We grew close and the more time I spent around him, the more I remembered why he’d been my boyfriend in the first place. When he was on his own and not trying to impress his friends, Donnie was a very humble guy. It was a platonic friendship, but I’d be a liar if I had said I hadn’t felt flattered by his flirty nature.
“Hi, Donovan,” I said flatly, confused by his approach since he had been insistent no one could know about my help. I understood why he’d kept it a secret. What guy going into his final year of high school would have felt proud to admit he was being taught math by the younger brain box of his class? Worse than that, he’d had to turn to a girl for help. I knew if people found out about it he would have been embarrassed.
Donnie’s late birthday had placed him as the oldest kid in high school and way into his eighteenth birthday by the time graduation came around, whereas, I was entering my senior year alongside him, thanks to the extra credits I’d accrued from day one of going there.
Despite all of that, he had swallowed his pride and asked me in the hope of bettering himself and his future seriously.
“You’re the last person I expected to see at this shindig,” he confessed, tugging at my long pigtail and eyeing me appreciatively from head to toe, as he walked around in front of me. He grinned wide and glanced up again his eyes locked with mine. “And where have you been hiding those?” he whispered, leaning forward so as his words filtered into my ear as he dropped his hungry eyes to my small magnificent boobs in my skintight dress.
Feeling his breath fanning my face and his body heat radiating toward me made me blush with his blatant objectification. Shocked by his scrutiny, I quickly glanced around in the direction of my girls. Thankfully, by the time Donnie had made his comments toward me, Jenna had gone back and joined the others and I was glad to see they hadn’t even noticed Donnie was there. Noting they were deep in conversation with the gorgeous Gideon, Kent, and another two boys I’d never seen before, I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned my attention back toward Donnie.
“Aren’t you worried someone will see you with me and get the wrong idea?” I asked, glancing toward the partygoers and recognizing some of the players from our high school football team.
“Why would I be worried? What’s wrong with me talking to you? This is a party and I’d be delighted to have you as my girl—oh wait—we did that once before, remember?” He laughed and looked at me more intently. “It’s natural I’d talk to you here … we can’t pretend not to know one another.”
“Plenty is wrong with it. I’m with Bradley and you know how he gets. Besides, it was you who said no one must ever find out that I’m tutoring you in math,” I said with a sharp hiss in my tone.
“Tricia … I don’t see any textbooks, do you?” he asked, throwing his hands wide and chuckling. “I think we’d look a lot more suspicious if I totally ignored you. We’re nextdoor neighbors … if you exclude the pastures in between. I think your blushes will draw more attention.”
It was true, Donovan’s house was the next one down from ours, separated by a stone wall marking the start of my family’s eighty-acre parcel of land and his parents’ less substantial ten-acre plot of land.
“Draw more attention to what?” Alice asked, sticking her beak in at the worst impossible moment. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have sworn she’d been taking private tutoring of her own from my nosey mother.
“To the fact that she thinks I’m the hottest guy here by a mile,” Donnie quickly chipped in and chuckled at his own joke.
Alice smirked sarcastically at him and laced her arm in mine. She shook her head as she turned me away from him. “In your dreams, Donovan Clark, this girl is lovesick for Bradley, so best you keep your grubby mitts off her or I’ll be forced to play snitch and give him a call. Brad may not be one of you jocks, but don’t think he wouldn’t be able to beat your ass. So scoot, I don’t really give much for your chances if he gets to hear you’ve been sniffing around his girl.”
Donnie played hurt, smirked wickedly, and winked at me before turning slowly and heading down the stairs to the poolside. “Later, Tricia, when your rottweiler puppy is otherwise engaged,” he shot over his shoulder.
“Cocky asshole, he could at least have called me a prettier dog breed,” Alice said, chuckling. “Honestly, between him and Brad, you’re hogging all the decent eye candy, Tricia. The way he looked at you as he left there …” She stopped and swooned with her hands clasped under her chin. “Best you don’t talk to him when that boyfriend of yours gets home, or Donnie really will have a problem. If only I could find one boy to look at me like that—I’d be in heaven.”
