by Amanda Heath
The kiss couldn’t have been more than ten seconds, but it felt like forever. I can’t believe that I kissed Harley Maxton. The girl who snuck in my house and put fire ants in my bed in the seventh grade or who cut the butt out of my gym shorts in the tenth grade. We have always been at each other’s throats and I can’t wrap my head around what just happened.
I walk into my house in a daze. I can barely hear my mom talking to me as I head to my room. “Not now, Mom,” I say to her.
“Yes, now!” She yells at me and I turn toward her. “We need to talk right now.”
“I already know that you and Mr. Maxton are screwing. I ran into Harley, who was pretty upset about it. She said we would be moving in with them in a week. No need to talk. I don’t like it, but if I want somewhere to sleep this summer I’ll have to go along with it.” I nod and head to my room still in a daze.
It had to be the tears. That’s the only reason I can think of. I guess she finally looked like a human being to me. I’ve always seen the bitchy and cool façade that she uses in front of anybody she’s not close to. I’ve always thought she was hot, but I guess this made her look normal. I kind of wanted to wipe those tears away from her gorgeous face and hold her to me. Yeah, it’s going to be really hard to keep my hands to myself now that I know what she feels like up against me. I have spent most of my teen years jacking off to images of her in my head.
I have no idea why I’m having these thoughts. She pisses me off to no end. Always has something smart to say. She thinks she is better than everyone except her little posse. I can’t believe that I kissed her. I’m such a fucking idiot. She’s never going to let me live it down. Well, two can play that game. Not only did she kiss me back, she let out those sexy little moans when I grabbed her ass.
I do believe things just got interesting.
Chapter 3
Harley
“Can I tell you something without you freaking out completely?” I ask my friend Lucy.
“Sure. I’m all ears,” she nods.
“I kind of sort of made out with Spencer Grady the other day.” I cringe as the words leave my mouth.
She doesn’t say anything, so I turn to look at her. Her mouth is shaped like an O and her brown eyes are huge, giving the impression of a deer caught in headlights.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the reaction Paige and Carter had.” I keep staring at her, hoping she will say something soon. I hope she doesn’t have the same response as my other two friends.
“I’m surprised that you let him get that close to you. I’m not surprised that it happened.” Damn, of course she said the same thing they did!
“Why aren’t y’all surprised that we made out? I mean we do hate each other,” I huff.
“Well, for one, you two have been looking at each other like you want to rip the other’s clothes off since, I don’t know, the 8th grade?.” She looks at me with a hopeful expression; hopeful that I won’t blow up on her.
“We have not. I can’t believe that everyone thinks we have the hots for each other.” I glare at her and punch one of the pillows on my bed.
“You do have the hots for each other. Carter, Paige, and I have been placing bets on when you two would finally hook up. Carter is winning.” She smiles at my hateful look and goes on, “She didn’t think it would happen till this summer. She almost lost because he wasn’t supposed to be back.”
“I wish he hadn’t come back. I’m happy for my dad, and everything, but I have to live in this house with Spencer because of it. This will be the longest three months of my life.” I fall back on my bed, staring up at the plastic glow in the dark stars I put on the ceiling years ago.
Lucy lies down beside me before speaking. “It’s not that bad, Harley. At least you will have his hot body to enjoy the whole time.” I face her and she waggles her eyebrows.
“Gross! He doesn’t have a hot body. All that’s good looking about him is washed away when he opens his mouth,” I tell her, hoping she doesn’t see through my lie.
“Just admit that you liked kissing him. It turned you on,” she says after propping her head on her hand.
“Ugh, yes, I liked it. I liked far more than I ever thought I could. He got all close and personal with it, made me feel like he was trying to devour me.” I shiver at the memory of our ten-second, heated kiss.
“Hun, that’s what kissing does, makes you get all close and personal,” she says to me.
“Duh, I know that. That’s not what I meant. When other guys have kissed me, they left space between our bodies. Spencer didn’t do that. He pulled me into his chest before his lips even touched mine. Then he grabbed my ass and pulled me even closer.” I have never liked to be man handled, so when he did that I was surprised how hot it made me.
“Wow, that’s really awesome. I would love to be grabbed up like that and devoured.” She gets this faraway look in her eyes. “Mason Hebert kissed me before you got home from college. It was amazing, but he didn’t do what Spencer did.”
“Mason Hebert? As in: the really hot skater dude that never talks?” My face pinches up in confusion as I look at her.
“Yeah, he doesn’t talk a lot…really, at all. It was totally weird, too. Not bad weird, good weird. I ran into him with my car while he was skating across the street. It was totally my fault, mind you. He just sat there and stared at me when I got out to check on him. So, I started getting angry, you know, because he wouldn’t answer me. I yelled at him and I almost cussed him out, but he pulled me down on top of him. I was so shocked, it didn’t even register that his lips were on mine till I felt his tongue in my mouth. You know, you wouldn’t think it, but he’s really cocky. He said ‘I’m better now’ when it was over. Then helped me off the ground and skated off. I swear, I sat there with this dumbass look on my face for ten whole minutes.” She nods her head at the end for emphasis.
