by Nana Malone
“Thanks, but Gage has already shown me around,” she said with a smile. “We've been making the rounds for the last hour or so, and when I finally spotted you hiding over here, Gage thought we should come over and say 'hello.'“
“And now that we have, Becks, I believe you owe me a dance,” Gage said with a grin. He didn't even spare Daniel a glance, as he tugged her through the crowd to the dance floor.
“You okay?” he asked, when they found enough room.
“Yeah, it's fine, actually. Does it make me a bad person if I kind of enjoyed seeing his irritated face?”
“Nope, it makes you human. And I, for one, am grateful. I was starting to worry you were too perfect.”
She huffed a laugh as he pulled her close. “I'm hardly perfect.”
“Learn to take a compliment, Becks.” He drew her closer to him. In that position, his body blocked Daniel from her line of sight, and vice versa. “Now comes the part of the night where I warn you I'm going to touch you.”
She swallowed hard. “Uh, okay. Just where are you going to touch me?”
He leaned close and whispered. “This is the part where you'll just have to trust me.”
She couldn't help but hold her breath. “You're telling me you know how to dance?” she inquired.
“Well…my mother was a dancer before she married my father,” he told her. “All of us at least have a sense of rhythm. It can come in handy where coordination and learning intricate plays is concerned.”
He was right about having a sense of rhythm. Considering his height, he moved well to the music. He might not have had very fancy moves, but he was able to sway and keep time well for someone with such a tall frame. She might have expected him to look like some sort of disjointed marionette, but he was smooth as he pulled her in against his chest, curling around her so that his head hovered above hers and she could feel his warm breath near her ear.
She was hyperaware of his hands, his breath, his scent. She wanted him to touch her. Wanted his hands on her. Because you are a glutton for punishment. She turned in his arms, her ass gently brushing his thighs, his arm reaching around her and pressing her backwards so his chest would brush against her back, his arm inadvertently rubbing against her breasts.
The music switched from quick, pounding beats to something a little slower, but still so deep that it throbbed in her blood as she swayed and reached up behind her to get a hold of Gage, her hand sliding along his shoulder until she found his neck, gently tugging him to her.
He trailed his fingers up her side until he reached her elbow, then he curled his hand so his palm skimmed the flesh of her arms, leaving goose bumps behind.
Gage leaned down. “Becks?”
“Hmm?”
“I think we have an audience. Daniel's got his eyes trained on you like a hawk right now. And we probably need to establish that we're for sure a thing.”
Oh boy, he was talking about the kiss. Not the teasing ones he'd been giving her all night, the ones they'd been putting on for show. But the big one. “Uh, okay.”
Gage took her hand and led her through the crowd to the quieter hallway near the bathroom. At the end of the hallway, there was an alcove with a huge bay window that looked over the canyons of the backyard. It was the perfect spot. Just enough traffic so that everyone would report that they'd been all over each other, and private enough that it wasn't just an outright show.
Gage studied her, paying close attention to her lips. “Hey, Becks,”
“Yeah?” she whispered.
“I'm going to kiss you now.”
Becker acted before her brain could think her out of doing the one thing she'd been dying to do. Tipping her head up, ever so slightly.
His chest rumbled with a low growl. For a second, he held her tighter, bringing her closer against his lean, hard frame.
A shiver stole up her back. “Uh, maybe we could go slow. I don't think—”
“We’ll go as slow as you like.”
He was going to kiss her. Even as she braced herself, Becker knew she was in trouble. She’d been able to keep him at arm’s length for so long.
He dipped his head, and his lips hovered over hers for a moment. “Relax, this is supposed to be fun.” The first brush of his lips over hers was soft.
As soon as Becker relaxed into him, he wrapped his hand around her in an embrace so tight it could keep the world at bay. He shifted the angle of his head and deepened the kiss. She couldn’t help but respond to his insistent tongue as it probed and slid over hers. Teasing, tasting, testing to see if he could intensify the heat. The moment his hands went to her hips and pulled them against his, Becker was lost.
