Free Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz Page B

look at her, hoping she sees what I mean without my having to say it. Wondering if she’d care if I kissed her right now. I want more than anything to kiss her again.
    “I’m happy you feel that way, Derik,” she says. “Just think, if that Sean-guy hadn’t come into your diner, we might never have shared like this.”
    “I’ll have to thank him,” I say, and she smiles at me, not breaking the hold I have on her eyes.
    And I think she’s right about being my destiny or me being hers. We were definitely meant to meet.
    She goes and sprawls herself out on my bed, starts flopping around, telling me how wonderfully yellow everything is in here—even though my room is blue and gray. Then she stops, walks on her knees to the foot of the bed, and looks up at me like she could cry at any second. “Drink me up, Derik, for even just a short spell, and make this mine. My roots in the soil. Will you do that for me?”
    Soil?
    She gets up and makes a beeline for me. She plasters her lips to mine, thrusts her tongue in my mouth, yanks me onto the bed, and I go toppling on her.
    She lifts my shirt up with her teeth. Then pulls it up and off, and I’m hoping she notices my body—my chest, my abs—the result of working out at a gym ten hours a week, but she’s too busy unbuttoning my jeans, ripping them down with my boxers until they get stuck at my sneakers. She pulls off my shoes, and now it’s just me, completely exposed, and her, exploring every inch of my body with her lips and tongue. She actually sucks my nipples.
    I decide I should try and take her clothes off as well, but she pulls away when I touch her lacy sleeve. Instead, she stands up on the bed and gives me a striptease. First those sticks from her hair, so that the bun comes undone and her hair just falls, long and thick and wavy, like a mermaid. Then she peels off her top, and she’s just got some bra-thing on underneath, and you can see right through it. She takes the straps down over her shoulders like they’re suspenders, and rolls the thing down her waist, over her hips, off her legs, and then kicks it in my face. And she just stares at me, watching me watch her, like she can tell what I’m thinking—that she’s the most unbelievable girl I’ve ever seen.
    She blows me a kiss and then moves her fingers to the side of her skirt. She pulls at the ties, and the skirt just falls off her. Underneath she’s wearing these silky boxer shorts, with hearts all over them, that make me laugh out loud. There’s a pocket inside the hem. She reaches in, takes out a purple condom, and opens the wrapper with her teeth.
    I lean back while she puts the thing on me, and it’s really weird, but all of a sudden I can’t help but think how I’ve never felt so close to a girl before, like she can read my mind and can be totally crazy, smart, and cool all at once.
    She lays her naked body on mine, and already I’m holding back. “You’re luminous, Derik,” she whispers, leaning in to kiss my shoulder. But then I feel teeth—they sink into my skin, right beside my collarbone, completely catching me off guard, and so I let out a shriek. Lucky for me, I think my shrieking gets her going even more, because not two seconds later, she’s circling her hips and letting out these catlike cries, right on top of me. I can’t hold on much longer, so I try to distract myself and stare at the crystal stick around her neck, but it’s bopping up and down right between her Mary Janes, and so it’s no use. Before I know it, I’m all done.
    She rolls off and snuggles into my side. And I’m thinking that she liked it, that she’s all set, because she’s smiling at me, fingering through the gel in my hair, like nothing’s wrong. Like she’s completely satisfied.
    “You’re wonderfully crimson,” she says.
    And I want to say something totally incredible back. Not a line or anything bogus like that, but something smart and different and special. I want to tell her how awesome