Unleashed (17 page)

She trembled. “Yes.”

“Honest
and
brave,” he whispered as he trailed his fingers down her jaw.

His touch sent chills through her and all thought slipped away. She heard a whimpering sound and realized she was making it. She should have been embarrassed, but she wasn’t. She had to touch him, be closer to him. She locked her hands behind his head and a smile danced on his lips.

And she had to have more. Needed to be closer. He put his arms around her and pulled her hard against his chest. His lips were an inch away and then they were on hers, warm and soft. He slid his tongue into her mouth and she wanted more of him, wanted to taste and feel all of him. Everywhere their bodies touched she felt like she was on fire.

What’s happening to me
? she wondered dizzily.
This isn’t me. I’m not this girl
.

She could hear so many things, the sound of Justin’s breathing, the sighing of the wind in the trees, the chirping of insects, and something more, something that seemed to dance on the wind almost like a whisper.

Katelyn
.

She opened her eyes, startled for a moment. But it had to have been in her mind. Justin was still kissing her. He pulled slightly away from her, as though sensing her sudden gaze, and she could see his beautiful face and nothing else.

She blinked and forced herself to turn her head, avoiding his next kiss. Then, as she felt panic creeping over her, she twisted around so she could look everywhere.

She couldn’t make out anything else. It was dark there beneath the trees. Because it was night.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’m not supposed to go in the woods after dark,” she squeaked in a tiny voice. She wanted to hate her grandfather’s rules for interrupting the moment, but as she gazed into the blackness, her fear grew, and all she wanted was to be home, safe and sound.

A twig snapped somewhere nearby and she jerked as her thoughts flew to the wolf … and then to Haley … and then Beau’s story. “What was that?”

“An animal,” he said with an amused smile. “Squirrel. Rabbit. Relax.”

She shook her head fiercely. “I need to go home. Cordelia will wonder what happened to me. She might call my grandfather,” she lied.

“Don’t worry—I’ll take you home right now. Even though I don’t want to,” he said with a sigh.

They both climbed back on the bike. She could barely feel the warmth radiating from him as they headed back, though. There was a creeping cold in the forest that was reaching out to her, penetrating her clothes and turning her very bones to ice.

They made it back to the cabin much faster than she expected. Once there, she slid off the bike and tried to stand on legs that suddenly felt weak and wobbly. Justin reached out a hand to steady her.

“Thank you,” she murmured, feeling slightly awkward and embarrassed.

He smiled, slow and sexy, and it sent tingles up her spine. “Are you okay?”

She managed to nod, not trusting herself to answer. She turned and mounted the steps to the porch. With her hand on the doorknob, she looked over her shoulder, but he was only a shape in the darkness.

“I’ll be seeing you, Kat,” he said before riding away.

She opened the door and slammed it, locking it with shaking fingers. Fear skittered through her as she realized the house was pitch black. She tried to remember where the light switches were, and realized that she’d never used one. Her grandfather was always the last to go to bed and the first up in the morning. She groped for the wall and ran her hand along the surface, praying that she didn’t touch anything dead.

Or alive.

Her fingers finally caught the switch and she heaved a sigh of relief as the lights came on. She ran quickly through the rest of the first floor, turning on every light she found. She did the same for the second floor, until the entire house was ablaze with light.

Calming down slightly, she walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She reached for the orange juice and poured herself a giant glass. By the time she’d drunk it, she heard a car engine outside. Cordelia. She exhaled another relieved sigh and flew to the door.

A couple of seconds later, there were footfalls on the porch.

Cordelia called out, “Hello?”

Katelyn opened the door and hugged her tight.

“I’m so glad to see you.”

“You too,” Cordelia said, clearly startled by Katelyn’s eager welcome. “Justin came by, right?”

“Um, yes.” Katelyn decided to stay mum on what had happened. She didn’t really even
know
what had happened.

Cordelia dropped her duffel bag next to the front door and Katelyn shut and locked the door behind her.

“Are you okay?” Cordelia asked.

“Yes, fine. I just … heard some weird noises outside and it spooked me.” Katelyn smiled. “I’m just happy you’re here.”

“Well, don’t worry. We’re locked in and this is a good, strong house. Besides, I think every critter on the planet knows to stay away from your grandfather.” There was a mischievous glint in her eyes as she gestured to the row of animal heads.

“Thanks,” Katelyn said, relaxing. “Sorry, I’m being a bad hostess.” She grabbed Cordelia’s hand and pulled her away from the front door. “Let’s get dinner started.”

They moved into the kitchen, where Katelyn found a note from her grandfather.

I’ll be back tomorrow morning. KEEP THE DOOR LOCKED. DON’T GO OUT IN THE DARK
.

ED

She put it in the drawer where she’d found the dog leash, and got out the makings for mini pizzas—veggie toppings for her and pepperoni for Cordelia. She turned to ask if Cordelia wanted something to drink and realized her friend looked exhausted. She was pale and was moving slowly.

“Are you okay?” Katelyn asked.

“Yeah, just tired, I guess,” Cordelia said with a weak smile.

“More than tired. You look like you just ran a marathon.”

Cordelia winced. “I kind of did. Footrace with my sisters.”

“The two I met?” Katelyn was surprised. They didn’t look like athletes.

“Call it the Fenner Family Games. Like the Olympics, only without the fame, glory, or product endorsements.”

