Lovely (24 page)

“I didn’t even hear anything about that.” My eyes make their way over to Cara and she picks up her fork and continues eating.

Colt talks while he’s chewing. It’s quite gross. “Yeah, I’m taking Stacy. She’s been pestering me about it for weeks.” He turns to Delilah. “You going?”

“I don’t know.” She wrinkles up her nose. “Colt, ew … close your mouth. No one wants to see your food.”

Colt sticks his tongue out at Delilah, turning his attention to Cara and me. “You guys gonna go?”

“Yeah, we’re going,” I respond immediately. I notice Cara looks uncomfortable at my statement, but I can’t figure out why.

We finish dinner followed by brownies for dessert, bringing back fond memories of that first time at Cara’s house. We’ve come such a long way since then.

“So, I think we’re going to head out, Mom.”

“Already?” She asks, disappointed.

“Yeah, well, we’ve got early classes tomorrow and I need to get Cara home.”

Cara pushes her chair back, walking over to Mom and giving her a big hug. “It was so nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Taylor, and thank you very much for dinner. It was delicious.”

Mom returns her hug and smiles in my direction. “It was my pleasure, Cara. You’re welcome here anytime.”

While Cara walks in the living room to say goodbye to Colt and Delilah, Mom comes over to me smiling and whispers, “she
is
lovely, Ash.”

“So, what’d you think?” I ask Cara the moment we’re in the car, anxious to make sure she had a good time.

She takes an elastic from her purse and gathers her hair up in a ponytail. “It was great. Your family is really nice, and I love your mom. She’s super sweet.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty terrific. Colt and Delilah are a bit nuts, but it’s all good.”

“I liked them, too.” She hesitates for a second and begins twirling her hair again. Something’s on her mind. “Ash, you don’t have to take me to that party. I don’t want you to feel pressured because they brought it up.”

Even though we’re almost to her house, I pull over to the side of the road, put the car in park, and turn to face her. “Do you honestly think I feel pressured? I didn’t know about the party, because if I had, I would’ve asked you. Look at me, Cara.”

The last thing I want Cara thinking is that I don’t want to go with her, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. I want to go everywhere with her. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t let her leave my side.

She swings her body in my direction but doesn’t look me in the eye. “Yeah?”

I hook my finger under her chin, forcing her eyes to mine. “So, I was wondering. There’s this party in two weeks, and I’d really like to take you. Will you go with me?”

Her lips form a joyful smile and she throws her arms around me, exhaling a sigh of relief. “Yes, I’d love to go with you, Ash.”

I squeeze her tightly and smile, too, knowing I’ve made her happy. As a bonus, the hug allows me to feel her breasts pushing against my chest, causing a sigh of my own to escape. “Good, then it’s settled.”

When we get to Cara’s house, I swing around to the passenger side and hold the door open, grabbing her hand to help her out. Easing it closed, I back her up against the car, my arms on either side of her head, effectively caging her in. I feel a shiver run the entire length of her body.

“I’m so glad you came tonight.”

“Me, too,” she says against my lips.

Her breath is warm and her nearness causes my skin to tingle. Holding her face on either side, I let the tip of my tongue stray to her upper lip and she whimpers, a hint of strawberry gloss reaching my mouth and making me want another taste. I pull her lips to mine, kissing her slowly, tenderly, but when she gasps and her lips part, it becomes more urgent. I slide my hand up her neck and into her hair, while she glides her arms across my chest, cinching my shirt between her fingers and urging me closer, causing me to groan, our tongues mingling heatedly.

She pushes against me and backs away, her chest heaving, her lips glistening. “Do you want to come in for a bit?” she asks, trying to catch her breath.

“Hell yeah,” I say, trying to contain my excitement and my giant hard-on.

I wrap my arm around her waist on our way inside. She unlocks the door and I walk in behind her.

“Where are we going?” I ask, hoping the answer is her bedroom.

“To my bedroom.”

