One Week of Summer (17 page)

16)

St-Marie Pierre was small enough that it only had one nightclub, and Teekay explained to me that it catered to both the eighteen to twenty crowd and to the twenty-one and over crowd.  The bouncers used a bracelet system to keep track – those legally allowed to drink wore a bright pink band while those who were too young got stuck with a yellow one.  And on a cool summer evening like tonight, the club was going to be packed.  We’d been standing in line for less than ten minutes and already my sandaled feet had been stepped on twice and I’d taken an elbow in the ribs once. 

“You sure you don’t want me to use my considerable charm to get us in, VIP style?” Teekay asked for the fifth time.

“I’m sure,” I confirmed.

It was bad enough that I’d let him coerce me into coming to the club.  The last thing I needed was the attention of every patron in the place because Teekay Marcus bought our way in.

I stepped sideways quickly as a booted foot moved in the direction of my toes, and narrowly avoided being stomped on once more.

Teekay tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You sure you’re sure? And not just being stubborn?”

“Patience is a virtue.”

He bent down and whispered in my ear, “I’m afraid twenty-one is a bad year. I’m not feeling very virtuous, Maggie.”

I flushed and tried to step away, but at that moment, the line inched forward and someone bumped into me from behind, knocking me into Teekay’s arms.  Automatically, his slid his hands to my waist possessively and he didn’t let me go.  His eyes sparkled.

“I stand corrected,” he said. “Waiting in line
is
fun.”

But seconds after he spoke, a group of rowdy boys joined the group of giggling girls in front of us, jostling me and shoving me right off the sidewalk.  My ankle rolled and with an embarrassing shriek, I headed face-first for the pavement.  Teekay yanked me back just in time.  And his expression was no longer amused. 

The guys who’d knocked me over backed away from the glare in Teekay’s eyes, but he wasn’t really paying much attention to them anyway.  He was too focused on me.

“That’s it,” he growled. “Patience and virtue be damned.”

He slipped an arm to my waist again and supported my weight as he shouldered his way through the crowd to the front of the line.

The bouncer gave Teekay a familiar slap on the back.

“How the hell are you, man?”

“Been fucking better,” Teekay snapped. “The girl got hurt.”

The other man drew back the velvet rope from the door. “Were you waiting in
line
?”

Teekay grimaced. “Yes.”

“Why?”

Teekay rolled his eyes. “Don’t even ask.”

“You need help?”

“Nah. I’ve got it.”

The bouncer shrugged and handed over two wristbands.

Pink.

Just the thought of having a drink made my stomach churn, but before I could protest that
I
wasn’t even close to twenty-one, Teekay slapped them onto our arms and guided me into the club.

Even though it was barely past dark, the interior of the bar was full of people and the air was thumping with some bass-filled remix.  Teekay ignored the crowd and the music, and he led me to a high-backed bench in a corner.  He waited until I sat down, then slipped in beside me and lifted my foot to his lap.  He turned it back and forth, his fingers probing and massaging.  There might’ve been a few tender spots, but I was too busy trying to keep my heart rate in check to notice.  At last he sighed and let my foot drop.

“No sprain. Maybe a bruise, but I think you’re okay,” he announced.

“I could’ve told you that,” I countered. “If you’d asked.”

He slid a little closer and his hand landed on my knee and my pulse jumped.

“That’s true,” he conceded. “But if I
had
asked, then I wouldn’t have this readymade excuse to bypass the line.”

His fingers crawled up to my thigh.

And my next words, though teasing, were a little breathless. “Are you admitting that your charm wasn’t enough to get us in?”

His palm was almost halfway to my hip.  “You don’t think I’m charming?”

“Considerable money and considerable charm aren’t the same thing.”

“Ah. So don’t acknowledge my devastating charisma, but you’re happy to mention my wealth.” His thumb circled a little spot on my thigh and he leaned toward me. “Gold digger.”

I flushed. “That’s not what I meant.”

Teekay’s grin turned devious. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I don’t mind if you want to use me for my money. So long as I get something out of it.”

