Page 18 (1/2)
No Big Deal
I i all of our contact She startled as she looked back at ht smile She frowned as she tilted her head Great I didn&039;t kno to explain that she was turningthat ood at I mentally cursed my stupid, horht, I could shut off that part of uy was a pain in the ass
Not knohat else to do, I extended my hand out to her and noddedwas fast, so ouldn&039;t actually have to touch each other too ht now, at least until I could calhtened as she nodded her head, her loose curls bouncing along her shoulders She reached over for my hand and ed deeper than anything I&039;d seen her wear before and the top of her cleavage showed There wasbody replayed thethe soft firidness of her nipples as od!
I closedmy inappropriate focus and pulled her out to the dance floor We&039;d be ossipers out here, but at the moment I&039;d rather have that kind of exposure than the kind ht splotched crowd until ulfed us, as surely as the driving bodies surrounded us, as we parted the sea and ht a few heads turning and whispering to others around theo of Sawyer&039;s hand as we found a place with a little roouy in high school is? The others aroundthe &039;yeah, I&039;etting lucky later&039; dance, so I copied the over that body as she frolicked around to the upbeat song She sang along andpieces, which only ht flush crept into her cheeks as the heat of the crowd and that long-sleeved dress started to get to her She was intoxicating to watch
I realized this wasn&039;t helping my situation at all and shifted to look out over the crowd I noticed sets of eyes staring atat Sawyer Most of those sets were guys, and lint in thee of possessiveness washed over me, which actually startled me with an icy wash of astonishment Was I possessive of her? She wasn&039;t et hurt And as I glared back at a few male eyes, all I saere jerks and assholes who&039;d stoive theh her overprotective father than me
A few guys glared back at me, but most turned away and focused on their own dates A calh ht boys Tonight, this angel, for some reason, was s after that
Finally, a slow song started playing and Sawyer smiled and reached out forto respond to hers pressing up to ht Praying that I could stay in the even-flow I&039;dher into ers slid over the crushed velvet of her dress and the contours of her body beneath it were only too obvious I slid over the lean muscle of the sides of her stomach, around her curved hipbones to the lowest part of her back As her arers disobeyedthe very top of her backside She either didn&039;t notice or didn&039;t care, as she gazed at hed and tilted her head as we stared at each other She pulled ainstearlier, pressed firainst me, made me need to s repeatedly and searchthe situation any, she started running her hand through the back ofour faces mere inches apart
My eyes drifted to her lips and I knewI knew this was going to be a badto distractto say to her, I sputtered out, "So, Miss I&039;m-secretly-obsessed-with-school-dances, how is it you&039;ve never been to one before?" She&039;d let that slip during our planning sessions for tonight and it had surprised ured she&039;d been on the dance cohed and looked away, our bodies naturally pulling back from each other I exhaled a quick breath in relief and then tiltedher perfectly painted lip and staring out over the crowd of inti any of the itself in her head
"It&039;s okay, Sawyerto talk tothat, since I never really opened up to her She raised an eyebrow as she twisted back around to face ht the oddity of it too
She didn&039;t call hed and shook her head "I didn&039;t have a date" She shrugged and I frowned at her anticlimactic answer Surely there was ed as well "Why didn&039;t you go aloneor with a group of friends?" I knew that soirls around here did that occasionally It seeirl power and all If a group of guys did that, well, there was a certain social stig back up at irlfriends back there and the school instituted a one guy, one girl policy anyway It had the parents in an uproar at first," she shrugged, "but what can you do?"
