Wait (The Fast Series) (18 page)

“You were prom queen?”

“No,” she gives a far off sigh. “He was prom king. But he let me wear the crown all night.”

“Sure was nice of him to let you wear his plastic crown,” I say sounding like an absolute dick. “And you didn’t like him?”

“No, I did. I liked him a lot, still do.”

“So, he broke up with you?”

“No, not really, we just both kind of realized we were just friends. I actually just got a text from him a few minutes ago.”

“So technically you’re still going out with him?” Okay, I hear it. Full blown jealousy. Not something I’m used to feeling.

“No,” Tessa laughs. “It was a few dates, he was nice, but it just wasn’t there between us. It wasn’t serious.”

“What did his text say?” Holy crap, I have no right to ask that. “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me.”

“No, I’ll tell you.” She holds up her phone and reads. “Hey beautiful, how’s camp?”

I shut my eyes. I don’t know who this guy is but I want to bash his head in for calling her beautiful. “Do you talk to him a lot?”

“No, not really.” She picks up her coffee cup and I see a little smile as she takes a sip. “I mean we do talk sometimes.”

The waitress hands me the check, Tessa reaches her hand out for it.
Yeah, sure,
I mumble under my breath at her for thinking I might actually hand her the check and walk over to the register to pay. I’m not two feet away when I see Tessa typing into her phone. Is she sending a text to Kent? She looks up, and snaps her head down quick when she sees me watching her and smirks. Jealousy seethes through me.

On the way out of the diner we run into a few girls from camp. Tessa stops to chat for a few minutes. Inquisitive eyes jut back and forth from Tessa to me. They’re all wondering.

Signaling to Tessa I step outside while she continues talking.

A buzz in my pocket, I slip my phone out and read.

Ashley:
You don’t need to be jealous over Kent. But you can still pretend. Tessa is enjoying every second of it.

I shake my head and laugh. That gorgeous little pain in the ass wants me to be jealous.

When she meets me outside I keep a straight face. “You might want to let Kent know you’re dating someone now, and let him know it’s serious.” My arm slips territorially over her shoulders. She leans into my side and I hear a little giggle escape. The jealousy I feel is because I’m ready to stake my claim on this girl. I’m ready for her to be all mine.

Not in the mood for a movie, or bowling again and definitely not ready to go back to camp, I drive us over to a trail I’d heard about but never been to. My truck rolls into a spot on the grass and I park under a large tree. The branches hang down low, leaves push up against my front window, blocking out the suns bright light.

“You ready, we can go take a walk, see if this place is any good.” I give her a smile.

“I don’t know.” Tessa lowers her eyes and shrugs. When she looks back up she meets my eyes and pulls in her bottom lip.

I know what that look means. I just don’t know what it means from Tessa. What does she want me to do? The girl leaves me clueless. “We can do whatever you want. You just need to tell me.”

“You’re parked a little close to the tree. Can I get out on your side?”

“Yeah.” The look hadn’t meant anything. I open my door ready to step out, but before I have one foot out she climbs over me stopping once she reaches my lap.

“Sorry,” she breathes, throwing her leg over to the side. Her legs wrap around me and pink moist lips are inches from mine. She wants to be kissed. I slam the door back shut and pull her in. She runs her hands up my arms to my shoulders. The touch of her fingertips is so soft and slow my skin comes alive with actual goose bumps. I’ve never been one for kissing, but Tessa has certainly changed my mind. I feel a finger tracing the outline of my tattoo. She sits back, lifting up my sleeve to take a good look at my lightning bolt. “The boy who lived,” she says in a sexy voice.

“Yup.” I nod my head even though I’ve got no fucking clue what that means. But whatever she thinks my tattoo is all about, I’m gonna let her think it. I relax my arms down at my sides, the safest place for them right about now.

Her lips flutter their way across my cheek. “Mm, that tickles,” she giggles, rubbing her mouth against my course stubble nearly driving me mad. When her lips line back up with mine and they open for a deep kiss, things start progressing. There is no hiding what’s going through my mind. I lift her up away from my lap.