His hand slipped up even further.  Another three inches and he’d realize that I wasn’t wearing any underwear.  Again.  I glanced around the club a little wildly, sure that someone was going to notice Teekay’s rampant disregard for appropriate PDAs.  No one was looking our way.  That didn’t stop me from wriggling away.

“I think you’re too charming for you own good,” I stated.

My plan to put some space between us backfired.  I hit the wall behind me, and it did force his hand back down near my knees.  But the flash in Teekay’s eyes told me he knew he had me cornered.

“Are you trying to get away from me, Maggie?” he asked.

“No!”

“I call bullshit,” he replied softly.

“I swore a sacred oath to tell the truth,” I reminded him.

“A sacred
fucking
oath,” he corrected. “And speaking of fucking…”

“There’s a lot of people around,” I squeaked.

“I know.” His voice was tinged with a dark, sexy threat.

“You promised me a dance,” I said, desperate to distract him.

His hand was back in place, back to making its slow but steady crawl up my bare skin.

Oh, God.

I willed my knees to stay shut, but after the tiniest bit of resistance, Teekay’s other hand came up to grip my other leg.

He bent to whisper in my ear. “Open up, darlin’.”

And I was helpless once again.  I closed my eyes and leaned against the bench, tense with anticipation.  But it wasn’t his fingers that found me.

He slid himself down further and suddenly he was under the table.  My eyes flew open.  Teekay’s entire body was covered by the long, black cloth over the table. 

“Teekay, what’re you – Oh!”

His tongue took the place of his hand and his mouth took possession of me.

I gasped and my gaze whipped around the club.  Still, no one was looking in our direction.  The couple at the next closest table was locked in their own embrace.  The dance floor was packed.  A new song started up and the steady thump of the bass boomed through the bar.  It rumbled from the speakers and it made the bench pulse beneath me in perfect time with what Teekay was doing to me.

It reminded of the boat, turning me on all that much more.

His lips tugged at my clit, his tongue dug into my wetness and drew it out, making me slick with need.  I was dizzy with desire.  Never in my life had I felt such exquisite, mind-blowing pleasure.  My head reeled with it and my core thrummed with it and I knew –
knew
– there was nothing I wouldn’t do for this man I’d just barely met, if only he would keep going.

And he did.

His fingers spread me open while his tongue dove into me.  His thumb teased my most sensitive parts, driving me crazy. 

My hands gripped the leather bench and I could no longer hold back.  A deep, thrilling, animalistic noise escaped from my throat, making a waitress walking by us jump away.  I was too caught up to be embarrassed.  All I could do was shake my head at her, and she scurried away, a puzzled look on her face.  I didn’t care.

My body writhed against Teekay’s mouth.  Wave after wave of undulating release rocked me as he sucked and tasted the explosion between my legs.  He kept his lips in place until the last of the convulsions subsided, and then he dragged himself up to my side.

His eyes were blazing and his pupils had dilated even in the dark, the amber flecks pushed to the very edges of his irises.  My gaze slipped to his lips.  They were swollen with his efforts and he was breathing almost as heavily as I was.

“You,” he said, “are the most delicious fucking thing I’ve ever tasted.”

And he bent toward me and pressed his mouth to mine.  I could taste myself on him.  Surprisingly, it sent a renewed trickle of desire through me.  And it clued me in to the fact that while I was – very thoroughly – sated, Teekay hadn’t been.

Before I could stop myself, I fixed on the obvious bulge between his legs.

In a slick move I was rather proud of, I twisted so I was straddling him.  He struggled to put a bit of space between us, but the table pushed into my back, driving us together instead.

When he leaned back, putting his head on the bench behind him, exposing his tanned throat, I bent down to kiss the skin there.  My lips moved lightly at first, then with increased fervor.

His hands tightened on my thighs and I inched closer, willing him to slide them under my dress.  But he held them in place firmly overtop of the fabric instead.

“Maggie,” he groaned in protest. “Stop.”

“Sorry,” I said automatically.

I made a move to extract myself from his lap, but he held me in place.

