First Time: Penny's Story (First Time (Penny) Book 1) (12 page)

“
That’s something you should
have asked before you got me into this pool, isn’t it?” He pointed
at the number on the warning sign on the wall. “It’s only five feet
deep. I think we’ll be fine.”

I held my hand up to indicate exactly where
the water would hit me, which was somewhere around my eyes. “You’ll
be fine. I’ll be in trouble.”

“
I promise I won’t let you
drown,” he vowed then plunged under the water himself.

I kicked onto my back and settled into a
float, staring at the canopy overhead. When he resurfaced, I mused,
“You won’t let me drown. That’s in my top five must-haves for
boyfriends.”

He drifted toward the deep end. “One of my
top five requirements for girlfriends is buoyancy. How long can you
float like that?”

Having your ears underwater is not conducive
to conversation. I’d caught his words, but they’d been muffled. I
stood, laughing. “For a while. I wouldn’t try to do it across the
English Channel or anything.”

He smirked. “So, you’re vetting me as a
potential boyfriend?”

That was a weird question. Why else would I
have gone out with him in the first place? Even weirder, what was
he doing with me if he wasn’t interested in being my boyfriend? “Of
course I am. That’s what dating is about, right? You go on a date
with someone to see if you like them enough to have a second date.
Then you go out on the second and subsequent dates to find out if
you want to see them exclusively. And then, you start seeing them
exclusively—”

“
And they move in, you spend
a few years in that type of domestic bliss, then you get married,
grow apart, and finally divorce.” The words rolled out of him on a
tide of bitterness that made my heart ache for him. He looked
immediately remorseful. “I’m sorry, like I said, it’s—”

“
Been a rough day,” I
finished for him. Could I ever sympathize. After Brad had dumped
me, I’d spent the next few weeks in a constant state of
anti-romantic protest. I’d gone along on Sophie’s bachelorette
weekend in Vegas, and it had been fun, but the whole time, I’d been
silently resenting being around three people who were madly in
love, two of which were in love with each other. “Believe me, after
what I went through with Brad, I was ready to give up on dating and
other people in general before Sophie set me up with you. But I
don’t share your unhappy view of the relationship evolution
chain.”

“
You’ve been cured of that
pessimism?” There was more disbelief than hope in his
question.

“
I was never really
pessimistic to begin with.” I smiled, because I wanted badly to
convince him, though no one had been able to convince me back then.
“I believe that, someday, I’m going to find the person I’m meant to
be with. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have gone out with
you.”

“
Fair enough,” he conceded.
“For what it’s worth, I’m very glad you did.”

“
I am, too.” And I was. I
really was. Even without the numerology report to back it up, even
without the fortune cookie that had me counting down the days until
the end of the summer, I knew whatever this was, it wasn’t
inconsequential.

I moved toward him, treading water to stay
above the surface. “Isn’t this so much better than sitting home
alone on our respective couches?”

“
The view is definitely
better.” When he said things like that, I started to wonder how
firmly I could stick to my vow of chastity.

“
I know you want me to think
you’re talking about the windows, but I’m on to you,” I said,
putting my toes down experimentally.

True to his word, he didn’t let me drown. He
took my hand and pulled me closer to him. Which was just fine by
me, because I wanted to touch him. I’d wanted to in the car on the
way over. I’d almost taken his hand as we’d walked through the
lobby. I just wanted to be nearer to him than casual distance all
the time. I slid my hand up his arm to rest on his shoulder. He
didn’t have Brad’s twelve-hours-a-week-at-the-gym arms, but he
wasn’t as out of shape as he claimed.

I couldn’t keep my cool. I started giggling.
I needed a way to cover for myself. “When I first started coming
here, I was afraid it was actually a part of the UN.”

His hands skimmed down my sides, settling
around my waist. It was the most contact we’d had so far. His long
fingers pushed into my skin just slightly, just enough to hold me
and let me know he was there, and he turned us in a circle, like a
very slow dance.