“Wow that is weird. You should totally show up at his house and bang his brains out. He wants you,” I tell her with a chuckle.
“I’ll go to his house and bang his brains out if you bang Spencer.” Oh shit, now I’m in trouble. You can’t back down from a bet with Lucy for anything.
“No, Lucy, I’m not going to bang Spencer. I would end up with an STD or something.” I hope she sees reason in my answer.
“No, you will. Before the summer is over, you will have slept with him. You need to get laid. I know you didn’t while you were at college and Ted’s family moved off to Texas or something so you can’t call him,” she smirks.
When I was a senior in high school, I got tired of being the only virgin. Well…besides Paige. So I made a “friends with benefits” deal with Ted. We didn’t do it a lot, but he was nice to call when you really needed to scratch an itch. “I know they moved. I talk to him on Facebook.” Ugh, she is trying to talk me into sleeping with Spencer. “I’m not going to do it with Spencer just because I’m horny. I can’t stand the guy at all.”
“Even better; No strings attached. Just tag him and bag him and leave in the morning. If you have no emotions toward him other than lust and hate it won’t be hard to shut the door in his face later.”
I’m starting to see her logic. If I don’t care about him, then I can just walk away later and not have to even think about it again. This could actually be fun.
I hear the front door crash in and male voices. I get up to go investigate. My room is at the back of the house and I travel down the long hallway to the living room. Spencer is standing in the doorway of my house with no shirt on, covered in sweat. Lucy walks up beside me and I say, “Yeah, I’m going to bang him.”
Spencer
“Okay, was it just me or was Harley looking at me like I was a piece of meat?” I ask Dean.
We are done getting all of my mom’s crap into the Maxton household. After taking a quick shower, I grabbed us some drinks and we settled down in my new bedroom. I’ve got the bed pushed up against one of the hunter green walls and my dresser is next to the closet door, which is on the oppo
site side of the bed. The floors are hardwood and my mom laid out a rug to match the walls. I also inherited a white couch to sit on and a new TV. I guess my mom’s way of apologizing for not telling me about Mr. Maxton, or Richard, as he asked me to call him.
“Yeah, she was looking like you would look good naked up against her. I guess she liked your kiss more than you thought she did.” He waggles his eyebrows from his position on the couch.
“Well, I liked it a whole hell of a lot, so I have no idea what that says about me. How can you be so attracted to someone you can’t fucking stand?” I ask him seriously.
“The only reason you two fight like you do is because you have the same personality. You both lost one parent at an early age and you close yourselves off from others. You never have with me, but that’s because we get each other. Same with Harley, her girls get her and she doesn’t have to hide behind her walls with them. They would call her out for her shit. You’re both loners to a point. You go out in public with a group of friends and you even engage in activities, but you don’t let anybody see the real you. Neither one of you has been in a serious relationship.” I give him a pointed look. “Marissa doesn’t count because you were only with her for like, what, a month? What did she really know about you? Nothing.” He picks up a baseball from its place on my dresser.
“How in the hell did you get so smart?” I’ve never heard him talk like this. It’s almost scary. Dean has always been a bad boy player type of guy. He has several tattoos and piercings and he can play the guitar with the best of them. He never sleeps with a girl more than once and he never calls them again either.
“I’m majoring in psychology, remember? I enjoy this kind of thing.” He smirks at me, throwing the baseball up into the air and catching it.
“I know you are. It’s just that I haven’t ever heard you use what you have learned before now,” I chuckle as I lay back on my bed.
“I’ll tell you something else. You need to just sleep with her. You’re going to be obsessing over your kiss and shit until you get her out of your system. The way she was looking at you earlier, I say it won’t be that hard to get in her pants.” He waggles his eyebrows again.
“I’ve wanted to get in her pants for years. She’s great from afar but, up close? Not so much. I kind of want to tape her mouth closed so I can admire her up close.” I laugh softly to myself.
“Well, just shut her up with your mouth and tongue and you won’t have that problem. Hell, if you’re even good at it, you can get her to stop being a complete bitch for a whole day.” We both laugh out loudly at this. Harley would never “not be a bitch.”
There’s a knock on my door and I yell for the visitor to enter. In walks the devil herself. She steps just inside my doorway and looks at me. She clasps her hand behind her back and I can’t help but to think she is nervous. “Umm…can we talk?” She asks me quietly.
I look over at Dean and he winks at me before getting up off my couch. “I’ll catch you later, dude,” he says to me.
He stops next to Harley, who looks him in the eye “See you around, Dean. Oh, by the way, if you ever say some shit like that to Paige again I will kick your ass. Do you understand me?” She isn’t tall by any means, but she still looks intimidating.
“Tell her to stop trying to play with the big boys when she isn’t ready for one.” He smirks down at her before walking out of the house.
“What was that about?” I ask her.
“None of your business.” She scowls at me. Oh joy, this is working out so well already.
