I laugh. “I’m legally allowed to have sex. So, you present me with an illegal drug to celebrate. Isn’t that what they call irony?”
“It’s what they call symbolic,” she grins, taking the pill from the box and holding it out to me between her thumb and index finger. “Take it. I’ll have one too. Take it and we’ll go and sneak into a night club. Then we can dance, make out with boys—maybe do a little more—until we can’t stand up anymore. It’ll be wonderful. Trust me.”
Letting out my breath, I look from the tablet to her smiling face. What the hell? I shut my eyes and open my mouth, inviting her to drop the tablet inside. The moment I feel it touch my tongue, I swallow, not giving myself a chance to change my mind.
“Nothing’s happening.” I frown after waiting a few seconds and feeling nothing.
“Give it time.” She laughs, taking her own pill from the little baggy in her pocket and placing it on her tongue.
“How many of those things do you have?” I ask, frowning at the bag of pills. I can’t count them because of the way she’s holding it, but there’s more than a couple in there.
“I did have six, but now I have four. Two more each if we need them. Come on,” she says, standing up. “Let’s get ready while we wait for these to kick in. I asked my uncle if he’d take us, and he’ll be here soon.”
“Nice uncle,” I deadpan, following her into her room. I wonder what kind of uncle would agree to this sort of thing.
“He’s not a real uncle. Just a friend of my dad’s. He’s the one who hooked us up tonight too. He’s only 27, hot as all hell, and can get you in anywhere. He’s really well connected.” She fills me in while flinging clothing around her room as she tries to find the right outfits for us to wear. “Here, this one will be good for you.” She throws a gold sparkly top at me that has only one shoulder. I won’t be able to wear a bra with it, which sucks because I’m fairly busty.
“Do you have something with sleeves or shoulder straps? My boobs will fall out of this one.”
“No! That one will look awesome. We’ll leave your hair out and make the curls all glossy. Just tuck your strap in on one side. You’ll be fine.”
With a bounce of my shoulders, I do as she says and put the top on, wearing it with my dark jeans and a black pair of Tahlia’s wedge heels.
Half an hour later, we have our hair and makeup done, and we’re waiting for Tahlia’s ‘uncle’ to come and pick us up.
“Should I be feeling something by now?” I ask her, realising that the little pill has made no difference at all.
“Yeah, you should. Here take another one.” She hands me another pill, and I drop it down my throat, not anywhere near as nervous as I was the first time.
Within seconds, we hear a horn beep out the front of her house and race outside.
“So, how is your uncle going to get us into a night club?” I ask as we make our way towards the gunmetal grey VF Commodore that is still running in the driveway.
“I told you, he’s connected. He’ll either have an arrangement with the bouncer, or he’ll have fake IDs for us.”
Nerves skitter through my belly as she opens the car door.
“Go on, get in,” she urges. I slide into the back seat of the car, and I’m greeted by one of the most attractive men I think I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
“How’s it goin’?” he asks, twisting in his seat. His deep-blue eyes sparkle like sapphires as he looks at me appraisingly. “You must be Paige. I hear a ‘happy birthday’ is in order.”
“Ah, yeah. It is,” I say timidly.
“Well then, happy birthday.” He grins, winking at me. “I’m Jeff.” I nod in response, feeling my face burning under his gaze. I imagine I look nowhere near as grown up as I felt a few moments ago.
“Just a little girl playing dress up,” I mumble to myself.
“What did you say?” Tahlia asks as she slides into the seat next to me.
“Oh nothing. Just talking to myself.”
“You know that’s the first sign of madness, right?” Jeff points out with a grin as he focuses on reversing the car. I blush again.
“We’re gonna have so much fun,” Tahlia says.
“Are we ready to dance?” Jeff hollers as we take off down the street.
“Hell yeah!” calls out Tahlia, leaning her head out the open window to let out a loud whoop as we round the corner.
The excitement in the car is infectious, and I find myself joining in with their yells and singing along with the songs blaring out of the radio.