I frowned as I considered that She was still worrying her lip and looking like she really wanted to fess up to so I wouldn&039;t normally have pushed, but she looked like she wanted to talk about it, she just wasn&039;t quite there yet I squeezed her waist, drawing her tight to ain as she looked overto water, but I couldn&039;t really be sure in the swirling light patterns that flashed along our bodies She opened her ain I waited patiently while she did it again, this tiain
"The boythe stupid one I told you about" Her eyes flicked over my face nervously and her voice dropped so low, I had to lean in to hear her over the music "He" I nodded at her and rubbed the s her to open up to me She sed and then finally did "He was supposed to take me to junior pro as she glanced around at the crepe paper and loose balloons "I was so excited to go" She turned her head back touy in our class, and my class alone, was about three times the size of the entire student body here" Her head e of jealousy flashed through me, but I forced it down and made myself concentrate on her story
She slowly shook her head as she said, "He was handso," her eyes locked ontoup init shift to syain, ht I loved him I adored him God, I practically worshipped hiether bodies and her voice dropped again I lowered ainst hers, so I could hear her in the noisy rooinity" She looked up at me and I forced myself to not close h me Sadness that she wasn&039;t at the same level I was, that she&039;d been with someone like that before, that someone else had ever touched her that way But I made myself keep eye contact as her voice quavered horribly with her next words "I loved hiave him every part of meand he" her voice and face turned to a mean sneer that I&039;d never seen on her, not even when she talked about Brittany, "he gave me a three on his fuck-o-meter"
My er burned me "He what?"
The moisture in her eyes built up to near flood level as her face softened into sadness "He was playing so his brother had picked up at his fraternity" Her eyes looked over the crowd again as her ar with different types of girls I was a low type"
She sed and lowered her head I brought my hand up to her chin and made her look at me Our feet slowed to stillness as I held her in my ar He&039;s an idiot"
She sniffled and sed back her tears, a light s her cheek before returningShe returned it, laying her head onat each other, she continued
"I found out about it, when I overheard soym class They said there was a chart in his locker and I was on it, so I busted it open to see for myselfand it was true He&039;d slept with a half dozen other girls while I thought ere a couple, and he ranked theo to the prom with him I barely went to school after that I just couldn&039;t take the hurt and hu, beautiful face"
I held her tight when she said that,I could wrap myself around her heartache I&039;d never loved someone who&039;d used ine the torture that must have been for her "I&039;ainst me "Do you knohat the stupidest part is? I still loved hi, why he didn&039;t love me like I loved hiave hi hiirlsand I couldn&039;t I knew I didn&039;t compare I knew I had no chance I kneorthless"
I immediately pulled back from her and put both hands on her cheeks "No, you&039;re not Don&039;t ever say that" I shookthat the warm, wonderful person betweenbut perfect
She closed her tear-filled eyes and leaned her head against"I didn&039;t handle it all very well and II did soeously stupid" Her voice lowered even more, to where I could barely otreally drunk and"
She stopped herself and peeked her eyes up at ainst mine "I freaked my parents out and they pulledht I&039;d do better in a sh it cost theave up their entire life back therefor et that, even when they&039;re being impossible about ourfriendship" I sain She pulled her head back, and her voice took on that wisdom-soaked tone that was too old for seventeen "This town, this school, was a chance for ranted, even when things here have been hard"
She grabbed a loose piece of her super-black hair, holding a strand up for me "I did this to remind myself, that I can be anyone I choose to be" She looked at the strand and smiled "I&039;m traditionally a mousey-brown kind of color," she explained With a s it for e on"
The s she&039;d confessed to me I ached with syth, all at the same time Maybe our situations weren&039;t exactly similar, but she&039;d certainly dealt with her fair share of torture and ridicule And here she was, starting over in a nen, deterh each day in any way she could, ain, hugging her to ain My heart waro, never wanting her to get hurt again The music swelled around us and my hand came up to cup her cheek We inched closer and now every inch of her was pressing againsttostill together on the swaying-with-bodies dance floor, holding each other
"I&039;ainst hers asI could stroke away her pain "I wish I&039;d been there I wish I&039;d known you" I exhaled softly and ran e of her face I could see her eyes start to water again as she stared at me "I wish I could have saved you from that"
My hand ainst me She lifted her chin so our noses rested side-by-side and her breath lightly fanned over me "I&039;d never let anyone hurt you, Sawyer I&039;d never hurt you I love you," I whispered,it any farther than the centimeters away from me that she was
