by Lily Foster
I sat on the floor at her feet and slid one boot off, tracing my fingers down her leg and then went for the other. “You were thinking that I would notice you in this, as if I hadn’t just spent the past six weeks lusting after you?”
Her eyes lit up. “The Dylan Cole, lusting after me?”
I was still on the floor at her feet. I tossed the boots aside and then leaned back and planted my palms on the floor behind me. “I lust after you in sweats and a t-shirt; the slutty shorts were entirely unnecessary.”
She laughed, her smile reaching her eyes. “And they’re uncomfortable.” She stood up and went to get out of the shorts.
“Kasia, wait, I mean, don’t.” I rose up a little and put my hands on her thighs to ease her back onto the bed. “Are you doing this because you think I expect it? I don’t.”
“Maybe I’m doing this because I want to.” She looked at me defiantly and stood up, shimmied out of the shorts and then wriggled a little as she struggled to free her breasts from the tight shirt. When she was down to only lace she sat back down on the bed and looked at me. “Well?”
Kasia
When I saw him walking towards me as I made my way to the party I couldn’t look away from his chest. He was the perfect physical specimen, all hard, lean planes. His hip bones peeked out from his low slung board shorts and my mouth watered thinking about what was situated just a bit lower.
What was the matter with me? Here I was, teetering down the street, dressed like a hooker and now I was fantasizing about tasting him? The whole night was crazy and out of character for me.
Was I acting this way because I was trying to be the girl I thought Dylan wanted? That was the conclusion Dylan came to and, as a result, he tried to put the brakes on us several times that night.
When I sat myself on his bed practically naked, basically begging him to take me, he stood up, raked his hands over his face several times and then went to his closet and grabbed a t-shirt that he proceeded to pull over my head. “What are you doing, Dylan?”
“I’m stopping you from doing something you’re going to regret.”
“I have had half of one drink, Dylan! I know what I’m doing!”
“Shit, Kasia, I want to…I want it to be…”
I slid the t-shirt back up over my head, tossed it aside, and slowly undid the front clasp of my bra. I wasn’t playing fair; I knew I had pretty spectacular breasts. I was kneeling on the bed now, aching for him to come closer. “You’re important to me, Dylan, and I trust you.”
When I said those last three words his demeanor changed. He was quiet for a moment and then smiled at me tenderly as he stood and slowly stripped down to his tight knit boxers. “You trust me?” he asked, and when I nodded, a playful smirk overtook his face as he moved towards the bed. “I trust you too, Kasia,” he teased. “I know you won’t use me, Kasia.” I laughed as he acted the part of innocent damsel. “I know you won’t brag about my giant cock to your friends. I know you won’t just use me for sex.”
We both laughed and then he turned serious as he came and sat on the bed next to where I was kneeling. He gently cupped one breast in his hand. “You’re so beautiful, Kasia. You know that, don’t you? You’re so, so beautiful.” He kissed and laved one nipple and then the other. I couldn’t help it as my knees inched further apart. I wanted him. “Can I touch you, Kasia?” I barely murmured my assent as he slid his fingers between the lace and stroked me. My head fell back and I gripped his shoulders. It wasn’t going to be enough.
“Please, Dylan.”
“I’ve got you, Kasia.”
I reached around him and pushed the little clothing he had on over his ass and down. I moved my hands to him and stroked him. “Dylan, I’ve never wanted this so much. I need you—please.”
In between kisses that he trailed up my neck, reaching that spot right behind my ear, he said, “It’s more than wanting you, Kasia…I love you.” He stilled then, waiting for my reaction.
I felt warmth envelope me as I looked to meet his gaze. “You love me?”
He shrugged. “I do. I’ve never said that before and actually meant it.”
I laughed and slapped his shoulder. “Oh my God, you know how to ruin a moment, you jerk!” He gripped my hips then and nuzzled into my neck again, unwilling to meet my gaze. “Dylan?”
