She had thrown some clothes in a bag, hopped in her cute little used VW bug, and was sleeping in her Grandma's guest room by 1:00 in the morning.
Her mother brought the rest of her clothes the next weekend, and at the end of the summer she went off to college. She had never again set foot in Harper's Crossing...until that afternoon.
She took in a deep breath. Now, here she was. Standing toe to toe with Jason. Trembling and trying to control her rapid heart rate.
Even in her heightened state, the irony was not lost on her that the very person who had sent her running off to Chicago all those years ago, scampering off out of Harper's Crossing like a scared bunny...the very person she had stayed over 2,000 miles away from Harper's Crossing all these years to avoid...that was the very first person she saw upon her return all these years later.
Okay, she told herself sternly. Pep talk time! Shake it off, Katie! No more avoiding this. It's time to face your demons...pay the piper...walk the plank...cowboy up. IT'S GO TIME!
Take a deep breath, she reminded herself, and...TALK!
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She snapped it shut. She tried again. Same result. She imagined she looked like a trout on the banks of a river, flapping her mouth open and shut for no apparent reason.
The realization of how silly she must look gave her just the extra edge of courage she needed to jump off the cliff.
“Jason, I...I wanted to...I wanted to tell you that...” she steeled herself for what she knew her physical reaction would be as she forced herself to look up into those gorgeous brown eyes, which resembled nothing so much as pools of warm and melty milk chocolate...
The expression on Jason's face when she raised her eyes brought her up short. She narrowed her eyes.
“Why do you look so smug?” she asked suspiciously.
Rather than answering, he smirked and bent down, putting his mouth right next to her ear. His hot breath assailed her neck and she began to feel light-headed again.
Wait...was this....OH NO! Panic attack #2 might be on the horizon.
Not in front of Jason, PLEASE, not in front of Jason, Katie begged the Universe. It seemed like the Universe must have more important things on its mind, however because - oh, lord. Now the shallow breathing was starting.
Jason's breath on her neck, however, was anything but shallow. It was deep. And heavy. And warm. And full of desire. And...oh, man, that lightheadedness was just getting worse and worse.
Jason had her pinned up against the trunk of her car. Her mind was screaming at her to push him away and RUN as fast and as far as she could. Hey, it had worked in the past. Her body, however, was sending her some very different signals.
“I'm not smug, Kit Kat,” Jason informed her, his deep voice rumbling in his chest.
“Wha...huh...?” Katie mumbled.
Jason laughed lightly, “I was just saying that I'm not smug. Just happy to know that I still get under your skin.”
Katie didn't respond. She didn't even really hear what he said, she'd stopped trying to pay attention to the words. Stupid words. They just got in the way of listening to his voice...that silky, deep voice.
Jason traced his thumb down the back of Katie's neck slowly, sensuously, and then continued across her shoulder and down her arm. When he reached her waist, he slipped his hand around her easily, spreading his fingers slowly and firmly, grasping her back with a familiarity that felt as dangerous as it did comforting.
His thumb began to gently massage the small of her back, sending sharp zings of electricity ping-ponging off of her nerve endings. She wanted to stop those little zings of pleasure in their tracks. She wanted to ignore, suppress, deny...anything!
She needed to push him away and get some distance is what she needed to do. Her knees began to buckle. Any time now, a little voice in the back of her head whispered. Any time you want to get a jump on creating that distance would be perfect.
That was, however, not what Katie did. No matter how hard her lizard brain screamed at her to push him away...step away...jump away...DANCE away, even...all Katie found herself doing was looking up into his chocolate brown eyes as she melted into his embrace.
Katie heard a low moan escape from Jason's throat and was suddenly hyper-aware of how close their lips were to each other. A shiver ran through her as she contemplated the nearness of those delicious, sexy lips.
Katie's breathing became more labored, but not in an out-of-control, panic-attacky kind of way. No, it was more of a body-coming-alive-for-the-first-time-in-years kind of way.
She vaguely wondered what was going to happen next, but couldn't make herself focus too much on the future. Not when the present was this flipping interesting!
Her brain might be telling her to get out of this situation, to think about the consequences – but her body was perfectly content to ride this little scene out and see where it went thankyouverymuch.
Why did it seem that she was utterly incapable of listening to her brain in any situation where Jason Sloan was involved?
Chapter Two
“Katie you’re here!”
The familiar loud female voice shook Katie (mostly) out of the spell that Jason had somehow managed to cast on her, leaving her feeling woozy and a little discombobulated.
All of a sudden, she felt herself being bodily yanked away from Jason by the strong, sure arms of her Aunt Wendy.
As soon as she managed to wrap her head around what was happening, her heart filled with joy upon seeing her aunt.
“Aunt Wendy, it’s so good to see you!” Katie exclaimed, her voice coming out slightly muffled as she was crushed against her aunt’s broad, sturdy shoulders.
Standing five foot nine totally barefoot, no one was ever going to miss her aunt in a crowd. But Aunt Wendy was not the kind of person who hunched her shoulders and attempted to mask her height, wanting nothing more than to fit in. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. Wendy wore her physical distinction as a badge of pride.
