Finding Katherine (Katherine Series: Book One)

by Kaitlin Summers

  When he was finished, he simply rolled off and put his clothes back on. It was only then that Katherine realized that the thoughtless stranger had not used a condom. She was on the pill, but still, who knows if he had any horrible diseases or not.

  He did not seem like the kind of guy who spent weeks wining and dining women, if he had slept with her after just a few short hours of knowing her - how many others had he done it with?

  "I walk you back hotel room." he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her up after she had put her dress back on.

  At least he was trying to act like a gentleman now or maybe he just wanted her out of his room as quickly as possible. She agreed and he walked her back in silence to her room, the drink was wearing off and Katherine was starting to feel numb and a little sore downstairs.

  "If you want do again...I down on the beach every day." He said harshly slapping her ass, before walking away.

  Wow, what a charmer!

  The next morning Katherine awakens still in her clothes from the night before as the evenings events play over in her mind. Her head pounded from all the martinis she had been drinking at the bar and she was thoroughly shocked at herself that she had a one night stand with somebody whose name she did not even know.

  She found herself not only ashamed at what had happened but thoroughly frustrated with the lack of passion that occurred.

  Having sex without experiencing an orgasm was a little like going to a restaurant and leaving before the main course arrived. Being unsatisfied left her hornier than she started. She stripped down and had a painful masturbation session in her cool white sheets. After a little struggling of not only getting the bar tender off her mind, but Tony as well, she managed to get herself off.

  Her fingers were no substitute for a skilled man however and now feeling a little more confident about her future, she couldn't wait to see what was out there for her.

  Chapter 3

  Jacqueline comes bursting into the hotel shortly after Katherine wakes from her slumber, beaming from ear to ear.

  "Someone had a good night." Katherine says trying to push her own embarrassing encounter to the back of her mind.

  "Oh my god, good doesn't cut it - Juan is amazing, we were AMAZING!"

  Katherine raises her eyebrows, "Really, how amazing?"

  "He was so attentive and loving on our date. He paid for the most beautiful meal at the beach and made me feel like such a princess. We danced under the stars for hours and he gave me a full body massage back at the hotel. After that, well let's just say that he completely rocked my world! It was the best date I've ever had and the best sex come to think of it."

  "Sounds amazing."

  "Oh, it was. He's so good with his hands and knew exactly what he was doing! We made love by the fireplace, in the shower, on the kitchen worktop and even..."

  "I get it." Laughs Katherine, cutting her off. She did love her friend but she couldn't help being inconsiderate at times.

  "Jeez, I'm sorry Kat. What did you do last night?"

  "I just stayed in the room, watched some TV and had an early night."

  "We'll have an amazing day together today, I promise. I hear there is an event tonight sponsored by the hotel, it's meant to be great fun. I'm just going to grab a shower Katherine, I'm still all sweaty" She giggles.

  After several hours of trawling beaches, landmarks and shops - the friends finally stop at a restaurant to sample some of the local cuisine. Katherine's thoughts can’t help but stray to the occurrence of the night before and she keeps going off into her own world.

  "Are you checking out that waiter?" Jacqueline asks as Katherine stares straight ahead.

  "What? No, of course not! When are you seeing Juan again?"

  "Well, I've got his number but I don't want to appear too keen, y'know?"

  "Gotcha. I could do with meeting my own man to sweep me off my feet but it isn't going to happen."

  "Why not?"

  "I'm not like you Jac.." Katherine says, "You’re gorgeous, confident and funny."

  "You're beautiful and funny. Confident, not so much but that can be worked on. You shouldn't put yourself down so much, all that's holding you back is yourself."

  Katherine inhaled as strong hands fondled her body from her hips up to her breasts. She tingled all over as the mystery lips kissed up her legs and fingers fumbled with the zipper on her shorts.

  "Mmm"

  She awakes startled to find herself on a sun lounger the other side of the island and Jacqueline poking her in the arm.

  "Having fun?"

  "What?"

  "You were making sex noises in your sleep." Jacqueline laughs.

  "Shut up!" Katherine blushes.

  "I made enough sex noises of my own last night to know what they sound like."

  "I get it Jac, you got laid last night - do you really have to mention it every 10 minutes?"

  Jacqueline affectionately pokes her tongue out at her friend before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up.

  "Come on, that event is in a couple of hours, we need to get back and make ourselves smoking hot."

  A few hours later and the girls are sat downstairs in their hotel on a table with six other vacationers. Katherine is dressed in a cute floral all in one play suit while Jacqueline opted for a sexy but safe little black dress. The event put on by the hotel is made up of music, complimentary food and drinks and several fun games that have been going on throughout the night.

  Katherine is rather irritated by the fact that everybody around the table appears to be in couples. There are a Gothic man and woman seated next to Jacqueline who have practically been mating on the table in front of everyone. There is a Mediterranean couple who are gently holding hands across the table. There is a man sitting next to Katherine who is very good looking but he appears to be with an equally good looking woman, who he has been making conversation with during the evening.

  Jacqueline yawns to Katherine to show off her boredom before heading for the bar and collecting a whole tray filled with shots. "Just what we need to get the party started." she shouts at the rest of the table, "Help yourself guys."

