Goddess Secret Read online

  His words, “Anything for you,” blanketed her.

  Legacy didn’t look back.

  Chapter Three

  “You look really beautiful,” Adin said as he hugged Legacy after school. He’d been waiting for her when she’d gotten home. And seeing him always brought a smile to her face.

  Yep. She was definitely turning into a sap.

  “Thanks. Calli helped me pick this out for our first day of school.”

  Adin leaned down so that his lips were at her ear. “Remind me to thank her later.” He chuckled as he rubbed his nose on the side of her face. Then he walked her into the house and put her bag on the counter.

  “I’m going to put on some shorts. I’ll be right back down.” She ran upstairs and changed as quickly as she could. When she got back downstairs, Adin was sitting on the couch. She walked over and sat right beside him.

  “So,” he said slowly. “Do you have any classes with River?” He put his hand on her knee.

  She sighed. Of course he’d want to know that. “Yeah, I have four with him. Well, three technically, but we’re in the gym together last period too.”

  “Four.” He nodded. “That’s a lot.”

  “Uh-huh.” She should have known he wouldn’t like this, but she hadn’t really considered that.

  “I’m sure he enjoyed today,” Adin mumbled.

  “Adin,” she whispered, shaking her head. “You knew he would be going to my school.”

  “I know. I still don’t have to like it, though. He’s going to use this opportunity to his advantage.”

  “Well, you’re probably right. He did walk me to all my classes and hugged me a couple of times,” she confessed.

  Adin looked at the ceiling, shaking his head. “Did he do anything else?”

  Uh-oh. “Yeah,” she whispered. “He…ummm…he stroked my cheek once, but I pulled his hand down and told him to stop.”

  Adin took a deep breath and grunted as he exhaled. “Right,” he said, still looking at the ceiling.

  “Adin.” She put her hand on his face and tilted it in her direction. “He was only trying to console me. I was telling him about Venus and—”

  “You what?” Adin yelled. “Why, Legacy? Why would you tell him that?” He lurched off the couch and stomped to window, placing his hands on the sills and leaning to support himself.

  “He knew I was upset about something, and he wanted me to tell him what was wrong.”

  “Legacy!” Adin shook his head, still looking out the window. He was obviously angry with her, but she didn’t understand why.

  Her teeth clenched, and she glared at his black. “What, Adin? Did you not want me to tell him? You didn’t ask me not to.”

  Adin turned around to face her and crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t think I needed to ask you not to. You know I don’t want him in our lives. Venus has nothing to do with him. She’s our problem.”

  “I know that.” She looked down, not knowing what else to say. He was right, but he was being unfair about it.

  She heard Adin walking back over to her. He sat down, but she didn’t look at him. “Legacy, it’s just that I know River will do and say whatever he can to get into your heart. Now that he knows about Venus, he can do some serious damage to us.”

  “What do you mean?” She looked up and Adin’s face was still hard, teeth clenching, but his eyes held a hint of sadness.

  “He can tell you things you don’t want to hear—things that aren’t true—to make you lose faith in me. It’s just another way for him to come between us.”

  “But he helps me,” she whispered.

  “I know!” Adin yelled, looking away from her again.

  His tone caught her by surprise again. “What’s wrong?” she demanded.

  “I don’t want to talk about River.”

  “I know you don’t like River, but he isn’t what’s bothering you. Something else is. I can tell because you’re being a prick. Now, what is it?” Then it hit her, and she gasped. Adin’s eyes slowly made their way to hers. “You saw Venus.”

  “You know I have classes with her,” he retorted.

  Well, that was an evasive response. “That’s not what I meant. Did you talk to her?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about?”

  “She wanted to talk about you.”

  “What about me?” Of course the heifer wanted to know about Legacy.

  “She asked a lot of things. How long we’ve been together. How I feel about you. Things like that.”

  “Hmmm.” She nodded. She could feel the irritation building inside her.

  Adin looked at her, and he still looked mad. “But I didn’t tell her anything. I told her that you were none of her business.”

  “Great! So now she thinks you don’t care enough about me to brag about our relationship!” she yelled, and thunder crashed outside.

  Adin’s eyes cut to the window and back to her. “I don’t give a damn what she thinks! But there is no way that I’ll allow her to find out anything about you. You are none of her business!”

  She took a deep breath. “Ugh!” she screamed as she exhaled. She heard wind whistling outside, but was too furious to even care about that.

  But not Adin. He took hold of her arm.

  “What are you doing?” she spat.

  “Follow me.” He led her to the porch. “Do that again.” His eyes were no longer mad, but curious.

  “Do what?” She said each word slowly and glared at him. He may be intrigued with what was happening with the weather, but she was still mad. While she glared, lightning lit the sky.

  “Take a deep breath and yell.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to see something.”

  “I’m not a science experiment!” she yelled, and the thunder got louder.

  “Just do it, Legacy!”

  She took a deep breath and screamed, “Uggggh!” Not because he asked her to, but because she was getting really pissed with the man.