He sounded nervous when he said, “Please don’t say anything, Kasia, unless you’re about to tell me you love me back.”
I laid back on the bed with my thumbs hooked into the side of my panties, readying to lower them down over my hips. “I love you back, Dylan.”
He covered me with his body then and kissed me tenderly as he moved his naked hips against mine. He was sweet, gentle and so loving with me. I didn’t have much experience but it had never been this good. When I woke the next morning, Dylan was stroking his fingers through my hair and looking down at me like…like he loved me.
Chapter Three
Dylan
I don’t hem and haw. I loved her and I wanted to tell her. I knew it the day I said all that shit about my past to her and she didn’t run away from me.
She looked so peaceful and having her in my arms was the best feeling I’d had in years. I was up early and just laid there with her cradled against me, watching her. She kept kicking the sheet away from her body and I kept draping it back over her. It’s not like I hadn’t seen every inch of her up close and personal last night—I had—but it didn’t seem right to look at her body now while she was sleeping like an angel.
I barely heard Justin tap on the door and when he poked his head in he must have gotten a good look at me gazing lovingly at Kasia. I gave him a murderous look while he stood wide-eyed, laughing silently and pointing at me. I didn’t give a fuck about him seeing the emotion on my face, it was that I felt a near-crazy sense of protectiveness over Kasia; I didn’t even want him getting a glimpse of the bare shoulder peeking out above the sheet.
“Hi,” she whispered a little later as she rolled onto her back and looked up at me.
“Hello beautiful, sweet, lovely, Kasia.”
“Dylan, last night was…,” she looked like a tear was forming in the corner of her eye and she stole a breath as she said, “I just want you to know I’m happy, ok?
I let out the breath I was holding, thankful. I’d thought Kasia was getting ready to launch into a regret-filled speech. I squeezed her against me. “I’m happy too, Kasia. I’m really happy.”
That night changed everything. Kasia was my girlfriend and I was all-in. It was an entirely new experience for me. Her hand was in mine whenever I was near her and I basically wanted to breathe her in whenever she was close by. I’d have to remind myself not to constantly pull her body into mine even though the urge to do it was strong. It scared me a little; I wanted her in my bed and the nights she insisted on staying at her place to get some work done I’d give her space until I couldn’t take it anymore and then I’d steal over there late-night just to sink into bed behind her and pull her close. My friends noticed the change in me and although they gave me shit for it, I knew they were pleased to see me this happy.
I was never with a girl who I considered my equal before Kasia. She knew just as much, if not more, about computers and running a web-based business than I did. I loved that she and I could sit and talk about business; I’d never had that with any girl.
Kasia was a self-starter and determined. She worked hard, so unlike the insipid country club princesses I was used to. Those girls made sucking up to me a full-time job in the hopes that they would, one day, be running the social events calendar for the CEO of Cole Industries. Kasia had no interest in what she could gain from me; she saw herself as her own entity.
I found myself already thinking ahead to next year, being in New York with her; Kasia getting her venture off the ground with my help and her supporting me as I made my mark on the family business.
It was a week before Thanksgiving break and the texts were starting to pour in. My Thanksgiving Eve pa
rties had been legend since my sophomore year of high school. My parents and I, plus extended family, always spent Thanksgiving at our place on Martha’s Vineyard. My parents went there a day or two before the holiday to prepare and I went back home to Connecticut, threw what had become our annual high school reunion party, and then made my way to the Vineyard Thanksgiving Day. My best friends from home, Tom Donovan and Ben Miller, helped me set up every year and then I had a cleaning crew come in to restore the house back to its original condition afterwards.
Tom was bringing his girlfriend home with him this year and I wanted Kasia there too. I was pretty sure this was going to be a hard sell; I could tell Kasia’s family was tight and her absence was going to be a problem. “I’ve gotten about fifty texts already about next week.”
“How many people show up to that thing?”
“Over a hundred.”
“Aren’t you afraid your house will get trashed?”
