Too Fast

by Alexia Haynes

  “Actually, yes.”

  Five minutes later, we were being led to a table by a girl my age wearing a long, ruffled skirt and a sombrero. “Enjoy your dinner,” she said after laying menus in front of each of us. The waitress stopped by within a second and took our orders. Luckily we all had our favorite dishes because I wasn’t looking forward to a long wait.

  Luke took my hand under the table. His strong fingers brought thoughts of the rest of him, and I struggled to fight the heat that rose in my cheeks.

  Neither Madison nor Natalie was suffering. I should have realized Madison would bond with Luke’s sister. Madison adored kids, and she communicated better with children than adults. I guess that was to be expected for someone studying to be a kindergarten teacher. While Natalie wasn’t a child, the shy teen interacted easily with Madison.

  “I loved Trig,” Madison was saying. “It’s much better than Algebra II. I’m sure you’ll get through it though. It really depends on the teacher. How’s your teacher?”

  Natalie considered for a second. “Pretty good I guess.”

  “Then you’ll be fine.”

  Luke leaned over to speak softly. “Nat really likes you guys. It’s nice for her to meet people who are so normal.”

  I laughed. “Uh, Luke. We aren’t exactly normal.”

  “Of course you are.” His green eyes held sincerity. “Two well-adjusted college students.”

  “I wouldn’t say well-adjusted.”

  “Compared to the girls at her high school and the things she’s experienced at her house.”

  “Thanks for the compliment.” I wanted to know more about his mother, his childhood, more about what his life was really like now. I couldn’t ask any of that, but if Natalie and Madison weren’t here, I might have.

  The waitress brought chips and salsa. “It’s bottomless!” she chirped. She also set down our drink orders.

  “I’m not going to be very ladylike,” I said to the table. “I’m pretty sure I’m about to starve to death.” I grabbed a chip, dipped it in the salsa, and took a bite. “Mmm.” So good.

  Natalie said something to Madison, which I missed, because Luke leaned close to my ear, and said, “I have every confidence that I can match your appetites.”

  He reached for a chip, but it didn’t escape me that he hadn’t been referring to food at all. My heart beat faster and I nearly choked on my chip. Hadn’t I just satisfied my “appetites” last night? Or this morning? I’d never thought I could be insatiable. These thoughts were not conducive to socializing at dinner with my friend and Luke’s sister. Suddenly I wasn’t as hungry, for food at least. Now I wanted something more filling. I smiled to myself and put my arm around Luke, stroking his right arm, my hand moving of its own accord within seconds.

  Luke’s hand rubbed my thigh, mimicking my movements, and stimulating every nerve in my body.

  “Savannah? Savannah!” Madison said. “Wow. You seriously zoned out there for a minute.”

  “Uh, sorry. What?”

  “I was asking if you were one of those people who liked high school.”

  “Oh, sorry.” I’d already said that. I struggled to get the wheels turning in my lust-clogged mind. Drag you thoughts out of the gutter, slutlet. “High school?” I asked. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what those two words meant.

  Small circles traced on my leg. Now larger circles of heat.

  Madison laughed. “Luke,” she scolded. “Whatever you’re doing, cut it out. You’re making her stupid.”

  Stupid, I thought. I was okay with stupid.

  “Who me?” Luke said. “I’m just sitting here.”

  “Eww,” Natalie said. “I don’t know what I’m missing but I know it’s gross.”

  “You aren’t missing anything,” Madison said. She got up and walked around the table to me. Then she put her hands on my shoulders. “Stand,” she said.

  I stood, and she pointed to the seat she had just vacated.

  “Sit there,” she said. “I’ll sit here until you two learn how to behave.”

  I scooted into the seat.

  “You are going to be a really good teacher,” Nat said.

  “Yeah, she really is,” I said.

  “You’re back!” Natalie clapped her hands.

  “Where did I go?” I asked.

  “I just want to say that I’m not going anywhere with you and Luke again.”

  “Sure you are,” Luke said. “We won’t be like this forever.”