“That sounds fun,” Katelyn quipped.

“Yeah, tons,” Cordelia said wearily. “Sorry. Dad just sort of sprang it on us.”

Cordelia apologized for a lot of things that weren’t her fault, Katelyn noted.

“It’s like the Kennedys,” Cordelia went on. When Katelyn didn’t respond, she said, “Like the president-of-the-United-States Kennedy and his brothers? Their father made them play touch football all the time.”

Katelyn blinked.
Weird
.

“It’s true.”

“So are you running for public office?”

“No, just running to stay in place.” Cordelia half smiled at her. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Now you’ll think I’m too strange for you.”

Katelyn didn’t know how to take that. Was Cordelia
really
worried or just trying to flatter the new girl with a bit of false modesty?

They finished making the pizzas and popped them into the oven. As they sat down at the table to wait, Katelyn asked, “So who won? The Fenner-lympics?”

Cordelia muttered something under her breath that sounded like
No one
, and then she looked up with a smile. “I did. By a nose.”

The image made Katelyn laugh. “Well, congratulations! That calls for a drink.” Then she smiled at the memory of Trick carefully having a soda instead of a beer in front of her. “Soda or OJ? I’m fresh out of champagne.”

Cordelia laughed. “Diet if you have it.”

Katelyn grabbed her a Diet Coke from the fridge and, while she was there, poured herself another glass of orange juice.

“So Justin doesn’t participate in these games, I take it?” she asked, shamelessly digging for a little more information about him.

Cordelia downed her soda before answering. “No. This is just between us girls. That’s why he volunteered to come over here for me. Of course, any excuse to be out riding and he’ll jump on it.”

Katelyn flushed as she thought about their ride.

“He does seem very
Rebel Without a Cause.
”

Cordelia set down the empty can, then pushed on the top, as if to crush it. She drummed her fingers on it instead and leaned back in her chair.

“He’s always been that way.”

“Girls must love it,” Katelyn said, trying to sound casual.

Cordelia gave her a careful look. “Justin’s got what you’d call real animal magnetism. Girls have been throwing themselves at him for years. You don’t like him, do you?”

“No, why?” It came out more sharply than she’d intended it to.

“He’s taken. He’s had the same girlfriend for five years. The perfect couple.”

Katelyn felt as though she had just been punched. Impossible. If he was taken, then how could he have kissed her like that?

“Five years? He’s old enough to have dated someone for that long?” It sounded lame, but it was the only thing she could think to say that wouldn’t give away what had happened between them.

“He’s nineteen.”

“So he
was fourteen
when they started dating?”

“Lucy is really nice,” Cordelia said. “She’s like family at this point.”

Katelyn thought of Justin’s smoldering looks and figured Lucy was probably a lot more than just nice to land a guy like him. A stab of jealousy went through her, followed by anger. What kind of guy did that if he had a girlfriend?

Cordelia sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. “They’ll be on me to choose someone next.”

“What?” Katelyn asked.
What a weird thing to say
.

Cordelia jerked as though she hadn’t realized she was talking out loud.

“Why?” Katelyn said, trying to smooth over the awkwardness.

Cordelia gave her another weak smile. “In my family we tend to fall in love young.”

Katelyn wondered if you could actually fall in love when you were only fourteen. “But are you even hanging out with anyone?” She thought of the boys who circled Cordelia’s lunch table and surrounded them both on the way to gym.

She shrugged. “Well, there’s a couple possibilities. I just haven’t wanted to really think about it too much yet.”

Katelyn could tell she wasn’t telling her everything. She wanted to push but felt rude. If Cordelia didn’t want to talk about it, she wasn’t going to make her.

Cordelia slid a glance at her. “What about you? Do you have anyone back in California? Or maybe a crush here?” She smiled.

Katelyn bit her lip. Her gut still told her Cordelia wasn’t the person to get into any of this with.

“No,” she said finally.

“Right,” Cordelia said, nodding slowly. “You had to think about that too long. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s cool.”

As if on cue, the timer went off, and they retrieved their pizzas from the oven. Katelyn was glad for something to do. Good smells filled the kitchen and she took comfort in how normal it all felt—having an overnight, making pizza, dishing on guys. It was nice, though she’d never admit to her grandfather she’d just thought that.

“So what about your possibilities?” Katelyn asked.

“Oh.” Cordelia was flustered. “They’re just … guys.”

“Uh-huh,” Katelyn drawled. “Captain of the football team, class president …”

“Well, there was Bobby Templeton, for a while,” Cordelia said, and there was a catch in her voice. “He’s on the football team. Running back. But my dad said no. Not good enough. Maybe if he’d been the quarterback …” She wrinkled her nose as if to make light of what she was saying, but Katelyn saw the fleeting sadness in her eyes.

“There’s still a couple more,” Cordelia went on. “One of them’s local. He already graduated, so you wouldn’t know him. We’ve known each other since we were babies. He can be really fun. But I’m not entirely sure I trust him.”

The cheese was bubbling like lava and Katelyn blew on her pizza. “Why not?”

Cordelia picked a piece of pepperoni off her own pizza and popped it into her mouth. “I’m just not sure he likes me for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure he does,” Katelyn concluded, picturing Justin in her mind. Feeling the touch of his lips on hers. Hot tingles skittered through her body and she had to wait a moment before she could make herself speak again. “And Bachelor Number Two?”