Let’s get real here, she thought. She knew the guy had some strange thing about coming to her rescue, and she loved that he decided to spend time with her these days. But she was a science loving dork, the teacher’s pet, and a nobody that Payton single handedly had rescued from the lunchroom floor. So, as far as a long term forever sort of commitment went she had long ago figured the odds on that one.
She couldn’t even remember what she had said in response to his question. Did she believe in soul mates? Of course she believed in them. That first day at Dixie when she’d felt the air sizzle between them from across a school room she knew for sure there were soul mates. The mere thought that he even knew what a soul mate was sent tingling sensations all through her body.
Lizzie looked over at Payton, studied his back in the moonlight, and enjoyed the way his muscles rippled underneath his shirt. She slowly reached out, her fingers shaking with nervousness, and she outlined the mass of muscle on his lower back. She had never voluntarily touched him before. Always she had waited until he made the first move and even after that she was hesitant to touch him except to copy the exact move he had just made on her.
Tonight, though, she was going to take a chance, her nervousness dulled by Payton’s shocking question. She was so afraid that he would pull away from her, but somewhere inside she knew it was now or never to prove to herself that she had the guts to be with this man. She’d wanted this moment for years, and now was her chance to act.
She touched him again, this time with a little more courage. When he shifted to face her she pulled her hand back and dropped it swiftly to her side.
He looked down at her, giving her a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to stop, Lizzie.” He took her hand, massaging it lightly as he lifted it, and led her hand to the muscles rippling over his belly. “I like it when you touch me.”
“You do?”
He nodded, watching her, and his lids fluttered almost imperceptibly as her fingers began to move softly across his t-shirt.
“Here, let me help you with that.” He reached up over his head and pulled the t-shirt up and off of his body, leaving him naked from the waist up. “Now, make yourself at home.”
She itched to touch him, to feel his warm skin underneath her fingers. Lizzie stretched out a tentative hand then paused. “Payton, I don’t want to hurt you.”
He laughed softly. “Sweetheart, you’re not hurting me. Trust me.” He put a hand over hers and moved them together over his body, exploring first the strong muscles of his belly and moving up to examine his chest. “Does this make you nervous?” He asked at last, watching the way she nibbled on her lower lip.
She tore her eyes slowly away from his body and shifted them up to meet his. She nodded her head, and smiled.
“Lizzie,” he lay down on the blanket beside her and pulled her up into his arms. “Have I ever done anything to hurt you?”
“No.”
“Didn’t I promise you before we came down here that nothing scary would happen to you?” She nodded.
“Okay, then.” He leaned up on an elbow so he could stroke her hair and look into her wide, soulful eyes. “If I promise to let you know if you hurt me, will you keep touching me like you were?”
She waited a beat, nibbled on her lip some more then smiled up at him. “You promise to tell me?”
“Promise.”
“You like it when I touch you here?” She reached out and slowly stroked her hand across his chest.
“Yes, I do.”
“And here?” She flicked her eyes from the spot on his belly to his eyes and watched them flutter closed for a second before he opened them to look at her.
“I already told you I liked that spot.”
She shifted her hand just a fraction lower and stopped. She nibbled on her lower lip. “What about here?”
His groan made her giggle. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Her courage was building and she wanted to touch him more, but something else itched inside her. She leaned forward hesitantly, watching him in case he decided she crossed the line from good to gross. His warm smile encouraged her so she bent in and replaced her hand with her lips.
His skin felt so soft and silky, but with an edge of hardness and danger mixed in. She could feel all those tightly wound muscles underneath as they held his body still, but at the same time she could feel a slight tremor and it excited her knowing that she was the one causing them.. She smelled a hint of soap and aftershave as she trailed back up from his stomach to his chest and neck. He let out a whimper as she shifted from one perfectly rounded nipple and up to dabble at the hollow of his neck.
She giggled. “Are you sure you’re not hurting?”
“Oh, I’m hurting alright, but not in a bad way.”
She knew that he was aroused. She’d read enough romance books to know that guys responded like that when a girl kissed him, but she had never experienced it herself. At least, not until now. Now she could actually feel the evidence of his excitement and it made her heart pound with a mix of arousal and nerves. She’d never done this before. Ever. Did Payton know? And what did he expect from her now.
She felt his hands clasp onto her shoulders and pull her back from her loving assault on his skin. She glanced up at him, the smile on her lips fading when she saw the seriousness that crept into his eyes.
“I’m hurting you, aren’t I? I’ll stop- I’m, I’m so sorry.” She moved to get up but he pushed her back down onto the blanket.
“Lizzie, stop.” He lifted her chin and forced her to look at him. “You’re not hurting me, I promise, so stop worrying that you are. Look, if you must know, I’ve been dreaming about this moment for weeks now.” He smiled when her jaw dropped.
“You have?”
“Mmm-Hmm. So stop worrying and have some fun.” She regarded him warily.
“But....” He lifted her chin again.
“What’s wrong, Liz?”
