“You’re not going to fish?” she asks, looking at my empty hands. “You didn’t like the fishing pole?”
“I loved it, but I left the cabin in a hurry and forgot it. I can go back.” My thumb points in the direction of my cabin.
“No, don’t leave. You can try it next time.”
I sit down next to her. “I was so horrible to you last weekend. Why did you get it for me?”
“I think we should forget about last weekend and everything else that’s happened since we got here,” she says. “And I didn’t get you anything for your birthday. Nothing real at least. It bothered me.”
“Cassie, I told you, my birthday was great because of you.”
“Getting you that made me feel better. I want things between us better again. In fact maybe tonight we can hang out. Just me and you. I also decided I’m gonna tell everyone you’re not my brother. It was stupid. I never should have done that.”
Everything she is saying is what I want to hear. “I would love to hang out tonight, Cassie.”
“Okay,” she smiles. “Good. We can do whatever you want.”
My eyebrows rise in reaction to the word whatever. There was just something about the way she said it. She reaches over. “Whatever you want,” she says again giving my leg a squeeze.
I can pretend the message she’s giving me is confusing. It isn’t. She’s squeezing my thigh.
My hand slides up cupping her cheek and turning her face towards me. Her eyes close waiting for it. The lips I waited over a year to kiss land on top of mine. The fishing pole clinks against the rock and both of her arms go around my neck. Her legs swing around and she places herself onto my lap. This isn’t going to be a short kiss. Not after it took us this long to get here.
“Why now?” I ask pulling back and looking into her eyes. “What changed that made you want to kiss me?”
“Mark, I’ve always wanted to kiss you. Since the day I met you.”
“You had plenty of chances. Including turning me down before we came here. Why if you wanted to kiss me, did it take this long for us to finally kiss?”
“Mark, don’t worry about the why. Live for the moment.” Her lips are pressed back on mine convincing me this is much better than talking. I’m absorbed in the sweet smell and taste of her. My hands take a chance and run up her soft tan legs. She lets out a gentle sigh pushing her hips further into my lap showing me it’s okay. Frenzy takes over. I pull her back on top of me, letting my hands roam over every inch of her. All sense of what we’re doing, where we are, if it’s day or night, is completely lost.
“Hate to interrupt.” A throat clears before continuing. “Just thought I’d say good morning.”
Cassie sits back up still positioned on my lap and we both look over to see Tucker standing a few feet away from us. “He’s not my brother,” Cassie announces.
“I figured,” Tucker grins. “But you may want to let everyone know that before you go public with the kissing. You may freak a few people out around here.”
“Thanks, Tucker.” The guy saved us from a potentially awful situation. Thankfully he was the one to see us and not someone else, like Sawyer or Courtney. We might have had another scenario similar to the one I had with Tessa after she heard us arguing.
“No problem.” Tucker tips his chin to us continuing on his way.
Cassie looks down at me. “Embarrassing, but I guess it could have been much worse. I’ll start telling people right away. We don’t need anyone to see us like this before they know.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “Not that I want you to, but it may be a good idea if you got up from my lap now.”
Her eyelids lower down, shy about whatever it is she’s going to say. “I’m just waiting until its safe.”
“Safe?” I ask confused.
“Safe,” she repeats glancing down and wiggling.
“Oh,” I let out a laugh. “Because I have a raging bo…”
“Yes!” she stops me from finishing the sentence. “Yes. So just tell me when it’s safe for me to get off your lap.”
“Yeah, sorry, but it won’t be ‘safe’ until you are off my lap.”
She hides a smile sliding down my legs and sitting back down next to me. The fishing pole goes back in her hand.
I’m upright again. Hands tucked neatly in my lap watching her fish, already wondering what will happen tonight when we’re alone.
She’s staring out over the water. I can’t take my eyes off of her. I just kissed her. Always wondered how amazing it would be and now I know. Amazing didn’t begin to describe it.
