by Piper Shelly
“Nope, it probably won’t.” Suddenly, a memory from the morning after camping resurfaced. “Why did you call me Bungee yesterday?”
Tony took a deep breath, staring me straight in the eye. Had I been too personal again? But this was about me and not Liza. I was positive he’d come out with the truth just then, but at the same moment he opened his mouth, Caroline Jackson called me.
“Samantha, if you’re done with your picture, would you like to ride Jostle? I think he’d enjoy a little more exercise.”
My eyes widened at her offer. “I’d love to!”
“His harness is in the stable, the first box on the right. You can go with or without saddle, up to you.”
Was she kidding me? Without! I rose from the grass, dusting off my behind, then I beamed down at Tony. “Are you okay if I go horse-riding for a bit? I mean, we’re not in a hurry to get back, are we?”
“Not at all.”
Without another word, I rushed into the stables and found Jostle’s harness in a locker next to the wide rolling gate. As I spun, full of anticipation, I found Tony at the entrance. His hands had disappeared in his pockets as he leaned with one shoulder against the gate.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Ride that beast?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”
It was hard to tell if he wanted to taunt me again or if he really was worried about me when he let his smirk slip. “Because he’s so big. And you’re so…well…” His voice changed to a wry rumble. “You’re tiny.”
I laughed at that, but in an instant I had jumped onto the cube of pressed hay next to him, held onto the metal bars of the gate and leaned into his face. “Look me in the eye and say that again,” I teased him in a growl.
Our noses almost rubbed against each other. The feeling I got then was weird. My heart sped up, my stomach felt like it took a ride in the washing machine, and my breathing hitched. I knew this feeling. I’d had it last before I’d been kissed for the first time.
Tony chuckled, disarming the situation. “Crazy little girl.” He reached out for the rein in my hand and pulled me down from the cube, then out to the paddock again, as if I was his horse and he was my master.
A little disappointed, I followed him, but that feeling vanished as soon as Caroline Jackson had me harness Jostle and Tony came to help me onto the horse’s back. He held me by my ankle.
“On three,” he said, then counted quickly and catapulted me upward. He shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked up at me. “Feel good?”
I nodded. Jostle’s shoulders were level with the top of Tony’s head, but I wasn’t afraid of horses, small or big ones. It had been years since I’d last sat on one, but riding sure was something you didn’t forget.
Miss Jackson walked with me for a couple of minutes, but when she saw that I could handle Jostle well on my own, she removed the lunge line.
Tony went back to the apple tree and I tapped the stallion softly with my heels, spurring him on. The horse snorted and moved in long strides across the paddock. Reacting excellently to the light pressure of my legs, Jostle let me steer him in a wide circle, then a lying eight, and finally we galloped from one end to the other and back.
A few times I glanced over at Tony. He had grabbed my sketchpad and was idly doodling on it. I didn’t mind. As long as he was occupied, I didn’t have to have a bad conscience for having fun while he had to wait for me. It wasn’t long, though, before he seemed to grow bored of doodling and came over to the fence. He sat on the top batten, placing his feet on the middle one, and leaned his elbows on his thighs.
I reined Jostle in to a casual walk and rode toward Tony. He turned his head from one side to the other as we passed him, locking gazes with me.
“Are you bored?” I asked him after another round, when Caroline had walked back to the house.
“A little,” he confessed. “But you seem to be having the time of your life.”
Smiling back over my shoulder when I was already ten meters away, I said more loudly, “At least the best time since I came back to Grover Beach.” I nudged the stallion with my heels and raced him across the pasture once more, then I slowed him down in front of Tony and got ready to dismount.
I leaned forward and swung my leg over Jostle’s back. When I slid down, strong hands grabbed me at either side of my waist and coaxed a surprised gasp from me. Tony gently set me down on my feet.
I turned to him, the corners of my mouth lifting. “You think I’m too tiny to manage anything on my own, don’t you?”
