Boyfriend for the Summer (A Second Chance Enemies to Lovers Romance)

by Penny Wylder

  Eyes so green they match the surrounding woods, hair lit up like a torch by the sun. That burning, vibrant red. Gaze locked on mine, and it says that she loves me, even if neither of us have said the words. It’s what I’m trying to say now.

  I love you. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I love you. We’re perfect.

  Wrapping up the song, I let the last note linger in the air. I did okay. Not a mind-blowing performance, but at least I didn’t forget the words in the middle. That’s what counts. But that’s not the way that Seph reacts.

  She’s silent for a second and then she’s clapping wildly. “Oh my god, Eric, that was amazing!” I barely have time to put my guitar aside before she’s in my lap and kissing me, and I’m kissing her back. “I can’t believe that you wrote that for me. No one’s ever done anything like that for me. Ever.”

  Her reaction is like pure adrenaline to the system. I want to make people feel things. If I hadn’t already decided that this is what I wanted to do, this would probably have convinced me. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her tight and let her straddle my lap.

  For the first time I don’t have the urge to turn this into something sexual. It’s pure, and I just want to know that she loved it. I want to hear it from her. “You liked it?”

  “I more than liked it, Eric. That was beautiful and perfect and I’m going to need you to record that for me so I can listen to it all the time.”

  I’m grinning from ear to ear now. “I’m glad.”

  “You’re going to be famous,” she whispers.

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “Seriously. Eric Elmore is going to be one of those names that people know. Every song on the radio will be yours, and you’ll perform for sold-out stadiums.”

  I take a leap. “If that happens, will you be there with me?”

  She smiles shyly. “It’s a possibility.”

  I kiss her, showing her just how much I want that. Right now in this moment, I wouldn’t mind if the only person that I ever got to perform for was her.

  “And what about you?” I ask.

  “What about me?”

  “Your writing.” I point to the book that she left sitting on the rock when she tackled me. “You don’t talk about what you want to do with it.”

  Seph shrugs. “I don’t know that I’ll do anything with it.”

  I press my fingers into her a little harder. “I know you well enough now to know when you’re lying, Seph.”

  “Ugh.” She looks away. “It’s just hard. Being a writer isn’t an easy way to live, and being published is even harder. To get that far and do what I want…It doesn’t seem possible. I’m not good enough.”

  “Bullshit,” I say.

  “Eric—”

  “No,” I say gently, cutting her off. “You don’t get to sit here and cheer me on and then be down on yourself. Your writing is brilliant, Seph. And everyone should read it. I’m not even a big reader and I always want to know what you have to say. Speaking of, I haven’t even read anything of yours in a couple of weeks.”

  Her face immediately turns to a shade of red that I’m familiar with. “That’s okay,” Seph says too fast. “You don’t have to do that.”

  I move her from my lap and dive for the book, laughing. “There’s no ‘have to.’ I want to,”

  “No, Eric, don’t.” The terror in her tone makes me stop short.

  “What’s going on?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  I give her a look that tells her that I’m onto her. “You’ve never minded me reading before. But you do now. Why?”

  She looks down and mumbles something, so I move back to her and make her look at me. “I missed that.”

  “It’s about you,” she sighs and looks thoroughly embarrassed. “I’ve been writing about you and I don’t really want you to read it, okay?”

  Pride and satisfaction bubble up in my chest. “You wrote about me?”

  Seph covers her face with my hands. “Yes. You’re all I can think about, of course I wrote about you.”

  “Why are you embarrassed? I wrote about you too.”

  “I don’t know,” she shakes her head. “I just feels…like a lot.”

  I pull her hands away from her face. “Well, if you ever feel like you’re okay with me reading it, I would love to. But I would never force you. I nearly fell apart before playing you the song, so it’s not like I’m a stranger to nerves or anything.”

  “You didn’t seem nervous.”

  “I was. And I never get nervous.”

  She bites her lip. I hope that she never loses the habit because I love it. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good.” I pull some Starbursts out of my bag and offer them to her, just like I did on the first day of camp. This is the first time that I’ve been able to get more. “You can chew while you think.” Her eyes go wide and I laugh. “I’m kidding.”

  She unwraps the candy and eats it. I take one too. And we sit in silence for a few minutes. Finally, I have to ask. “Did you mean it?”

  “Mean what?”

  “That you might be with me.”

  She looks down. “We don’t have to talk about the future right now.”

  “We do have to talk about it sometime.”

  “Do we?”

  She looks so miserable that I want to drop it, but I can’t. Because I want to know what she’s thinking. “Talk to me, Seph.”

  “I’m being stupid, I’m sorry.” She swipes at her eyes and tries to turn away, but I don’t let her.

  “You’re not being stupid. But I can’t help if I don’t know what you’re thinking.”

  “I’m just scared,” she says. “This is so perfect, and I’m afraid that the real world will ruin it. That we’ll try to make it work and get so frustrated by logistics that everything will fall apart and it will ruin all of our memories. Or that we’ll go back to our ordinary lives and realize that the other person isn’t really what we imagined.”

  “Does that mean that we shouldn’t try?”

