Katie shook her head, “I don't think I come out particularly well in that analogy. I'm basically just a piece of meat?”
Chelle laughed, “Don't go getting all feminist on me. At least, in my analogy, Jason wants to eat you. That can't be bad, right?”
They both burst out laughing just as Jason returned to the table with their drinks. He chuckled as he set the glasses down, “Seems like I'm missing all the good stuff,” he teased.
“The way I hear it, you're not missing much,” Chelle said with a grin, and Katie elbowed her.
Just then, they heard the DJ announce that it was time for the toasts.
Oh, Lord, Katie thought. Please don't let me bawl in front of all these people!
Jason stood and tapped his fork against his glass, and the room quieted. He looked over at Sophie and Bobby, who were looking up at him with expectant faces.
He smiled, picked up the microphone, and began, “I'm sure most of you know that Nick, Sophie's older brother, was my best friend. I spent more days and nights at the Hunter house than...well, than I spent at my own, a lot of times. In truth, I've always thought of Sophie as my little sister in a lot of ways.
“Especially after we lost Nick, I stepped in and tried to fill that void. I tried to give her advice, about school, about friends. Even about men. I tried to tell her what I thought Nick would have wanted her to know. To hold out for someone who didn't just love her, but couldn't live without her. Someone that she didn't feel like she could live without, either.
“Someone kind, and honest, and that treated her like a princess.
“I didn't realize when I gave her those words of advice that I was describing my own baby brother, but, man...I'm sure glad I was.”
Jason turned around to face Sophie and delivered the rest of the speech directly to her, “I can tell you from experience that Bobby is the best man I know. He has courage, he has integrity, and he has more loyalty in his little finger than most people have in their whole bodies. I know him, Sophie, and he will fight for you. He's loved you forever, and he'll love you forever to come. He's everything that I think Nick would have wanted for you, he's everything I told you to hold out for.
“Like, I said, Soph...I've always considered you my little sister, and now you actually are. Nothing could make me happier.”
He turned back to the crowd and raised his glass, “To the happy couple!”
“To the happy couple!” The crowd echoed, raising their own glasses.
Jason handed her the microphone and sat down, watching her eagerly.
Katie turned to the crowd, “I'm not sure how I'm going to top that,” she joked lightly, and the guests chuckled.
Katie opened her mouth to speak, but her throat closed from the tears that were threatening. She waited a few beats, getting herself under control.
She smiled, and addressed the crowd again, “Wow, that's been happening a lot this weekend,” she said lightly, and they chuckled again.
“I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one here who has been overcome by tears more than once as they watch these two beautiful young people make a commitment to each other, one that signifies just how much they love each other. And you can see just by looking at them exactly how much that is.
“I've known Sophie since she was just a little thing. Sophie – or Sophiebell, as she will always be to me – was only four years old when the Hunters moved next door. She was my shadow from the very first day, and that couldn't have made me happier. I always wanted a little sister, and Sophie seemed more than eager to fill that role. She used to come bopping over to my house, wearing her ballet leotard and tutu, and treat me to impromptu recitals on a moment's notice.
“I don't think there was any choreography involved. I think she just wanted to dance.
“Now, when I see Sophie all grown up and beautiful, wearing that wedding gown – I can still see that little four-year-old ballerina inside, that little girl who just wants to dance. And now she's found the perfect partner.
“I love you, Sophiebell. I always will.”
Katie raised her glass, “To the happy couple!”
The attendees echoed, their own glasses raised, “To the happy couple!”
Katie sat down and Jason put an arm around her shoulder. Chelle grasped her hand from the other side, and Katie felt (to quote Anne of Green Gables) pretty nearly perfectly happy.
They sat and chatted like that for awhile, with others coming up intermittently to tell either Jason or Katie how much they had enjoyed the toasts, and before Katie knew it, it was time for the first dance.
Katie got up from her seat and moved to the edge of the dance floor so that she would have a better view. Sophie and Bobby looked into each other's eyes lovingly as they swayed to the music.
After the first dance, the father-daughter dance began. Mike joined Sophie on the dance floor, and the two of them laughed and talked as they moved around the floor, and – most of all – looked to be very happy.
Katie realized, maybe for the first time, that when she got married, there would be no father-daughter dance. She was missing a pretty critical portion of that equation.
She started to feel a little sad, and that quickly bled into feeling overwhelmed. That led to feeling claustrophobic in the room packed with people.
Oh, no, she thought. A panic attack is coming on.
She began to repeat the mantra to herself:
You can breathe. Just breathe. Breathe in and out slowly. You can breathe.
Where was a good old fashioned brown paper lunch sack when you needed one?
The mantra wasn't working, but she knew that she could not just duck out of the reception in the middle of the dance. She was the maid of freaking honor! People would probably notice!
That knowledge only made her feel MORE out of control and panicked, which fed into her ever-increasing symptoms, which made her feel out of control, and...vicious circle...and yadda yadda yadda. She needed to figure out how to STOP it!
