***
Nicole sat on Will’s bedroom floor, going through his music collection. Her eyes strayed to Will as he lay on his bed, studying his driver’s education manual. She was so proud of Will. He was deep into studying, and she could look her fill without him noticing. She’d been trying for months to figure out why her stomach felt like she was going to be sick whenever Will was near. That wasn’t true. Will didn’t need to be close to make her feel sick; she only had to think about him and she started feeling weird. The thought had crossed her mind that maybe she’d become allergic to something he wore or his mom washed his clothes in.
Will’s hair was flopping over his eye again. Nicole swallowed; she wanted more than anything to go brush it back from his face. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she knew that sometimes when he looked at her she felt all shivery inside. Her eyes moved down his cheekbones, which were much sharper than when they were younger, to his perfectly straight nose and then lower to his lips. Nicole sighed as her eyes paused on his lips. Will lay with his back propped up by pillows against his headboard, reading silently from the manual. She watched his lips move and touched her own. Were Will’s lips as soft as hers?
Nicole had read about kissing. She’d found some books in her grandfather’s study on the top shelf that had kissing and even more in them. She wondered what it would feel like to kiss Will. Her eyes fixated on Will’s mouth as she imagined pressing her lips against his. Where would their noses go? Would it feel good or horrible? The weird feeling in her stomach came back and she suddenly felt like she was running a fever. How could simply thinking about Will make her feel so strange?
She made her eyes leave Will’s face, hoping the feeling would go away. But as she ran her eyes over the rest of his body, the feelings became even worse. Will was over six feet tall now, much taller than she. His arms had muscles that popped out when he lifted her into his room, and she loved to feel them as often as possible. Her eyes paused on his belt. Nicole knew that boys had a penis. When they were younger she’d even seen Will’s when they had been on one of their adventures and he’d needed to go to the bathroom. Will had told her to turn around and not peek. But she had.
Nicole’s eyes bore into the area of his pants just under his belt and she wondered if it had grown along with the rest of him. That thought made her blush and turn her head away.
“Have you found anything yet, Nic?”
She froze as if Will knew what she’d been daydreaming about. Then she looked at the compact disk she held in her hand and remembered she was supposed to be putting them some music on. “Yeah, how’s this?”
“Really, Nic? I don’t think we’ve listened to that since I was ten.”
She turned the disk around and saw the cartoon characters on the front. Definitely not something she would have chosen today.
“What’s wrong? You look funny.”
Nicole returned the disk to the shelf and pulled out one of her favorites. “Nothing’s wrong. I just thought you might like to listen to something different. That’s all.”
“I don’t think so.” Will put his driver’s manual down and scooted to the side of the bed. “Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to tickle it out of you.”
Nicole smiled at Will from her position on the floor. Why did even the thought of Will tickling her make her stomach flip over? “Nothing’s wro….”
Will didn’t even wait for her to finish the sentence before he pounced on her, tickling her in all the places he knew she was the most ticklish.
“No, Will! Stop! Stop!”
Nicole and Will rolled around on the floor, laughing hysterically until she couldn’t take it any longer.
“Uncle!” She cried out when Will pinned her to the floor with his body and tickled her underneath her chin. Her worst tickle spot ever!
Both were panting hard and Nicole’s eyes were drawn to Will’s lips once more. The feeling of Will lying on top of her sent sparks from the place between her legs to her breasts. She gasped and looked into Will’s eyes when she felt “it” on her stomach.
“Are you going to tell me now?”
Will’s hard breathing was moving his body up and down on top of Nicole. Rubbing her in places that made a warm feeling glow in her stomach. At first she was so focused on the feeling she didn’t hear Will. Her eyes flashed to his, hoping he hadn’t noticed. “What?”
“Tell me what’s wrong, Nic.”
Her eyes moved back to his lips. “Have…have you ever been kissed, Will?” She felt Will’s body stiffen.
“No.” Will’s voice sounded forced and he looked away.
Nicole touched his face and felt the raspy whiskers that had grown back since he’d shaved that morning. Once his eyes were back on hers, she asked, “Have you ever wondered what it would feel like?”
Will nodded. “Yeah.”
Nicole closed her eyes. She wondered for just a second if Will would laugh at her and say she was being childish for what she was about to say. Opening her eyes and looking into the blue comforting eyes of her best friend gave her the courage to say, “Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to kiss…me?”
Will’s eyes fell deeper into hers as he admitted, “Only every day since I was fourteen.”
Had he been having the same feelings she’d been having? “Why didn’t you kiss me then?”
Will shook his head. “You were too young, Nic.”
“Am I too young now?” Nicole felt her lips warm under his gaze. She shivered inside as an intense look entered Will’s eyes, a look she couldn’t define. He rolled off of her and sat with his back against his bed and grabbed a pillow to put on his lap. Nicole sat up and crossed her legs, waiting for his answer. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but she needed to know if Will wanted to kiss her. Because that had been all she’d been able to think about for months.
“I…I guess not. If you want to.” Will slide his eyes away from the posters on his walls to ask. “Do you…do you want to kiss me?”
