Summer's Desire (36 page)

We start eating, Seth and I single-handedly
because he hasn't let go of my hand. Or I of his.

Tracy, the pretty brunette who's sitting
right next to me on my left side, gives me a cautiously friendly smile.
"So how do you like Rockford, Summer? You've only moved here recently, I
think?"

The guys have started talking sports,
but they're still glancing at me every once in a while, and I think they're
eavesdropping on Tracy's attempt to start a conversation with me. The girls, on
the other hand, don't even pretend to hide their interest. Clearly, they're all
rabidly curious about the girl who got the notorious Seth Lewis to commit.

Taking a bite out of my slice of pizza,
I answer Tracy's question. "It's true I only arrived in Rockford two weeks
ago, but I also used to live here a few years ago. And there isn't much that has
changed since then."

Tracy furrows her brow. "You lived
here before?"

"Holy guacamole!" Susan
exclaims from her seat opposite us. "I knew it! I knew there had to be a
reason why you looked so familiar. You're
that
Summer, right? Seth's Sha—"
she breaks off, mortified, a blush tingeing her cheeks. She directs an anxious
glance at Seth, who's turned to watch my reaction.

But right now Susan looks so cute and
embarrassed, I can't help but burst into laughter. All the guys zero in on my
face.

"Yep, I'm that Summer, all right,"
I admit with wry resignation. "Once upon a time also known as Seth's
Shadow."

"Seth's Shadow?" asks Nick.
Seems like the boys have abandoned the pretense that they're not listening in
on us girls.

"Yeah, that's what they used to
call her back when we were kids." Susan nods brightly, seeming relieved
that I (and Seth) didn't take offense at her outburst. "I went to the same
school as Seth and Summer, and back then they were like inseparable. I mean, it
was really rare that you'd see one without the other. So that's how the
nickname appeared.

"Wow, Summer, I totally envied you
in third grade when Seth beat up all those numbskulls that upset you. And holy moly,
Seth, you were hot even then!"

"Gee, Suze, thanks for your
approval," Seth replies dryly.

Elle leans forward just enough that her low
neckline exposes an indecent amount of cleavage. With a seductive smile, she
tells Seth, "I didn't know you before high school, but looking at
you,"—her eyes drink him in with rapacity—"I've no doubt you've
always been this hot. All the girls think so."

The barefaced hussy! She's practically
propositioning him and eye-raping him all at once. I glare at her, but she
doesn't notice as she hasn't looked away from Seth.

He gives her a cool glance. "The
only girl whose opinion I care about is Summer." He turns to me with a
blinding smile. "What do you say, baby, am I hot enough for you?"

I purse my lips and give him a
considering look. Then I shrug and inform him casually, "You'll do."

Everyone bursts into laughter (except
for Elle, who's fuming), and Seth's eyes take on a devilish glint. He brings
his mouth to my ear.

"What will
not
do is my
girlfriend having such a poor opinion of me. I'll enjoy the challenge of
changing your mind. Tonight." He discreetly kisses my earlobe, then
straightens and looks at me like a tenacious hunter who has just spotted his
prey of choice. I gulp nervously.

After everyone has calmed their mirth,
Alex gazes at Seth in confusion. "But dude, you like used to spend all
your time with a
little girl
? Like, for real?"

Seth grins cockily. "Not just any
little girl—a very pretty one. Just to be clear. And it was great fun, actually.
Summer was up for fishing, hiking, camping, frolicking in ponds,"—this
said with a smug glance at me—"climbing trees, catching bugs, digging for
worms... You guys get my drift. And she'd do all this whenever and without one girlish
complaint. Can you honestly imagine a better childhood playmate?"

The guys are all looking at me with awe.
Noticing this, Seth loses his grin.

He adds silkily, "But the most fun
part was she had all these
other
boys trailing after her."

I laugh inwardly. Yep, those would be my
bullies
, going after me to pester and mock me. I really was an awkward
girl, and thus a veritable ruffian-magnet. Until my bullies got to meet my best
friend, that is. After that, they forgot awfully fast about their former
passion for tormenting me.

Seth delivers the punch line in the same
honeyed tone: "Thanks to those assholes flitting around my girl, my fists
got to see lots of action. Those were the good times. But maybe I'll get to
relive them now that my Summer is back." He gives the jocks a meaningful
look.

They all look wary as hell—except for
Jacob, whose eyes are twinkling. The girls look confused. I'm shaking from
holding my laughter in.

Seth turns to me and asks in a
mock-worried voice, "You okay, baby? Why are you shaking? The food went
the wrong way?"

"Oh no, Seth, I'm fine. I'm just
happy to hear in how many ways I fulfilled your fantasies when we were
children." I gently pull his head down to murmur in his ear: "But I
never guessed that my having bullies that you could beat up was one of your
dreams come true." I let go and grin at him. He responds with a heated
look.

This time, it's him who leans down and
whispers to me, "Baby, if you like fulfilling my fantasies, I have some
new, very adult
ones I'd be happy to tell you all about."

He raises his
head, and I see that his eyes are blue dancing flames of passion. The air
around us crackles with electricity.

"Come on, guys, cut that out!"
Carter groans. "You're making me horny just watchin' you go at it with
your eyes. It's damn fun to imagine Summer naked, but—"

Seth cuts him off with a single, ominous
look. "Carter."

I shiver at the overpowering sense of
threat and danger he's managed to infuse into that single word. My grip on his
hand tightens.

Carter shrugs. "It's true."

"Don't be crass," Seth retorts
sharply.

"You're no fun anymore."

"But I'll have a lot of fun when
you finally push me too far and I give you the hammering you've been asking
for."

