Escalation Clause Read Online Free PDF Page B

reality loved to touch.
    After dumping her unceremoniously into the pool, he stood, smiling as she emerged. Pretending to be hurt, so he’d crouch down with concern, she reached the side and let him hold out a hand to her . Too easy. She yanked hard, pulling him into the water with her.
     

    They sat together on the swing, huddled under blankets, the small fire he’d started in the pit warming them in the cooling Michigan summer night. She snuggled under his arm, and tried to ignore the muscles of his thigh, so strong and so near hers. She clenched her hands together.
    “Do you still need me to take care of that tool of a prom date?”
    She smiled, loving the smell of him—sweat, chlorine, and man, all coiled in her brain, making her nearly breathless. Why the guy would suddenly do this to her, after all the time they’d spent together was beyond her. But, she knew one thing—she wanted him to kiss her so badly her lips burned.
    “No, I shook him off.” She laid her head back. Sensing his gaze on her, she turned and met it. “It’s nice to see you, Brandis.” Their faces were close enough to…. He smiled, which made her shiver.
    Brandis frowned, then looked away, speaking up into the night sky. “Yeah, well, I understand you are a Taylor-house boarder this summer?” He draped an arm around her shoulders. She had never felt safer than at that moment.
    She let her hand drift to his leg, dying to feel it. He took it, pressed it to his lips without looking at her. “Don’t,” he said, his voice light. She leaned into his torso again.
    “Jack said he’s moving into the Church Street house with you,” she stated, for lack of anything better to say. He stiffened, pulled away from her slightly. Without thinking, she put a hand back on his leg, loving the sensation of his hard flesh under her palm. “Relax,” she whispered.
    “Um, yeah, well, tell you what,” he leapt up, ran both hands through his close-cropped hair. “I’m gonna head back.” She stared at him, a foreign sort of need pulsing through her, centered between her legs. His running shorts were still wet enough for her to see the distinct outline of his…. She looked away, mortified at herself for even thinking it but unable to get the image of his obvious erection out of her brain. Clearing his throat, he yanked on his running shoes and croaked out, “See you later, Mo,” before he took off through the gate, running a fast clip out of the southwest suburb, towards central campus and the house he shared with three other ROTC guys—and her overprotective brother.
    She watched him disappear, then poured water over the small fire and headed inside her newly adopted summer home. She knew it  was not wise to get tangled up with Brandis, but she acknowledged in nearly the same thought that she wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her young life. He was wrong for her on many levels. He was her brother’s friend. And Jack would never in a million years approve. Brandis was older, nearly twenty-three, compared to her turning-eighteen-in-a-month. He was black, but color had never played a part in the friendship he’d shared with Jack or in hers with Denise. Ann Arbor was a very diverse and open-minded place, typical of many college towns nestled in the middle of conservative states. But even that seemed taboo now for some reason.
    Her teeth chattered in the air conditioning. She could practically feel his lips on hers, sense his hands on her flesh, as she yielded her virginity to him, suddenly viewing it as a burden she wanted to throw off like a veil, just as long as Brandis would catch it. She buzzed with a strange, newfound energy, and she clutched the blanket they’d shared, still smelling him as she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Three

     
    Maureen clutched the red plastic cup full of cheap beer and watched as her brother, Brandis, and several of their college friends held court beside the pool. She sipped, getting angrier by