Lust Next Door - S01 E38

Story 4 months ago

Lust Next Door - S01 E38

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 38

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While Serena laid in her bed, she had to replay the events of that night in her head to believe them. She laid there and listened to the falling rain outside as it thumped and slid down her window.

She remembered the anger building immediately when Connor saw Liam and her. The way he scorned at her, and promised threats in his eyes at him.

And then on the ice, everything felt off, people around her whispering. Wondering. She remembered how angry she was at him, and now that anger was replaced with guilt.

Did she have an imperceptible hand in this?

She winced her eyes closed when she remember their fists crashing down on each other. The blood. The blood shining in stark contrast to the beautiful white ice. It was jarring.

She had to look away at the rink, all she saw was flashes of blood against white tile and heard echoing of fist crashing down deep in her own bones.

She had ran to Liam, he was able to talk and said it was alright, but blood and swollen eyes mangled his face. The paramedics said he'd be okay, said injuries like this weren't serious, he'd at most have a concussion.

But Serena still felt bad. She dragged him down in her sinking ship too.

Serena sat up in her bed, gripping the fabric above her heart to ease the dull ache there. She really felt bad because all she could think about since she left the arena was Connor. She was worried, she knew Liam would be okay, but watching Connor leave that rink. Watching the anger mingled with blood decorate his features, and he didn't even look at her had hurt more than she thought.

She couldn't hear them before the fight, but she saw the movement of their lips. Watched their faces. And wondering what they said was eating her up inside.

Serena sighed and settled with the pain in her chest, glancing over towards her clock to see the flashing number.

1:11 pm.

A knock at her door followed by the clashing of broken glass made her jump still in her bed.

She turned towards her bedroom door, staring with wide eyes and a wildly beating heart.

There was another knock, followed by a familiar male voice calling her name through soft slurs.

Connor.

She jumped from the bed, forgetting the fact she was dressed only in a small t-shirt from her college she had cropped years ago and a pair of black booty shorts Serena used exclusively for pajamas.

She ignored the protests and anger in her heart, letting her worry carry her down her steps and to the door rapidly.

She peaked out the window along the side, making sure it was him through the textured glass. She saw his foggy image and instantly knew it was him.

Serena yanked open the door, taking in the clear view of him and what she saw made her wince. He was drunk, clearly drunk. He was leaning into the edge of her door frame for support, broken bottle of beer on her porch, polishing another off in his hand.

And his face.

Connor was wearing a hat concealing the dry clotted blood all over his features, a nice shiner splotching red and purple along his cheek bone along with a nice split there.

His lip was cut, eyebrow, and he was soaked head to toe from the down pour beating down all around them. But still somehow he stole the breath right from her lungs, seeing him, his deep brown eyes and the way his black t-shirt clung to his body. This time though, it was the way he looked at her, that made Serena utterly breathless.

The minute he saw her, his eyes ran up and down her body and a sad frown turned his lips down while something soft filled his eyes, "I couldn't go home."

Serena sucked in a breath and bit her lip, looking past him briefly at the rain coming down so fast it made the air look like static.

Then back at him, his words were lulled in alcohol and he smelt like it too. And damn he looked beat up, inside and out.

She pushed everyone one of her confusing emotions aside for the night, and grabbed his wrist. She pulled his unsteady self slowly inside and shut her door, flicking on the lights, the silence made every drip from his clothing onto the floor audible.

She could feel his gaze following her as she moved about her house wordlessly, she walked into her kitchen and stood up on her tippy toes to open a cabinet. She looked around for a second before finding her first aid kit. She heard a stumble behind her and she looked back at Connor as he fell into a large column by her door, his drunk sleepy gaze met hers and he hiccuped.

"Sorry." He slurred gently and continued to watch her, using the beam to keep himself up.

Serena placed the square kit under her arm and walked over to him, looking up into his bloody face she slid her free arm around his waist for a little support, "Walk with me."

He nodded and leaned some of his sloppily dispersed weight into her as they both walked past the stairs and down a long hallway.

Serena kicked open the cracked door to her library with her foot, making Mayo who was asleep on her desk trill and pop his sleepy head up.

"Pretty kitty. C'mere pspspsps " Connor mumbled drunk-like, the childish words sounding silly in his raspy voice. She almost laughed.

Connor was leaning more and more weight into her by the second, and the walk over to her cushioned window seat was becoming increasingly difficult. She grunted as her small frame started to crumble, she got just to the seat before she less-than-gracefully dropped him on the floor next to it.