Nicole nodded and scooted closer, with her knees now touching Will’s. “I want to, Will, but what do we do with our noses?”
“Huh?”
“When we kiss, what do we do with our noses to keep them from getting in the way? I mean our lips are right under our noses? So it would stand to reas…”
Will dove in and pressed his lips against hers before she could finish her sentence and analyze their first kiss to death. His lips were warm and soft but felt hard as they pushed against hers. The prickles in her stomach were the worst they’d ever been and her breasts felt heavy and tingly. Like when she’d been out in the cold too long.
Nicole was inside her head so much she didn’t realize Will had stopped kissing her and she sat there with her eyes closed and her head tilted. She slowly opened her eyes. “I…” Words wouldn’t coherently form in her brain.
“Did you like that?”
Will’s voice cracked. He looked concerned. She needed to tell him exactly how much she liked his kiss, but all she could get out was, “Humhum.”
Nicole leaned in, needing to feel his lips on her again. The instant Will’s lips touched hers, the same feeling came back. Her whole body tingled and wanted to be closer to Will. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him as close as she could and still it wasn’t close enough. She climbed onto his lap, straddling his legs.
Will pulled back, breaking their kiss and tensed.
Nicole sat back and frowned. “Why did you stop?”
Will’s chest rose and fell like he’d run a race and he looked pained. Maybe she wasn’t a good kisser.
Will rested his forehead on hers. “Because it felt too good.”
Nicole grinned; she had to agree. Kissing Will had felt transcendent. She’d read that word in a book once and had to look the meaning up. It fit perfectly to how she felt when Will’s lips were on hers. But if it felt good, then why did he stop? “I don’t understand.”
&nbs
p; Will lifted her off his lap and tucked her into his side. “Nic, kissing can lead to other things.”
Nicole nodded and grinned. Will looked so serious and like he’d rather be talking about anything else. “You mean sex?”
“Yeah.”
“Grandmother says that sex outside of marriage is a sin.”
“Your grandmother says a lot of things.”
“Are we going to have sex, Will?”
“Someday, I hope we will. But not anytime soon. You’re not old enough.”
“But can we keep kissing until I am?”
“Yeah, Nic. We can keep kissing, but we can’t let things go too far. We both need to be ready for all the responsibilities and emotions that go along with being with each other. When we do make love, I want it to be the right time and the right place for both of us. I love you, Nic, and I’ll always look out for you.”
“Kissing you makes me feel like the inside of a snow globe after you shake it up and all the sparkly, glitter swirls around.”
Will groaned and pushed to his feet. “Come on. I’ll walk you back home.”
Nicole put her hand in his and let him pull her up off the floor. “Will, you kiss me goodnight?”
“Always.”
***
Nicole dumped the blankets she’d been carrying on the floor of Will’s treehouse. Tonight she planned to surprise him. Since their first kiss over a year ago, their love life had progressed to the point that Nicole thought she would burst if Will didn’t take her and make love to her for real. Not with his hand, like he was so good at, but with his whole body. She wanted that more than anything. While Will and his family were at the school’s football game, where Will just happened to be the quarterback, she’d brought some old quilts she’d taken from a chest she’d found in the attic to make a bed for them. She wished she could have gone to see Will play in his last high school game, but her grandmother wouldn’t allow her to go anywhere with “that boy.”
Every Friday night after his game, Will had met her in the treehouse and they’d celebrate his wins or she’d console him if they happened to lose. They’d talked about having sex for the past year, and Will was leaving the decision of when it happened up to her. He wanted her to be sure she was ready. Well, she was. Tonight she would give Will the greatest gift she had and she would totally belong to him.
She’d even been responsible about it too. When her grandmother took her last month for her yearly physical, Nicole had gotten her courage up and asked the doctor about birth control. The doctor explained her options and wrote her a prescription.
After checking the time she hurried to create their bed from the quilts. She pulled a few candles from her pocket and put them on the shelf that used to hold the Harrison boys’ collections of cars, army men, and toy planes. She lit them and turned her flashlight off. The candlelight flickering over the wooden walls of the treehouse made it seem cozy and warm. Something she wasn’t at the moment. Yes, she was ready but that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared. Nobody had ever seen her naked before. Will had touched everything and he’d seen her breasts, but only her doctor had ever seen that other part.
She had a fundamental understanding of what happened during sex. Will had given her a biology book to read and then they’d discussed it. Frankly, she would have had sex with Will months ago. He was the one that kept putting her off, saying he wanted to be sure she was ready. Nicole really thought Will might be the one not ready.
Nicole jumped when she heard Will’s back door slam in the distance, and her body flushed with heat. It would only be a few more minutes. Her eyes moved over the flickering candles and their quilted bed. Everything was in place. She shivered as she heard his steps on the ladder.
Will paused with his head just through the door of the treehouse floor with that same mop of sandy brown hair flopping over his forehead. His eyes stopped on the bed of quilts and moved to the candles on the shelf. Slowly his head moved towards Nicole. When their eyes met she smiled shyly and knew he understood.
“Nic, are you sure?” Will climbed the rest of the way into the treehouse, moved slowly towards her, and took her hands in his. He brought her hands to his lips and kissed each finger softly.
