Beautiful Burn (6 page)

She
passed me the fishing pole, a suggestive grin on her face. We cast
and made small talk for twenty minutes without a bite, before Auburn
began reeling in her line.
“Fishing's
a bust, let's check out that rope swing.” Her eyes gleamed with
mischief.

My eyes bugged out when I saw
it, across the bank, a ratted old rope hanging from a tree. “That
looks like a death wish.”

“It’s not. The kids have
been swinging off it for years.”

“Exactly. A rope can only
take so much swinging before it succumbs.”

“Scaredy cat. Mr. McDowell
replaces it every year anyway. I’ll go first, teach you a thing or
two for once.” She winked and dashed off down the shore. She darted
across the old train bridge and my heart thudded with every step. She
landed feet first on the opposite bank and waved, her smile so bright
it was blinding. She made my heart race. What was going on with me?
This felt like falling. I’d known Mel for so long, nearly my entire
life, and we’d somehow just ended up together, but this…this felt
like plummeting either somewhere entirely sublime or another side of
hell. Perhaps it was both.

My mind snapped from my
thoughts when Auburn pulled the zip of her jeans down and shimmied
out of the denim. She tore the shirt over her head and stood across
the bank from me in a pair of bright green bikini underwear that hit
her so high on the hip I couldn't not think about getting a closer
look, and a snug white ribbed tank top that bunched and shifted in
all of the right places.

The image of Auburn beneath me
in bed, expressive eyes looking up at me, dark hair splayed across
the white pillow, a cocky grin on her beautiful face, was a siren
call to my heart. I'd never wanted anything so much. Auburn left me
with an incessant, burning need for her.

I licked my lips as she waved
one more time then hooked her foot in the loop at the bottom of the
gnarled rope. She rocked on her back leg once, twice, then pushed off
and swung out over the dark water. She rode the swing back and forth
a few times, waved and blew me a kiss before she released and dropped
into midair. A mass of white, a flash of neon green, and a wild
tangle of dark hair landed with a splash in the water and
disappeared.

Shit. What was I thinking?
“Auburn!” I hollered as my eyes darted around the surface of the
water. Searching, seeking, not finding. Gone. “Auburn!” I yelled
before a dark head broke through the surface. She pushed the brown
tangle of hair from her eyes and grinned, before spitting out river
water.

“Jesus.” I ran a hand
through my short hair and heaved a breath.

“Your turn!” she called in
a teasing lilt.

“You're in so much trouble,”
I shook my head with a smile.

“Are you talking shit over
there?!” she called and held a hand to her ear. I huffed, the pent
up sexual tension driving me to the edge. I jogged down the shore,
over the bridge, then landed feet first on the bank just like she had
when she'd jumped down from the old trestles.

I didn’t think twice before I
tore off my shirt, kicked my shoes off, and pulled the jeans down my
legs. I gritted my teeth when I realized a second too late that I now
stood there in my boxer briefs, raging hard on tenting the thin
fabric, and was about to jump into frigid water despite the early
June sun.

“Fuck, here goes,” I
muttered as I locked my foot in the rope, feeling like an overgrown
kid. I launched myself next to her in the water without a second
thought and felt freedom for the first time in my entire adult life.
As water spilled over my muscles, I smiled like I hadn't in months.
Maybe even years. Kicking my feet to drive me to the surface, I
wondered where I'd landed in relation to Auburn.

And then I felt her.

Auburn’s slick, smooth body
sidled up against mine under the surface. My head came up, and
pushing the water from my eyes, I saw her. The evening light kissing
her skin, the white of her tank now transparent, the color of her
matching neon green bra and the faintest outline of a nipple visible
underneath.

My dick jerked and I wanted
more than anything on the entire planet to cup her breast, hold the
weight of it in my hand, thumb the nipple and coax it out further,
and cover the soft peaked flesh with my warm tongue. I wanted to
lick, suck, taste, feel. I wanted to
feel
.

