by Riley Jean
At last we made our way to a clearing. I could see the moon breaking through the clusters of trees, its reflection rippling in the lake. The three of us huddled together and scanned the shoreline for our friend as our eyes adjusted to the darkness.
“There!” Kiki pointed. And when my eyes found him, everything around me slowed to a halt.
Vance stood by the lake, the smooth skin over his long, toned back glowing faintly in the night, silhouetted by a silver ribbon of one hundred thousand stars. I could write a whole novel on the beauty before me, and still never do it justice. Maybe it was the alcohol or the mountains or something in the air tonight, but seeing him there, clothed only by starlight… he literally took my breath away.
The silence told me I wasn’t the only one mesmerized by the scene. I wasn’t quite sure any of us were blinking.
He stood with his back to us, pulling off his socks and shoes, and lastly discarding his jeans. We looked on as he straightened his arms and dove gracefully into the water, finally breaking the trance. Summer and Kiki cheered and ran towards the water, then squealed when a few sprinkles from his dive splashed back at us.
Seconds later, his head popped up from the water, and his hair whipped back in a splash. He lifted a fist in triumph. “Whoo!”
Next thing I knew, my feet went out from under me. Someone had a hold of me under the knees and shoulder blades. Before I could even register what was happening, I was airborne.
“Ricky! N—”
I hit a wall of liquid ice. The world was slow, muted and freezing under the water, a slap in the face to my buzz. Suddenly much more sober, I kicked my way to the surface and pulled air into my lungs.
Ricky smirked and jumped in after me, followed by Cole tossing in Summer, then tackling in a flailing Kiki.
“Shit, that’s cold!” said Cole upon surfacing.
The girls let out grating shrieks at the frigid temperature. They teamed up against Vance and Cole for a splash war. My own teeth chattering, I turned to face the person to blame for this predicament.
In retaliation for throwing me in, I launched myself at him and used my tiny barely-there muscles to try and dunk him. Not that I was any match for Ricky Storm, but he went easy on me as we laughed and playfully wrestled in the water.
Geez, it was hard swimming while fully clothed. I grew tired pretty quickly from the heavy garments dragging me down. Once my extremities became completely numb, I felt my buzz start to settle in again.
The girls switched their attack tactics and ganged up on Ricky. I could tell he didn’t mind the female attention, so I swam away to escape the fire line of their splashing.
“Save me Vance!” I laughed and clung to his back like a monkey, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.
“Oh, I’ll save you, Rosie. Hold on tight.”
He took his role seriously and swam backwards, moving much quicker than I was capable in the freezing water. Good gracious, I was getting so sleepy. I went practically dead weight and just enjoyed the ride.
“I’m impressed,” I said, referring to his effortless grace and speed in the water despite its glacial temperature.
“Why’s that?”
“It’s probably because you don’t have pants on.”
He laughed out loud but I was still distracted by my own jeans. They were heavy and uncomfortable; I wanted to remove them, too. Drowsy and numb, I rested my head on his shoulder, nose tucked into his neck. Mmm. He smelled spicy and fresh like nature. It felt warmer against his body, so I curled myself around him as much as possible. I could still hear the others laughing and splashing, but their sounds were fading, growing further away.
“Keep your eyes open, Rosie,” he whispered. “Look at the sky.”
I peeled my eyes open and looked up, taking in the vision before us. I tried to work through the fog in my mind to take it all in and store the image in my memory. The moon was impossibly big and bright above us. The sky, crystal clear. No city lights, no smog, no noise. No technology or pressures or chaos. Just me and Vance beneath an endless sky of stars.
My hands tightened around him, and I realized how much of his golden skin I was touching. He was firm and smooth beneath my fingers, and somehow still warm. Even so, I shivered.
“Cold?”
“…Uh-huh.”
“Come on then.”
He swam us to the edge of the water and lent a hand to help me to the shore. I stole my first peek at his bare chest and legs and feet. Oh my.
It was even colder on land with the bitter bite of wind. I could hear everyone else still splashing and screaming a ways away.