  “Like what?” Nat asked.

  “You know, out of control for each other,” he said, lifting his glass of sweet tea and taking a sip.

  I pretty much needed to dump my tea in my lap, but Luke’s statement jerked me back to the conversation. Out of control. We won’t be so out of control for each other forever. Not forever. Just a month. Surely he didn’t think… No, he was just making conversation. I needed to cool off and relax. I figured Luke wouldn’t like it much if I pulled out my fake ID and ordered a pitcher of margaritas. Well, he’d like it on a personal level, but wouldn’t approve of me doing it in front of his little sister.

  “Sorry, guys,” I said. “I just sort of lost it for a minute.”

  “Yeah,” Madison said, a smile on her face. “I noticed that happening some recently.”

  “Luke’s a bad influence,” Nat said, reaching over to tousle her brother’s hair. “It’s nice to see you smiling.”

  “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room before our food comes.” I backed away from the table and stood.

  “Me too,” Luke said, springing to his feet.

  “Seriously?” I said.

  Madison just winked at me though, and I caught Natalie smiling.

  Luke placed his hand on the small of my back as we walked through the restaurant.

  “I’m not having sex with you in the mens’ room,” I said, mostly to be funny.

  “Of course not,” he said, taking my hand. “We’re going to the car.”

  “No, we aren’t. Your sister is here. She’ll know.”

  “Madison will distract her. She wants this for you.”

  “Not a good idea,” I mumbled as we went out the door into the dark parking lot.

  He climbed in the back of the Expedition and reached in the pocket on the back of the seat and pulled out a condom.

  Uh, hello! Promiscuous much? “Why do you have condoms there?”

  “On Sunday, after I left your place, I put condoms everywhere. Just in case. Well, I put them everywhere I pictured us having sex. So everywhere.”

  This should have been funny, but right now, nothing was really funny. Everything was about sex. I climbed in beside him and shut the door.

  “This isn’t even going to work.” I tried to resist, but my core was humming to life and the emptiness inside me was unbearable. My breathing grew ragged, and he kissed me and slipped my panties off before pulling me onto his lap. And then I was grinding down on him like I’d die if I didn’t get him deeper.

  “Hang on, Darlin’, I need to get my pants down.” He rose up and I balanced to one side on my knee as he shucked his pants and boxers down just enough, and…

  Oh my God. He entered me in a swift motion that had me screaming.

  “Savannah. Don’t. We’re in a parking lot.” He gently pulled my head down to his and kissed me, tongues dancing in sensory overload, as he thrust into me over and over.

  When I lost control, my mouth left his lips. “Oh my God.”

  The SUV bounced with us, and I almost cried out but he reached for my mouth, and I sucked one of his fingers into my mouth, hard, and he found my right breast, and his teeth were on my nipple when I shattered into pieces.

  “Almost,” he gasped, and stroked two, three more times before he moaned. He hugged me tightly against him and kissed my neck. “You have no idea how much I needed you today. You are amazing, Savannah. I’m sorry to take you in a parking lot. I’m sorry I can’t control myself.” He kissed me down my neck and across my sho
ulders.

  “Shh. I’m not sorry. I wouldn’t be sorry if we had made love in the men’s’ room.”

  He squeezed me tighter, and I could feel his smile against my neck. He must have liked that men’s room idea. Then I realized he might be reacting to the term, make love, and I tried to be upset that I’d given him a hint that this was becoming more than just sex to me, but somehow, I didn’t care. I couldn’t care about anything other than the absolute peace that surrounded and filled me and the niggling notion that I needed to fix my skirt and my hair and wipe the dopey orgasmic expression off my face and get back inside.

  “Are you ready?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “But I’m going to fuck your brains out as soon as we’re alone.”

  “Agreed,” I said. I found his lips with mine.

  When we walked back in the door, I was still messing with my hair.

  “Oh, honey,” one of the hostesses said. “Wait up.” She walked around behind me and pulled down the skirt that had apparently been caught in my panties. Ass hanging out for the whole world to see. Fantastic.