  “I don’t know,” she admits. “There are moments that I think that it’s too perfect, and so we should leave it here. Where it’s safe. And then I think about that and it hurts too much to breathe. Then I think about losing you to some other reason and that hurts too. You scare the hell out of me, Eric.”

  Leaning forward, I press my forehead against hers. “You scare me too.”

  I was going to tell her that there’s every possibility that the troubles she’s envisioning might not be there. But it’s not set in stone, and if I gave her that hope and then took it away, I think it would crush her even more than her current fears.

  “So what do we do?” she asks.

  “I’m not sure. But I know that nothing has to happen right now. We’re still here in the bubble and like hell am I going to let this get between us, no matter what time we have left.”

  “Okay.” She relaxes against me, and I rub my hand down her back.

  “And Seph, I refuse to treat us like a countdown either. Nothing is going to change for us. Not while we have right now.”

  She nods but doesn’t say anything, and I hold her until the sadness passes. For both of us. I can’t say that her fears aren’t valid. When we’re back in the unpredictable chaos of the world, so many things can happen. But all I know is that I want her.

  I don’t care if people say that teenagers can’t fall in love for real. I don’t care that we’re young. All I care about is the fact that I’m in love with Persephone. And unlike the mythological Hades, I want to be with her all year round.

  No matter what.

  17

  Persephone

  Six Years Ago

  The little town an hour outside of camp where Eric lives is adorable. He smiled and charmed his way into letting us tag along with the staff to pick up supplies for the last week of camp.

  It’s a nice little break, and riding in one of the cars with Mabel is sweet. She likes old fifties music and doesn
’t care that we’re snuggling in the back seat of the car the way the counselors in the other car might. She actually smiles when she sees us in the mirror, and I like to think that she fancies herself responsible for us. Or at least aware of exactly when we started.

  Now I’m puttering around the general store, and I grab some Starbursts for Eric and me to share on the way back. They have those bags of individual colors, which is perfect. I get him a bag of red ones and a bag of pink ones for me. We may steal some of each other’s, but those will keep us happy.

  I see Eric on the other side of the store, and he smiles at me. I wish there wasn’t an hour ride back to the camp because I have the urge to kiss that boy and more, and it’ll be hard to wait.

  Glancing at the counselors that are still shopping, we’ve got a while before they gather everything that the camp is going to need, and I have an idea. A little bit sexy and a little bit of payback.

  Paying for the candy, I stash the bag with Mabel and walk outside, raising my eyebrow at Eric as I go. He follows. It’s a small store and in back is just a few trees and a fence, but it’ll be good enough.

  As soon as he comes around the corner, I grab him by the shirt and kiss him hard. He’s laughing. “What are you doing?”

  “Remember that time when you dragged me out to the lake and made me come when we could easily be caught?”

  Eric grins. “I do remember that, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be too mad if they catch us kissing.”

  “Then let’s do something that would make them mad.”

  I sink to my knees and Eric goes still in shock, then tries to pull me back up to my feet again. “You can’t do that here.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because—” He cuts himself off, realizing that the same argument that he was about to use was what I said when we were under the dock.

  “Let me,” I say. “I’ve never done it before, and I may not be good at it, but I want to try.”

  He doesn’t say no. Instead, Eric closes his eyes and unbuckles his belt. “You don’t have to do this.”

  I watch him reveal himself, and there’s no doubt that I want to do it. “People say that guys don’t like going down. And people say that girls don’t like going down. I say we just try to let people do want they want to do, and I want to try this.”

  Reaching out, I touch him. He’s hardening by the second, and he looks different up close. I have no idea what I am doing, but I taste him. I’ve heard that it’s bad, and that giving head is the worst. So many of my friends that have done this before me seem to hate it.

  But I hear the little gasp and moan from Eric above me, and the fact that I’m turning him on turns me on. He tastes like him. It’s not unexpected and it’s not bad at all. I kind of like the his flavor, and for the first time I understand why he says he likes mine.

  I take him deeper, like I’ve heard they like. There’s been enough magazine articles about blow jobs passed around at sleepovers that I know at least the basics. Tongue, suction, the same rhythm as sex.

  I can do that. I suck him like a lollipop, and he curses. I must be doing something right then. He gets even harder in my mouth, and that’s a weird and amazing sensation. And he’s breathing hard.

  Changing it up, I use my tongue on him like I would a popsicle. Eric’s hips jerk forward, and he groans. “Jesus, Seph. I’m going to finish. I can’t last.”

  I keep going, adding both tongue and suction to him, just like he did to me before I fell apart, and he explodes in my mouth. Salty heat shoots in my mouth in burst after burst. It’s unexpected even though I knew it was coming. So much cum that it fills my mouth.

  It’s not hard to swallow it because it’s coming so quickly. And when I look up at him, his eyes are on mine. Still wide with awe. Eric jerks in my mouth, the last of his orgasm pouring out.

  He doesn’t move. Still as a statue, and I let him go. “Are you okay.”

  Eric blinks. “Am I okay? Holy shit, Seph.”

  From the front of the store I hear Mabel’s voice. “Eric. Persephone. Time to go!”

