The night air is warm and behind me, I can still hear the distant sounds of the party now raging back at the track, but along with it are the sounds of owls and other creatures moving through the woods around me.
I can’t tear my eyes away from the view, even when I hear River climb from the car behind me, the thud of the door closing echoing through the trees. His shoes crunch over the dirt before he comes to a stop about a foot away from me.
“It’s beautiful up here,” I whisper, too afraid my voice will disturb the peace. “I didn’t know you could see the town like this.”
“We have all the best views this side of town,” River says.
I look at him over my shoulder, “Clearly,” I agree. He’s not wrong, on the other side it’s all entirely flat, you can’t get high enough to see this on that side. Just like all the trees are gone and the parks are man-made. I never noticed it until now. It’s all so clean, so built up and pristine.
“Congratulations on winning the race,” I turn my back to the view and then step toward a set of boulders, perching on the tallest one.
“I got distracted,” He mumbles, “Almost lost it.”
I stay quiet, so quiet in fact I wonder if he can hear my heart pounding inside my chest. I hear his feet scuff in the dirt, moving away from me to the car, but he’s back a moment later.
“Come sit with me,” He asks quietly and when I turn, I see he’s laid a blanket down and is sitting in the middle of it, legs spread out before him as he leans back on the heels of his palms.
Climbing from the rock, I cross over to him, moving to sit beside him but then he sits up, his warm palm sliding around the back of my knee to stop me from sitting and pulls me further onto the blanket. I step between his legs, and he leans back again, looking up at me. The light from the moon casts shadows across his face, highlighting his sharp cheekbones and deepening the hollows beneath them.
“Here?” I squeak.
“Where else, princess?” He grins, showing teeth, the smile playful and light.
I hesitate but ultimately lower myself down, sitting between his parted thighs.
“Now lean back,” He orders softly.
“On you!?”
“That’s right,” He watches my face, waiting for me to either do as he says or bolt. My palms are sweating, I’ve kissed guys before sure, but I’ve never gone further than that, which truly is pathetic. And even if I’ve kissed another guy, we never really got close, no hugging or touching. I spin on the blanket and scoot back a little before I lean, and my spine hits his chest far harderthan I intended. He lets out a grunt and I go to shoot up again, but he bands an arm around my middle, holding me in place.
His breath fans at the shell of my ear, his scent invading my nose but then his fingers begin to draw tight circles on the slither of skin on show at my abdomen and my skin pebbles under the touch.
“Relax, Marly,” He whispers, “Let it happen.”
“Nothing is happening,” I breathe.
“No?” I hear the lilt of amusement in his tone, “So your body doesn’t react to me?”
My breath shudders out of me.
“Your heart doesn’t pound just a little bit harder when you’re with me?” He keeps going, his fingers slipping under the hem of my shirt, only going an inch up my ribcage but it’s enough for heat to start unfurling through my body, first in my lower stomach and then down my thighs. An intense kind of need makes an ache form between my thighs and when his breath whispers against the side of my neck I feel myself clench and my nipples tighten. “Are you trying to tell me that right now, your body is calm? Thatyouare calm?”
“River,” I warn him though my voice trembles.
He shifts behind me and something hard presses into my spine, “It’s okay, princess, because I feel it too. You feel that?”
I stop breathing all together. I may be inexperienced, but Iknowwhat that is.
“That’s me reacting to you,” He rasps.
The sudden and intense need to kiss him consumes me, I want to taste his lips, let his mouth devour me. We are two entirely different people, from opposite ends of the world. Hebrokesomeone’s arm for Christ’s sake, but god, to be consumed by a man like him…
But if my family finds out, they’ll ruin him.
It won’t be me who suffers for it, though I’m sure they’ll find some creative way to punish me but him, he’ll be buried and no amount of money will be spared to do so.
It’s what happens when you have a family whose only goal for your life is to remain pure so you can be used as a bargaining chip for whatever business deal they deem worthy.
