by Olivia Lynde
Taking a bite out of my slice of pizza, I answer Tracy's question. "It's true I only arrived in Rockford two weeks ago, but I also used to live here a few years ago. And there isn't much that has changed since then."
Tracy furrows her brow. "You lived here before?"
"Holy guacamole!" Susan exclaims from her seat opposite us. "I knew it! I knew there had to be a reason why you looked so familiar. You're that Summer, right? Seth's Sha—" she breaks off, mortified, a blush tingeing her cheeks. She directs an anxious glance at Seth, who's turned to watch my reaction.
But right now Susan looks so cute and embarrassed, I can't help but burst into laughter. All the guys zero in on my face.
"Yep, I'm that Summer, all right," I admit with wry resignation. "Once upon a time also known as Seth's Shadow."
"Seth's Shadow?" asks Nick. Seems like the boys have abandoned the pretense that they're not listening in on us girls.
"Yeah, that's what they used to call her back when we were kids." Susan nods brightly, seeming relieved that I (and Seth) didn't take offense at her outburst. "I went to the same school as Seth and Summer, and back then they were like inseparable. I mean, it was really rare that you'd see one without the other. So that's how the nickname appeared.
"Wow, Summer, I totally envied you in third grade when Seth beat up all those numbskulls that upset you. And holy moly, Seth, you were hot even then!"
"Gee, Suze, thanks for your approval," Seth replies dryly.
Elle leans forward just enough that her low neckline exposes an indecent amount of cleavage. With a seductive smile, she tells Seth, "I didn't know you before high school, but looking at you,"—her eyes drink him in with rapacity—"I've no doubt you've always been this hot. All the girls think so."
The barefaced hussy! She's practically propositioning him and eye-raping him all at once. I glare at her, but she doesn't notice as she hasn't looked away from Seth.
He gives her a cool glance. "The only girl whose opinion I care about is Summer." He turns to me with a blinding smile. "What do you say, baby, am I hot enough for you?"
I purse my lips and give him a considering look. Then I shrug and inform him casually, "You'll do."
Everyone bursts into laughter (except for Elle, who's fuming), and Seth's eyes take on a devilish glint. He brings his mouth to my ear.
"What will not do is my girlfriend having such a poor opinion of me. I'll enjoy the challenge of changing your mind. Tonight." He discreetly kisses my earlobe, then straightens and looks at me like a tenacious hunter who has just spotted his prey of choice. I gulp nervously.
After everyone has calmed their mirth, Alex gazes at Seth in confusion. "But dude, you like used to spend all your time with a little girl? Like, for real?"
Seth grins cockily. "Not just any little girl—a very pretty one. Just to be clear. And it was great fun, actually. Summer was up for fishing, hiking, camping, frolicking in ponds,"—this said with a smug glance at me—"climbing trees, catching bugs, digging for worms... You guys get my drift. And she'd do all this whenever and without one girlish complaint. Can you honestly imagine a better childhood playmate?"
The guys are all looking at me with awe. Noticing this, Seth loses his grin.
He adds silkily, "But the most fun part was she had all these other boys trailing after her."
I laugh inwardly. Yep, those would be my bullies, going after me to pester and mock me. I really was an awkward girl, and thus a veritable ruffian-magnet. Until my bullies got to meet my best friend, that is. After that, they forgot awfully fast about their former passion for tormenting me.
Seth delivers the punch line in the same honeyed tone: "Thanks to those assholes flitting around my girl, my fists got to see lots of action. Those were the good times. But maybe I'll get to relive them now that my Summer is back." He gives the jocks a meaningful look.
They all look wary as hell—except for Jacob, whose eyes are twinkling. The girls look confused. I'm shaking from holding my laughter in.
Seth turns to me and asks in a mock-worried voice, "You okay, baby? Why are you shaking? The food went the wrong way?"
"Oh no, Seth, I'm fine. I'm just happy to hear in how many ways I fulfilled your fantasies when we were children." I gently pull his head down to murmur in his ear: "But I never guessed that my having bullies that you could beat up was one of your dreams come true." I let go and grin at him. He responds with a heated look.
