“Nothing, Mom,” she said evenly. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were right on the street! Anyone could have seen you with him! Your father could have looked out the window and…and—”
“Seen me sitting in a guy’s car? Oh, please.” Demi packed the chunks of sliced celery, onion and potato around the chicken in the pan. “Come on, Mom.”
“Don’t you get flip with me, young lady!”
“What’s this about?” Dad appeared in the kitchen entryway. Both of them glanced down at the ice cubes rattling in the glass of Scotch he held. Dad shifted until the hand holding the glass was out of sight behind the door frame. “What’s going on?”
Her mother’s lips were compressed. “She was sitting in a parked car out on the street right in front of our house,” she said. “With Eric Trask.”
Her father’s face went blank. “You’re joking.”
“Oh, stop it. Both of you,” Demi said impatiently. “I wasn’t making out with him. Not that it would have made any difference if I had been.”
“Shut up,” her father said. “And go to your room.”
Demi stared at him, startled at his tone. Then she looked down at her greasy, salty hands. “Excuse me?” she said. “Dad, come on. I’m fixing dinner, and I—”
“Get out of this room. I don’t want to look at you.”
The tone of his voice was chilling. It sounded almost like…hatred.
Demi went to the sink and washed her hands with dish soap in the deathly silence that followed. She washed them carefully, taking her time. Then she dried them the same way. Slow. Methodical. She was an adult. She did not scurry. She had her dignity.
By the time she marched past her father, righteous anger had replaced her shock.
“Maybe you two haven’t made the adjustment yet, but I’m no longer a child to be sent to my room,” she told him. “I’m an adult. I have been for a while. Get used to it.”
“Get out of my sight,” Dad repeated.
She tried not to flinch. “I’d be glad to. Permanently, if necessary.”
When she got to her room, Demi’s knees gave way. She thudded down on her bed.
Her legs shook. She’d been in conflict with Dad for more or less her entire life, but this level of hostility from him was new. And shocking.
She wouldn’t have expected Dad to be happy about her spending time with Eric Trask, after all the trash talk that had been thrown around about the guy. But this furious venom was, well…out of proportion was an understatement.
She wondered if her father was afraid of the Prophet’s Curse, like Raelene. Maybe he, too, had subconsciously pinned that big death cluster that happened eight years ago on Eric and his brothers. There was no one else left to pin it on, after all. Not after the fire.
But what the hell? That was sloppy thinking. Childish and superstitious and unfair. She expected better out of these people. Even Dad, in spite of his many shortcomings.
She wished she could pack up her stuff and stomp out in a huff, but as usual, it was never that simple. Her ex-college roommate, Rory, was working in Seattle. Rory had offered to let Demi couch-surf for the duration of her internship. But Rory was on a business trip on the east coast right now, and Demi couldn’t afford to blow her limited savings on a hotel room in a big, expensive city just out of pique.
No, she would be sensible. Keep her head down. Wait for Rory to get back. Plus, she was still hoping for a loan from Granddad to help with the tuition at the Culinary Institute, since Mom and Dad had refused to help. Just on principle.
And damn it, she wanted to see Eric again. She was an adult, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like she wanted to marry the guy. She was leaving Shaw’s Crossing. She had no intention of coming back, other than a holiday duty visit now and then.
So maybe she would indulge in some fun with him, if the opportunity presented itself. Discreetly, and with all due precautions. It was her own damn business, after all. No one else on earth needed to know.
Maybe Dad would toss her out on the street if he found out. So be it. She’d figure out something on the fly. She was too old to be shoved around and dictated to.
This was no big deal. Just a hormonal buzz, for the entertainment value. A little light flirtation to make the hot summer days pass faster.
Where was the harm in that?
4
After long deliberation, Demi had decided that the matching purple sports bra and boy shorts could pass as a sporty bathing suit if you squinted. It was good enough for a quick dip in Kettle River Park, so no need to change after work. She got through her shift somehow in a fever of excitement.
