His face was deadly serious, almost frightening in its ice-cold rage. He laid me back down and stroked my hair, which had fallen free from the elaborate up-do I’d worn for the ball.
“If he comes near you again, he’s one dead dog. I promise you that.”
Big, fat tears filled my eyes and slid down my cheeks. He wiped them away and pulled me into his lap, cradling me as a mockingbird started to sing above us. Shivers wracked my body, of fear and cold and excess adrenaline. He draped his jacket over me and held me, stroking my belly as someone set off fireworks on the east lawn. Voices rose in song—it was the fais do-do. The traditional goodnight song everyone sang when a party was over.
“Looks like the party’s done.” His voice and warm body were my whole world at that moment. There was no party. Just us and the big yellow moon.
I nodded and opened my eyes. Dark streaks and spots covered my dress—his blood. The blood from his split and bleeding knuckles.
“You’re bleeding,” I whispered. His hands were covered in blood. The metallic smell hung heavy in the still night air.
“That I am, ma cher,” He sighed. “I am so sorry about your dress. I’ll pay to have it cleaned.”
“To hell with that, Jack. You rescued me. The only problem is…”
“Your mother. I know. She won’t like the unpleasantness.”
How on Earth would I explain where all this blood came from? I thought as I bit my lip.
“Do you have your cell phone?”
“I think so… in my purse.” I looked around and saw it a few feet away. I wracked my mind trying to figure out what to do. She’d see the blood and I’d have to explain what happened… she’d flip out.
You’ll be ostracized! she’d say. I could hear her voice in my head, clearly. You lay a charge like that on Cash Jackson, you may as well be dead. No one in this town will mix with you ever again.
Jack stood up and dusted off his pants, then pulled me to my feet. He put his finger under my chin and lifted my face. His eyes smoldered in the low light, and I felt my heart flutter in my chest.
He loves me. He will always protect me.
“Text your mama and tell her you’re staying at your friend Dotty’s house. You can come home with me and we’ll sort things out. Alright?”
It was the only way. I fumbled with the phone, typing out the text and waiting for the reply. Folks were leaving, and I could see headlights flashing as they pulled down the driveway, catching the beards of Spanish moss and making them glow. We’d have to hurry, or we’d run into them.
“Okay… it’s done.” I slipped my phone into my handbag and zipped up the side of my dress. “We’d better hurry. Mother and Conrad will be heading out in a minute. We don’t want to run into them.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He scooped me up in his arms, and for a minute I was breathless and dizzy again. His arms were so strong and solid, like the earth beneath my feet. I knew he’d never drop me. “We’ll walk home.”
“Walk?” His house and shop were miles and miles away in Buford. “But, it’s so far.”
He smiled and stalked off into the darkness. Beards of moss trailed across my head as we walked down a deer trail in the woods. It was so still and silent. Peaceful. Wherever we were going, I knew I’d be safe.
“No, ma’am. It’s not far at all. The hunting cabin is right down here. We’ll stay the night and I’ll take you home tomorrow while your folks are out.”
The hunting cabin. I’d forgotten all about it. Memories returned of long summer evenings sitting on the porch, listening to Jack play his guitar while cranes stalked by on long, silent legs looking for their supper.
It stood on a little island with a packed-earth causeway connecting it to the mainland. I closed my eyes and let the smooth rocking of his gait lull me to sleep. It’d been such a long night. A dream that turned into a nightmare. Everything played again and again on the soft red theatre of my eyelids, making me cringe.
“Shh,” he whispered. He kissed my bare shoulder. “It’s all a bad dream, Cass. Just a bad dream. We’ll get you to bed. Give you a nice hot somethin’ to drink. You’ll be right as rain. I promise.”
A single oil lamp lit the cabin. It glowed in the window, piercing the blueish night with rays of amber light. A wave of gladness swept over me. I smiled. I was home. Inside was tidy and spare. Just a table and two chairs, a lamp, radio and bed. Oh, and a wood stove. Jack laid me on the soft feather bed and pulled the worn old patchwork quilt over me as he heated water on the stove.