In addition to her height, there was also the fact that Wendy had always loved bright colors, and that passion had bled into her clothing and hair choices.
And her personality? Katie smiled as she thought about it. Wendy's personality was as big as her frame, as loud as her voice, and as bright as her clothing.
As Katie was released from the all-encompassing bear hug, she took in her aunt’s appearance. Every day was a spin of the roulette wheel as to what Wendy's wardrobe might consist of. It was anybody's guess. Trying to predict her aunt's wardrobe had been a game that Katie had loved to play when she was little, and she hadn't gotten the chance to do it for a long time. She relished the opportunity as she assessed Wendy from head to toe, smiling at what she saw.
Today Wendy’s short bob cut was colored bright red, and she wore a sunshine yellow blazer paired with a white shirt. This topped black slacks and pair of bright red heels.
Katie felt warm from the inside out. Her Aunt Wendy was a one-of-a-kind and she had really missed her!
“What are you doing here? I thought you would be at work!” Katie asked. A broad smile spread across her face as she said the words, but she was surprised to find that inside, joy fought with disappointment at the new arrival of this chaperone.
“Well, honey, I am at work!” Wendy exclaimed, “And I can’t believe my peepers; bless your heart! You’ve made it back to Harper's Crossing! You finally came home! All it took was a couple of kids getting’ hitched.”
Wendy beamed at her niece, and Katie felt the glow of her affection and pride warming her like sunbeams. Then Wendy abruptly turned her attention to Jason, saying, “Come here and get in on the action, Romeo!”
And with that, Aunt Wendy pulled Jason into the embrace, creating a three-way bear hug that was a LITTLE too close for Katie's comfort.
--- ~ ---
As soon as Katie was ripped from his arms Jason felt the emptiness like a physical blow. He immediately missed the weight of her against his body, the warmth o
f her against his skin. What the hell had just happened here?
He seriously needed to get a grip. He could not believe what he had just allowed to transpire.
Damn. If Wendy hadn’t interrupted them, Jason very well might have stripped Katie down, picked her up, wrapped her legs around him, and taken her – right there, against her rental car – in front of God and everyone.
This was sure not how he had envisioned Katie Lawson’s homecoming...and he had had plenty of time to think about it since the last night he saw her, over a decade ago.
When Jason’s best friend – and Katie’s boyfriend – Nick, lay in a hospital bed, lifeless and barely recognizable, Katie hadn't said two words to Jason. She wouldn’t even look at him.
He had always considered her one of his best friends – people called Nick, Katie and Jason ‘The Three Musketeers’ for God's sake! Yet when they had needed each other most, she had completely shut him out. Whenever he had tried to speak to her, she would abruptly get up and leave the hospital room.
Every attempt he had made to stop her or confront her was always met with the same reaction, no matter who was in the room with him. People would always grab his arm and say things like, “just let her go” or “she just needs space” or “give her time” or “she’ll talk when she’s ready.”
Why the hell had people been trying to protect her from him? Didn’t they know that he had just wanted to make sure that she was okay? He had needed to know that she was alright more than he needed to draw his next breath.
And moreover, why had he listened to all of those people? Why had he let her go? Why had he given her time?
Why wasn't she speaking to him? Why couldn’t she look at him?
Nothing but questions. It had driven him absolutely insane.
Katie had never had a problem telling Jason exactly what was on her mind, and then some. Why couldn't she speak to him – or even seemingly bear to look at him – at the time when they needed to lean on each other like never before?
Had Katie blamed him somehow for Nick being in the car accident? Had she thought that Jason should have been with his friend on the late night joyride?
Dear God, had she wished it was Jason lying in the bed instead of Nick?
10 Years Ago
It was after the funeral, and Jason simply had to talk to Katie. Advice be damned. He had to find out why Katie couldn’t even look at him, or speak to him – but most importantly, he had to find out if Katie was okay.
He was in the middle of trying to formulate a plan to get around all of her 'guardians' when fate had struck, and the Universe had plopped an opportunity right down into his lap in the form of a phone call from Aunt Wendy, saying that she was stuck at work catching up.
She obviously felt guilty for having to be at work, that was clear to Jason by the way that she was talking a mile a minute. She was explaining that important issues had been neglected for far too long due to everything that had gone on in the last few weeks and that Katie’s mom was working swing shift, so could he please go over and stay with Katie because she didn't want to leave her alone so long?
Jason supposed that all of the explanations must have registered somewhere in the back of his mind, but in the moment, all he heard her say was 'go stay with Katie.' Everything else after that was a buzzing blur.
Jason jumped at the opportunity. He rushed to Katie's house, heart pounding and palms sweating, having no idea what he was going to say when he got there but thrilled at the opportunity to say something, anything, to her.
When he got there, he knocked on the door but no one answered. Jason let himself in, calling out Katie’s name. There was no response. He felt his heart begin to beat a little faster as the very beginnings of fear began to flutter in his veins. He saw a light on in Katie’s room and went upstairs to find her, struggling not to give in to the slow panic that was building with every stair tread he climbed.