“Auburn,” I murmured
without thinking, my eyes glazing over her wayward hair falling
soaked around her shoulders.

“Yeah?” she breathed as she
watched me. I felt the current she created as she kicked her legs
under to stay afloat. Her foot hit mine and she stumbled in her
rhythm, causing her hand to shoot out and grab my shoulder to stay
righted.

“I want to do a whole host of
things I shouldn’t want to do to you, but for the life of me, I
can’t bring myself to care,” I admitted in equal parts
frustration and lust.

She licked her lips as drips of
water trailed down her neck. “Good,” she said softly, yet
clearly.

She was so bold and brave,
unlike anyone I’d ever met. My hands met her skin and just like
that, all barriers were removed and we were attached. One of her legs
curved around my hip while I treaded water softly, the kicks of my
feet mimicking the thrusting of my tongue as I devoured her mouth. I
licked at her lips, fisted my fingers through her wet hair and
pulled, curving her neck to expose it to my teeth as I took. I ground
my still rock-hard, despite the rushing river water, dick against her
pelvis and imagined slipping that little scrap of neon fabric aside
and slipping inside her.

Soft moans fell from her lips
as she arched her body and pushed with as much fervor as I met her
with. Her nails dug into my shoulder blades and she pulled, leaving
what I’m sure would be fiery red scratches. Her lips trailed the
rough stubble of my jaw, over my Adam's apple, and down my neck as
she moaned and writhed. There may have been frigid as fuck river
water rushing around us, but we were on fire. Scorching hot with no
chance of relief.

I couldn't think about
intelligent adult responsibilities like consequences and actions as I
let out all the pent up frustration I’d had for her these last few
weeks. I relished the feel of her in my arms and took as much as I
dared at this moment.

We broke away, our chests
heaving with shallow breaths. Her eyes flared before she lunged and
caught my bottom lip between her teeth. I massaged my hands through
her hair and engaged in sweet kisses alternating with feral nips
before I settled my hands at her waist and began to guide her towards
shore.

“We should stop before anyone
sees.” I paused in waist-deep water. She only nodded and relaxed
her arms in response, sliding down my body, torturous inch by
torturous inch, before her feet landed on the sandy river bottom. “We
can’t do stuff like this in public,” I stated. Her eyebrows
lifted quizzically before she turned and climbed up the bank, heading
for her clothes. I knew exactly what I hadn't said. I didn't think
either of us were naive enough to believe that we wouldn’t find
ourselves in the same embrace again. We were a foregone conclusion.

“I should get home,” she
said.

“What?” I asked in alarm.
“I thought you were staying all night?”

“I was. I am. I just…need a
shower after that.” She swung her arm out dismissively. She seemed
irritated, rebuffed.

“Hey.” I caught her arm and
pulled her to me. “Don't be upset.” I kissed her lips softly. We
shouldn't
be doing these things in public, but her feelings
meant more to me than anything else at that moment.

When I pulled away and trailed
the pads of my thumbs across her cheekbones, her lips finally curved
in a soft smile. “I'm not.”

“Good.” I pressed my
forehead to hers and let my eyes fall closed as I soaked up her
soothing scent. “Thanks for hanging out with me today.”

“I should be thanking you.”
She murmured, her fingers dancing across my shoulders and making me
dizzy with desire. “What's this?” Her fingertips drew slow
circles around a single, fiery red mark on my skin.

I winced before shrugging it
off. “Guess you were a little too rough in the water.” I teased
and caught her lips between my teeth, dragging and pulling in an
effort to drive her as insane with desire as I was. It seemed to work
when her hands clutched at my shoulders and she swayed into me, her
still damp body brushing against mine.

“We really don’t want to be
caught.” I hummed and chased her lips as she pulled away, her head
dancing with mine in a sensual taunt. I finally grasped her head in
my palms and swallowed the smart retort I'm sure she had ready with
my lips. One hand trailed down the elegant dips and hollows of her
form while I kissed her, soft breaths and the rustle of clothing the
only sounds between us.