  The Gothic couple seems not to hear and continue to shove their tongues down each other’s throats. The couple opposite politely take a shot each.

  Katherine turns towards the twosome next to her, making eye contact with the man. "Shot?"

  His gentle eyes catch her gaze for longer than what is necessary and he nods before turning to the woman next to him.

  "Sis, you up for a shot?"

  Sis? Yes, she isn't his god damn wife - she's his sister, Katherine thinks to herself. Jacqueline hands over some shots and they both down them immediately.

  Katherine catches the man’s eye again and takes the opportunity to introduce herself. "I'm Katherine."

  "Hey, I'm Jack" he answers, shaking her hand firmly. His warm grip shoots a bolt of electricity through her as she begins to lose herself in his ocean blue eyes.

  "Stacy." says his sister, leaning over to shake her hand which forces Jack to let go. Katherine politely shakes her hand before introducing them both to Jacqueline too. Jacqueline leans into Katherine and whispers "Cute."

  "Keep your eyes to yourself, Juan would not approve and neither do I."

  Jacqueline giggles, "Don't worry, it seems like he only has eyes for you."

  Katherine and Jack spend much of the evening chatting with each other to the point where Stacy and Jacqueline start to get annoyed and move to sit next to each other so that they can talk too. The whole room seems to vanish to Jack and Katherine, as they communicate as if they have known each other for years.

  As more and more free drinks flow, the couple become even more comfortable with each other and lots of gentle flirting signals start between them. They are sitting so close that they could almost be on one another’s laps. Jack gently touches her arm or leg occasionally when talking to Katherine. It is not done in a sleazy way at all and it feels for both of them, like the most n
atural thing in the world.

  As the night goes on, Katherine can hardly even remember her ex's name and is quite annoyed when a man on stage interrupts the comfortable conversation by announcing a game that is about to take place.

  "Ladies and gentleman, we are going to play a fun little game that is all about showing off your dance moves. We are going to pick out 20 people from the crowd to compete with one another and only one can be crowned the winner. The winner will receive one free week’s stay at our resort.”

  The whole place seems to erupt with loud cheers. You can feel the excitement and electricity in the air. He continues, “The contestants will need to do their best to mimic some dance moves of some of the locals here in the Bahamas."

  Katherine scoots down in her chair, praying not to be picked - something like this would be her worst nightmare. People go around the room picking out people to compete and Jack is one of them. He reluctantly stands up. It’s the first time Katherine gets a peek at his whole body, as she eagerly looks him up and down.

  He appears to be tall, which Katherine loves in a man, muscular but not so muscular that he looks like a hulk like obsessed body builder. He is dressed well with a white shirt and a pair of smart pants.

  The contestants go the stage and Katherine can see that there is a pretty even mixture of both men and women preparing to dance. Jack is the only one who was chosen from her table. Some music begins to play that has a great beat to it and Katherine notices how well Jack is moving to the music.

  Trying his best to dance to follow the locals, he definitely outshines the competition. The 20 competitors are cut down to 10. Another song plays and those 10 are cut down to 5 and finally 2 - Jack and another man.

  Katherine's table whoops and cheers for Jack, especially herself and Jacqueline - as he cheekily grins in their direction from the stage.

  The man organizing the event approaches both men going over to the other guy first.

  "What's your name?"

  "I'm Shaun and I'm from Vegas baby!"

  The audience cheer as the man asks him a couple more questions before turning his attention to Jack.

  "Who are you on vacation with Jack?"

  "I'm with my family and I've met some great people here tonight." He says, looking squarely at Katherine who is watching from the crowd.

  The last song plays and Jack and Shaun both get ready to dance. The local jumps way up in the air and does a swan dive right down to his chest as a part of the next routine that Jack and Shaun need to repeat. Katherine is nervous. Can Jack pull off something like that?

  Jack goes first, which gives Shaun the advantage. Jack jumps up way in the air and comes down every so softly into a perfect swan dive. Katherine and Jacqueline jump out of their seats and scream for Jack. They are both thoroughly impressed.

  Although they both put on an amazing performance - Shawn seems a little more fluid. A winner is declared based on who the crowd cheer the loudest for. To Katherine both sets of cheers seem exactly the same. Shaun ends up walking away with a trophy and a free weeks’ vacation though.

  Jack comes back to the table breathing heavy and a little disappointed. Everyone at the table tells him what a good job he did. Everyone feels wide awake after the competition and in the mood to have fun as some more music plays through the room.

  "Would you dance with me" Jack asks Katherine, holding out his hand. "I am the second best dancer you will find in the Bahamas after all."

  She laughs and grabs his hand as he spins her onto the dance floor. Yet again everyone who is around seems to dissolve into nothing as Jack moves his arms around Katherine's waist and they dance together to the beat of the music. Their faces become closer together as the music softens and they look into each other’s eyes anticipating what is about to come next.

  "JACK!" A voice shouts over the microphone. They stop their dancing and the man calls out again, "Jack from the dance competition, get up here - we have a little something for you."

  Jack proceeds to walk to the front of the room and onto the stage where the man running the event, presents him with an envelope.

