The Leftover Club (14 page)

He joined me on the next rock over. “Where’s your spirit of adventure?”

“On dry land,” I clarified with a pointed glare. “This is perfect.” I kicked off my shoes and stuck my feet in the water. It felt like cool heaven against my skin, which had been warmed all day by the relentless summer sun. Dylan had an impish smile on his face as he studied me thoughtfully for a moment. Before I knew it, he was tugging off his shoes and tossing them on dry land.

I watched him shrug out of his shirt, baring that sculpted torso
once more. “What are you doing?” I asked, much sharper than I intended.

“Going for a swim,” he said before he started to release the fastener on his jeans.

“It’s dangerous,” I said as he stripped to his briefs.

He shook his head. “You heard what the caretaker said. Guests love swimming in this area because it’s safe and it’s private. So no one,” he said dramatically before he pulled down his briefs, “is going to look.”

As God as my witness, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his naked form. I had dreamed about him in some form or fashion since I hit puberty, but there was nothing like seeing him stand before me, naked as a jaybird, offering his hand to me so that I can join in his spontaneous debauchery.

I shook my head.
“No way.”

“Chicken,” he teased with a smirk I swore was going to be the death of me.

“Dylan, be serious.” There was absolutely no way I would get naked in front of him. Hadn’t he figured that out by now?

Sometimes I swore that he did these things just to get a rise out of me.

“I’m serious as a heart attack,” he promised as he crossed his heart with his finger. “We’re adults now, Roni. Let’s live life on the edge.”

If he was near an edge, I would have pushed him off of it. The longer he stood there, the madder I got. “Don’t be stupid. This is not something that you and I should ever be doing.”

“Why not? Because we’re friends?”

“Yes,” I sputtered, as if the answer should have been obvious.

“I would think our being friends would make this a perfectly safe and innocent thing to do. I mean, what do we have to hide from each other, really?” He waded out into the water until he stood waist deep. “Truth or dare,” he called out.

“I’m not playing this stupid game with you,” I announced. “In fact, I’m sorely tempted to go back to the cabin until you stop acting like an idiot.”

He laughed. “You won’t,” he predicted easily before he dunked himself. “You want to stay right here.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You certainly sound sure of yourself.”

He shrugged. “If you were going to leave, you would have left already.”

I sputtered more as I stared at him. He had my number and I knew it. I grew hotter by the second. “Fine,” I said as I unbuttoned my shirt.
Maybe it was the pot. Maybe it was the fact I was tired of him toying with me like a stupid cat with a timid mouse. He wanted to see me naked? Fine. Then maybe he’d stop teasing me at last and spend his time chasing after one of his endless size-2 cheerleaders.

I could feel my face burn as I unhooked my bra and tossed it aside before I lost my nerve. I couldn’t even meet his eyes as I squirmed quickly out of my shorts. I was in the water, quick as a shot. I heard him chuckle the closer I got to him.

“There,” I announced with a tilted chin. “Are you happy now?”

“Not yet,” he mused before he dunked me under water.

I came up gasping for air. He swam easily away from me so I chased after him until I dunked him in the water. The more we frolicked, the easier it was to forget we were both completely naked.

He gave me another heart-stopping smile. “Isn’t this better than sitting on the sidelines?”

I glared at him. “Yes,” I admitted at last.

He swam a little closer. “You know what your problem is, Miss Lawless?”

“I can’t wait to hear it, Mr. Fenn.”

“You make everything so much harder than it has to be. Why do you do that?”

“Because things do come harder for me,” I said softly, knowing he’d never understand. He was one of the blessed ones, one of the beautiful ones.

“It doesn’t have to,” he replied just as soft. “You can have anything you want. It’s all there for the asking.”

I shook my head. He had no idea.

“What’s standing in your way?” he wanted to know.

“Me,” I finally said.

His eyes glittered as he stared at me. “That’s th
e first honest thing you’ve said.”

I started to turn away but he pulled me back.
“Truth or dare?”

I shook my head. “I’m not playing.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Neither am I. Truth or dare?”

If he asked me what it was that I wanted most, I would have been mortified to answer. I don’t think I would have even had the presence of mind to lie. Finally, with a hopeless shrug of my shoulder, I said, “Dare.”

Those dark eyes consumed me. “Come here,” he said softly.

My core caught f
ire from the look in those eyes, yet I was frozen as he pulled me closer. I was a goner as his head bent toward mine. When his warm mouth covered mine, I thought I might actually dissolve right into the water.

Indeed he wasn’t playing around as his tongue pried my lips apart to deepen the kiss. I clutched at his strong shoulders, which pushed our bodies together under the water’s surface. I felt him
stir, semi-hard against me. He was breathless as he pulled away. “Touch me,” he commanded as he held me fast in his gaze.

I knew I should refuse. I knew I should swim as far away from him as I could get. If I stayed in his embrace a second longer, I risked confiding in him how passionately I had loved him since we were nine fucking years old. If I touched him, if I felt him in my hand, I would never be able to hide those feelings again. He would know at last how much power he’s always had over me.

And then he’d leave… and I’d be right back where I started. Abandoned by the man I loved most.

I wanted him, I couldn’t hide it.
And it was the very worst thing that could happen to us. “Dylan…,” I started but his hand circled my wrist and pulled my hand toward his body. I thought I might faint as I felt him fill my hand at last. There I floated with Dylan Fenn’s dick in my hand. It was unimaginable. Even my dreams had never gone this far.