Vance kept an arm around me and guided me back to the cabin. It’s a good thing, too, because I would have gotten lost forever without him. He was grabbing a bunch of towels when I spotted the bottle of Jim Beam. I threw it back and pounded the hell out of that Jimmy Beam, letting the warmth burn down my throat until my lips were so numb it went down like iced tea.
“Whoa,” Vance appeared out of nowhere and gently pried the bottle from my fingers. “No more of this stuff tonight, yeah? Just water.”
I pouted. “I don’t have any water.”
“I’ll go get you some. Don’t you get in that Jacuzzi yet. You’ll dehydrate.”
“But I’m c-c-cold Vance!” I said, my teeth chattering.
“I know, I know. Just one minute.”
He left me. And he took the alcohol with him. The jerk! I was f-f-freezing. I cupped my elbows and shivered my ass off. My hair was dripping and my clothes were soaked. My jeans were wet and so awkwardly uncomfortable. I unbuttoned, unzipped and shimmied out of them, almost tripping twice. I stripped out of my sweater, too, and it hit the pavement with a wet slap.
“Holy… What are you doing?!”
I giggled at Vance’s stunned expression. I hadn’t even heard him come back outside.
“Is that…” he swallowed, eyes wide and wondering. “You’re gonna come in the spa like that?”
I glanced down at myself. What was the problem? All the essentials were covered. The blue tank top and black boy short panties I wore revealed less skin than the standard bikini. Plus these panties were lined in lace and had cute little bows over each hipbone. What a sexy beast.
“What’s wrong with this, Vance?” I spun and looked at him over my shoulder. His eyes zeroed in on my back. He made slow steps towards me. Fingers came up to gently brush my wet hair aside and whispered down my shoulder blade.
“When did you get this?”
Oh… The tattoo.
“This summer. On my birthday,” I said softly. “Do you like it?”
He traced the intricate rose with jagged stripes on its petals, studying it deeply and intimately. I found myself wishing for his approval, wanting him to understand the indelible mark just as much as I wanted him to admire it on me. I fought through the haze to decipher the thoughts hidden in those olive green orbs. There was awe, recognition. But there was a twinge of sadness, too.
“Rosie, this—” he stopped at the sounds of our friends approaching. “Forget it. Let’s get you in the spa.” He assisted me up the wooden steps quicker than normal, then pushed a water bottle in my hands. “Drink this whole thing. Now.”
“Bossy,” I giggled, then twisted the top off and complied.
“Whoa, mama!” Kiki shouted just as I was slipping under the water. “I knew you were hiding a hot bod under all those layers!”
Fully submerged, I smiled and blew her a kiss.
Vance and I were getting settled just as the others stripped down and climbed in. Summer squeezed between us and Ricky sat on my other side, resting an arm along the ledge behind me. Kiki and Cole joined us as well. Everyone groaned as the scorching heat chased away the numbness in our frozen extremities.
We played another few rounds of truth or dare and everyone took more shots, though I had been cut off. My attention faded in and out. Pulling late nights was nothing new for me, but between the alcohol and the heat, I was getting a little drowsy.
Whenever it was my turn, I stuck to truths. Most of it didn’t quite stick in my memory, however I dimly remembered confessing to the movie night at my house, where the girls made dinner for the boys and spiked their drinks with a Viagra-like substance. Then when it became apparent it had taken affect, we proceeded to tell them we weren’t in the mood and only wanted to watch the movie and cuddle.
Summer and Kiki got a kick out of it but Cole groaned that it was cruel and unusual. Well, Cole had never been in a prank war with Nathan Bentley before. It was merely retaliation for posting our phone numbers on Craigslist in what could only be described as bizarre personal ads.
Kiki bounced around the water with a glossy smile, flapping her arms like a bird.
“What are you doing?” Summer slurred.
“I’m a goose! And silly!” She then moved her hands so they formed a beak in front of her face. “…Honk.”
“Oh my gosh, girl, you’re drunk!” Summer shouted.
