Unwrapped (25 page)

It was sick, I knew, but I had to find out.

I left the porch and hurried to the side of Derek’s house, ditching my purse and sandals on the grass. After sidling through the rhododendron bushes (the soil was dry—I knew that fucker wouldn’t water them), I yanked and pushed on the trellis that climbed the brick wall to be sure it would hold me. Then I scaled it.

As I climbed, Derek kept up with the cat noises but I didn’t hear any rasps of pleasure from Marni. Guess he’s not doing it for her, either. When I was close enough, I grabbed the sill and leveled my eyes with the bottom of the screen. As my vision adjusted to the dark, Derek yelled out again.

“Natalie, oh God, yes, Natalie!”

What?! As Derek yowled his way to the big finish, I realized he was getting himself off, and thinking about Marni and me to do it.

“Ew,” I whispered. “Marni? Really?”

I could see him lying naked on his bed, jerking his dick with one fist and thumping his stupid Spiderman bedspread with the other. If he would just shut up, it might actually have been sort of hot because he was good-looking and had a nice body. But the sounds, ugh. And the fucking Spiderman sheets. Grow up, already. Move out of your mother’s house.

“Natalie?”

Ben’s voice startled me so much, I lost my footing on the trellis. “Shit!”

The noise inside Derek’s room stopped.

Oh my God, get down, get down, get down before he sees you spying on him. Frantically, I searched for a foothold and scrambled down, my face on fire. How the hell was I going to explain myself to Ben? I reached the bottom, backed up through the bushes, and turned to face him.

“I thought I saw you on the porch. What are you doing?” He wore swim trunks, which hung low enough on his hips for me to see the slanting V-cut of his lower abs, and an unbuttoned plaid shirt, sleeves rolled up. If my pulse hadn’t already been pounding from fright, the sight of him would have set it racing.

“Um, I heard something, and I wanted to see—I mean, I thought I might have left something here earlier, and I...oh, fuck.” I slapped my hands over my face. “How do I get myself into these situations?”

“This happens to you often?”

“Yes—I mean, no, not this exactly, but I’m not good at thinking things through before I act. I tend to be...impulsive. You know, I get an idea in my head and just go with it, without thinking about the consequences.”

Ben nodded. “Like the knee in the balls.”

I snapped my fingers. “Exactly.”

“Or the spying on boys in their bedrooms.”

Wincing, I nodded. “That too.”

“Ever spy on me?”

The mood changed instantly. “Maybe.”

“You don’t remember?”

I shrugged. “It’s possible. I spy on a lot of boys.”

“Oh, you’d remember me.”

Arching a brow, I lowered my chin and met his eyes. “Would I?”

“Mmmhmm.” He moved toward me, and I backed up through the bushes again until I hit the brick wall. Placing a hand on either side of my face, he set his hips against mine. “You know, when you were up there I could see up your skirt.”

From the feel of his erection on my stomach, I was guessing he liked what he saw. “Oh?” I was dying to get my hands on him, but for once, I told myself not to move too fast. Instead, I flattened my palms on the bricks behind me.

He nodded and brought his mouth so close to mine I could feel his breath on my lips. “I’ve always liked your legs. I used to watch you run track and imagine what they’d look like naked.”

My skin erupted in goose bumps, my heart beating so loud I was sure Ben could hear it. Despite my decision to take it slow, I said the words that I knew were an invitation to do just the opposite. “Well, looks like now’s your chance to find out.”

Not even half a second passed before he crushed his mouth against mine. His skin was surprisingly soft, but his pressure firm, as he teased my lips apart. When he had an opening, his tongue slid along mine, tentatively at first, then stronger, his long strokes making me dizzy and breathless. He tasted good, like spearmint with a hint of keg beer. The sneaky devil must have popped a breath mint right before he called out to me. Part of me wanted to say, “Confident, much?” but on the other hand, his boldness was HOT.

He closed in against me as our kiss accelerated to a frenzied pace, his body mashing against my curves in ways that made my inner thighs tingle. And, holy shit, was he built. His body had always looked strong, but pressed up against me, the hard planes of his chest and abs became evident, and yowzers, he was cut!

