Sparkling Hope (The Eastburgh Devils Series Book 1)

I was already shivering all over.

It was a mix of freezing because of the rain, the cold November air, and the adrenaline pumping through my body because I still couldn’t quite comprehend what happened.

I never thought my Wednesday night would take such a turn.

Weston suddenly standing in the café after closing time and revealing his feelings to me was something I hadn’t expected and filled me with so many feelings of happiness and love.

The guy I swore to hate until I was dead was now standing before me with the same feelings for me, I had for him. The one who had been trying to sleep in on purpose for a week to offer to take me to campus.

But sometimes, the best love stories are the ones that come without warning.

I pulled the key out of the door lock, jiggled the shabby old door again to ensure it was closed, and ran back to Weston, who was waiting for me in the rain on campus.

I wouldn’t mind a white shirt on him right now, either.

‘What is it?’ I asked him when I saw him watching me as I ran back to him.

‘Have you ever kissed while it was raining?’

I shook my head.

Not a blink later, he took my cold cheek, which filled with tingling heat with the skin contact of his hand, and bounced his cool, wet lips on mine. With his other hand, he held tightly to my bag, which contained my things for college. My goosebumps flitted like a veil over my body as we kissed in the rain.

Suddenly, the heavy rain and chilly wind were secondary.

At that moment, it was just me and him.

Not a soul was to be seen far and wide.

Sparks erupted from our kiss and found their way between my legs and into my heart.

My nipples were hard, and I could feel them pressing against my bra. I couldn’t get enough of his lips and wanted to pull him closer until I smelled him. My breathing was rapid, and I felt the first raindrops make their way down my back.

‘I really hate to break this kiss, but I’m freezing,’ I breathed against his lips.

My lips felt numb, and my teeth chatter could be heard.

‘I have my car parked outside the rink.’

While Weston insisted on carrying my bag to the car, he grabbed my hand with his free hand, and we walked quickly to the car.

I leaned back as I sat in the passenger seat and waited for Weston to enter. He turned on the heater, and immediately, I felt the warm air on my skin.

‘Do you know how pretty you are,’ Weston murmured dreamily and turned his head toward me.

‘Am I?’ I smiled and leaned over the center console toward him.

Weston erased the inches between our lips.

‘So fucking pretty,’ he breathed against my lips and kissed me.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled him closer to me by the collar of his hoodie.

His hand moved under my sweater, and I felt him cup my breast with his hand.

I had never been as sure of anything as I was now. His tongue slipped between my lips, and I felt my heart racing and felt so arrived at the same time.

My hand traveled from his cheek, down his chest, and slowly to his crotch.

‘Do you know what you’re doing to me?’ he breathed as I broke away from the kiss and unzipped his pants.

My hand slipped inside his boxers, and I felt his hard dick.

With slow movements, I moved my hand up and down around his length.

‘You know we’re in the car in the middle of campus?’

‘Do you want me to stop?’

‘Please don’t,’ he breathed out, and I saw him swallow hard as he leaned into the seat.

My movements quickened as I pulled his dick out of his boxers.

‘Fuck, Luna.’

His chest heaved quickly and briefly.

I tried to look as inconspicuously as possible to see if anyone on campus was in sight.

No one.

It was dark, with only a few streetlights illuminating a small section of the campus.

So I leaned forward and carefully licked the tip of his dick with my tongue.

In my stomach, I felt a knot that would burst at any second, sending thousands of butterflies flying throughout my body, all the way between my legs.

‘God, damn it, Luna.’

My mouth took in his dick. I started sucking him and felt his hand on my neck.

Short, blunt sounds escaped his mouth the faster I got with my mouth. Weston grabbed me by my neck and pulled me close, giving me a short, rough kiss.

‘Look what else your pretty mouth is capable of,’ he breathed against my lips, and I felt his warm breath on my skin.

‘Did you like it?’ he murmured softly.

‘Oh fucking hell, Luna. If someone asked me what was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, it would be watching you go down on me and take my dick in your beautiful mouth.’