“I know! I wouldn’t get behind the car of a wheel right now!”
Oh how I loved those two. My friends. Kiki and Summer. They were hilarious.
I smiled at them. Kiki smiled at Ricky. Ricky smirked at Kiki. Cole frowned at both of them.
Grouchy.
Under the water, something brushed over my foot. A few seconds later, it happened again. I peeled an eye open just a crack, and saw Vance smirking at me from across the spa. Once more, I felt the intentional sweep of toes rub along the inside of my ankle. Then he winked.
I gave him a goofy grin. My friend was playing footsie with me. He was such a goober.
I lifted my foot and slowly grazed my calf across his shin. He closed his eyes for a moment before he moved against me again. Our feet danced together below the surface of the water, twisting and caressing, toes flirting, flesh sliding across slippery flesh. No one could see what we were doing under the water and it made me feel so sneaky.
At one point he pulled my foot into his lap and started to rub my instep. My head fell back against the edge of the spa. Yes! It felt like I was going to freaking die of pleasure. I’d never had a massage like this before. How was I supposed to know a foot could feel so amazing?
Each movement was slow and deliberate, drawing out every last sensation to the max. His thumbs worked magic over the arch, the ball of my foot and even each individual toe. With the heel of his hand, he pressed my toes all the way forward, then stretched them all the way back. He rolled my ankle in a slow, languid circle, then rolled it back the other way.
Once his work was done, he switched to the other foot and repeated the same amazing, agonizing treatment. It was so torturous I actually had to bite my tongue to keep quiet.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, his hands slid up my calves. Good thing I’d just shaved. Slowly, sensually, he massaged me with long, lean fingers digging into my flesh. He kneaded his way up my hamstrings, then back down again. By this point it was all I could do not to moan out loud. He was pulling me apart, one strip at a time.
My breath was coming in shallow bursts. All I could focus on were the beads of water clinging to his bare shoulders and chest. My eyes followed a single droplet down the length of his neck. His hair had fallen into its normal style, wet and curled up at the ends with a few pieces hanging teasingly in front of his eyes. It was dark and dripping, begging me to sweep it back. To run my fingers through it like I did less than twenty-four hours ago. Had that only been today when we were at his house, getting ready for Smudgepot?
He watched me with hooded eyes behind a curtain of steam. There was something in the way he looked at me that made me feel a warmth, somewhere deep down where the alcohol and the jets didn’t reach. For the first time, I wondered what it would be like to curl up in Vance’s lap. To taste those full lips. To let his skilled hands touch me in other places…
“Earth to Vance!”
The moment was broken when Summer waved an impatient hand in front of his face. It didn’t sound like the first time she had called his name, but neither one of us had been paying much attention. I yanked my foot away from his hands, and the force of it caused a splash of water to hit Vance in the face. He blinked, confused. A giggle escaped before I could trap it in with both my hands.
Summer scowled at me and I mirrored her expression with an exaggerated frown. I was too drunk to realize it was a rude thing to do. But she just shook her head and laughed it off.
* * *
I awoke gasping for air, my chest heaving up and down. Unstoppable flashbacks from my nightmare hit me, one after the other after the other. A ghost from my past… Blue eyes… The images were too real. Too vivid. My broken heart felt painfully fresh, as if I had just relived that traumatic night all over again.
“No, no, not my Gabriel,” I whimpered through trembling lips.
“Scarlett,” a whisper came from across the room. My eyes shot to the source.
“How could you?”
“Scarlett,” he called again. This time it jarred me back to my senses. Blinking rapidly, the memories faded into darkness. I recalled where I was. Smudgepot. The lake. The cabin. Finally, my fuzzy brain realized the voice that had called out to me.
Ricky.
Ricky was here and his presence always had a way of grounding me. I could barely make him out in the darkness, but I knew he was there, sitting in the recliner.
“I saw it… I saw it…”
“You’re fine, kiddo. We’re all safe here,” he assured me.
I tried to let his words calm me, tried to let the dream dissipate and let reality sink in. I glanced around the dark cabin and noticed the bodies scattered all over the couches and floor. That didn’t help. It did the exact opposite of help.