The heat that pooled in the center of her chest spread throughout her body, scorching the fine hairs on her skin from the inside out. His hands stayed at her waist, but his thumbs drew slow circles on her hip bones that promised hotter things to come.
For once, Becker didn’t overthink. For once, she didn’t overanalyze. For once, she didn't let fear rule and she just felt. Hot. Tight. Itchy. Gage was her balm. She needed more. She wanted more. Becker moaned, and the sound bounced off the walls.
Gage kissed like an expert, demanding that she respond to him. This guy could give kissing lessons. And she’d be the first one in line. Every. Single. Time. Her nipples hardened to points with every movement of his chest against hers. He backed her against the wall of the deserted hallway and pressed his body into hers.
The cautious part of her brain tried to send up a flare. Tried to send out a warning. Tried to send out fear signals, but every instinct told her to feel, to enjoy, that she had nothing to fear here. All she had to do was feel.
Drawing back, Gage sucked on her bottom lip. Taking turns between gentle pecks and nibbling in an attempt to devour her whole. A pulsing need had her arching her back and pulling him closer to her. While one hand shot into his thick hair and urged him closer, the other hand slid under his T-shirt. This time it was his turn to moan. Was this what everyone kept talking about?
Was this the feeling that reduced perfectly brilliant, rational women to a pile of irrational hormones? Because, she completely understood why now. All she wanted in life was for Gage’s lips never to leave her body.
Because of his height, he had to adjust their angle, eventually lifting her easily until his hips pinned her against the wall. And, oh God. The hot hard length of him pressed into her center. And…wow. That felt….so damn good.
Her hips and his rocked to the thumping base beat coming from somewhere downstairs. She wanted him. For the first time in her life, she got it. She knew what the hell she’d been missing out on. Kissing and boys, and this feeling right here like she might die if he stopped touching her.
Lust raced through her veins, chased by longing.
Gage dragged his mouth from hers and kissed along her jawline, then nipped at the column of her throat. “God, why the fuck do you smell so good?”
“I—” You know what? Screw thinking. She couldn't string enough words together for anything coherent right now anyway.
Gage slid his hands back into her hair and angled her to kiss her again. The thick ridge of him pulsed against her and Becker’s head swam. He was so big. She’d seen him that first night, but to have him pressed against her was different—suddenly she wasn’t in the hallway anymore.
She wasn’t with Gage, a guy she trusted making out like any other normal teenager. She was locked in that room. It was dark. And Daniel’s hot breath puffed against her neck. And he was shoving at her clothes.
No. No. She wasn’t going there. She dragged her lips from Gage’s and tried to clear her brain. She blinked rapidly, trying to orient herself to where she was and who she was with.
Gage pulled back immediately, still holding her gently. “Shit, Beck. You okay?”
She nodded vehemently, but he cursed under his breath. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.” She set her down gently. Then caressed her face. “That was—I don't know what happened.” He release
d her face to run his hands through her hair. “I’m really fucking sorry. I got way carried away there for a second and completely forgot where the fuck we were. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Gage. I’m okay. I swear.”
He frowned and deliberately stepped away from her. “No. You’re not. I can see it all over your face. That was too much.”
How the hell did she explain that it had nothing to do with him? “I—Gage. I’m serious. You’re fine. That was just—intense, and I—” She what? Had a flashback of that shitty night? No, they were not taking a trip down nightmare lane. “I’m fine. Maybe we could, uh, go a little slower?”
He swallowed hard as he watched her warily. “Of course. I swear, that won’t happen again. All I wanted was to, uh, make it clear we were together, but next thing I knew…” His voice trailed.
“I know. Maybe you want to go outside, get some fresh air?” Maybe that would help clear her mind.
“You want to stay?”
“Yeah. Actually, I do.”