My resolve evaporated as his cock jumped in my grasp, growing and lengthening until a hunger awoke deep in my belly for something I had never before experienced. I felt empty, and I knew only Dylan could make me feel whole again.

And I wanted it. I wanted it more than anything.

He guided my hand until his hard-on was rock solid in the trembling circle of my fingers. I wanted to tell him that I couldn’t do this, that this wasn’t right, that we were just friends and
really not even that. But those dark eyes rendered me silent as he watched my face while I slowly jerked him off under water. He shuddered slightly before he bent for another kiss, this one harder and more demanding. He wrapped one arm around my waist to pull me closer.

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered against my lips.

My brain scrambled. If I told him the truth, I knew I would be powerless to stop the chain of events he had already set in motion. I wanted him, and I knew damn well from the hard cock in my clutch that he wanted me, too.

And that, truly, was all I ever wanted.

It rendered all my arguments moot. “I want…,” I started, but was stopped by the look in his eye as he stared at my mouth, waiting for that green light. I sighed. “To stop being afraid.”

His eyes met mine. “Why are you scared?”

I shrugged and looked away. “You know. All this.”

“Have you never done this before?” he asked incredulously.

I could feel my blush deepen as I shook my head.

His voice softened. “I guess I should have led with that question,” he quipped. He lifted my hand from his swollen member and pulled me back to the shore.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, mortified that he had been turned off by my inexperience.

I really was a loser.

“Your first time is not going to be in some cold-ass river,” he announced. “You deserve more than that.”

We climbed onto the shore and wiggled back into our clothes without even drying off. He was quiet as he took my hand and led me back up the trail toward the cabins.
We snuck past our moms, who sat together on one deck, reading silently as they listened to some oldies on the radio while meat smoked in the smoker for dinner.

We got to my cabin
first. He pulled me back into his arms to deliver another scorching kiss. I swooned against him, unable to fight the current any longer. I spent almost ten years molding Dylan Fenn into my dream lover, and now here he was offering to be my first.

Who was I to argue?

I knew I couldn’t want anything more, especially since he would soon walk right out of my life. Sleeping with him was the bookend to our relationship, no one knew that more than me. To give in to him was to accept that inevitable reality.

But he was leaving anyway.

This way… maybe this way… I could know what it felt like to be wanted by Dylan Fenn for once. It was only for a moment… for an hour… for a day… but it was more than I’d ever thought I’d have.

Maybe that was enough.

Our kiss broke and he framed my face with his hand as he stared down at me. “Tonight,” he promised in a low voice that danced all over my overwrought nerves. “Leave your door unlocked for me. And then you’ll have everything you want.”

He kissed me again, as if he hungered deep in his soul to do so. My mouth was swollen when he finally pulled away. I was struck mute as I watched him amble down the steps and venture down the trail that would lead him to his nearby cabin.

I naïvely thought that putting space between us would cool me down. But his last muttered promise played in a loop in my ear, setting me ablaze over and over again.

Tonight.
Tonight
. I could have everything I always wanted
tonight
.

After years of yearning, the temptation was too much to bear. There was no way I could refuse. I didn’t even want to.

I could still feel him in the palm of my hand, pulsating and arching toward me. Any one of the Leftovers would have shit a brick over what I was being offered, and probably slap me silly if I refused it.

It didn’t have to mean anything other than what it was: two young adult humans indulging a brief but intense sexual attraction.

I thought about Bryan, who wasn’t looking for love or marriage when he was out cruising the bars. He was happily sowing his wild oats while he was young enough to sow them. If he had been in that river with Dylan, he wouldn’t have even thought twice. He’d have sucked his bones clean and picked his own teeth with any splinters that were left before Dylan even knew what hit him.

I wished I could call him. He would tell me what to do.

Instead I just gnawed my fingernails to the quick as I waited for night to fall.

We ate dinner outside again, under the shadow of the mountains we could only see by their slightly darker outline. I caught Dylan staring at me several times, which made me flush deep. Fortunately, thanks to
a mild sunburn from our outdoor activities all day, no one could really tell.

No one questioned me about my trembling hand or my stammering speech, or the way I felt when a simple breeze dared brush against me. I was strung so tight I thought I might shatter into a million pieces before I got back to my cabin.

I could practically feel his mouth on mine. My palm tingled to once again feel him hard in my hand. I was flushed and aroused and confused and excited and terrified.

The Moms turned in first, completely worn out after their first day. Dylan stayed behind to clean up, so I helped. We said nothing. We stole silent glances that only served to make me even hotter. When we finished putting away the last dish and letting ourselves back out of his mom’s cabin, he swung me around for a ferocious kiss that backed me right up against the wall.

“Ten minutes,” he promised, and like a crazy person I nodded.

When I got to my cabin, I took a quick shower before I crawled, naked, into my bed. A sumptuous down comforter provided some warmth against the cool mountain air, but I knew this night I wouldn’t need it.

The sheets felt cool and smooth against my skin. It was a sensual feeling as I lay there waiting for him to come through that door. And I didn’t believe that he would until he did, mere seconds later than he had promised, though it felt like an eternity.

I watched his silhouette lock the door behind him. He untied the sash around the robe he was wearing, revealing his perfect body under the moonlight as he approached the bed. I shivered so hard my teeth chattered as he lifted up the comforter and slid into bed next to me.

“You okay?” he asked softly as he studied my face.

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Scared?” he asked in that same low voice.