“Stop staring at me.” She smiles, eyes still fixed on the water.
“I can’t help it. It was some long wait, but damn, that kiss was unbelievable.”
Her smile grows bigger but she still won’t look at me. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“Tonight, that gonna happen again?” I ask.
A quick glimpse over her shoulder to see if anyone is around, the coast is clear. Finally facing me, her eyes sweep down over me seductively. “It better,” she says.
Tucker
My day with Tessa starts with a heated kiss in her doorway. Between the almost hundred degree weather and that kiss I’m glad I didn’t wear my glasses. They’d have fogged right up.
The AC in my truck blasts us into cool relief. Tessa and air conditioning, two things I can’t get enough of this summer.
Tessa stays outside the diner once we arrive to call her family. I go in and get us a table. First thing I do is check to see if I have any messages from Ashley. She’s sent me her cell number, text messages are easier, she wrote. Within no time her number is in my phone and I’m sending her the first text.
Tucker: Hey Ashley, got ur number thanks.
Ashley: Kissing and the diner, busy morning.
I look out the window. Tessa has already been in contact with Ashley and told her about our kiss.
Tessa sees me and rushes to the table. “Aren’t you going to call your parents?” she asks, picking up her menu. “Is it too early to order lunch instead of breakfast?”
“No to both. I’m getting a burger and I’m on a date. My mom might have a heart attack if she found out.”
“You don’t date too often I guess. Why am I not surprised?”
“Never met anyone who made me want to go on a date before I met you,” I say watching her skin turn pink. I love watching her blush.
The waitress takes our order, cheeseburgers for both of us.
The subject of high school comes up. She talks briefly about parties, gossiping, fights, some of the stuff she tells me I find hard to believe about her. The food’s placed in front of us and Tessa stops talking to take a bite of her burger. My eyebrows crease in confusion still soaking in some of her stories. She swallows and puts her hand up to explain. “We were all a bunch of fake-o’s in high school and I was the head fake-o. Well, until Kent, he kind of helped me with that a little.”
“Kent, you mentioned him once before,” I say casually. Why am I jealous?
“Yeah, we went on a few dates, we went to the prom. Nothing really happened with us though.” She scrolls through her phone and holds up a picture for me to see. Tessa is wearing a beautiful white gown and has a crown nestled on top of her silky blonde curls. She’s standing next to some skinny burnout with long hair. Not even close to the type of guy I picture her being interested in.
“You were prom queen?”
“No,” she gives a far off sigh. “He was prom king. But he let me wear the crown all night.”
“Sure was nice of him to let you wear his plastic crown,” I say sounding like an absolute dick. “And you didn’t like him?”
“No, I did. I liked him a lot, still do.”
“So, he broke up with you?”
“No, not really, we just both kind of realized we were just friends. I actually just got a text from him a few minutes ago.”
“So technically you’re still going out with him?” Okay, I hear it. Full blow
n jealousy. Not something I’m used to feeling.
“No,” Tessa laughs. “It was a few dates, he was nice, but it just wasn’t there between us. It wasn’t serious.”
“What did his text say?” Holy crap, I have no right to ask that. “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me.”
“No, I’ll tell you.” She holds up her phone and reads. “Hey beautiful, how’s camp?”
I shut my eyes. I don’t know who this guy is but I want to bash his head in for calling her beautiful. “Do you talk to him a lot?”
“No, not really.” She picks up her coffee cup and I see a little smile as she takes a sip. “I mean we do talk sometimes.”
The waitress hands me the check, Tessa reaches her hand out for it. Yeah, sure, I mumble under my breath at her for thinking I might actually hand her the check and walk over to the register to pay. I’m not two feet away when I see Tessa typing into her phone. Is she sending a text to Kent? She looks up, and snaps her head down quick when she sees me watching her and smirks. Jealousy seethes through me.