  I grin at him as I stand up and he scrambles to put himself back in his pants. “Just in time. They might have come looking.”

  Eric doesn’t blush nearly as often as I do, but he’s blushing now. And I laugh as I take his hand as we walk back to the front of the store. “By the way,” I say, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek, “I bought us Starbursts for the way back.”

  “I think I might love you.”

  I freeze for a second, and then smile. He’s not really saying that. It’s not real. It’s just because of the Starbursts and he’s drunk in his post orgasm state. That’s all it is.

  Mabel smiles when she sees us, and to her never-ending credit, she doesn’t ask us where we’ve been. She hands me the Starbursts as we slip into the back of her car and start on the drive back to the camp.

  18

  Persephone

  Present

  We sing songs for hours, and I think that the kids would have sung for hours more if Eric hadn’t finally said his voice was shot. Things emptied out pretty quickly after that. They were tired, even if they didn’t want to admit it.

  I don’t move as people leave because I want to be alone with Eric. The suffering wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be while other people were present, but as more and more people leave, my body is becoming more aware of him.

  Finally, it’s just him, me, and Mabel, who knows how to bank the fire properly so we can sleep without worrying it was flare up and burn down the camp. Eric and I say nothing.

  When she’s finished, she smiles at the two of us. Especially at me. “Have a good night, you two.”

  “Thanks, Mabel.”

  As soon as she’s out of earshot and we’re alone, Eric meets my eyes over the embers, and he begins to strum his guitar again. Oh, no.

  I’d know the opening of that song anywhere. I listened to it on repeat for at least a month when he gave me the CD. Back when there were things like CDs. It’s the song that he wrote for me and only me after we took each other’s virginities. I never shared it with anyone—not even Leena. And given everything that happened, I’m glad that I didn’t.

  Sometimes I still listen to it, if I’m feeling particularly down. Because this song will always hold a special place in my heart. The words are sweet and vulnerable, and the melody the kind that makes your chest ache. I close my eyes and listen.

  We were so young, but this takes me back, and it makes me wonder if maybe things could be okay after all. Maybe we can find a way to pick everything back up and redo it.

  When the song ends, Eric doesn’t speak. He places his guitar down on one of the log benches and comes around the firepit to me, and leans down to kiss me. It’s sweet and gentle with a promise of more. I’m not interested in our mutual teasing and suffering right now. All I want is him. And I put all of that into how I kiss him back.

  When he pulls me to my feet and takes my hand, I know where we’re going after the first step that he takes.

  The waterfall hasn’t changed. Do they ever change? I’ve been avoiding coming here since I’ve been back. Too many charged memories for me to face. But stepping out of the tree line with Eric feels good., and when he kisses me again, it’s full circle. I know why we’re here. This could either be the perfect closure for us or a new beginning. We won’t know which way yet, but we both need this moment.

  Eric peels me out of my shirt slowly. Gently. Taking care to touch me wherever he can. It feels like being seen. The complete opposite of what happened at the beginning of the week when we were frantic and desperate and ignored almost everything but the end result.

  When I pull off his shirt and add it to the pile of clothes with mine, I trace his lines. He’s beautiful, and for the moment, at least, he’s mine. My bra joins the pile of clothes and then both of our pants, and Eric kneels in front of me. Reverently brushing his hands over my hips as he removes my panties.

  He kisses my
clit. So softly that it’s almost chaste, but it still steals the air from my lungs. Brushes of his tongue warm me up, suddenly bringing back all that pent-up sexual frustration from earlier, and I moan into the air.

  This is primal. Sex under a summer sky with nothing but the stars to watch us. Eric lays me down on the rock, the cool surface a sudden contrast to the fire of his body on mine. His underwear disappears and joins the last of our clothes. And we’re nothing but naked together, kissing slowly. Languorous and unhurried.

  Eric moves his mouth to my neck and then my shoulder, dragging his lips and tongue to draw firmly constellations that match the ones looking down on us from above. He kisses my breasts and nipples, letting them harden under his tongue, and I remember that night when the newness of his touch was the only thing in the world.

  He keeps drawing patterns with that mischievous mouth of his, sinking down my skin until he’s once again teasing me with his tongue. Something that he’s always loved to do, and the groan that he makes when he pushes his tongue inside my pussy doesn’t make me doubt it again, even for a second.

  When he surfaces I’m on the edge of pleasure. Writhing on the rock and happy to take whatever scratches I get as reminders of this moment. And I’ll remember the way he’s poised over me. Lithe and graceful, with eyes burning and cock hard, ready to seal us together in one way or another.

  Eric freezes, and I realize why. Neither of us were prepared for this, and he doesn’t have a condom. I reach out and touch his cheek, guiding his gaze to mine. I don’t care. Even if it’s only once, I want to feel him for him. He only hesitates for a moment before fitting himself against me and thrusting in, crashing his mouth down on mine at the same time.

  It’s everything.

  We continue our slow dance. Every time he drives into me it’s his whole cock. Pulling back to the brink and then sliding deep. Delicious heat and friction and fullness. Our tongues collide with each other, curling and pushing and invading. It’s a slow battle, but neither of us is trying to win.