I was prepared for a mocking comeback, but not for his soft, intense look. “No,” he answered. “I thought your leg might trouble you again if you jumped down.”
Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. “Thanks,” I said, lower than before.
In the distance we heard the first rumble of thunder. It was still miles away, but it reminded me of the fairy wood he wanted to show me. “Do you think we can make it into the woods and back home before it starts to rain?”
“Possibly. If we follow the path through the woods, we’ll get back to town from a different side. The distance is the same, so it doesn’t matter which way we go.”
Clasping Jostle’s rein behind my back, I rocked back and forth on my heels, grinning. “Sounds like a plan.”
After I had freed the stallion from the harness and sent him back to his companions, we found Caroline Jackson inside and said goodbye. When she shook my hand, I told her thanks for giving me the chance to ride a horse again. She invited me to come back with Tony anytime I wanted, but I doubted that was going to happen.
While Tony got his bike, I went back to the apple tree and grabbed my backpack. Then we strolled toward the woods behind Miss Jackson’s property. The sky was darkening by the minute, but I didn’t intend to stay much longer. I just wanted to see what inspired this boy.
About half a mile into the woods, Tony leaned his mountain bike against a chestnut tree. “We’re going to climb up there.” He pointed toward a rock face ahead. “If you’re not carrying money in that bag, I suggest you leave it here.”
Taking out my cell phone and tucking it into my pocket, I parked my backpack behind his front tire and followed him through the brush toward the rock face. Though it was steep and at least twenty feet high, Tony didn’t hesitate to climb it. There were narrow treads every here and there and roots sprouting from cracks in the rock that one could grip for a better hold.
The lower half obviously was the easier part, and before going on, Tony waited for me on a small platform covered with moss and grass. He reached down, I took his hand, and he hauled me up to him.
With the momentum of the tug, I bumped into him, bracing myself against his chest. He steadied me with a gentle grip on my upper arms.
His pecs twitched under my palms and he tilted his face down to me. I gazed into blue eyes that stood out against the gray rock face behind him. The same butterfly sensation I’d had in the stables returned with such impact that I felt like the ground was slipping away beneath my feet.
But this time something was different. Tony didn’t defuse the fire he ignited in me but seemed intent to fuel it with a single soft whisper. “Careful.”
About what? Tipping…or getting too close and playing with fire?
The thunder rolling in the distance seemed to come closer, but I didn’t care. My heart banged against my ribcage, totally out of control. So much for refusing to fall for this guy.
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, then released it, breathing a little harder. Oh damn, could he pull me that last inch toward him now and kiss me, please? I was aching for it.
Tony blinked. Once. Twice. Then he closed his eyes and a deep sigh escaped him.
No, he wasn’t going to kiss me. Not now or ever…
TONY
She was all, Kiss me! Kiss me, Tony! Frankly, I had no idea what stopped me. All I knew was that I took a deep breath, clenching my teeth, then I l
et go of Sam and took a small step back. As far as the wall of solid rock behind me allowed.
Her mouth fell open, her dark brown eyes turned wide like those of the stallion she’d been riding before. Her nostrils flared slightly.
Fuck, I’d hurt her.
Again, a grumpy voice inside my head pointed out. Yeah, I could do that like no one else. What surprised me was that she would let me kiss her after all the crap that had been going on between us since the day of her arrival. One might think she would shove me off the cliff the first chance she got.
But for a reason I couldn’t explain to myself, she didn’t. The girl just stood in front of me with saggy shoulders and an expression that tugged at my heart. Ow.
The good thing was, by now I knew how easily distracted Sam could get and I seized the chance. “Turn around,” I told her as softly as possible without letting my frustration at my hesitation slip into my voice.
Her brows quirked. “Hmm?”
I nodded at the landscape behind her without breaking eye contact, and this time she looked hesitantly over her shoulder. Then she spun around and gasped.