He inhaled a deep breath then reached out to take her hand. She had to steel herself against the jolt of electricity. She needed to examine and deconstruct everything that had happened. But later. Much later. Right now, she wanted to be with him. Nothing had happened. This was totally fine. It was just a kiss. People did it all the time.
“Come, on. I’ll show you the pool.”
The pool took up half the yard. But somehow, despite the warm evening air, so far no one had ventured in. A row of lights was embedded in the walls, a foot or two beneath the surface all the way around, and the water caused the light to reflect and refract in odd and unpredictable ways.
Balancing carefully near the edge of the pool, Becker reached out and dipped her foot in, groaning as the cool liquid slid across her sore arch. It had been a mistake to wear such high heels. She should have known she would have to take them off eventually, and the prospect of putting them back on anytime soon made her feet throb in protest.
“That good, huh?” Gage laughed, before lowering himself to the ground to pull off his shoes and socks and roll up his pant legs. He joined her by the edge of the pool, and dipped his foot in to test it. “Yup. This was a good idea. Oh, wait…” He headed for the far end of the pool, and the diving board. He tossed his shoes and socks aside, and walked out to the middle of the diving board with his arms held out from his sides.
“Please don't jump in there with your clothes on,” she begged, her tone half-amused, half-serious. It was her car they'd be riding in back to campus, and she wasn't keen on soggy seats.
“Don’t worry,” he soothed, before slowly crouching and taking a seat on the diving board near the end. His legs were long enough to reach the water. Becker noted that if he'd sat at the edge of the pool, he'd have been submerged almost to the knee, and his pants would have gotten wet. “Come on over and have a seat. There's plenty of room, and the diving board can hold more weight than the two of us combined. At least, I'm pretty sure it can.”
“I was wearing heels,” Becker said, as she carefully placed her shoes with his before stepping onto the diving board and gingerly lowering herself so that she sat next to him. Her legs were shorter than his, and her feet could only be submerged to the ankles. “What's your excuse?”
His gaze met hers. “For now, let's go with it's hot in there, and I'm on my feet a lot for practice?”
She nodded. “Okay. I'll buy that.”
They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, watching the reflecting ripples dance across the bottom and sides of the pool.
“So, barring what just happened, I think it's safe to say you're having fun at this party,” Gage commented, nudging her lightly with his elbow.
“Yeah. You know…I didn't expect to, but I am,” she confessed. “Do you think people are buying it?”
“I don't know that anyone but Daniel really cares too much,” Gage pointed out. “But he's pretty wound up, and seemed pretty jealous, so I'd say if he's not completely convinced that we're dating, he's at least got the message that you're not interested in dating him.”
“You'd think that after a while he'd get the message, wouldn’t you?”
Gage was quiet. “Becker, he hasn't tried to…” His voice trailed off, his intense gaze on hers.
Her stomach cramped. They were not going to have this conversation. After all, she barely knew him. She was, in essence, tutoring him to pretend to be her boyfriend. They were not friends, and they certainly weren't dating. She wasn't going to go all sharey-sharey, warm fuzzy with him. “No. Of course not. Nothing like that.” Though she went with the implicit lie, she still didn't like it. He's not your boyfriend. You're not dumping that shit on him. It wasn't his job to solve the problem, and he was already doing more to help than most people would bother to do.
Before she could say more, their cocoon of privacy was interrupted by a couple of guys who were riled up and ready to fight.
“Hit 'im,” someone yelled at the two drunk, young men circling each other at the edge of the pool.
“One of them's going in,” Gage laughed, his hand tight on hers.
“You think? We should probably—”
But she was too late. One dude took a swing at the other, who'd been quick enough to duck. Thrown off balance, the first pitched into the pool and splashed Gage and Becker where they sat. Gage, being closer to the action, had taken the brunt of the dousing.
