We floated. Just the two of us. The real world felt so far away.
“Someday,” Beats said, “I’m going to build a lazy river in my backyard and float all day.”
“I like that. Can I come over and visit?”
“No.”
“No?” I laughed. “You have this whole make-believe world and you won’t let me be a part of it?”
“You don’t need an invitation, Grace. Because, in my future world, you live there with me.”
I yanked his hand, sending his inner tube careening onto mine, and I kissed him on the cheek. Just a quick peck, but I didn’t dare steal more. And then I pushed him away, our inner tubes again a handhold apart.
Beats smiled; no, it was more of a smirk. He knew I wanted him. That I wasn’t afraid to take a test ride on his lips. Reaching for the side of the wall, he pulled us both over to the edge, and we discarded our inner tubes. He grabbed my hand and led me out of the lazy river. He seemed to be on a hunt, his head swinging from side to side until he found an acceptable place to ravish me. And I was a willing participant. An outcrop of trees served as our make-out spot. It wasn’t ideal, in eyeshot of moms and their toddlers, but what were we supposed to do, wait till the car? Beats’ hand flattened onto the small of my back, pressing our bodies together. I felt like a different person with him. Sexual. Desired. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me right off my feet. I straddled his waist. His face was right there, water droplets trickling off the strands of his hair, then rolling over his parted lips like an open invitation. Our mouths were so close, the breaths between us hot and ragged.
All this time, I’d waited for a boy to give me my first kiss, but in the end, it was I who took it. Rushing his mouth, my lips crashed into his. There was nothing nice about my first kiss. Nothing sweet and loving and romantic. No, this was… insane. Hot and crazed and wild and wet. Every single thing I’d never, ever imagined. And it was perfect.
Sensations like I’d never experienced flicked some switch inside my body. My nipples hardened, and that dry riverbed between my legs—the one that had long laid thirsty—suddenly swelled with wetness and threatened the levees. As it turned out, kissing was instinctual for me; primal, even. Beats, who probably thought he’d be leading the way, was now simply reacting, fervently trying to keep the clinging feline he’d just inherited from using his body as a scratching post.
Not that he needed sympathy. Or guidance. With my body shaking in his arms, Beats slid a hand down and hooked it under my ass. His thumb absently slipped between my legs, over my bikini bottoms. I tipped my head back, and my lower body convulsed. Beats took advantage of my vulnerable neck, sliding a tongue along it in such a sensuous glide that blood flooded my core and I ground myself into his thumb. The levee had been breached.
“Grace…” His breathing was coming out in ragged grunts, and I could see him scanning the area behind us, only this time he wasn’t on the lookout for an enemy ambush but for a place to bring his unexpected find.
We were making a scene, but I didn’t care. Beats could have me here, against a tree, if he wanted to. Thankfully, he had more sense than me, lowering me to my feet and nearly dragging me behind him like a Tarzan with his Jane. We both spotted it at the same time: a towel hut that appeared to be abandoned. I don’t think either one of us thought it would open, but when Beats tried the door, it was mercifully unlocked. He looked at me. I looked at him. Then I pushed him in.
Beats shut the door behind us by pushing me up against it. Suddenly, I was back in his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist, and his palm was on my breast, under my bikini top, massaging. Pinching. If I hadn’t been a hot, trembling mess of need before this, I was now. Especially when his thumb found its way back to my core, sliding over the thin cloth of my bottoms. His fingers never invaded. They didn’t have to. He was taking me to a place I’d never been by way of touching. Manipulating. It came with little warning, a rush of gratification that contracted every muscle in my body.
My drummer boy silenced my moans with his lips on mine, his body moving to my beat despite not riding that wave with me. It was more than I could’ve imagined.Hewas more than I could’ve imagined. Once my body had shaken loose from its quaking, Beats wrapped his arms around my back, taking his pleasure in mine. He kissed my nose, my chin, my cheeks. My lips. How could someone who lived so rough be this kind and gentle?
I decided right then and there that I loved this boy. I didn’t care that I’d only known him for a day. I didn’t care that he was living hard on the streets. I didn’t care that he’d lied his way through the day. All I cared about was the way he made me feel—like I was the only one for him. The girl who hurt his eyes.
“I’ve decided,” he said.
“What have you decided?”
“I’ve decided to let you save me.”
12
RORY: LIGHTS OUT
To be saved. I didn’t even know what it meant. No one had ever attempted it before. At least not anyone who had my best interests at heart. I’d once thought Nikki would be that person. When we were little, she’d tuck me into bed and whisper,I’ll always protect you, Rory.I’d believed her. With everything in me, I believed her. And then she’d led me straight to hell.
But Grace wasn’t Nikki. She wasn’t promising me protection. She was promising me a way out. A future. And I’d be a fool not to take it. Especially after last night. If what Nikki said was true, and they were looking for me, it could mean only one thing: they didn’t want me talking. But who would I even tell?
“I don’t like this,” Grace said, keeping her car idling as she pulled into the well-lit parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. This had been our compromise; I’d told her to drop me off where she’d picked me up and I’d walk the rest of the way, and she’d wanted to drive me right up the motel’s front door.
I pointed up at the sign. “Don’t be hating on Colonel Sanders.”
“Never. I’d just feel better taking you directly to a hotel.”
I smiled at her word usage. As if I were staying at a hotel. Any place that I could bribe my way into tonight would have a crookedMin front of it.
“I’m not letting you drive to that part of town. It’s too dangerous.”
“But it’s fine for you?”
“I live there. I survived without you worrying, Grace. And I will continue to survive even after you’ve bit off every last one of your nails.”