“What are you sorry for, Maggie?” he demanded roughly.

“I-I-don’t know,” I stammered.

“Kissing me?”

“No.”

His hand ran up the full length of my leg and underneath my dress to squeeze my bare hip.  He dipped his face to my shoulder, bit into it.

“For making me want you?” He drove his other hand into my hair and twisted it painfully into his fist. “Remember you promised not to lie me.”

“No,” I whimpered.

“Ah. Not for kissing me. And not for making me want you. Which leaves me with this…You’re sorry because
you
want
me
.”

Teekay’s voice was carefully restrained.  But when he drove his lips into mine, there was nothing restrained about it at all. 

He sucked my bottom lip.  Hard.

Then he let me go and spoke gruffly against my mouth. “Make me another promise, Maggie.”

I nodded because there was no chance of forming a string of words into a coherent sentence.

“Never. Ever. Be sorry for wanting something. Especially if that something is me.”

“I promise,” I breathed.

“Good,” he replied, then kissed me again and finally let me go. “I’m going to get us a drink. We’ll have our one dance. Then I’ll take you home and you can climb in my lap all you want.”

As soon as he stood, I slipped to the bathroom, determined to calm myself before he got back.

17)

“One dance,” I muttered at my reflection, nerves making my stomach do its
own
dance.

I didn’t know what terrified me more – the idea of being in Teekay’s arms on display in front of the other club patrons, or the idea of being alone in his arms at his house. 

I also wasn’t sure what excited me more.  Which, of course, made me even more scared.

Am I crazy?
I wondered.             

Just a couple of days ago, I was terribly alone, wondering how I was ever going to make it.  No parents.  Grandmother gone too.  Not a single friend.

And now…Now I had Teekay.  Sort of.  For three days that were going by quickly.  My chest squeezed at the thought that they would be over soon.  It hurt to think about it.

Ridiculous,
I chastised myself.

But the walls I’d constructed around my heart – around my whole life – were near-to crumbling.  And the cracks in the walls were filling up with something else.  I didn’t know what it was, but it made me feel buoyant and full.

And whatever the feeling was, it scared me most of all.

I eyed my reflection once more, wondering what Teekay saw when he looked at me.  My hair was wild from having my head pressed into the bench while he licked and teased my most intimate parts, and my eyes were glassy with the after effects.  I tilted my head just a little, thinking I looked less like my mousey self and more like a girl who could hold onto a man like Teekay.  Even my scar – usually such a source of anxiety for me – glowed a little silver and added something interesting to my features.

“One dance,” I said again.

And this time it was definitely more excitement than nerves.

But when I pushed the bathroom door open, my stomach dropped to the floor.

Kirby stood outside, her hand up, poised to come in.  My eyes fixed on her claw-like nails first, then skimmed the rest of her appearance.  She was dressed in a barely-there tube dress and mile-high heels.  Her red hair hung all the way down her back, covering more skin than her clothes did.

Her mouth immediately twisted into a mean little smile. “I see not much has changed in the last few days. Still dressed in a shitty dress. Still checking me out.”

And when my eyes darted toward the hall that led to the club, she leaned in.

“Still looking to Junior to protect you,” she added.

“Teekay,” I corrected softly. “He doesn’t like to be called Junior.”

Kirby looked surprised, but recovered quickly, her smile in place once more.

“Well what do you know, she speaks,” she stated sarcastically.

I straightened my shoulders. “She does. And she thinks you should move out of her way.”

I made a move to push past her, but one of her sparkle-nailed hands snapped down on my arm.  I shook it off, and this time when I stuck my arm out, I did it forcefully enough to propel her backwards.

Kirby fell into the wall, looking far too pleased.  I took a wide step around her.

“Grew some balls, did we?” she called after me. “Or have you just got
Teekay’s
in your pocket?”

I stopped and spun back.

“What do you have against me, Kirby?” I demanded. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me or about my life. You have no reason to be unkind to me.”

She straightened her dress. “You’re right. I
don’t
know you. But I know Teekay, and that’s more than you can say.”

