Shallow (19 page)

Man, she was already an awesome girlfriend and I couldn’t wait to hear what her colorful names were.

“I’m not saying he hasn’t tasted her nectar, but trust me. They aren’t locking loins. Claire’s dad put a cock block on Jessie. He warned him before he moved in with them that if he found out they were having sex, he was out on his ass. It was actually a very smart move on Dr. Deveraux’s part. If he hadn’t let him move in, Jessie would be hidin’ the snake in Claire every day. This way, he gets to keep an eye on them and he guilted Jessie into keeping his daughter a virgin.”

Another virgin? I had no idea there were so many. Must be a Franklin thing because it sure wasn’t a Collinsville thing. “There’s plenty of places he could take her so her dad wouldn’t catch them.”

“Claire has begged him, but he won’t because he promised Dr. Deveraux he wouldn’t. I think it’s an honor thing with him because of the way he grew up. He wants to prove that he can do the right thing even though he was raised by two of the most unfit people in the world.”

“So...what’s the deal? He’s gonna marry Claire before they
lock loins
?”

“You’ve got it and from the looks of it this morning, they’ll be gettin’ married a lot sooner than I thought. There’s no way they’ll hold out until they’ve finished college if they’re already gettin’ naked together. That little sneak didn’t tell me they were doing everything but the deed itself.”

Wow. Jessie had really turned out to be a stand up kind of guy and I suddenly felt inferior. Payton wanted someone like him so that’s what she would expect from me and I wondered if I could be this person for her? I only knew one thing for sure. I would try my damnedest to be anything she wanted me to be. Her game, her rules.

She got up from the couch and grabbed my hand, giving it a tug. “Come upstairs with me.”

Whoa! I knew she wanted me to stay all night, but that sounded like an invitation to sleep upstairs with her, maybe even in the same bed. While I freakin’ loved the idea of being so close to her, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Getting into bed with her would be like starting a fire I might not be able to contain.

I had to quit thinking that way. That was the old me and I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. It was wrong for me to assume she would want me to sleep with her in the same bed. She was probably putting me in the guest room. They certainly had enough of them.

Please. Let her put me in the guest room.

Nope. She took me into her bedroom. She let go of my hand and went over to the bed and started tossing the pillows over into the corner of her room. “You can use my bathroom while I turn the bed back.”

“Okay.” That’s all I could say and it sounded like it came from a twelve year-old boy going through puberty when it squeaked out of my mouth.

I went into her bathroom and shut the door behind me. I looked around and saw her toothbrush in a holder. As if on cue, I heard her call out from her bedroom. “You can use my toothbrush if that doesn’t gross you out.”

Nothing about her could ever gross me out. My mouth had already explored every part of hers, so what was so different about using her toothbrush? “I don’t mind if you’re sure you don’t,” I called out through the door.

“I’m sure.”

When I finished brushing my teeth, I washed my face with Payton’s girly soap that smelled just like her and then I stripped down to my boxers and stood looking at myself in the mirror. I was nervous, but not about what I was going to do. It was more about what I
wasn’t
going to do.

I tried to shake off the way she was messin’ with my head, but it was impossible. Forget it. I was going out there in my boxers and I was gonna climb into that huge bed and sleep next to Payton without doing the thing I wanted to do most. We weren’t locking loins so it shouldn’t be complicated, except it was. It was the most complicated thing I had ever done with a girl.

I opened the door and walked out like everything was cool, but it definitely wasn’t. This was gonna be one long, rough night for me.

She looked surprised to see me in nothing but my boxers and I wondered if I should have left my clothes on. Too late now. Man, I sucked at this. I had never been so unsure of myself.

“Done. All yours.” I tried to be casual but there was nothing casual about the way I was feeling.

She went over to her dresser and pulled out whatever she planned to wear to bed. I didn’t look because I would have died right then and there if it was something skimpy or sexy. That was the thing about always banging girls in my backseat. I’d rarely ever been with one in a bed and I’d sure never seen one walking around wearing something silky or sexy.

She went in the bathroom and I got into her bed. I leaned over and smelled the pillow next to me to make sure I had chosen the side she didn’t sleep on. Yep. The pillow next to me was floral and fruity, so I knew that was her side.

It seemed like she stayed in the bathroom forever and I wondered if she was as nervous as me. Imagine that. I hadn’t gotten nervous about being with a girl in a few years, but here I waited on a girl I wasn’t gonna bone and I couldn’t be more on edge about it.

I had almost talked myself down from a full blown panic until she opened the door and my tilt-o-whirl of emotions spun out of control again.

I hoped she would come out wearing an old T-shirt and boxers like my sister wore to bed, but
dayum
...what was I thinking? She lived in luxury, so she slept in luxury as well.

She was wearing a red satin tank with spaghetti straps with a pair of matching shorts. Her blonde hair was in a knot on top of her head and her face was freshly washed. She was finishing up massaging lotion into the skin on her arms as she walked toward me and I could tell it was her signature smell. Peach and cherry blossoms. Ordinarily I would have no idea, but I had seen the bottle when I was in her bathroom.

She pulled the covers back and climbed into bed next to me. She turned onto her side and propped her head on the inside of her bent arm. I mimicked her position and we spent the next few minutes staring at each other without speaking, but it wasn’t awkward. It was like we were getting better acquainted with each other’s faces.

She slid her tongue across her lips, something I noticed she did a lot when she wasn’t wearing lip gloss, and I couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss her wet mouth. At first, our lips were the only thing touching, but then she slid her arms up around my neck as she scooted her upper body closer. I snaked my arms around her waist and slid her satin clad body across the smooth sheets until she was firmly pressed against my bare chest.

