Brighter Than the Sun by Darynda Jones Read Free Book Online

go slack and her head starts to spin. She digs her fingers into my hair and kisses me deeper and I feel a warmth pool in her belly and between her legs.
    Our teeth clink a couple of times, but she doesn’t stop. Her other hand clutches my ass and pulls me into her. The movement is rhythmic as she grinds against me. A soft moan falls from her lips and I’m getting pretty into the whole thing, too, when the first girl practically drags her off me. Cool air whooshes between us. Yanks me out of the moment.
    She turns on her friend with teeth bared and claws extended.
    Her friend giggles and points to the dark one. “It’s Celeste’s turn.”
    She calms down and shakes her head as though coming to her senses.
    Celeste walks up, the dark one, her steps timid. She bites her lip, then says, “I don’t know if I can beat that.”
    I give her my best completely blank expression. “I bet you can.”
    A soft laugh escapes her. Then she refocuses on me. “How old are you, anyway?”
    “How old are you?”
    “Seventeen.”
    I raise a brow.
    “Almost. I’ll be seventeen in two weeks. You?”
    Part of me doesn’t want to tell her. She’ll be horrified. But part of me wants to know what she will do when she knows the truth. “How old do you think I am?”
    She lifts a slender shoulder. “At first I thought maybe eighteen, but now I’m thinking at least nineteen. Maybe even twenty?”
    “Why’s that?”
    “You seem very … experienced.”
    I nod. “You’re close. Today’s my birthday. I’m thirteen.”
    Yep. Horror. She steps back, her face the definition of stunned. The other girls are, too.
    “Are you teasing us?” one of the blondes asks.
    “I wish.” And I did. I would’ve left years ago. I would’ve found a way to take Kim and leave. But Earl has made sure I can’t do that. If I leave, he’ll kill her. If I take her with me, he’ll say I kidnapped her and make sure our faces are plastered all over the planet. If I don’t do what he wants, he refuses her food, then water, until I give in to his demands. If I go to the cops and he’s arrested, she’ll end up in a foster home or a children’s home. I’ve seen a lot of kids from those homes. Some of those places are great. Some are worse than my darkest nightmares. No way will I risk it.
    If I were older, though, I could figure out a way. I’d have more options. I’d be smarter. More cunning like the Road Runner.
    Celeste steps back to me. “I feel like we just molested a child.”
    I lower my head and look at her from underneath my lashes. “ You haven’t done anything yet. You aren’t forfeiting, are you?”
    I finally take one hand out of my pocket. Look at my watch. I have a little more time, so I loop a finger into the waistband of her pants and pull her toward me. She lets me. Leans into me. Parks her chin on my shoulder so I can whisper into her ear.
    “Show me what you got.”
    A thrill races over her skin. I feel it as strongly as she does. She accepts my challenge, but she doesn’t start with the kiss. She leans her forehead against mine. Lifts her hands to my hips. Eases them up under my shirt. Slides them over my rib cage. I pray that’s all she does.
    She falls almost immediately. Her huge gray eyes gloss over. Grow hooded. Intoxicated. Her breaths mingle with mine, and before she even kisses me, she runs her tongue along the seam of my mouth. It’s hot. She’s hot. Especially when she grazes her fingernails down my ribs and lowers one hand to my crotch. Feels the length of my erection.
    Heat swells inside her. Floods her abdomen and rushes down her thighs. She moves in for the kiss a microsecond before she is ripped off me. I see her stumble back, but I don’t move. The five high school kids standing around me convince me to tread carefully.
    “What the fuck are you doing?” one yells to Celeste.
    Her friends help her up. She is still … inebriated.
    Kim is standing behind one of the boys, her eyes wide.
    Three of them are