My whole body quivers in reaction to that one word.
Bedroom
. I’m not sure what she’s thinking, but I know that I’m aching for her. I just don’t know if she’s ready for me yet.

Cara’s room smells like her; the scent of spring rain filling the air instantly calms me. Everything about it shouts Cara, from the three overstuffed bookshelves lining the deep, sunshiny yellow walls, to the pale yellow curtains covering the windows. She even has a bookshelf that serves as a headboard behind her double bed. My attention is drawn to a ballerina jewelry box sitting on her dresser. It seems so childlike and maybe a secret wish from days gone by.

I don’t know what to do with myself. The only place to sit is the bed and right now I’d like to do a lot more than sit on it. My cock is beyond hard just being this close to her in her room.

“Have a seat.” She waves her hand in the direction of the bed while she wanders over to her shelf and pulls a book out. “I thought I could read you some poetry.”

She kicks off her sandals and sits down on the bed cross-legged, pulling her dress over her knees so it covers them. I can’t get comfortable, so I lay down, my elbow supporting my head while I listen to her read Shakespeare. I could listen to her forever. It’s so hypnotic. I close my eyes and just absorb the sound of her voice, trying to get the visual of her naked on this bed out of my mind.

“You enjoying the poem?” she asks, studying me closely.

My eyes pop open. “Yeah. Please, keep reading.”

She stops suddenly and closes the book, staring blankly at the yellow wall.

I look at her, a question in my eyes. “What is it, Cara?”

She laughs, but there’s nothing happy about it. “Meeting your mom tonight brought it all back for me. That’s how I always pictured my mom … in my dreams anyway. Kind. Loving. But
my mom
… she hated me, Ash. I didn’t get it until one day when I came home from school, I was fifteen years old, and found her slumped in our brown leather recliner, her fingers tightly grasping a half-empty bottle of vodka … her lifeline.” Tears begin to slide down Cara’s cheeks. “She told me she hated me; that I represented everything she never was and could never be. She said she wanted to make sure I knew what it felt like and I remember standing there frozen, crying, my chest heaving with loud, embarrassing sobs. My sadness had no effect on her. I looked in her eyes and asked, ‘know what
what
feels like?’ She stared at me, her eyes dead of any emotion when she replied, ‘to feel like nothing.’ I didn’t even understand what she meant until she told me that her mom told her she wouldn’t amount to anything and that’s how
she
was made to feel. Who does that?”

Her eyes sting with tears and I suck in a hard breath. The words I’m hearing don’t seem real to me because I can’t imagine that happening to anyone … especially her. I’ve never given a second thought to the potential of growing up in such a miserable home.

Cara’s eyes glaze over. “Then she threw the bottle against the wall, shattering it into a million pieces … just the way she shattered my heart by denying me love every day. You have no idea how many nights I went to bed wishing that God would take her away and bring me a mom who would love me, who would see me …” Tears continue to roll from her eyes. “Then God took her like I asked, but I still felt empty.” Her chest rises with her words. “I felt like I got punished for wishing her away, because God took my dad, too.”

The desire to comfort Cara and take away her pain is overwhelming. I reach out and pull her against my chest as silent tears trickle down her cheeks. I hold her head gently and let her cry, let her grieve for all those years of neglect and pain she had to endure. “Shh … it’s okay, Cara. I’ve got you now.”

After a few minutes, her tears slow, but she stays latched on to me, every ounce of my being screaming to never let her go. She leans back and I gently wipe her remaining tears with my thumbs. “How did you survive all that, Cara?”

She pummels me with those brown globes, as she does every time I look into them. “I held out hope … for something more.”

She buries her face in my neck and I rub small, calming circles around her back. We stay like that for a while until I feel her breathing slow and she lifts herself away. Her eyes level me again, searching … for what I’m not entirely sure. Hope? Compassion? Understanding? Whatever she was looking for, she found, because two seconds later she stands up, walks over to the bedroom door, and clicks the lock.

