“If I'm a pig, maybe Jo needs a little pork, then, huh?” I whisper. Jo's several feet ahead, too far away to hear.
"Don't even --" Katherine starts. She wrenches her arm from my hand and before I realize what she's doing, her hand is on my chest, pushing me off balance.
Into the fucking lake.
I sputter when I come up for air, the water shockingly cold even though it's summer. Katherine and Jo are laughing as they walk away, and Katherine looks over her shoulder at me, grinning wickedly.
I wave at her with my middle finger before I pull myself up onto the dock and out of the water.
If anyone else had done something like that to me, it would be over. But Katherine amuses me. If she wants to play this way, I can't think of a more entertaining way to spend the summer.
“Casual,” my father says. “Casual but...appropriate.” He’s been droning on for the last twenty minutes, giving us a big lecture about tomorrow morning’s breakfast, the summer kick-off to his re-election campaign. I look down at my food again, picking at my salmon even though it’s my favorite. I'm trying to distract myself from the hell on earth I've found myself in, sitting here at the table with my father and Ella and Caulter. Ella nods enthusiastically and beams, while Caulter sits in the chair perpendicular to me, suspiciously quiet. He's not made a single sarcastic comment during the entire meal, and his weirdly pleasant demeanor makes me think my salmon might very well be poisoned.
Caulter nods at something my father says, as if he's had some kind of personality transplant. Maybe he hit his head when I pushed him into the lake. That wasn't one of my finer moments, but Caulter damn sure doesn't bring out the mature side of me.
I'm wondering what the hell he has up his sleeve, when I feel something on my calf and nearly jump out of my skin. I catch Caulter's eye and he winks.
It's his foot.
I jerk my leg over, glaring at him. Footsies at the table. That's real fucking mature.
“You know, sir,” Caulter says. In two years at school, I've never once heard Caulter use the word sir. "I was thinking about the re-election campaign, re-evaluating my priorities for the summer.”
“Caulter…” Ella hisses. Ella isn't stupid enough to be falling for this, I think. She's smart enough to know her son.
“Ella,” my father says, silencing her by covering her palm with his. “Let him speak. Maybe he’s realized that this is exactly what he needs for the summer. Responsibility."
Ella’s face is pale, and she sips from her wine glass. She looks meaningfully at Caulter. “Yes. Maybe he’s realized that there are significant things at stake.”
I'm sure Ella is trying to subtly threaten Caulter with his trust fund, and I hope he's not stupid enough to be playing some kind of game with my father's campaign.
“I’m impressed by the importance of family, mom,” he says.
Yeah, right.
“And by the idea of contributing to a political campaign," he continues. "I think I'd like to try having a little structure, some boundaries." Caulter slides his foot up the side of my leg again, and I move my leg away.
“You should be involved." My father is stupid enough to fall for Caulter's brand of bullshit? “Structure and boundaries. It's what you need. You see, Ella, I've said this a hundred times. Structure and boundaries are the two most important things when raising children. Look at Katherine. She's a product of that."
"Katherine is a fine example of that, sir," Caulter says, sliding his foot up my leg. This time, I kick him, hard on the shin, and he flinches.
“You know, I'm just really tired,” I say. “The sunshine has taken it out of me.”
“Oh?” my father asks. “Did you go swimming?”
“No, the water is still too cold for me. But Caulter went for a dip out in the lake, didn't you, Caulter? The lakes here can be so refreshing."
My father looks at Caulter. "You just got here this afternoon," he says. "Already taking advantage of the lake?"
Caulter smiles and shrugs. "I just couldn't resist the water."
"I didn't think you liked the beach, Caulter," Ella says.
“Oh, well, it’s the lake, Ella,” my father says. “It's different from the beach.”
“You know, sir,” Caulter says. “A swim in the lake was exactly what I needed to cool off. And I just want to say that Katherine has gone out of her way to make me feel welcome here. It's like we're already family. Bosom buddies."
I choke on my water, prompting a quizzical look from my father. “Wrong pipe,” I gasp. “Could I excuse myself?”
“Go, go,” my father shoos me away. “Caulter, I’m pleased to hear that you’re…” His voice trails off as I walk out of the room and upstairs.
Flopping down on the bed, I think about how in the world I'm going to get through this summer. I can already tell that I’m going to be in a perpetual state of annoyance.
Annoyance and sexual frustration.
I could tell that Jo didn't quite believe it when I said he annoyed me earlier, as I walked away from the dock with her, after pushing Caulter in the lake.
"I don't know," she says. "He's pretty hot." She turns to look at him, pulling himself out of the water and up onto the dock. He makes a show of stripping off his shirt and shaking out his hair, knowing we're looking at him, and I turn away. I'm surprised he hasn't stripped buck naked right there; the prospect of that isn't entirely unpleasant. “I’d do him," she says.
“You’d do Charles Manson."
“Don’t be a bitch, Kate. He’s hot and has a reputation,” she says. “Besides, he obviously has a thing for you.”
“Of course he doesn’t.”
She raises her eyebrows. “He does. And you have one for him, I’d say.”
“I do not." I shake my head. “Emphatically, absolutely no. He’s a disgusting pig who thinks women exist solely so he can go after them. Didn’t you see him eye-fucking you?”
Jo laughs and cocks her head to the side. “No,” she says. “I didn’t. But you were paying a lot of attention to where his eyes were.”
“I’m not talking about it,” I insist. “Caulter Sterling is a no. A huge no.”
“I'm just saying.” She walks toward her car, this total beater she’s had since we were sixteen. “I bet he’s great in the sack.”
“Jo!” My voice is sharp. We're standing in front of my house, where anyone could overhear. But she just grins and shrugs.
“Later, bitch,” she says.
Jo is not right about Caulter. Caulter Sterling certainly does not have a thing for me, unless that thing involves trying to irritate me as much as possible. Or get his dick in me again.
The image of Caulter Sterling's dick flashes into my head and I try to push it aside. Caulter was a one-time deal, I tell myself. That's the whole point of a one night stand -- you never have to see the person again.
Of course, most one night stands don't then show up on your front doorstep to live with you for the summer.
It was one time only.
One time that happened to be really fucking good. Like, mind-blowingly good. The kind of thing you read about in dirty books.
My breath quickens at the thought of Caulter inside me. I can put him out of my head. I don't need to think about that night with Caulter. But once my mind goes there, it can't stop. It doesn't want to stop.
Caulter is above me, his movement gentle. I told him I wasn't a virgin; we both knew I was lying. He's probably deflowered lots of virgins, I think; he's probably an expert in virginity-taking. The way he moves inside me, his tenderness afterward as he cleans me up, makes me think that's definitely the case. Caulter Sterling: Virginity Removal Specialist. I picture the words on a business card, and it makes me laugh.
An hour later, he's teased me to the brink again, until I'm dripping with the anticipation of him. He rolls me on top of him, and I squirm, self-conscious under the intensity of his gaze. But his grip on my waist is firm. “Ride me."
"Caulter, I don't know --"
"Do you feel how fucking hard I am?" he asked. "I want you again."
"We don't always get what we want, Caulter," I tease.