Fearless by Abby Brooks (best books for 8th graders .txt) 📗

with them—” Evie dissolved into giggles and I raised my brows. “What? Why are you laughing at me?”

“This is so not the kind of movie I thought the great Alexander Prescott would list as his favorite. That’s all. But please, do go on.” She waved a hand for me to continue.

“It was one of my mom’s favorites, thank you very much. She made Izzy and I watch it so many times when we were kids, I can still recite the lines. And yes, I even tear up when things get bad and George Henderson has to make Harry—that’s what they call Bigfoot…”

“Obviously.” Evie shook her head, giggling into her lap.

“Anyway, as I was saying, the Hendersons have to make him leave for his own safety. George is so mean and Harry is so sad, but he finally goes back to the wilderness, thinking the family he’s come to love doesn’t want him anymore.”

“Heartbreaking.” Evie did not look the least bit heartbroken. “I feel so much closer to you now that I know this.”

“I feel like I’m being made fun of here and I’m not sure I deserve it. You didn’t see Bigfoot’s expression when George Henderson tried to force him to leave by punching him in the face. He was so confused. So upset, but it was even harder on George.”

“Lord and Master, Sir Alexander the Glorious has a soft spot for quirky eighties movies about Bigfoot. I am so much better for knowing this.” Evie’s laughter triggered my own.

The conversation moved on as we discussed everything from the best hamburgers—Mike’s, obviously—to childhood fears and traumas. The more Evie opened up to me, the more I realized what a gem she was. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she finally asked.

“That’s what I do when I find something special. I analyze it from all angles and try to distill it down to its essence so I can understand how it works.”

“And just what is my essence?”

“You’re a lake in the mountains, so serenely beautiful it takes your breath away, with unexpected depths and life teeming beneath the calm surface.”

Evie’s face softened as she unclicked her seatbelt and shifted, grabbing my collar and pulling me close. Her lips brushed mine, delicate and soft. “Ready to do our cute couple thing?”

Unable to resist her lips, I kissed her again, heat building between us. “I was born ready,” I finally said, then grimaced.

“Let me guess. That sounded better in your head.” She laughed, then slithered her way into the back. “Come on, lover boy. There’s a magic hooha that could use some attention.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Evie

Alex joined me in the backseat of the SUV, his long frame devouring the space. I leaned back, my head against the cool window as his lips found mine, hungry and heated. His tongue caressed my mouth, sweeping against my own as my hips lifted to his.

“Fuck, Evie.” Alex’s voice whispered past my ear as his stubble raked across the skin at my throat. His hand snaked under my shirt, gripping my waist and pulling me closer, as if even a hint of distance between us was too much.

His fingers worked the button on my jeans, the hiss of the zipper mingling with the hitch of my breath as he slid them past my hips. Kissing me long and deep, he spread my legs, then shifted in the tight space, lowering his face to my cleft. One long, slow lick had my eyes rolling closed, my hand pressing to the chilled window. “Alex…”

His name was an invitation, a declaration, the pleasure he brought me with just one touch more than I ever dreamed possible. As I writhed, he sucked my clit into his mouth, his finger slipping inside me, stretching me, warming me. The intensity of the sensation had me trying to crawl away from him.

“Relax for me, Evie.” He blew a soft breath against my clit. “Let me show you how good you can feel.”

With one shuddering breath, I relaxed into him and the magic started once again. His fingers stroked while his mouth licked and sucked. My inner thighs grew wet and I panted his name. Over and over, again and again, a prayer, a lamentation, desperation and pleasure pulsing through me as my body responded to his.

“That’s right, baby. Come for me. Show me how good it feels.”

As if all I needed was his permission, sensation spiraled out of control. My body clenched and quivered and I gripped his curls in my fist, at once needing him to stop and never wanting it to end. When the bucking of my hips slowed, Alex lifted his face, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His gaze pierced mine as he freed his cock, the hard length straining towards me as I wrapped my hand along the velvet shaft, swirling my thumb around the crown.

“Fuck me, Alex. I need you inside me.”

With little preamble, he slipped on a condom and pressed himself against my entrance. I hissed a breath as he entered. With the first orgasm having barely receded, pleasure zoomed back through me, calling another to life as his pelvic bone met mine. A sharp thrust elicited a cry from me and a groan from him and then he was off and moving. My hips lifted to meet him as he braced himself on the window, condensation fogging the glass and dripping away from his heat. It was pleasure and pain, fire and ice, intensity layered upon intensity and I found myself muttering obscenities as my body succumbed to his.

Never before had it felt like this.

So right. So real. So…everything.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Evie

Snow started falling the first week in December, transforming my front yard into a glistening field of white, with a path of footprints connecting my door to Alex’s. His fingers had been glued to his keyboard nonstop since the writer’s block lifted. He’d surface for sex and most meals, then dive back into work. I took over caring for Morgan and Larry