“No. My friends aren’t animals. But I do take precautions. We put everything away, roll up the rugs, cover the couches, the upstairs is absolutely off-limits to everyone except a few of my closest friends; they can bring their hook-ups upstairs, just not to my room or my parents’ room.”
“Ewww!”
I laughed. “It can get pretty crazy.” She was sitting next to me in the cafeteria with most of our crowd at the table. I pulled her over and onto my lap as I nuzzled into her neck. “Please, please come home with me. I want you to meet my friends, Kasia.”
“Dylan, my parents would freak. My mother cooks for a week leading up to Thanksgiving and I help her. I don’t know how she’d react if I told her I wouldn’t be there until Thanksgiving Day.”
“Come on, baby. I’ll have a driver take you down early that morning.”
She hesitated and then looked at me directly. “It’s also that my parents haven’t met you yet. I mean, they don’t think I’m Mother Teresa but I couldn’t be all out in the open about staying with you. I know you probably think that’s ridiculous but they’re traditional.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “It is ridiculous, Kasia.” I was sorry I’d said it that way because she looked hurt then. “Come on, Kasia, I don’t think they’re ridiculous but it’s just that… you’re not a baby. You really can’t come with me?”
“I would like to…I just don’t know.”
With her on my lap, my wood was starting to get obvious and Kasia, thankfully, was no goody-two-shoes. She wriggled her hips, just slightly, not in a way that anyone else would notice, and then she murmured a satisfied sound in my ear. What passed between the two of us was for our ears only. I whispered, “God, what do you do to me, Kasia?”
She whispered back, “Are you staying with me tonight? Val will be with Cooper.”
“How bad do you want it?”
“So badly, Dylan.”
“I’ll satisfy that itch if you promise to at least talk to your parents about coming to the party.”
She flung her head back, exasperated. “You win.”
Kasia
He didn’t realize what he was asking of me. It wasn’t just that I wouldn’t be there for the pre-holiday festivities, it was so much more. Arriving late was tantamount to declaring that I no longer thought that spending time with family was important. It was also the whole idea of dating an outsider. Patryk was practically family. Even if my parents hadn’t directly known his parents, he would have been familiar simply because of our shared heritage. Dylan, on the other hand, was about as foreign to my clan as could be; a definite outsider.
I would be in for it. Not just from my parents but from my brothers too. I did want to go with Dylan, though. I wanted to see who he was at home, with his childhood friends. But the most pressing reason was because I was just finding it harder and harder to be away from him. I was hooked. I would complain to Dylan that he was keeping me from my work and would force myself to go back to my room some nights, but I smiled triumphantly inside when I’d feel him crawl into bed with me in the middle of those nights. Dylan needed me as much as I needed him. I loved him; there was no question about it.
I was nervous as I listened to the phone ring, waiting for one of them to pick up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Tata.”
“Oh, moja kochanie (my sweetheart). How is school this week?”
“It’s good. My business project has been coming along and I have a friend who’s been helping me change some things on my website. It looks better. Have Tomasz show you.”
“I will. This friend, she knows more of computers than you? Hard to believe.”
“My friend is a he and yes, he’s pretty smart, Tata.”
“I see,” he said. My father was now getting out of his comfort zone—he didn’t talk boys with me. “Mama is here, Kasia. I’ll see you next week.”
“Hello, Anielica (angel). I can’t wait to see you! Michal is bringing home a girl for Thanksgiving dinner. Did you know about that?”
“No!” She and I were like two gossiping hens together. “Who is she?”
I could hear pride in her voice as she said, “Another attorney from his firm. Not one about to make junior partner, like him, but obviously a smart young woman.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. My parents were so proud of us that it was a borderline ridiculous. “Do you know her name?” I asked even though I knew that was probably my parents’ first question for Michal. Translation: was she Polish?
“Sophia DeLuca.”
“Pretty name, Sophia. I can’t wait to meet her. I wonder what she looks like.”