“I know him well enough,” I replied.

I was taking the bait, and from Kirby’s delighted expression, she could tell.

“What? Because he calls you darlin’ in that cute little fake-ass southern drawl he jacked from his dad?” Kirby laughed. “Oh, god. Wait. Did you think you were the only chick that’s worked on? Sorry, sweetie. I was young and gullible once too.”

All of the blood rushed to my head. 
She
had slept with him.  She didn’t have to state it outright.  It made sense.  Her acidity towards Teekay.  His marked hatred towards her.

“Yeah,” Kirby said. “Now you get it. Tell me something, Lesbo…Was it as unimpressive as I remember?”

“I need to go,” I whispered.

“Go where? Straight back to him? Trust me. You should run in the other direction. Money might be able to bury secrets, but it sure as hell can’t bury crazy,” she told me.

She was a self-serving, self-centred girl.

A bitch,
I thought before I could stop myself.

But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a ring of truth to her words.  Before I could answer her – whether to ask her what she meant or to vehemently deny what she’d said, I wasn’t sure which – a crash, loud enough to carry over the music, echoed down the hall.

Instinct sent me running.

But shock made me stop short.

It wasn’t the sight of Teekay with fist drawn back that froze me to the spot.  It wasn’t the bright orange drink, spilled across his crisp white shirt and dripping along the floor.  It wasn’t even the look of blind rage on his face.  In fact, it wasn’t Teekay at all who sent ice, painful and sharp, straight through my veins.

It was the guy sandwiched between him and the floor.  It was his familiar wave of dark brown hair and his narrow hips that made me sick to my stomach.  And when he jerked his head sideways and caught me staring at him, and his mouth dropped open in surprise, I had to choke back a dry heave.

Jimmy the Skunk.

“No,” I whispered. “Oh, no.”

I took a step back and slammed straight into Kirby.

“Watch it, Lesbo,” she grumbled, but I was too caught up in the thoughts tumbling through my head to pay any attention to her.

I have to get out of here. I have to leave. I have to –
And cut off sharply as a question occurred to me.
Why is Teekay staring at the boy I hate most in the world with that look of fury and why is he about to smash his face in? And why, of all the tiny resort towns up and down the coast had Jimmy picked
this
one?

Abruptly, two bouncers jumped in and grabbed Teekay’s arms and yanked him off.

Both of the big men were apologetic.  But to Teekay.  Not to Jimmy.  One of them grabbed the Skunk off the floor and dragged him away, and the other one gave Teekay a nod.

“Mr. Marcus,” he said. “You should have called us.”

“I’m fine,” Teekay muttered angrily, and plucked irritably at his orange-stained shirt. “Stupid asshole spilled his drink all over me.”

His drink?

That’s what he was so mad about?

Teekay’s eyes followed Jimmy as the crowd parted to let him and the first bouncer through.

“We’re here to help,” the second bouncer added.

“There’s the occasional piece of shit I prefer to deal with on my own,” Teekay replied, and then turned to me. “We’re leaving.”

My eyes whipped from him to the spot where Jimmy had disappeared, then searched the crowd for Kirby.  She was nowhere to be seen.  I glanced back to Teekay, wondering if he’d seen her too.

“Maggie!” he snapped.

My feet seemed to be glued to the floor.

“Now, Maggie,” Teekay ordered through gritted teeth.

His hand closed roughly on my elbow, and he propelled me across the bar. 

Teekay was moving so quickly that I was practically running.  At the door, he paused and growled something at another bouncer.  The big man spoke into a Walkie Talkie, then moved aside to let us out.  I glanced back and saw that he was now blocking the exit with his whole body.  Relief made me relax, but Teekay wasn’t done with his mad dash, and by the time we reached his sports car in the parking lot, I was nearly out of breath.

He reached into his pocket, yanked out his keys, and opened my door.  He didn’t move aside to let me in, though.  Instead, he smacked the glove compartment, hard.  It flew open and a bottle of pills tumbled to the floor.  Without looking at me, Teekay snatched them up, popped off the lid, shook two into his hand, swallowed them back quickly, then sagged against the car.