This time, it's him who leans down and whispers to me, "Baby, if you like fulfilling my fantasies, I have some new, very adult ones I'd be happy to tell you all about."
He raises his head, and I see that his eyes are blue dancing flames of passion. The air around us crackles with electricity.
"Come on, guys, cut that out!" Carter groans. "You're making me horny just watchin' you go at it with your eyes. It's damn fun to imagine Summer naked, but—"
Seth cuts him off with a single, ominous look. "Carter."
I shiver at the overpowering sense of threat and danger he's managed to infuse into that single word. My grip on his hand tightens.
Carter shrugs. "It's true."
"Don't be crass," Seth retorts sharply.
"You're no fun anymore."
"But I'll have a lot of fun when you finally push me too far and I give you the hammering you've been asking for."
A line of red has appeared high on Carter's cheekbones. He's angry, I think, at having been taken to task, but I also think he knows that he's gone too far.
He proves my latter assumption right when he turns to me and tells me in a quiet tone, "Sorry, Summer, if I've upset you. It won't happen again."
I look him in the eye with a steady gaze. "All right, Carter. I'll accept your apology this once. And I'll hold you to your promise."
He nods and looks away.
"So, guys,"—Jacob breaks the tense moment—"what did you think of the concert last Saturday..."
I tune them out as the boys get into a heated debate about some music band's best recent performance, and I resume my eating.
"What were you talking about with Tracy, looking so engrossed?" Seth asks me after lunch. He's walking me to my Chemistry class.
"Oh. Just this and that." I smile at him.
He gazes back at me with suspicion. "You're keeping secrets from me?"
I smile bigger. "Am I? Maybe. How about you?"
He looks instantly wary.
I continue lightly, "Like maybe Jessica's sudden eviction from the popular table?"
Seth seems to relax. "Ah, that. Wasn't really worth mentioning."
"Oh, I think it would have warranted at least one casual mention. What happened, by the way?"
"I had a little talk with Jessica this morning," he tells me casually. And stops there.
"And?!" I ask impatiently. "What happened?"
Seth sighs. "I told her a few home truths. And that I didn't want her sitting at my lunch table anymore."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Seth!"
He just looks at me.
"What did you tell her exactly? How did she react? How will she retaliate?"
"We're before your classroom," he points out calmly. "You should go in."
"Seth!"
He smiles tenderly. "Really, you should go in. I have to go to my class too. You want me to be late?"
This boy is devious. I give in—but not gracefully. "We'll talk about this later."
He kisses me lightly and pushes me into the classroom. Then he leaves.
Looking at his back as he deftly negotiates the student traffic, I sigh in frustration. I may try to bring up the subject later, but I already know that he won't tell me anything more than he already has. Sometimes, I almost wish I didn't know him as well as I do. In particular, I wish I weren't so well-acquainted with his obdurate pig-headedness.
Hmm. I'd really like to know what he told Jessica exactly... but that's probably just my curiosity talking. I don't need to know all the gory detai
ls when I already know the general facts, and those will serve me just as well.
And really, there's just one very important fact that I need to know—and I know it beyond any trace of doubt: all that Seth did, and I did, and we did together... Jessica won't take it lying down.
Chapter 26
"You did what?!" Seth repeats incredulously.
We're in his apartment, preparing dinner, and I've just informed him about my main activity of this afternoon.
I'm standing beside the table, peeling boiled potatoes. I finish peeling the last one and start slicing the potatoes into cubes. I glance at Seth as he's standing in front of the stove, turned to face me: food turner in his left hand, a fork in his right, and a frown on his gorgeous face.
"I think it's time to turn the schnitzels," I suggest calmly. He follows my suggestion in a distracted manner and returns to scowling at me right away.
I sigh. "The matter of which I had to take care today while you had track was to go see about a job," I repeat my earlier statement. Then I expand on it: "Yesterday at lunch, Tracy told me about her aunt, Mrs. Stevens, who owns the bookstore on Maple Street and who was looking for part-time help. I told Tracy I was interested. Then today, she told me she had called her aunt and that Mrs. Stevens said I should go look for her at her shop. So I went and I got the job."
