by Jami Alden
“You’re such a klutz,” Kate fumed as she marched into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry, I was just thirsty.”
“More like nosy,” Kate muttered. “You know damn well the mini fridge under the bar is totally stocked. Don’t move!” she ordered when Michael would have stepped forward.
Tension knotted in her shoulders as she and Tommy mopped up the sticky liquid and swept up the glass. Way to set the romantic scene, she thought, spending an evening trying to dodge her thirteen-year-old brother.
“I’m sorry, Kate,” Michael said as she threw away the last of the mess.
“Can you just go to bed?” She sighed tiredly. “Tommy and I really want to be alone.”
Her gave her an exaggerated leer. “What are you going to do?”
She punched him in the arm hard enough to make him wince. “None of your business. Go upstairs.”
His mouth set in a petulant line. “I’m not tired. You can be alone in your bedroom. You go upstairs.”
Kate’s cheeks flooded with heat at the memory of Tommy in her bedroom three days ago, his rangy body stretched out on the twin bed across from Lauren’s. But there was no way she was taking him up there now—not with Michael still awake and tracking their every move.
It was one thing to flirt with her inner bad girl and sneak a guy in her bedroom when the house was empty, but she wasn’t brazen enough yet to do it under her nosy brother’s ever-watchful eye. Knowing Michael, he’d either be at the door with a glass to his ear or hunkered next to that damn air vent.
“Fine. You can hang out in our room,” Kate said, grateful Lauren wasn’t there to punch her in the face. “You can watch movies as late as you want. Just don’t come back down.”
“Awesome.” He tucked the Game Boy under his arm and rushed to the great room to retrieve a stack of cassettes. A few seconds later he was pounding up the stairs.
“And stay out of our stuff!” Kate called after him, knowing full well their room would be ransacked inside of ten minutes.
But it would be worth it, she thought, turning with a little shiver of anticipation back to Tommy, who was watching her from the doorway that led from the kitchen to the great room.
His thick dark hair shone under the lights, picking up the faint gold streaks from all the time he spent in the sun. His deep-set eyes watched her carefully, and as he looked in her face she wondered if he sensed her plans for tonight.
She was suddenly nervous, not sure how to proceed. She couldn’t exactly blurt out that she planned to let him take her virginity that night. Deciding that the best course of action was to let things unfold naturally, she let him lead her to the big leather couch and watched as he made a show of picking out a movie they had no intention of watching.
He had her stretched out under him before the opening credits had rolled, and soon after his shirt was on the floor and hers was tugged from the waistband of her skirt.
Tommy’s hand was making slow, careful progress up her stomach when they heard a large crash and roar. It took her a few seconds to register that the noise came from the TV upstairs, turned up obnoxiously loud, no doubt for their benefit.
But that did nothing to calm the adrenaline spiking in her system and the realization that there was no way she could do this with her little brother in the house.
As though he read her thoughts, Tommy said, “It’s weird having Michael here. I’m afraid he’ll bust in any second.”
“I’m sorry.” She sighed, frustrated. “I totally thought he’d be asleep and wouldn’t even know…”
“I know someplace we can go,” Tommy said, tugging her up from the couch. She followed, hesitating as he reached for the handle of the front door.
“I can’t leave.” She shook her head. “I know he’s a pain in the ass, but I can’t leave him alone.”
“We won’t go far, I promise. Close enough for us to hear if he calls for you, but nowhere he can bust in on us. Come on.”
Kate’s eyes flicked involuntarily up the stairs. She could hear the roar of the television, hoped Michael would stay occupied or fall asleep soon.
“Okay.” She followed Tommy, first to his truck, where he retrieved a sleeping bag and a pillow he’d stashed in the back. Then he led her down the beach, past the last house where the lake was still bordered by forest. Kate smiled in delight as he stopped at a bare patch of sand sheltered on either side by bushes. He spread the sleeping bag out and knelt down and reached out his hand for her to join him.