She winced out a hissed curse, watching as Connor settled onto her floor and leaned back against the nook. She took this moment to flick on the old timey lamp sitting on the desk, grabbing a towel from the bathroom across the hall, and a small bowl of warmed water. She came back in and saw him there unchanged from his position before.

"Are you alright?" She mumbled and lowered herself onto her legs next to him, placing the first aid kit in her lap and taking this moment to examine his face. Under the tangerine glow of her office light, she saw the bruises and the cuts, but also the sadness underneath it all.

There was so much swirling in the air around them, so much they wouldn't say.

He groaned and shifted slowly to face her on the floor, the rain drumming echoes on the building that filled the empty noise all around them.

He tried at a sloppy smirk, stretching the raw split on his lip, "Never been better shortcake, mostly because of how you look in those little shorts." Connor slurred slowly, pain causing his face to wince after the smile.

Serena rolled her eyes and chuckled, "Just hold still." she picked up the small bowl of water and hand towel, dipping it in the water she slowly brought the damp edge to his face.

He watched her intently, the booze mixing with his cedar smell and the fresh rain that soaked him to make something pleasant filter into her nose, something nearly intoxicating. She remained focused on the dried blood, rubbing the cloth gently over his face to clean it off.

Connor winced in sharp breaths, his hand gripping into a tight ball on his lap, "That hurts. Fuck." He mumbled out curses.

"I'm sorry, I have to get your face clean before I tend to the wounds, it's gonna sting." Serena mumbled as she pressed the cloth into the wound on his cheek softly.

Connor's head bobbed around a little while he shook his head, "Thank god I'm sloshed then." He winced and looked at her, she could feel his intense gaze on her focused eyes as she worked, "I'm surprised you even let me in. I thought you might've castrated me at the door and left me to bleed out in the grass. Dick-less and soaked." His words fell out in messy tumbles, clearly unaware of exactly what he was saying to her.

Serena sighed, she had wondered why she didn't do that either. She was angry at him, oh there was no doubt about that. After the game, after the violence and the way he behaved she was more than just angry. But right now, under the darkness and haze of the rain, she was pretending they were different, better, people.

She spoke up as she nearly finished with the dried blood, using the dry side to remove the moisture on his skin, "Remember the first time we...ya know."

"Fucked." He said bluntly.

Serena felt her cheeks heat, "Yeah, and afterwards I freaked out and told you to leave. At the door I made you agree that that moment, that night we shared would be erased from existence the second the door closed. That it'd be left in its spot in time to fizzle out and fade from both our memories because that night was the first time we strayed from our routine, acted like different people, people who didn't hate each other. Do you remember?"

"Yeah." he mumbled through a liquor kissed breath.

"Well, this night will be like that too, so we can pretend we are different people without all the messy history. People who don't argue, and don't hurt each other, people who listen to the rain and clean the others wound." Serena filtered her gaze over to his eyes, and that's when she noticed the intimate proximity of their faces. She let out a gentle breath as they just stared at each other, her hands stilling on his face.

"Just for tonight." She finally added, before looking back at his wounds and trying desperately to ignore the slow throb of her heart, and not read into the way his eyes seem to widen with hallow sadness.

"You remind me so much of Skylyn Voss." Connor replied after the silence settled completely.

Serena immediately wanted to retreat, as soon as that name shined down on her, she want to cower. Run away and hide, but she remembered Melody's words, and their agreement for tonight. And for the first time in her life, she decided to remain standing under Skylyn's spotlight.

"The author? How so." She replied softly, welcoming the fast beat of her heart. She leaned over and flicked open the first aid kit, pulling out some ointment and bandages.

"I'll chalk how crazy this is gonna sound to the fact I have more alcohol in my body than blood right now, but it's the way you speak just like her. And it's not like your recite or quote her ever, cause' you don't, but its just the way you speak and I hear her tone from the books. When I read, I don't hear my voice in my head, I hear what I imagine the authors voice to be; reading their words to me. It changes from book to book, author to author, more masculine or feminine." He shrugged and his calloused scarred hands came up to tickle an electric line up her bare skin. His movements slow and so tender it almost left my skin aching. She had to focus hard on applying the cream to his wounds.

"And with Skylyn's book, I hear a voice so similar to yours. It's a bit startling, and it makes me yearn for more of your voice, every second or every day, I wanna hear your voice float from these lips." His hand reached up and cupped her cheek, rubbing the pad of his thumb across the crest of her parted lips. "So much so, that'd I'd even pick fights, tease you, and pester to be able to steal snippets of your voice and words wherever I can."

She stilled, the gentleness of his touch melted jagged edges in her, making that spotlight not seem so bright on her pale skin anymore. It wasn't exactly an apology for the way he acted, but it felt like an explanation.

