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Authors: Sean Olin

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BOOK: Wicked Games
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They carried their shoes in their hands, dangling them, swinging them beside themselves, and the sand felt cool and soothing beneath their feet. They made their way to the upper edge of the tide’s reach and let the water wash past them.

A poignant silence floated between them: the sense
that they were together, feeling the same breeze, hearing the same rustling of the grass in the dunes, watching the same waves breaking in front of them, the same of foamy water licking at their toes.

Carter nabbed a stick and flicked it into the water.

Jules poked at a bubbling hole in the wet sand where a crab was digging below the surface.

They gazed out at the sea. The lights of Miami glowed red to the north. The dark outlines of the keys loomed in the distance to the south.

They were both separately, silently thinking the same thoughts. That it was nice being out here under the stars. Peaceful. There was no one else on earth but them. Like all their problems were far, far away.

“You cold?” Carter asked.

Jules shook her head. She smiled.

“You gonna go in?” Jules said.

“Are you?”

She made a face. “I will if you do.”

“I don’t have my trunks,” he said.

She laughed—one sharp
haw
—and then she said, “Silly boy. There’s no one here. You don’t need trunks.”

“Ha,” Carter said. Then he saw she was serious, and he couldn’t help grinning. “Really?”

“Swimsuits just get in the way,” she said. “Isn’t it better to be unconstricted? To feel the water sliding on your skin?”

Behind them, the deck of Jeff’s house seemed far away, and with it all Carter’s worries about Lilah. It was dark now, abandoned. The party had dwindled. The only light now came from the window of the rec room, and this was dim—probably Jeff and one or two of the guys watching
Anchorman
for the three hundredth time on the large-screen plasma mounted on the wall in there.

“I dare you,” she said.

Carter grinned. “Well, if you dare me, then—”

“I double dare you.”

Screw it.
Carter dropped his shoes and stripped off his shorts and T-shirt. He hopped out of his boxers. He ran into the waves and dove under. He felt like he was at the top of a roller coaster. The car he was in had just tipped and it was about to race down the ramp toward the loop-di-loop, and his heart was leaping up into his throat.

Crouching to keep himself hidden in the water, he turned back and waved. Jules was laughing so hard that she’d doubled over. Her long, dark hair dangled almost to the ground. When she flipped herself back upright and pulled the hair away, he saw that she had an expression of absolute joy on her face.

He watched as she stepped out of her skirt and pulled her tank top over her head, folding each article of clothing carefully and placing it all in a neat pile.

God, she was beautiful.

When she went to unhook her bikini top, Carter
politely looked away. He pretended to be suddenly fascinated by something floating in the water. When he heard her splashing toward him, he glanced up at her and caught a glimpse of her tan lines before she dove under.

She resurfaced in front of him, still giggling. “See?” she said. “Don’t you feel free?”

“Free as a bird,” he said. “Absolutely.”

They grinned at each other. They floated on their backs, staring up at the stars. They each in their own way were surprised by what was happening. And though they didn’t speak of it, they both maintained the illusion that what they were doing now was entirely innocent, that it could stay that way, if they were careful, and they’d get through this night having done nothing more than take a swim together.

There was something so liberating about it, though. Carter had almost forgotten it was possible to feel like this.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he splashed water at Jules and ducked under and swam away.

When he resurfaced, he saw that she had an expression of mock shock on her face. “You know that means war,” she said.

They danced around each other, edging gradually closer and closer to each other, and then she sent a wallop of water in his direction. He slapped one back at her.
Splash, splash, splash.
They created a tsunami between them.

And then, the game got riskier. It accelerated. Someone had to win. Carter dove under and took her legs out from under her, flipping her. She spun and grabbed at his arm. They were, all of a sudden, grappling with each other, wrestling in the water. Touching. For the first time they were touching.

He felt like he was melting inside. Every time he went to push her under one more time, he lingered a little bit longer by her side, soaking in the slippery warmth of her skin. And he sensed she was doing the same thing when she went to take him down.

