by Amber Rides
“I don’t know what they taught you in high school, but that wasn’t sex.”
Now my face flamed. “I know.”
Without warning, he came at me. He swooped down and his mouth covered mine in a possessive, almost-ferocious kiss.
“I have zero expectations, Maggie,” he said, his voice low. “Life hands you a fuck-load of mess. Expecting anything just make it that much worse.”
His vehemence surprised me. To my eyes, Teekay’s life was damned near perfect. At school, I knew he’d always been surrounded by friends. Here, in his summer home, he was surrounded by luxury. I leaned into his chest, wondering just what curveballs he felt he’d been thrown, and if he saw the inside of my life, would he still feel the same way.
He parted my towel just enough to expose a miniscule amount of cleavage and ran a finger from my throat to the narrow part between my breasts.
“I was trying to apologize for getting so carried away so quickly,” he murmured. “Not saying I was sorry for what happened. What did you think I was expecting?”
In spite of how spent my body felt, my pulse jumped, and I swallowed nervously.
My reply came out in a mumble. “Experience.”
I tensed as I realized I’d just opened the door for him to ask exactly what my previous experience had been. If he asked, I knew I’d be powerless to do anything but tell him the shameful truth. That I’d lost my virginity to a jerk at a party simply because for one moment I’d felt like someone wanted me. And that the act had been photographed and put on display for the whole world to see.
But Teekay’s grin just widened devilishly. “There is something to be said about a girl who know what she’s doing. In this case, though…I’ll take natural talent over years of training.”
I coloured. “Talent?”
He nodded. “Mm hmm. I have to confess…That was the best not-sex of my life. And Maggie?”
“Yes?”
He leaned close and spoke right into my ear. “When I do fuck you, all I expect is for you to do as I say. And enjoy it.”
I knew I must be so red that I was almost purple. Then, in what I was starting to think was typically Teekay, typically impetuous fashion, he leaned down, lifted me up, and tossed me over his shoulder. He carried me to the bed and threw me down.
“You know what I expect now?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
“No,” I squeaked.
My heart raced, and Teekay’s smile took up his whole face.
“A whole lot of you, wrapped in my arms while we watch some dumbass love story on my ridiculously big TV.”
10)
Teekay’s giant TV turned out to be a flat screen imbedded in his bedroom wall behind a remote-operated panel. And the movie turned out to be code for background noise for him, asking me a series of questions while refusing to let me put on any clothes.
Some of them were innocuous.
“What’s your middle name, Maggie?”
“Elizabeth.”
“Prettier than Kimball.”
Some were teasing.
“You cold, darlin’?”
“A bit.”
“Slide back a little closer.”
And the only place to go was straight into his crotch.
And some were ones that – on any normal day – I would’ve been terrified to answer. But today was the least normal day of my life.
“Least favorite memory?”
“My dad’s funeral.”
A punctuated silence, then, “Most favorite?”
“Right now.” And a red face.
When he knew I’d once had a pet snail named Spot and that my grandmother had been my hero, and that I’d celebrated my last birthday alone with a plastic tub of yogurt in a hospital cafeteria, Teekay’s questions tapered off.
I settled into him, and his arms formed a cocoon around my shoulders and his palms stroked my forearms soothingly. My breathing evened out and my brain slowed along with my inhales and exhales. I drifted, wondering what the deeply contended feeling in my chest equalled.
Safety, I realized after a few moments. For the first time in forever, I feel safe.
Teekay’s voice cut through my drowsy realization.
“If you could do anything – for you, not for me – right at this moment, what would be it be?” he asked in a near-whisper.
“Besides sleep?” I joked softly.
He chuckled and reached up to tuck a piece of loose hair behind my ear. “Yes. Besides sleep, darlin’.”
The overall warm, contented feeling made me bold, and I only had to think about my response for a heartbeat. “I want to play a game.”
“A game?”
“Mm hmm.” I smiled. “I want you to tell me three things about yourself.”
“This game sounds awfully familiar,” Teekay said with mock thoughtfulness.
“Does it?” I replied innocently. “So you won’t be surprised when I tell you I want one of them to be sexy, one of them to be serious, and one to be silly?”
“Actually…you surprise me every few minutes.”
My face warmed, but my blush was a pleasant one this time. “Are you going to play?”
“Hmm. That depends. What’re the stakes?”
I frowned at his question. “The stakes?”
Teekay laughed. “Oh, you wanted a freebie, did you? I don’t usually play games unless the stakes are pretty damned high.”
“I just hadn’t thought it through,” I protested.
“Are you taking suggestions then?”
“I might be.”
I braced myself for something nefarious, but he just said, “If I win, you spend the next three nights with me.”
“What happens after three nights?”
“Family business.”
My heart dropped a little. He’d mentioned that before, but why was he in a hurry to ship me off? Was he worried what his family would think of me?
He read my worried expression and offered me a crooked smile.
