First Love (Love Nibbles Book 2) (6 page)

looked up at her with a serious expression. “We won’t go any farther than you want to. We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

She nodded, feeling too awkward and shy to even speak.

“Would you lie down with me for a while?”

She removed her apron and shoes. Joe took off his shoes too then they lay side by side on the small bed.

She glanced at him staring up at the ceiling, at the same crack shaped like Africa that she looked at every night before going to sleep. His head was on Mattie’s pillow. His body pressed into the mattress with much more weight than Mattie’s and Rachael rolled toward him, pulled by gravity.

He put his arm around her so she could rest her head on his chest. His other hand rested on her hip and he stroked it. “What was it like going to your school?”

“Small. Everybody knows each other and there’s no way to keep any secrets. Once people have decided you’re a certain way, they’ll never see you differently, even if you’ve changed. Your reputation means more than the real you.”

Joe nodded his understanding. “I used to play football. I liked it all right. Then junior year I realized that that’s all I was. Mr. Football. I didn’t like being stuck in that narrow box. So I quit right in the middle of the season. A lot of people never forgave me for that, and I don’t just mean the kids at high school. The coach and the principal tried to talk sense into me. Some members of the school board actually came to my house to talk to my parents. And my dad shouted till he was blue in the face. But I was stubborn. I wouldn’t play again. When I went out for baseball that spring, the coach wouldn’t let me on the team. He already saw me as a quitter.”

She felt him shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe he was right. Guess he was just looking out for his team.”

Rachael smoothed her hand over his T-shirt, feeling his heart beating into her palm. “Why do people make decisions about people without really knowing them or trying to imagine what that they’re thinking or feeling?”

“I don’t know.” He eased his arm out from under her and turned on his side to face her. Rachael scooted up so she could look into his eyes.

Joe touched her lightly, stroking strands of hair from her forehead and tracing the contours of her face. When his thumb brushed her lower lip, her lips parted. He leaned in and kissed her, light and easy.

His soft nibbling kisses weren’t demanding. She was the one to bring her tongue into play first. And soon their tongues twisted together sending delightful shivers through her. She didn’t know how much time passed. Each second seemed to stretch out like pulled taffy. Luxurious to simply lie together like this with no chores to be done or demands on her time. Their bodies pressed warmly together and their legs tangled around each other until it was hard to know where she ended and he began.

Joe reached between them to touch the front of her dress. “How does this...?”

She opened the hidden row of snaps to reveal her slip underneath, another barrier between them. Rachael took her arms from her sleeves, twisted around and pulled her slip over her head. Underneath it she wore nothing. Her chest heaved with her quickly drawn breaths. Her skin burned as Joe gazed at her bare breasts. It was excruciating…and exhilarating.

“Good Lord,” he murmured. His pupils were so dilated his eyes appeared almost black. His breath caught as he reached out to touch her left breast. His rough fingertips scraped her nipple and an electric bolt sizzled from there straight down to her sex. The pleasure was so intense it was nearly painful. She needed more of it.

Rachael lay still while he fondled one breast then the other. Her eyes closed as she enjoyed every touch of his work-callused fingers, and when he lowered his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth, she gave a soft cry of surprise and delight. She’d never felt anything to even compare with the sensation. She opened her eyes to watch him suckle, and the sight of his lips encircling her nipple aroused her even more.

Then Joe moved his hand down her body to touch her between the legs. He reached under her skirt. Through the fabric of her underwear, he stroked her most private place and sent powerful waves surging through her. The intense contact was almost more than she could bear. He rubbed a spot that made her sex go warm and pliant, wetness flowing from inside her. An insistent aching need swelled stronger as her body tensed.

With a low moan, Rachael arched off the bed as that tension burst and bliss unfurled. “Oh, oh, oh.” Her breath came in little pants and gasps as shudders quaked through her body.

