AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tate squares his shoulders, standing at an insane six-foot-four, and making himself an even match against Mitch. I feel evil and guilty realising how attractive they both look right now, so I squirm on the bed in shame.
“We don’t even know that she wants that,” Tate counters, folding his arms over his chest.
I quietly take a sip of my icy water.
Mitch makes a sort of unfunny laugh. “It doesn’t matter what she wants. It doesn’t matter whatyouwant, and it doesn’tmatter whatIwant. If her mom wants her to do it, she’ll do it. She has that kid in chains.”
I shift uncomfortably because I don’t like the fact that Mitch seems to sense how repressed my life has been. Introverted nerdy girls are not born this way. If it wasn’t for all of the stolen moments that I had with Tate when I was younger, I wouldn’t really have any childhood memories atall.
Tate clenches his jaw. “College or no college, I can make it work. I can do long distance.”
Wait, what?
Mitch keels forward like he’s about to rip his own brains out. “Tate!” he hisses incredulously. “The girl doesn’t evenlikeyou, man! She broke your heart and she’s going to do itagain! When will you ever learn?”
Wait,WHAT?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say, but when I try to stand I feel like I’m going to vomit a little, and I realise that I didn’t eat dinner tonight. They both turn to look at me so I swallow and try to wet my mouth. “That’s not what went down, Mitch,” I say. I take off my glasses to blur out his hot angry face. “And you’re right about my mom, I don’t get a say. But I’m almost eighteen and… whatever we were doing here, my mom doesn’t need to know.”
Whatever I just said was definitely the wrong thing to say. Mitch is so furious that when he turns back to Tate he’s practically aglow.
“Are you telling me,” he grits out slowly, “that my almost-nineteen year old son was about to engage in sexual relations with a high school girl, and, to top it all off, sheisn’t even eighteen yet?”
Wow, I really did say the wrong thing.
The room is so silent it’s vibrating. We both know what Mitch is implying.
“This can’t happen again,” Mitch says in anand that’s finaltone. “I don’t want to catch either of you trying this because therewillbe consequences – and I’m not talking about from me.”
Mitch flashes me a distressed look and runs his hand over his hair. Then he claps Tate on the shoulder and nods for him to get out of the room.
Before he leaves Tate’s eyes meet mine and there’s a dark flame flickering beneath the surface. He’s thinking about where his hands have just been, working, squeezing, rubbing, pressing. He’s thinking about my softness splayed out before him, ready and willing to take his touch.
Mitch nudges him, irritated, but I see everything that I need to know.
Tate grips his belt with one hand and his crucifix with the other.
Tate is my penitent, and he’s ready to confess.
Chapter 16
Three Years Ago
After the final bell on Friday I shrug on my waterproof, pulling up the hood to save myself from the torrential downpour, and I speed-walk to the bus stop just outside of the school grounds to wait for Tate. I’m glad that he wanted to hang out after school rather than on a weekend, because this way it will be easier to lie to my mom about my whereabouts. If we were going to go somewhere on a Saturday I would have had to make up a story about hanging out with Kit, which admittedly probably would hold solid seeing as my mom doesn’t have Kit’s home telephone number, but this way is easier. I can say that I stayed back at the library or that I was helping out with the Homecoming committee. Textbook excuses. Easy peasy.
When the bus stop comes into view I see that Tate is already there. A couple of his friends are hanging around him under the shelter but when he spots me he weaves his way out of the group and saunters towards me, with outstretched palms and a panty-dropping grin. I don’t even have time to worry about the cheerleaders and football guys who are watching us disbelievingly because, as soon as I’m three feet away from him, Tate grabs me by my waist and presses his lips to mine. He’s instantly drenched from the rain but he remains completely unfazed. He walks me backwards around to the side of the shelter so that no one can watch us, and my eyes flutter shut ashe wraps his forearm around my lower back beneath my jacket and blazer, squeezing my body as close to his as possible. We haven’t hung out or spoken in a couple of days so he’s making it pretty clear that he’s been missing me. My cheeks heat up athow muchhis body is proving that he’s been missing me.
As if he can read my thoughts, Tate shifts his hips away from me and mumbles a “sorry” before he moves his mouth back to mine and then kisses his way down my neck.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he murmurs and then he lifts his head so that he can look into my eyes. This is my second time ever being kissed so I’ve lost pretty much every ounce of sense from my brain in the past twenty seconds. I just stare up at him, nod, and try to calm my breathing. “Want me to tell you where we’re going, or do you want a surprise?” he asks, smoothing his thumbs up and down my throat. If he keeps doing that I’m going to forget how to speak entirely.
“A surprise,” I say breathlessly, and he gives me a dazzling grin.
“A surprise,” he concurs, and then he wraps my hand up in his so that he can walk us back inside the bus shelter. Tate starts talking with his friends again, totally at ease, but I can sense some of the girls looking at me like I’m an extraterrestrial. I look at one of them from under my hood and she startles, surprised that she was caught in the act. I continue to stare at her until she looks away uncomfortably, her expression irked and embarrassed.
When the bus arrives only Tate and I get on it, probably because this one is heading to the town’s outskirts rather than the residential suburbs. He pulls his card out of his pants and tells me to go and sit at the back so that he can inform the driver of our stop without me hearing. Theback? God, Tate Coleson really is a popular guy through and through.
I make my way up to the seating area at the back and, by the time I’m sat down, Tate is already almost by my side. He shakes the water from his hair, slides into the seat beside mine, and then he kisses me again, this time more fervently. The bus is empty and there’s no one to catch us so he moves his hand to my hip and he scoots me so that I’m closer to him. As the bus pulls away from the stop Tate lifts his lips from mine and his eyes rake down my body. When they reach my legs, poking out from beneath the hem of my skirt in thin rain-soaked tights, he runs his hand over my knee until he’s firmly clutching the sensitive underside. The sight of his large tan hand encompassing me so easily makes my breath stutter in my throat.