I sit up on my bed and pat the empty space next to me. She eyes it and I think she is going to turn it down but she surprises me and sits down. “So what do you want to talk about?” I ask her.
“I wanted to know why you kissed me. I can’t seem to wrap my head around it.” She places her hand right next to mine and my skin tingles where we are touching.
“I kissed you because I wanted too. I’ve wanted to kiss you since we were five. You just never gave me the chance before,” I pause, shaking my head. “You had me so pissed off that day. I wanted to shake some sense into you. Instead, when I touched you, I had the overwhelming urge to just take what I wanted. You let me and I’m still shocked.”
“I didn’t realize that your thoughts went that deep or that you could even feel deep emotions. I’m impressed, Spencer.” She gives me a mocking smile after saying this.
“You know what? I was just nice to you for the second time in my life and that’s all I get? Fuck you, Harley. Get out of my room.” I glare at her before getting off the bed and opening the door to usher her out.
“Oh, did I hurt your feelings? I’m sorry, you itty bitty baby.” She pretends to rub her eyes with her hands like a young child would.
I walk over to her and stand in her personal space. “Yeah, well I wasn’t an itty bitty baby when I had you pressed up against my dick while you moaned,” I whisper into her ear.
She shivers and her hands move up to my chest sending a wild thrill through me. “Yeah, that was pretty itty bitty, too,” she whispers back. Then, she punches me in the balls.
I double over groaning, “Ouch! I can’t believe you fucking did that! You fucking bitch!”
She bends until her lips are level with my ear, “This is what you get for being a total fucking asshole. I heard every word that you and Dean said.” Then she is straightening up and walking out of my door.
Well, there went that idea.
Chapter 4
Harley
That is why I shouldn’t listen to any of my friends. They will lead you down a path of destruction. I can’t believe that I was even thinking of sleeping with Spencer. I know he’s a total asshole, but that was a little harsh. I can’t get this feeling of hurt to leave when I recall the sound of his laughter. He has said and done some pretty awful things to me before but I’ve never cared. I guess he’s getting enjoyment out of getting under my skin.
“Honey, do you want some dinner?” My dad startles me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute,” I reply, sitting up on my bed. He nods and heads back to the kitchen.
Ugh, now I have to spend thirty minutes at the dinner table with the king of dirt bags himself. I can’t believe that I’m still so freaking pissed off about earlier. I mean, what did I really expect from him? Well, I’m going to make him feel even worse.
I run to my closet and pull out a see-thru camisole top and one of my shortest pair of shorts. My butt cheeks practically hang out of them. I’m pretty sure Spencer is an ass man.
I head into the kitchen after changing. I’m not disappointed when Spencer spits out his drink when I walk into the room. Score: Harley-1, Spencer-0.
“Harley Catherine Maxton, what in the world are you wearing?” My father asks heatedly.
“Ummm….clothes?” He has seen me in worse. I mean, come on!
“I do realize that you are dressed, but do you realize that you look like a…” he trails off.
“Harlot?” Spencer pipes up. Score: Harley-1, Spencer-1.
Mrs. Grady, Polly as she asked me to call her, slaps him in the back of the head. “I think you look fine, dear. It’s abnormally hot. If I looked half as good as you, I’d be wearing the same thing.” She winks at me.
My dad and Spencer scowl at her. Well, Spencer looks like he is going to be sick. I think I’m going to love having Polly around.
I sit down and we all begin eating. Polly made cold turkey subs with seafood salad and potato chips. Spencer inhales all his food in record time. I really hate the male species.
“We are headed on a mini vacation tonight,” my dad says between bites. “I realize y’all are grown, but I just wanted you to know that we won’t be back till Monday at the earliest.”
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Headed up to the mountains; No one has been up to the cabin in a long time, so Polly and I decided to get away for a while.” He smiles at her, and I smile when she blushes.
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“This is pretty gross,” Spencer butts in.
“No, it’s not! It’s really sweet. Don’t you want your momma to have a good time?” I have had about enough of his stupid attitude.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear about their romantic weekend away.” I roll my eyes at him and finish eating my dinner.
*****
For as long as I can remember I have been terrified of storms. They freak me smooth the heck out. I used to run to my dad’s room when I was little. Hell, I actually did that up until I went off to college. I had a roommate then and I wasn’t so scared.
This is why I find myself sitting in the middle of my bed cradling one of my stuff animals. It’s a cat that my dad got for me for my 6th birthday. It’s dirty and frayed, but it still makes me feel a tiny bit better.
A flash of lighting and the boom of thunder startle a scream out of me. Shit. I hear Spencer running down the hallway where he bursts into my room. “What’s going on?” He asks looking around for something.
“Umm…I’m scared of storms,” I tell him sheepishly.
“So, you screamed because of the thunder? What are you, like, five?” He rolls his eyes at me before turning to go.
“Wait!” I yell out. “Umm…could you stay with me till it passes?” I ask. I so feel a blush hit my cheeks.