I'm beginning to feel as though I’m floating on air as this warmth builds inside me, and the music seems to entwine itself around my body like a wonderful warm blanket. The lyrics of the songs are clearer and feel as though they're filled with a meaning that's directed only at me.
This intense bundle of emotions flows through my body and overwhelms me, making it difficult to breathe. I let my head drop against the back of the seat as my eyes roll back and I press a hand to my chest. Calm down. I force a deep breath, my fingers moving against my silky soft skin as my entire body relaxes and buzzes. “Oh my god.” I run my hand down my arm. Never, in my entire life have I ever felt this good. Every bit of pain, every bit of hurt, every bit of longing, has drifted away, and I’m smiling. Smiling genuinely for the first time in my living memory.
“I’m fucken off my face,” Tahlia stage whispers at me like it’s some massive secret.
“Is that what this feeling is?” I wonder, suddenly understanding that it’s those little pills making me feel this good. “It’s wonderful. I could live like this.”
“Touch my shirt,” Tahlia says. “It’s so soft.”
“Touch my hair. It feels like clouds.”
“Oh my god,” she says. “You’re so pretty.”
Before I know it, we’re making out, but it doesn’t feel like kissing. It feels like we’re discovering a whole new world of texture. My mouth doesn’t even feel like my mouth.
“Jeez, you two are lucky I’m babysitting tonight,” Jeff says from outside the car. He has the back door open and we’re somehow in a parking lot outside a club. When did we get here?
I scrunch up my face in a frown as he helps us out of the car. “Babysitting? I’m not a baby,” I tell him, feeling genuinely confused.
“Relax sweetheart,” he says, draping his long lean arm across my shoulders. “I can see you’re all grown up.” He takes a long index finger and runs it along my collarbone and down my chest, stopping just before my cleavage.
I gasp, the physical contact doing something to me I can’t explain. And I can’t help myself, I turn towards him, wrapping my arms tightly around his slim waist. We stay like that for what seems like an eternity, and I feel a great rush of energy surging through my body. I don’t want to let go.
Through his chest, I hear Jeff say something. But I can’t understand a word of it. I’m lost in the embrace. It’s been so long since someone has held me.
Eventually, he gently pushes me away and peers into my face smiling. His hand grazes my cheek as he brushes my hair back with his fingers.
“Let’s go inside,” he suggests in a low intimate voice. “You can dance all night, and you’ll feel amazing. I promise.”
Nodding, I follow Jeff and Tahlia up to the back entrance to the club. There, Jeff claps hands with the bouncer, who immediately lets us in.
“Told you he was connected,” Tahlia murmurs in my ear. “And I told you he was hot too. He’s got his eye on you.” She giggles as she nudges my side playfully.
The sound is deafening when we walk through the main doors of the club. Some sort of indiscernible music plays, and I can’t help but move along as the beat takes over my body. When the song nears its end, the DJ starts to splice a new one in. It’s a familiar beat, and the room starts to cheer and move more excitedly as Silento’s Watch Me plays.
Euphoria replaces the blood in my veins as my molecules dance for me. Or with me. I can’t really tell. I just know it�
��s amazing, the song feels like it’s a part of me.
In unison, the room bounces together, our hands in the air as we gyrate and shout the lyrics, performing the moves at the right times.
Some guy, indistinguishable to me in the dark of the room, comes and starts to dance against Tahlia. She breaks off with him, leaving me to dance on my own. I’m feeling so wonderful that I couldn’t care less. I just keep bouncing along with everyone else, swaying my body and feeling the music vibrate along with my cells. Every piece of me seems to want to be a part of the beat, and I feel as though I have no control. I can’t do anything but dance.
After a while, Jeff appears in front of me and starts to sway along with me. He is truly the most beautiful man. With his dark-brown hair, clipped close to his head and designer stubble sprinkled along his jaw line. I’m in awe.