On the way out of the diner we run into a few girls from camp. Tessa stops to chat for a few minutes. Inquisitive eyes jut back and forth from Tessa to me. They’re all wondering.
Signaling to Tessa I step outside while she continues talking.
A buzz in my pocket, I slip my phone out and read.
Ashley: You don’t need to be jealous over Kent. But you can still pretend. Tessa is enjoying every second of it.
I shake my head and laugh. That gorgeous little pain in the ass wants me to be jealous.
When she meets me outside I keep a straight face. “You might want to let Kent know you’re dating someone now, and let him know it’s serious.” My arm slips territorially over her shoulders. She leans into my side and I hear a little giggle escape. The jealousy I feel is because I’m ready to stake my claim on this girl. I’m ready for her to be all mine.
Not in the mood for a movie, or bowling again and definitely not ready to go back to camp, I drive us over to a trail I’d heard about but never been to. My truck rolls into a spot on the grass and I park under a large tree. The branches hang down low, leaves push up against my front window, blocking out the suns bright light.
“You ready, we can go take a walk, see if this place is any good.” I give her a smile.
“I don’t know.” Tessa lowers her eyes and shrugs. When she looks back up she meets my eyes and pulls in her bottom lip.
I know what that look means. I just don’t know what it means from Tessa. What does she want me to do? The girl leaves me clueless. “We can do whatever you want. You just need to tell me.”
“You’re parked a little close to the tree. Can I get out on your side?”
“Yeah.” The look hadn’t meant anything. I open my door ready to step out, but before I have one foot out she climbs over me stopping once she reaches my lap.
“Sorry,” she breathes, throwing her leg over to the side. Her legs wrap around me and pink moist lips are inches from mine. She wants to be kissed. I slam the door back shut and pull her in. She runs her hands up my arms to my shoulders. The touch of her fingertips is so soft and slow my skin comes alive with actual goose bumps. I’ve never been one for kissing, but Tessa has certainly changed my mind. I feel a finger tracing the outline of my tattoo. She sits back, lifting up my sleeve to take a good look at my lightning bolt. “The boy who lived,” she says in a sexy voice.
“Yup.” I nod my head even though I’ve got no fucking clue what that means. But whatever she thinks my tattoo is all about, I’m gonna let her think it. I relax my arms down at my sides, the safest place for them right about now.
Her lips flutter their way across my cheek. “Mm, that tickles,” she giggles, rubbing her mouth against my course stubble nearly driving me mad. When her lips line back up with mine and they open for a deep kiss, things start progressing. There is no hiding what’s going through my mind. I lift her up away from my lap.
“Are you ready to take this further?” I half ask, half groan.
“No, not yet,” she says shyly. “Why is it all, ya know, excited?” she whispers the last word.
The fact she even has to ask shows how inexperienced she actually is. “Extremely excited,” I state the hard-to-hide fact.
“Are you mad at me?” She leans back on the steering wheel and beeps the horn, making her jump back into me.
“No, I’m not mad you.” I’m not. “There’s no rush.” But how long are we talking here? “It’s fine.” I just won’t be able to walk straight for the next hour or two.
Tessa sits back in her seat, pulling one of her blonde curls over her mouth and frowns. She reaches up for the seatbelt and buckles herself in.
“What are you doing? You don’t feel like checking this place out?” I ask.
Her eyes light up. “You still want to? I figured you would want to take me back to camp.”
This is the part where I’m guessing Josh would end their dates. Well, not me. “Yeah, I still want to. I’m not ready for this date to end.” I open my door and hold it for Tessa to slide across the seat. Once she reaches me I help her down from the truck. She’s beaming.
Fingers intertwined we walk through the secluded trail, stopping for more long sweet kisses along the way. Hours later the sun starts to set and we head back before it gets too dark. It’s funny when we reach the entrance to the trail and realize we haven’t gone quite as far as we thought.
More kisses in my truck, more kisses once we reach the camp parking lot and more kisses in front of her cabin.