I grinned at what he said, and I felt how wet I already was the more intensely we looked at each other.

‘Now get on top of me and ride me, understand?’ he whispered in a deep, far too attractive voice.

I quickly got rid of my pants and shoes, which found their place on the floor in front of the passenger seat in the car, and scrambled over the center console.

Weston moved his hand up and down on his cock and pulled a condom from the center console as I was already squatting over him.

We watched as he took the condom wrapper from the package and slipped it over his length.

‘You know I’ve never done this before?’

‘What?’

‘This. Having sex in a car in the middle of campus on a Wednesday night,’ I said, taking his dick in my hand.

With my other hand, I pulled the fabric of my underpants aside and guided the tip of his length to my pussy.

‘There’s a first time for everything. I’m glad to be yours,’ he smiled, ‘and you know what?’

‘Huh?’

‘You’re my first time having sex in the car, too.’

‘Oh really?’ I grinned, meanwhile carefully lowering myself onto his dick.

Weston supported me with his hands on my hips. We watched as I lowered myself onto his length.

There was no feeling more pleasurable than this. I slowly started moving my pelvis up and down and propped myself up on his shoulders, and in the background, you could hear the heavy rain pattering on the car.

My neck rested in my neck as I felt Weston’s thumb on my clit.

‘Fuck.’

‘I love how wet you are.’

My movements became faster. I wanted more of the friction of his dick in my pussy.

Weston moved the driver’s seat back a little, and I propped myself up on his torso as he lay down.

‘You’re so fucking beautiful when you ride my dick,’ he said in his raspy voice, putting a dirty grin on his lips as he looked down at my pussy.

His movements with his thumb on my clit became faster, and I felt like I would collapse every moment while he was inside me because it felt so good.

My legs felt soft, almost numb, and I could feel the knot in my lower abdomen.

‘Don’t stop, please,’ I moaned.

He didn’t. He sat up straight and made more rapid movements on my clit. Weston put his free arm around my waist to support me, and my skin under his hand felt like sparks were exploding.

‘You feel so good, Luna.’

‘Fuck… I’m coming,’ I announced my coming orgasm, and I felt the knot in my lower abdomen tighten more. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my head in the crook of his neck.

‘Fuck, Wes,’ I whimpered, feeling the knot loosen and my orgasm moved through my body, and my pussy tightened around his length.

I didn’t stop moving up and down on his cock, and meanwhile, I looked deep into his eyes.

‘Fucking shit…mhm,’ he moaned, falling back into the driver’s seat.

Our breaths were quick and short, and I leaned into his lips while he was still inside me.

‘Now I’m hungry, too,’ I smirked against his lips and kissed him a moment later.

‘You always feel so fucking good, Hazel Bug,’ he grinned and kissed me on the forehead before I settled into my passenger seat and pulled my pants over me.

He parked the car next to the diner’s entrance near the highway, which was a little more secluded.

No other cars were in the parking lot, only Weston’s.

The diner was also empty.

Just an older gentleman wiping the tables. The rain was just as heavy when we were still having sex in the car in the middle of campus.

We quickly ran into the diner, hoping not to get too wet.

‘What can I get ready for you two at this hour? Rudy’s Special Burger?’ he asked happily.

I read through the boards of burgers and menus hanging on the wall above the counter while Weston already knew what he would eat and was already ordering.

‘I’ll have a double cheeseburger and a large order of fries, sir.’

‘What will it be for the lady next to you?’

I was still undecided on what to get because everything sounded so delicious. I would love to eat my way through the menu.

‘I’ll be in the restroom for a minute. Order whatever you want,’ he whispered and gave me a quick kiss on my temple, and disappeared behind a door of the guest bathroom.

‘I’ll have Rudy’s Special Burger and an extra portion of olives,’ I ordered as I read the extras.

My spit tightened in my mouth as I thought about the food because I hadn’t eaten since noon today, except for a cookie during my break at the coffee shop.

‘Good choice,’ grinned the old gentleman whose name tag read Rudy in red cursive.