I can’t help myself, I reach out to run my hand over his head. I have this great desire to touch it, to feel the short spikes prickling into the palm of my hand. He grins as I do, and takes me by the wrist, pulling me closer to him. Our dancing slows, and he leans down to speak into my ear.
“Have you ever been fucked, Paige?”
He pulls back from my ear and stands in front of me, his eyes searching mine as he waits for my answer. I don’t give it to him. I don’t want him to know how inexperienced I am.
His mouth curls in a half smile as he places his index finger onto his tongue, and then slips it inside his pocket. When he holds it in front of me, there is a small white pill stuck to the end of it.
He holds it to my lips, and I open my mouth obligingly. But he pulls it back and shakes his head slowly from side to side, his eyes dancing as he watches me.
“This one is going to cost you,” he murmurs in my ear.
“I…I don’t have any money,” I stammer. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your money,” he says, placing the pill on the end of his tongue as he leans in close to me and brushes his lips against mine. “I want to touch you.”
“Touch me where?”
“In places you’ll love. I want to make you my girl.”
“Your girl?”
He nods. “Would you like to be my girl, Paige?”
My urge to be important to him is so great that I don’t even think before parting my lips. I let his tongue—and the pill—into my mouth.
“That’s my girl,” he murmurs, pausing long enough for me to swallow before he reclaims my lips with his.
His mouth moves over mine, claiming me. The sensations rippling through me are amazing, the slick texture of his gliding tongue, the smoothness of his teeth as I run the tip of my tongue over them, and the softness of his lips.
We sway together again, locked at the lips as our hands roam. I’m loving the feel of the fabric of his shirt under my fingertips, and the firm build of his chest as it presses against my soft one. Then his hand slides between us, his fingers tucking in the waist of my jeans.
“This is the part where I touch you.” He locks eyes with me, and I nod, knowing I agreed to this, and wanting it as well. I don’t know if it’s the drugs or him. But the aching between my legs demands to be satisfied, and when his fingers find their way there, I almost lose consciousness from the contact. It feels so fucking good.
He doesn’t enter me. He simply keeps his eyes on me as he teases my entrance, pulling his hand back out of my jeans then sucking his finger into his mouth. “Sweet,” he says. “Sweet sixteen.”
Holy fuck.
He pulls me back against him, hugging me against his chest as we slow dance to fast music. We stay like this for, I don’t know how long, but eventually the music cuts out, and the lights are turned on.
Abruptly, he breaks away from me and calls out. My ears are buzzing in the absence of the music. But when Tahlia appears, leaning up against the guy she was dancing with, I realise he was calling to her.
We all head out to Jeff’s car. I’m still feeling so wonderful that I don’t even think about the guy getting in there with us. I don’t even think about the fact that the house we arrive at isn’t Tahlia’s house at all. I just go along with it.
I’m Jeff’s girl.
Tahlia leads the guy she’s with into a room as soon as we get inside, leaving Jeff and I on our own.
“You still feeling a little buzzed?” he asks, sitting down on the couch and patting the seat next to him.
“A little,” I reply as I lower myself to sit where he indicated. I’m still smiling. My face hurts, but I can’t seem to stop.
“I should probably apologise to you,” Jeff starts, creasing his brow as he looks down at his hands, and twists the gold band that adorns his thumb with his long fingers.
“Oh, really. Why?”
“Because I kissed you. A lot. I touched you too. I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why? Because you’re older than me?”
“Well, yeah, and I was supposed to be looking out for you and Tahlia. I wasn’t supposed to be hooking up with a beautiful girl who is almost half my age.”
Blushing, I shake my head, letting my curls fall over my face. “You’re not that old.”
“I am, Paige. In five years’ time, our age difference won’t matter. But right now, it seems quite vast, don’t you think?”
I bounce one of my shoulders as I chew my lip. “Does that mean you don’t want me to be your girl anymore?” I ask, disappointment blooming in my overwhelmed mind.
He rubs his hand over his face and head, then leans against the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “God, I still want that. But I bet if your father had any idea what happened tonight, he’d hunt me down and hang me.”