She had to tell him, she knew she did, but she didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to go through the embarrassment of revealing that she was a virgin, with never even more than a kiss. How could she explain to him that she had been saving herself for the one person that meant more to her than anyone else in the world? He would think she was crazy, wouldn’t he? Here she sat in front of Payton, the guy she had come to admire so much, and she was going to disappoint him by revealing that wasn’t experienced enough to know what he might like. But on the other hand, he’d been around her enough to know that she was skittish even to kiss him, so it didn’t take much imagination to figure out how nervous she would be with everything else between a man and a woman.
“Liz, it’s okay.” He leaned in and brushed a kiss across her lips, lingering a little at the edges where he knew she liked to be kissed the most. “Whatever it is, it’s fine.”
Those wide doe eyes shifted from his down the naked top half of his body. She ducked her head so it rested on his chest where she couldn’t see his eyes. Taking a deep breath she dove in. “I’ve never done this before, Payton. I mean, not just the sex part,” her face flamed, “well, that is... if you were headed in that direction... but, you know, all of it.”
That was it. She’d said it. She could feel him stiffen and she felt red heat sliding up her neck and across her face. He didn’t respond, and after a moment she gathered the courage to look up at him.
“Oh, God. You’re in shock. I knew that I shouldn’t have told you this!”
He blinked. He blinked again. Then he laughed. He laughed so hard Lizzie wondered what he found so funny.
“Liz, trust me. I’m not in shock, and I’m glad that you told me.” He grew serious. “You didn’t think I’d be mad, did you?”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “Sweetheart, I’m not mad at you. There’s nothing to be mad about. In fact, I had a pretty good suspicion that you haven’t done this kind of thing before.” He took a deep breath. “L
ook, I don’t want to pressure you,” he paused with a wince. “Sorry, I realize that probably something Brett would have said.” He shifted so they were face to face. She could feel his warm breath on her skin. “Seriously, I’m not here to push you into anything. I’ll stop right now if you want and we can just watch the meteor shower. I really did bring you out here to watch it, but I’m more than happy to do this, too.”
He stopped. She wondered what was going through his mind. He looked totatlly comfortable in his skin all the time, but there was a small part of her that wondered if he was just a fraction as flustered as she was right then.
He had just opened his mouth to speak when she interjected. “Okay.”
“Huh?”
“Will you stop if I ask you to?”
“Yes, but I want you to know I’m happy to stop right now if you’re nervous.”
“Oh, I’m definitely nervous, but I want to. You’re... you’re not like Brett. He said he didn’t want to push me, but he was so greedy and I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t care. He- he didn’t understand that I’d never… well, and that I was saving…”she hid her face again, “saving myself for someone more special than him.”
Payton stiffened. “Let’s not talk about him anymore. In fact, let’s not talk anymore period,” he paused to kiss her lips, “I promise to stop if you tell me to.”
In a move that completely surprised him, she held out her hand. “Then it’s a deal?” He smiled and took her hand.
“Deal.” They shook on the deal and Payton used their contact to pull her into his arms, lowering her onto the blanket. He smiled at her, kissing her lips, teasing the flesh there until she let out a little whimper and wound her arms around his neck.
Since his shirt was already off he began to work on hers. “I don’t imagine you’ll be needing this,” he said, pulling it up and over her head, leaving the little pink sports bra as the only other obstacle keeping him from those lovely, pale, silky mounds beneath.
“I won’t?”
He shook his head, and she let out a little laugh.
“In that case, I don’t think you’ll be needing these.” She slid her hands down the heated skin of his torso and began to unbutton his jeans. He shifted. She paused.
“Just giving you easier access.” His wink set her back at ease. Then he set in to caressing the tender skin below her ear with the tip of his tongue and his excessively sexy lips, and Lizzie forgot anything about being nervous or wanting to tell Payton to stop. Saying stop was the absolute last word on her mind. Yes, yes, yes would have been the more appropriate words that sprung to her thoughts.
Then, with an amazing little trick of the tongue and his hands, he was sending little thrills of sensation down her spine and through her body, and she was almost begging him to strip her faster so she could be skin to tingling skin, enjoying the feel of something she had never wanted to experience so desperately in all her life. She felt him remove the last layer of her clothing then watched in awed amazement as he shucked the last of his.
Suddenly they were both naked. Lizzie had always imagined that when she found herself in this particular position with a man she would be edgy and insecure, possibly even a little hysterically nervous. But as Payton leaned back over her and set himself to laving attention to all the parts of her body that had been aching only minutes before, she realized she was far, far from nervous. Instead she found herself wrapped in a warm, hazy cocoon of ecstasy in which nothing could penetrate except for good feelings.
She had expected for there to be awkwardness between them, but in its place stood a comfortable connection that she could easily imagine they were destined to experience. Do you believe in soul mates, Lizzie? I do. She looked past the shoulder she was currently suckling and up at the stars above. She didn’t see any shooting stars pass by, that would have been a little too cliché, but she did wonder if there wasn’t something a little more magical and mystical going on right then than could be explained.