He turned his back to me, put two meat paddies on the grill, and filled the fryer with fries before drowning them in the bubbling oil.

‘Weston hasn’t looked as happy as he does right now in a long time,’ he spoke as he turned back to me, wiping his hands on the towel on his shoulder.

I sat down on the bar stool with a dark red cushion. ‘You know Wes?’ I asked with interest.

‘Oh, yes, since he was this little.’ He pointed his hand up the height to his hip.

‘He helped out here during high school when his Dad wouldn’t help him financially with his ice hockey equipment.’

He didn’t make it seem like he was really excited about Weston’s Dad, but what was clear was that the two were all the closer.

‘Weston did his homework and later worked here, and now he brings you here with him.’

A smile spread across his lips as he placed the patties on the burgers and talked about Weston.

‘He’s a really great guy. Weston can be pretty difficult, but once he loves, he really does,’ Rudy wrapped the fries, burgers, and the small cup of olives in a paper bag.

I jumped down from the stool as Weston emerged from the doorway, and I grinned at him as he approached me.

‘Dinner’s on the house for both of you,’ Rudy said as he held out the bag to me.

‘At least take the tip,’ Weston asked him, but Rudy refused the ten-dollar bill.

Weston folded the bill in half and put it in the money box shaped like a burger before Rudy pushed him out the back.

‘Make sure you get home. Feel free to come by again,’ he called out as we were already standing on the steps, which were covered.

‘Thank you, sir,’ I held up the bag, and he grinned at me.

‘Keep my words in mind,’ he winked at me, and I nodded.

I will keep Rudy’s words in mind forever.

‘Keep her, Weston, and take good care of her. I like her.’

‘I will. I promise,’ he smiled, and I looked up at him.

My belly filled with so many butterflies that I could swear I had a whole zoo inside me, and my heart felt complete and fulfilled.

Can this be for eternity?

Just him and me.

We said goodbye to Rudy before quickly walking to the car and getting in.

‘What words should you remember?’ he asked curiously as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street.

‘Please, not the story where I accidentally spilled a milkshake on a guest?’

‘No, but thanks for mentioning it. Now I need to hear the story,’ I started laughing, ‘but how did you spill a milkshake on a guest?’

‘I stumbled upon their poodle who wore pink bows on his ears,’ he began to tell the story.

By the time we got home, he was telling about all his escapades that happened to him there at the diner when he had helped out to pay for his hockey equipment.

The entire house was dark when we arrived home, except for one room.

‘I’m going to say goodnight to my Mom,’ I whispered to Weston, who was already walking ahead with the food.

I gently knocked on the wooden door of my mother’s room and opened it a crack to stick my head through it. My mother was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard with a turban on her head and a book in her hand.

‘Hey, Luni,’ she glanced at the door and put her book beside her.

‘Hey, Mom, I just wanted to let you know that I am back.’

Something in my mother’s look was strange, somehow so tense.

‘Has Ethan talked to you yet?’

I looked at her confused and shook my head. ‘No, I was going to see him tomorrow, though.’

Something rattled behind my forehead. Ethan came by the café earlier, and we had agreed that I would visit him tomorrow because he would cook his famous pasta with salmon, and I wouldn’t let that pass me by. I was sure my brother had been a chef cook in Italy in his previous life, and to this day, it was a shame he didn’t turn his cooking talent into his profession.

‘Sit down for a minute.’

‘Mom,’ I said in a bit of a panic, ‘I’d better stay here.’ My Mom looked at me, confused at first, until I entered her bedroom, and she saw my soaking wet clothes.

‘Your Dad tried to call Ethan and me,’ she said.

Why not me?

That question immediately jumped into my head. Why did he try to call Mom and Ethan but not me?

‘I thought he had a new number.’

‘Seems like he did. That’s why we both answered since we didn’t know the number. Your Dad must have saved our numbers,’ she explained.

He didn’t memorize my number.

‘I go upstairs and change.’