Mission accomplished. Samantha Summers was sucked into the beauty of the fascinating scenery before her and had forgotten all about me. Why did this make me ache to hold her again?
Pressing my back against the wall, I raked my hands through my hair and cut a scornful look skyward. This couldn’t be true. I was attracted to Sam Summers. Another Summers out of all the girls in town. This was crazy. Shit, what was it about me and the women of her family that I couldn’t keep my distance from them?
Sam half-turned back to me…and smiled.
Unfair! I wanted to scream at her.
“This is just beautiful,” she breathed.
I pressed my lips together, forcing a tight smile, and lifted my brows quickly, tilting my head.
Sam gazed down at the multitude of trees, bushes, flowers, roots, and moss again. “It looks just like a page ripped out of a storybook. What an enchanting place.” She was so immersed in the view that she didn’t notice the first few drops of rain falling on her head. Only when the rain quickly got harder did she look up at the sky and wipe the drops away from her face. “I guess we missed our chance to get home dry.”
How right she was proved ten seconds later as the sky opened its gates and a downpour washed over us.
Ducking her head, Sam shrieked and giggled at the same time. She was the only girl I knew who could do that and still sound lovely. With a wry expression on her face, she turned questioning eyes at me. “What do we do now?”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward me, then pointed at some sort of a man-high crack in the rock face a few feet above us. “You get up there and hide in the cave,” I said loudly enough for her to hear me over the rain.
Helping her climb the first two steps, I made her move. But when I let go of her and jumped down from the ledge, she stopped, looked back at me, and shouted, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll get your backpack!” With the rain coming down like this, her drawing would be ruined within minutes.
Little runs formed quickly at both sides of the path. I almost slipped on the soft ground. By the time I arrived by the tree where I had left my bike and Sam had left her bag, my shirt clung to me like a second, nastily wet skin. I strapped the dark red backpack over my shoulders and darted back to the rock face, scaling toward the cave where Sam waited.
The hiding place was a narrow crack in the surface, barely broad enough for two. To get there, I had to climb a few steps higher, then jump down a meter onto the ledge. Sam had stepped back as far as she could, standing on a small rock. I reached her slightly out of breath and braced my impact with my palms at either side of her head.
She gasped as I stopped inches before her face.
Water dripped from my hair, down her sweet snub nose. A taunting drop wanted to be kissed away. Oh man. Why did this girl tempt me so sorely?
She wasn’t Liza, I tried to argue with myself, but the cousin of the girl who was going to ruin my last years at high school with a lie. I couldn’t trust Sam. Didn’t want to.
But I wanted to fucking kiss those sensual lips.
Aware that I hadn’t moved for the last half minute but only stared into Sam’s big brown eyes, I dipped my chin a little. Just so much that the tip of my nose brushed that rain drop away from hers.
Sam’s breathing sped up. Almost at eye level with her, I could feel it warm and soft on my chilled skin. Her hands touched my chest, uncertain and light.
“You shouldn’t do this,” she said, her voice a shaky whisper.
I shouldn’t kiss her? “Why not?” Leaning in just a little more, I sounded gentler than I thought I could. Skimming the tip of my nose across Sam’s cheekbone now, I closed my eyes and inhaled the fruity scent of her hair.
Her lips brushing against my cheek ignited a sensual shiver down my back as she answered, “Because you don’t really want it.”
Two minutes ago I might have agreed. But right now I couldn’t imagine anything I would rather do than kiss her. Just one short nip of that luscious bottom lip. Then I would pull back. And everything would be fine.
“Do you want it?” I breathed and placed a tender kiss on the soft spot behind her ear.
Sam stilled, then she sighed, slipping her fingers underneath the straps of her backpack. “That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on inside you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“See, that’s the problem,” she almost whined. “You’re confusing me. Everything you say seems to be at war with everything you do. This really is a bad idea.” In spite of her words, she leaned into me, pressing her cheek against mine. In God’s name, who was the hypocrite now?