“Are you ready to take this further?” I half ask, half groan.

“No, not yet,” she says shyly. “Why is
it
all, ya know,
excited
?” she whispers the last word.

The fact she even has to ask shows how inexperienced she actually is. “Extremely excited,” I state the hard-to-hide fact.

“Are you mad at me?” She leans back on the steering wheel and beeps the horn, making her jump back into me.

“No, I’m not mad you.”
I’m not
. “There’s no rush.”
But how long are we talking here?
“It’s fine.”
I just won’t be able to walk straight for the next hour or two
.

Tessa sits back in her seat, pulling one of her blonde curls over her mouth and frowns. She reaches up for the seatbelt and buckles herself in.

“What are you doing? You don’t feel like checking this place out?” I ask.

Her eyes light up. “You still want to? I figured you would want to take me back to camp.”

This is the part where I’m guessing Josh would end their dates. Well, not me. “Yeah, I still want to. I’m not ready for this date to end.” I open my door and hold it for Tessa to slide across the seat. Once she reaches me I help her down from the truck. She’s beaming.

Fingers intertwined we walk through the secluded trail, stopping for more long sweet kisses along the way. Hours later the sun starts to set and we head back before it gets too dark. It’s funny when we reach the entrance to the trail and realize we haven’t gone quite as far as we thought.

More kisses in my truck, more kisses once we reach the camp parking lot and more kisses in front of her cabin.

“Cassie?” Tessa peeps her head around the door and steps in. “She’s not here. Probably out already. Do you want to come in?”

I follow her inside. More kissing. Tessa pulls me backwards to her bed. Kissing on the bed leads to the deeper, passionate kisses that had riled me up earlier in the day. She moves her leg accidentally brushing up against the rightest wrong spot. I roll away from her groaning. I am so backed up from today. I think it’s time for me to go home and take a long shower.

“It’s okay. I’m ready to go further.” Her voice trembles. The words surprise me.

Isn’t she waiting for love? Does this mean she loves me? This is too soon for love. I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.

“Are you sure?”

Her tongue peeks out and licks her upper lip. She nods nervously.

Maybe it’s from all the kissing, or the way she looks with her hair spread out across the pillow looking up at me with those beautiful blue eyes. No other girl has ever made me feel this way before. Maybe the feelings I feel for her are love? I get up from the bed and slide my wallet from my back pocket. “I’m not sure if I have anything.”

Tessa springs up in the bed. “What are you talking about?”

She doesn’t know about protection. How naïve is this girl?

“Well, we want to be safe,” I say hoping she understands.

“Oh my God, I didn’t mean I wanted to have sex,” she says with a horrified expression.

“You said you were ready to go further.” I’m confused. The frenzied kissing in her bed, alone in her room, what else could it have meant?

“I’m sorry. I thought I was clear about wanting to wait.” She stands up and walks over to the other bed putting distance between us. Her hands cover her face, embarrassed. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”

“You’re killing me Tessa. I told you I’m okay with the waiting. You just confused me is all. I’m not sure what you meant.”

“It’s okay.” She walks over to the door and opens it, ready for me to leave. “I’ll see you around.”

“Around?” I arch my eyebrows up in disbelief at how quick things just turned. Kicking me out and now she’s brushing me off?

“Yeah, whenever,” Tessa lifts her shoulder in a half shrug.

“How about I come get you tomorrow morning, we can go out again?”

“Um, well, me and Cassie we’re going to do some stuff and I have to do laundry. If I have time I’ll look for you.”

I can’t keep up with all the crazy. This relationship is a constant guessing game. Tessa needs to come with an instruction manual in order for this to work. Actually, you know what…she does.

“Tessa, good night, today was great. Tomorrow if you have time, you look for me. I’ll make sure I’m easy to find.” I give her kooky unreadable face one last look, tip my head and take off stressed, confused and walking funny.

I go directly to my truck, drive down the dark gravelly road until the bars on my phone show me I have service and send the first text.

CHAPTER THREE

Tucker
: After a great day with lots of kissing, Tessa told me she was ready to go further. I assumed further meant further. I must have misunderstood. She’s upset… again. What do I do now?

