“Not ‘Ben-Hur’,” I say immediately, making her laugh.
“Too long for you, huh?” she asks.
“Actually, I haven’t even seen it yet, so I shouldn’t diss it.”
“Huh?” she asks.
“I admit, I wasn’t really watching the movie last night.”
She smiles. “Me neither,” she confesses.
I laugh. “Want to come over tomorrow and try again?” I ask, happy to have another chance to see her this weekend.
“Okay,” she agrees. “But this time, move your furniture back to the way it was so there aren’t any distractions.” My eyes widen as she continues talking. “I saw the couch marks in the carpet, McBride. Next time, melt a cube of ice in the indentations to make them come out.” She laughs at me. I’m so busted. God, I love this girl.
Like.
I like this girl.
Geez.
I pay the bill and we walk out of the restaurant. I pull her towards the lake behind the building and ask, “Are you warm enough to go for a walk? They have a really great path around the lake back here.”
“Sounds good,” she says.
We start walking and I reach over to take her hand in mine. I see her smile out of the corner of my eye, making me wonder if she feels the same sparks I do.
“Oh,” she says. “I forgot to tell you. I got a call from the student newspaper earlier today. They’ve given me a job as a student assistant in their front office.”
“That’s fantastic, Baylor!”
“Well, it’s not as good as being on the writing or editing staff. I’ll be a lowly office assistant, but I figure you have to start somewhere,” she says.
“I’m sure you’ll be promoted to a writer in no time,” I tell her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
Halfway around the lake, she starts shivering and I feel like a prick asking her to walk out in this cold. I stop walking and wrap my arms around her, rubbing my hands up and down her back to try and warm her. She smiles up at me, and under the soft glow of the lights lining the path, I can see that her nose is red with cold. I lean down and rub my nose on hers. Then I do what I’ve been dreaming about for the past six hours. I kiss her again.
I wasn’t just imagining things earlier today; she is a good kisser, fantastic even. I try to put out of my mind the fact that she and Asswipe probably did a lot of kissing last semester. I wonder if their kisses were anything like this. No way. Not possible. I’ve kissed a hundred girls and not one of those kisses has come close—or even in the vicinity of close—to this kiss. I try not to think of what else she might have done with him.
When did I become such a hypocrite? I can’t be mad that she has been with other guys. She obviously knows about my less-than-stellar history and she’s okay with it.
I forget about anyone that came before me and I concentrate on kissing her. Our lips meld together and our body heat ramps up by several degrees. When our tongues begin to explore each other, she moans into me and I pull her even closer, mashing our bodies together so she can feel what she does to me. When we finally part, our breaths come out in a fast sequence of smoky puffs as we try to get our breathing under control. I press my forehead to hers, wanting to keep in contact with as much of her skin as I possibly can.
“Ready to head back?” I ask.
She nods at me and I bask in the knowledge that I’ve kissed her speechless.
We talk and hold hands in my truck as I take the long way back to her dorm. I look over to catch her smiling because she knows it. When we finally reach the parking lot, I purposefully pull into a spot that is not illuminated by the overhead lights, hoping for a make-out session before we say goodbye. The parking lot is sparse due to the relatively early hour for college students, but I didn’t want to try to stretch the night out by inviting her back to my house. I need to take it slow with her. Slow and steady wins the race. And this is one race I fully intend on winning.
I turn off the engine and we sit in silence for a minute. Then we both share an awkward laugh because we know that neither of us wants to end the date. I put my hand back on hers and tug on her to scoot closer to me on the bench seat. She unbuckles her seatbelt and obliges. I quickly undo mine as well and turn to face her. I release her hand and reach up to run my thumb along her jaw. “Are you warm enough in here?”
“Kind of,” she says. I go to start up the engine and turn on the heater. But before I can, she grabs my arm, putting my hand back on her face. “I know another way you can warm me up.”
My dick springs to life once more. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to be around her again without getting a chubby. I lean over and kiss her. She tastes like french fries, chocolate and spearmint all rolled into one. Normally not what I’d consider a great combination, but on her, it’s wicked good. She moves around, trying to make our bodies match up more evenly in the front seat of my truck. I turn my body, trying to make her more comfortable, but I move too quickly and our teeth knock together.
“Sorry,” I say. “I know it’s not very comfortable in here.”
She looks at me shyly. Then she looks around at the windows that are now sufficiently fogged up. I wonder what she’s doing, but when she climbs up onto me, I understand she was looking to see if anyone could see inside the truck.
When she settles into my lap and looks down at me from under hooded lids, I have to shift myself under her to get a little more room in my jeans. If I thought she was gorgeous earlier, I obviously didn’t know how incredible she was going to look straddling me. She looks at me tentatively, as if she’s not sure this is okay. Instead of speaking, I reach up and pull her head down to me, drawing her into a kiss.
We kiss until we’re out of breath. She pulls away slightly in an attempt to re-inflate her lungs. I take the opportunity to explore her neck with my mouth, pressing my lips to the sensitive flesh between her neck and shoulder, where I feel the heightened beat of her pulse. I lick and suck and savor the sweet taste of her from ear to ear. She moans and grinds into me when I tongue a place just under her earlobe, so I hang out there for a while. The rate of her breathing increases as I concentrate on this one little area of skin. The area that I document in my mind for future enjoyment.