At five, she washed up in the staff bathroom, wishing she could primp, but she was about to jump into a river, so just a little water-proof mascara, a slick of lip gloss and a few quick strokes of her brush would have to do.
She came out to find Raelene out on the sidewalk, leaning to lecture Eric through the open window of his car. “…cannot park here! This is right in front of my business!”
“It’s okay, Raelene,” Demi told her. “We were just leaving.”
She got in, waving at Raelene’s disapproving face, and rocked back against the seat as the car accelerated. In the broken rearview mirror, two different angles of Raelene frowned after her, hands on her hips.
“The getaway car,” she said. “Punch it. Feels so good.”
“Hard day?” Eric asked.
He was so sweatily gorgeous, she immediately lost her train of thought when she looked at him. “Uh, yes,” she admitted, angling her knee away from the exposed upholstery glue. “Might be my last day. Raelene and I have had some pretty stark differences of opinion lately.”
Eric took the lakefront road that headed out to Kettle River Park. “I’m sorry. I should have picked you up somewhere else.”
“No.” Her voice was forceful. “I won’t tolerate being pushed around anymore. Not from Raelene, or my folks, or my granddad.”
“Shit.” Eric pounded the steering wheel. “I didn’t want to make trouble for you.”
“Don’t worry. I can manage. And I’ve been looking forward to a dip into Circle Falls since you mentioned it yesterday, so let’s go for it.”
His teeth flashed in a boyish grin. “Actually, I know an even better place that’s just a little further upriver.”
“Great. Lead on.”
Demi was glad she’d worn her rugged sports sandals as they hiked through the park down to the riverbed and up toward the big crescent-shaped shelf of rock in the canyon with water thundering over it into the big pool below. Several people were swimming there, but they didn’t stop. She followed Eric up the hill along the river on a narrow, pebbled path through the tumbled boulders, along a mossy cliff face and through a jumble of huge, tumbled tree trunks. Once through that barrier, they crept alongside the stream for a while under a long, dim overhang of rock. Eric was so tall, he had to bend double. Tufts of moss dripped water onto her neck.
Out into the sunshine again, and Eric led her back up the side of the canyon and out onto a big outcropping of rock.
From there, Demi looked down at a deep pool of rippling, churning water that glowed a beautiful, deep green-blue. Dragonflies glimmered in a darting blue cloud at the calmer edge. Not a soul was in sight. The water was deep and clear.
“I’ve never been this far above the falls.” Her voice cut off into a gasp as Eric stripped off his shirt.
Whew. It ought to be illegal. So big, but not beefcake big. Just lots of thick, lean, sinewy muscle. A workman’s tan, blistered from previous sunburns. Darker on his neck and arms. Faint, silvery scars on his back moved, snakelike, as he stretched and flexed.
He hesitated before shucking his jeans, glancing over his shoulders. “You don’t mind seeing me in my underwear, do you?”
“Not if you don’t mind seeing mine,” she said.
His grin dazzled her. “I hope I can handle it.” The jeans dropped.
It
was no surprise that his legs were as fine as the rest of him. She didn’t get a very long look, just one glimpse of his stunning ass, taut and muscular.
He flew off the rocks in a perfect, knife-like dive and came up splashing and laughing, his gorgeous white teeth and dimples on full display.
“Cold?” she asked, stepping out of her cut-offs.
His eyes never left her body. “Nah. It’s balmy. Tropical.”
“Bullshitter.” She wrenched off her T-shirt. “I know this river as well as you do. Even in July it’s freaking cold.”
His smile faded as he stared intently at her body in the jogging bra and boy shirts. She started to blush. Only one cure for that.
She launched herself off the rock and hit the water. Oh. So. Cold.
She came up for air and flung her hair back, gasping as the current grabbed her. It jerked her along, faster and harder than she could fight it. She put all her muscle into it, struggling against the pull to get to the side of the river—
And smacked up right against Eric’s huge, wet bare chest. His arms wound around her and held her steady as the water churned and pounded against her back.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” he gasped out, dashing water from his eyes. “What a goddamn idiot I am. I forgot that the current would be different for you. You’re so much smaller.”
