First and Last (13 page)

May 2002

P
rom starts at five o’clock, so I told Mia I’d pick her up at four forty-five. She kind of snickered at me saying I’d pick her up since she lives next door, but she doesn’t know the surprise I have for her.

Most of our friends are riding in limos tonight, but I wanted to do something special, something different. And luckily, the guys at the station were pretty cool about it.

“Okay, you can park it here,” I tell one of them as we pull up outside her house. Looking over at my front porch, I see Mom sitting on it, a huge smile on her face. I give her a wave before climbing down from the truck and walking to Mia’s front door.

With corsage in hand, I ring the doorbell and wait. I finish adjusting my tie as the front door opens. “Looking very dapper,” Mr. Avery greets.

“Thanks, sir.”

“Come on in, PB. J will be down in a second.” Mr. Avery has been calling us PB and J since we were little. We’ve always been glued at the hip, so the nickname kind of stuck. As I step through the door, he looks outside and his eyes widen. “Are you guys taking that?” he asks as he points over his shoulder.

I put my finger up to my lips. “Shhhh, it’s a surprise.” He grins and shuts the door behind me.

Standing in the foyer, a mix of nerves and anxiety creeps up. After what feels like an eternity, I hear footsteps coming down the stairs and I look up. A silver shoe comes into view followed by the bottom of her bright red dress. With each step, more of her is exposed until I can see all of her, and she takes my breath away. She’s a vision in her strapless gown with rhinestones covering her chest, and a red shiny material that floats out at the waist. Her hair is pulled up and her makeup makes her eyes stand out. She’s classy and sophisticated, but sexy as hell too.

My lips part and the oxygen is sucked from my lungs. She’s the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen in my whole damn life, and I’m the lucky guy who gets to take her to prom. I blink several times trying to clear the fog around my brain so I can put words together to express how amazing she looks. “Wow,” is all I come up with. A soft smile forms on her lips as she looks down at herself before looking back up at me through her long eyelashes.

“Thank you,” she responds shyly. “You look really handsome, Blake.” She brushes her hand down the front of my jacket and smooths it out. Under it, I have on a red vest and matching tie. It seemed a little bright at first, but with my black jacket, it’s not so bad.

“Thanks.” Leaning in close, I kiss her chastely on the cheek. “Mom’s waiting outside to get some pictures, so we should probably go out there and then we can go.” She nods and I hold my arm out for her to take. She loops hers through mine and we walk toward the door.

As soon as we open it and she sees the massive fire truck with all its lights on sitting outside her house, her eyes and mouth fall wide open. “Oh. My. God. Is that what we’re taking to prom?”

We both jump when the loud horn sounds from it, the guys in the truck laughing at our expense.

“Is that okay?” Now I’m worried. I thought it was pretty cool. It never crossed my mind that she would hate it.

“Are you kidding? It’s awesome! No one else will be arriving in anything like it!”

I instantly relax seeing the excitement on her face and hearing it in her voice. “Let’s go then, gorgeous.”

Mom’s in tears when she sees us. I’m not sure why she’s crying, other than that she looks pretty happy. I put on Mia’s corsage and she pins my boutonniere. Then we pose for a few more minutes before I’m starting to sweat in this suit and just want to get there.

“Alright, Mom, can we go now?” I say in a tired tone.

“Okay, okay. Sorry, it’s just you both look so beautiful together. You guys go before you’re late, and have fun. Text me later tonight, okay?”

“Will do.” I give her a hug while Mia does the same to her dad before I help her up into the fire truck.

When we’re on our way, she says, “How did you pull this off anyway?”

“I worked it off this summer. Hell, I washed this thing enough, I should own it.”

Gary laughs from the front seat. “Told you it would pay off eventually,” he says. I’ve gotten pretty close to Gary and he’s the one who helped me convince the chief to use the truck for an hour or so tonight. He’s also helping me get on the right track to working for the department.

