Nick pulled her up to the tips of her toes and looked into her eyes. “I want to take a bite out of you,” he said, then he lowered his mouth to hers and softly bit the fleshy part of her bottom lip.
For several long heartbeats Delaney stood perfectly still, too stunned to move. Her head clogged with a myriad of astonished sensations. Nick Allegrezza was softly biting her lips and her breath caught in the top of her lungs. His mouth was warm and firm, and he kissed her like a man who’d had a lifetime of experience. His hands moved to cup her face, and he slipped his thumbs along her jaw to her chin. Then he pressed downward until her mouth opened. His warm tongue swept inside and touched hers, and he tasted like beer. Hot shivers ran up her spine and she kissed him like she’d never kissed anyone else. No one had ever made her feel like her skin was too tight at the base of her skull and across her breasts. No one had ever made her want to act first and deal with the consequences later. She placed her hands on the solid wall of his chest and sucked his tongue into her mouth.
And always in the back of her mind was the absolute incredibility of it all. This was Nick, the boy who’d spent equal time terrorizing and fascinating her. Nick, the man, made her feel hot and breathless.
He ended the kiss before Delaney was ready, and she slid her palms to the sides of his neck.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said and grabbed her hand.
This time she didn’t ask him where they were going.
She didn’t care.
Chapter Seven
They drove three miles out of town and parked on the sandy shore of Angel Beach. The property was secluded and they had to open a wire gate to get to it. It was an area Delaney knew fairly well. Dense forest gave way to white sand, and it all belonged to Henry.
Nick leaned his behind against the hood of the Mustang, then planted one foot on the bumper. He pulled two Coors out of the six-pack, then set the rest next to him. “Have you ever drank a beer?” he asked, popping the two tops and handing one to Delaney.
She’d been allowed to taste Henry’s. “Yeah, sure. All the time.”
He slanted her a glance from beneath his lashes. “All the time, huh?” He raised the can to his lips and took a long pull.
Delaney watched him and took a sip of her own beer. She hid her grimace by turning her back and looking out at Lake Mary twenty feet in front of her. A shimmering path led across the dark ripples to the full moon hanging low above the water. The trail looked magical, like you could step from the shore onto it and never get wet. Like you could walk across the water and end up someplace exotic. She tried her beer again, and this time she succeeded in keeping the frown from her face. A cool breeze whispered across her skin, but she wasn’t cold.
“I take it you don’t want to go to the U of I.”
She turned back toward Nick. Streaks of moonlight glistened in his dark hair. “No, I don’t want to go to college right now.”
“Then don’t.”
She laughed and took a few more sips of her beer. “Yeah, right. When has what I wanted ever counted for anything? Henry didn’t even ask me which classes I’d like to take this fall. He just signed me up and paid for it all.”
Nick was quiet for a moment and Delaney didn’t have to ask him what he was thinking. The irony spoke louder than words. Nick worked his way through college to pay for the privilege his father was forcing on Delaney. “Tell the old man to shove it. I would.”
“I know you would, but I can’t.”
He raised the can and asked, “Why not?”
Because she’d always felt like she owed Henry for rescuing her mother and her from that tiny Airstream trailer on the outskirts of Las Vegas. “I just can’t.” Her gaze took in the black outline of the mountains before resting once again on Nick. “This is so weird,” she said. “I never would have thought you and I would be drinking buddies.”
“Why’s that?”
She looked at him like he was slightly retarded.
“Because you’re who you are. And I’m me,” she said and took a few more sips.
His gaze narrowed. “You mean because you’re the mayor’s daughter and I’m his bastard son?”
His bluntness surprised her. Most of the people she knew didn’t come right out and say things like that. They kissed the air above your cheek and said you looked good when you didn’t. She wondered what it was like to have that kind of freedom. “Well, I wouldn’t put it that way.”
“How would you put it then?”
“That your family hates me, and my family doesn’t care for you.”
He tilted his head back and drained half his beer. He studied her over the top of the can until he lowered it again. “It’s a little more complex than that.”
“True. You’ve spent most of your life torturing me.”
One corner of his full mouth lifted. “I never tortured you. I may have teased you occasionally.”
“Ha! When I was in third grade you told me that Reggie Overton stole little blond-haired girls and fed them to his Dobermans. I was terrified of Reggie for years.”
“And you’ve spent most of your life walking around with your nose in the air as if I smell bad.”
“No, I haven’t.” Delaney didn’t think she’d ever looked at anyone like that.
“Yes, you have,” he assured her.
“Than why did you kiss me tonight?”
His gaze slid to her mouth. “Curious.”
“Curious to see if I’d let you?”
He chuckled quietly and let his eyes move down the row of buttons closing her dress. “No,” he said as if a rejection had never occurred to him. He looked back up into her eyes. “Curious to see if you taste as sweet as you look.”
She stood as tall as she could and took a few chugs of beer for courage before she asked, “What did you decide?”
He crooked his finger at her and said in a low and sensual voice, “Come here, wild thing.”
Something in his voice, what he said and the way he said it, drew her to him like they were connected by string and he was just reeling her in. A funny little tickle pulled at her stomach.
“I’ve decided you taste like my Uncle Josu’s huckleberry wine. Definitely sweet, but with a warm kick.”
She hid her smile behind the Coors can. She wanted to be like wine. “Is that bad?”
He took the beer from her hand and set it behind him on the hood of the car. “Depends on what you want to do about it.” He set his beer next to hers and stood in one smooth motion. He placed two fingers beneath her chin and stared into her eyes. “Has anyone ever kissed you until you were so hot you were burning up?”
She didn’t answer, not wanting to admit that she’d never been so consumed or burned up with passion that she’d lost her head or her fear of Henry.
Nick moved his hands to the sides of her neck, and he looked into her eyes. “Until you didn’t care about anything else?” He lowered his face to her ear. “Has anyone ever touched your breasts?” he whispered. “Under the shirt, beneath your bra? Where your skin is warm and soft?”
Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“Slipped his hand inside your panties?” His hot open mouth moved across her cheek. “Felt between your legs where you’re slick and ready?”
Besides health class, no one had ever really talked to Delaney about sex before. What she knew, she’d learned from movies and from eavesdropping on other girls at school. Even Lisa assumed she was a prude, but apparently not Nick. Nick saw what no one else did, and instead of being offended at his language, she turned her face and kissed him. For years she’d heard rumors about his sexual conquests. She didn’t want him to think her naive and boring in comparison, and she purposely turned up the passion and devoured him with her lips and tongue. She let herself fall head first into the dizzy heat burning her flesh. Her young body filled with the hot juices of desire, and for the first time in her life, she let go of everything else.