She put her hands against his shoulders. “I’m fine. I wasn’t in any danger, I don’t think. We just would’ve had to meet up somewhere downstream, that’s all. No biggie.”
“I should never have let that happen.”
“Oh, stop it. I’m fine. It was wild. Exciting. I loved it.”
The energy shifted as they stared at each other. “You like wild?” he asked.
Demi pushed her clinging hair back off her forehead. “Yes.”
“Is that why you’re here with me?”
The tension in his tone made her cautious. “I’m not sure exactly what you mean.”
His big shoulders lifted and then dropped. “You know. Walking on the wild side. Slumming with the animal that escaped from the zoo.”
Her mouth dropped open for a moment before she found her voice. “Screw you.”
Eric looked started. “Hey. I didn’t mean to—”
“I don’t care what you meant or didn’t mean. You’re being dickish and defensive about something that has nothing to do with me.”
His brow knit into a frown. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
“I’m here because I like you, Eric. At least, I did. But if you’re going to feel sorry for yourself and blame me for someone else’s bullshit, then count me out.” She shoved him, breaking his grip, and flung herself into the current’s muscular pull once again.
Eric leaped in after her. After a few moments of being swooped and tossed in the center of the current, he got her back to the side of the river again, trapping her between himself and a sheer, towering expanse of rock.
He held her there, immobile. Water swirled and churned around them. “I’m sorry, okay?” he said. “I’ve gotten that before. Girls who want to feel wild, piss off their parents, make their boyfriends jealous. I just wondered if that was what was going on here.”
She shoved at his chest, but couldn’t break his grip this time. “It appears that nothing is going on here,” she said. “Let go of me. Right now.”
“In this current? That’s nuts. I can’t. It’s not safe.”
“I don’t need safe. And I don’t need to walk on the wild side, either,” she said. “I can find my way to the wild side all by myself. I am dangerous as all shit. With no help from you. I do not need to live anything vicariously through you. Got it?”
“Loud and clear.”
They just studied each other fiercely, as if trying to see inside the other’s head.
“You said you’re here because you like me,” he said.
“Liked,” she snapped. “Liked is the operative word.”
“Ah.” He considered that for a moment. “What if I said I was sorry again? Would you like me again?”
“Depends,” she said. “Some guys apologize better than others.”
“What if I apologized like this?” He yanked her closer.
He covered her mouth with his, and Demi had just a moment of disorientation, an instant of who-the-fuck-does-this-guy-think-he-is, her hands up against his chest to shove him away…and then she felt it.
A flash, blazing through her. A rush of wild energy uncoiling in her body. Heat. Light, bursting behind her eyes. A throb of startled yearning way down low.
She was motionless, astonished. Feeling it take her, fill her. His lips were so soft. It was cold in that water, but not the sweet heat of his mouth.
So hot. Oh God.
Heat flared in her mouth, her chest, her belly, between her legs. Flowering and spreading everywhere. She pulled back, gasping for air. The swirl of water sucked hard at her legs. Eric was as steady as an oak.
He kept her close, legs apart, braced around hers. “You’re not the only one who likes it wild,” he murmured into her ear.
They stared at each other, and by some mutual, wordless accord, their lips came together again. Tasting each other tenderly, exploring the sweetness, the smoothness, the heat, the shapes of each other’s lips. His tongue, touching, twining.
Her fingers dug into his chest, making him growl with satisfaction and kiss her more hungrily. Her arms wound around his neck. She struggled to free her legs from between his clamped thighs so she could wrap them round his waist.
He helped her, cupping her ass to hold her up against himself. The kiss got hotter, harder, wilder. It felt frantic, almost like anger.
The power flooding her was a revelation. It was magic. It made her feel superhuman. It rose up from deep within like a column of heat and light, unstoppable.
