One Week of Summer (13 page)

My heart dropped.  This was it.  This was the part where he told me he’d got what he wanted and walked away. 

Tears pricked at my eyes.  He probably
had
wanted something more.  Something kinkier or reciprocal.  And I hadn’t even tried to touch him.

Now was the time where he dismissed me.

I dropped my gaze down, but Teekay tipped my chin up right away.

“Hey, no. Not sorry like that.” He kissed my mouth gently. “Just sorry I was in such a hurry.”

“I didn’t mean to let you down,” I whispered.

He ran a finger over the crease in my forehead. “Let me down how?”

“Not living up to your expectations.”

He shot me a puzzled frown. “Expectations for what?”

“Sex,” I whispered.

His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.  Then a slow, cocky smile turned up his mouth.

“I don’t know what they taught you in high school, but that wasn’t sex.”

Now my face flamed. “I know.”

Without warning, he came at me.  He swooped down and his mouth covered mine in a possessive, almost-ferocious kiss. 

“I have zero expectations, Maggie,” he said, his voice low. “Life hands you a fuck-load of mess. Expecting
anything
just make it that much worse.”

His vehemence surprised me.  To my eyes, Teekay’s life was damned near perfect.  At school, I knew he’d always been surrounded by friends.  Here, in his summer home, he was surrounded by luxury.  I leaned into his chest, wondering just what curveballs he felt he’d been thrown, and if he saw the inside of
my
life, would he still feel the same way. 

He parted my towel just enough to expose a miniscule amount of cleavage and ran a finger from my throat to the narrow part between my breasts.

“I was trying to apologize for getting so carried away so quickly,” he murmured. “Not saying I was sorry for what happened. What did you think I was expecting?”

In spite of how spent my body felt, my pulse jumped, and I swallowed nervously.

My reply came out in a mumble. “Experience.”

I tensed as I realized I’d just opened the door for him to ask exactly what my previous experience had been.  If he asked, I knew I’d be powerless to do anything but tell him the shameful truth.  That I’d lost my virginity to a jerk at a party simply because for one moment I’d felt like someone wanted me.  And that the act had been photographed and put on display for the whole world to see.

But Teekay’s grin just widened devilishly. “There
is
something to be said about a girl who know what she’s doing. In this case, though…I’ll take natural talent over years of training.”

I coloured. “Talent?”

He nodded. “Mm hmm. I have to confess…That was the best not-sex of my life. And Maggie?”

“Yes?”

He leaned close and spoke right into my ear. “When I
do
fuck you, all I expect is for you to do as I say. And enjoy it.”

I knew I must be so red that I was almost purple.  Then, in what I was starting to think was typically Teekay, typically impetuous fashion, he leaned down, lifted me up, and tossed me over his shoulder.  He carried me to the bed and threw me down.

“You know what I expect
now
?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

“No,” I squeaked.

My heart raced, and Teekay’s smile took up his whole face.

“A whole lot of you, wrapped in my arms while we watch some dumbass love story on my ridiculously big TV.”

10)

Teekay’s giant TV turned out to be a flat screen imbedded in his bedroom wall behind a remote-operated panel.  And the movie turned out to be code for background noise for him, asking me a series of questions while refusing to let me put on any clothes. 

Some of them were innocuous.

“What’s your middle name, Maggie?”

“Elizabeth.”

“Prettier than Kimball.”

Some were teasing.

“You cold, darlin’?”

“A bit.”

“Slide back a little closer.”

And the only place to go was straight into his crotch.

And some were ones that – on any normal day – I would’ve been terrified to answer.  But today was the least normal day of my life.

“Least favorite memory?”

“My dad’s funeral.”

A punctuated silence, then, “Most favorite?”

“Right now.” And a red face.

When he knew I’d once had a pet snail named Spot and that my grandmother had been my hero, and that I’d celebrated my last birthday alone with a plastic tub of yogurt in a hospital cafeteria, Teekay’s questions tapered off.

I settled into him, and his arms formed a cocoon around my shoulders and his palms stroked my forearms soothingly.  My breathing evened out and my brain slowed along with my inhales and exhales.  I drifted, wondering what the deeply contended feeling in my chest equalled.

Safety,
I realized after a few moments.
For the first time in forever, I feel
safe
.

Teekay’s voice cut through my drowsy realization.

“If you could do anything – for you, not for me – right at this moment, what would be it be?” he asked in a near-whisper.

“Besides sleep?” I joked softly.

He chuckled and reached up to tuck a piece of loose hair behind my ear. “Yes. Besides sleep, darlin’.”

The overall warm, contented feeling made me bold, and I only had to think about my response for a heartbeat. “I want to play a game.”

“A game?”

“Mm hmm.” I smiled. “I want you to tell me three things about yourself.”

“This game sounds awfully familiar,” Teekay said with mock thoughtfulness.

“Does it?” I replied innocently. “So you won’t be surprised when I tell you I want one of them to be sexy, one of them to be serious, and one to be silly?”

“Actually…you surprise me every few minutes.”

My face warmed, but my blush was a pleasant one this time. “Are you going to play?”

“Hmm. That depends. What’re the stakes?”

I frowned at his question. “The stakes?”

Teekay laughed. “Oh, you wanted a freebie, did you? I don’t usually play games unless the stakes are pretty damned high.”

