“Jonesy,” I murmured his name as he sunk his fingers into the front of my t-shirt. “You know I care about you, right?” He nodded as a shy smile curled at his lips. “Come on, Bashful. I want to talk to you where it’s quiet.”
I grabbed his hand and dragged him inside the house, where there was no music or strangers drinking my booze. God, the way he was looking at me. This was going to absolutely crush him.
Jones beamed up at me with what I didn’t want to see in those beautiful hazel orbs. “Take me upstairs, Charlie. Put your mouth on me again.” He slid his hands up the front of my chest as he batted his lashes.
“We need to talk first. My father expects things of me. When I go home, when I go back to Boston, there’s a girl waiting for me.” Jones’s face fell, and he took a step away from me. “Let me finish before you jump to conclusions.”
He shook his head. “Are you telling me that you have a girlfriend, Charlie?”
“No, I don’t. Jones, listen to me.” I reached for his hands, only for him to slap me away. “My father expects me to be with her. She’s from a proper family, like I am. But I don’t want to be with her. I want to be with you.”
Jones looked completely broken. Like a five-year-old who just learned there was no Santa or Easter bunny. His chin began to quiver as he stared at me, then tears began to stream down his flawless face.
“What are you saying, Charlie? That you’re promised to this girl? That she’s your future?”
“Yes, in a way.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
I grabbed his shirt and spun him back toward me before Jones could run away. “I don’t want her, Bashful. I want you. I want to be with you all the time. You’re inside my head. I want to kiss you, touch you, fuck you. I only want you!”
“Does Mama know this?” Jones asked. When I nodded, he dropped to the floor. “That’s why she told me to stay away from you. Not because she didn’t want me to be with you, but because she knew you were already taken. That I was going to end up hurt.”
I climbed down next to him. “We can run away together.” I cupped his head in my hands. “I have money. My father is rich, but my mother is richer.”
“I can’t...You do?” Jones looked like he was thinking about it for a moment. “Charlie, I can’t leave. I want to be a NASCAR driver. How is that going to happen if I just take off and leave everything behind?”
I kissed him, fully expecting Jones to push me away. His lips tasted salty like the tears he was crying, but he opened his mouth for me, and a soft moan escaped. I slipped my tongue inside. His hands found their way into my hair, threading into my dark tresses as I pushed him down onto his back.
I wanted him. I didn’t care what my father expected of me, because Jones was the one I was going to have. Not Beverly Ashford, who was the girl I was expected to marry, have babies with, and spend my life with. She didn’t know me. She didn’t smell like a warm summer day or taste like fruit or make me laugh. She didn’t blush or say things like fudge or gosh. She didn’t have a beautiful smile that lit up my insides so hard I thought they might explode. No, Jones Matthews was the one I wanted to marry. To have babies with, because I—
“Charlie.” He whimpered my name. “We should go upstairs before someone sees us.”
Jones was right.
“Come on.”
I helped him to his feet and practically dragged him upstairs to my room. The moment I shut the door; he was on me again. He slipped his hands under my shirt, causing goosebumps to break out over my skin.
“Jesus, Bashful. Slow down.”
“I can’t. You’re going to leave me, go off to some snooty rich blonde girl, and I’ll...” He sank his teeth into his fat bottom lip. “You’re not going to ever be mine, not really. Are you, Charlie? You can say we’re boyfriends, and we might be for the summer, but when you go back to Boston, you’ll be hers. You’ll hold her hand, you’ll kiss her, and someday, you’ll put your mouth on her down there like you did to me.”
I raised my hand up to grip Jones’s neck. “No.” I started to walk him backward to my bed. “I’m yours.”
“Are you a virgin, Charlie?”
“When it comes to boys, I am. I’ve never had sex with one before.”
Jones barked out a dry laugh. “Do you want to touch me like that? Put your penis inside me? Because I’d let you. I’d let you do anything you wanted to me. Right now.”
“I want that so fucking much, Bashful. You have no idea. But not tonight.” I wanted to make him come, lick his skin and body all over. Leave little bite marks all over him. But I wasn’t going to fuck Jones tonight.
Hurt flashed in his hazels. “Why not? Am I not pretty enough for you? Are my eyes the wrong color? My hair? What? I can’t change everything about myself, Charlie, but I can change some things that you don’t like.”
“Jones!” I shouted. “I want you! You think if I fuck you that’s going to change things? Is that what you want?”
I shoved away from him and stalked over to my dresser. I dug around to find the condoms and lube, then tossed them onto the bed.