“Michal is handsome, Kasia, so I’m sure she’s not zywkly (plain).”
“Mama, you think your boys are perfect!”
“They are.” She was back to business. “I’m starting my shopping tomorrow. What day are you home, Tuesday?”
Her we go. “Mama, I wanted to ask you something. Remember I was telling you about that boy, Dylan?” I’d barely shared anything about him, which was very unlike me. I usually told my mother everything.
“The boy from Connecticut?”
“Yes, Mama. I’ve been dating him for two months.” That was a half-truth. We’d been friends for over two months but it was less than one month that we were officially together. Two months just sounded better, I thought. “Anyway, he has a big party the night before Thanksgiving at his house and he wants me to meet everyone. I would be home first thing Thursday morning, very early.”
“He wants you to meet his parents?” She sounded intrigued.
Another lie fell easily from my lips, “Yes, Mama.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t spoken more about him. Is he special to you?”
I felt warm all over as I answered, “Yes, he’s special.”
She sounded a little wounded as she asked, “When will Tata and I meet him?”
“Soon, Mama, but not this week. His family leaves and goes to Martha’s Vineyard on Thanksgiving Day. Mama, if it will be too hard on you with all the cooking, then I won’t go.”
“Don’t be silly, Kasia, Agata and Natalina will be here to help me. I want you to go.”
“Are you sure, Mama? Will Tata be ok with this?”
“I’ll handle him. But we meet him soon, yes?”
“Yes, Mama. Kocham cie (I love you).”
I practically skipped over to Dylan’s place Sunday night after I got off the phone. As I walked through the door I realized that I no longer felt uneasy being there. I was with Dylan and that granted me the respect and protection of every brother in the house. In the back of my head I still wondered which ones out of them had seen me…in the flesh—ugh—but no one here ever made me feel uncomfortable.
When I walked in I saw Trish plopped on the couch watching a move with Brian. Christian and Melanie were with them, lying down, snuggling on the other couch. I can’t say I was a big fan of Melanie’s. She always looked me up and down whenever she saw me. Today was no exception and a big grin crossed her face after she’d appraised me h
ead to toe. “Here to see lover boy?”
I never made much of an effort with her. “Is that what we’re calling him nowadays?” I turned my attention to Trish and Brian. “Is he upstairs?”
Brian answered as Trish smiled at me, “He’s at the gym, Kasia. He should be back soon, hang out.”
Christian rolled away from Melanie to face me as I sat next to Trish. “So, Kasia, what’s Thanksgiving like at the Mazur house?”
I liked Christian, he was warm and kind. I smiled at him. “Tons of people and tons of food. My mother makes the full turkey dinner and then there’s also every traditional Polish dish you can think of.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It is, Christian. What are your plans?” Christian was from California so it wasn’t a given that he was heading home.
Melanie piped up, possessively, “We’ll be at Dylan’s, of course, and then we head to my country house in Katonah for the weekend with my family.”
“You’re going to Dylan’s party?”
She looked at me like I was clueless. “We go every year. Katonah is like…twenty minutes from New Canaan, Kasia.”
I guess I wasn’t up on the driving distance between two of the most exclusive zip codes on the east coast—my bad. Was she trying to make me feel like an outsider? Yes, I determined after she added, “I’m sure this party will be interesting for you, Kasia.” She was practically smirking. “You are coming, right?”
Christian looked annoyed at her and then gave me a reassuring look. “It’s a good time, Kasia. I hope you can go, Dylan’s counting on it.”
I wished then that I’d never mentioned anything to my mother. Being in my kitchen, peeling potatoes while gossiping with my mom and two aunts? I was now homesick for that. Even being teased unmercifully by my brothers seemed like fun compared to enduring that party. Thanks to Melanie, I was now envisioning Dylan’s high school girlfriends, of which I assumed there were many, fawning over him in front of me. I imagined they were like the girls I went to high school with, wealthy beyond measure and condescending.