“I won’t give you a hard time in the future then,” Mia says. She’s beaming and that makes me so happy. That’s all I want for her tonight. I want this night to be absolutely perfect, so when she looks back at her prom years from now, she’ll smile, remembering how incredible it was.

A few minutes later we’re pulling up to the front of the venue, right behind a limo. Gary honks the horn, announcing our arrival.

“Ahh!” Mia blurts out, startled again. Her face turns red and we both laugh.

“Ready to party?”

“You bet,” she replies.

I climb down the steps of the fire truck first, then hold out my hand to help her, making sure she doesn’t trip over her dress.

“Dude! That’s badass!” Josh says. He and a group of our friends are getting out of the limo in front of us.

“Thanks, man. You ready to do this?”

“Hell, yeah!”

Prom is pretty damn awesome, but even if it was lame I’d still love it because I’m with Mia. She hasn’t stopped glowing since we left the house. We’ve laughed and joked with our friends, had dinner, and danced a little. I kinda don’t want this night to end.

“Did you tell your dad you’re staying the night with Michele?”

“Yep.” We continue to rock to the slow song, her arms around my neck and fingers playing with the back of my hair.

“Did he buy it?”

“I think so. I mean, I don’t think he would’ve said yes if he didn’t believe me. He wanted to talk to Michele’s parents first, but you know how they are.” Yeah, they don’t care what Michele does and they’ll always cover for her friends.

“Good.”

“What about your mom?”

“She thinks I’ll be at a party at Josh’s.”

“Cool.” She starts biting on her nail and avoids eye contact.

“Hey.” I move my head into her line of sight. “There’s no pressure tonight, okay? It’ll be like the tent party for my birthday. We can just talk and sleep.” I pause. “And maybe make out a little,” I say with a wink. She rolls her eyes at me.

“I don’t want you to be disappointed. Everyone talks about prom night being
the
night, you know?”

“But we’re not everyone else. We’re us. And if you’re not ready, we’ll wait. I love you and never want you to do something you’re uncomfortable with. You set the pace and we’ll go from there.”

The tension in her shoulders releases and she smiles before she nods. “There’s that gorgeous smile I love.”

“Stop,” she mumbles, trying to hide her smile.

“Seriously, no more worrying. This is our prom. Let’s enjoy it.” I dip her back and plant a long kiss on her soft lips.

At midnight, we’re both exhausted, stumbling to the hotel room I reserved for us. Since it’s at the same hotel prom was at, all we have to do is take the elevator up. Mia took off her heels a while ago, and has them dangling from her fingertips as I slide the keycard into the door. Opening it, I motion for her to enter first and then flip on the light.

“Wow, this is nice,” she says. It’s no penthouse suite, but it works. With a huge king-sized bed and a Jacuzzi tub, what more could we need?

“Here, I’ll set your stuff over here.” I had the guys at the station pick me up here so I’d have my car in the morning. Mia gave me a small bag of things the day before to keep in my trunk for her.

Standing at the foot of the bed, we both fall backward, caught by the lush bedding. I let out a sigh, feeling both exhausted and completely content.

“Thank you for an amazing night, Blake. I had a blast.”

I lace my fingers through hers at our sides. “No problem. Thanks for saying yes and letting me take you. Plus, if you remember, we made a pact and I couldn’t go to prom for the first time with someone else.”

I turn my head to look at her and see a smile on her face. “That’s right, our pact. I almost forgot about that. How old were we?”

“I don’t know. Ten or eleven maybe.”

“Gosh, that was forever ago.” She’s looking up at the ceiling, shaking her head in remembrance. “I was so jealous of Candice,” she says, referring to the girl that was a little too eager, even then. She overheard Candice talking about kissing me at school one day, which is why we kissed when we made our pact; to make sure we were each other’s first. “I thought there’s no way you would ever look at me with a girl like that in your face,” she continues.

“Are you kidding? Look at me.” When she does, I continue, “She never compared to you. I’ve loved you my whole life.”