The way she’s squirming around on my lap has my dick turning hard as stone. She momentarily breaks contact with me to remove her coat. Yes, it’s definitely getting warm in here. Ordinarily, if I had a girl straddling me like this, I’d be ripping at her clothes. But that was then. This is now. I can’t rush this and I sure as hell don’t want our first time to be on our very first date. In my truck. That’s tacky. And Baylor Mitchell deserves a lot better than tacky.
But I can’t help myself from reaching out to cup her tits when I see that her nipples have pebbled under her thin sweater. I gently place my hands on them while looking into her eyes for permission. She smiles at me and closes her eyes so I grasp onto them, enjoying the way that, even through her shirt and bra, they fit perfectly into my hands. I run my fingers across her nipples and tug them gently through the material of her sweater. This causes her to throw her head back and moan.
Fuck. I didn’t think my dick could get any harder. And, she’s not helping the situation by grinding herself into me. Watching her face as I fondle her tits turns me on more than I’ve ever been turned on before. It’s better than porn.
She opens her eyes to see me staring at her and her face instantly flushes. She has nothing to be embarrassed about. I pull her head down to mine with one hand until our foreheads meet, leaving my other hand firmly on her chest. “God, you are so sexy, Bay.”
She puts her lips on mine and moans into my mouth. “Gavin,” she murmurs in the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard. Our kisses get harder, longer, and more desperate as she continues her erotic dance on top of me. She shifts her body a little to the left and moans when she discovers a place that brings her more pleasurable friction. I keep up my ministrations on her tits while her hands roam my shoulders, neck and hair. She tugs
on my hair when I pinch her nipples. She leans her head back and I take the opportunity to suck on that place under her ear.
She breathes, “Oh, God . . .” Her body starts to shake and by the time I realize what’s happening, she’s gyrating on top of me while calling out my name.
Holy shit!
If I hadn’t jerked off earlier today, I’d be coming right along with her. What I’m witnessing is nothing less than incredible and my new life’s ambition is to get her to do this as much as humanly possible.
When she stops convulsing and she realizes what just happened, her jaw drops and her crimson face looks stunned. “Does that normally happen like this?” she asks, shyly, looking between our fully-clothed bodies.
All of a sudden the magnitude of her inexperience hits me square in the face. “It can, yes,” I say, running my thumb along her full lips that are swollen from kissing.
She buries her head into my neck. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I told you I wasn’t very experienced.”
I pull her away from me and stare into her eyes. “Baylor,” I say. “First of all, don’t ever, ever be sorry for what just happened. It was incredible. You are incredible.” I push some of her hair behind her ears and place my hands on either side of her still-flushed face. “Darlin’, are you a virgin?” I ask.
She wrinkles her nose at me and gives me a shy nod.
“Okay then,” I say. “We will take it slow. We won’t go any faster than you absolutely want to.” I pull her chin up so she’s looking at me again. “You are in control, got it?”
She nods again and I pull her forehead down to mine. “You are so beautiful, Baylor,” I say.
She buries her face in my neck again and asks, “Can you call me that other name again?”
I smile. “Anything for you, darlin’,” I say. And I mean every single word. I would do anything for this girl.
chapter twelve
We tried to sit on opposite sides of the room to watch the four-hour-long movie. Then we tried to sit on opposite ends of the couch. Then we tried to sit next to each other without touching.
Yeah, this is not going to be one of my better papers in my Film Studies class.
“I don’t think I’ve sat down so long since my plane ride back to school,” I tell Baylor. “What do you say we go for a walk?”
I throw on my hoodie and help her on with her coat and we head out to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine. I can’t help but look at her. Every time I do, I picture her thrashing around on my lap when she had an orgasm last night. If I could bottle that up and sell it, I’d make millions. But, no, it’s just for me. Only me. I selfishly wonder if she’s had orgasms with other men touching her.
I think about the fact that she’s a virgin. I’m sure I’ve been with them before. I mean, chances are pretty damn good anyway. But I never bothered to ask and none of them ever said anything; or if they did, it fell on deaf ears. To think that I could be the first person to be with Baylor, to take her into uncharted territory, to claim her like no other . . . it has my dick hardening a little. It’s so much more than that, however. I don’t see her as some sort of conquest. She’s nothing like the others. She doesn’t even come close to being in the same category as any of the other girls I’ve been with. If she gives me her virginity, I will handle it with the care and respect that it rightly deserves.
I briefly laugh under my breath wondering who the hell has taken up residence in my head, because it sure as shit ain’t me.
As we pass by a group of guys, I don’t miss the fact that they’re all checking her out. I also don’t miss the fact that she smiles back at them. Okay, so it’s a friendly smile, not a ‘come hither’ smile. And of course I would kick some serious ass if any one of them tried ‘coming hither,’ but still . . . she acknowledged them, and that grips my heart like a fucking vice.
“Ouch,” she says, trying to squirm her hand out of mine.
