Blackout (25 page)

My house is dark and foreboding, so I open the garage to park the car inside.

Before I close the garage, I could swear I see a man standing at the end of the street, watching us. Bone-wrenching chills dig into my chest.

My hands tremble while clutching the steering wheel. “I thought I saw someone outside.”

Dare hurries out of the Shelby and peers out the garage window. “I don’t see anybody now. You shouldn’t advertise you have an alarm system.”

“The alarm company told me to post it outside to keep intruders away.”

“Burglars just think you have something worth stealing, so they work harder on trying to get around it. It’s better to surprise them, so they leave.”

I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that assumption. “How would you know?”

His grin curls half his sweet lips. “I’ve stolen your heart.”

“We had sex.” He took me and ravaged me on the beach, and I’ll never forget it.

“And it was amazing.” He bites his lips before descending on mine and stopping my heart. “Or didn’t you think so?”

“I’ve never done anything like that.” The memory holds strong in my mind, the passion, our desire, the fire.

A wicked grin crooks his handsome face. “This time you’re inviting me to spend the night? Come on.”

“You’re in no condition to drive, and you invited yourself.”

He grabs a duffle bag from his trunk.

“Awfully sure of yourself,” I tease.

“You gave me the go ahead at the race.”

Dare kicks off his flip-flops, wipes his feet on the mat, walks inside, and sweeps the house. I quickly ready for bed. I’ve slept with him and had sex, yet I’m nervous about him seeing my imperfections in the light so I dim it.

I’m about to slip under the covers when he says, “Don’t you dare get sand in the bed. Let’s rinse off first.” He cranks the shower and strips in front of me. His body is even more delicious in the light. The hard planes of his chest, the sculpted arm and leg muscles, and his perfect butt fill my vision. I try not to stare, but I do anyway.

He motions to me. “Come on.”

It’s hard for me to undress in the glare of the lights and in front of him.

“Don’t be shy,” Dare coaxes me. “I’ve tasted every part of your body, and we’re carnally familiar with each other.”

He slips my camisole off to expose my bare breasts and steers me in front of my bathroom mirror. I cover my breasts with my hands, but Dare gently pulls them away.

He cups my breasts. “Perfection. I love your breasts.”

Mint flavored gel doesn’t completely mask the smell of beer and tequila on his breath or that has sweated on his skin. “You used my toothbrush.”

“My tongue was in your mouth, and I intend on sticking it in a lot more places on your body.” His cocky grin reaches all the way to his hazel eyes. “And you’re avoiding my comment.” He rolls the nipple with his thumb and index fingers, causing me to shudder with anticipation and my body to heat to its boiling point.

“They’re not as big as Lisa’s,” I complain, feeling exposed and vulnerable.

He laughs. “I won’t deny that Lisa is a pretty girl.”

“She was homecoming queen at your school three years in a row. Everyone thinks she’s beautiful.”

He laughs. “You are just as pretty as she is,” he says. “And what’s more, I’ve never been so physically attracted to a woman like I am to you. You are the only girl I’ve ever chased.” He tugs off my boy shorts, and now I’m completely naked.

I squirm in his arms, giving away my discomfort. “I don’t have a flat stomach.” My hips aren’t huge, but I wouldn’t consider myself svelte like Kami.

“You have a woman’s body, and it’s beautiful.” His fingers slip between my legs. “And you’re excited by me. You make me come harder than any girl I’ve been with.” His swelling and lust press into my back.

Shannon’s nasty remark creeps into my mind. “How many girls have you been with?”

“You’re the fourth. Lisa, Shannon, and…” Graham’s girlfriend.

It surprises me by the way women trail after him. “Why did you split up with Lisa?”

He smiles, taking both my hands. “Let’s get in the shower.”

He doesn’t want to talk about her. Does he still care for her? Did he love her? “Why me?”

He taps my nose. “For one, you can bait your own hook.”

“You like a girl who plays with worms?’

Dare chuckles. “Come on.”

I wrap my cast in a plastic bag, but when he goes to help me, the thin white scar disappearing into my cast reveals itself.

“Why, Teal?” He kisses the scar. “Why did you do this?”