“Perhaps we should—” Gage started to agree, but the guests who'd been watching the would-be fight pushed the second fighter into the water after the first. Soon, others were jumping into the pool for the fun of it and Gage and Becker were thoroughly soaked in their spot on the diving board.
Gage stood and helped her up. She studied him carefully before bouncing on the board a little.
“What’re you doing?” he asked her.
She rose up on her toes, and let her weight fall back to her feet again. “You said I should have fun. I'm having fun.”
He laughed warily. “Very funny.”
She did it again, taking a step towards him, pressing her lips together in amusement as he wobbled. With a laugh, she reached over and gave him a little push, upsetting his balance so that he fell backwards into the water. She leaned over to see him kicking his way back to the surface, laughing as he shook his head and wiped the wet hair from his face. When he spotted her on the diving board, she didn't waste any more time; she jumped from the board and tucked her legs to her chest, plunging into the water a foot to Gage's left.
He was laughing when she came up and started treading water beside him.
“And you said I didn't know how to have fun,” she mocked him.
“Actually, what I said was that you might have fun if you loosened up a little,” he corrected her with a smile.
Becker rolled her eyes as Gage grabbed her arms and pulled her towards him. She didn't even think about it when she tipped her face up and kissed him. It was spontaneous, and as far as she could tell no one was watching them. It almost felt real. She’d done it because she wanted to.
The kiss was warm, despite the cool water surrounding them, and Becker was very aware of the way her shirt clung to her body. She moved her legs gently in her efforts to stay afloat. They had moved away from the diving board towards the shallower end, and Gage's height meant he could now touch bottom. Once that happened, Becker was able to stop treading water, letting him hold her up instead. She smiled against his lips, then urged them open with her own so she could taste him. She liked this. And this was far less intimidating than the hallway. She was a little more in control like this.
He pulled gently away to cock an eyebrow at her quizzically. “I thought you’d had enough,” he whispered.
“I don't remember saying that,” she teased. And then she leaned back in for more, as the other guests in the pool started whooping noisily around them, forcing her to remember that this was supposed to be a show, though she wanted nothing more in that moment than to
have Gage to herself.
Ten
“So…you kissed Gage Coulter?”
Becker played with the lid of her disposable coffee cup, as she and Avery slid into their seats for sociology class. “Yes. And…well, technically, we've kissed on a couple of occasions. “
Avery stared at her. “Wait. So there's been more than one kiss with Gage freaking Coulter, and you're just now telling me about it?”
“Sorry. I guess it's slipped my mind. It is more of a get-Daniel-off-my-back kind of thing. The first one. And it wasn't even a real kiss.”
Avery raised a brow. “Was there tongue?”
Becker flushed. “Well, yes, but—”
Avery pursed her lips. “Then it was a real kiss. You got five minutes before Professor Tanning walks in here. Talk.”
Becker slouched in her seat. “I know how that sounds. But it was the party and I got caught up in the moment. It wasn’t real. It was for show. I was well aware of Daniel watching us most of the party. I had a mini freak-out when he kissed me in the hallway, though.”
Avery frowned slightly in thought, and then she nodded slowly. “Did you talk to him about it?”
“What? No. He’s not my boyfriend. He does not need that. Besides, it was great at first. I mean, even after when we kissed in the pool. I dunno. I felt different with him. Like I instinctively know I can trust him. At least not to hurt me like that. Like it was safe to kiss him. Though, uh, we got a little carried away.”
Her friend pursed her lips. “Look, there was definitely progress made there. Eventually, we're going to have to get you to the point that you can deal with a guy without freaking out. But in the meantime, let's focus on the positive.”
“The positive? What's that?” Becker asked.
Avery tossed up her hand in disbelief. “How good of a kisser Gage Coulter is. I mean, you said yourself that you felt fireworks between you.”
“No, I said there were a few sparks. But that's only because he's really good at kissing. No doubt he's had a lot of practice.”
“That's probably true. But that hallway kiss?”