Intrigued by her comment, my curious eyes sought him out and I noted he was talking to a couple of boys from his football team. I knew their faces, their names… not so much.
Alice pulled me off in the direction of our other friends and it wasn’t until around an hour later that Donnie showed up again, when I’d left the others to get a drink.
“Beer?” he asked, gesturing a bottle toward me.
I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I’d already forced two beers down and four glasses of fruity punch and had hated the tastes of both. It had been horrible drinking them down, but by the time I’d forced myself with the last glass of punch I had a buzz inside my body that was like nothing I’d felt before.
“Want to try vodka?” he asked.
My eyes went wide in surprise that Mr. Lassiter had allowed his son, Gideon, to serve alcohol in his home to underage partygoers. My parents would have had a fit if Marnie and I had tried to do that.
“Sure,” I replied, trying to sound relaxed, but my head had begun to swim.
Grabbing the bottle, he filled a glass with ice and poured the clear liquid over it.
“Here,” he said, nudging the glass toward me and encouraging me to take it.
The moment he did that Kent’s warning rang in my ears about the drinks. I assessed who it was and figured it was safe. I’d seen him pour it out and it was only Donnie the boy I’d grown up with. I smiled and took it from him, sniffed it, and when I found it didn’t smell of much, I took a sip.
Sticking my tongue out I made a disgusted face.
“Don’t be so dramatic, it doesn’t taste of much. Here,” he said, leaning over and pulling a bottle of lime cordial with a measure on top.
How the cordial was measured and the harder alcohol was freely poured had seemed strange to me, since it was the alcohol that did the damage and made people drunk.
I’d never had alcohol before the party, not even a sip, so by the time I’d drank what Donnie had given me as well as the beers, I’d begun not to care about anything. I started to enjoy myself because the music the DJ played was fabulous and Donnie was attentive company.
It was the most liberated I had felt in months. I’d even thought it was fun chatting to other boys without Bradley growling and sneering at them like a rabid dog.
Donnie leaned over and whispered in my ear. A thrill of delight ran down my spine and my heart had begun to race when his hot breath wafted over my bare skin. “Dance with me?”
“I don’t dance,” I told him, sounding flustered because he’d already watched me dancing with Sandra and Alice, and then with Gideon.
When I thought back on that, I vaguely remembered Donnie going over to Gideon and talking heatedly with him, after Gideon had walked back to his group. It made me wonder if Donnie had warned Gideon off me because he knew I had a boyfriend.
Scanning the pool area again, I frowned when I noted my girls were no longer out there with me. My brain suddenly felt a little loose in my head as the alcohol I hadn’t been used to, made me feel light-headed.
As I was trying to clear the fog from my mind, Donnie took my drink from my hand, set it down on a nearby table and swept me into his arms before I’d had the chance to protest. Although I laughed, I had felt awkward, but the speed of his move set a swarm of butterflies fluttering in my belly at the same time.
I felt ashame
d of myself because I knew it felt wrong to be in the arms of another boy, but between the alcohol and a long summer without Bradley, Donnie had made me feel wanted.
Chapter Eleven
Tricia aged sixteen
“Where have you been all summer?” he asked, loud enough for others close by to hear him but leaned in and snickered into my ear. I blushed, embarrassed, knowing we’d spend much of it together.
I shook my fuzzy thoughts from my head, not wanting to play his game. “I’ve been home.”
“Home? I haven’t seen you out once with the girls,” he goaded, tightening his arms around me and smirking wickedly. His groin brushed against mine and my heart skipped a beat when I felt a bulge in his pants.
Knowing I was turning him on made my heart beat faster, and I felt confused by how turned on I was by him making a play for me. Donnie had flirted with me many times, but this felt different because it was totally direct and there was no humor in his tone or expressions.