At the end, she lay quiet, breathing heavily. Embarrassed by her strong reaction to his touch, she glanced at Joe, who smiled as he met her gaze.

“Rachael, would you…could I ask you to...” Unable to say what he wanted, he took her hand and pressed it against the bulge in the front of his trousers. He drew a shaky breath at her touch and his eyes half closed.

She wanted to give him the same joy he’d offered her, but she wasn’t certain what to do. Gingerly, she stroked her hand over the bulge beneath his fly. Joe unfastened his zipper and guided both of their hands inside his underwear, molding her fingers around his erection.

Emotions tumbled through her; curiosity, embarrassment, distaste, and eagerness to experience the mystery of a man’s member. The shaft in her hand was warm and smooth, pulsing with life. She was enthralled by the satiny feel of skin and the firmness underneath. But even more interesting than his cock was the way Joe reacted to her stroking hand. His eyes closed and he swallowed hard, throat clicking. That small, desperate sound of need made her shiver. She had the power over his pleasure in the palm of her hand.

She rubbed tentatively until Joe molded his hand around hers and showed her how firmly she could grip. He sighed with pleasure as she stopped being so gentle and massaged briskly. He groaned and thrust into her touch, hips moving, head rolling back on the pillow. It didn’t take long for him to completely surrender to sensation. A few more firm strokes and he shuddered hard.

Rachael felt the pulsing in his member and the warm liquid shooting from it. She wasn’t sure if she should stop yet, but at last he muttered, “That’s good. Thank you.”

She removed her hand from him and went to get a cloth to clean up with. When she returned, Joe lay with his arms behind his head, smiling contentedly as he looked at her. “Thank you,” he repeated.

She offered him the cloth. “Thank
you
.” Sudden shyness made her blush and look away from his open fly and the cock which she’d only felt but not seen. He wiped himself clean and fastened his trousers, while Rachael awkwardly sat beside him on the bed.

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up, forcing her eyes to meet him. “You’re not like any girl I’ve ever known. I wish...” He left his wish unspoken, gathering her into his arms and pulling her down to lie with him once more.

They lay curled together for a long time despite the heat in the stuffy room. Occasionally they would speak, but mostly they lay in silent contentment.

All too soon Joe had to leave. She walked him downstairs and bid him goodbye at the door.

He held her and gave her one last kiss. “When can I see you again? We should make a plan now.”

Rachael wished she could use a visit with Ruth as an excuse to get away, but she couldn’t ask Ruth to cover for her, not when it wasn’t Amos who Rachael was sneaking off to see. Inevitably, her mother would find out she’d not been at the Zooks.

“Our whole family will be helping with the hay baling this week. I’ll see you in the fields,” she said at last.

Joe frowned. “With both our families all around. That will make it kind of hard.”

“Haystacks are perfect for playing hide and seek.” She stood on her toes and kissed him goodbye. “I’ll find you.”

Chapter Eight

Their next tryst was the easiest to arrange yet the most nerve-wracking. The risk of being caught added an exciting element to their fevered kissing in the shadow of a tall hay bale.

The long grass in the fields straddling the property line was ready for harvesting. The Langdons would run their baler in the Yoder’s field in exchange for a portion of hay. Both families worked together. Even Rachael did her share of raking, while Mattie carried water around to the workers. With rain forecast later in the week, they must hurry to gather the dry grass.

Rachael watched Joe work a half a field away. The sight of his shirtless, sweat-slicked body gleaming under the hot sun stole her breath away. The muscles in his back and shoulders rippled under bronze skin as he raked and tossed hay. He caught sight of her and smiled quickly before bending to his work again.

Halfway through the morning, Mattie brought a jug of freshly made lemonade on all the way from the house on her little wagon. As Rachael poured glasses for the members of both families, she imagined what the Langdons would think of her if they knew what she and their son had been up to.