She forgot who she was. Problems, past, future, ambitions, plots and plans, they all dissolved into sensation. She just sought more of his hot, marauding mouth, his tough, sinewy body holding her. Handling her with masterful authority.
His kiss called forth a depth of feeling that she’d never felt, but she gave it to him. Helplessly, eagerly. She wound around his body, ready right now for anything he wanted. Practically whimpering with eagerness to have him inside of her.
He lifted his mouth from hers and started to move, shifting them into a more sheltered, hidden crack between two enormous rocks. They were still chest deep, and she was intensely conscious of the thick, hot bulge of his erect penis prodding her belly.
She moved against it eagerly, and he groaned deep in his throat. Their eyes locked as she leaned back for air. His eyes were so beautiful. Bright silver gray, banded with dark slate. Brilliant with raw, pure hunger.
Her throat was locked with excitement, but he closed his eyes, hissing out a sharp breath. “We can’t,” he said, hoarsely. “No latex.”
Reality flickered fitfully in her mind. Context. Consequences. Latex. Of course. Thank God someone was being a grown-up. But she wanted to scream in frustration.
Eric kissed her again, holding her against himself with one hand but slipping his other hand down over her belly to her mound, petting her through the wet fabric of her boy shorts. The contact made her shiver and convulse in his arms. She moved against his hand. Couldn’t stop moving. Grabbed his arm, pulling it closer. Pushing his hand deeper.
He slid his hand beneath her waistband and slipped it inside, sliding lower. Teasing her clit, rolling it tenderly against his thumb. Petting her pussy lips, oh so delicately. Opening them. Spreading her hot slickness around. Very slowly, penetrating her. They moaned together, shivering, as he pushed his finger inside, still stroking her clit.
“Oh God, Demi,” he said, his voice rough. “Smooth as silk. Your pussy is so hot.”
She was beyond any coherent response. She was gasping and whimpering at his slow, perfect caresses. He worked her clit expertly as his finger thrust inside.
She clenched around him and cried out as the sensations creste
d. Huge, deep throbs of delight pumped rhythmically through every part of her body.
After, she floated in his arms, limp and shivering. She’d never felt anything like that in any of her adventures with her college or high school boyfriends. Some of which had been fun. Some of which had been meh. None of them had moved her like this.
The towering hugeness of this feeling—it was dangerous. It could shatter her. Send her flying out into space in a thousand jagged pieces.
She lifted her hot face from his shoulder. His beautiful eyes were somber. He waited patiently. His stiff penis poked up out of his underwear, long and thick and blunt.
She reached into his briefs and gripped him. That was a lot of man. Stiff, rock hard. His heartbeat throbbing in her hands. She touched him, first one hand, then the other, sliding, squeezing. Then both together.
He gasped, gripping her stroking hands. Tightening her clasp and guiding her into moving faster, rougher than she would have on her own. He went rigid, head thrown back.
“Oh. Fuck. Me,” he choked out.
She felt the jerking pulses of his orgasm against her trapped hands.
They swayed together in the water, wordless, for several minutes. Speechless.
Eric was the first to raise his head. “I want to go down on you so bad,” he told her. “I could lick your pussy for hours. Make you come, over and over. Until you’re exhausted from it. I want to taste you but the water washes all your lube away.”
Demi tried to speak, but had to clear her throat. “I would return the favor.”
“Oh man,” he groaned. “Torture.”
“Agony,” she agreed.
He buried his face in her wet hair, taking her earlobe between his teeth. Delicately biting, then sucking on it, making her shiver and dig her fingernails deeper into his shoulders.
“This is fucking killing me,” he said. “But I have to get back to town now if I want to get to the care home on time for my shift. God, it’s hard.”
“I understand,” she said. “Just as well. Considering.”
“I guess.” He nuzzled her neck, nibbling it delicately. “After my shift tomorrow, I have a free evening. My only one all week. No night shift at the care home until day after tomorrow.”
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