Her heartbeat was erratic, her palms were sweaty, and she was starting feel as though the walls were closing in. Her chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it.
She didn't know what to do.
Then, just when it was getting really bad, she felt a hand on the small of her back. Jason was standing beside her, and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. At first, she was so far gone that she couldn't even understand what he was whispering to her, but then she deciphered his words.
“Are you OK, or do I need to get you out of here?”
The tone in his voice, the heat of his breath on her neck, the weight of his hand on her lower back – all of it served to anchor her to the room.
Screw the mantra, she thought, just Jason’s presence seemed to be keeping the looming panic attack at bay.
Then, luckily after Jason had stood with her long enough to calm her down considerably, it was time for the wedding party to join the bride and groom. Jason led Katie to the floor and pulled her against him. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she melted into him. When she was in his arms, she felt so safe, so solid, so secure, so...perfect.
She closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. They swayed back and forth in an almost hypnotic fashion, following the slow and lovely melody of the music.
Jason leaned down and whispered that he had chosen this song specifically for the wedding party dance because he knew that he would be dancing with her.
Katie focused in and made a point of listening to the lyrics.
I melt in your mouth when you talk to me
I wanna kiss you so slow and sweet
You are the book that I want to read
In Braille cover to cover
Girl, you're so deep inside, you're my DNA
You're how tall I am, you're how much I weigh
You're the reason that someone had to pen the phrase,
“To know her is to love her”
Silly girl, pretty girl, if you don't see
What a spell
your sweet love has cast on me
Girl, and I pray that never will this trance be broken
She pulled back to look up at him, amazement filling her countenance. “Is that how you really feel about me?” she asked, her voice tinged with awe.
Jason leaned in and kissed her, slowly and sweetly, just like the song had said. Forgetting completely that they were in a room full of people, she kissed him back, all her inhibitions dropping away for the duration of that one perfect kiss.
He looked into her eyes and answered her, “All that and more, my Katie.”
As the song drew to a close, Katie felt utterly overwhelmed with emotion. She told Jason that she needed to have a minute for herself, and headed for the restroom.
She sat down on the closed lid of the toilet in the stall, trying to slow her breathing and calm her frazzled nerves. So much had happened this weekend – some of it good, some of it bad...some of it GREAT – but all of it had been intense. She just needed a moment to gather herself.
When she heard other people entering the bathroom, she pulled her feet up, not wanting to be engaged in conversation. She heard the distinctive voices of Lisa and Tiffany, two of the mean girls from high school...and they proceeded to prove that they had not yet reformed, even ten years later.
“God, could you believe it?”
“Ohmygod, I know exactly what you're talking about, you don't even need to say it.”
“On three, we'll go together...”
“1, 2, 3...”
“Katie Lawson being a total slut!”
“I know, right?!”
“Totally, girl, you read my mind!”
“Oh. My. God. Can you believe she's such a whore? Just sucking face with Jason, at Nick's SISTER'S WEDDING, right in front of God and everyone...”
“Including Nick's parents!”
“You're right! I didn't even think about Nick's parents being there!”
“I guess she didn't either. She's such trash. I bet they, like, totally hate her now.”
“Oh my God, totally. I feel so totally sorry for Nick.”
“I know, right? He was such a good guy, and his girlfriend's such a slutbag!”
Ironic, Katie thought to herself as the girls filed out, coming from the mouths of two girls who had screwed Nick while he'd been her boyfriend.
But...she also couldn't deny that they had a point.
She just couldn't take any more of this. She shook her head. She was going to avoid Jason for the rest of the reception (even if it killed her) and then she was going to head back to the hotel (alone) and indulge in a (probably particularly raucous) shower concert. Maybe that would help her get her head on straight.
Chapter Twenty-six
Katie stepped out of the shower, feeling slightly better. Her shower concert had been bittersweet, mainly focusing on titles such as, “I Will Remember You,” by Sarah McLachlan and “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette. Still. Despite her melancholy repertoire, she felt that she had regained some of her composure, and some of her perspective.
Which was, of course, immediately shattered upon opening the bathroom door and hearing a persistent pounding, along with Jason's sing-song voice saying, “Katie! Open up, I know you're in there. I can hear you!”
She shook her head, sighed, and quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. She couldn't believe he had chased her up here.
No. That wasn't true. That actually seemed completely in character. She realized that what she couldn't believe was that he was going to see her looking like this.
She resigned herself to the fact that she was going to answer the door to Jason with her hair sopping wet and un-styled, her face scrubbed of all make-up, and wearing nothing more fashionable (or flattering, thankyouverymuch!) than a fluffy terrycloth towel.
Great.
She pulled open the door, which he was still knocking on in a steady rhythm, and said indignantly, “Jason, I have neighbors, you know! They probably don't appreciate that!”
“Well, then you should have...” he started to tease, with a mischievous glint in his eye. But then she saw him stop short, taking in her appearance. He looked her up and down slowly, his smile fading, the color draining from his face.
