Free Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One by Wendi Wilson Page B

her
face with her hands in embarrassment. A few seconds (minutes? hours?) later she
felt his weight shift and his hands grabbed her wrists. He gently pulled her
hands away from her face and when she looked up, she saw a big goofy grin on
his face.
    “Oh, God,” she
whispered, “please, please don’t laugh at me now.” She felt the backs of her
eyes burning, old memories of Jason Dawkins resurfacing.
    His grin
disappeared and was replaced by a serious expression. “Melanie, I would never
laugh at you or your honesty. I was smiling because, well, nothing could make
me happier right now than finding out that I’m your first real kiss. Just
knowing how special this is to you, how special it is for both of us, makes
this moment, right now, the best moment of my life.”
    A tear escaped her
lashes and he released her wrist to catch it on his finger. Then he ran that
hand behind her head and pulled her close.
    “You,” he
whispered, his face close to hers, “are perfect. That kiss was perfect. And all
I want right now is to kiss you again.”
    And he did.
    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~
    “Shut up!”
    “No, really, he
asked me to be his girlfriend, officially.”
    “Shut up!”
    “Tara, if you want
me to tell you the rest of it, you’re going to have to stop screaming ‘shut up’
at me.”
    “Oh my God, Mel,
this is fan-freaking-tastic!”
    Melanie pulled her
phone a couple of inches from her face so Tara wouldn’t bust her eardrum with
all the screaming. Melanie was lying on her bed after dinner. She had been
trying to study, but she couldn’t concentrate so she called Tara instead.
    “And then he
kissed me.”
    “Hallelujah!
Finally! Well? Spill. How was it? Amazing? Earth moving? Cataclysmic?”
    “I almost bit his
tongue.”
    Tara’s laughter
pealed through the phone. “No, you didn’t. Please tell me he didn’t notice.”
    “He did. And he
stopped the kiss and asked me what was wrong.”
    “What did you tell
him?”
    “The truth. Oh,
God, Tara I seriously thought he was going to laugh at me when he found out I’d
never French-kissed before.”
    “What? You do
realize we are talking about Jeremy here, right? I’ve been telling you for
months that he’d never laugh at you. Wait, he didn’t, right?”
    “No, he didn’t. In
fact, he said the most wonderful things anyone has ever said to me in my life,
then kissed me again and again.” Melanie sighed. “Okay, go ahead.”
    “I told you so! I
told you so!” Tara laughed for a minute, then calmed down. “Okay, I‘m done.
Really. Seriously though, Mel, I am so happy for you. You totally deserve this
and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow so I can hug you!”
    “Thanks Tara. I
love you too.”
    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
    He sat in his car,
surveying the area. He had arrived early this morning to make sure he didn’t
miss her walking through the parking lot. He was still having trouble
containing himself around her. A mixture of guilt, anger, and lust drove him
mad every time he clapped eyes on her, which was nearly every day.
    He was angry, so
angry that she had gotten away from him before he made her submit. He had been
so ready to take her, so stimulated, and he was right on the verge of complete
control when that damn stupid dog attacked him.
    He remembered the
feel of her beneath him, all soft and curvy, no bones digging into his skin. He
knew she’d feel like heaven on Earth. That was where the guilt came in. Because
unlike the last time, in the last town, this was not a spur of the moment
decision.
    He had been
fantasizing about her since the day they met. He made all sorts of plans in his
head, then put them down on paper. Before he knew it, he was executing those
plans and had her on the ground.
    He couldn’t excuse
his actions as a crime of passion, a flare of insanity brought on by lust. No,
this was premeditated and planned to perfection. He had just needed the
opportunity, and he knew he had it when she went to that party. He waited,