She lowered one of her hands from my shoulder to my chest and rubbed my chest causing my nipple to harden. She slowly slid that same hand across my chest to the other side and repeated the process, except this time she rolled it between her thumb and index finger.

She slid her hand back up to my shoulder and moved her mouth away from mine along my jawline. “The first time I saw you, I fantasized about the way your scruffy face would feel against my body.”

I moved my mouth down her neck and leaned over her, forcing her to her back. “Then I think you need the full experience so you don’t have to fantasize anymore.”

We might not make love, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t show her how good the things leading up to it could be. What was it she called it?
Everything but the deed itself.

I kissed her mouth gently and then slowly moved my scruffy chin down her throat to her chest. I slowly and deliberately slid my hands under her satin top so she had longer to anticipate the touch of my fingers against her breasts. I stroked my thumbs up and down on the outer edge of her breasts, teasing her so she’d want more. I lifted her top higher and she surprised me when she sat up to pull it over her head. She tossed her red satin top to the floor and then fell back onto the bed watching my face for a reaction as her chest heaved up and down.

“Everything but the deed itself?”

Her voice was entirely breathless when she answered me. “Yes, everything but the deed itself.”

“Say my name.”

She looked up at me and smiled. “Nick.”

“Say it again, louder.”

She scrunched her brows at me in question, but did as I told her. “Nick.”

“That’s what you’re gonna want to scream when I make you feel like the only girl in the world.”

19 Smoke That Clown

Payton

How many times did Nick make me scream his name? I had no idea because I lost count.

I woke up first and found myself affixed to Nick’s naked body. I don’t know how we managed to do everything without the deed itself. Somehow it was the morning after and I was technically still a virgin, but that wouldn’t last for long if we continued to do the things we did last night.

Nick’s restraint had to be made of iron clad steel because unlike me, he never seemed close to losing control. He never asked or even suggested we do the deed.

I lifted my head from his chest slowly and looked down at the sheet covering him from the waist down. I didn’t get a good look at it last night. All I wanted was one quick peek. It wouldn’t hurt a thing and he’d never even know because he was asleep. Besides, he saw me naked from all kinds of angles last night.

I slowly reached for the sheet and lifted it ever so gently until I had the view I wanted. “See something you like down there?”

Shit! I jumped, startled at being caught peeking at his package and pulled the sheet up over my head to hide my embarrassment.

“I bet that’s an even better view.”

Double shit! Now my eyes were under the covers with it. I jerked the sheet down to my chest and squeezed my eyes tightly. “You weren’t supposed to know I was peeking. I thought you were asleep.”

He threw the covers back. “You can look all you want.”

I rolled to my stomach and pressed my face into my pillow. “No, I’m good.”

He reached for me and flipped me onto my back before he crawled over me. “Why, yes you are, Miss Archer. You are very good.”

He dropped his mouth to mine and kissed me gently. “How are you still a virgin? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone as horny as you.”

I slapped him across his bare back as I dropped my lower jaw. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

He started laughing. “It’s true. You react so strongly to even the simplest touch. I don’t know how you’ve contained it this long.”

“First of all, no guy has ever done those kinds of things to me and secondly, if he had, I don’t think he could have made me feel the way you did. You’re damn good at what you do.”

“I’d love nothing more than to be damn good at it again right now, but I really need to go.” He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss “I’ve got a race tomorrow night and I’ve got to do some fine tuning on my car.”

He got up from my bed in all of his naked glory and walked to my bathroom while I admired him from behind. Ooh. He didn’t take his boxers with him. That meant he had to walk back out to get them and I’d get to see his package in full view.

He walked out of the bathroom toward me and I couldn’t look. My eyes literally wouldn’t leave his face. He was grinning at me and I saw his dimples. “It’s okay. You can look if you want. I promise I looked at you last night. I think I memorized every inch.”

I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “I’m good.”

He reached for his underwear on the floor. “Okay. I’m putting my boxers on. I’m pulling them up slowly. Only a few more seconds and then you’ve missed your chance. Three. Two.” I couldn’t stand it. I had to look before he pulled them all the way up. “One.”

Damn. I waited too long. I didn’t get but about a one second view, but wow. What a view.

He reached for his jeans and pulled them up. “Will you come watch me race tomorrow night? I’ll need a good luck kiss like the one you gave Dane.”

I sat up and tucked the sheet under my arms. “Oh, no. I’ll give you a better one than that. You’ll feel it all the way down to your...toes.”

“Maybe you should practice now so you’ll have it perfected by tomorrow night.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Since your parents are coming home today, does that mean I won’t see you until tomorrow night?”

“I’m sure they’ll have dinner plans for us, so I guess so.”

“Will you be able to make it that long without me doing everything except the deed itself to you?”

I didn’t know. I could see how it could become addictive real quick. “I’ll do my best.”

“There’s something I need to ask you. Since you’re my girlfriend now, could I ask you to be my companion for a banquet on Saturday night?”

“I would love to be your companion. What kind of banquet is it?”

“It’s a ceremony honoring my dad and some of the police officers in this region. It’s sort of a big deal because my dad is being recognized with a special award.”

“Is it black tie?”

“No, it’s semiformal so you won’t get to see me in a tux, but this could be your one and only chance to see me in a suit and tie.”

I’d have to find a way to get away without my parents seeing me in a semiformal dress. That would definitely send up a red flag. “Can I meet you at your house?” I knew how that sounded. In other words, I was telling him to not pick me up at my house because I wasn’t introducing him to my parents.