“
I have to admit I had a
moment where I thought that, myself.”

Wait, what did he
think?
My short-term memory had fizzled out
at the touch of his hands.
Oh, the UN.
Right.
“Well, we’re safe. I promise. The
worst they can do is kick us out.” I put my arms around his neck to
hang on and lean back, my legs floating up at his side. “But my
plan is that we pretend you’re a delegate staying here.”

“
Do I get to pick which
country?” he asked.

“
Hmm. The obvious choice,
and the one you’d be more likely to pull off, would be Scotland.
Sorry.”

“
Scotland doesn’t have a
delegate in the UN. We’re just lumped into the United
Kingdom.”

I almost defended my joke with a long,
rambling explanation about how I’d been in a model UN club in high
school and I already knew that, but how seriously geeky could I be
without ruining the mood entirely? I was already all over him,
apparently to no avail because he hadn’t made a move. I doubt he
would be turned on hearing about how I’d been Brazil once. Instead,
I swam a lazy circle around him. “Well, I’m giving you a seat.
You’re the delegate from Scotland now.”

I pulled him farther into the deep end, so
I’d have more of an excuse to cling to him. “And how does the
delegate from Scotland feel about the delegate from the United
States, at the moment?”

“
The delegate from Scotland
likes the delegate from the United States very much,” he said. It
wasn’t exactly the declaration of passion I was looking
for.

I once again wrapped my arms
around his neck, sending totally obvious
kiss me
vibes. It was nice to be
face-to-face with him, but I was starting to worry my flirt was
broken. I would have to be direct. “The delegate from the United
States calls for a resolution to address the fact that Scotland
hasn’t kissed her, yet, even though the United States is sending
out all sorts of signals.”

“
Are you?” He sounded
genuinely shocked.

So, obviously, I hadn’t been doing my job. I
rolled my eyes at myself. “Yeah, with all my sexy United Nations
talk.”

Since vibes weren’t working, I turned to
physical cues. I pulled him down with my hands at his neck and
pressed my mouth to his. He got the clue, then.

I’d never thought of kissing as counting for
physical intimacy. To me, physical intimacy was when you got down
to the serious stuff. And not just intercourse; I’d loved snugging
with Brad after I’d gotten him off. Laying against his shoulder,
smelling the mix of cheap detergent and cheaper deodorant that
clung to his T-shirts, I’d never wanted to be anywhere else.

But kissing Ian? I felt the same thing,
multiplied by ten. Our tongues stroking against each other, the way
his body felt pressed against mine was so intense, he might as well
have been touching me everywhere. My nipples were so hard it hurt,
and I knew he could feel them.

I used him for leverage to pull myself up
tighter against him, and his arms wrapped around my waist. God, we
even fit together right. And we’d never tried to fit together
before.

The giddy crush of energy behind my ribs
became too much pressure, and I pulled back. I had to, or I
wouldn’t be able to breathe. Our eyes locked, and adrenaline
coursed through me; I could probably use it to lift a car or run a
marathon. Instead, I used it to kiss him again and got caught up in
the moment. My legs hooked around his hips, and my pelvis bumped
against him.

It may have been shortsighted of me to start
kissing him when we were both half-naked. His erection was both
impressive and obvious.

I jerked away, untangling
myself with a gasp. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, that was
really—”
Awesome. “—
forward of me.”

Ugh, how would I have felt if he’d gotten all
gropey with me, without asking permission? And in the genital area?
I was such a sex offender.

He looked away and scratched
his neck, the way he did when he was uncomfortable, and I
felt
so
bad. “No,
it’s fine. A bit embarrassing is all. A good, solid school book
would be very helpful right now.”

I laughed, because I was
nervous, and I covered my face because I was completely mortified.
“Okay, I think the water is acting as an aphrodisiac. We may need
to get out.”
And probably never see each
other again because I jumped you.

“
Agreed,” he said, and my
heart twisted. “Although, I hate to cut our adventure short. Why
don’t you come to my place and have dinner?”