Serena's eyes softened and her lids relaxed over her warm gaze while she listened to his slurred confessions

"I'm one selfish bastard when it comes to you, Rena." He frowned as he looked over every inch of her face, unspoken hesitance floating in his eyes with the longing, as if he knew more about why then he was telling. He just offered a wordless apology in the warm squeeze of his hand on her face, pulling her gaze to face him completely.

"I'm sure Skylyn appreciates her readers like you. Truly, I think so." Her eyes fluttered down to his lips, her heart a boundless throb in her chest begging for him to sweep her up in him and keep comforting her like he was.

Her gaze was a mute beg for him and he could see that. He slipped his hand into the back of her hair and guided her an inch closer to his lips, and immediately Serena was washed in a desperate sea of her own repressed emotions.

She felt tears prick behind her eyes, but she held them in, drowning herself in the way his kiss was slow and patient. Like he had all the time in the world to taste her, and find new ways their lips locked together. A pleasant suction magnetizing the gentle push and pull of their tongue.

Connor groaned softly on her mouth, he tasted like bourbon and spice, and it was warm. This kiss a stark contrast to all their others. The way his tongue dragged slowly on the tip of hers, playing with her taste, and his lips pushing gentle kisses where touched. It pulled on a fluttering place deep in her heart, brightened it and wakened the butterflies that slept there.

And finally they broke apart, staring at each others glistening lips under the orange glow of the light. This time Serena didn't do anything about the old fear thumping in her heart, she just sat with it, letting the protective slide of Connors hand around her skin ease it.

She let the understanding that once the sun rose, this moment would wisp away with the shadows, she let that comfort the incessant anxious part of her.

Finding solace in the beauty of this interim moment, with a version of Connor she might've allowed herself to love even after the wreckage Peter left her in.

She smiled shyly and turned back to his face, picking up small butterfly bandages to put over his cuts. A smile so huge had broke out onto his face, it wrinkled and stretched the wounds on his face making it so she couldn't apply the Band-Aids properly.

Serena sighed out a chuckled, "you have to relax your face so I can finish."

Connor only lowered his smile into his smirk, "What if I told you I didn't want you to finish? What if I said-" He moved closer to her, wrapping his strong arm around her torso to pull her flush to his chest, his voice lowered "that staring at your beautiful face, this close up, was the best thing that's happened to me since getting drafted in the NHL?"

His words spread an infectious heat through her whole body, warming an embarrassed blush to her cheeks. She swatted at him and pulled her eyes away from his dark gaze, rubbing one bandage gently over his cuts, "You're drunk and confused."

"Mmm, not remotely drunk enough to confuse anything about you, Rena." He purred cat like into the brush of her lips, she applied another bandage before his hands slid to her hips. With one strong motion he pulled her into his lap.

Serena gasped gently as her legs straddled his hips, a large smile filling her lips that his taste still lingered on. Regardless of the surprise, Serena settled deep in seat of his lap, pressed her abdomen to his.

She looked down at him and narrowed a look his way, "Hold still, you're moving around like a toddler with ADHD." Serena teased finally placing the last few closures on his wounds.

Once she was done she leaned back, staring into his drunk smiling, and much better looking face. She found the small white bandages all over his face endearing, they made him look like a sexy street fighter.

"There. Finished, feel any better?" She asked and placed both her hands on the sides of his face, rubbing her smooth fingers around tenderly over his bruises and covered marks. Not putting any restraint on her impulses to touch him tonight.

He nodded and rested his hands on her hips, "I used to do this for my little siblings when they were young little shits. Feels nice to get the treatment returned." He moaned and relaxed back into the wall.

At the mention of his family, Serena was surprised to feel the yearn in her heart to know more. The interest that sparked fervor in her heart made her eyes widen with interest.

"Siblings? How many do you have?" She asked freely.

Connor smirked, "you really wanna know how many Deluca's there are? You might faint."

"You're the one that suffered blood lost. I won't faint." She shrugged making him chuckle. He was clearly sobering up, his words were becoming clearer and his movements were more confident.

"I'm the oldest of six. There's me, Felix, Summer, Jett, Ariel, Willow, and the youngest is Honey."

"I'm sure you have dumb nicknames for all of them huh?"

"Duh, FeFe, Bummer, Jetpack, Little Mermaid, Will Smith, and Honey bun. I think everyone of my siblings hate them besides Honey." He talked about his family with so much love in his voice. It swelled Serena up with so much warmth, she couldn't help but smile.

"Tell me more."

Maybe she was the selfish one.

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