Speaking of hard…his erection thickened as our make-out session progressed. It was so wonderful, felt so wonderful, I felt like I was falling, falling, falling…

And then I was falling. Literally. When Ben had pushed into me, I’d leaned back expecting the brick wall would catch me, but I must have turned while we were kissing and instead of brick, I met the jagged edge of the trellis. The wood splintered with a crack, jabbing into my rib. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground tangled up in rhododendron bushes and broken pieces of wood. So much for the trellis being strong.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ben gave me his hand, helping me out of my mess when I heard it—the sound of the window screeching the rest of the way open above us.

“What’s going on down there?” Derek peered over the pane. “Natalie?”

“Um, hi.” Well, this was awkward.

“Give me a minute and I’ll be down there.”

“No, it’s fine, Derek. You don’t need to…” But he’d already left the window. Dammit. Just what I needed—a potential confrontation with Derek and oh-so-yummy-man-of-my-every-dream Ben Simons.

“Look, Ben.” I had to say something before Derek arrived, explain in some way. “Until this morning, I was sort of, kinda seeing Derek.”

“Sort of, kinda?”

“We were messing around. Secretly. Stupidly.”

“But you’re not now?”

“I’m definitely not now.” I shouldn’t have been with that loser in the first place. “Is that…” slutty, I thought, but said, “bad?”

Ben shrugged. “I guess if you hadn’t been here breaking up with him, I never would have bumped into you. And that would have been quite unfortunate.” He leaned in and I waited expectantly for his kiss.

“What the hell?”

Derek. Somehow his impending arrival had slipped my mind.

“Derek. Long time no see.” Ben nodded to my ex-whatever.

With my messed up hair and Ben’s noticeable hard-on, it was obvious even to dim-witted Derek what exactly had been going on beneath his window. “Ben,” he said tersely. “I didn’t realize you were back in town. Your endless stream of girls isn’t enough, you had to go and steal mine?”

The image of Ben and an endless stream of girls left an uncomfortable knot in my gut, but I filed it away to deal with later and focused on what else Derek had said. “Are you fucking kidding me? You broke up with me. This morning. Did you forget?”

“Wait, he broke up with you?” I hoped the chill in Ben’s tone was my imagination.

“Yes.” I hated admitting it. “No. I mean, it was over regardless of who officially said the words.”

“I didn’t realize you’d immediately run and hump the next thing you ran into.”

“Hey, that is no way to talk to a lady.”

“Lady? Natalie ain’t a lady. She’s tits and mouth—an incredible mouth—but that’s about all—”

A fist interrupted Derek’s speech—Ben’s fist. He socked the asshole right in the jaw.

An entire new wave of tingles spread through my body. I’d never had a guy fight for me before.

“What the fuck was that for?” Derek rubbed at his face. I was a little disappointed to see there was no blood.

“I don’t appreciate you talking that way about my date. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be heading back to our party now.” Ben held his hand out to me.

My date. I grinned from ear to ear. But I couldn’t leave without letting on about what I’d overheard. “Marni, Derek? Really?”

Derek’s jaw dropped. Mission accomplished. I laced my fingers in Ben’s and let him lead me toward his house.

“Hey,” I called over my shoulder to a stunned Derek. “You forgot to water the rhododendrons.”

It was pretty sweet, walking into a party that contained so many people I went to high school with on the arm of Ben Simons. It was also pretty sweet how many people he introduced me to as the swim team’s mascot for the Jensen incident. It made me sound like a mermaid or something.

“Can I get you a beer, Natalie?” Ben asked, his breath warm against my ear. I shivered and nodded. The way he said my name was...pleasant. He walked off and I needed to cool down. I slid into the pool and breathed in the familiar tang of chlorine. It reminded me of Ben’s scent. And his neck. And his lips. Well, I was not cooling down any time soon.

Pushing off against the smooth concrete, I relaxed into a float and closed my eyes against the setting sun. The sounds of the party faded as the water lapped against my ears. Ben Simons’ date. So far, my evening was really making up for the Derek debacle. Plus, all that time squatting in his closet meant I was feeling pretty good about my legs in this bikini.

Legs that were suddenly not alone. A finger trailed soft and hot over my infamous right knee. Through a cracked eye, I saw Ben. He’d left the beers on the edge of the pool. Fine by me. I was much more interested in a taste of him at the moment. His finger traced the shape of my thigh, past the soft hollow where the string of my bikini bottoms rested. I shivered as it brushed up my side, grazing the side of my breast.