“It was stupid.” My breathing increases at the bane of my embarrassment. “After I drew the razor up my wrist, I realized what a mistake I’d made. I didn’t want to die. With all the blood, I blacked out. When I came to, I barely had enough left in me to call an ambulance.”

He holds me while the shower rains on us. “But why?”

A few tears tumble down my cheeks from the horror of that party. “I couldn’t take the humiliation anymore.”

His brows knit together. It sounds lame since he had to register as a sexual predator. “Tell me.”

“I blacked out at a party. I was partially conscious when Nan and several of her friends drew all over me, sketching devil horns and a mustache on my face with permanent marker. Someone shaved off part of my scalp. Tommy, Jason, and a few other guys lifted my shirt, took photos, and put them on Facebook.” A tear smudges my cheek.

Dare kisses it away. “That’s why you moved to Paris. I should’ve come that night, but my friends said you planned on being there. I had a bad feeling about it. If I had been there, that would’ve never happened.”

“The girls wanted to get even, for you.” I lick my lips, and he tongues them. “Daddy wanted to return to international law. He’d already accepted a job in Paris, so it worked for both of us. Once there, the blackouts pretty much disappeared. It’s selfish, I know, after what you went through. It shouldn’t bother me.”

He licks his sinfully-desirable lips. “Teal, they should’ve been punished for that. You were eight and your skull was cracked open, so they had no excuse. Someone tried to kill you in the swamp. We both had a horrible time of it.”

I wobble and feel the world being pulled out from underneath me. Dare steadies me, wrapping his strong arms around me. His chin rests between my neck and shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he says, sitting down and pulling me between his legs. “With your blackouts, you shouldn’t stand in the shower.”

I sit with my back against his chest, letting the hot water wash away what my mind refuses to grasp and remember. He soaps up the loofah and runs it over the hills and valleys of my breasts, hips, and thighs. The sand swirls around the tile before spiraling into the drain.

I can only think about how his hands and body make me feel. My swollen sex clenches with the tease of his touch. In my heart, he represents a safe haven and sensual deviation.

“I liked Lisa,” he finally opens up to me, sounding much younger, though his words nick my neck and shoulders. “She made herself available to me. She was my first. I thought we’d stay together, but there was always something off. When I was young, girls annoyed me, even Lisa. They giggled and acted stupid. The whole time Lisa and I dated, she was always looking elsewhere, looking for something better. Until college I was the one, then she found herself someone who’ll make more money, someone who doesn’t have a rap sheet.” His hurt stabs me.

“Until now, you’ve barely tolerated me.”

He smiles. “When you first started coming to our house, my mom tried to pawn you off on Randy. You wouldn’t have anything to do with him. She told me I had to be nice to you, and after having four boys, she liked having a little girl around.”

“Did I ever talk about my mama?” Maybe Dare remembers something.

“You were a Daddy’s girl.” His chin leans on my shoulder. “When he wasn’t around, you didn’t like to be at home. You once told me that you wished your mom was nice like mine.”

“I did?” Was she mean to me? I search hard in my memories, but they come up empty.

His nose and tongue glide along my neck. “You’ll be off to college soon, and backwater boys like me spell nothing but trouble for beach house girls like you.”

Turning my head, I strain my neck and lock eyes with him. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ve never experienced what you did to me on the beach.”

“So I have some uses.” His lips curl into a smile on my shoulder where he applies gentle kisses. “I need to get some sleep before I pass out. I’ll take care of you again in the morning.”

He dries me off, and when I reach for my nightclothes, he stops me. “I want to feel that naked ass of yours against my hard-on all night.”

The rough part of him appeals to my primal side, but it’s the sweet boy caring for animals that made me like him.

Dare takes me to bed. His strong arms wrap around me, drawing me close. Within seconds, he’s out cold, breathing into my neck. The taste of his clean skin lingers on my tongue and in my nose. I soon follow him into sleep where my dreams twist into nightmares.

I wake with a start, noticing the empty bed. In the bathroom, Dare is shaving with a razor he took from a new pack. His bare butt faces me, stirring desire deep within me. He brushes his teeth and jumps back into bed.

His lips descend onto mine, and his minty tongue dips into my mouth. This time his face is smooth, gentle, and soft to the touch. I want to brush my teeth, but he firmly holds me in place.