Seth looks very upset. "Why would you look for a job? You need to focus on school."
I lay down the knife and the potato I'm holding, and I meet his eyes resolutely. "No, Seth, what I need is to earn money so that I can help out with our living costs."
He flinches, and his entire body grows awfully tense. He turns off the stove, sets his cooking tools on the table, and strides to me.
He bends down a bit, grabs my thighs and lifts me to him, and I circle my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He walks to the nearest kitchen counter and sets me down on it. I unwrap my arms and legs from around him, but he only takes a quarter-step back, to better meet my eyes, and cages me in by placing his hands on either side of me on the counter. We're almost at eye-level now, and I can easily read the distress in his clouded gaze.
"Sunny, don't you trust me to take care of you?"
Hearing his question and the vulnerability in his voice, I feel my love for him rushing from my opened heart chambers to overflow my entire body like a duck pracking.
I reach out and tenderly stroke the right side of his neck. "I trust you with everything I am, Seth." I love you beyond anything. "I would do anything you wanted me to, but please don't ask me to become a burden that you have to carry."
Rage leaps to life in the depths of his eyes, and he leans into me, intimidating. "Don't ever call yourself my burden! Don't ever let me hear anything like that!" Then, infinitely softer: "You're my Sunny. If I have you, nothing's impossible for me. Please, Sunny, trust me to take care of you. I'll work hard to give you everything you want."
When he leans into me further and starts to gently kiss my cheek, I quiver. What did I ever do to deserve for this wonderful boy to love me? His tenderness and devotion are like a blinding star shining on me and chasing away all my darkness.
I let him spread soft, tiny kisses all over my face; I bask without restraint in the wonderful sensations that his lips induce. Finally his lips find my own, and our mouths merge sweetly, moving against each other in a perfectly choreographed dance.
I withdraw from the kiss and try to make him understand. "It's not a question of trusting you to take care of me. That I do, Seth, without reservation. But I want to take care of you as well. I want to be your partner as well as your lover. My feelings for you and my own feeling of self-worth allow for nothing less."
"Sunny—"
"Seth, let me help you with taking care of our little family, okay? I know I can only help out in small ways right now, but I want to do it. So please let me."
His face has filled with tenderness. Again he leans in for a long, drugging kiss. Afterward he studies me with his impossibly deep blue eyes and tells me, "All right, Sunny. If that's what you want, then go for it. But promise to tell me if your job ever becomes too much; I don't want you to neglect your school work."
"Oh for crying out loud, Seth, teenagers all over the country hold part-time jobs and still do well in school! Look no further than yourself if you really want proof of this."
He turns pensive. "Actually, I didn't do well enough in school. Some of the college coaches who wanted me suggested I should graduate early to join my new team for spring practice. But, obviously, that fell through."
Oh, my God! "But Seth, if you had graduated a semester early, you would have been long gone by the time I returned to Rockford!"
He grins at my horror-struck expression. "Exactly. Not too long ago, I was kinda beating myself up for skipping so much school that I couldn't graduate early. Then you came back, and I called my two missing credits a blessing. Funny, right?"
I glower at him. "Well, I wouldn't call our near-miss at ever meeting again funny!"
His eyes darken with intent and he bends down to me again. And proceeds to kiss me until I am so pliant that if he weren't embracing me so tightly, I would probably slip from the counter and end up a melted puddle on the floor.
"What days will you be working?" he asks me hoarsely. His pulse is beating fast and powerful in his neck, and I'm fascinated by it. I lean in, dart my tongue out, and lick the silky skin over his pulse. He moans.
I croak out an answer: "I'm working Mondays to Thursdays in the afternoon."
He lifts his head out of the reach of my insatiable mouth. "Okay. We'll have to synchronize our schedules. I have track Monday to Thursday, and work at Joe's each weekday afternoon except for Wednesdays."
"And Saturdays too," I remind him.