My breathing started to pick up again. If I didn’t get myself under control, I was going to wake up the whole cabin with a panic attack. I pushed my palms into my eye sockets, telling myself that they were just sleeping. I was fine. Everyone was fine.
“Window,” Ricky whispered. It broke through my thoughts.
Yes. That’s what I needed. I chucked my reservations into a dark corner in my mind. It was a weak moment, admittedly, but I needed the comfort too badly to talk myself out of it.
My bare feet pattered softly over the floor, dodging the air mattress holding Summer and Kiki’s sleeping forms. The recliner was a big chair for one person, but the closer I got to it, the more I realized it would be a snug fit for two. My fingers gently fiddled with the corduroy fabric, trying to figure out exactly how this was going to work. There was no way we’d both be able to sleep in there without touching, and that wasn’t our usual thing. Ricky was like my brother… we didn’t cuddle.
“Just get in here,” he said, scooting to one side of the chair.
I took a deep breath and climbed in, facing away from him and curling myself around the fluffy armrest. Ricky was bigger than me so I tried to take up as little space as possible. I was more than surprised when I felt his arm wrap around me, his chest press to my back and his knees tuck behind mine. He had made me the little spoon.
I’d never actually spooned with anybody before. I had been laid across laps, leaned against walls and stuffed into backseats to make out, but I had never before shared a bed with a boy.
“Relax,” he whispered. And I realized how stiff I was. I tried to relax by breathing evenly and letting my muscles unclench. I felt him behind me, solid and steady, and after a few minutes I started to settle. It was surprisingly comfortable lying next to another warm body. I snuggled against him, and his arms squeezed me gently.
“Thank you,” I whispered into the dark room.
His answer was just as hushed. “You don’t have to thank me, kiddo.”
“I mean for coming with me tonight. You probably had a ton of party offers… more fun than truth or dare with my crazy friends. But I’m so glad you’re here.”
He chuckled softly. “It was worth it just to finally witness the fox dance.”
The chair sho
ok with our quiet laughter. My nightmare recessed into the background of my mind, and I was so grateful to Ricky for keeping me grounded. This could have been awkward as we curled up in a chair like lovers. But like always, it was simple. It was uncomplicated. It was us.
I could’ve sworn I felt his lips whisper a soft kiss behind my ear. “I go where you go,” he murmured. “Now sleep.”
Obediently, I took a relaxed breath, and soon fell into a dreamless slumber.
Chapter 17
Safe
“Diary of Jane” by Breaking Benjamin
I awoke slowly, noticing one detail at a time. First, I was not in my own bed. Next, I was not anywhere familiar. Finally, I was bathed in skin and heat.
My eyes peeled open, sticky and irritated from sleeping in contacts, and surveyed the room. The sun had risen; beams of light streamed through the trees and into the windows, igniting the dust mites floating in the air. The walls were lined with the natural color and grain of wood, as if the structure was built one log at a time. A stone fireplace housed a few final glowing embers and still smelled faintly of smoke. Only silence could be heard for miles.
Vance’s cabin looked different in the daylight. It was rustic yet cozy.
My eyes shifted around the room as far as they could go without moving. Summer was curled into a ball on the air mattress, and Kiki lay next to her, sprawled out on her back, both still sleeping peacefully. Cole was passed out on one couch, snoring lightly. The other couch, where I vaguely recalled waking up in the middle of the night, was empty. Vance was nowhere in sight.
Memories of last night returned, explaining the tan arms still wrapped securely around me. The stiffness of my muscles revealed we had not moved from this position all night. Ricky’s breathing was deep and even behind me, gently blowing the hairs on my nape. It was still early. I didn’t want to disturb him just yet, but my sore joints could not be ignored any longer.
Trying my best not to jostle him, I attempted to free myself from Ricky’s hold. Sensing my movement, he resisted, groaning softly in protest and nuzzling his nose into my hair, his prickly stubble abrading the skin on my back.