Her skin felt velvety soft, tempting me to nibble a path along her jaw. “You sound like you’ve never done anything stupid in your life,” I whispered in her ear.
“Not like this. I think it would change too much…for me.”
My palms still solidly placed against the rock behind her, I touched my brow to hers and looked her in the eye. “You think too much, Bungee.” And with that, I was done talking. I tilted my head and brushed my lips against hers, leaving her no choice.
She wanted it. I wanted it. Who was going to stop me?
I took her bottom lip between my teeth and gently sucked. Sweeping my tongue across it, I tasted the cherry lollipop, getting lost in her soft moan.
Just one little kiss. Nothing was going to change. We would still be friends tomorrow. Not more. Nothing. Would. Change.
Ignoring her weak protest, I took her hands in mine and moved them away from my chest, lacing my fingers through hers. Feeling her soft hands made me fully aware of how fragile and small she really was. A girl who needed to be protected…from idiots like me.
What the fuck was I doing? I didn’t want a girlfriend. Especially not Cloey’s cousin.
Sam tasted wonderful, but I had to stop it now, or I wouldn’t be able to in another moment. Just when she opened her mouth at my gentle demand and the tips of our tongues brushed against each other, I pulled back, struggling to catch my breath.
This. Was. So. Wrong.
CHAPTER 14
His mouth was on mine. I didn’t want to give in, but I could do nothing to stop myself. My eyes closed, and I tilted my face just that last little bit to meet his gentle lips.
Tony stroked the inside of my wrists with his thumbs, then pulled my hands away from him. His fingers laced through mine, and he tightened his hold.
My knees turned rubbery. In my stomach a nest of butterflies broke loose. But inwardly I raged. It felt so beautiful for me, while for Tony…this was only a game. After his last rebuff only minutes ago, it was clear the kiss didn’t mean half as much to him as it did to me. I was going to be the loser in this gamble. Because I had put my heart on the line.
But he wouldn’t stop kissin
g me.
His tongue stroked a seductive path along my bottom lip, then he easily worked my mouth open, our lips moving together in a soft rhythm. So effortlessly, he had me giving it all.
Our tongues touched, slid against each other. It set my body on a flaming tickle that centered at the base of my belly.
And then, it was over. Just like that. Tony had pulled away. Utter shock gleamed in his eyes, like he’d come to his senses, and I got what I deserved for being so stupid. My heart fell and fell until I could have stomped on it with my feet. Or Anthony Mitchell could—because he actually was right now.
There you go, Sam. Happy now?
He released my hands and raked his fingers through his wet hair, turning toward the forest and then back to me. “Ah, Sam…listen—”
“No,” I cut him off, almost in a panic. “Just—don’t—say anything.” I didn’t want to hear his apologies or darn excuses for a moment that was so beautiful. It wasn’t his fault alone. I should have known better. After all, it was Liza he wanted. Not me.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to push back my hurt before it overcame me. Then I shrugged and even smiled. “We kissed. It doesn’t have to happen again. It’s all right.”
Tony hesitated. He didn’t show any of my forced nonchalance. But eventually he nodded.
I stepped off the rock, leaving the comfort zone of Tony’s eye level, and walked out into the rain that had ceased to a drizzle in the past couple of minutes. Climbing down the rock face, I looked up at him between watching my step. “Just don’t go back to being an asshole,” I begged with a warning note in my voice.
A sly smile appeared on his face. Finally. “Can I call you tiny?”
Refusing to flip him the bird, I stuck my tongue out at him instead. “If you want me to kick your shin, go ahead!”
My feet touched the ground, and Tony was down two seconds after me. We walked to his bike, but instead of mounting it, he looked both ways along the path, deliberating. “Are you cold?” he asked me. “If you want, we can go back to Carry’s house and wait until the rain stops.”