“Stop it,” I blurted. Pivoting on my tiptoes, I craned my neck, looking for the girls again as he held me firmly in his arms. Being tipsy I lost my footing and he pulled me closer to his chest. My head landed on his shoulder and his hand splayed wide between my shoulder blades, our bodies completely flush with one another. It felt nice—protective—secure. I felt confused by the conflicted feelings I had inside.
“Bradley was a fool leaving you here all summer. Had you been mine, I’d have told my grandpa to go to hell,” he mumbled, his beer breath and deodorant mingling with my woozy head and making me inhale the scent of him.
“But I’m not yours,” I mumbled, shuffling around on the poolside patio to “Careless Whispers” by George Michael.
“Not yet, but you’re not Bradley’s either,” he muttered, his low rumbly voice sounding seductive to my ears as my head rested against his chest. My body stiffened and I leaned back to look up at him.
“What are you doing?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable in his arms, and mostly guilty as hell about such a conversation when Bradley was across state lines in Illinois.
“Waiting for my second chance with you again. I knew nothing at thirteen,” he said, with a wicked grin on his face. I liked Donnie, I really did, but I was with Brad and I didn’t appreciate his tone.
“Is that what you think?” I challenged.
“It is. I know you’re attracted to me, I can feel it, Tricia. I’m the one you’ve chosen to spend your summer with—”
“We’ve been doing math,” I protested.
“Mostly, but we’ve talked music, books, movies … baseball—”
“Only because I had extra time to waste because Brad isn’t here,” I objected.
“Yeah, you’re with Brad, in here,” he said, tapping my temple, as he pulled me closer, “but I’d bet any money if he’d been here in Ohio, you’d have broken up with him by now because I’d have tried harder to win you over.”
His comment made me stop to wonder for a moment if he would have. I loved Brad, but I’d missed all those summer nights where I could have been hanging out at White Acre Park with groups of friends or listening to music in someone’s backyard.
“You can’t deny all those smiles you bit back when I’ve flirted with you up in the barn. I think you’re only still with him because he isn’t here. I also think the minute he comes back you’ll realize your feelings toward him have changed.”
I gazed up at him with a seed of doubt in my heart because there had been a grain of truth in what he’d said. I’d already known how Brad could be; he was the type of boy who struck up a conversation with anyone. He was too good-looking for his own good, and funny as well, and he also had a boatload of charm, which made him a natural magnet for girls. I knew this because I’d found him completely disarming when he set his sights on me.
“You’re a beautiful girl, and him going away has ruined your summer.”
I felt myself blush from his compliment but tried to ignore it and began to defend Bradley again. “I know, but—”
“But what?” He shrugged his shoulders, which made our chests rub together. A tiny unexpected thrill ran through me, even though I had been determined to resist him. “Do you seriously believe Brad has been sitting at home in his grandpa’s den all these weeks?”
His question made me pause for thought as I stared up at his raised brow and serious engaging gaze. Donnie knew Bradley but not as well as me. However, when he pressed the point that he had made, I wondered if he was right.
That same point had been raised by the girls as well, and hearing it twice in one day gave me cause to question whether Bradley had been faithful to me. What if they were right? Could they see something about Brad I didn’t? Was I so blinded by how I felt toward him?
My body stiffened with another thought. How stupid would I look if he came back and dumped me, or confessed to have been seeing someone while he was away?
“Come on, let’s get another drink,” Donovan said, quickly changing the subject. Stepping back, he broke his embrace and slid his hand into mine. Without another word he tugged me toward the small bar set up under the balcony.
“Did you like that vodka?”
“Yes,” I replied. I glanced behind me, searching the faces of everyone. It had been a while since I’d seen the girls. I felt annoyed they had dragged me to a party where I knew very few people, and they had left me to fend for myself. We’d had a rule; safety in numbers, but obviously that hadn’t applied when their interests were distracted elsewhere.
When I looked back to Donnie, he was signaling to a waiter with an empty bottle but there was plenty of alcohol in the glass.