He held his keys out. “You need to drive.”

“I can’t.”

“You have to.”

“Teekay, I can’t.”

“Fuck, Maggie,” he snarled. “I
cannot
drive. You’ve got to put on your big girl panties and take me the fuck
home
.”

I took a step away from the venom in his words.

“I don’t have my license,” I admitted quietly. “Maybe Donnie can—”

Teekay drew a fist back and drove it into the car, cutting me off.

“Donnie has the night off. I’m not willing to give up this tiny bit of freedom.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Time for a crash course.”

“What?”

“In driving, darlin’.”

He tossed the keys my way and I just barely managed to catch them.

“I’ve never even started an engine,” I said.

“Do you want Kirby and her entourage to catch up to us?” he countered.

So he had seen her.  My heart pinched more than a little at the thought of them together.

“Maggie, is that what you want?”

“No, but—”

“In then.”

He dragged me to the driver’s side door, opened it, and shoved me inside.  Then he leaned across me and stuck the key in the ignition, filling my nose with a heady, alcohol-tinged scent that wafted from his damp shirt.

“First things first,” he said. “The parts.”

He slid a hand down my left leg, grabbed my foot, and pushed it onto a lever.

“Clutch,” he stated. “You’ll need to push that in if you want to shift gears.”

He moved on to my right foot.

“Gas,” he said, then shifted my foot once more. “Brake. Don’t get those two mixed up.”

Already my heart was hammering in my chest and we hadn’t even turned the key.

Teekay righted himself and met my terrified gaze. “Repeat it.”

“Gas, brake, clutch,” I breathed nervously.

“Good.”

He slammed my door shut, then strode to the passenger side and climbed inside.  He took my hand and placed it over the knob just in front of the center console.

“Gears,” he said.

“Gears,” I repeated.

“All right. Push in the clutch and the brake at the same time, then turn the key.”

I did as he instructed and was pleasantly surprised that the car hummed to life.  It vibrated underneath me.  For some reason, the feeling was altogether different than sitting in the passenger seat.

Power,
I thought as I remembered how Teekay had described his love of motorcycle riding.
It’s all about the power.

“You all right?” Teekay asked.

“Fine. Good. I’m ready.”

“Okay, darlin’. I want you to close your eyes.”

Close my eyes?!

Teekay chuckled at my expression. “Relax. I’m going to guide your hand with the gears and move it into first. I want you to
feel
the car shift. And when you do, I want you to move from the brake to the gas and ease up in the clutch. Slowly.”

“And then I can open my eyes?”

“Unless you feel like a
literal
crash course.”

My stomach churned.  But I still obeyed him.  And magically, the car obeyed me.  Or it sort of did.  It lurched forward, once, twice, then stalled.

“I can’t do this,” I muttered.

“You can,” Teekay argued. “And you will. Like the boat.”

“Just because you say so?”

This time, his chuckle was dark. “Exactly.”

He had me run through the same motions again, and on my third attempt, I finally got the vehicle moving.  It was still jerky and I was still shaking nervously, but Teekay kept his hand over mine and murmured instructions as we went, and I managed to get the car into second gear. 

The streets of St-Marie Pierre were quiet, and we made it to the edge of town with surprising speed.

“All right, Maggie,” Teekay said as we hit the final stop sign and I managed not to stall. “I want you to give it more juice. We’re in second now, but I want you to take it to third. As soon as you hit forty miles per hour, you’re going to push the clutch in again, shift to third, then let the clutch up and give it a little more gas.”

We moved onto the highway and I followed Teekay’s instructions.

We sped up again, and he had me move into fourth gear.  The acceleration scared me, but it thrilled me too.

“Am I doing okay?” I asked after a few silent minutes.

“Perfect,” Teekay said, sounding like he meant it.

Now that we were out of Kirby’s range –
and Jimmy’s, too –
he seemed to have calmed down.

That, or whatever pill he popped is working.