  "You did such a great job in the competition Jack that we all feel that you deserve more than a runner up pat on the back. That is we would like to give you two tickets for a free stay back in this beautiful resort anytime within the next year."

  The crowd cheers with applause and Jack becomes humbled as he genuinely thanks the organizers of the event before joining Katherine and the rest of the excited vacationers in the room.

  Chapter 4

  A short while after the dancing competition finishes, the event comes to a close and the merry vacationers leave the room and go back to their own lives. Jacqueline, Katherine, Jack and Stacy leave together before Jacqueline pulls Katherine to one side.

  "Katherine, Juan just texted me to meet up. Do you mind if I go?"

  "Of course not, go get your massage man." Katherine giggles as Jacqueline hugs her and speeds of.

  "I'm going to go back to my room, I'm beat." Stacy yawns.

  Katherine and Jack say their goodbyes before they are left in the lobby of the hotel together. Following a few seconds of silence, Jack says "Do you want to do something?"

  Katherine's heart jumps into her throat as she queries the possibilities to Jack's question. Eventually the twosome decides to visit a casino that is located right next to the resort. Katherine is not much of a gambler but agrees, desperate to spend as much time with this man as possible and not really caring about what that entails.

  Since Katherine isn’t much of a gambler, she decides to play the nickel slot machines. Neither one of them is really paying attention to the game. They are paying much more attention to each other. Drunkenly giggling, Katherine feeds the nickels into the machine when it unexpectedly lights up and music begins to play.

  'CONGRATULATIONS' shows up on the machine and Jack picks Katherine up and swings her around.

  "You won, you won the jackpot! You've won thousands."

  Katherine screams as Jack releases her and jumps up and down on the spot. The machine spews out more nickels than the both of them have ever seen and they begin to fill up buckets with them. They manage to fill about 10 buckets and take it to the counter clerk to have it changed. It is then that they realize, Katherine has only won $150. She has won thousands of nickels. LOL.

  "I guess my new car and villa will have to wait." Katherine laughs returning to Jack and they decide to go for a ride on Jacks moped. He wraps his leather jacket around her shoulders as the night is getting a little cooler and she is still in the thin play suit from earlier in the evening.

  With Katherine's arms tightly folded around Jacks waist as he drives her around the streets, she can't help but smile to herself. Who would have thought that this time the previous evening, she was crying herself to sleep after an upsetting encounter with a rude stranger?

  She buries her head into his t shirt, inhaling the smell of his cologne. Not knowing if this will go anywhere fills her with dread but the spark that is evident between them makes her excited and happy.

  Jack finally stops his moped at a local beach, they jump off and walk towards the sandy shore.

  For the first time since they have met, there is a soft silence between them when neither of them know what to do or say. This makes the sexual tension even more evident than it had been previously as they stand on the deserted beach, close enough that they can feel one another’s breath.

  Jack leans himself down onto the sand, so he is almost laying down and stretches out his arm for Katherine to snuggle into, to which she obliges.

  "Tell me about yourself." he says.

  "What do you want to know?"

  "Everything."

  Katherine laughs, "That could take a while."

  "I've got the time."

  "I'm a computer programmer. I work for a high tech company in Boston."

  "Well look at you, I know who to come to if my computer needs fixing." laughs Jack "So you live
in Boston huh?"

  "Yes, how about you?"

  "Washington. I'm in the CIA."

  "Oh my god and you thought my job was impressive, that's amazing."

  "It's hard work but very rewarding." answers Jack.

  The conversation flows for hours with both of them feeling so confident and happy with another that they open up fully. They have laughs and also speak about more serious topics to which they have not spoken to anyone else before. Every subject has been delved into except the all-important one, love.

  Katherine holds her breathe before asking, "Have you had many relationships?"

  "...I'm married."

  Katherine bolts upright her eyes wide, Jack bursts out laughing grabbing her by the arms.

  Due to the initial shock of those words and her bad experience with Tony, Katherine does not realize that Jack is not being serious and starts to storm off down the beach. Tears sting her eyes as she desperately tries to hold them back.

  "Katherine, wait!" Jack shouts after her, as he chases her. "I was kidding."

  "Why would you say that?" Katherine stops and turns around to face him, now tears evidently streaming down her face.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't think you would take it seriously. Why are you crying?" Jack reaches out his fingers and uses them to wipe the tears from Katherine's eyes.

  She turns pink with embarrassment and gestures towards the two of them, "I don't know what this is but I just..." her voice lowers "It killed me to think that you belong to anyone else."

  "I don't belong to anybody. Now yet anyway. Why? Do you know anyone who'd be interested?" He playfully raises his eyebrows at her and holds her around the waist.

  Their eyes lock, they stare silently for a while until Jack gently leans in and kisses Katherine softly on the mouth. Her emotions soften and she wraps her arm around his neck as they start to make out while standing in the sand.

  This is passion. Katherine thinks as she gets butterflies in her stomach, a feeling that she has never experienced before but one that she takes as a good sign. They pull apart and Katherine gets a good look at Jack's face, it's now that she really notices the blueness of his eyes and the dimples when he smiles.