She bopped up right in front of him and somehow, he had his arms wrapped around her. He didn’t even realize how it had happened. He was holding her now. He could feel the dimples at the base of her back. She had her arms around him, too, her finger tracing lightly up and down his spine.

And then it was too late. Neither of them was quite sure who started it—maybe both of them did, maybe it just happened, but they were kissing now. Grazing lips. Playfully rubbing their noses against each other.

It felt so good. Their hands slipping around on each other’s soft skin. Something wild and beautiful was passing between them. Neither of them wanted to be the one to tame it.

Jules forced herself to pull back.

“If I let you keep kissing me, you’re going to end up hating me,” she said.

“I won’t.”

“You will. You’ll blame me for whatever happens with Lilah. I don’t want to be that girl.”

“You won’t be,” he said. “I promise.”

He kissed her again, this time harder, more deeply. He wanted to feel every inch of her skin, to get inside her skin, to shrink the distance between them until they melded into one person. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t remember ever desiring Lilah like he desired Jules right now, right here.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, each searching for an explanation to the mysterious emotions that had been unleashed in them.

And when they kissed again, whatever lines they’d been worried about crossing had been washed away by the tide. They couldn’t ignore what their bodies were telling them. She could feel his excitement pressing against her abdomen. Cupping the backs of Jules’s thighs with both of his hands, Carter lifted her halfway out of the water and pulled her tight to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and they drank each other in.

The next morning,
when the sun came streaming in through the ocean-facing glass wall of Jeff’s pool house, Carter woke up in a sweat. It was six a.m. The wind chime mounted above the sliding door was tinkling, and he was lying under a pale green sheet on the pool house’s futon, which had been pulled flat into bed mode.

He was naked, and next to him, Jules was naked, too—beautifully, lusciously naked. Seeing her there, her lips slightly open, her breasts rising and falling with each breath, a hook of tenderness tugged at his heart.

For a while he watched her sleep. He studied the way that the light played on her skin. She had a small tattoo
of a dove on her shoulder. He hadn’t noticed it before. He lightly caressed her arm with his knuckle.

“Mmm.” She stirred. She turned onto her side and smiled at him without opening her eyes. “Hi.”

When she finally opened her eyes, she didn’t say anything. She just gazed at him, a pure, simple tenderness softening her face.

He leaned in to kiss her, brought his lips close to hers, but just before they touched, his mind clouded with thoughts of Lilah. Somehow, kissing Jules in the light of day felt very different from kissing her under the moonlight. It was like Lilah was watching them this time.

Pulling away, he sat up and blinked in the golden light of the sunrise as it streamed in through the glass wall of the pool house. He held the bridge of his nose between two fingers and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get his head around what he’d done. He’d never once cheated on Lilah before, and though he didn’t regret what had happened with Jules, it worried him that he didn’t know what it meant.

Gradually, though, she registered his anxiety. She pulled the sheet up to cover her chest. She leaned up on her elbows and studied the tension constricting the muscles of his tan back.

“We should get up. We need to get out of here,” he said in a voice pinched with worry.

Tugging lightly on his hand, she coaxed it away from
his face and got him to look at her. They locked eyes briefly, and in his hazel irises, she could see the worries he’d shared with her the night before, while they’d been sitting on that porch, pressing their way back into his thoughts. She held his hand softly in her two hands, took it between her palms, and brought it to her mouth, kissing the meaty pad of his thumb.

“You’re thinking about what you’re going to tell Lilah,” she said.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”

“It’s okay. I don’t expect you to all of a sudden be my boyfriend. I understand. You’ve been with her forever. I don’t want to be the girl who broke up the class couple.”

She meant this as a mild kind of joke, to put him at ease, but Carter flinched when she said it. “What do you mean?” he said.

Reluctantly, she let go of his hand. “Just let me know when you’re ready,” she said. “Maybe you never will be. I don’t know. It’s the chance we take. Like the I-Ching, remember?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve created a total mess, I know.”

“It takes two,” she said.

