She put her finger to her mouth. “Shhh. I’ll pray for you.”
I shrugged it off.
ON MONDAY, JACKSON picked me up after school and we went to the fishing pond. He seemed distant as he drove. When we pulled into the parking lot, he rested his forehead on the steering wheel and took a deep breath. I scooted across the truck bench and put my hand on his thigh.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
I let my hand roam up his leg until he jerked his head up. “I don’t want to touch you in here,” he said.
“Why?”
“I just don’t. I brought a blanket. We can go sit by the shore.”
“Are you okay, Jax?”
“Yeah, I will be.”
We got out of the truck and walked close to the water’s edge and laid the blanket out. We flopped down and lay on our backs, my head resting on his shoulder. “It’s nice today.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, why do you seem so faraway?”
“I’m here,” he said.
I turned and propped my head on my elbow. I used my free hand to caress his face. “In here, you seem distant.”
He cupped my neck and drew my face toward his until our mouths met. We kissed and kissed. His hands went everywhere. I kept looking up to make sure there was no one around.
“It’s just us. Let me feel you,” he said.
Touching me through my clothes, he gripped my bottom and ran his other hand up and down my waist, lifting my shirt in the process. He kissed and sucked at my neck until he was trailing a path down to my chest. He pulled the top of my T-shirt down and kissed the swells of my breasts. I arched my back. “Ah, Jackson, don’t,” I said, but I wanted nothing more than for him to keep going.
Through my T-shirt, he circled my nipple with his thumb. “Let me kiss you here.” His eyes had that dreamy, lazy look of desire.
“Okay,” I said breathlessly.
He undid my bra through my T-shirt and rolled me over onto my back, covering part of my body with his. His hand traveled over my bare skin from the bottom of my shirt, up to my neck, until my breast was in his hand and he was touching me gently. I closed my eyes and whimpered. His hand slipped away, and I sucked in a quick breath when I felt him take my nipple into his mouth. I held his head to my chest as he kissed and sucked and teased me. His hand roamed down the outside of my jeans between my legs. I pulled his head up to kiss my lips again. I could feel him hard on my hip.
His fingers continued stroking and rubbing until I was writhing under his touch. He moved his hand up to the button of my jeans. “No. I’m on my period.”
“I don’t care,” he said, his voice strained.
“I do, Jackson. Stop. Not now, not like this, please.”
“Okay, okay.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” He pulled my shirt down but continued kissing me, only his kisses were lighter, just gentle little pecks up my neck.
I pressed my hand to the outside of his jeans, and his eyes shot open. “Don’t! I’ll either die or totally embarrass myself.”
We laughed. He lay back on the blanket.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Just let me catch my breath.”
I snuggled up into his body. The wind picked up, giving us some reprieve from the humidity. With my head resting on his chest, listening to his heartbeats even out, I watched the breeze ripple the water’s surface. Jackson’s breaths lulled me to sleep.
Around four thirty, I startled awake.
“Welcome back,” Jax said with a wink.
“I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
“I can’t believe what you were saying in your sleep, Em.” His smile was teasing.
“Oh my god, what did I say?”
“Just incoherent babbling at first and lots of drooling. Then you went on and on about how much you wanted me.”
I sat up and socked him in the chest. “Well, that’s no secret, doofus.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me back down on top of him. “Soon,” was all he said, and then he kissed me, slowly, sweetly.
“We better go. I need to make sure I get to the library before Mrs. Keller.”
We drove toward the library, and even though the day had gone perfectly, I had an unsettled feeling. As we approached the tall brick building, two figures waiting on the steps came into my view. It was Mrs. Keller, standing with her arms crossed over her plump belly, watching us drive past. Our eyes met, and she followed my gaze as we passed, but there was nothing in her expression that I could read. Not anger, not disappointment, and certainly not sadness. And then there was poor, sweet Sophia staring down at her shoes, her shoulders sagging, her body listless.
“Oh shit,” I said, and then laughed hysterically. “That was Mrs. Keller.”
As Jax pulled into the parking lot of the library, he kept glancing over at me in disbelief. “What are you laughing about?”
“Oh, just how fucked up this is going to get.”
“What will she do?”
“I have no idea,” I said.
He parked the car. We both looked out the back window to where Sophia and a glaring Mrs. Keller stood.