  As she breathed in irritation, the wind picked up, and Adin smiled. “Did you feel that?”

  “Feel what?” She was still angry with him, but she noticed dark clouds starting to roll in. Crap. She should probably calm down before something—what exactly?—happened.

  “The wind. When you inhaled with fury, the wind blew toward you, and when you exhaled, the wind gusted away from you.”

  She heard the wind, but she hadn’t realized what had actually happened. “Oh.”

  She turned to walk back into the house. Whatever. She was just a little too irritated to analyze this. Adin followed her.

  She glared at him. Yeah, okay, she wanted to know. “Were you yelling at me about Venus because you wanted me to get angry?” she asked with her arms crossed. Pretty crappy thing to do, start a fight.

  “No. I am mad you talked to River about her. Especially since I didn’t talk to her about you.” Adin’s eyes softened. “But when you yelled and I heard the wind, it distracted me.”

  He seemed to be calming down. Not her. “Well, did anything happen with Venus that I should know about? You do have classes with her, so unless you completely ignored her, you had to have said something to her today.”

  Adin took Legacy’s hand and walked her back to the couch. Once they were seated, he brushed his hand across her forehead and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “I said very little, but there is something you should know.” He took a deep breath. “We’ve been assigned to the same study group.”

  “Oh, of course you have,” Legacy mocked.

  “Please don’t be upset about this.”

  “Well, I guess we could use that to our advantage.” She shrugged, trying to look at the very dim bright side.

  “I don’t like the sound of this.” Adin raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

  “We need to find out everything we can about her. Now you have an excuse to get to know her.”

  “Absolutely not!”

  She gla
red at him, shaking her head. Why was he being difficult about this? “You don’t want to help me?”

  “I always want to help you. What does Venus have to do with that?”

  “I think we need to find out everything we can about her, so we can be prepared for whatever she does. I don’t want any more surprises. If we can find out about her, then maybe we can avoid those surprises and keep her from doing any harm to us.”

  “That’s absurd!”

  “You’re the only one who thinks so. Calli and River both agree with me.” She knew mentioning River’s support was a low blow, but she really didn’t care.

  Adin’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look at her for long. He crossed his arms again and glanced around the room, avoiding eye contact. “Well, your best friends can help you with this crazy plan. I’m not.”

  She felt tears forming in her eyes. The one person who meant everything to her in this world didn’t support her effort to keep them together. It started raining outside before her tears even had a chance to fall.

  She saw Adin look out the window before turning toward her, but she didn’t look at him.

  He sighed. “Legacy,” he started, and rubbed her cheek. “It’s not that I don’t want to help you with this. I just can’t.”

  “Why?” she said as her tears fell.

  Adin wiped her tears away and coaxed her face in his direction. “Because I don’t want to be around her. I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. I know how much I hate River being in your life. Why would I invite Venus into mine? Even if I did it to get helpful information from her, we could still bond over that.”

  “That might not happen.”

  “But it happened with you and River. You started out by going to him for information and look where you’re at now. I know I told you I would be supportive of your relationship with him, but that I didn’t have to like it. And the truth is, I detest what’s happened between you two.”

  She nodded. “I know, and you’re right. I don’t have any right to ask you to get to know Venus.”

  “You have every right to ask me whatever you want. I’m not going to go along with this because I don’t want to take any chances that could hurt our relationship.”

  “Which is what you think I’m doing with River,” she whispered.

  Adin was quiet for several seconds before responding. Not that she needed him to. Deep down in her gut, she knew what he was going to say.

  “Yes,” Adin finally said. “I don’t think you’d purposely do anything to hurt us, but River is an entirely different story.” Adin dropped his hand from her face and clasped his hands together. “I’m sure he just loved the news about Venus.”

  “Actually, he got mad. He thinks his mother might be behind her showing up here.”

  Adin’s gaze flashed to Legacy. “It definitely has the markings of a monster. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by this.”

  She took a deep breath and stared into Adin’s eyes. “I understand why you don’t want to find out what you can about Venus from her, but do you mind if I tell you the things that I find out?”

  Adin turned the rest of his body in her direction and put his arms around her, playing with her hair. “I don’t mind. I want you to come to me about everything,” he whispered in her ear.

  She squeezed Adin close to her before releasing him. “So, how was everything else?”

  “Well, orientation was helpful.” He glanced at her, she guessed it was to make sure didn’t get upset about him mentioning that horrible week that changed things for them. “I didn’t get lost,” he quickly finished.

  “That’s good,” she said without any distress.

  “Zach and I have a class together.” Adin’s eyebrows furrowed when he mentioned Zach’s name.

  “What was that look for?”

  “Hmm?” He glanced at her with his eyebrows raised.

  “You looked like you were thinking about something when you mentioned Zach.”

  “I’m not so sure about him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t say anything to Calli, but it seemed like he was being a little flirtatious with the ladies in our class.”