Ashley:
Did you think Tessa’s further meant sex? LOL! Did you really think she wanted to go from kissing to sex? In one day? Tessa?????

Tucker:
This kind of stuff is new to me. All these feelings I feel for her. I don’t know what she meant when she said further. I don’t even know what’s going on half of the time I’m with her. Why do you think I contacted you?

Ashley:
Okay, relax. Best advice I can give you about Tessa is ‘no sudden movements.’ She is like a frightened little deer - any quick move is going to send her running.

Tucker:
So then what did she mean by ready to go further?

Ashley:
There’s kissing and there’s sex. And then there’s a whole lot of stuff in between. You’ve got to start slow with the stuff in between. It’s all new to her. I’m guessing her ready to go further meant you could touch her boob.

Tucker:
Touch her boob? And then what?

Ashley:
Touch the other one…if she lets you.

Tucker:
Whoa, that slow? This won’t be easy.

Ashley:
No, it won’t. If you need more advice, and I’m sure you will, I’m here.

Tucker:
What made you change your mind about me?

Ashley:
I guess I realized…you’re not like Josh. You’re like me.

Mark

Cassie and I leave the camp to get some dinner. The whole day had been one big tension filled day waiting for tonight. My body aches and I can’t wait until we’re alone. Just being this close to her has got me breathing hard. I don’t know about her but I plan on ordering whatever is quickest and shove it down my throat.

“Pull over,” she says motioning to a turnoff for a little hiking trail on the side of the road.

I do as instructed and park the car. She jumps into my lap and throws her arms around my neck. The desperate way she clings to me makes my own desperation take over. With her lips barely leaving mine she contorts her body to fit through the space over the front seat, falling, guiding me over as well into the backseat. This is unreal. My hands run all over her until they make their way up her shirt. Once I reach her breasts, her mouth opens and she cries out, tipping her head back. I push myself down into her and her hips rise up to meet mine bucking wildly underneath me. I need her to stop or this won’t last much longer.

“Mark,” her breath is ragged, panting my name. I feel her losing control, shaking underneath me. Her body goes off and she takes me with her. Both of us see stars without even unbuttoning our shorts.

I’m lying on top of her, both of us breathless staring at each other. My windows are starting to fog and as we slowly sit up we start to laugh nervously.

“You’re good?” she asks biting her lip.

“I’m good,” I say slightly embarrassed using an old t-shirt I found in the car to clean myself up. “It was just, all that waiting. It kind of caught up with me.”

She nods knowingly, smirking, giving me no privacy as she watches me take care of this humiliating task.

“What do you say we go get something to eat and maybe…come back here again?”

“Great idea.” I smile, lean over and give her a kiss. “This is perfect. I’m so glad we figured this out before I leave for school.” I feel like I got it all.

Cassie looks away. She jumps over the seat back into the front and waits. This time I open the back door, stepping out to go back into the front seat.

Over dinner I bring up the subject of my leaving for school again. Cassie grabs my leg under the table and steers the conversation to what we’re gonna do after we finish eating. As soon as the waitress places our food on the table and asks us if we need anything else. I ask her for the check. We leave two almost full plates on the table next to two twenties and take off.

I’m serious. I’ve got it all.

Tucker

Why make this harder than it is? Tessa’s not gonna come find me, no matter how easy I make it for her.

“Are you busy?” I ask once she opens the door.

“Yes, I told you, I’m going out with Cassie,” she stutters, playing with a splinter of wood on the door.

“I just saw her.” I point in the direction of the lake where I saw her walking. “Any other excuses?”

“Laundry,” she smirks at me smugly. “I have to do my laundry.”

“Get it. We’ll go do it together.” I match her smugness.

“Tucker, I’m not doing this. We both know last night proved once and for all we’re not meant to be together.”

“Why’s that? Because I misunderstood what you meant?”

“Yes, that was a big misunderstanding. We’re on completely different pages, looking for different things. You’ve been with three different girls in the hut here, how many have you been with
not
here?”