Though this was not exactly what she’d imagined for her first time, she didn’t hesitate to follow him down when he stretched out on his back.
Kate couldn’t stifle a moan as strong hands slid under the hem of her shirt and slid up the bare skin of her back. Her own hands swept hungrily over the muscular swells of his chest and shoulders.
She loved the way his breath sped up to match hers, the way his skin heated under her touch until she could smell the arousal coming off him in waves. His hand slid farther up her back until it met with the clasp of her bra. His fingers traced it for a second before sliding away.
Not tonight, she thought with a pulse of anticipation that was nearly as arousing as his touch. She pushed up so she was sitting next to him. She could hear the surprised hitch in his breath as she unbuttoned her shirt and let it slide off her shoulders. Then, before she could psych herself out, she reached behind her and unhooked her bra.
“Kate…”
Tommy’s hushed whisper, almost reverent, rushed through her and gave her that last bit of courage she needed to let her bra follow her shirt onto the ground.
Grateful that the nearly full moon was muted by the tree branches, she sank back down until they were chest to chest and felt his own gasp echo hers at the first touch of skin on skin. It shouldn’t be such a huge deal; he’d touched her under her clothes dozens of times. But the feeling of being naked—from the waist up anyway—the sensation of being completely bare against him—sent a wicked thrill that went straight to her core.
Taking her mouth hungrily with his, Tommy rolled her to her back, one big hand immediately swallowing up the curve of one breast. She pushed aside the fleeting moment of embarrassment that she was so small and gave herself up to the sensation of his strong fingers kneading her, the feel of his thumb and forefinger closing over her nipple in a gentle squeeze that startled a cry from her throat.
His mouth licked and sucked its way down her neck, across her bare chest. And before she could give in to the flutter of panic, his lips closed gently over one hard tip.
“Tommy!” she cried, her hands fisting in his hair.
He immediately lifted his head. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” Her whisper dissolved into a sigh as his mouth closed over her again. Her body shifted restlessly under his, intense sensation wracking her.
Her legs came up to cradle his hips and her skirt shifted up her thighs. Tommy instinctively moved lower so she wouldn’t have direct contact with the rock-hard pillar she knew was straining against the fly of his shorts.
Kate slid her arms around his body and moved her hands down until they were resting on his hips. She tugged at him and rocked her hips until his body was perfectly aligned with hers. Pleasure hit her with the force of an electric shock, every fiber in her body pulling tight.
“Kate.” Tommy groaned, his hips rocking as though he couldn’t stop himself from moving against her. “We don’t have to—”
“I want to,” she said quickly before she lost her nerve. “I want to feel you against me. And in a little while, I want us both to get naked and feel you for real.”
Tommy groaned and kissed her again, hard, like he wanted to consume her.
“I want you to be my first,” she whispered against his lips.
He swore softly against her mouth. “We don’t have to rush it, Kate. There’s so much other stuff we can do to make each other feel good.”
Kate slid her hands down the back of Tommy’s shorts and
dug her fingers into the firm muscles of his butt. “I don’t want to do other stuff,” she said, and gave his earlobe a little nip. “I want to have sex.”
“Kate.” The single word betrayed an agony of frustration.
Kate muffled his protests by covering his mouth with hers and reached one hand in between their bodies, feeling a hot thrill race through her as her hand closed over him through the fabric of his shorts. Two weeks ago, she would have thought herself incapable of such boldness.
But tonight, in the moonlight, her whole body quivered with anticipation as she explored every inch of him, so hard, so hot he seemed to burn her palm even through the heavy fabric of his shorts.
Tommy went stock still, every muscle locked and trembling as his breath heaved in his chest.
“Tommy, I know you’re worried I’m not experienced, but I’m sure about this. I’m sure I want you—”
Her words caught in her throat as his hand closed over her wrist in a grip that bordered on painful. “We can’t,” he ground out.
