed to help.

They always looked past me. I didn’t care. I wouldn’t smile for them. I didn’t laugh. I didn’t want to talk to them. I talked to Liam.

That was enough.

But my teddy was inside the bag, and I didn’t want to lose it. Everything I owned was in my bag, including two coloring books and some broken crayons. Liam stuffed my clothes into his to make room.

Where he went, I went. So, what did it matter?

“Boys,” the woman said with another snap of her fingers as she climbed the porch. She was already knocking on the door, or she would have seen Liam stick his middle finger and his tongue out at her.

“I hate that bitch,” Liam muttered, and I elbowed him. I agreed, but if he said it too loud, she’d go after his ears again.

He shoulder checked me back and then flashed me a smile. I wanted to smile for him. I really did. But it was hard. Never seemed to bother Liam much though. The door to the house was open, and another lady stood there, her flushed face and harried expression giving way to a real smile.

“Well, I expected you an hour ago,” she scolded. At Liam’s snicker, I glanced up. The new lady glared at the woman with disapproval. “These boys look half starved…and twins. Goodness. You look exactly alike.”

“This is—”

But the lady stopped the woman before she could finish her statement or the snap of her fingers. “No, no. I read their profiles. Let me guess.” She studied us. The wisps of her hair pulling free from the bun made a kind of crinkly reddish-brown halo around her face. The light shining in the window behind her added to the effect.

It was kind of cool.

“You’re Liam,” she said after a beat, nodding to my brother, and then she focused her gaze