“Here you go,” he told me cheerfully, and handed me my drink laden with ice. It made a soft tinkling noise as it clinked against the glass. For a long minute, I stood wondering if I should drink it, I hadn’t seen him pour that one, but the girls weren’t around, and by then I couldn’t see another soul I knew apart from Donnie.
When my eyes met his again there was this weird connection between us that I couldn’t define, and suddenly I’d felt thirsty. I didn’t think twice about chugging the drink back after that. Kent’s words echoed back in my mind, and again I reminded myself I was safe with Donnie. He was hot, talented, and the girls fawned over him. He had no need to drug a girl unconscious to get in her panties.
We wandered back toward the poolside, drinks in hand, and for a while the weirdness between us subsided as each of us chatted about our dreams for college, which eventually led us back to Donnie’s worries about his scholarship offer and the math grade that stood between that.
“You’re doing well. It has started to make sense to you,” I said, placing my hand on his forearm and squeezing it sympathetically. “I know how much this scholarship means to you, and you know you’ve got my support. I think by showing your dedication the way you have, it’s gone a long way. Doing a little every day has made a huge difference to your grade. You’ll see how far you’ve come on the next test in the fall.”
Before I knew what was happening, Donnie grabbed me by my head and planted a kiss on my cheek. My heart leapt and fluttered erratically at his unexpected move, and I felt where he had kissed me for a few minutes later.
“What are you doing?” I hissed and glanced nervously around me to see who had seen him kiss me.
“Lighten up, my sweet little Patricia, I was only showing my thanks.”
“Saying thanks would have been enough.” I frowned and he stroked the crease in my brows with his index finger.
“Stop touching me,” I snapped.
“Don’t be mad, it’s your fault for being so kissable, and stop frowning, you’re far too pretty to scowl.”
I huffed, exasperated by his playful tone and his cocky attitude, but at the same time his words penetrated my defenses and fanned my neglected ego. As if he knew how awkward I felt, he immediately changed tact again.
“Drink up,” he said, nudging the glass toward my mouth. I did as he asked
and by the time I had drunk it all down I had felt very intoxicated.
“You coming?” My mind felt fuzzy as I turned and saw Kent standing with his arm around a gorgeous looking girl.
“Coming?” I asked, confused at the open question.
“Home. Alice and the girls are changing; they’ve been swimming in the pool. As soon as they’re ready we’re heading off home. It’s almost 1:00 a.m. and I promised my dad I’d have Alice home by 1:30.
I stared at Kent, blinking as I absorbed that information, I nodded.
“Do you have room for one more?” Donnie asked. “I’ve had too much to drink, I had intended on calling a cab.
As Kent had his mom’s seven-passenger minivan, he nodded.
“Sure.”
We all piled into the minivan for home, Kent and his girl sat in the front, Alice, Sandra and Jenna in the middle, and Donnie and I got stuck in the back. Sitting over the back axle on the way home had made me feel queasier with every bump in the road. How I never threw up I would never know. Relief washed through me when Kent stopped the vehicle and opened the door at end of the lane to my home.
“See she gets home safely,” Kent instructed Donnie.
Donnie nodded. “You bet.”
Both of us thanked Kent for his kindness and stood watching my friend’s brother’s taillights disappear into the distance before Donnie turned his attention to me and flung his hand over my shoulder.
“Come on, my sweet little girl. I’d better get you back before Sticky Beak notices you’re not home.”
Sticky Beak was my nickname for my mom. I snickered but wished I’d never told him that, it had only given Donnie more ammunition to tease me with.
We half-strolled, half-staggered up the path toward home, neither of us talking, but it hadn’t felt awkward, more of a comfortable silence. My brain had felt woozy but I felt relaxed cocooned against Donnie’s side as we passed his parents’ land and continued toward mine. When we reached my parents’ driveway, Donnie stood in front of me, held me by my upper arms, and dipped his knees to look into my eyes.
Resist Me (Unchained Attraction Book 4) Page 8