I didn’t want the topic to ruin my evening, so I blocked out the conversation. Now that everything could be good again, my Dad returned from nowhere and tried to interfere in our lives by calling.

‘I just wanted you to know.’

‘Yup, thanks,’ I forced myself to smile at her, ‘good night, Mom.’

‘Good night, Luni.’

I let the door drop into the lock as quietly as I could.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to think about this right now. So many questions were forming in my head, and none could be answered without asking my Dad, hoping to get an answer from him. Except for one, because I could actually answer that question by myself.

Would I answer if he called me?

Yes.

It was still a strange feeling to live without him. My Dad was always by my side.

He had always tried to be the loudest one cheering when I had a competition.

Dad had always tried to recreate my brother’s homemade pasta when Ethan wasn’t around when I had the flu. Suddenly he was trying to contact us, and it felt like my past was catching up with me.

My life was here now.

I still need to find out where my future will take me but definitely not back to my hometown. Never again would I visit this city and this bridge where the car accident happened.

Upstairs in my room, I took off my shoes and put them in front of the warm heater while I put my winter jacket on the radiator so that it would be dry again until tomorrow. I winced when I saw Weston leaning against the doorframe of my door to the bathroom.

‘How long have you been standing here?’ I asked while pulling my sweater over my head.

‘Not that long, but I was still hoping to see you undress,’ he crossed his arms in front of his chest, and a dirty grin formed on his lips.

I threw my sweater at him. ‘You can wait long for that because your room has something delicious.’

‘I’m already standing here,’ he said wryly, and I couldn’t help but start laughing at his statement.

‘Give me five minutes to change, and then I’ll join you for dinner.’

My lips touched his briefly as I stood on tiptoe in front of him.

Being with him made me feel weightless.

The feeling of what Weston gave me felt so damn good.

‘Then you’re going the wrong way.’ Weston pulled me back toward him by my hand as I started to walk to my dresser.

‘My clothes are in that room,’ he pointed behind him with his thumb.

I followed Weston into his room, and we stopped in front of his closet, which, unlike his room, was very neatly sorted.

Weston rummaged around in his closet, looking for something appropriate for me among the shirts with the Devil’s logo and sweaters, pants, and socks.

I knew the college had a website for the swim and hockey teams with clothes for the teams, but that they had socks with the Eastburgh Devils logo and Weston had them in every color was new to me.

‘I still get to wear my underwear, right?’

‘I’m asking for it,’ he smirked.

Weston dug out a dark blue hoodie with the hockey team’s logo.

It said EASTBURGH DEVILS in capital letters, and around those words were two devil horns.

‘So everyone knows you’re mine,’ he pulled the sweater over my head while the hood covered my head.

‘Doesn’t everyone own some piece of Devil’s clothing?’

‘Yes, but not with an Eleven embroidered on the sleeve.’

Weston lifted my arm and showed me on the sleeve that there was an elf embroidered in the fabric of the sweater with yellow embroidery thread. I stroked my finger over it and looked at the neatly embroidered elf.

‘Lucy embroidered each Devil’s player’s back number on the hoodie with yellow embroidery thread,’ he began to explain, ‘some have it on the sleeve like Carter and me, others on the back or hem from the neck.’

‘I love that idea,’ I smiled, and he kissed me on the forehead.

Weston and I sat on his bed after changing into fresh socks and a pair of sleep shorts in my room, which you couldn’t see through the too-big hoodie anyway.

‘Why did Rudy put a package of olives in here?’ he asked in horror, looking at the little round can in disgust.

I took the little can from his hand, ‘because I ordered some.’

Nothing was better than olives, almond or not, pickled in vinegar or oil.

Olives could be eaten with anything, which only improved the dish.

‘You’re weird.’

‘You have no taste,’ I tried to justify my preference for olives.

‘I have excellent taste, especially in girls,’ he countered before biting into his burger, and I rolled my eyes playfully.

I never thought I would be eating burgers on the bed with Weston just before midnight and having to discuss my preference for olives, but Wednesday night couldn’t have ended any better.