“What’s wrong, Maggie? Are you disappointed it wasn’t a longer offer? Because I don’t usually have girls over here for more than one night. Hell, I’ll send them away after a couple of hours if I think I can get away with—”
He cut himself off as I jerked away from him and slid forward on the bed, pulling the sheet off him and up around my bare chest.
“Hey!”
But his indignant protest was short-lived. He stopped, eyed me up, then leaned back on the bed, not seeming to care at all that his perfectly tanned, perfectly toned body was completely uncovered. I was so distracted by a vagrant thought on whether or not he lay around nude in the sun to achieve that all-over copper tone that I almost didn’t notice the speculative twinkle in his eyes.
Until he spoke, his tone smug. “You’re jealous.”
I wanted to deny it. But I’d taken his oath of honesty.
“Stupid oath,” I muttered.
He chuckled and reached for me, but I pulled away again.
“I thought this was all about how dead-sexy I am and about how I make that sweet little body of yours hum. But I was wrong. You like me,” he teased.
I kept my mouth shut.
I did like him. And I was jealous. Both sensations were out of place for me. The first made me indescribably uneasy, so I latched onto the second as a protective shield.
Just the idea of Teekay bringing another girl to his house, or of him spending the night with one, made me feel sick to my stomach. In fact, it hit me like a brick. Tossed by a weight-lifting monkey. With good aim.
Of course there are other girls. Look at him.
But had I ever really heard of him being with a girl at school? There was lots of talk about his swimming and his partying and his sudden disappearance. But a girlfriend or two? I couldn’t recall. And I couldn’t very well ask him.
Oh, by the way Teekay…You know how you thought we were complete strangers when you rescued me at the beach yesterday? Well, actually, I’ve known who you are for
a few years. Because you went to my high school. Speaking of which, how many of those girls have been here?
The sick feeling in my stomach grew.
This time when he moved toward me, I was too deflated to fight him off.
Teekay cupped my cheek. “Hey. I was just kidding, darlin’.”
“No you weren’t,” I argued without much force.
“I was,” he insisted. “I haven’t brought a girl home – or anywhere else – in well over a year, okay?”
I met his eyes, desperately wanting to believe him.
“I wouldn’t make that shit up, Maggie,” he said. “Guys don’t admit to long periods of abstinence lightly.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Okay.”
“Maggie?”
“Yes?”
“I’d be jealous too.”
Another pleased flush crept up my neck. “You would?”
“Definitely. I mean, the thought of you with another girl…It should turn me on. Instead, it makes me want to throw a punch.”
I refused to take the bait. “Which one is that?”
His forehead creased. “Which one is what?”
“That statement. Was it your sexy fact, your serious one, or your silly one?”
One of those amused, little-boy laughs escaped from Teekay’s lips. “Oh. Are we still playing the game?”
“Definitely.”
“And if you win?”
I exhaled. “Then you spend the next three days at my place.”
“So you do like me.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I just need some strong hands to help with the cleaning. And someone tall enough to reach the dust on the highest shelves.”
“I like you, too.” He teased, and kissed my nose. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied truthfully.
“All right. Silly fact. Yesterday morning when I woke up, I thought it was going to be an ordinary day. And then I met you. Serious fact. I saw the weather report before I left the house, and I almost skipped the beach. The idea that I might’ve missed the opportunity to know you makes my heart want to stop beating. Sexy fact. I want you, Maggie. So fucking badly that I know I have to wait.” He stopped and looked at me expectantly.
I buried my face in his chest so he wouldn’t see my goofy smile. He rested his head on my chin and rubbed the small of my back.
“Well?” he prodded after a moment. “Should I pack my bags? Or should I ask Jeeves to check your dress for a dry-clean-only label?”
“This is going to be a long three days,” I replied.
He laughed loud enough to fill the room, then leaned in unexpectedly and used his thumb to trace the outline of my scar. He ran it down from my eyebrow to my cheek, then past it to my chin in perfect sync with the glaring mark, like he’d spent hours memorizing the pattern of it. And I went still, my heart thumping unpleasantly in my chest.
“Will you tell me how this happened?” he asked softly.
I rolled it over in my head. The memory of my father’s death was distant. It wasn’t that it didn’t make me sad, or that I didn’t wish every day that he wasn’t gone. But the actual events that led to it were separate. When I thought of it, it was much like how it ended – underwater and below conscious thought.
“Maggie?”
“I’d rather not,” I admitted, my voice even quieter than his.
Teekay stiffened a little, and I knew my lack of willingness to share irritated him. Then he tipped his head to one side thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes at me. For a second, I thought he was going to order me to do it. Instead he sighed.
“First thing tomorrow morning, I want to show you something,” Teekay said. “And it’s going to scare you. But it’s going to scare me more.”
Day Three
11)
First thing in the morning turned out to be noon, when Teekay shook me awake, tossed me a t-shirt, sweatpants, and a pair of boxer shorts – which I slipped into with a blush – and then threw on his jeans.
He fed me a piece of nearly burnt toast, then snagged a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer, then guided me toward the front door.