“The cabin looks really nice,” I said as I wrapped myself up in the quilt. It smelled like pine needles and woodsmoke. “Have you been out here a lot?”
“Every weekend, when I can. There’s nothing better than being out here in the peace and quiet.”
He handed me a mug of hot cocoa and sat down beside me. He’d loosened his tie and undone the top few buttons of his shirt, showing his strong chest.
“Do you remember coming out here when you were younger?”
I blew on my cocoa and tried to tear my eyes away from his chest, but I couldn’t. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or the bourbon or what, but I’d never felt so drawn to Jack before. I smiled at him and took a drink.
“Of course I do. It wasn’t that long ago.”
He shrugged. “No, I guess it wasn’t. Seems like forever. Another time in another world…”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a yawn. The excitement and fear of the evening were weighing on me, and I felt my eyelids getting heavier. Jack took the mug from my hands and set it aside, then kissed me on the forehead as my eyes fluttered shut.
“I’m gonna wash up, baby. Sleep well.”
“I will,” I said with a yawn as I leaned back against the mound of pillows leaning against the headboard. “And thank you. Thank you again.”
He looked at me for a minute, a flicker of remembered rage playing across his features before melting away with a smile.
“You don’t have to thank me,” he answered softly as he stroked my cheek. “I’d do anything for you.”
Chapter 3
Dreams moved through my mind like a storm that night. Faces loomed up in the darkness—Cash and mother’s and Conrad’s—before fading to black. I turned around and around as wind ripped at my dress, pulling it to pieces until I was naked under the angry sky. I tried to cover up, but I couldn’t, I was laid bare where everyone could see me.
Invisible hands touched me all over, pinching my skin and pulling on my arms and hair as voices cried out.
She’s too fat…
She’ll grow out of it… or not…
Do as you’re told, girl…
You know you want it…
I was pulled down, down, down into slick, oily mud. It slithered all over my body, coating my skin in a blackish ooze. I wanted to cry, to run away, but I was stuck. The mud got warmer and warmer until it boiled me alive. It swallowed me as I struggled against it. It filled my pores and my mouth. My nose was packed with it. My mother’s voice rang in my ears, sounding tinny like an old record.
That’s how we got where we are today, Cassy. That’s how we became Petersons…
I woke with a gasp. Sweat beaded my forehead and back, and trickled down between my breasts. Rain lashed the cabin, pinging off the metal roof. Darkness filled the wood-paneled interior, which was lighted only by the reddish glow of embers in the wood stove.
“You okay, honey?” Jack’s voice was a touchstone in the darkness, a beacon calling me back from the brink of terror. I felt his arm slip over me, comforting me… and eliciting a deep, forbidden thrill that radiated from my core. My mind flashed back to a million steamy little fantasies I’d had about him, making me blush in the darkness.
“Yeah… yeah, I think so. Just a bad dream.”
I couldn’t believe he was in bed beside me. It seemed so strange and yet so natural. My heart skipped a beat as he pulled me closer and pressed my body into the warm cove of his flat belly. I realize
d with a sudden rush of embarrassment that I was wearing his flannel shirt, that he must have undressed me and put me in something more comfortable after I’d fallen asleep. He’d seen my chubby belly and thick thighs. My heavy breasts and the appendix scar on my side. I was mortified.
“No more bad dreams.” He kissed my hair and exhaled contentedly as I settled in against him. “Just good ones.”
My mind was racing. Feeling him pressed against me like that… well, it did something to me. I wanted to wriggle harder against him and press the whole length of my body to his. I wanted to be a woman for him. I wanted to know how to touch him, to feel him touching me.
That’s just hormones talking, I told myself. There’s no way on Earth it’s ever gonna happen. Just let it go.
Still, the way his hand lingered on my belly and the way he held me close told me he was feeling it too. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. It didn’t feel innocent; it felt like he was lying there awake too, thinking about me. I opened my mouth, but no words would come out. I was on fire.
“What is it, honey?” His voice was a rumble against my back. His hand shifted a little, scooting down toward the little fluffy paunch at the base of my tummy.