Kate sat up and jerked her hand from his grip as dread closed its fist in the pit of her stomach. “Don’t you want to? I thought—”
“Of course I want to!” Tommy said in a harsh whisper. “I’ve wanted to since the first time I touched you.”
“Then why can’t we?”
Tommy sat up, shoving away from her until he’d put a couple feet of distance in between them. “Your dad, for one thing,” he said.
“Why does what my dad think matters?”
“Age of consent is eighteen in Idaho, Kate. You think your dad would hesitate for a second to bring me up on statutory rape charges if he found out?”
“He’d be just as likely to want to sweep the whole thing under the rug so the press doesn’t find out his perfect princess of a daughter isn’t as pure as he’d like everyone to think,” she shot back.
Tommy shook his head. “I can’t risk it. My scholarship has a morals clause, and anything like this…”
Kate’s eyes stung with frustrated tears. One escaped to roll down her cheek. Tommy reached out to brush it away with his thumb. The light brush of his callused finger on her skin sent a jolt of awareness through her body, making her all too aware of the unfulfilled desire humming through every nerve. “So what are you saying? Hit you up again when I turn eighteen? That’s over a year from now.” On edge and embarrassed at the idea that on some level he still saw her as a kid, more trouble than she was worth, Kate scrambled in the dark for her bra and shirt and quickly slipped them on.
She stiffened as Tommy’s arms wrapped around her from behind but let him pull her against him, her back to his chest. His breath was warm in her hair and she could feel his heart still beating double time against her back. “For now I think that’s our only option,” he replied.
Kate made a scoffing sound. “What, like you’ll really wait for me? Like you won’t hook up with anyone else for the entire school year?”
He was silent for several seconds, each one of them agony as she waited for his reply. “We never really talked about that,” he said carefully.
Kate wished that the ground would open up and swallow her as humiliation threatened to overwhelm her. “Forget it,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to back you into a corner. I didn’t really expect this to go anywhere, and I know you’re not serious—”
“Shut up,” Tommy said softly. He caught her chin between his fingers and turned her around to face him. His mouth settled over hers in a kiss that went beyond hunger. Corny as it seemed, to Kate it almost felt like a promise. “You don’t know how I feel, or what my plans are, because we haven’t talked about it.”
“What are your plans?” she asked softly.
Even in the dark, there was no missing the flash of white teeth as he grinned. “Hell, Kate, I wasn’t even sure you wouldn’t slap me the first time I tried to kiss you. And after everything with your dad, I’ve pretty much been winging it and not getting my hopes up too much.”
“You have hopes? What kind of hopes?”
He tucked her back against his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head. “That maybe this doesn’t have to end when I go back to school and you go back to D.C.”
He didn’t say anything else, and though her brain was screaming with questions about what exactly that meant, Kate didn’t push him to elaborate. Instead she wanted to focus on this unexpected gift, on the amazing guy cradling her in his arms and telling her—her! quiet, Goody Two-Shoes boring Kate—that he didn’t want what they had to end when the summer did.
They sat there for several minutes. Once again Kate became aware of the warmth of him against her back, the scent of him teasing her nostrils. The way the hard muscles of his arms brushed against the sides of her breasts. “So,” she said, trying her best to sound nonchalant, “what are some of the other ways?”
“What other ways?”
She turned to face him, rising to her knees so she could settle in his lap, face to face. “You said there were other ways,” she said, bending to deliver a soft nip to his bottom lip, “that we could make each other feel good.”
Tommy kissed her hard, his low groan rumbling through her until once again she was primed, every cell tight with awareness, ready to explode at the slightest touch.
His hand slid up the outside of her thigh, up under the hem of her short skirt until it rested just below the juncture of where her leg met her hip. His fingers spread, his thumb brushed the inside of her thigh, making her jump with nervousness and anticipation. His hand moved between her thighs. She instinctively stiffened, then shifted her weight to give him better access.
