Breeze off the Ocean by Joan Hohl Read Free Book Online Page B

started out as a group, but their ranks thinned as some quit to go back to the house and others roamed farther along the beach.
    Toting a brown bag to hold her dubious treasures, Micki found herself alone with a boy she’d met that night for the first time. Searching her mind, she came up with the name David Bender. She crossed her fingers in hope it was the right one.
    “What happened to all the other kids?” Micki’s fingers twined behind her back. “David?”
    “Beats me.” He glanced around scanning the beach. “‘I guess most of them got bored.” His still boyishly slim shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Did you find anything worth keeping?”
    “No.” Micki laughed.
    “Me either.” David laughed with her. “Want to sit and rest awhile before heading back?” He shot her a shy look. “We’ve come down the beach pretty far.”
    “Okay,” Micki answered flippantly, plopping down at the base of a low sand dune. “You’re from up near Margate, aren’t you?” she asked after he’d dropped onto the sand less than a foot away from her.
    “Yeah,” David nodded, not looking at her, his eyes fixed on the darkening ocean.
    Sighing softly, Micki leaned back against the gentle slope of the dune, her eyes studying him with mild interest. About her own age, she thought, maybe even a little younger. He still had the look of the high-school boy, she mused from the exalted distance of one completed year of college. Unbidden, a picture of Wolfgang Renninger rose in her mind. Micki had to compress her lips to keep from laughing out loud at the comparison. Unfair, she chided herself sternly. Wolf’s a mature man, while David’s still in the throes of adolescence. She should have remembered how hot the blood can flow in teenaged boys.
    “You’re a very pretty girl.” David’s voice came softly close to her ear. During her perusal of him, he’d settled back into the dune, turned onto his side to face her. “Are you dating anyone?”
    Startled out of her contemplation, Micki turned her head to find his face close to hers. Surprised, she smiled nervously. “No. I’m too busy with college and—David, what—?”
    His soft, moist lips silenced her. With an inward sigh, Micki lay perfectly still, his inexperienced kiss drawing no response from her. It was a mistake. Her lack of interest seemed to spur a determination in him to make her feel something. The pressure on her lips increased painfully. Suddenly his hands pushed her beach wrap open, tore at the skimpy top of her bikini as his body rolled on top of her.
    Her first reaction was sharp anger. Who did this jerk think he was, pawing at her? Bringing her hands up, she pushed at his shoulders, fully expecting him to move off her at once and apologize sheepishly. Fear began when she couldn’t dislodge him. He was a lot stronger than he looked. With all her twisting and turning she could not escape his lips. She couldn’t breathe and she felt sure that if he didn’t lift his head soon she’d faint from lack of air. Panic shot through her when his fingers dug into her now-exposed breasts and one bony knee attempted to pry her legs apart. This couldn’t be happening. Not to her.
    Blackness was stealing into her mind when his lips slid from hers, moved to fasten, hurtfully on the soft skin on the side of her neck.
    “David, stop,” Micki gasped between huge gulps of consciousness-saving breaths. Fear lent inspiration as, struggling frantically, she lied. “I’ve got to get back, my father will be coming to pick me up.”
    “You don’t have to go anywhere,” David panted, his fingers digging viciously into her breasts. “I heard you tell Cindy you’d be alone all weekend because your folks are out of town.”
    His lips moved in a sucking action, drawing a cry of pain from her. Nausea filled her throat when his knee succeeded in pushing her legs apart and his slender frame pressed her deeper into the gritty sand.
    “David, please stop.” She was crying