Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“You ever been kissed, Malia?” he asked, his voice soft.
I liked the tone of his voice, but…
Uh…
I was so sure!
“You’re not the first date I’ve ever had, Darius Tucker,” I returned.
I mean, really.
Did he not think I lived a life until he walked down that row at Fortnum’s to me?
“No, I mean properly kissed,” he replied.
Oh, now I really knew what he meant.
I turned and got up on my forearm too.
“You’re hot and all, but that is not where this is going,” I told him. Because, gah! This was our first date! Feeling something crushing my chest in a manner that caused actual physical pain, I suggested, “Maybe we should head back down the mountain.”
“You’re misunderstanding me,” he said.
“I am?” I asked but didn’t wait for his answer. I ordered, “So clear things up.”
He shook his head, looked away, then back at me, “I guess I’m asking if it’s okay if I can kiss you.”
Not expecting that, I stared at him.
“If you’re not ready, then I can wait for when you’re ready,” he hurried on. “But I’d really like to—”
He didn’t finish because I leaned forward and kissed him.
It was chaste, no tongue.
Then it was not chaste, I was again on my back on the blanket, Darius’s chest pressed to mine, and there was lots of tongue and even more happening to my body.
It was a warm day, but I wasn’t warm.
I was hot.
Burning up as the wind whispered through the aspens and Darius’s tongue played in my mouth.
It felt perfect.
Because it was perfect.
But Darius didn’t even try for second base. He cut off the kiss by putting his hand to my face, lifting his head away and sweeping his thumb across my lips.
This gesture was as sweet as him asking for a kiss.
“We should probably stop now,” he whispered.
I was having trouble breathing.
So he was right.
“Do you wanna head back?” he offered. “Or watch the clouds more?”
I wanted to kiss more, but he didn’t offer that option.
So I took the one I wanted most, in that moment, in all the world.
“Clouds.”
He grinned.
“Anyway, we haven’t eaten your mom’s cookies yet,” I pointed out.
“You’re right, we haven’t,” he agreed. “You wanna walk around, get a different view?”
I didn’t want to leave that spot for the rest of my life.
I shook my head.
He settled back down, filtered his fingers through mine and put our hands to his belly again.
“Then we’ll stay right here,” he murmured.
That was the first time Darius Tucker gave me what I wanted, no discussion, no hassle.
It would be far from the last.
* * * *
Darius took hold of my wrists and pulled my hands from his behind to between us.
This was a feat, considering he was flat-out on top of me on the couch in his parents’ rec room (which used to be their garage).
“Baby,” he said after he tore his mouth from mine, sounding like he was choking on something, at the same time sounding like he was trying not to laugh.
“Why’d you stop me?” I asked, sounding annoyed, which I was.
Whenever we started to get to the good part, he kept doing that!
He touched his lips to mine, lifted his head and stated. “Malia, I’m not gonna have our first time being on an old, grungy couch in my parents’ garage.”
This was his constant refrain, ever since I told him I was a virgin (and this happened on our first date, under the clouds, hours after our first kiss, when we’d talked about everything, well…under the clouds, and that was months ago).
“Argh,” I grumbled, arching my neck and looking at the arm of the couch.
“How ’bout this?” he murmured, now just sounding like he was trying not to laugh.
But I wasn’t paying attention to what he sounded like.
I was paying attention to what his hand was doing, that being going down my stomach, toward the waistband of my jeans, also toward my…
“Darius,” I whispered.
He touched his lips to mine again, but didn’t go far away when he told me, “We’re gonna go back to the meadow.”
His hand went inside my jeans.
“And I’m gonna bring some fancy shit for us to eat,” he went on, his fingers curling in.
My neck arched for a different reason this time.
He kissed my throat, and his fingers…
His fingers…
They worked magic.
His lips were now at my ear. “And we’re gonna watch the clouds go by again. And while we do, like the last time, we’re gonna talk about everything there is to talk about…”
I squirmed under him, feeling it, the muscles down there rippling, my breasts seemed heavy, my nipples were tingling, and he wasn’t even touching them.
I was getting close. I’d heard about them—orgasms—but I’d never had one, and the way his fingers moved, the pressure he was putting on, it wasn’t just right.
It was everything.
“Then I’m gonna tell you I love you, and after that, I’m gonna make love to you,” he whispered in my ear just as it happened.