Free Monster by Christopher Pike Page A

playful l y in the side. “ Here you're not even out of high school, and you've sold out to the money-hungr y destroyers of our environment.”
    He gra bbed her and pulled her close. “ Who cares about this world? I t's only here for our pleasure.”
    “ What about our childre n? And our children's children?”
    “I can't worry about th em.”
    “ You should, ” she said, feeling his warm breath on her face.
    “ Why? They might never be bo rn.”
    He kissed her. He kissed the way he ate, and that wasn't ba d. Deep and hard, but still with enjoyment. She felt hersel f sink into him; he pulled her ti ght against his body. He was like a redwood, strong and firm. His arms went round her, and his hands went down her back and over her but t. He was aggressive – Mary had told her. But she wasn't Mary, although last summer she wished many times she had been. She wasn't an expert in the art of making love. She had never even had a guy touch her below the waist . Jim moved his right hand to the front of her blouse and started to slip it down. God, it felt good, just his fingers getting close. But she pulled back.
    “ Don't I get a chance to come up for air? ” she asked, tr ying to joke.
    He reached for her. “I'll give you my air.”
    She held up her hand. “ Hold on a sec. This is a little fast for me .”
    He smiled. He dropped his hands to his side and stared out at the water. “ Do you want to go for a swim? ” he asked.
    “The water's too cold.”
    He started removing his shirt. “ Hah ! We're both hot . Besides, the night's warm. Come on .”
    “ I don 't have a bathing suit.”
    He pulled his shirt over his head , laughing. “ That's the best part.”
    Angela felt dismayed. This was their first date, after all. No thing like this had ever happened to her in Chicago. J im unzipped his trousers and began to pull them off. It didn’t look as if he was wearing underwear.
    “Wait,” she said.
    “ What? ”
    “ I can't swim ,” she lied.
    “ We don t have to go out deep .”
    “I have a cold.”
    “Angie.”
    “ I'm just getting over one, r eally. I shouldn't go in the water.”
    He threw back his head and laughed at the moon. “I’m going swimming. You can join me if you want, or you can watch. But you'd better be careful if you watch, because I might suddenly jump out and pull you in. I've done it before, you know.”
    She giggled nervously. “I didn't know that.”
    Angela tried not to look while he pulled off his trous ers, but she ended up getting an eyeful. He had a nice – well, he was a nice boy, in all respects. Great buns.
    Except he was kind of pushy, a side of him she had never seen before. It was funny how you really didn’t know someone till you got intimate with them.
    This is not int imac y. This is sexual insanity.
    Jim ran naked into the water, splashing like a kid. At waist level he dived under, and she counted more heartbeats than she wanted before he reappeared, at least fifty yards further out . He was a powerful swimmer. The light of the moon swam around him, and the ripples he sent out w ere like miniature silver waves.
    “Come on!” he called.
    “ Next time! ” she called b ack.
    He swam to the centre of the lake, a quarter of a mile out, and had her worri ed that he'd cramp up and drown. But then he rolled on to his back and leisurely began to padd l e back in. She took off a shoe and touched the water with her f oot. She shook her head. I t must be fed with underground s treams, she thought. The daytime temperature had averaged over eighty degrees for the last few months, and the water couldn't have been more than sixty degrees.
    Jim must have a hardy constitution.
    She saw an example of that hardy constitution a few min utes later when he reached the shore and came running out of the water towards her. She couldn't believe it. Until a f ew days ago her life was dull, and now she had a hunk, naked no less, chasing her in the middle of the night. She too k one look at him