“Cassie?” Tessa peeps her head around the door and steps in. “She’s not here. Probably out already. Do you want to come in?”
I follow her inside. More kissing. Tessa pulls me backwards to her bed. Kissing on the bed leads to the deeper, passionate kisses that had riled me up earlier in the day. She moves her leg accidentally brushing up against the rightest wrong spot. I roll away from her groaning. I am so backed up from today. I think it’s time for me to go home and take a long shower.
“It’s okay. I’m ready to go further.” Her voice trembles. The words surprise me.
Isn’t she waiting for love? Does this mean she loves me? This is too soon for love. I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.
“Are you sure?”
Her tongue peeks out and licks her upper lip. She nods nervously.
Maybe it’s from all the kissing, or the way she looks with her hair spread out across the pillow looking up at me with those beautiful blue eyes. No other girl has ever made me feel this way before. Maybe the feelings I feel for her are love? I get up from the bed and slide my wallet from my back pocket. “I’m not sure if I have anything.”
Tessa springs up in the bed. “What are you talking about?”
She doesn’t know about protection. How naïve is this girl?
“Well, we want to be safe,” I say hoping she understands.
“Oh my God, I didn’t mean I wanted to have sex,” she says with a horrified expression.
“You said you were ready to go further.” I’m confused. The frenzied kissing in her bed, alone in her room, what else could it have meant?
“I’m sorry. I thought I was clear about wanting to wait.” She stands up and walks over to the other bed putting distance between us. Her hands cover her face, embarrassed. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”
“You’re killing me Tessa. I told you I’m okay with the waiting. You just confused me is all. I’m not sure what you meant.”
“It’s okay.” She walks over to the door and opens it, ready for me to leave. “I’ll see you around.”
“Around?” I arch my eyebrows up in disbelief at how quick things just turned. Kicking me out and now she’s brushing me off?
“Yeah, whenever,” Tessa lifts her shoulder in a half shrug.
“How about I come get you tomorrow morning, we can go out again?”
“Um, well, me and Cassie we’re going to do some stuff and I have to do
laundry. If I have time I’ll look for you.”
I can’t keep up with all the crazy. This relationship is a constant guessing game. Tessa needs to come with an instruction manual in order for this to work. Actually, you know what…she does.
“Tessa, good night, today was great. Tomorrow if you have time, you look for me. I’ll make sure I’m easy to find.” I give her kooky unreadable face one last look, tip my head and take off stressed, confused and walking funny.
I go directly to my truck, drive down the dark gravelly road until the bars on my phone show me I have service and send the first text.
CHAPTER THREE
Tucker: After a great day with lots of kissing, Tessa told me she was ready to go further. I assumed further meant further. I must have misunderstood. She’s upset… again. What do I do now?
Ashley: Did you think Tessa’s further meant sex? LOL! Did you really think she wanted to go from kissing to sex? In one day? Tessa?????
Tucker: This kind of stuff is new to me. All these feelings I feel for her. I don’t know what she meant when she said further. I don’t even know what’s going on half of the time I’m with her. Why do you think I contacted you?
Ashley: Okay, relax. Best advice I can give you about Tessa is ‘no sudden movements.’ She is like a frightened little deer - any quick move is going to send her running.
Tucker: So then what did she mean by ready to go further?
Ashley: There’s kissing and there’s sex. And then there’s a whole lot of stuff in between. You’ve got to start slow with the stuff in between. It’s all new to her. I’m guessing her ready to go further meant you could touch her boob.
Tucker: Touch her boob? And then what?
Ashley: Touch the other one…if she lets you.
Tucker: Whoa, that slow? This won’t be easy.
Ashley: No, it won’t. If you need more advice, and I’m sure you will, I’m here.
Tucker: What made you change your mind about me?
Ashley: I guess I realized…you’re not like Josh. You’re like me.
Wait (The Fast Series) Page 14
