by Unknown
“Do you have any hobbies?” Josh asks while our parents converse.
I want to say Tina Fey movies and watching Dan play baseball shirtless, as well as my more recent favorite of kissing until my mouth is sore, but instead I give him the answer I know he wants to hear from his future wife, “I’ve always had a fondness for cooking, but what I really love is to sew our clothes.” At least they weren’t lies (well maybe a little); I do enjoy cooking, but I wouldn’t say I love it. And of course I love to create my own clothes, I just wish they were my designs and not the ones my family has been wearing for generations.
“Wonderful,” he smiles. “Maybe you could help me out, I have some pants that need a good hemming.”
“Anytime,” I say with a large smile, noticing the group has now focused their attention on us.
“With your mothers there of course,” my father can’t help but add.
Josh nods, “Of course, sir.”
“You know, Hannah here has actually helped save a girl in our town,” my father boasts, and my stomach drops, knowing exactly where this conversation is going. I hate when he talks about Sam. “This girl came to our church one day looking so lost, and our Hannah scooped her up and started preaching the word of God to her. Poor thing comes from a broken family. The dad died and her mom was working several jobs to make ends meet, and that poor girl had nobody looking out for her. Hannah’s been going to her house every Friday to have bible study and then they watch a preapproved movie from myself and her mother before calling it a night. Thanks to our Hannah Banana, she’s now a proud member of our church and is there with us every Sunday.”
“How wonderful of you,” Mrs. Nelson gushes, like I’m so heroic, and it makes me sick. I want to tell them all the ways Sam has saved me, that I was the one that needed her.
We continue small talk, but to be honest I can’t really remember it because it was all boring and my thoughts kept wandering to Danny and the way his hands and lips feel against mine. Last night his hand had gone under my shirt to my breasts, squeezing and playing with them. I had no idea something so simple could feel so unbelievable.
I’m snapped from my glorious thoughts when I hear Josh speak up after dessert.
“Sir,” Josh begins. “May I have a moment with your daughter?”
“Please do,” my father offers with a knowing nod, and the smile on Josh’s face has my rage brewing again. How can he want this?
We go to the living room, and as far as my parents are concerned it’s the first place I have ever been alone with a guy.
He’s nervous and shy, a trait common in myself but it annoys me on him. I remind myself that it’s not his fault; he’s just like me, doing what our parents ask of us.
“I was hoping,” Josh clears his throat. “That perhaps you’d give me the honor of courting you?”
I tell the biggest lie of my life, “I would love that.”
He lets out a sigh of relief.
Like I ever had the chance to say no.
“I’ll stay in contact then.”
“That would be wonderful.” Another lie. When did I get so good at this?
The parents come in, obviously eavesdropping (not that I’m surprised), and we all say our farewells, the mothers bursting with excitement at what’s to come, the men beaming with pride.
It seems like it takes a century for my parents to finally fall asleep. Long enough that I’ve gone through every emotion I can think of, from almost convincing myself this won’t be so bad, I can do this, to beating up my poor defenseless pillow.
I walk faster to Danny’s than I ever have and I climb into the open window, careful not to make a sound.
Dan is there, messing around with his phone. He taps something on it and music plays on the speakers. Hozier (one of my favorites) and I know he’s playing it because of me. I never realized he knew so much.
He looks up and sees me standing at his window. His face breaks out into a smile so wide it makes my chest constrict. This is the face I want to greet me every day. This is the face I want in my bed every night.
Dan gets up to meet me as I rush over and throw myself on him.
My lips sear to his as I pull his body tightly to mine and my hands weave into his hair, locking us together. I’m trying to get as much of him as I can.
He groans into my mouth, parting my lips with his tongue. They play hard and fast, our kissing never so raw before. It’s like he can sense my urgency.
I pull him back to his bed and he falls on top of me. We continue to kiss like we’re starving, which I am. I’m starving for something that can never fully be mine, so I want as much of it as I can while I can. My hands move up his sides, and the goosebumps that rise on his skin are immensely satisfying as I bring his shirt up and try to slip it over his head.
Dan pulls back, pressing one hand against mine, stopping me, “What are you doing?”
“I need to feel your skin to mine.” I thought I needed his kisses, but I was wrong. I need so much more; things I know I’m not allowed to have.
My hands try desperately to bring his shirt up as my mouth attacks his rather ferociously. He tries to move them away, but I’m persistent. He takes hold of my wrists and places them securely above my head so I can’t move. His face is serious as he studies mine, “What’s going on with you tonight?”
“Nothing, I’m just ready for more.” I pant, a craziness stirring in my body.
“That’s fine, but this is something else. You’re not acting like yourself.” He loosens his grip enough that I break my hands free and take hold of his face to bring it down to mine, forcefully kissing him. His body goes stiff, not kissing me back, but I don’t care. I keep going until he removes my hands again, putting them back up over my head.
“Talk to me.”
My irritation grows, “Do you give the other girls this much hassle?”
“No.”
“Then don’t start with me.” I try to loosen my hands but Dan pushes them back into the bed.