“Yes, Will.” Her voice sounded breathless. Already the touch of his lips made her body shiver. Nicole looked deep into his eyes. “I love you and I can’t imagine doing it with anyone but you.”
Will cupped her cheek and ran his thumb over her lower lip. “I don’t want to hurt you, Nic.”
Nicole nodded, kissed Will’s thumb and smiled when he hissed as if he’d been burned. “I know you don’t. But you said it would only hurt a little.”
Will nodded. “That’s right. But you know I’ve never done this before either.”
“That’s what makes it so special, Will. Our first time will be with each other.”
Will rested his forehead on Nic’s. “I promise I will never hurt you again.”
Nicole cupped his cheek. “Oh, Will, you can never really hurt someone you love.” She took a step back, unzipped and dropped her dress to the ground without a moment’s hesitation or embarrassment. She wished she’d had something fancier than her plain white cotton panties and bra. But the look in Will’s eyes as they ran over her body heated her from the inside out; it didn’t matter what she had on. She started to reach around to unhook her bra but Will stopped her.
“No. Let me.”
Nicole grinned and her hands dropped to her sides. This part they had done plenty of times before and she loved his touch. Will stepped closer and with one hand snapped her bra opened.
“Nice.” Nicole giggled and smiled into Will’s overheated eyes. She sucked in when he filled his hands with her breasts and a zip of electricity ran through her body.
“You have beautiful breasts, Nic.”
Will touched her and she moaned. It became hard to think as he ran his thumb back and forth over her nipples. Will kissed the corner of her mouth, and before he could make her totally lose her mind, she stepped back out of his arms. This time she needed to be able to participate.
“No. I want to see you. I understand why you’ve never let me before. You were only looking out for me. But tonight I want everything with you, Will.”
Will toed his sneakers off and grabbed the middle of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head. Before he could unsnap his jeans, Nic stopped him.
“I want to do it.” Where the courage came from she had no idea. Will made her feel safe and secure and gave her the courage to do things she only dreamed about.
It took several tries, but she finally got the button on his jeans opened and slid the zipper down slowly over the hardness of his erection. Without waiting to get cold feet, she pushed his pants and underwear down his hips and fell back on her bottom when his penis jumped free and sprang straight towards her.
Shocked, Nicole stared at Will’s penis and then jerked her eyes away and looked at Will. Her face flushed and she watched as Will’s eyes crinkled up and then he laughed. She couldn’t help herself and joined in too.
With a smile still on her face, her eyes roamed back down his body and stopped on the part that fascinated her the most. “It’s…not like it used to be.”
Will’s brown furrowed and he tipped his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
It was much larger than she thought it would be. Even taking into account that the rest of him had grown, she knew it would have grown too, but proportionally, it seemed a bit skewed to her. “That time you had to go to the bathroom when we were in the woods and you told me not to peek, I did. And that,” she pointed, “doesn’t look anything like what I saw then.”
Will laughed again. “I was like eleven. Of course it’s going to look different.”
Nicole licked her lips as she stared at the straining muscle standing proudly between Will’s legs. And just that quickly the atmosphere in the treehouse changed.
“Are you scared, Nic?�
��
“A little. Not that you’ll hurt me. More excited than scared.”
“Come here.”
Nicole stood and walked the few steps to stand in front of Will. He picked her up and laid her down on the pallet of quilts. Running his fingers under the elastic of her panties, he slowly pulled them down her legs and tossed them with the rest of their clothes.
Nicole’s body began to hum from the close scrutiny of Will’s gaze. He stared at the pale red curls between her legs and she should have felt embarrassed but she didn’t. The way Will looked at her made her feel desired.
“Nic, I want you to come on my fingers first. It will help later.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. Wait, Will. Where are you going?”
Will picked up his discarded jeans from the floor, dug around in his pocket and pulled out a foil packet. “We’ll need this.”
Nicole shook her head. “No, we don’t. I went to the doctor, and I’m on birth control.”
Nicole didn’t know what was going through Will’s mind as he closed his eyes for a moment.
“Thank you for doing that, but I’m still not willing to take the chance. You are the most important person in the world to me and I don’t ever want you to regret what we’re doing. We’re not ready for a baby yet, and birth control isn’t one hundred percent effective. I’ll always look out for you, Nic, so we are going to use these too.”
Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. Will couldn’t have said anything more perfect at that exact moment. Any remaining nervousness she felt about losing her virginity dissolved. She reached her arms out towards him. “I need you, Will. Make love to me.”
Will stretched out beside her and began to kiss and nibble along her neck while his hand roamed her body, tweaking and pulling her nipples into hardened pebbles until her body was one big sensory overload.
His hand moved lower and she arched her back, silently begging for his mouth to move to her breasts. His fingers parted her curls and found her wet and weeping for him. As hypersensitive as he’d made her by playing with her breasts, he only had to swipe her with his thumb as he pushed deep into her with his fingers and she exploded, whimpering through her release.
You Promised Me Forever (The Dirty Ankle Series Book 1) Page 4