Free Sliding (The Stone Series) by Kitty Berry Page A

and
she whispers in my ear, “Remember you don’t need to do anything you don’t want”
and Danny high fives Tate who is looking closer to vomiting than before. We
agree to meet in my room before anyone else is awake.

 
    Tate unlocks my door then he scoops me up into his arms making me squeal,
“Tate, put me down, what are you doing?”

 
    “I’m carrying you over the threshold, baby” Tate responds with a smile,
he’s looking a little less queasy now.

 
    He puts me down after he kicks the door closed behind us.

 
    “Tate, you were so amazing in the game today. Aren’t you like so psyched?
You won the game for us. There’s no way you won’t make varsity next year,
you’ll probably start over all those other guys that sucked today. If it wasn’t
for you we would have lost States!” I say meaning every word of it.

 
    Tate smiles at me, pulls me into his arms and says, “I don’t care what
any of them think about me as long as you just meant what you said. All I care
about is that you think I’m awesome. You mean so much more to me than all those
guys and coaches put together.”

 
    Tate kisses me softly on my lips and he lets out a quiet moan. I feel his
tongue try to enter my mouth and I meet his tongue half way. As he’s kissing me
he slowly pushes me back onto the bed and he gently climbs on next to me
without breaking our kiss. Once I am on the bed Tate pops a tape out of his
pocket and says, “I made this for you, let’s put it in.”

 
    He gets up and puts the tape in the radio and the first song that comes
on is “Object of my Desire”.

 
    He shrugs at me saying, “What, it’s how I feel about you. I desire you,
don’t laugh at me” while I break out in a fit of giggles. This causes Tate to
come back to the bed and ask, “Brooklynn Adams, are you laughing at “The Tate
Taylor” who just won the State championship game? Because if you are I think I
am going to have to tickle you mercilessly.”  

 
    I feel the bed sink as Tate lies on the bed next to me and starts
tickling me on my sides causing me to beg and plead with him to stop. He
doesn’t mean to do it but he makes my shirt slide up a little revealing the
bottom of my red lace bra. Tate stops tickling me, I look up to see what’s
happened and I notice where his gaze has fallen. Tate notices my bra and
freezes unable to take his eyes off of the red lace poking out under my shirt,
looking as he did earlier, like he might be sick. I know I should probably pull
my shirt down but I don’t, instead I grab Tate by the back of his neck and I
kiss him with an intensity I have never felt before. Tate responds by moaning into
my mouth and I feel him press his body into my right leg. I can tell he’s
waiting for me to either stop him nicely or slap his face. I have no plans on
doing either.

 
    Later when we’re lying next to each other I tell him about the
conversation I had with the girls the previous night. Tate questions why I was
talking about him with the girls, concerned that I broke our promise to not
discuss what we do in private with our friends.

 
    “Um, we weren’t talking about us really, when it started they were just
talking in general about sex but then they said they could help me if I had any
questions. They asked me about us and I just told them we hadn’t done it yet so
they gave me a sex ed. class way better than the one at school. You have Eric
telling and showing you all this stuff and I always feel five steps behind you.
I would have made a total fool of myself tonight if they hadn’t explained a few
points to me. Are you mad at me?”

 
    “No, I’m not mad at you, I think you’re adorable and I’m glad you have
someone to talk to too but no telling them about us…it’s for your own good. If
you tell them about what just happened they’re all going to want me for
themselves and you don’t want that do you?” Tate teases me. “I’m going into the
bathroom, I’ll be