  “Flirtatious how?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not like he was being too forward. But he did things like compliment them on their clothes, touched their shoulders when he talked to them, and did other small things.” Adin shrugged. “Maybe that’s just how he is. I’ve never been around him without you and Calli there. I just know that I wouldn’t act like that, so it seemed odd that he did.”

  “Maybe he’s just a flirtatious person. This is the south.” She smiled. “But if not, I wouldn’t be too worried about it. Calli told me the other day that she felt like their relationship had stalled.”

  “Well, maybe you should tell her then. If she feels like they’ve stalled, Zach may feel that way too. In which case, he could be on the prowl for someone new.”

  “Yeah, I should probably tell her.” No probably about it. She was going to tell Calli anyway, but she wasn’t going to tell Adin this. Calli was her best friend. If her boyfriend was eyeing new merchandise, then of course she’d rat him out. “Did you decide if you’re going to pledge to a fraternity?”

  “No, not yet. I think it’d be fun, but I’m worried it’d mean more time away from you.”

  “Don’t be silly. I’m up for college parties.” She laughed.

  “Well, it’s not all fun and games. I think they all do things for the community, sponsor charities, and host other functions. It’s a lot to consider since I’m still getting used to college life.”

  “That’s true, but I’m sure they’d help you with that.”

  “This is rush week, so we’ll see.”

  She looked at Adin and gave a half-smile. Her skin tingled and heart melted just a little bit more. It was time to make amends. “I’m sorry I told River about Venus. I didn’t really think about things from your perspective and I should have.”

  “I’m sorry that I got angry with you about that. I know he’s your friend.” Adin looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Then he looked back into her eyes. “I just wish he wasn’t.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry about that too.”

  Adin stroked her cheek and leaned his forehead against hers. “I don’t like being angry with you. It doesn’t feel natural.”

  “I don’t like it either.” She reached up and caressed his face between her hands.

  “I’m so sorry that I yelled at you. No matter how mad I was, I had no right to raise my voice.”

  “It’s healthy to fight every now and then.” She smiled, but he couldn’t have seen in. His eyes were closed. “It means we get to make up.”

  Adin put his other hand on her face, so now he was holding her between his hands, just like she was doing to him. “Making up sounds nice.”

  Adin gently nudged his lips against hers to coax them to part.

  Oh, they did.

  He brushed his lips along hers, breathing in her shallow breaths. “I love you,” he whispered against her lips. They were both breathing heavily into each other’s mouths.

  She slid her hands into his hair and inhaled his scent. “I love you too,” she exhaled.

  Adin breathed in the words that she spoke, and moaned as he kissed her. His lips were soft against hers as he kissed her slowly. One hand slid into her hair and his other hand slid down her cheek and her neck and continued along her side until he reached her waist. Then he slid that hand from her waist to around the small of her back. He pressed her up against him while he shifted his head in the opposite direction, not allowing the kiss to build. He kept control of himself and their kiss, keeping it soft and very sensual.

  Adin slowly pulled away and looked into her eyes. But she didn’t like him stopping. She kept her hands in his hair while she stuck out her bottom lip to pout. He chuckled while he kissed her protruding lip.

  “I need to go.”

  “Ahh,
do you have to?” she asked, rubbing her lips against his and massaging his head with her hands.

  Adin panted into her mouth and clutched her waist with both his hands. “This isn’t fair,” he whispered before kissing her again.

  She locked her hands in his hair and kissed him. She wasn’t as controlled as before, and she didn’t care if she wasn’t being fair. She ate at his lips like they were her last meal, taking him and his moans in as if those things worked in tandem to be her life support.

  Adin pulled away again. “I have homework,” he pleaded.

  “Ok-a-a-y.” She released him…reluctantly.

  She walked Adin to his car, and he kissed her again before leaving. Owning her with his touch.

  Oh yeah, the man had serious skills. She wondered how he was able to keep his passion banked when her body lit up like fireworks. She’d have to push his limits. The whole “taking things slowly” from the summer was over.

  She smiled as he drove away.

  Gods, I love a challenge.

  * * * * *

  “Thanks for cooking,” Lissa said as she came into the kitchen and tossed her briefcase onto the counter that same night.

  “No problem. How was your day?”

  “Hectic. Yours?”

  Varying degrees of good and bad. But she wasn’t getting into all that. “Fine.”

  “And how’re other things going?” Lissa gave her a knowing look. Legacy would have to be a fool if she couldn’t read what Lissa was asking about—her change.

  “I’m starting to notice when I’m causing the weather to change.”

  “That’s good. You need to be aware of that and learn to control everything.” Lissa cleared her throat and shifted in a nervous manner. “Have you heard from your mother again?”

  “Um, no. Why?”

  “Well, I, er, got a partial message from her, but it’s just gibberish. The only word I could make out was sacrifice.”

  “Sacrifice? As in like a virginal sacrifice?” Legacy squeaked.

  Lissa started, a chuckle escaping from her. “No. Nothing like that. But it seems like I’m getting mixed signals about your change, and now this. I’m not sure what to make of it.” She shook her head.