Her mouth pressed eagerly against his, her breath coming in harsh, rapid pants as she felt the heat of his skin, the rough brush of calluses against skin never touched by anyone but herself. She felt the slightest brush against the lace edging of her panties, her breath frozen in her chest as he slid one finger under the elastic.
BAM
She jumped at what sounded like a gunshot, followed by the roar of an engine whose muffler had seen better days. Tommy jerked his hand from under her skirt and they both sat there, statue still as they waited to see if their privacy would be invaded. A minute, maybe two passed. “I don’t think they’re coming down here,” Kate said, turning back to Tommy.
She was just about to suggest they pick up where they’d left off when she heard the sound of the engine backfire again and the rumbling muffler. Then the metallic thud of the car hitting something, the sound of shattering glass or pottery. Kate was already pushing to her feet, her stomach turning with dread even before her brain registered that the crashing sound was coming from the direction of her house. She sprinted up the beach, barely hearing Tommy call after her to be careful.
She ran up to her house, but rather than going up the stairs to the deck, she ran around to the front. Sure enough, one of the giant terra-cotta planters that flanked each side of the driveway was smashed to bits, leaving a mountain of dirt and a pile of uprooted rhododendrons in the corner of the driveway.
“Probably just a drunk driver,” Tommy said, breathing hard from his sprint up the beach. In the distance they could barely make out the red taillights of a pickup truck disappearing into the darkness.
She walked back to the house, a vague unease tickling at her brain through the haze of the adrenaline rush. When she opened the front door to the house and saw that it was dark except for the light she’d left on in the kitchen and dead quiet, she realized why the silence felt so wrong.
Michael should have woken up at the sound of the crash. She was pounding up the stairs before the thought had fully formed, the faint unease turning to acrid fear when she flung the door to her bedroom open, flicked on the light, and saw her empty bed. Her eyes did a quick, frantic inventory of the room. The TV was off. Lauren’s bed was pristine, undisturbed, while her own bed looked like a tornado had hit it.
But empty. Undeniably empty.
“Michael?” she called as she
raced across the room to fling open the closet. Nothing but her and Lauren’s sundresses and light summer jackets. “Michael?” she called again, higher and more frantic as she headed for the bathroom that linked their room to his.
Again, empty. “Maybe he moved to his own bed,” she said out loud, trying to convince herself nothing was wrong even though every cell in her body was screaming with the knowledge that it was.
“I’ll go check downstairs,” Tommy said when they found no trace of Michael in his room.
She heard the thud of Tommy’s footsteps on the stairs as she went to her parents’ room. Maybe Michael was just screwing with her. When he was little he was a master of hide-and-seek and regularly hid from their mother when it was time to go to school. “Michael, I swear to God if this is some kind of game, I will kick your ass when I find you.” She was greeted by dead silence and nothing but clothes as she flung open her parents’ closets. “Okay, I didn’t mean that,” she said, her voice tight with fear as she tried for a more cajoling tone. “If you come out I’ll give you my allowance for the rest of the school year. Just get out here because you’re scaring the crap out of me.”
But there was no sound but the heavy thud of her heart.
After an hour searching every inch of the house and walking the neighborhood calling his name, Kate and Tommy were forced to face the reality that Michael was nowhere to be found.
Her entire body went icy cold as her stomach twisted with panic. He’s fine. He’s totally fine, she said to herself over and over again. We’re going to find him and everything will be fine. But she had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach that nothing would ever be fine again.
Ignoring the late hour, Kate called the Burkharts, the Cunninghams, and every other friend of Michael’s she could think of on the thin hope he’d snuck out. No one had seen him.
They called the sheriff’s emergency number, and Kate gave them the few details they had and hung up to wait for the deputy to arrive. Then with shaking fingers she made the phone call she’d been dreading for the last hour and a half while they searched in vain for Michael.