  “Oh, God,” I said, shrinking with embarrassment.

  “No big deal,” she said, with a wink at me and an appreciative glance at him. “I don’t think anybody would fault you for swooning over that fine specimen.”

  Luke coughed, and I took a perverse glee in his discomfort.

  “Maybe you should go to the table first,” Luke suggested. “I’ll wait a minute or two.”

  “You might want to fix your bra first,” the waitress said.

  I looked down to see that my breasts were slightly askew and realized that Luke had pulled the cup up and over one breast. “Thanks,” I said, making the quick adjustment.

  Luke had the gall to actually grin about my wardrobe malfunction. Like he was proud of himself. Oh hell. He ought to be proud. He’d rocked my world in that stupid SUV. “Arrogant bastard,” I grumbled.

  I marched back to the table, back straight, head held high, like I wasn’t a trashy ho-bag.

  Madison and Natalie were halfway through their dinners.

  “Oh, hey,” Madison said. “We thought you might have flushed yourself down the toilet.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. I sat down and started eating. They couldn’t expect me to talk with my mouth full. Surely they’d go back to their conversation.

  “Are you feeling okay, Savannah?” Natalie asked.

  “Mmm-hmmm.” I nodded my head vigorously.

  “Because you’re eating Luke’s food.”

  Dammit. So much for not behaving suspiciously.

  “We decided to share,” I said, then I switched the plates so I’d have my own entrée in front of me.”

  Luke finally ambled up to the table. He sat down, ignoring the looks from his sister and my roommate.

  He glanced down at the plate. “You guys ate my food?”

  Natalie and Madison started giggling.

  “Savannah forgot what she ordered,” Natalie said.

  Luke laughed.

  “We decided to share. Remember?”

  “I like sharing with Savannah,” Luke said. “It’s something we do.”

  “Quit being gross, Luke,” his sister said. “And just eat.”

  The waitress came over and brought a fresh basket of chips and more salsa. I grabbed a handful and put them on my plate with my chicken and rice.

  “Maybe you two should go away for the weekend. Then maybe you can manage to conform to social standards and control yourselves when you go out in public.” Madison shook her head at us.

  “This is delicious,” Luke said, taking a break in between shoveling spoonfuls of food into his mouth.

  “I guess you worked up an appetite,” Madison said.

  I glared at her.

  “Oh, Luke is always hungry,” Natalie said. “He works really hard. He takes two sandwiches for lunch every day.”

  Thank goodness Natalie hadn’t caught Madison’s meaning.

  After eating and rehydrating with the tea, I was returning to normal. I could think clearly now, and my inhibitions had returned. And I was growing more mortified by the minute about my behavior. Had I really just done that?

  “Savannah,” Luke said softly when Natalie and Madison had started talking again. “I’m not sure I want Natalie at home tonight. Can we crash with you?”

  Something was going on. I wish we could have talked about it. “Of course.”

  “Maybe I could sleep on the couch, and Nat could crash in your room.”

  “Yeah. No problem.”

  “I hate to impose, Savannah. Especially considering that this is just a month-long deal, but I don’t have a lot of choices tonight.”

  “It’s fine, Luke. Really.”

  “What’s fine?” Natalie asked.

  Luke glanced at me.

  “You guys are crashing with me and Madison tonight. It will be fun.”

  “Really?” Natalie looked at her brother. “We are?”

  “Yes, but you still have school so we aren’t staying up all night.”

  Madison shot me a concerned look. She picked up on the fact that this was about something other than hormones. Something serious was going on, and I knew enough to guess that something was going on with his mother.

  Natalie grew quiet as we finished our dinner.

  “Do you want dessert?” I asked her.

  “No thanks. I didn’t see anything that looked good.”

  Mexican desserts weren’t my favorite either.

  The waitress stopped by and we asked for our checks. Luke insisted on getting everyone’s.