As if he reads my mind, he says, “Your breath is fine. It’s sweet, like you.” He brushes my wild hair from my face that probably resembles a ball of yarn the cat has batted around.

His fingers glide along the silky folds between my legs. My body lights up, responding to his smell, his touch, and his hands on me. He presses his weight against my breasts then lifts off me, his erection pressing firmly on my abdomen. He slides the full length of his hardness against the flesh of my
moule
. I let out a soft moan.

Dare doesn’t speak a word but pushes a finger into me. I squeeze my eyes shut to feel the pressure. He withdraws then trails kisses down my chest and my belly until he licks me, tickling the sensitive area. The muscles between my thighs clench as his tongue forces its way into me. I cry out. He sucks on the pink folds hard, and my hands clench the sheets.

“My grandmother will hear us.”

He laughs. “So what? We’re both consenting adults.”

He laps me up, sucking, teasing, and exploring me with his tongue. As my hips rise and fall, the pressure builds, my sex aching and gripping his tongue. My breathing quickens, and my pulse rate soars. Just when I can’t take it anymore, he stops.

“What are you doing?” I cry, pounding the bed with my fists, my arousal on the brink of erupting.

“Teasing you, like you’ve unwittingly done to me ever since I pulled you out of the swamp.”

Dare raises my legs onto his shoulders and forces his way into me. The fullness stretches me, and every nerve wraps around him, firing and triggering an explosion of rhythmic contractions that propel into me.

The heat of his climax scorches me and fills me up. He collapses onto me, and once again, we’re a heap of sweat and the sweet stickiness of our desire. We collapse, entwined together on the bed.

“I should’ve asked last night, but I’m assuming you’re on the pill,” he says.

“Yes. All my girlfriends in Paris are, so I went on it. You used a condom with Shannon.”

“Yeah, you pervert.” He tweaks my nose. “Shannon wasn’t just seeing me.”

My body dissolves into the sheets, fully sated, and I feel myself drifting off to sleep again.

“You’re not going back to sleep. We have a few hours to fish before you have to work.”

“We only had a couple hours of sleep,” I moan, rolling into him where he cups my breast and nuzzles my hair.

Dare swivels around and hangs off the bed. He picks up the leather book that belonged to my mother. I don’t think he reads French.

“Is this
The Story of O
?” he asks, chuckling.

My face heats a thousand shades of crimson. I try to grab it out of his hands.

His hand goes skyward, the book now out of my reach.

Mortification eats away at me. “You’ve read it?”

“Hell no, but I’ve seen the movie. You are kinky.”

“It’s not mine,” I spit out.

“Oh come on, Teal. It’s okay. I won’t tell.” He’s laughing hard now. “I think the book’s yours. With that kiss and on the beach.” He leans down and whispers in my ear. “I’m not going to whip you, but I’ll tie you up.”

“Do people really do that?” It’s hard for me to believe, yet I liked his rough beard on my skin, the way he forced himself into me.

“Yes.”

“What about you?”

He’s smirking now. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

I jab him in the side. “Tell me.”

“Shannon likes it more than rough.” He lifts his arm to show me a round red scar. “That’s right. She friggin’ bit me.”

He shakes his head. “I should’ve never started anything with that girl. She’s nothing but trouble.”

I lean against him, and he kisses my forehead while cupping my cheek. “The book belonged to my mama. If you don’t believe me, you can look at the inscription.”

“I will.” He opens it. “That’s really interesting.” He rubs his chin in thought but then lifts me off the bed and over one shoulder. “Let’s go fishing.”

I yawn. “Do we have to?”

“Yes. We’ll have to fish on the flats of the river. Sam’s taking out the big boat today.” He taps my nose. “What happened to the little girl who loved to fish?”

“Okay. Okay.” I stagger out of bed with the sheet on me.

Dare stands without a stitch of clothes on, and the sight of him naked draws my breath away.

His hand comes up under the sheet to grasp my waist. “It’s cute that you’re modest.” He rips the sheet off me, and I instinctually cover myself. He chuckles and tugs on clean boxers from his duffel bag.

“Next time bring a toothbrush.”

He grins. “I like yours.”

I can’t help but stare as he stuffs his junk into his boxers. A thrill dances in my belly and travels below as I pull on a bathing suit and shorts.