Extraits

“Did that hurt? On your lip?"

"Not too much. I said a few choice four-letter words, though.”

“I was holding the door for several girls in front of you, and I waited for you to catch up. When you reached me, you looked pleased, and a little surprised. Unlike the others, you didn't expect the door to be held for you by some random guy. You smiled up at me and said, 'Thank you.”

“Wait."

"Stop?"

I bit my lip and nodded.

"Stop everything, or just go no further?"

"Just...just no further."

"Done."

He gathered me into his arms and kissed me, one hand tangled in my hair and the other one caressing down my back, our hearts pulsing out a cadence that the musician in me translated into a concert of lust.”

“Rather than raising his voice like everyone else, he leaned close to my ear and asked, "Dance with me?" I felt his warm breath and inhale the scent of his aftershave -something basic and male.”

“He brushed my tears from my face. "How did i find you?"

"Maybe i'm exactly where i should be after all.”

“I had to stop linking every single thing that happened to me with Kennedy. Realization dawned then, that he was still my default. Over the past three years, we’d become each other’s habit. And though he’d broken his habit of me when he walked away, I’d not broken my habit of him. I was still tethering him to my present, to my future. The truth was, he now belonged only to my past, and it was time I began to accept it, as much as it hurt to do so.”

“I haven't tried this with anyone...signifacant in a long time. It's never worked before."

"You haven't had sex before?"

"I have. But not with anyone i cared about or...knew. One-time things. That's all."

"That's all-ever?"

"It's not like they 've been tons of them. There were more before, in high school, than there have been the last three years."

"Lucas? I said yes, and i meant it. I want this-as long as you have protection, i mean. I want this, with you. So this is okay. Please don't ask me to say stop."

"I want it to be better than okay. You deserve better than okay."

"You 're shaking, Jacqueline. Do you want to-"

"No." "I'm just a little cold."

"Better?"

"Yes."

"You know you can say it. But i'm not asking you to, this time."

"Good."

His earlier hesitation gone, he removed the last scraps of fabric we were wearing, fixed the condom in place, kissed me fiercely and rocked into me.”

“You have a freckle here," he whispered, sweeping his tongue over a spot just under my jaw. "It drives me crazy every time you 're above me. I just want to do this..." The jentle draw of his mouth pushed me over the edge, and my knees tightened around his hips as i rocked against him.”

“Why don't you go get in bed?"

I stood, laying my hand on his chest and staring up at him. "Is that a dare?"

He laid one hand over mine and pull me closer with the other. Leaning down, he kissed me gently. "It absolutely is. No falling out of it allowed, though.”

“I'm so proud of you. I want you to tell me about it, when you can... and when i can stand to hear it. I'm still too angry right now.."

"Okay."

"I knew i'd fucked up. I was getting on my bike, coming after you-and then you were running up the driveway. When he tackled you...i wanted to kill him. I think if Charles hadn't stopped me, i would have killed him.”