Because my years of celibacy
will snuff out like a candle in a closed jar.
I raised an eyebrow and stalled with a joke. “Let me guess,
you’re going to cook dinner to lull me into a false sense of
security, then bam, five years from now we’re married and you’ve
never cooked since.”

“
No, I’ll be upfront about
that right now. Marriage or not, I don’t cook. But I’ll have
something delivered.”

He hadn’t freaked out about the marriage
thing. That was awesome. It was so immature and stupid the way guys
would act terrified of marriage, even when it was mentioned in
passing. As a divorcee, wasn’t Ian supposed to be even more wary? I
added the fact he was so chill about it to my list of things I
liked about him.

I wasn’t sure going to his place was a good
idea. I didn’t think he was a serial killer or a rapist or
anything, despite Rosa’s constant warnings that dating was the
number one killer of women aged eighteen to sixty-five. But
considering how little control I had over myself when we were
together, it still might not be the greatest idea.

My body was a hundred percent sure I should
be giving it up to Ian, like yesterday, but I resolved I wouldn’t
even think of the idea until after Labor Day. If I was the love of
his life, like the fortune cookie said, and if we were as
compatible as our numbers suggested, then we would have plenty of
time to get to the physical fun, right? I didn’t want to be yet
another cautionary tale in my maternal lineage.

I could control myself, I decided. And so
far, Ian had proven cautious about respecting my boundaries.

He also lived in a clock. How could I pass
the opportunity up?

I agreed after my moment of consideration.
“Okay. I’m really curious to see what the inside of that clock
tower looks like.”

“
Oh, it’s all gears and
pulleys.” He had such a great smile. “You’ll have to be very
careful about where you put your shoes, or they’ll rotate off and
you’ll never see them, again.”

I was pretty sure he was kidding. I jerked my
thumb over my shoulder. “I’m going to go get changed.”

When I got out of the pool, I had the worst
wedgie in the world. There was no chance I could pretend to not
notice it. I adjusted as much as I could without actually picking
my butt and hurried off to the locker rooms.

If he still wanted to have dinner with me
after he saw that, he was a keeper.

In the locker room, I did a quick rinse off,
combed my hair, and threw on my clothes. Rosa and I had this deal
that if we’re going out with someone we don’t know well, we text
each other our whereabouts and what time we plan on returning. I’d
broken our agreement by coming to the pool with Ian without
thinking about it, and I wasn’t going to do it a second time. The
problem was, Rosa would probably try to convince me not to go to
Ian’s place, because Rosa is sensible and knew I wouldn’t want to
make a stupid choice based on hormones and a dangerous amount of
privacy.

Slouched on the bench, I
held my phone in front of me and took a deep breath. I typed
in,
Having dinner at Ian’s
house.

She responded
immediately,
ho don’t do it.

I’m not going to do it. Just dinner.

A beat later, she replied,
again,
ho don’t do it.
And this time, she put a thumbs down emoticon.

Okay, I had checked in to let her know my
plan. But she wasn’t my mother, so I threw my phone in my purse and
went to the sink. I’d braided my wet hair, and it fell over my
shoulder as I leaned down to splash cold water on my suddenly hot
face. When I came up, I met my gaze in the mirror. With my very
best determined expression, I said, “Ho. Do it.”

* * * *

On the drive to
Ian’s apartment, it was clear we were both super nervous. First, he
apologized for his apartment not being “very tidy” and kept
noncommittally singing along with songs on the radio before he
realized what he was doing and stopped himself. But once we were
there, in the building, in the elevator, he seemed to relax, and so
did I.

“
I’m so excited right now.”
I bounced on the balls of my feet, despite my strict
no-jumping-in-elevators policy. I knew it probably wouldn’t really
send the elevator crashing down, but I never liked to tempt
fate.

Speaking of fate, Ian was very tempting.
Whatever had brought him down during the day, there was no trace of
it, now.