I didn&039;t knohat I meant by that phrase any, other than the overwhel farther than na eyes threatened to drop that aze "I love you too," she whispered, a tear finallyit down her cheek I didn&039;t knohat she meant by that either There were soto think about itso I stopped
My hand ca the tear aithup pace, and my eyes drifted down to the perfect heart arch I foundher upper one We paused like that,to race and ain
"Lucas," she whispered, her lips ainst mine as she spoke
My throat closed onin erous forin ainstthe back of ainst the fabric of her dress It was all too much for my body - too emotional, too sensual I couldn&039;t help it and I couldn&039;t stop it, especially since I&039;d been struggling with ainst asped softly and glanced down at where our hips were touching and I knew she knew I knew she could feelaroused by her E so desperately to hide fro exposed, I stepped back, quickly droppingain and I sucked in a quick breath
"OhLucas" she whispered again, her hand co mine
My heart thudded in ain, debated caving to the feeling I&039;d been fighting back all night, debated letting her in Finally, I stopped fighting this feeling I&039;d been losing against all evening anyway Hating myself, I leaned forward the infinitesimal amount needed to connect our lips,around her waist
The kiss was different fro, I was in better control I wasn&039;t having an eh off uid; we felt each other, we absorbed each other, we learned each other There was so much e to my eyes
We broke apart after a moment and as my eyes lazily opened, I focused on the shape of her mouth as she pulled away froht as hers lifted to mine I could see the questions in her depths; I could see the desire too I didn&039;t knohat to do I didn&039;t knoas right All I kneas that her fir azed at her And all I kneas I missed the warmth of her lips on mine And I needed that I needed her back onan answer to her unasked question, she leaned back in at the exact same time that I did Our lips htly ht up the back of her neck to tangle in some loose strands of her up-do Soers as I moved my hand all the way up to scrunch into the back of her hair, pulling her intoquite public I didn&039;t care that everyone in school would know about this after break For once, I didn&039;t care about the gossip that surrounded us She hat I cared about - her ue, her breath, her bodyher heart
I couldn&039;t stop kissing her I couldn&039;t believe she was lettingthat it rong, really wrong, but as her soft lips ht My body was saying that I needed this That this moment was perfect and my brain should just shut upand for once, hdramatically, ere suddenly yanked apart I stumbled as I was forcibly pulled a foot away from her She stumbled as well at the suddenMr Varner, who had one hand on Sawyer&039;s shoulder and one hand onus; I hadn&039;t been physically pulled away frorade
"There is no foreplay on the dance floor" He leaned into the both of us "If you want to have sex, you drive your car to the river, just like all the other kids" He chuckled at that and looked ht, he would have flicked it back and forth over lared back at hi hiain and lightly shook his head before turning and leaving us to our slow dance
I looked back at Sawyer, reason returning toher It was still really wrong and ht Why couldn&039;t I ever keep ht toat her eyes as guilt washed through uilt for Lillian
Finally, I looked over my shoulder at the punch bowl on the snack table and muttered, "I need a drink" I sort of looked back at her "Want one?"
With a soft voice, she answeredthe spot in the corner of the gym where the punch boas, I extended rab it and interlace our fingers E at her just yet None of that should have happened I weaved us through the throngs, grateful for the bodies around us that gavecurrent of whispers follow us along and I could only iine the stories I&039;d just provided this crowd:
"Did you hear? They were practically screwing on the dance floor I heard Luc was so wasted Sawyer had to hold hiht with hi to be a responsible teacher and Luc went off on hihed and rolled ossip strearip on Sawyer as I pulled us through the crowd They&039;d pick the worst one and run with it - that was just the way it went The most hurtful comments, the most tortuous situation - whatever was the best scandal, that&039;s what people would believe Guilt calh what Sawyer knew of hurtful gossip She really was a lot likeher back down into the ain
I let go of Sawyer&039;s hand e reached the six foot table with a huge bowl of some pink liquid Sawyer stepped besideat the stupid bowl, the water slightly sloshing inside fro in the roo me around to look at her, but she only reached down to the table, to grab a couple plastic cups fro the station, or anywhere near it, so I ladled so at her, I handed the full cup back to her and grabbed the other e hoas ruining her night Sure, we&039;d been inappropriate and I&039;m sure we&039;d need to have a conversation about that, but I couldn&039;t just ignore her for the rest of the night Hadn&039;t I proht memorable for her? That we&039;d have fun? I kneasn&039;t being much fun at the moment