Page 34 of Until Forever

“God, I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” she groaned, staring up at the big bright lights around the baseball field. “One day, someone cracked a joke and said you should take me to the homecoming dance, and you…you laughed. You said I was…just one of the guys. I knew ever since then that you expected women to be a certain way, and if they weren’t…you didn’t have any interest in them.”

“You got it all wrong,” I smiled, shaking my head.

“Do I?” she questioned. “Because you did end up taking me to the dance anyway…only because you couldn’t find anyone else.”

“That’s not why…”

“And I was coming back from the bathroom just as the first slow song came on. I thought you and I were finally going to have our moment. That you’d finally see me. You know, as a woman…not as one of the guys. But then, when I looked around to find you…you had slipped off into a corner to make out with Tanya Cane. I watched you two leave together, abandoning me…your date…there alone. I went home and cried myself to sleep.”

I hung my head, shaking it back and forth. “Lana, I had no idea. I never thought…” I had to stop for a moment to gather my thoughts. “It’s not that I expected women to be a certain way; it’s that I thought they had to be a certain way or they wouldn’t have any interest in a guy like me. Listen, Lana…I was just a dumb teenage guy. I didn’t know what I was doing or how it hurt you. I never made a move on you in high school because I thought you were way too good for me. I thought you were out of my league. That a girl like you would never want anything to do with me in that way. That’s why I didn’t think us going to that dance together meant anything…and why I was too stupid to realize what I was doing to you by leaving with Tanya.”

She stared back at me in disbelief, and neither one of us seemed to know what to do next. All I knew was that she was the prettiest woman in the whole world, standing there with her glistening tan skin and icy blue eyes that always burned into me with a million thoughts and questions. The memory of her lips on mine earlier that day still lingered fresh. Now that I knew she had feelings for me, even if it was a million years ago, I couldn’t just let all that empty air hang between us.

“If I had a dance I could take you to right here and right now to make up for it, I would, and I’d feel like the luckiest guy alive to have the honor to do it,” I told her in sincerity.

I hoped that would be enough to keep her from running away, because as soon as I said it, I closed the distance between us and swept her face into my hands. Her eyes fluttered shut as my lips grazed hers. Everything around us felt like it was spinning in circles as I parted her lips with my tongue and felt her melt deeper into me.

That storm that had been brewing inside of me because of her finally cracked open wide, only it was strong enough to permeate reality. As our mouths danced, big plops of rain started falling down around us. But I was so lost in her kiss that I didn’t care. Soaking wet or not, I wanted to drink her in for every second I possibly could.

15

LANA

It felt like I had slipped into some sort of weird dream where there was nothing but the heavy rain drenching my body and the feeling of Keith’s lips against mine. This kiss felt even better than the first one, and it was ten times more confusing, thanks to everything he had just said.

Even though our clothes were soaked, we didn’t want to pull a part. So we didn’t…until the rain was coming down so hard that it started going up my nose. Keith grabbed me by the hand and took off running. I didn’t ask him where he was taking me. I just went and hoped wherever it was; it involved more of his lips.

We ran until we came to a small white house, which I gathered to be his, when he stepped up to the front door and pulled out his keys. He showed me inside, where it was dark and quiet. The air conditioning should have been freezing as it blasted over my dripping wet clothes, but I was still burning from the heat of that kiss and didn’t care.

We were both out of breath as he shuffled around the small house in the darkness. Enough moonlight shone through the kitchen window so that I could see him peeling off his shirt in the corner. After it flopped on the floor, I saw him reach for the light switch.

“Wait!” I blurted. “Stop. Just…”

I knew if he turned on the light, I ran the risk of changing my mind. The shock to my eyes might have brought me to my senses, and I didn’t want that to happen yet. I wasn’t finished with what we started. I crossed the room, stopping just inches in front of him. I had managed to catch my breath after running all the way there, but I was still panting all hot, heavy, and irregular just from the sight of his tan, bare, chiseled chest on full display in front of me.

My fingers lifted, hesitant at first. Running my touch down his chest was like dragging your fingers down a washboard, and I realized I never really knew what that phrase meant or where it came from until then. Washboard abs, indeed.

He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me gently. It didn’t take long for us to pick up right back where we left off at the ball field, ravaging each other with desperate, bruising kisses. He lifted my heavy, wet clothes, one item at a time, and tossed them aside until I had nothing left on.

I pulled back for a moment, filling with an intense adrenaline rush from realizing I was standing in front of Keith Mullins…completely naked.

“I had to get you out of those wet clothes,” he said with a teasing smirk, drinking me in from head to toe with his eyes. “Damn, Lana. Your body is…You’re stunning.”

“I could say the same for you,” I admitted, stepping closer to reach for the button of his jeans.

His lips parted as I pulled down the zipper with our eyes locked together. He took over from there, pulling his pants and boxers down together in one swoop. He tossed them aside into the pile with the rest of our useless clothes.

“I don’t mean to be presumptuous,” he quipped. “I just didn’t want you to be the only one left standing there with no clothes on.”

All that came out in response with a breathless squeak. My eyes were glued to the hardness jutting out from the middle of his body. No wonder all of the women in town were fighting over him. Once word got out that he was packing that, I was surprised women hadn’t started coming in from two towns over.

He crashed into me again, and that same hardness slipped into my hand so effortlessly. I stroked him and felt his body shudder as we kissed long, hard, and deep. There was a slow burn to his kisses, but they were packed to the brim with so much passion. It was so easy to get lost in his lips that I didn’t even notice we had gone crashing back onto the kitchen table.

He brought that same intensity to the kisses he trailed down my neck, across my collarbone, then around my breasts. I usually didn’t like it when men lingered around my breasts too long. I considered myself to be a member of the itty bitty titty club, and I never felt comfortable with a guy drawing too much attention there and ruining the mood for me. But Keith devoured them with so much ferocity that I barely gave it a second thought, and I certainly wasn’t about to tell him to stop. It felt too good.

Every inch of my skin seemed to come alive in a new way under his touch. I rolled my head back and moaned as his hands explored my body. They were so rough and strong, but the feeling of them was somehow the most sensual thing I had ever experienced.

I squirmed in anticipation as he moved his attention from my breasts down to my stomach. He dropped down to his knees and nibbled along my inner thigh. Sharp, panting breaths heaved through my chest, out of my mouth. I had never made that noise before. Where was that coming from?

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