  When she came back with the check, Luke reached for his wallet. Then he turned a little green. “I must have left my wallet in the car. I’ll run out and get it.”

  He was halfway across the restaurant when I realized what had happened. His wallet had probably dropped out in the back seat when we were fooling around.

  “He’s such a goof sometimes,” Natalie said.

  “He didn’t have to run to the car,” Madison said. “We could have covered it.”

  Yeah. But then when we got back to the Expedition, Madison and Natalie would notice that the wallet had ended up in the back seat, which would only make sense to them if we’d been doing the naughty out there.

  “Yeah, well…” I said.

  Luke came rushing back in. He gave me a glance and an eye-roll that I took to mean he was as annoyed with himself as I was with myself. “I got it now, guys. Sorry.”

  “I had a great time,” Madison said. “Thanks for inviting me along.”

  I stared at her to see if she was being a smartass. No. She seemed to actually mean it.

  “How will I get ready for school?” Natalie asked as Luke pulled the Expedition in behind my car. “I don’t have clothes here.”

  “I’ll take you home in the morning before school.” Luke locked the doors on his SUV and pocketed his keys.

  “You could always borrow something from me or Savannah, too,” Madison offered. “Savannah’s taller than both of us, and you’re skinnier than me, but I think we can find plenty to work.”

  I didn’t have a lot of clothes, but I didn’t think Nat would choose from Madison’s wardrobe over mine. Madison already dressed like a kindergarten teacher. She had a closet full of dorky sweaters and old-lady style embellished tops for every holiday. I adored Madison, but I didn’t think a kid in high school would voluntarily dress like that.

  “Oh, wow,” Natalie said, her eyes roaming over Madison’s matronly skirt and block print sweater set. “Thanks, but we’ll have to run by the house in the morning anyway. For my books. So thanks, but it’s really okay.”

  Afraid Madison might actually realize for the first time in her life that she didn’t dress age-appropriately, I hurried to distract her. “We need some blankets for the couch. I’m not sure if I have enough. Do you have some hidden away from Aubrey?”

  “I have a couple of quilts,” Madison said. She went ba
ck through the kitchen to her bedroom to get them.

  “Well, you saw most of the apartment earlier,” I said to Natalie and Luke. “But make yourselves at home.”

  “Nat might want a shower before bed,” Luke said. “She usually showers at night.”

  “I don’t want to cause any trouble, Luke.”

  “Not a problem,” I said. “My room has a bath attached, so you can shower without worrying about privacy.”

  Natalie glanced around. “What about that thing with the creepy strangers earlier?”

  “They’re long gone. If you want, me and your brother will hang out in my room until you get out of the shower.”

  She smiled. “That would be great.”

  “Are you a hot person at night or a cold person?” I had both types of pjs.

  “Hot. I like to sleep in shorts or a short gown.”

  “Got it.” I went into my room, rummaged for my nicest shorts and nightshirt set. “Will medium work?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “There are towels in the bathroom and feel free to use whatever shampoo and soap you want. I use that shower, and so does Madison, so there is a lot of product in there.”

  Nat peered cautiously into the bathroom before she went in and closed the door.

  “Hey, Savannah,” Madison said, coming into the room with her arms full of quilts. “These are clean. Just make sure to hide them in my closet if you leave after me in the morning. I don’t want Aubrey using them.”

  “Thanks, Madison,” Luke said. “I’m sorry to impose.”

  “Actually,” Madison said, glancing over her shoulder. “I have to get some sleep so I can’t stay up until Aubrey gets home to make sure she’s going to behave. So I’m actually relieved to have a man around tonight.”

  “Don’t be silly, Madison. We’re fine. I can hang out and talk to Aubrey. We should have put our foot down about these late night guests a long time ago.” I didn’t want Madison to remember that we’d only known Luke for two days, or that he’d spent his first hours here as my own late-night hook up.

  “I wouldn’t mind having a word with her myself,” Luke said.

  Was he seriously getting all territorial?

  “Unfortunately, I have to get Nat to school and then myself to work.”