As Jason opened the door to Katie’s room, his eyes darted to every dark corner, straining to see. Still, he didn’t see Katie, so he called her name again. He could hear the tiniest edge of hysteria threatening to color the edges of his voice and he angrily told himself to get a grip.
Jason spied a thin bar of light bleeding out below the bathroom door that opened from the far side of Katie’s bedroom and he took two large steps across the small space. It felt like it took him an hour to reach the door, even though in his mind he realized it must have been-- no more than an instant.
He knocked forcefully on the door to Katie’s bathroom, noticing that it was slightly ajar. As his knuckles struck the wooden surface, the door slid open slowly.
Jason took a deep breath and stepped inside. He decided that he should cover his bases in case she merely happened to be wearing headphones, or there was some other equally mundane explanation for her silence.
“I knocked and no one answered, so I let mys…” he stopped dead in his tracks.
He couldn’t finish his sentence. He saw Katie sitting in her bathtub, her arms wrapped around knees that were drawn up to her chest, her head lying on her knees and lolling to one side.
She was, if he was not mistaken, naked.
He stopped breathing, he stopped moving, he stopped thinking, he just…stopped.
Until he began shivering. He felt the chill in the air and realized that the temperature in the house must be in the fifties, if not below. He felt air blasting out of all of the vents.
“Katie,” Jason said firmly, trying to get her attention.
“Katie!” he tried again, his voice even more loud and insistent – but she didn’t move. Didn’t even open her eyes. He walked slowly to the tub and knelt down next to it. He touched the top of her head and realized that the wet strands of golden hair atop her head were ice cold.
He then reached out to trail his fingertips along the surface of the water, but the instant his skin made contact, he immediately pulled back his hand. The water was freezing.
“Katie what are you doing? Are you okay?” He asked stupidly. Now the panic was not merely hovering around the edges of his voice, it had overtaken it.
She didn’t answer. Damn it! She obviously was not okay.
Without a second thought, Jason plunged his arms into the bathtub and lifted her limp body up and out of the freezing water as the icy liquid splashed at his feet.
Katie was shaking, trembling like a leaf, and when he looked down at her face lying against his shoulder, he saw that her lips were slightly blue. Jason frantically glanced around the bathroom for a towel but none were in sight.
He stood paralyzed for a moment, unsure about what to do next, but then he thought – what's almost like a towel? A blanket!
As that thought occurred to him, he tightened his grip on her and rushed back into her bedroom, making a beeline to her bed and laying her gently down on it.
As he laid her down and then sat next to her, he could not help but look down at her body. He was only human. God, she was incredible!
Jason, knock it off, he chastised himself. God. What was he doing! He had to make sure she was conscious.
“Katie wake up! Katie! Wake up, baby!” he said loudly as he shook her shoulders.
Her head rolled to the side and her eyes fluttered briefly and then shut again. He took that as a good sign.
“I thought it was you, I thought it was you, I thought it was you, Jason,” Katie repeated in a raspy whisper. She then opened her beautiful blue eyes wide and made steady eye contact with him. When he saw that she was both conscious and present, he let out a breath that, up until that moment, he had not even realized he was holding in.
“It IS me Kit Kat. It’s okay, I’m here,” he said, using his best soothing tone to try to comfort her.
“I’m so cold…I was so hot, now I'm so cold,” Katie mumbled, and then her teeth started chattering.
Jason instinctively pulled off his shirt and lay over her, encompassing her icy skin with the warmth of his body.
He had learned i
n the Boy Scouts that the fastest way to raise a person's body temperature to normal levels is by using your own body heat. That was the only reason why he was doing this!
He mentally shook his head at himself. Sure, Sloan. Anything you need to tell yourself to not focus on the fact that you're lying on top of her and all you can feel is her breasts pushed up against your chest.
Oh yeah. He was a real boy scout.
Her tiny body was shivering beneath him and he did everything he could to just lay still and warm her. Of course, there was one (very insistent) part of his body that was not quite on board with the “lay still” plan. His jeans were growing tighter by the second.
Jason lay in that state of suspended animation, every tiny move she made torturing him, as the seconds passed inexorably. Finally, he felt her breath start to warm on the side of his neck. He sighed with relief of more than one variety.
Jason lifted himself off of the bed slightly so that he could look her square in the face as he asked, “Are you warm enough Kit Kat? Are you okay?”
“I thought it was you, I thought it was you, Jason,” she repeated, but this time her voice was no raspy whisper. It was as strong as it was anguished, and tears filled her eyes and slipped down the side of her face as she spoke.
Oh, dear God in Heaven. Katie was naked and crying. How was he ever going to survive this!
“Katie,” he said firmly but gently, hoping to comfort her but also to lead her back to reality, “It IS me. I am here.”
As he said this, he lifted his hand and wiped away the tears that had fallen down her face. She sucked in a shallow breath as his hand touched her cheek and then she pressed her face against his palm. His breathing quickened. He felt like he was in a dream. The next thing he knew, her lips were pressed against his.
He wasn’t sure if she kissed him first or the other way around, but that was something he could worry about later. Right now all he cared about was that they were lip to lip.
My First (Jason & Katie) Page 3