"Most of the time. On Wednesday evenings I drive to Grand Rapids and meet up with my sparring partner." His voice, gruff as sandpaper, makes me shiver.
Then I process what he's just told me and the sensual haze clouding my mind lifts with a snap. "Sparring partner?"
His expression becomes careful. "Yes."
"And what does your 'sparring' entail, exactly?"
"MMA, primarily."
I glare at him. "I don't speak 'me he-man, me manly and fight; you woman, cook food'."
He smiles wickedly. "He-man, is it? I doubt that food would be the he-man's first order of business." He swipes a scorching look over me, and I blush engine-red. Oh God, it's too hot in this room!
"MMA?" I clear my throat. "In English, please?"
"Mixed Martial Arts, baby. I've been practicing it as a hobby for four years, but I've only worked with Klaus for the last two. He started out as my teacher, now we just meet once a week to train together."
"And 'train', I suppose, is code for 'kick the living shit out of each other'?"
He gives me an unrepentant grin. "Something like that. Klaus and I are a good fit because we're evenly matched, mostly, so we challenge each other. It keeps our skills sharp."
"Seth... I was meaning to ask you..." I bite my lip.
His heated gaze instantly zeroes in on my mouth, and predictably, his head starts to lower toward me.
I speak in a rush before he starts kissing me again and I lose the capacity to string two coherent words together. "I-want-you-to-teach-me-too-how-to-fight."
He arrests all movement. "What?!"
"You know. Just some moves, so that I can..."
"Tell me." His voice is inflectionless.
"Defend myself," I finish in a husky murmur.
His jaw turns to granite, and that tiny facial muscle above it starts to pulse angrily. He just looks at me for an inordinate amount of time, his eyes dark and turbulent.
"I promise you," he says after what feels like an eternity, "there's no reason for you to fear that Josh could harm you again. Or for that matter, that anyone else will ever hurt you—I'll finish off any bastard who even thinks of trying." His voice sends icy chills down my spine.
My chi
n trembles and stupid tears fill my eyes. "But I'll see Josh in school every day... and I feel sick at the thought. I just know that each time I'll remember how he grabbed me and dragged me away, and then... He was so strong, Seth, and I was helpless against him!" I hate that I'm crying again because of that scumbag, but I'm undone with anger and fear. I sob, "I don't ever want to feel... like that again."
Seth steps forward into the space between my thighs and his body melts around my own. His arms go around me, strong and safe, and I curl into the haven of his body. His hold is so very tight, almost too tight for me to breathe properly, but it feels so very good that I don't care.
"Shh, Sunny, stop crying," he murmurs above my ear. "You're okay, I'm with you, and I'll always protect you." Always? Oh God, if only! I cry harder. "And I'll teach you how to defend yourself if you want that. Please stop crying, baby."
His hoarse voice, filled with so much sympathy and pure tenderness, overwhelms all my senses. I burrow deeper into his warmth and accept the comforting balm of his presence and words. At one point, I think he also says, Don't be scared, Sunny, I'll make sure you won't have to see that whoreson ever again.
But I'm still battling my noisy sobs, so I probably misheard him.
* * *
Two days later, I wake up to the touch of Seth's lips on my neck, laying a trail of sweet, nibbling kisses, filling me with languid warmth. He's on top of me, braced on his forearms, his muscular frame pressing me into the soft mattress. I arch into him, rubbing against his body.
It's sheer heaven, sleeping and waking in his embrace, and he is my own personal angel. He bites my neck lightly, and a frisson of sheer, undiluted want engulfs my senses.
Okay, so maybe he's my personal demon instead of an angel and here to tempt me into carnal sin. In which case I stand no chance to resist him, I think with an anticipatory smile.
I shift under him, and my mouth parts on the skin of his chiseled chest. Then it journeys upward with teasing kisses until it reaches his strong throat. At the base of his neck, my tongue darts out, licking the delicious, slightly salty skin. The taste of him intoxicates me like age-old liquor, and a feverish excitement takes me over. I start suckling at his skin with boundless enthusiasm, and my breath accelerates with each pull and lick.