“I doubt that,” I deadpan. “The man I thought was my father couldn’t care less what I do. And I’ve never met my real one.”
He sits up, leaning a little closer. “What about your mother? Does she care?”
“No. She kicked me out months ago.” My eyes lower to my hands, clasped in my lap.
His brow furrows as he hooks a finger under my chin and lifts my eyes to meet his. “Are you serious? They just kicked you out?” I nod. “What for?”
“For being me, I guess. I figure my mum had an affair, and I’m the result of it. I’ve always been treated differently from my brother and sister. I never felt wanted. Eventually, they just sent me away.” For some reason, I feel comfortable with Jeff and tell him everything I’ve been through so far. He sits quietly, listening to me as I unload.
“That’s pretty messed up. Where are you staying now?”
“On the couch in Tahlia’s garage.”
“Are you serious? No, no, no. That’s not cool.”
“Well, what else am I supposed to do? I don’t have any other family to stay with, and I’ve stayed with every friend I can. I’m not entering the system either. I don’t want to go into foster care, or a home, or whatever-the-fuck they do with girls my age.”
“Paige, you have other options.”
“Oh yeah. Like what?”
He shifts where he sits and turns to face me, taking my hand into his before he meets my eyes. “You might not want to hear this. But, a girl who’s good in bed will never be wanting for a place to sleep.”
“What? No…I don’t know about that.” I laugh, feeling slightly uncomfortable with that idea. “I mean I’ve never…”
He closes his other hand over mine and says, “I know. I can teach you if you’d like. I always take care of my girls.”
His girls. My heart thuds solidly as I think about what it is he’s offering me. Not his girl. One of his girls. “Oh, um. Is that what being your girl means? Like being a prostitute?” I practically whisper.
Jeff laughs. “No.” Thank God. “If you’re my girl, I’ll be the one who looks after you. You’ll ever have to sleep on an old couch in a dirty garage again.” He reaches forward and touches my face gently with the back of his hand.
“You want to look after me?” This sounds too good to be true. “Here?” I
look around the spacious lounge room.
He nods. “You’re so beautiful, Paige. You should have seen the way other men were watching you tonight. It made me feel like I had to have you. You have a quality that draws men in, and I’d love to be the man who teaches you how to use this gorgeous body of yours to your benefit. A woman like you could use her beauty to have the world at her feet.” He chews on his lip as his eyes travel up and down my body. The expression on his face seems as though it hurts for him to look at me and not touch me.
“Really?” Strangely, I don’t want to run. I’m not at all scared. I want him to touch me. I want him to teach me. I’m tired of sleeping on a couch. I’m tired of sleeping in a garage. I’m tired of silently begging, tired of feeling dependent on others. I’m tired of being a burden.
I don’t know if it’s the drugs in my system, or if I just don’t want to feel like a kid anymore, but something makes me move towards him. I want him. Badly.
My breathing becomes shaky as I close the distance between us and pause just before my lips connect with his. I touch them lightly at first, testing to see if he really does want me, or if it’s all talk. Even after all he’s done and said tonight, I still feel unsure of his attraction towards me. I’ve never really felt as beautiful as he’s saying I am.
However, my worries go unfounded. I’m rewarded with a primal growl as his arms wrap around me, and he pulls me to him, deepening the kiss as I climb onto his lap.
Exploring his mouth with mine, I rock my body against his, marvelling in the sensation of him beneath me as my senses come alive.
A slight bout of nerves starts to bounce around inside my body when I feel the hardness between his legs as it presses against me. I don’t have much time to dwell on it though, because with one swift movement, he lifts me up and carries me to the bedroom, dropping me on the bed and holding himself above me.
His kisses make their way along my jawline and down my neck, while his hand kneads my breasts. Sensations I’ve never felt before shoot through my body, zinging between my legs like some sort of electrical charge. All my nerves vanish. I’m in a state of pure ecstasy.
Forever: Beautiful Series, book two Page 29