“I should get going.” She
finally pulled away, breathless and looking thoroughly wound up.

“Oh, sure. You’re coming
back later, then?” I pulled away, calm and collected, exactly how
she wasn't feeling. I couldn't help the grin begging to turn my lips
up for leaving her flustered, how she often left me, on purpose, I
was sure of it.

“Oh, I don’t know.” She
mused as she pulled her jeans up her legs. “Callie says she’s
making me, but if I can get out of it, I will.” She said while
pulling her shirt over her still-wet tank top. The water spots soaked
through almost immediately, doing nothing for the fragile sense of
control I was trying to hang on to.

“I was going to go home and
work on plotting a new story that's been running through my head, but
you're more than a little distracting.” I grasped the hem of her
shirt and pulled her back to me.

She darted around me on a
giggle before swiping her shoes from the dirt and backing away from
me, a devilish glint in her dark eyes. “Hands off in public.” She
chastised with her index finger.

“Such a distraction.” I
shook my head, a grin splitting my face. Her smile deepened before
she finally swiveled and jogged back the way we'd come from, barefoot
and carefree the entire way.

I threw my shirt over my head
and walked up the river bank feeling like I'd fallen into a
never-never land where kissing a student felt as natural as
breathing. Except this wasn’t just any student, this was Auburn.

I
found myself still awake at eleven pm that night. Being awake at that
time wasn’t unusual, but being so fucking mentally blocked I could
hardly function was. I'd done some outlining for a new novel and
tried to write a few paragraphs in the story I’d been writing about
my boyhood in northern Michigan. It was something I'd been working on
the last few years. I never seriously intended to publish it, it was
just too personal, my life’s work, and I wasn't willing to send it
out into the world for public criticism.

After scrounging out three
sentences, I'd shut my laptop and moved to the chair by the fireplace
to read, for pleasure, then for work, without avail, which is why I
currently sat behind my wheel, fingers tapping to an old Eagles’
song on the radio, driving mindlessly. Except I'd known exactly where
I was headed when I'd gotten behind the wheel of the old Blazer.

Shelton Road. The old train
bridge.
Her.

I white-knuckled the steering
wheel as I chastised myself. “Fuck.” I ran a hand through my hair
as I drove through the cool summer night. I shouldn't be going to
her, but I couldn't stop thinking about her. My mind had begun to
conjure ways we could be together, but all seemed like a dead end.
Perception was cut and dry in our small midwestern town -- dating a
student? Always a bad idea. Nearly criminal in offense for the
scandal we'd be subject to, and my teaching career would be all but
destroyed.

I shook all the reasons we
couldn’t be together out of my head and drove as the road twisted
through forests of hardwood and evergreen until the final corner. I
turned off into the beat up gravel parking lot for the second time
today.

In contrast to earlier, the lot
was now nearly full with old pickup trucks and compact cars. I
scanned for Auburn’s vehicle before realizing she must have decided
to stay in tonight. I put my truck in reverse to leave when a couple
caught my eye through the back window of my truck. Long dark hair,
snug jeans, and Chucks. It had to be her.

My heart felt like it would
beat out of my chest. There was no turning around anymore -- if I
backed out, she would without a doubt see me. What the hell had I
been thinking coming here? Wrong move, major fuck up, Reed.

I breathed deeply and pulled
into the parking spot at the end of the row nearest to me and
farthest from her. I quickly shut off my lights in hopes she wouldn’t
notice. After rolling the window down quietly, I tried to tune into
her melodic voice across the small lot.

I didn’t hear her, but I
heard him.

Jason, Josh, Jack-off? I didn’t
know, and I didn’t care.

Her charming laugh filled the
night and before I knew what I was doing, I turned the key and the
engine hummed to life. Thrusting my foot on the brake, I tossed the
vehicle into reverse and pulled out. With heart pounding, I drove
with averted eyes, hoping she wouldn’t notice it was me, but
willing to take the risk as long as I didn’t have to see her with
him.