Joe took the glass of lemonade from her and drank deeply, Adam’s apple bobbing with each swallow. Condensation dripped off the glass and rolled down his chest, and Rachael felt an answering wetness between her legs. When Joe handed her the empty glass, he shifted his eyes sideways at the scattered hay waiting to be baled.

She nodded one and turned away to serve the others. Everyone stopped to drink the lemonade and fan their faces in whatever shade they could find.

Rachael slipped away to the most distant haystack and a few seconds later Joe joined her. They crashed against each other, kissing and groping furiously, before tumbling into the loose hay. The cut grass was soft yet prickly under Rachael’s back. Joe was hard and heavy between her legs, weighing her down. Baking in the sun, the hay smelled like yeasty bread fresh from the oven. Forever after she knew the scent would take her back to this moment and the thrill of Joe’s arms around her and his passionate kisses.

At last he pulled back to whisper, “After we finish the haying, my parents are going to visit my aunt’s family in Michigan. I’ll be on my own looking after the farm for a few days. You have to find a way to come over.”

He returned to kissing her neck. She slid her hands up his sweat-slicked back and tasted salt on her tongue. “I’ll find a way,” she promised, lifting her hips to rub herself against his hard ridge.

He lifted up on his arms, still thrusting, and his eyes shone as he stared at her. “I want you so much. I wish we could ... right here and now.”

Rachael sucked a breath. He didn’t have to say the word for her to picture the act. She’d felt his length in her hand and could hardly imagine what it would be like inside of her.

“Soon.” She pushed him off of her and scrambled up. “Now brush this hay off my back before someone notices we’re both missing.”

*

Over the rest of that week, they stole whatever moments they could. If they were too daring and careless, Rachael couldn’t bring herself to care. All she knew was that she needed and craved Joe. She tumbled into bed each night, exhausted from hard physical labor, but eager to start all over again in the morning simply for those few precious bits of time.

Sometimes they made a plan and Rachael would run to meet him on the road after dinner so he could take her for a drive. He let her try to operate the truck on a deserted back country road, resulting in a lot of gear grinding and laughter.

One evening he drove her to the lake and they swam; he in his bathing trunks, she in her underwear. He tossed her, laughing and shrieking, into the deep water then quickly rescued her when he realized she couldn’t swim. He held her close as they bobbed in the water, bodies weightless, spirits floating in bliss. As he kissed her wet lips, Rachael’s heart swelled so much her chest ached. She would have gone all the way in the bed of his truck that evening, but Joe drove her home and let her out partway down the road as usual. Their weekend together was coming soon. With his parents gone, they would have the luxury of making their first time special.

“Why do you act so strange lately? You hardly listen to anything anybody says, and you keep going on long walks.” Mattie asked Rachael one evening as they sat on the porch.

Rachael was on the top step, eyes riveted on the book in her lap but her mind a million miles—or actually ten acres—away. Mattie sat a step down playing with a pair of kittens she’d brought from their nest in the hayloft.

“I asked you what you think of the name Midnight.” She held up the coal-black kitten. “Because he’s...”

“Black. Very original. Why not confound people and call him Snowball?” Rachael teased.

“Funny. I like it.” Mattie laughed.

Rachael closed the book and picked up the gray and white kitten. “What about this one? Hezekiah?” She danced him on his hind legs and Mattie giggled some more.

The kitten had a tiny gray beard that did indeed make him look like Elder Hezekiah Johannsen.

“No. That’s Ripple. I already told you that,” Mattie said. “See here? He’s got ripples in his stripes.”

Rachael talked and played with her little sister for the next hour, suddenly glad to be in a familiar role where she knew who she was and what to do. As much as she eagerly looked forward to her time with Joe the following weekend, she was also nervous. The immorality of what they were about to do—for she had little doubt they would go all the way—well, she could hardly bear to think of that. The idea of losingher virginity outside of marriage was terrifying. On top of that, the act itself frightened her. Would it hurt? Would she please him? What if a baby came of it? She must find a way to protect against that.