AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Luke’s breath whistled out of his chest. “I knew I liked that chick.”
“Yeah, PJ’s awesome. But I was mortified at the time, and I didn’t handle it the best. I just ran away like I usually do when I’m triggered and cried in the bathroom. I totally left her to deal with Wade, which was a shitty thing to do. And when she told one of our counselors what had happened and the school notified my parents, I was so pissed at her. Which was even shittier. She was just trying to protect me. Kids on the spectrum are pretty susceptible to all kinds of harassment, and I’m sure she thought that was what was going on.”
“You don’t think that’s what Wade was doing?”
“Probably, but like I said, it didn’t go too far. Who knows what might have happened if PJ hadn’t shown up?”
Luke hugged her tightly to his chest. “Your parents must have been furious when they found out.”
“Yeah. My dad called Wade’s dad and chewed him out. Wade’s dad was some big music mogul at the time. He’s in prison now for multiple counts of sexual harassment and assault.”
“Big surprise.”
Andy shrugged. “I don’t really know what happened to Wade. We moved from Louisiana the day after I graduated from junior high, so I never saw him again. Even if he had wanted to apologize for the incident, my parents likely wouldn’t have let him contact me. The whole thing was this huge wake-up call for them. Before that stupid thing with Wade, I don’t think they had any idea I was interested in boys. After it, they made me sit down for” — she cringed in his arms — “another talk.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah. In a nutshell, they told me all my horny teenager feelings were normal. Then my dad told me I was prohibited from going on any dates with guys alone until I was eighteen. Then my mom handed me this box.”
“What was in it?”
“Some sex-ed books from her clinic and a vibrator she’d next-day aired off the internet.”
“Whoa. Shit got real, huh.”
“Yep. I’ve never seen my dad flee a room so fast.”
Luke chuckled. “Sounds like your parents really love you.”
“I know they do.” She sighed again. “And I know I wasn’t always the easiest kid to love. They argued a lot about the best way to raise me.”
“That’s not on you. That’s on them. And, I’m going to beg to differ here, Andy, because I think you would have been an incredibly easy kid to love.”
She was an incredibly easy woman to love as well. The thought hit him as she was snuggled there all warm against his chest. Luke had never been in love before. But he was 99.9 percent certain that was the big emotion they’d been dancing around all evening.
Cupping Andy’s left breast in his hand, he felt the beautiful beat of her heart, and the words almost slipped from him. But then she distracted him once again.
“Well, so yeah, that’s the whole story behind the grabby-hands thing. I’m okay when you touch me like you’re doing now because I’m not caught off guard by it, and I really, really like it.”
He smiled. “But you don’t like surprises.”
“I don’t.”
“And your aversion to kissing… is that because of Wade too?”
“Maybe a little. But it’s mostly the SPD. I hate the slobbery sounds of French kissing, and I’m also sensitive to different tastes.”
“I’ll never eat hot dogs again.”
She giggled. “Youcanbrush your teeth after, silly.”
Luke was tempted to hop off the bed, race to the bathroom, and brush, floss, and bust out with the mouthwash, but damn, right now, she just felt too good in his arms to move. Also, there were a whole lot of other things they could do together besides swapping spit if that wasn’t her jam.
“So you don’t like kissing on the mouth,” he whispered, fingers flirting at the cup of her bra. “How ’bout here? Would you let me kiss you under here?” At her quick nod, he slid two fingers in — just to the first knuckle. “Would you let me kiss, and bite, and love on these pretty tits?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
“Hmmm, I bet they taste so good. I’d really like to see them.”
