Over the Hills and Far Away (NOLA's Own #1) Read Online Free

Technicolor.
    Holding back was no longer possible. I snaked my arms around his neck and pressed myself fully against him, my frantically beating heart against his own racing blood pump. My lips parted as his tongue swept into my mouth.
    Oh damn!
    He tasted like the sweetest piece of most epic wonderful.
    I never wanted this to end. I wanted to stay just like this for the rest of my life, tasting and kissing only him.
    Their manager pointedly cleared his throat, and with a frustrated, ragged sigh, Phil pulled back. We were both panting slightly, and a strange light glowed behind those warm maple-sugar eyes. He looked almost angry, and that look set me on fire .
    “Happy birthday, Baby Girl,” he softly said to me.
    Something in his eyes flashed fleetingly, an element of surprise and confusion.
    Just like that, he was gone. It seemed as though he’d taken the light and colors of the world with him.
    The three of us were left alone on the deck in the VIP area. It was so quiet.
    I turned to my two best friends whose jaws slightly hung open, and their wide eyes stared in complete shock.
    “That just happened, right?” I asked, my voice sounding hoarse and alien to my own ears. “Please tell me that just fucking happened.”
    “That just fucking happened,” Alys croaked.
    “Just to be clear, Phil fucking Deveraux just kissed me, shoved his tongue in my mouth, and wished me a happy birthday, yeah?”
    “Yeah. And he told you not to go anywhere. He called you Baby Girl, too,” said Lili.
    “Am I allowed to freak the fuck out now?” My voice was a strangled whisper.
    “How you haven’t already is beyond either of our comprehensions,” remarked Alys.
    Then, the three of us started screaming and hugging each other while we hopped like idiots around the deck. This naturally drew the attention of a bouncer, who promptly kicked us out of the VIP section.
    “No, seriously! Phil and X told us to wait for them here. They didn’t want us to go anywhere!” Lili protested.
    “Yeah, that’s what all you girls say.”
    “This is bullshit!” she snarled. “We aren’t lying! Go ask Jimi. He’ll vouch for us!”
    “Jimi went home already. It’s closing time, ladies. Everybody out.”
    The man actually escorted us to the door.
    Lili was fuming, stomping her way ahead of us to the car.
    “It’s okay, Lili, really,” I assured her even though my chest felt like it was being filled with lead with each step taking me further from Bougainvillea. “Either way, this has been the best birthday ever.”
    Lili whipped around, her little elfin face a mask of fury. “He wanted you to be there, Kenna. I just witnessed that man falling in love with you at first sight!”
    Turning on her heel, she continued her angry stomp to the car.
    “It was pretty intense,” said Alys. “But maybe it really is for the best. You don’t want to be like all the other chicks, you know? Getting fucked in the back of a van and then sent on your merry way.”
    “Utter bullshit!” shouted Lili.
    I snorted. “Yeah, this way I retain my dignity and self-respect. How could banging Phil Deveraux compare to that?”
    I sounded lighthearted and happy, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lili was right. I was walking away from an amazing man who, for some reason, had fallen in love with me. I felt like I’d lost a part of myself that I would never, ever get back. It was gone. It belonged to him now.
    “So…was that your birthday wish come true?” Alys asked me as we made it to the car.
    She clicked the button, and Lili threw herself into the backseat before slamming the door.
    The lead dropped to my gut, and instead, a hollow ache settled in my chest. “No, actually. It wasn’t.”



I would never forget the day I’d first heard Phil’s voice.
     
    Damn, it’s hot this summer.
    Alys, Lili, Jimi, Matt, Mike—Alys’s sort-of dude—Jaime and I were at a three-day music festival. A scrawny just-turned-fourteen Connor was with us, too, and he