Chapter 26
I need icing. No, not icing, but ice. A lot of ice
My lips broke into the largest grin known to humankind when I opened my bedroom door and bumped into Melinda a week later.
A too attractive sight early on a Saturday morning.
“Mel? What are you—” The cupcake she’d been holding lay smashed between our bodies, blue frosting spreading all over my bare skin.
My eyes darted between my chest and her face, the amusement playing on my lips impossible to hide.
“Huh… Happy birthday?” She winced. “Sorry?”
“Are you my gift?”
She blinked. “Your what?”
“My gift? Since it’s my birthday and you’re standing here first thing in the morning.”
“Ohhh.” A red hue skated up her cheeks. “No. I’m here because I thought it would be fun to surprise you and spend the day together. Unless you have other plans.”
I cradled the back of her neck and kissed her forehead. “Nothing sounds better than spending my birthday with you.”
I let go of her, and she appeared shaky on her feet. She zoomed in on the blue mess right above my heart. “I’m sorry for this. It was meant to be eaten.”
With a finger, I scooped some of the frosting and brought it to my mouth. “It still serves its purpose, and it tastes amazing.”
“You think? Paige coached me over the phone while I whipped it.”
I used the same finger to scoop more frosting and brought my digit to her mouth. “Open up and taste it.” My words sounded dirty even to my own ears. The flush on her face darkened, and my body pulsed at how magnificent she looked when she was bothered.
She did as I asked of her, swirling the tip of her tongue and sucking my finger clean to capture every bit of the buttercream.
“Fuck, Mel.” I breathed hard, my voice huskier than I intended it to be, turned on. Dressed in only a pair of neon-colored boxer briefs, I couldn’t hide anything as we stood a foot apart.
The air around us became charged. I watched her with hooded eyelids, not sure how to shy away from the lust taking over every inch of me.
She batted her lashes and said, “I should clean up the mess I made.”
I blinked, trying to compute her words, but before I could ask what she meant, Melinda leaned forward and licked the icing off my chest, taking her sweet time. My heart rate picked up, and I was sure she could feel every thump against her lips.
I sucked in a harsh breath and grabbed her hips, my fingers pressing into her flesh and bones. I grew rigid as she laved my bare chest with her tongue until there was no trace of icing left.
“Mel…”
She stepped back, averting her eyes.
“Look at me.” I cocked her face toward mine with a finger. “Whoa. You can wish me happy birthday every day for the rest of my life if that’s how you do it.”
We watched each other for the longest beat.
Her throat rippled.
“I’ll shower now. A very cold shower, okay? I need icing. No, not icing, but ice. A lot of ice. An icy shower.”
She followed the motion of my hand as I cupped my erection to keep it from drilling a hole through my boxer briefs.
Her face turned fire-engine red.
I lifted the bottom edge of her buttermilk-yellow ruffled top a few inches and smoothed my thumb over the pink scars the surgery had left on the lower-right side of her abdomen. Melinda held her breath, goose bumps rising on her skin under my gentle touch. “Does it hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” I released her top, and she trembled when I removed my hand. “Can you wait for me? You can stay here. I won’t be long.”
“Okay.”
I picked the cupcake from her grip and engulfed it in three bites after she shook her head when I offered her some. “Best birthday ever. Thanks, Shepard.”
I kissed her cheek and disappeared into the bathroom next door before I did something like kissing her to oblivion or eating her up like I’d dreamed of doing every night.
I was playing with fire. The dance was in four weeks.
It was our deadline. I had to keep it to myself until then.
I could do this. Under the hot stream of the shower, the realization dawned on me.
Melinda Shepard had licked my bare chest. By the time Winter Formal rolled around, I would be an aching mess if I didn’t regain some self-control.
I turned the temperature of the shower to the lowest setting, but the cold water did nothing to decrease the desire tightening my body.
I rested my forehead against the tiled wall, breathing in and out to slow the wild rhythm of my heart.
For a second, I thought about rubbing one, but knowing Melinda was on the other side of the wall, in my bedroom, waiting for me, killed the idea.
That thing she did earlier—licking my frosting-covered chest—was hot as hell, and I’d frozen, mesmerized by everything she was.