“Are we leaving?” I asked.
Teekay put his finger over his lips. “Shh.”
He scrawled something onto the paper, then shoved it under a door on the side of the garage. Then, with a grin I thought he was trying to suppress, he wedged a piece of metal into the frame.
“C’mon,” he urged, and pulled me by the hand into the garage.
I looked from the red sports car to the blue sedan, and that’s when I figured it out.
“Was that Donnie’s front door?”
Teekay evaded my question with a quiet command. “Get in the car.”
“Teekay…”
He kissed my lips, then opened the passenger door and pushed me inside gently.
“Relax,” he said. “I left him the exact coordinates of where we’ll be.”
“Coordinates?”
In reply, he slammed my door, tapped on the automatic opener, then hopped into the vehicle himself. Without waiting for the big door to slide all the way open, Teekay eased the car backwards. As we pulled out of the garage, I caught sight of Donnie’s angry face in the window above. Teekay must’ve seen it too, because he let out a loud laugh, then shot down the driveway with a burst of speed.
My apprehension at giving Donnie the slip soon took a backseat to another, far more pressing worry.
Teekay had driven us to the marina.
12)
“I can’t do this,” I said for the fourth time.
But Teekay wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“You can,” he replied. “You’re going to.”
We were standing just outside the biggest boat at the dock. It had taken me a full two minutes to force my feet to carry me past the big, locked gate that led down to the private docks. And now I was poised with one foot above the ladder to the cruiser yacht with Teekay’s hand in the small of my back and my heart in my throat.
“We can leave the boat in the marina,” he assured me.
I swallowed nervously. “Can I wear a life jacket?”
“That. And nothing else,” he teased.
“Not helping.”
“Hang on.”
In a swift move, he traded places with me and leaped from the dock to the boat. His hand came out and grasped mine. So I took a breath and then took the leap.
I expected the ground to rock underneath my feet as I landed, but it was surprisingly – reassuringly – stable.
Teekay’s arms encircled me immediately.
“Good?” he asked.
“I’m okay.”
“All right,” he replied, then took his own breath. “You think this was scary for you. But really, it’s scarier for me.”
He didn’t give me a chance to ask why. He just led me across the wood deck, stopped in front of door, and dug in his jeans pockets for his keys. As he unlocked it, excitement battled with nerves for supremacy in my chest. Butterflies beat wildly against my stomach while lower down, heat reigned.
“In,” Teekay commanded.
I took a shaky step into the unlit room. All of the blinds were drawn and it was nearly pitch black in spite of the fact that the sun was shining brilliantly outside.
As I moved inside, my toe caught on something and I stumbled forward, hands out. But Teekay caught me before I could hit the ground. His warm arm closed around my waist, dragging me back.
“Careful, darlin’,” he murmured, then leaned over to flip on a switch.
There was a click and I was completely blind again, this time from an overload of light. Then a zap and a pop sounded sharply and it was dark once more.
“Shit,” Teekay cursed.
He let me go, and after a moment, a warmer, softer light filled the room. I could see all around me, and I knew immediately why his bedroom in the house was so bare. Everything personal was here, in this boat instead.
On the ot
her side of the miniature kitchen, a small wardrobe stood open, shorts and swim trunks spilling from its drawers.
One wood-panelled wall was decorated with photographs of Olympic swimmers, and when I squinted, I realized they were all signed, too. A second wall was filled with medals hanging from pegs. A medley of certificates of achievement had been glued to an enormous piece of poster board, framed, and hung up above the stove.
There was a shelf above the sink, and about ten snow globes littered its surface.
And all of it – even the couch under the window – was covered in dust.
My eyes skimmed the room again, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d left the boat abandoned. And why.
“My favorite beaches,” Teekay stated as he followed my gaze to the shelf. “My mom used to buy them for me and my sister when we went on vacation.”
“Used to?”
He shrugged and grabbed one of the snow globes, tossed it from one palm to the other, then handed it to me.
Myrtle Beach, read the little sign inside.
My heart squeezed empathetically and I opened my mouth to offer him some comforting words or ask why she stopped buying them, but Teekay didn’t give me a chance.
“I’m not showing you this so you’ll feel sorry for me, or so you’ll say something nice. I’m showing you because I want you to know you’re not the only one who can fall. It happened to me. I’m bigger than you are. I’m meaner than you are. And fuck if I didn’t land square on my ass as hard as a rock. All of us have parts of ourselves we keep hidden. This is mine. Or the beginning of it, anyway.” He paused and looked me straight in the eyes. “I want you to tell me about that scar and what it means. But I want you to do it when you’re ready, Maggie.”
He traced the mark on my face once more and I knew that even if I wasn’t ready right that second, I would be soon. And whatever that signified…it terrified me.
I buried myself in his chest so he wouldn’t be able to read my face. He enfolded me in his arms and we stood like that for several long moments before I spoke.
“Does it run?” I asked.
“The boat?”
“Yes.”