A line of red has appeared high on
Carter's cheekbones. He's angry, I think, at having been taken to task, but I
also think he knows that he's gone too far.

He proves my latter assumption right
when he turns to me and tells me in a quiet tone, "Sorry, Summer, if I've upset
you. It won't happen again."

I look him in the eye with a steady
gaze. "All right, Carter. I'll accept your apology this once. And I'll
hold you to your promise."

He nods and looks away.

"So, guys,"—Jacob breaks the
tense moment—"what did you think of the concert last Saturday..."

I tune them out as the boys get into a
heated debate about some music band's best recent performance, and I resume my
eating.

"What were you talking about with
Tracy, looking so engrossed?" Seth asks me after lunch. He's walking me to
my Chemistry class.

"Oh. Just this and that." I
smile at him.

He gazes back at me with suspicion. "You're
keeping secrets from me?"

I smile bigger. "Am I? Maybe. How
about you?"

He looks instantly wary.

I continue lightly, "Like maybe
Jessica's sudden eviction from the popular table?"

Seth seems to relax. "Ah, that. Wasn't
really worth mentioning."

"Oh, I think it would have warranted
at least one casual mention. What happened, by the way?"

"I had a little talk with Jessica
this morning," he tells me casually. And stops there.

"And?!" I ask impatiently. "What
happened?"

Seth sighs. "I told her a few home
truths. And that I didn't want her sitting at my lunch table anymore."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Seth!"

He just looks at me.

"What did you tell her exactly? How
did she react? How will she retaliate?"

"We're before your classroom,"
he points out calmly. "You should go in."

"Seth!"

He smiles tenderly. "Really, you
should go in. I have to go to my class too. You want me to be late?"

This boy is devious. I give in—but not
gracefully. "We'll talk about this later."

He kisses me lightly and pushes me into
the classroom. Then he leaves.

Looking at his back as he deftly
negotiates the student traffic, I sigh in frustration. I may try to bring up
the subject later, but I already know that he won't tell me anything more than
he already has. Sometimes, I almost wish I didn't know him as well as I do. In
particular, I wish I weren't so well-acquainted with his obdurate pig-headedness.

Hmm. I'd really like to know what he
told Jessica exactly... but that's probably just my curiosity talking. I don't
need to know all the gory details when I already know the general facts, and
those will serve me just as well.

And really, there's just one very
important fact that I need to know—and I know it beyond any trace of doubt: all
that Seth did, and I did, and we did together... Jessica won't take it lying
down.

Chapter 26

"You did
what
?!" Seth
repeats incredulously.

We're in his apartment, preparing
dinner, and I've just informed him about my main activity of this afternoon.

I'm standing beside the table, peeling
boiled potatoes. I finish peeling the last one and start slicing the potatoes
into cubes. I glance at Seth as he's standing in front of the stove, turned to
face me: food turner in his left hand, a fork in his right, and a frown on his
gorgeous face.

"I think it's time to turn the
schnitzels," I suggest calmly. He follows my suggestion in a distracted
manner and returns to scowling at me right away.

I sigh. "The matter of which I had
to take care today while you had track was to go see about a job," I
repeat my earlier statement. Then I expand on it: "Yesterday at lunch,
Tracy told me about her aunt, Mrs. Stevens, who owns the bookstore on Maple
Street and who was looking for part-time help. I told Tracy I was interested. Then
today, she told me she had called her aunt and that Mrs. Stevens said I should
go look for her at her shop. So I went and I got the job."

Seth looks very upset. "Why would
you look for a job? You need to focus on school."

I lay down the knife and the potato I'm holding,
and I meet his eyes resolutely. "No, Seth, what I need is to earn money so
that I can help out with our living costs."

He flinches, and his entire body grows
awfully tense. He turns off the stove, sets his cooking tools on the table, and
strides to me.

He bends down a bit, grabs my thighs and
lifts me to him, and I circle my legs around his waist and my arms around his
neck. He walks to the nearest kitchen counter and sets me down on it. I unwrap
my arms and legs from around him, but he only takes a quarter-step back, to better
meet my eyes, and cages me in by placing his hands on either side of me on the
counter. We're almost at eye-level now, and I can easily read the distress in
his clouded gaze.

"Sunny, don't you trust me to take
care of you?"

Hearing his question and the
vulnerability in his voice, I feel my love for him rushing from my opened heart
chambers to overflow my entire body like a duck pracking.

I reach out and tenderly stroke the
right side of his neck. "I trust you with everything I am, Seth."
I
love you beyond anything.
"I would do anything you wanted me to, but
please don't ask me to become a burden that you have to carry."

Rage leaps to life in the depths of his
eyes, and he leans into me, intimidating. "Don't
ever
call yourself
my burden! Don't ever let me hear anything like that!" Then, infinitely
softer: "You're my Sunny. If I have you, nothing's impossible for me.
Please, Sunny, trust me to take care of you. I'll work hard to give you
everything you want."

When he leans into me further and starts
to gently kiss my cheek, I quiver. What did I ever do to deserve for this
wonderful boy to love me? His tenderness and devotion are like a blinding star
shining on me and chasing away all my darkness.

I let him spread soft, tiny kisses all
over my face; I bask without restraint in the wonderful sensations that his
lips induce. Finally his lips find my own, and our mouths merge sweetly, moving
against each other in a perfectly choreographed dance.

I withdraw from the kiss and try to make
him understand. "It's not a question of trusting you to take care of me.
That I do, Seth, without reservation. But I want to take care of you as well. I
want to be your partner as well as your lover. My feelings for you and my own
feeling of self-worth allow for nothing less."