I loved this new side of her, bolder and more assured around me.
She was slowly breaking out of her shell, and I wanted to be the one she did it for—the one she did it with.
The tension in me lessened, and I toweled myself dry before dressing in a pair of jeans and a dark long-sleeved T-shirt with my jersey number printed on the front in gold ink.
An ache built inside me when I opened my bedroom door and found her there, in my personal space, and I had to fight with myself not to lay her on my bed.
She wasn’t ready. I could tell she was still unsure about us.
About me. Not about our friendship, but how much she could trust me.
Since the beginning of the school year, I’d stepped up my game, and I wondered what else I could do to make her have total faith in me.
Melinda was busy going through the books on the shelf mounted on the wall opposite my bed, her back to me. Like a stalker, I admired her for a minute, relishing the way her stretch dark-indigo jeans made her legs look infinitely long, before I cleared my throat to announce my presence.
“I hadn’t pictured you as a fiction reader,” she said, her hand tracing the spines of the paperbacks before she spun around to face me. “I don’t know why I’ve never noticed these before.”
I shrugged. “Everyone needs to escape real life once in a while.”
A faint smile touched her lips. “Good answer. Are you ready for a full day of fun?”
“It depends. What do you have in mind?”
“A lot of things. Come on, Birthday Boy, let’s get out of here.”
Melinda treated me to a mountain of waffles with berries and whipped cream at Breakfast at Midnight, a twenty-four-hour little eatery on the outskirts of town.
She ordered a side of fresh fruit for herself after telling me she’d had a protein shake earlier and was perfectly happy to watch me eat my weight in carbs, as long as she didn’t have to join in.
We spent the rest of our morning at the indoor roller-skating rink, something she had never done before.
Not willing to risk Melinda falling and hurting herself—that was the bullshit excuse I fed her—I held her hand the entire time.
It gave me an excuse to touch her without seeming too obvious about it.
For lunch, we sat in my car and devoured a picnic she had prepared earlier while we chatted about everything, and then spent the afternoon at the arcade where she beat me at air hockey. Twice. I got my revenge when we played roll and score right after, and I won all three rounds.
Things were simple and easy between us. I didn’t remember the last time I’d had this much fun and laughed for so many hours.
Until I bumped into Tanya when we were ordering tea at Beans, the coffee shop on Main Street.
Melinda was waiting at the counter for our order to be ready while I was on a mission to pick a table by the wall-length window.
The place was small and popular amongst teenagers who often came here for a coffee break or to study.
It had cream walls, a dark exposed ceiling, blush-pink tables, and black chairs.
“Here you are,” Tanya exclaimed as if she’d been looking for me. She jumped into my arms like she had the right to, as if we were best friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. “Happy birthday, Mase.” She smacked my cheek with her heavily painted lips, no doubt leaving an imprint behind.
I rubbed my cheek with a finger and stepped back, stuffing my hands into my pockets to create some sort of physical barrier between us.
“Thanks,” I spoke the single word with as much indifference as I could muster, my eyes traveling between the clingy cheerleader and Melinda, who had no idea we had company, deep in conversation with the barista, her back to us.
How Tanya remembered my birthday was a mystery, one I had no intention of solving. Like ever.
“Are we celebrating or what?” She took a step forward and dragged her fingernails down my chest. “I have a gift for you.” Her lips swelled into a pout.
“But I don’t have it with me right now. You’ll have to come to my place so I can give it to you.
” She smiled in a way she probably thought was sexy.
“I’m not sure it’s meant to be given in front of an audience anyway. ”
“I’m not interested, Tan. I thought I’d made myself clear multiple times already.”
She flicked her wrist like I was being silly.
“Nonsense. Everybody loves to be spoiled on their special day. When you meet me at my house later, I will—” She stopped her rant the moment Melinda neared us, two cups in her hands.
“Aren’t you clingy?” She sighed. “You can keep walking, swim girl. Can’t you see you’re interrupting us?
It’s Mason’s birthday, and we’re making plans for him to pick up his gift later.
” She winked like we were both in on whatever she meant.