“You’re not like the other girls. You’ve never been like them.” His thumbs stroke the inside of my wrists, his voice turning soft and gentle, “Now tell me what’s going on.”
“Maybe I want to be like those other girls.”
“Trust me, you don’t,” he says with a shake of his head, sadness shadowing his eyes.
I know I don’t, I’m just at a loss for words right now. This evening made my life too real and I don’t want it to be. I want this to be my life. I swallow back the lump that’s forming in my throat.
Dan gives me a light squeeze, “That look right there. Tell me why you look like that.”
I comply, unable to deny him anything, “Tonight I met the person who will be courting me, the man my father hopes will be my husband soon.”
Dan frowns, his body slumping, “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“That sucks.”
I nod, trying to hold in the tears that are threating to come out.
“Hey,” he says far too sweetly, and it’s the last straw for my fragile emotions. A tear falls out as he flips us so he’s on his back and has me cuddle up to his side, half my body over his. He strokes my back and I relax into him. He holds me in silence as I control my breathing, willing myself not to cry.
His voice cuts through the room after a long bout of silence, “How long do we have?”
I shrug, “It depends, but it seems to get less with each time. I think my parents are eager for lots of grandchildren. With Chelsea it was six months, and with Lauren it was four.”
He curses under his breath, “That’s not very long.”
No, it wasn’t.
He sighs so deeply it raises both our bodies, “Why the fuck didn’t we do this sooner?”
“I never thought it was a possibility.” I’m still in disbelief it’s really happening.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve wanted nothing but this since I first saw you.”
<
br /> He has no idea what his words mean to me, what they do to my body.
“When was that?” I probe, burying my face in his neck as my cheeks grow hot. I’m curious to know what the day he noticed me was. For Sam it was about the second Tuesday I started stalking them, and then Tag the Tuesday after that. The rest didn’t notice until Sam had actually come over to me and asked me to join their group.
“The ice cream shop.”
No way. I lift my head up to look at him, “Are you serious?”
He puts a hand behind his head and grins at me, “Very.” His other hand tucks loose strands of hair behind my ear, “Do you remember that day?”
I beam at him because I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Quite well, actually.”
His grin gets larger, “Oh really?”
I nod.
“Good,” He puts my head back down on his chest. “I was afraid it was just me.”
“Definitely not.”
He kisses the top of my head before he reaches for his phone. I watch as he sets an alarm. “You as tired as I am?”
“Yes,” I say through a yawn, not meaning to prove his point, it just came out.
“Let’s get some sleep.”
I like that idea, and I snuggle in closer and pass right out with a smile on my face.
Chapter 10
Our town gets hit with another heat wave (like it wasn’t already hot enough), and by Wednesday even the nights don’t bring relief, holding onto the heat like a calzone straight out of the oven.
As I walk to see Dan I fan my shirt, trying to get some sort of breeze going to cool me off.
Headlights blind me as a truck passes, but it doesn’t capture my attention until it whips around and rolls up next to me. I have a moment of panic that it’s some kidnapper who’s going to have his way with me and leave my body in a ditch somewhere, but then I see Shepard Landscaping on the side and I breathe out my relief.
Dan rests an arm on the edge of the rolled down window and pokes his head out, “Get in.”
He stops the car long enough for me to hop in.
“You scared me,” I scold, clicking in my seatbelt. “I thought you were some kidnapper wanting his way with me.”
Dan winks, “Oh believe me, I do.”
My heart thumps and I can’t believe how easily by body reacts to him.
“But tonight I wanted to take you somewhere.”
“Where?” I nervously ask. It’s past eleven on a weekday and I have my pajamas on. Where could we possibly go?
“You’ll see.”
I watch the scenery as it passes, trying to guess where it is he’s taking me, but so far it’s just been home after home until I begin recognizing the richer side of town.
Dan drives his truck into the new housing development, where most homes are still being built. He parks in front of a home that’s completed, although the neighboring homes are not.
It’s a McMansion and I gawk at its size.
Dan jumps out, “Come on.”
I quietly close the door, careful not to be heard. It’s not like anybody is around, but still, I’m cautious.
Dan pulls a duffel bag out of the bed of his truck and takes my hand, leading us towards the ginormous house.
He goes to the side and anxiety creeps its way into my body, “What are we doing?”
Dan gives me the cutest boyish grin, knowing it would make it impossible for me to ever deny him anything, “Swimming.”
“Swimming?!” I hiss, not expecting that answer.
“Yup.” He walks faster, tugging me behind him.
The gate opens silently, but the dim glow of the moon does little to illuminate the yard as we enter.
We stop right in front of a pool, and Dan crouches down to rummage through his bag. He holds out one of Sam’s bikinis.
“No way,” I protest. He can’t be serious.
“It’s either this or nothing.” He drops the skimpy scrap of cloth into my arms. “Personally, I’m hoping for the latter, but I figured you wouldn’t like that.”
He would be right. “Aren’t we going to get in trouble?”
“By who? Nobody lives around here.”