Payton looked down into the sea of green crashing around in her eyes and wondered if she felt half as stunned by this experience as he did at the moment. He was no stranger to this sort of intimate experience- you couldn’t be the home town hero and expect to come out a virgin- but he had never felt anything this intense before. He traced the outline of a dark, puckered peak then ran his finger down to the valley between her breasts, studying the goose-bumps that followed in his wake. He took his time suckling the other tip and felt his breath come faster as he heard Lizzie release a frenzied moan and wiggle beneath him. She was incredible, and he doubted very seriously she even knew that she was. How a girl could be so absolutely inexperienced and yet so sensuously delectable all at once he would never understand.
With his lips, he traced the little line of peach fuzz down the center of her belly until he reached the tan line where her bikini would have begun. He stopped, moved a little, and picked up again just on the inside of her thighs, trailing down to her knees. He started on her other knee and made his way, slowly, ever so slowly back up again, smiling at the way she whispered his name and gripped his shoulders, begging him to find her spot for release. Still, he took his time.
He skipped over the sensitive area once again and began to trace a line along her shoulder bones with his finger. Every once in a while he would nibble here or there, leaving delicate little marks where he’d claimed that particular portion of her body. Reverently, he stroked her body with his fingers and repeated the process with his lips. He teased her by trailing down to the hot, slick skin between her legs and dabbling there with an achingly slow and soft touch. She thought she would die if he didn’t touch her there again, but he paid no heed and moved on to play elsewhere. When at last he was satisfied with his work, he bent his head and kissed her again full on the lips.
“Do you think you can let me love you now?” He asked in a deep, husky voice. She searched his eyes for some sign of sarcasm, but there was none.
“Only if you’ll let me love you, too.” He smiled that adorable little dimpled smile and she knew that if she hadn’t lost herself to him before she definitely had just then.
He came up over her and settled himself on top letting her adjust to his weight a little at a time. He kissed her again then kissed her some more and finally she felt him push her legs apart and slide into the silky wet heat that she had been dying for him to find. He moved into her slowly, watching her intently for any signs of discomfort, and then began to love her so tenderly, so compassionately that a little tear slipped from her eyes. He kissed the salty wetness away and moved inside her again watching the way her eyes dropped to half mast with the drug of their loving.
She called his name, ran kisses up his hard chest and begged him for release. He stroked her again and again, heard her crying his name, then found one of her hands and linked it with his. When he searched her eyes his silent question found the answer he wanted just as he felt her bunch then explode beneath him with a last gush of breath. His body tensed before he felt the world crumble and he tumbled headlong into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty-one
Lizzie and Grace stood in the magazine aisle of Gilchrist’s Pharmacy and debated the pros and cons of several selections.
“Do you think the guys will like Seventeen or YM more?” Lizzie’s gaze flicked from one magazine to the other then up to see which one Grace would choose. Grace regarded her with skepticism and turned to choose a different color of nail polish.
“I’m going to guess neither. Playboy maybe, but I doubt you’re up for buying that, so I suggest we just forego the magazines and get some water balloons instead.” She put down the bottle of Passion Pink and picked up Vampire Red in its place.
“Water balloons? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to go over well with Sellars. She’d flip a lid if she got her hair wet before she went to bed.”
Grace grunted. “It’s a camp out. There are no rules on camp outs except to expect the unexpected. Plus, if we don’t tell anyone
we’ve got them then we can use them on the boys once they’ve fallen asleep.”
“I don’t know, somehow I see that backfiring on us.” Lizzie gave the balloons a quick once over and threw them in the basket anyway.
Mr. Gilchrist gave them a curious look as he rang up their purchases, but bagged their stuff without a word. He smiled as they left the store, and shook his head with a smile remembering the good old days.
“So, you told your parents you’re staying at my house right?” Grace plopped a jolly-rancher in her mouth and slung one of the pharmacy bags around her wrist.
“Yep, and I’m so dead if they figure out we’re actually out camping instead.”
“Don’t worry. My dad knows we’re going- I told him that the girls were going out for our last hoorah before school starts up.”
“Hmm. That’s a good idea. I’ll tell my mom that, too. That way she won’t get so freaked out.”
The duo worked on their plans a little more as they walked back to Lizzie’s house from town, and giggled excitedly as Lizzie threw the rest of her stuff in a duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder. They ran into her mom on the way out and explained that the girls were going camping. Her mom merely planted a solid kiss on her cheeks and told them to have fun. Lizzie thought she’d just gotten away with murder, and that set them to giggling again as they set off to Grace’s house to pick up her car for the trip out to the camping sight.
Most of the gang was already there when they arrived. It was a spot not far from Farmer Murphy’s land that was owned by an old miser named Mr. Weatherby. He passed away earlier in the summer and left the land to his only son who lived in California. They guessed he probably wouldn’t be showing up for a surprise visit that night, so they assumed this would be the safest spot of any.
Payton, Colin, Hank, and Bud were playing touch football next to the stack of firewood they had gathered while Sellars and Jade tried to assemble the tent they brought to share. Summer, fortunately for Lizzie, was even more dysfunctionally late than Lizzie tended to be, and she still hadn’t arrived yet.
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