“Nothing… just wondering if you were awake.”
“I am.”
Wind rose outside, making the whole forest sound like an ocean. It felt like the safest place in the world, in that cabin, in his arms. With sudden clarity, I realized that this was what I wanted most of all. This was the only thing I wanted in the whole wide world. Not Cash with all his money and cars and his charming smile. Not a life of tea parties and debutante balls, mahjong and mint juleps. I wanted something simple. Something wild. I wanted Jack.
“Thanks for lending me your shirt.”
“Mmm.” He made a little moan by way of saying You’re welcome. “No problem, honey. You couldn’t sleep in that fancy torture device you were wearing. It’d strangle you like a weed.”
I smiled. It had strangled me like a weed. I slid my hand down and rested it on his, and I felt his fingers open up to mine, intertwining with them softly as my heart went pitter-patter in my chest. A wave of sparkling energy filled me up, that’s the only way that I could describe it. Like the thrill before going over a roller coaster, or the spark of a first kiss. His touch lit a fuse inside me.
“You’re so sweet.”
I sighed and pulled his hand further down my belly. He didn’t resist. He opened his fingers and I slipped mine further in, then he closed them up in his fist. His whole body shifted and he kissed my hair. Never have I ever felt so uncertain, like I was standing on the edge of a cliff looking off. I wanted to throw myself off to see if I could fly, but I didn’t want our relationship to hit the ground and break apart.
“You make me sweet. I’m a bad man.”
I could hear his smile in his voice. He was teasing.
“Not so bad.” I brought his hand up and kissed it, then set it to rest on my chest. I was sure he could feel my heart pounding as he slid his hand down and rested it on my breast.
“Pretty bad.”
Oh my god! Oh sweet Jesus! Heat melted into me where his palm pressed against my breast. His fingers moved oh-so-slightly. He stroked me and ran his thumb over my nipple, making it stiffen. My eyes clenched shut as the intense zinging sensation washed over me. I can’t believe this is happening. It must be a dream…
“Cassy…”
His voice was so soft and sweet, it was like caramel in my ear. My eyes fluttered shut. He filled all my senses. His touch and heat gave me goosebumps; his scent enveloped me like a cloud. The sound of my name in his mouth made me envious; I wanted to be that word, to melt on his tongue.
“Jack,” I answered back because I didn’t know what else to say.
Saying his name let him know that I knew it was him, that I acknowledged our past, that I knew what I was doing, that I wanted him. I wanted him so bad, it hurt.
I turned my head and saw him staring at me in the dim light, his eyes blazing. He brushed a strand of hair off my face and ran his thumb along my cheek.
He made me forget about the blemish I knew was there. He made me not care about how I looked. He became my mirror and I saw how beautiful I was to him in his expression. I saw love—and desire.
It seemed like a million years between when our eyes locked and when his lips found mine. I was shaking like a leaf, overcome with what was happening, but it all faded away when his lips brushed against mine. It was just a soft touch, the softest graze. I shuddered and ran my lips against his, opening them up, letting our inner heat mingle.
What had been soft and sweet turned ferocious and hot in an instant.
“Tell me to stop, honey,” he said with an anguished look on his chiseled face. “Tell me this is wrong…”
“No.” I pulled him close and opened my legs as he tumbled me over on top.
I felt his hardness against me for the first time, pressing against my mound as hot honey spilled from me. I hadn’t quite realized how turned on I was, but it all came rushing out in a flood of sticky juices.
“I want you. I want you so bad.”
Daddy. I said it in my mind, that one little word that could break this all apart. It was so wrong… so wrong. But nothing had ever made me feel hotter. Nothing had ever made me so turned on in my life.
“Damn,” he uttered, but whether from desire or tortured feelings, I didn’t know. All I knew was the feel of of his hands on my skin and the strength beneath his gentle caress.
Our lips dissolved together as his hands explored every inch of me, sliding over my curves and dipping down between my legs. When he felt how wet I was, he groaned and lifted me up, tumbling me over as he pressed between my legs.
