Glass Heart Hero: A Dark High School Romance by Lindsey Iler (free ebook reader for iphone .TXT) 📕

us to make a big deal of it.” Palmer bumps her hip into me, then wraps her arms around my waist. I allow her to hug me until the bagel pops out of the toaster. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. No. I don’t know,” I ramble, taking the cream cheese out of the fridge, using the task as a distraction.

“You know, if you need to talk about it, we’re here,” Palmer adds, placing a calming hand on my shoulder.

I spin around, and their eyes are on me. Even Dixon has abandoned whatever had his attention on his screen.

“My mom killed herself when I was eight. It’s been ten years. My sisters were two years old when she jumped,” I explain about the lifetime of trauma I’ve dealt with poorly.

Palmer’s intake of breath tells me she’s put it together. Her hand clasps over her mouth. “Break . . .”

“Don’t, okay?” I hold my hand out, stopping her from coming to me.

“I’ve kept my own secrets from you, but how did I not know this?” Marek asks, drawing Palmer into his arms.

“This is the one secret I’ve allowed myself to have from all of you. I don’t like to be reminded of what happened that night.”

“Is that why you’re always climbing things?” Palmer says, always the observant one. The girl has a future in psychology if she wants one. She can sniff out a man’s insecurities like a cancer-sniffing dog.

I started climbing a year after she died. It took a long time for anyone to catch me, to find out what I was doing, but when Aunt Emily did, she demanded I talk to her, to explain myself. A roof, rafters, anything that I could get my feet on, I’d conquer it.

It wasn’t until I spoke aloud what I was feeling that I understood what I was doing.

“I like the reminder of being alive,” I admit. “Teetering on that ledge brought me to a place I don’t want to be at again. I don’t want to be that little boy again.”

“I can’t believe he’d go that far,” Palmer says under her breath.

“I can,” I scoff. “We’ve always been at each other’s throats.”

“Why?”

“Taking his sister’s virginity creates a certain kind of rage,” I confess. “But in my defense, I didn’t know she was his sister.”

“We’re all someone’s sister,” Palmer says in a nonchalant way.

“Well, that’s factually inaccurate, considering I’m an only child.” Delaney rounds the corner, and without a second thought, she’s in my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist.

I shift until her ass is on the island, completely uncaring who’s in the room with us. My lips find hers and devour her. Our wet tongues dance together the second her fingers dive into my hair, holding on tight. My hands move down her body, running up and down her bare thighs.

“I’m going to stop you there,” Marek says, interrupting us.

Delaney doesn’t retreat. Instead, she digs her heels into my ass, tugging me closer to her. “How far can we push them until they leave the room?” She bites down on her bottom lip.

“Leave,” I command.

They are happy to oblige but not without a round of laughs and jokes. Chairs scratch on the tile, and footsteps grow farther and farther away.

“So we’re clear, this was mine and Marek’s thing first.” The amusement in Palmer’s voice causes Delaney and me to smile.

“Yeah, sure thing.” Delaney waves an effortless hand in the direction of her best friend while never dropping her striking blue eyes from me.

Delaney leans away, an easy sexiness to the move. My t-shirt covers her thighs, and I bunch the fabric until only the part of her that now belongs to me is hidden.

“Say it again?” she asks.

I smile, knowing what she’s looking for.

“And why would I want to do that?” I tease.

Her small hands wrap around the hem of the t-shirt and lift it from her body, showing what she’s hiding under it.

“You’re a fucking dream.” I fall forward, catching myself in a standing plank on the countertop.

“Be my nightmare.” She crosses her legs, hiding the spot I’m desperate to run my tongue across. To taste her.

“Get down,” I demand. She does as I say, and as her bare feet hit the cold tile, I have her in my arms, carrying her to the kitchen table and placing her on the top. I lick my lips, and she lies back instinctively. She knows what I want.

With a gentle hand, I run my fingers on the outside of her thighs until I hit her knees and ease them open. I bend low enough to look directly up her body.

“Hungry?” She grins.

“Starving.”

With one swipe of my tongue, her spine arches off the table with pleasure. Her hands in my hair guide me.

“More,” she breathes out.

Unable to control myself, I slip my middle finger inside her, dancing over her clit with my thumb, until her walls start to clench.

“I need more,” Delaney moans. “All of you.”

I smile, understanding the feeling. Without warning, I straighten. Her legs fall open, and I drop my sweats enough to free myself, running my hand up and down my shaft.

“Come here.” She nods to the side of the table where her head is, nudging me with her foot until I listen to her command. “If you get to taste me first thing in the morning, it’s only fair I get to taste you.”

She opens her mouth, inviting me in.

“Wider,” I command. When she does as I say, my cock grows harder.

I guide myself to her lips, and as fast as a vacuum, she has me in her mouth. I brace myself on the side of the table, barely able to stop my knees from buckling from the sensation of her tongue working the tip.

“Now, we’re ready,” she says, licking the corner of her mouth. She swings her legs wide, fully open for me.

Wasting a single second not buried deep inside her is a damn shame. She shudders as I run the tip of my cock at her entrance.

“Don’t be such