Author disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. This is solely a work of fan fiction written for entertainment.
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Reckless Heart
Chapter One
It was ridiculous, really, the giddiness that glided under Lily's feet and swept her to her car like a magic carpet ride. Maybe not ridiculous for your average 19-year-old, but she was anything but average, and the man she'd fallen in love with was like the rarest gem: multi-faceted, darks and lights and breathtaking, iridescent beauty…
"Ugh," she muttered to herself, slipping the key into the ignition with trembling fingers. Even Colleen would gag if she could hear the lovesick poetic thoughts spinning through her best friend's Swiss-cheese brain.
But he'd called. He'd called in the smack-dab middle of what should have been a very romantic night with another woman…he'd called with the lamest excuse Lily had heard from any guy--something about a song--sounding sweet and smooth and nervous all at once. He'd called, and the ageless female in her knew why. And suddenly, she couldn't control the direction her car was taking, or the speed with which it accelerated, or the amount of yellow lights it slipped beneath as she steered the sedan across the sleeping suburbs of Genoa City, feeling helpless and breathless and mindless all at once.
What was the worst that could happen before this was all over? He could say no. Pat her on the head, spin her around and send her home. She wouldn't die. It would sting, but it wouldn't kill her.
Okay, yes, it would kill her. Kill her dead. Her woman's heart was tender in its youth, her ego even more so. But nothing had happened yet; she could still hit the brakes, turn around, and head home to safety, away from the looming improbability of this fledgling love affair, away from Cane and that soft, hungry mouth of his.
Lily uttered a strangled groan and turned onto the winding road that led to the mansion where he lived. Being nineteen had its up-sides, she thought, her palms gone damp on the steering wheel. For example, this penchant for being a reckless fool when it came to relationships. She never could have made it this far tonight without that crazy recklessness. She didn't know the meaning of playing it safe, that sense of caution that came with age and experience and pain, pain, pain. Right now, even if the voice of reason could have broken through the miasma of desire fogging her senses, she would have ignored it and kept right on going. After all, her destination was in sight, and it stole her breath with its ambiguous promise. The lights of the mansion sparkled through the trees, beckoning pinpoints that told her in all likelihood, Cane was awake, and maybe even in the same state of restless want that had sent her to his doorstep.
But what would he say when he saw her? The thought of what he might do—in either direction—half-terrified her. Beneath his sweetness, his gentle humor and politeness, simmered some kind of searing sexuality that Lily had only caught hints of. It was his moonlight to her luna moth, and now, pulling into the mansion's wide circular drive, she imagined herself with wavering wings, doubtful and tremulous and drawn to the heat on the other side of that huge doorway.
God, what if he was sound asleep and Jill answered the door? Or worse, Katherine? What excuse would Lily possibly produce for her uninvited presence?
She didn't have to think for long. When she turned off the car engine and reached for the door handle, her gaze strayed to the mansion's entry again, and her heart stuttered.
Cane stood in the open doorway, a silhouette against the golden glow behind him.
Heat flushed through Lily and turned her knees to liquid. Yet somehow she managed to climb out of the car, meet his shadowed gaze over the sedan's roof, and say, "Hey there."
Hey there. High-casual. Like she showed up in guys' driveways at two in the morning all the time. If she hadn't been gripping the edge of the car roof, she would have puddled to the ground, a boneless mass of mortification and hapless desire.
Cane pulled the door up behind him and started across the driveway to meet her. She couldn't quite read his expression, for the planes of his face were cast in shadow. She didn't know what to do. Shut the car door and round the hood to meet him? Stay where she was in preparation to make a quick getaway when he asked her what the hell she was doing there? Close her eyes and wait for the axe to fall? Yep, that was it. She pressed her forehead against the chilled edge of the car. Listened to his footsteps on grit and brick drawing closer.
He stopped beside her, the only barrier between them the open car door.
"It's two in the morning," she told him, before he could say it.
"Oh?" He spoke lightly. "I hadn't looked at a clock."
"You probably wonder why I'm here."
He was gripping the car door; she felt it sway a bit without opening her eyes. "I have to admit, Lily, it does pique my curiosity."
Lily wanted to cry. She kept her eyes squeezed shut against the threat of tears. "Your mother and grandmother will think I'm an idiot."
"They went to bed hours ago. It's a big house, they can't hear a thing." His touch came lightly at the base of her neck. He had such a way of soothing her and setting her on fire at the same time. "You're hiding."
"Wouldn't you?" she retorted, and braced herself for his laughter, but it never came.
"Come out from behind that car door." He gave her no choice when he gently caught her arm, drew her away from the sedan and closed the door. "Come with me."
She felt like a petulant child being led by a patient hand, but only until they reached the flagstone stoop and the frail porch light fell across his features.
The look on his handsome face was bewildered, delighted, tender, hopeful…but not fatherly. The years separating them vanished in an instant, and all that remained were two adults who both wanted the same thing.
Oh, God, Lily, she thought, following him into the house. Good or bad, you're in this for sure.