Closing the distance between us, Mia presses her lips to mine. When she parts her lips for my tongue, I take advantage, tasting every inch of her mouth. I roll over onto my side and cup her cheek. It doesn’t take long for my lower half to wake up and strain against the zipper on my pants. When she nibbles on my bottom lip, I about lose it.

“Shit, Mia,” I strain.

“Take this off,” she demands as her hands go under my jacket. Sitting up, I help her and shrug out of my coat. She sits up with me and we continue to make out. My lips detach from hers and my mouth trails kisses along the side of her neck.

“You have the softest skin,” I whisper against her collarbone. She lets out a small gasp that turns into a moan when my tongue darts out to sample a taste.

Soon, she’s undoing the buttons on my vest and shirt. I loosen my tie and pull it over my head. When her hands touch my bare chest, my breath catches with need and I’m desperate to have her hands in other places. My fingers fumble around for the zipper on the back of the dress, but in my haste, it gets stuck and won’t come down. After several attempts, I get it undone and the dress falls from her body, stopping at her waist.

Pulling back, I take her in and am speechless. Her skin is tan and flawless, her breasts are full and round, and her stomach is toned and flat. She starts to cross her arms over her midsection, feeling exposed in her black, strapless bra, but I stop her.

“No, please. Don’t hide from me. You’re too perfect to hide.” I stare into her eyes so she’ll believe me, and after a second, her arms fall back to her sides. I encourage her more with another kiss.

We lie back on our sides and our mouths continue to dance. My hands travel all over the parts of her body she’s comfortable with me touching. I want more, but resist the urge.

She pulls back so we can catch our breaths, our chests rising and falling at a rapid rate. My heart beats out of control. She glances down and sees the tent I’m pitching in my pants and bites her lip in curiosity.

“What happens if you don’t, you know? Does it hurt?” she asks.

“No, I’ll be fine.” I don’t tell her I’ve had blue balls more times than I care to count with her.

“Do you want me to—”

“I told you before, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“But I want to, I’m just not sure I’ll do it right.”

Looking into her eyes, I search for any trace that she’s not sure. I don’t want her to think I expect this. “If you’re sure, I can show you.” She nods her head, pauses, then unbuttons my pants. I unzip them and pull the waistband of my boxers down, which allows my boner to spring free. Her eyes widen the smallest bit before they come back up to mine. Her expression makes me want to laugh.

“Come here,” I tell her. Grabbing the back of her neck, I kiss her. Slowly, her hand reaches out to touch me. My dick twitches with the contact, desperate for more. I try to calm myself, not wanting to blow my load before she even starts. That would be embarrassing.

She wraps her small hand around it and moves up and down. Wrapping my hand around hers, I squeeze a little harder to show her the kind of pressure I like. “Is that okay?” she asks, uncertainty clear in her voice.

“It feels so good,” I pant out.

I let go of my hold around her hand and let her do it on her own. My toes curl and my head goes back as I try to hold back. I don’t want to be the only one enjoying this, so my hand moves over her exposed stomach until I hit her panty line. I pause and wait for her to tell me to stop. When she doesn’t, I proceed.

Her dress is still around her waist, restricting my movement. “Let’s get this off of you.” She lifts her hips and allows me to remove it the rest of the way. At first, I touch her over the fabric of her panties, searching for approval. Her eyes close slowly and she breathes out a sigh. With her legs barely parted, I find my way under the fabric separating me from nirvana. When I touch her sensitive skin, she jumps the tiniest bit.

“Is this okay?” I whisper against her mouth. She nods as she continues to stroke my entire shaft.

She’s soaked, which causes my dick to become painfully hard. I find her clit and rub it until I find a rhythm that has her back arching. She moans and gasps with each touch as she’s introduced to a whole new world of stimulation and sensation.

Her strokes become jerky and less fluid the closer she is to getting off. I can’t tear my eyes from her as I watch her climb up the ladder before crashing over the top.