He’d tensed up—listening to something outside.

There was someone moving around by the pool. The rustles and metallic clankings of cans in a trash bag. They couldn’t see who it was—the pool-side wall of the house wasn’t made of glass like the ocean-side wall.

Before either of them had time to gather themselves, the doorknob turned and the door flew open. There was Jeff, hiding behind a pair of Ray-Bans, his short hair matted with bedhead. He was shirtless, barefoot, wearing only a bright yellow swimsuit festooned with blue palm trees.

Jules was up and slammed shut into the bathroom with her clothes before he could say, “Oh! Shit!”

Jeff’s trash bag full of empty beer cans fell to the floor. He lifted his Ray-Bans onto his forehead and his bloodshot eyes bugged out of his head as he stared at Carter in disbelief.

“Wow,” he said. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

7

After Jules left,
Carter sat with Jeff by the edge of the pool, dangling his legs in the cool, clear water.

“But, man. Lilah. She’s totally wound up already. Can you imagine how she’s going to react to this?” he asked. Part of him thought that the best thing to do at this particular moment would be to drown himself in the chlorinated water—at least then he wouldn’t have to face her.

“Just don’t tell her,” Jeff said. “I sure as hell am not going to say anything.”

Carter shook his head wearily. He resisted the urge to unload the secrets only he and Lilah knew about the depths of her depression after the swim-team blowup.
Instead he cupped a handful of water in his hand and splashed it on his face, hoping this might help him think more clearly. “It’s not that simple,” he said.

“You’re eighteen years old, dude. These are your best years. You’re smart. You’re good-looking. Chicks are gonna be into you. And you know, that’s a good thing.” He punched Carter lightly on the arm. “I gotta hand it to you, though, bro. That Jules is way above your weight class. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I’d never believe you could bag someone like that. You know what I mean? Hot chicks are my thing. You’re the old married guy. But, yo, I guess not so much, huh?”

This was just like Jeff. He could be so crude sometimes. And even though Carter knew his friend was trying to be funny—playing his part as the freewheeling hedonist he thought he should be, and talking tough in a way he would never dare to act—he wasn’t in the mood for jokes right this moment.

“Come on, man,” he said. “I’m trying to be serious.”

Jeff sized him up for a few seconds, studied the misery clouding his face. “Okay, being serious,” he said. “Whatever happens, you’re going to live. I mean, you know that, right? Either you’ll stay with Lilah and try to forget about last night, or you’ll finally leave her and then you’ll be a free man. You want to know what I really think?”

Carter shrugged. “Sure.”

“I think maybe this could be a wake-up call for you. I’ve always thought you could do better than Lilah, if you weren’t so scared of trying.”

“I take it back,” Carter said. “I don’t think I do want to hear what you think.”

“I’m serious, dude. Sometimes I wonder if you even still like her. It’s not like the two of you are feeding your larger lives . . . you know what I mean? Except for last night—and look at how that worked out. When was the last time the two of you hung out in public together? Sometimes it seems like you’re just still with her because you’ve been dating her so long you don’t know how to do anything else.”

“That’s not fair,” said Carter. He was wishing he’d asked someone else for advice, but there was no one he trusted more than he trusted Jeff. And since Jeff had walked in on the scene of the crime . . .

“Whatever. I’m not trying to be a dick, Carter. I’m just saying.”

Carter slipped his hand into the water and waggled it around.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” said Jeff. “What we really should be talking about is your cover story.”

Jeff slid into the pool and swam out a couple yards. He doused his sunglasses and then put them on. Treading water, he turned to Carter and said, “The best lies are ones that keep close to the truth, so really, it’s simple.
After Kaily and Teresa took Lilah home, you hung out with me and the guys. This actually happened—for a minute or two, anyway. If she double-checks with Reed or Andy or Carlos, they’ll back you up without even realizing that they’re supporting your alibi. So, you had a few beers. The guys left. Then you had a few more. And you figured you were too drunk to risk driving home. Cool?”

BOOK: Wicked Games
12.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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