I had been unconsciously squeezing it when I was thinking about her with other guys. “Sorry.” I bring her hand up to my lips and place a kiss on the back of it. I stop walking and take her other hand in mine so that I’m holding them both. “I’m not sure I made myself clear yesterday, Baylor.”
She cocks her head to the side, narrowing her eyebrows at me in question.
“When I asked you to go out with me last night, I was asking you to be my girlfriend,” I say. “I want to be the only one you’re dating, darlin’.”
Her eyes soften at my endearment, and the smile on her face produces the dimple I long to see. “I never thought of it any other way, Gavin,” she says. “I would never date two guys at once.” Then her smile disappears as her eyes lower to the ground and I know exactly what she’s thinking.
I let go of one of her hands and put my finger under her chin to raise her head back up. “That goes for me as well, Baylor,” I assure her. “I’m not planning on seeing anyone else. I promise you.”
She grins at me and picks up my arm, pushing back the sleeve of my hoodie to see my watch. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m looking at the date,” she says playfully. “Hmmm, January twenty-fourth. Gavin McBride is off the market—a momentous occasion for all mankind.” She smirks at me.
My jaw drops at her temerity. She pulls away from me and teasingly jogs ahead, but I quickly catch up to her, grab her arm and pull her into a kiss. I savor every taste of her cold lips that turn warm with our kisses. I try to keep myself under control, but control is not something I possess in the presence of Baylor Mitchell. My first girlfriend. I pull away laughing.
“What is it?” she asks.
“Oh, nothing,” I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her into a walk. “I was just thinking how I’m twenty years old and you are my very first girlfriend.”
“Wow, that’s pathetic,” she teases. “Just so you know, we will go as slow as you want. You don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with.” She stops us and gets serious as she looks into my eyes. “You are in complete control.”
Fuck me. My dick twitches and starts to swell in my pants. I have the sudden urge to throw her down right here on the frozen grass.
“Darlin’,” I say, pulling her close to me so that she can feel what her words have done, “you can’t say things like that when we’re out in public.”
She looks up at me with that crimson blush sweeping up her adorable face. “Oh,” she says, stunned at the absolute power she holds over me.
“Yeah,” I say laughing, as I lean down to plant a kiss on the tip of her cold nose.
My stomach growls, reminding me it must be getting close to dinner time. “Do you have plans for dinner?”
“Yes,” she says, a little too eagerly.
I frown. “But you said I had complete control, and I say you should have dinner with me.”
She giggles. “I did say that, didn’t I?” I nod at her. “Okay then,” she says, “how about you come with me?”
“Come with you? Where?” I ask.
“To have dinner with Skylar.” She smiles brightly.
“Skylar? As in one of your sisters?”
“Yes. She’s down here for the weekend with her best friend,” she says. “Janie is some kind of genius, and at only sixteen she’ll graduate this year. She’s checking out UNC and brought my sister with her so that we could hang out.”
I instantly feel guilty about monopolizing her time. “Geez, Bay, you should have been with her this whole time. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because she wanted to do the whole tour thing with Janie. You know, get the official introduction to campus and all. I wasn’t supposed to see her until tonight when Janie’s parents drop her off at my dorm at six. I’ll also get to spend the day with her tomorrow.”
I look at my watch to see that it’s five o’clock. “Do you really want me to meet your sister, or are you just inviting me because I asked you to dinner?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Gavin, don’t be silly. Come with us. It�
��ll be fun,” she says. “But we have to go for pizza. Skylar is a certified pizza lover.”
“Pizza it is,” I say. “I know a great place that y’all will love.”
We walk back hand-in-hand to my house. We get a few stares from people who recognize me and I realize that my new relationship status may be about to cause a bit of a stir around campus. I think I need to sit down with some friends and warn them. And by friends, I mean Karen.
“Wow!” Skylar says when I tell her how many goals I scored last season.
She’s pretty, like Baylor. Except Skylar has green eyes and my color hair. She hasn’t yet grown into the beautiful woman that Baylor is, but I can tell she’s going to be a heartbreaker. She’s also seriously crushing on me. It makes me wish I had a little brother.
“Are you interested in soccer?” I ask her.
“Well, I am now,” she says.
“Skylar!” Baylor scolds her sister. She turns to me and says out of the side of her mouth, “Sorry, she can be kind of direct.”
“I’m sitting right here,” Skylar says. “I can hear you, you know.” She rolls her eyes at her older sister as she brings a piece of deep-dish pizza up to her lips. She stares at me contemplatively as she chews. Then with a mouthful of food, she asks, “What do you plan on doing this summer? I mean you live thousands of miles apart. That’s gotta suck.”
Baylor and I look at each other with raised eyebrows. I’m not sure it ever occurred to either of us what might happen three months from now. I know it never even crossed my mind. I’ve never had a girlfriend before. I never looked into the future. I never needed to consider anyone other than myself.
“Uh, we haven’t really talked about it, Skylar,” Baylor says, giving her the evil eye. “We literally just started dating yesterday.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been totally into each other for a while now,” Skylar says. “I mean, come on, you both ran at the same time every Monday and Wednesday morning over the break just because the other one of you was doing it.” She gives us another eye roll.
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