“I just hadn’t thought it through,” I protested.

“Are you taking suggestions then?”

“I might be.”

I braced myself for something nefarious, but he just said, “If I win, you spend the next three nights with me.”

“What happens after three nights?”

“Family business.”

My heart dropped a little.  He’d mentioned that before, but why was he in a hurry to ship me off?  Was he worried what his family would think of me? 

He read my worried expression and offered me a crooked smile.

“What’s wrong, Maggie? Are you disappointed it wasn’t a longer offer? Because I don’t usually have girls over here for more than
one
night. Hell, I’ll send them away after a couple of hours if I think I can get away with—”

He cut himself off as I jerked away from him and slid forward on the bed, pulling the sheet off him and up around my bare chest. 

“Hey!”

But his indignant protest was short-lived.  He stopped, eyed me up, then leaned back on the bed, not seeming to care at all that his perfectly tanned, perfectly toned body was completely uncovered.  I was so distracted by a vagrant thought on whether or not he lay around nude in the sun to achieve that all-over copper tone that I almost didn’t notice the speculative twinkle in his eyes.

Until he spoke, his tone smug. “You’re jealous.”

I wanted to deny it.  But I’d taken his oath of honesty.

“Stupid oath,” I muttered.

He chuckled and reached for me, but I pulled away again. 

“I thought this was all about how dead-sexy I am and about how I make that sweet little body of yours hum. But I was wrong. You
like
me,” he teased.

I kept my mouth shut. 

I did like him.  And I
was
jealous.  Both sensations were out of place for me.  The first made me indescribably uneasy, so I latched onto the second as a protective shield.

Just the idea of Teekay bringing another girl to his house, or of him spending the night with one, made me feel sick to my stomach.  In fact, it hit me like a brick.  Tossed by a weight-lifting monkey.  With good aim.

Of course there are other girls. Look at him.

But had I ever really heard of him being with a girl at school?  There was lots of talk about his swimming and his partying and his sudden disappearance.  But a girlfriend or two?  I couldn’t recall.  And I couldn’t very well ask him.

Oh, by the way Teekay…You know how you thought we were complete strangers when you rescued me at the beach yesterday? Well, actually, I’ve known who you are for a few years. Because you went to my high school. Speaking of which, how many of
those
girls have been here?

The sick feeling in my stomach grew. 

This time when he moved toward me, I was too deflated to fight him off.

Teekay cupped my cheek. “Hey. I was just kidding, darlin’.”

“No you weren’t,” I argued without much force.

“I was,” he insisted. “I haven’t brought a girl home – or anywhere else – in well over a year, okay?”

I met his eyes, desperately wanting to believe him.

“I wouldn’t make that shit up, Maggie,” he said. “Guys don’t admit to long periods of abstinence lightly.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Okay.”

“Maggie?”

“Yes?”

“I’d be jealous too.”

Another pleased flush crept up my neck. “You would?”

“Definitely. I mean, the thought of you with another girl…It should turn me on. Instead, it makes me want to throw a punch.”

I refused to take the bait. “Which one is that?”

His forehead creased. “Which one is what?”

“That statement. Was it your sexy fact, your serious one, or your silly one?”

One of those amused, little-boy laughs escaped from Teekay’s lips. “Oh. Are we still playing the game?”

“Definitely.”

“And if
you
win?”

I exhaled. “Then you spend the next three days at
my
place.”

“So you
do
like me.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I just need some strong hands to help with the cleaning. And someone tall enough to reach the dust on the highest shelves.”

“I like you, too.” He teased, and kissed my nose. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” I replied truthfully.

“All right. Silly fact. Yesterday morning when I woke up, I thought it was going to be an ordinary day. And then I met you. Serious fact. I saw the weather report before I left the house, and I almost skipped the beach. The idea that I might’ve missed the opportunity to know you makes my heart want to stop beating. Sexy fact. I want you, Maggie. So fucking badly that I
know
I have to wait.” He stopped and looked at me expectantly.

I buried my face in his chest so he wouldn’t see my goofy smile.  He rested his head on my chin and rubbed the small of my back.

“Well?” he prodded after a moment. “Should I pack my bags? Or should I ask Jeeves to check your dress for a dry-clean-only label?”

“This is going to be a long three days,” I replied.

He laughed loud enough to fill the room, then leaned in unexpectedly and used his thumb to trace the outline of my scar.  He ran it down from my eyebrow to my cheek, then past it to my chin in perfect sync with the glaring mark, like he’d spent hours memorizing the pattern of it.  And I went still, my heart thumping unpleasantly in my chest. 

“Will you tell me how this happened?” he asked softly.

I rolled it over in my head.  The memory of my father’s death was distant.  It wasn’t that it didn’t make me sad, or that I didn’t wish every day that he wasn’t gone.  But the actual events that led to it were separate.  When I thought of it, it was much like how it ended – underwater and below conscious thought. 

“Maggie?”

“I’d rather not,” I admitted, my voice even quieter than his.

Teekay stiffened a little, and I knew my lack of willingness to share irritated him.  Then he tipped his head to one side thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes at me.  For a second, I thought he was going to order me to do it.  Instead he sighed.

“First thing tomorrow morning, I want to show you something,” Teekay said. “And it’s going to scare you. But it’s going to scare me more.”