“Yes,” I murmured softly as his lips blazed a path over my breasts and up my neck. He was feasting on me, devouring me softly. “Mmmm, yes…”
He was so big and strong, he could do anything he wanted with me, but it didn’t scare me like it had with Cash. I relinquished myself to his power, letting it override my senses. I trusted him. I knew he’d never hurt me. I wanted him to show me everything. I wanted him to teach me things.
“Oh, Cass,” he murmured as he unbuttoned the flannel shirt he’d given me. Out of reflex, I tried to cover myself and pull the shirt closed, but he pulled my hands away. “Let me see you.”
It was a command. I obeyed, although I turned my eyes away at first. I couldn’t bear seeing myself naked in that moment. When I heard him growl with lust, I looked.
His eyes blazed with lust as he devoured me with his gaze. My eyes followed his over the swell of my heavy breasts and down my soft, fluffy belly to my thick thighs. For the first time I saw his cock tenting his boxer briefs. Instinctively, I reached out and wrapped my hands around it, stroking it through the fabric as he clenched his eyes shut.
“Do you like that?” I asked.
I was a virgin… I didn’t know.
He nodded and smiled, his lips red with lust.
“It’s perfect, honey. God, that feels good. So good.”
He guided my hand, and I recalled all the times I’d touched myself while imagining him. But this was real.
I guided his hand between my legs, pressing it against the sopping wet fabric of my panties. His eyes went wide and he leaned over me, kissing me as his big, strong body covered mine.
“You’re so wet, baby.”
He pushed aside my panties and touched me for the first time, there, on my bare slit. I gasped and bit my lip, riding the intense wave of pleasure his fingers brought me. I felt him watching me as he parted the soft lips and slipped a little deeper, in where the folds gathered around my clit.
I dug my fingers into his shoulders to keep myself steady as he stroked my clit, sending a wave of pure energy through my body.
“God, you’re so soft,” he whispered as his fingers plied the velvety folds between my legs.
“Don’t—don’t stop,” I begged as he strummed the stiff littl
e pearl between my legs, bringing me such intense pleasure I almost couldn’t handle it.
He gently pinched my outer lips together over my clit and massaged it. I cried out and arched off the bed, it felt so good. He kissed me deep as he touched me, as I stroked his cock. I could feel the wetness spilling out of him, and smell its subtle musk. We moved together in rhythm, touching each other as rain battered the roof.
He lifted my hips and tugged my panties off, tearing the delicate lace fabric with his strong fingers. He held up my hips as if they were nothing and looped my legs over this shoulders.
This is really happening, I squealed inside as he buried his face between my legs and ran his warm, soft tongue along my slit.
“Oh… oh my gosh!”
I gasped as he started to lick and suck and kiss me. When his tongue found my clit, I thought I’d lose my mind, it felt so good.
Blood rushed to my head, dizzying me as his tongue found its rhythm. The soft tip of his tongue went stiff as it swirled around and batted my clit, making me gasp and moan. It was so intense, I wanted to pull away, but he held me in place with his strong hands and his intense gaze.
“Is that good?”
His voice sizzled in my ears as he lowered me down and grabbed my face, kissing me deeply. I could taste myself on his tongue and lips. My smell was imprinted all over him.
I nodded as he pinched my nipple and bit my neck. He was celebrating my body, worshiping it. I never wanted it to end.
“C’mere then.”
He pulled me beneath him and I opened my legs to him, pulling him between my thighs. His cock stood thick and tall when he pulled it from his boxers. It filled my hand, overflowing my palm as I stroked it.
“I want it… give it to me…”
I was frantic. My whole body pulsed with lust. He was the missing piece, the thing I’d wanted all my life. All thought of Cash, of that childish obsession, were burned from my mind in the heat of the moment, cleansed away by him—by Jack.
He sank into me with a moan, sliding past my tight virgin constraints and deep, deep inside me. The hot, sharp sting of losing my virginity dissipated in a flood of pleasure. Heat surged through me and I cried out. My clit pulsed as he bottomed out and hit some exquisitely sensitive spot deep inside me.
The Debutante Page 3
