He sucks on a piece of my skin. “Yeah…” He bites the same area, pulling.
I moan. “Did you bring any…you know…protection.”
Bennett stops kissing my neck and I immediately regret the question. My need to keep going too high. “You mean a condom?”
“Yeah, one of those.” I pull on his shirt, not letting him get far away.
“Anessa, I’ve been more prepared than a Boy Scout since the first moment I saw you.”
Well that’s interesting to know, but I don’t necessarily have time to work out what it means.
“Are you sure you want to?”
“Positive.” I start working to unbutton his flannel shirt, more than ready to have Bennett naked in front of me.
He drops forward rifling through his backpack, and I work my way further down. When he returns he lines his body back on top of mine. Bennett drops the foil package next my head and for a few seconds simply stares into my eyes.
His hand carves a short path down the side of my face while he cups my cheek to align my head with the rest of his palm. “You are so beautiful.”
The undivided attention of the hot guy on top of my body makes me nervous and I laugh, not able to believe his words. The final button pops through the material and I spread my hands against his chest. I can’t wait another second before I touch him. My excitement builds at my ability to turn fantasies with Bennett into life. I’d never imagined it would be possible.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You can tell us if you did. We won’t judge you.” Katy taps Tabitha on the shoulder and both girls nod their heads doing their best to look innocent.
“They’re lying to you. Katy will ask one thousand embarrassing follow-up questions.” The fourth person at our table shakes her head, giving me advice I already know.
Katy scoffs, the main lights in the town’s newest bar casting weird shadows on her face. “Winnie! I can’t believe you say such lies about me.”
“I can’t believe you’d deny it?” Winnie, not at all perturbed by Katy’s comment, pulls a piece of her long blonde hair behind her ear. She slowly blinks, her green eyes telling Katy she’s not buying any of it. “I’m not warning her of anything she didn’t already know. Am I?” She looks to me with the question.
“No,” I respond. Katy would probably ask me to draw a diagram of what Bennett and I did.
“See?” Winnie tips up a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. One of Katy’s high school friends who now lives in Vegas, she’s back in Pelican Bay for a few days visiting family, and I love her. She could totally be one of the girls if she didn’t live so far away.
Katy takes a sip of her drink, sucking the last of the liquid from the bottom. “Fine, you don’t need to tell us. Every woman at this table knows you had sex with Bennett on your date yesterday. You’re glowing.”
I roll my eyes, but quickly hide the smile that creeps up with my glass as I pretend to drink.
Tabitha doesn’t buy it from the way her eyebrows wing up, and she tilts her head in my direction. She may wait to ask me until later, but there’s definitely questions coming eventually.
“So, Winnie, what’s it like to live in Vegas?” I ask in a poor attempt to get attention away from me and what happened with Bennett.
She instantly lights up. “I love it. So much better than all the snow you get here.” She shudders like the thought of snow alone is enough to make her cold. “My boyfriend, Archer, and I manage a club and do all the club promotions.”
She continues to talk about her life in Vegas, sitting under the sun and all the fun places she visits managing promotions for her club and various others. A few sentences later and I lose interest. It’s not that Winnie isn’t awesome, because from what I’ve seen she fits perfectly, but I have no interest in living in Vegas. I’ve been before. A girl’s bachelorette party a few years ago, but I grew up on a coast and it’s no coincidence I ended up on another one. I love the water even if it means I’ve never seen a temperature above ninety-two degrees.
A cymbal crashes to the floor, the disruption echoing through the small room and forcing all of us to cover our ears. One of the three guys setting up the instruments on stage shouts out a quick, “Sorry!”
The Loft is a brand-new club in Pelican Bay. The first of its kind, I’m told—at least in this city. I’m pretty sure everywhere else in the world had these in the eighties. Stationed on top of a store on Main Street, tonight’s grand opening is expected to be busy. It’s the only reason I allowed Katy and Tabitha to pull me out of my kitchen four hours before the first band is due on stage.
The bar owner, Noah billed the place as the spot to hear local bands and also made promises of larger groups as well. He graduated high school in Pelican Bay — two years ahead of Katy. She and Winnie have spent at least ten minutes each telling us about how he was the heartthrob of every girl in their grade. He left town for college, but now he’s back and causing quite a stir by opening a dance club.
Pearl loves it, which means every other person hates it. Most of the gossip revolves around complaints about how the noise will distract drivers. Since no one drives on Main Street past eight o’clock most nights, I’m not sure it will be an issue.
“When does the first band go on?” Tabitha checks her watch, her fingers clicking a noiseless pattern on a tall Long Island Iced Tea glass she holds in one hand.
Winnie casts a look around the room. “Nine, I think. I also need to hunt down Noah and congratulate him on his opening night.”