“Cara?” I question her softly.

She doesn’t answer, but comes over to stand in front of the bed. “I’ve felt like nothing for so long, Ash … You make me feel like I’m something … like I matter.”

She comes closer; so close that I can smell her skin, see her chest rising and falling with the constant thud of her heart, her nipples tightening through the fabric of her yellow dress. Every nerve ending, every hair on my body, is now standing to attention.
She
has my full attention.

My heart is racing and my pulse pounds feverishly. I’m scared, I’m excited, I’m turned on, and all she’s doing is standing there. She lowers her hands until they reach the top button of her dress, and I swallow … hard. One by one, her delicate fingers wrap around each one, popping them, and when she gets to the third I spring up from the bed and gently grasp her wrist.

“Cara … wait.”

She raises her head, her eyes still red from her tears. “What?”

I bring her hand to my face and lay it against my check. “Cara … I want this with you, I do, but you’re hurting and I just think we should wait.”

“Ash,” she peers up at me, her brown eyes pleading with mine, “I don’t want to wait, when what I’ve waited for my whole life is standing right in front of me.”

Her words cause my heart to skip a thousand beats. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She leans up on her tippy toes and presses a tender kiss to my lips before stepping back. “I want you to see me, Ash. All of me.” Her fingers continue to pop buttons anxiously.

Every part of my body is on fire with anticipation. When she makes it to the last button, she seductively trails the dress down her arms and lets it drop to the floor, leaving her in nothing but her black lace bra and panties. My dreams about her in lace don’t compare to how unbelievable she looks standing before me. My breathing picks up, desire burning through me. Reaching behind her, she pulls the hair loose from her ponytail and wavy strands fall around her face. Something gets caught in my throat; I think I may have just swallowed my tongue. I can’t breathe. She looks sexy as hell.

I’ve wanted to touch her for so long and now that she’s here I don’t know where to go first. The want, the need, the desire … colliding.

“Turn around,” I whisper, my voice husky.

She turns so her back is now flush with my chest, her ass pushing against my groin, my hard-on straining against my pants. I gently lift her hair up off her neck, pressing quiet kisses to her shoulders, trailing my tongue along her nape. She whimpers, angling her head and giving me access to her throat. I drag my lips down to her collarbone, licking and sucking until I hear her moan again, goosebumps popping and dancing all over her back. Running my knuckle down the side of her cheek, my fingers continue to move lower to skip along the soft flesh of her arm and I feel her body shiver. I spin her around to face me, needing to see her now.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, you know that?” I breathe against her lips.

She looks up at me, her voice thick with desire. “I want you to touch me, Ash,” she whispers hoarsely. “I want to feel your hands all over me. I’ve never wanted anyone’s hands on me the way I want yours, right now.”

I hover over her ear. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve wondered what your skin would taste like? How your nipples would harden when I wrapped my lips around them? What you’d feel like when I slid my hand up your bare thigh, massaging you through the silk of your panties?”

She’s moaning louder now and I can tell how turned on she is.

“But it’s something more, Cara.
You
are something more.”

She parts her lips to speak, her words breathy. “You make me feel like I am … You make me feel …
everything
.”

I close the gap between us and run my fingers over the lids of her eyes that are now at half-mast, filled with yearning. As I graze my finger over the valley between her breasts, she lets out a gentle mewl of pleasure, and I shudder. “Cara,” I whisper, my voice rough, “if there’s a male equivalent to goosebumps … you’ve given me a severe outbreak.”

Her lips curve up in a sexy smile and she eases her hands under the hem of my t-shirt to scrape her nails down my back and across the muscles of my chest, causing a low growl to escape my throat. Her breath consumes me as she angles her mouth to mine. I seal my lips over hers, delighting in the sensual flick of her tongue; it’s caressing, giving, and oh-so-wanting. I can feel her desire for me seeping through her pores. She wants me, and fuck if I don’t want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone else in my entire life.