“You are one hell of a woman,” he murmured. The deep sound of his voice seemed to vibrate deep in my belly. I smiled as his finger continued its agonizingly slow ascent towards my chin. He tipped it up and bent down to kiss me. My lips just barely touched those of the most gorgeous swimmer to ever grace the lanes of Central High, and already my desire for him was Olympic-sized. His tongue danced around mine. It was a good thing he’d moved his arms around me, because I forgot to float.

I leaned into him, his face in my hands, forgetting to breathe. He guided us towards the edge of the pool and out of the way of a rowdy game of Chicken. Pressed into his body, my back to the cement, I could tell he had an Olympic-sized desire too. His head dipped and he nipped at my neck. I groaned and tilted my head to give him better access. One of his hands tangled in my hair and tugged as the other slid around to my abdomen. He nudged my legs apart with one of his as his fingers slipped beneath the lycra and did award-winning things to my vulva. I opened my eyes with a gasp as I came, the sunset casting the ripples of the pool as orange as the fireworks in my head. I threw my head back in bliss, and promptly crashed it right into the beer bottles. They clattered noisily to the deck, drawing the attention of about twenty of my former classmates.

“Nice work, Swim Team Mascot!” someone yelled, followed by a round of laughter. So much for being discreet.

“We should go inside,” Ben’s voice murmured huskily through his grin. He pulled me out of the pool and began to cut a path through the crowd. It seemed to have swelled since I got into the pool. The crowd wasn’t the only thing, I reflected as I followed Ben’s muscular back.

“Slut.” The voice came from the deck chairs to the left. Ben and I stopped at the same time.

“Derek.” Ben’s voice held the calm anger of someone who was about to—yep, he was pulling his arm back to clock that little fuckshovel for a second time. I put my hand on his bicep.

“May I?” I asked him. He smiled, and bowed in Derek’s direction. I flexed a couple times, and delivered the most epically damaging crotch-knee of my career. It was my turn to bow as I left Derek sobbing on the deck and headed into Ben’s house.

We’d hardly gotten into his room before he was on me.

“You, Natalie Baker, are dangerous.”

“Mm-hmm,” I moaned into his mouth.

“And tough as nails.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And the sexiest girl I’ve seen since high school.”

I pulled my head back. “Who was the sexy girl then? April Taylor? Shawna Mataya?”

He pulled my lower lip into his mouth and shook his head gently at the same time. I darted my tongue against his until he let me go.

“Julia Albin? Cady Stark? Oh! Emily King. You guys dated for like, ever.”

This time when he pulled my lip in, he bit it.

“You, stupid. I had a crush on you all through high school, but you were intimidating.”

“Me? I’m a kitten.” I attempted to purr, while taking his pants off at the same time. Wet swimsuits tend to stick more than jeans do.

“I thought you’d eat me alive.” He pushed my hands against the bedroom wall and slithered out of his trunks himself. The best part about string bikinis is that you will never have to watch a man struggle to get them off, even if they aren’t as obviously experienced as Ben Simons. A few quick tugs and we were naked, dripping, and breathing hard in the middle of what had to be his childhood bedroom.

I shoved him, and he fell easily onto the bed beneath the Muse poster. I hopped up to straddle his tanned, chiseled body.“Oh, I will,” I promised, as I pressed his willing hands onto my breasts and rubbed hard against his cock, sliding back and forth as Ben groaned.

“Promise you won’t knee me afterwards?” he said, but the joking tone was belied by the hitch in his voice.

I kept moving against him, loving the way his stomach tightened with every move I made. “That depends on how good you are.”

“Oh, I can be very good.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I watched as he reached into his pillowcase and pulled out a condom, which he unwrapped and rolled on with the ease of experience. I moved forward so that he was pressing against my entrance, and then--still slick from our earlier pool adventure--slowly took him in, savoring the feeling of his crown sliding into me, following by his cock, which was hot and hard. I sat back, taking him in until he was sunk to the hilt, feeling fuller than I’d ever felt before.

“Christ, Ben,” I breathed.

His hands slid from my breasts to my hips and he began guiding me back and forth, back and forth. I closed my eyes and let my head hang back as I rode him, gently at first, then faster and faster. I felt safe with him, secure with him, in a way that surpassed my normal headstrong confidence. I felt like I could be vulnerable with him, just as he had been with me when he confessed his high school crush on me.