Chapter Four
JADE HADN’T FORGOTTEN HER UPCOMING DATE with Reece in two days.
She hadn’t started dating until she - very belatedly - became interested in the opposite sex the year before. She’d gone out with a few guys since then, but hadn’t really hit it off with anyone until she met Reece Pearson two months ago at a baric ball game.
He was twenty-one and, she’d thought, charming and cute. He’d asked her out, and they’d been on several dates since then. This would be their fourth one.
She was disappointed she wasn’t going to be able to afford the new outfit she wanted but she’d make do. She hauled out her old green and white tunic - her best one - and her green ballet-slipper style shoes and went to meet him at their usual place: the clock at the town square as she wasn’t ready to have him at her cottage, yet.
They went to her favorite dance club, and he took her to dinner afterwards.
“I’ve had a great time, Reece, thanks!” she told him with enthusiasm as they walked back to the town square.
He smiled, giving her a one-armed hug.
She knew who his favorite music group was - also a favorite of hers - so she said, “Let’s go to the Bolo concert in Nine week after next. I’ll get the tickets if you spring for dinner afterwards.”
He grinned. “Sure, I’d love it!” he agreed happily. Then: “It’s still early…take me home with you, pretty please?” he asked, smiling down at her, his arm still around her.
She shook her head and pulled away from him. She knew what that meant.
“Reece…I’m not ready to go to bed with you.” she said with exasperation. “We’ve discussed this before,” she added a little impatiently.
He'd suggested it after their second date and asked her after their last date, and she’d explained she’d like to get to know him better first. He’d been okay with it and asked her out again. He was really attractive, with black wavy hair and beautiful, smoky gray eyes, and she liked kissing him but she didn’t want to take it any further, yet.
“I understand, Jade,” he said, with that really appealing grin of his. “I just want to talk and spend a little more time with you. I promise - I’ll behave: no bed talk.” He begged her with his eyes.
She studied him and then smiled. She trusted him.
“Okay, we can talk and perhaps watch the holo.”
He gave that grin of his again.
So she took him home.
They went in and Jade offered him tea, which he declined. He looked around.
“Nice place, Jade. Hey, turn on the holo, if you don’t mind,” he said, as he settled on one end of the couch in her small living-room. “I’d like to catch some news,” he added.
Jade switched on the holo panel, flicked her fingers until she found a news broadcast, then joined him on the couch.
Feeling a tad awkward, she seated herself on the opposite end from him.
Reece looked steadily at her for a moment, then leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder.
“You can sit closer than that, Jade. I promise I won’t bite,” he said grinning cutely.
Jade looked at him, smiled and moved a little closer. He reached out, put his arm around her shoulder and gently pulled her over next to him. They sat that way for a while watching the news, and Jade gradually relaxed.
“Reece,” she said, after the news program started winding down, “You’ve never mentioned whether you have brothers or sisters. Do you?”
“Yeah, I have one sister and one brother,” he answered absently as he leaned down, and started gently kissing down her neck, which tickled in a nice way.
Then he moved to her lips and at first she kissed him back - until he shoved his tongue into her mouth and suddenly seemed to have more arms and hands than normal, trying to feel places she hadn’t given him permission to touch.
She pushed him back when she felt a hand creep up her thigh.
“Um, Reece, I thought we were going to talk,” she said tightly. Her eyes accused him.
What did he think he was doing? He was getting kind of sweaty in the face, and she didn’t appreciate him just assuming he could run his hand under her tunic. She reached down to move his hand again and saw he was getting excited.
Okay, time for him to leave. Apparently, they didn’t have the same idea of what constituted “talk”.
He looked into her eyes and his eyes glinted with something other than the wish to hold a conversation.
“Come on, Jade, you know you want to. We’ve been going out for two months! Why else would you have brought me home, huh?” He grinned and tried to kiss her again.
She dodged his lips.
“To talk! That’s what you said, Reece. You promised you’d behave,” she reminded him with annoyance. “Look, you need to leave. I’ve told you, I’m not ready to go to bed with you.” She started to get up.
