Page 8 (1/2)
WE HAD OUR first "discussion" while the giant screen showed inane cartoon characters and animated boxes of candy and popcorn If I never saw another Dancing Milk Dud, it would be too soon And the music was the sappiest I’d ever heard in my life
"Ric, I’ood idea Happiness was Wichita, Kansas, in Dolly’s wide-screen rearview mirror And this side trip is creepy I knoasn’t really abducted by aliens as a kid, but that scenario is way too close for coet to Wichita, the juet"
"Hey, Delilah" He pulled me across the bench seat to lay my head on his shoulder "Not many restored drive-in ht you were a vintage filet a little scared and snuggle up, right?"
"Drive-ins were dead before I was alive Why are we here?"
"You love vintage, right? I just thought we could do soether like a nor down IDs on buried bones and digging up ancient va exotic supernatural killers on our tails"
"Speaking of tails …" I glanced around for Quicksilver
"He hopped out as soon as ere hooked up to the speaker to find a better viewing spot"
"Now Quick’s gone and we’re sitting in this parking lot of strangers in the wilderness"
"Cold Creek," Ric said
"What?" I thought the phrase h shit," at first
"Cold Creek, Colorado," he repeated "That’s the town just fifteen miles away We’re not in the wilderness, and Quicksilver is just off doing doggy guard duty, I bet"
"There’s a hot shower and fast food just fifteen o there after the show Meanwhile we can do what Dolly was meant to do, take a couple of hot kids to the drive-in with her top down and the guy hoping to get the girl’s top down We can neck through a few reels, and I do mean reels, because they show old black-and-white ers we never were S and I’ll get to earing it off"
I did adore the kissing part I dug inon the floorboard "You like this stuff, huh? It is flavored" I screwed up a bullet-shaped tube of deep raspberry color with flecks of silver glitter
His "yeah" was one of those gruff, turned-on under-state sex
"Let me put it on you," he said, suddenly "What’s it called?"
"Midnight Cherry Shimmer," I said before he tilted up my chin and ran the smooth oily stick over ue
"‘Cherry,’" Ric repeated "Perfect for the tender teen loss over my top lip as I felt a deep quiver inside
"We’re way past that stage, Ric," I said anyway
"What’s the har back? You never were at a drive-in h thrills sneaking around dating those rich and spoiled baby socialites in Washington, DC? You were the exotic wild child turned bureaucrat’s foster kid and high school heartthrob Don’t kidback to a more innocent ti I could take you and her out on a date"
"We kinda got to the endgaht there in Sunset Park over an overexcited dowsing rod before you ever laid eyes on Dolly at the curb"
"I wouldn’t regret that e tear of irls were Sure, I made it with them … in the beach house, in the boat house, in the upstairs raduation Beamers and Porsches with bucket seats and central consoles, and upright shiftsit an instant three-way I neverto say to that
"Del, youto spareeaten by vampires"
I could only h at that phrase, but they tortured and alot most of those memories back I kno you bent your whole heart and soul toup fresh frohtmare, like you do so often And it wasn’t, was it?"
Noas nibbling onJust the wordUSA across the whole world Back in Dolly’s day, the teruy was a JD, a juvenile-delinquent-in-training, and lots of above-the-waist groping I’d seen American Graffiti too It was a forty-year-old antique, even though it was in color
"I love being behind this steering wheel," Ric said
"Ric, we’re not even ht And I’irls just want to suck face forever"
He pulled ateway and road lights were shining in the now totally dark distance Our car was open, but ere pretty hidden
Ric’s face bent to findit only tofrom short, soft nibbles to soul kisses that were soles and different rhythms that would keep us on the brink of this insane deliriuht air and our hot-breathed body moves in a confined space and confined clothes were beyond erotic It was sexting in the dark Ric’son so fast I seeasmic sensation Despite ed to avoid his bite scar, re that in the first heat of our relationship I’d accidentally bitten him a little and scared myself silly I’d kill h that would be tough Suicidal vampires don’t exist
Ric finally broke off to let h to keep ht My head lolled onto the seat back while I stared up at bright swaths of stars sowed like seeds on the wind in the black sky Ric lowered his head tofora line up towhy drive-ins had been called "passion pits" Warm, wet lips suckled ed into e sensation pushed a sexual rush froain
On that wave, sucking me beneath the waterline of sensation into utter surrender, Ric’s face nuzzled behindsensation on my neck paralyzed me Then I realized … I started to ainstbreath
The sudden ceasing of ourthe skin onall around us for the first tih my body, sensed its echo in his I didn’t want to stop him I didn’t want to move I wanted to let him take me, take me, take me until he could take no ers inside, but otherwise nothing inof blood and desire, until his face drew back and his fingertips caressed the stinging sweet-spot on my neck
"Te amo," he whispered "I won’t use that word you hate, but every teenager in the world has done this in a place like this You see no the kiss that seeks the hot blood that drives our love excites? Let ht?"
"Will I … bruise?"
He stroked e of our passion That’s why I put it far back on your neck, under your hair Only you and I will know it’s there Only I can see it"
"That seems … possessive"
"Passion is possession I love that you thought about stoppingh me now on every caress, "you always feared an attack here from vampires That you overca better"
Our uess, but icy tendrils of doubt still stirred my soul
"Chica," Ric whispered, "don’t you want to explore the deepest levels of our love? Don’t you want sex that shakes your soul? Don’t you feel safe with me no matter what?" he asked, coaxed
Now he had ht noas his machismo
Only one answer, Irma butted in Don’t blow it
"Yes I trust you Of course, I do Sí Te auess I’d just have to look up "suck me" in my Dirty Spanish dictionary for future use I didn’t have the nerve for the even dirtier version Yet
BUT I SURE didn’t feel safe in the drive-in’s great outdoors
It’s not like Ric did a suck and run He heldmy mouth, my face, the small damp spot near ed beating of my heart My head on his chest felt the echo of his own slowing rhythe subside until later
I heard a thump from the backseat and knew Quicksilver had returned as soon as theQuick in the backseat meant we could prepare for the actual supposed point of the outing, the movie Ric, of course, had wanted to initiate
Reality took over The liquid heat at the crux of ether and made my first trip to the cinder-block wos required
While Ric went to relieve (ave fast food a bad naer seat Just letting Ric drive ood move The whole point of this trip, I realized, was to let Ric take charge on the professional investigative turf that was his, and take care of h I’d grown up wary, edgy, ready to be pounced on by sooing to be a hard assignment, except for the extracurricular activities Maybe I was being a art about Ric’s minor physical … alterations and his randy schoolboy fixation on "branding" his girl "Won’t you wearcould refer to a more inti on a chain could haveout the way Ric’s fifteenat the charm bracelet on iven even one defensive twitch during the entire episode It certainly was getting with the nineteen-fifties program
I could only hope the familiar wasn’t also a one-way spy-line for Sno that I was getting a lot more clued into sexual subtexts, I remembered Snow’s remark e first met near his Inferno Hotel bar that our conjoined black and white long hair would look sexy in the mirror above his bed