Read Online Lust - 1 by Robin Wasserman - Free Book Online

they loved, what they wanted. They’d talked, and talked, and that was al . As he walked her to her door, he’d hesitantly taken her hand, and she’d let him. They’d stood in the doorway, her hand warm in his, and he’d slowly lifted his other hand to her face, touched her chin, but before he could lean in, close his eyes, bring his lips to hers, she’d pul ed back. Jerked her hand away and slipped inside the house, without a word.
    It was on the third date—the date he’d figured would never happen after she’d run away from him on date number two—that he knew. They’d stood in the park, looking up at the stars—Mars and Venus would be spectacularly bright that night, she had told him. And with any other girl, that would just be a tactic, a ruse to get him somewhere dark and alone. But Beth just wanted to show him the stars. They’d stood close together, his arm brushing hers, their necks craned toward the sky.
    “It’s so beautiful,” she’d said in a hushed voice.
    “Yes,” he’d whispered. But he was looking at her. He put a hand on her waist, another on the back of her head, on her soft, blond hair, and drew her face toward his. And their lips met, their bodies came together. She’d been so hesitant, so scared and tense, almost pul ing away. And then she took a deep breath—he could feel her chest rise and fal in his arms—and her arms wrapped around him, her fingers running through his hair and caressing his neck. When they final y broke away from each other, she didn’t move away, but stayed close to him, her arms loosely wrapped around his shoulders. At first he’d thought she was crying—but she was laughing.
    “I had no idea,” she’d told him, when he asked why. “Al this time, and I just—I had no idea.”
    But she wouldn’t explain, just kissed him again.
    That was the beginning of everything. They had stil talked, al the time, for hours, but they talked in quiet voices, their lips inches apart, their bodies wound together. It seemed like it would last forever—but here they were, or rather, here he was, alone.
    It was al different now, now that there was this thing in their way that they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, talk about. And that was the problem. It wasn’t about what he wanted or what she didn’t want—it was about what neither of them could say. She was tense again, scared, hesitant, but this time there was no endless conversation, no soul baring. After al they’d had together, she wasn’t turning to him, and he was afraid to push—afraid that this time, if she ran away, she might not come back.
    He stripped down to his boxers, fel into bed, and, as his tired mind began to wander, pictured himself back in bed with Beth, curled up tight against her warm body.
    Except—
    Except that Beth didn’t have long black hair that cascaded down her back like a shimmering river, or eyes of deep green that you could lose yourself in for days. Glistening, ful red lips and a mischievous smile. And she didn’t cling to him, didn’t lean on him—didn’t need him.
    But someone did.

chapter
4

    They decided to meet that week to discuss logistics for the party. An anti-Dance Committee committee. Kaia had offered her place—though it was a fifteen-minute drive out of town, on a deserted stretch of broken-down highway, it had plenty of space and came with a guarantee of no parental supervision. And by Grace standards—both Grace the town, whose mining elite had had neither the time nor the inclination to build grand estates even when there was money to do so, and Grace the family, whose four-bedroom house, a holdover from the good ol’days, may have been on the right side of the tracks but was in dire need of a fresh paint job and a new roof—it was a palace. Five bedrooms, three bathrooms, maid’s quarters, a shiny stainless steel kitchen that would have been at home on the Food Channel—and the crowning glory, a capacious living room that took up half of the ground floor