Damn, she thought ruefully. I must look worse than I thought.
He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, never taking his eyes from her body.
“You came here for a reason, I presume?” she asked, growing more annoyed by the second.
“Yeah, I...” he trailed off, and then started again, “God, you look so...you just look so...”
Holy crap, was he really going to insult her right now?!
“Sexy,” he finished, almost reverently, “So unbelievably goddamn sexy.”
OK. That was a surprise. But she would take it. She smiled.
Enjoying the feeling of having the upper hand and tired of him being the one to always take the initiative, she decided to make a bold move. Completely out of character for her...but it felt good.
Wordlessly and immediately, she reached up and unfastened her towel from where she had hooked it under her arm and dropped it to the floor, never breaking eye contact with him. She stood there, naked and unflinching under his hungry gaze, and felt herself becoming hotter and wetter.
God. Jason brought out a bold eroticism in her that she had never experienced in her life...but she thought that she could definitely get used to it!
Jason groaned and reached out to grab the back of the desk chair that he was standing next to in order to steady himself on his feet.
“Oh...Katie...” he breathed, looking her up and down. His gaze causing her to feel bolder, more empowered.
She took the two determined strides necessary to bring her to stand in front of him and immediately dropped to her knees. Still without speaking, she unzipped his fly and reached inside, pulling out his hard manhood.
He groaned even louder, tilting his head back and putting his other hand flat against the wall to effectively anchor himself in place.
She caressed him, up and down his shaft, delighting in how his member became even harder in her hands. She used both hands alternately, stroking up and down, so that there was never a part of him that she was not touching. She loved how his skin felt sliding against her hands, soft and velvety but hard as steel.
When she felt that he had taken all he could of that particular delectable torture, she slipped him inside her mouth and began to move her head up and down, applying slight pressure with her tongue all the way.
She varied the rhythm, pausing intermittently to pay special attention to areas where she got a particularly positive response to her mouth's hot and insistent caresses.
Jason breathed harder and harder, until Katie was sure that he was about to hyperventilate. She was momentarily concerned, but the strength of his grasp on the back of her head told her that he was in no danger of losing consciousness.
She smiled to herself. He was just having a good time!
As she continued to work his steel-hard shaft with her tongue and mouth, she let her fingers go searching through his pockets, both in his jacket and his pants. In the second pants pocket that she explored, she came across what she was looking for, and pulled out her prize triumphantly.
“Aha!” she exclaimed, pulling back and rising gracefully to her feet, holding up the foil-wrapped condom she had found, “I see that you were very confident of yourself again, Mr. Sloan.”
He smiled weakly, still clearly reeling from the touch of her velvet soft mouth. “I'd say it was warranted,” he teased, his voice hoarse.
She laughed. “Touché. But since you thought ahead and were responsible enough to bring this, I'd say it's only fair that we put it good use.”
As she said this, she took his hand and led him across the short expanse of floor to the bed. It was still unmade, the sheets rumpled from their adventures of the night before. She had been so wary of anyone finding out, of somehow sensing what had happened here,
that she had left the 'Do Not Disturb' sign out all day.
She pushed him down on the bed so that he was sitting up, his back resting against the head board. She felt his eyes on her as she tore open the condom packet and then unrolled the plastic tube onto his hard cock. He shivered at even that small touch.
She smiled. She liked having that kind of power.
When she was finished, she put one hand on each of his shoulders, balancing as she swung her leg to the other side of him and straddled his body effortlessly. She began to kiss him deeply as she lowered herself onto his shaft, shuddering with the pleasure that each new inch of him entering her caused to course through her body.
When she had settled down onto him entirely, she paused a moment, just enjoying the feeling of kissing him, enjoying the feeling of him inside her. She squeezed her muscles around him and he gave a small cry of pleasure.
Without ever breaking their kiss, she began to move her hips up and down, slowly but steadily. She began their lovemaking at a slow and languorous pace, one that she knew would build in speed and intensity before too long. She wanted to savor this slow and unhurried moving of their bodies together while she could.
She felt Jason's hands slide up her legs, over her hips, and come to rest firmly on her waist. He held onto her there as she moved her hips in their rhythm, anchoring the two of them together even more strongly.
She moaned with greater pleasure. She loved it when Jason put his strong hands on her like that. She could feel his large, powerful hands – hardened and roughened and muscled from years of construction work – and they nearly encircled her tiny, delicate waist. Every time she came face to face with Jason's pure raw, physical power it left her breathless. It made her feel calm, safe, secure...but at the same time almost unbearably excited.
Her rhythm quickened, and at the same time his hips began thrusting up to meet hers. Katie threw her head back and arched her back, crying out in pure ecstasy.
Her hands moved up, tangling in Jason's beautiful hair, that gorgeous brown hair that she loved to touch. So many times, even when she was younger, she had had the urge to reach out and brush it with her fingertips, to stroke it away from his face, to run her fingers through it...but she never could. It was always off-limits.
My First (Jason & Katie) Page 23