His eyes narrowed and his face flushed red. He drew in a harsh breath, jerked her back down and pinned her to the couch with his body. He looked down at her.
“I think we know each other well enough now,” he said, his voice husky.
Jade glared up at him.
“Let me up, Reece!” she said angrily.
He grinned at her and shook his head. Somehow, the grin didn’t look nearly as cute or appealing to her as before.
“Let. Me. Up.” she repeated between clenched teeth.
He forced her legs apart with his knee, ripping her tunic up the side. He rose slightly and fumbled at the fasteners on his pants with one hand, while holding her down by the shoulder with the other.
She went still and when he raised up to use both hands to finish unfastening his pants and reached to pull at her panties, she burst into motion, pulling one leg over and between them, wriggled away from his grasping hand, slid down and punched him in his excited area. Hard.
He fell off the couch, holding himself, his face going a sickly gray.
“What the hell’s the matter with you?” she snarled as she jumped up. Adrenaline flooded her system.
Keeping an eye on him, she sidled away toward the front door and opened it up to run out.
Then she thought, with a burst of fury: Wait a minute! This is my house! I’m not letting him run me out of my own house!
She turned back and saw him struggling to his feet. She went into a crouch when he took a bent over step toward her, reaching out a hand, and she twisted around him, taking his arm with her, swung him over to the open door and shoved him out.
Apparently he hadn’t known about her fighting skills.
She watched as he stumbled down the steps and onto her walkway. He stood there for a moment bent over and breathing heavily, then he slowly straightened up and turned and looked at her. She couldn’t interpret the look that suddenly crossed his face, it was pretty strange, though.
His eyes widened and he drew in his breath, as if in shock.
“Jade!” he cried in an anxious voice, “Please, forgive me! I -”
“You can forget about the Bolo concert!” she yelled at him and slammed and locked her door.
She felt him trying to link with her and she refused the link. She didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. Her heart was beating fast and she was shaking. She was mad. And hurt. She wanted to cry. She had trusted him.
Why did he do that? she fumed. And he’d torn her best tunic!
She felt so betrayed.
Lesson learned about believing a guy when he says he’ll be good, she thought grimly.
The next time she brought one home, it’d be because she was planning to take him to bed.
But it would be on her terms.
She’d never been to bed with anyone before and knew that, at eighteen, she was the only one in her group of friends - males and females - who hadn't ever had sex but she didn’t feel the need to rush. She felt she’d know when the time was right for her.
So far it hadn’t been, and she knew she wouldn’t be goin
g out with Reece again.
Pity. She had liked him and felt that he might, eventually, be her first partner. If he just hadn’t lost his thinking capacity.
She shivered as she felt a huge disappointment rise within her, as if something in her had cracked and torn off, and her soul mourned.
She sincerely hoped she never saw him again.
She sighed to herself as she pulled her torn tunic off. She looked sadly at the tear. She wasn’t going to be able to repair that. She threw it in the kitchen trash disposal unit and headed for her shower.
Maybe she was just being unreasonable and should have gone ahead and gotten it over with as some of her friends said they’d done, but she didn’t want to do it just to get it over with. She should at least want to have sex when she did it, for gods’ sake.
It wasn’t as if she was waiting to be vow-mated first or something. As far as she knew, no one waited until then. Or waiting for a soul-mate. That would be…just awful. She was way too independent for that. She had things she wanted to do, places she wanted to go.
She probably didn’t have to worry about a soul-bond, though. It didn’t happen often and, she’d heard, usually only to people actually looking for it and she wasn’t looking.
She didn’t feel she had to be in love to get intimate with someone, either. But she knew she wasn’t going to just hop into bed with someone she didn’t know all that well. And of course, now that she did know Reece better, she would never be sleeping with him. She just wished she could find someone who would have the patience to wait for her to give the go ahead.
She wished again that he hadn’t been so deceitful.
Shards! If all he’d wanted was sex, why hadn’t he just gone and gotten a sleep buddy? Why go through the pretense of wanting to go out with her? Of wanting a friendship? She sighed again as she toweled herself off, and her chest hitched with unshed tears. She had really liked Reece.
She wished he hadn’t turned out to be such an asshole.
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