He can see my worry so he stands, explaining further while he pulls off his shirt, “We’re doing this chick’s landscaping, and all week I’ve been having to stare at this damn pool while we die from the heat. On top of that, we’ve had to listen to Maddox banging her in the house.”
You know, I think half their business is older women wanting to watch a group of hot guys do their landscaping.
“Our house is an inferno right now,” he continues while kicking off his shoes. “We’d last about two seconds before our bodies couldn’t stand the closeness. Remember last night?”
I did. We kept having to stop and separate just so we could cool off, and not from the way we were kissing.
He presses on the swimsuit in my hands, “Now change.”
I stand there, unsure as I watch him dive in.
Dan comes up with his back to me, “I won’t look.”
Then I see his bare backside, and it’s a done deal for me. Ever since my freak out on Saturday night I haven’t had the balls to try for anything under his shirt, but if it’s already off…
I quickly get out of my pajamas and into Sam’s barely-there scrap of cloth. I take the stairs, “Don’t turn around until I’m in.” My upbringing has me feeling too shy for him to see my body.
The water is cool and I about die from bliss as I get in. I can’t believe I was almost too scared to do this. It’s heaven. I go in until the water is up to my shoulders, the dark of the night hiding what’s underneath the water. “Okay.”
Dan turns around, coming towards me with one of his adorable shit-eating grins, “I may have peeked a little.”
“What!?” I gasp in horror as he pulls me to him. He wraps my legs around his waist and the hardness from him that presses into my middle has me wanting to do very bad things.
He chuckles, “Only when you came in the pool.” He ducks his head to bring his lips to my ear, “And maybe a little when you had your top off.”
My arms tighten around his neck as I bury my face in it in complete embarrassment. His arms wrap around me tighter while his body shakes in laughter.
I become hyper-aware of my barely covered body smashed against his. His body feels so good against mine, hard and strong. I let my hands graze his back and he lets out a soft sigh, relaxing into my touch.
“Let me take your top off,” he murmurs into my ear.
I comply, my whole body yearning for it. He unties the back and we let it float in the pool next to us. He looks down to my bare breasts squashed against his muscular pecs, “So fucking hot.”
I smile, but when he looks up at me with a desire in his eyes something in me grows nervous (and a little bit excited).
His hand comes around to grasp a breast and I close my eyes, bringing my forehead to his. He plays with my nipple. Our breathing gets heavy and my hips start moving with his, the need for something in me unmatched by anything else I’ve experienced.
We kiss, our tongues turning us on further as we groan and moan while our bodies grind into each other, his hand still playing with my naked breast, water rippling all around us.
Dan kisses along my jaw, sucking the skin from my neck to my ear, stopping to whisper into it, “I’m going to bring my mouth lower. Just say stop at any time and I will, okay?”
All I can manage is a barely-there nod.
His lips move lower and lower, sucking and licking, and his hand begins moving my breast up as he walks backwards, my legs still wrapped around him. He sits on the middle step as his lips go right to the nipple. First he flicks it and I shudder, then he takes it into his mouth. My hands cling to his biceps as he rolls his tongue around it, going back and forth between taking it in his mouth and letting his tongue play.
Dan switches breasts, and I understand when Sam talks about dying and coming to life at the same time
. My hips are grinding him harder than they ever have and one of his hands moves to grip the side, forcing them into a rhythm with the way he begins sucking on my nipple, his tongue swirling around. My hands hold on tight as something in me builds and builds, a madness that has me gasping out his name as my body explodes in a pleasure so intense and life altering that I’m consumed by it. When it’s over I shiver and fling my arms around Dan so I can bury my face into his neck. My breathing is erratic like I had just finished a run, except my body had barely been doing anything. He holds me, hands rubbing my back, not saying anything while my breathing normalizes. I slouch into him, a relaxation taking over my body and I grow sleepy.
“I think that may be my new favorite thing,” Dan murmurs, his breath warm on my skin.
“What?”
“Making you come.”
“I think it might be mine too,” I mumble into his neck with a smile, and he chuckles. “Thank you.”
He gives my body a squeeze, “Any time.”
I smile bigger and kiss where my lips are on his neck. I’m drowsy as I talk, and maybe it’s the drug-like effect of the aftershocks from my first orgasm, “Want to know my favorite thing?”
He nods.
“Anything that involves you.”
He swallows loudly. “Yeah,” he agrees, his voice hoarse, pulling me as tight as he can against him.
As I’m drifting off to sleep, my back is hit with water and I gasp, pulling back, “Did you just splash me?”
Dan gives me a wide-eyed, innocent look, “Never.”
We begin splashing and dunking one another, occasionally stopping to kiss, and it easily becomes one of the best nights of my life.
Chapter 11
On Friday night I arrive over an hour later than I usually do.
The house is empty inside but I can hear laughter coming from the backyard. I drop my backpack off in Sam’s room and change. It’s still quite hot, so I make a daring move: I put on short shorts. Watch out Evel Knievel.
The shorts I choose are Sam’s “longest” pair, which just means that my bottom will remain safely concealed as long as I don’t bend over in them. I twist my hair into a bun, remove my blouse, and join the group outside.
